The Paladins
all have their own distinct personalities as well as their own bonds with other
teammates. Keith, for example, has attitude
issues, but also clearly has a good heart as he slowly prepares to become a
potential leader for the Paladins, mostly teaming up with Shiro. This episode shakes things up by teaming him
up with another Paladin, the kind-hearted overly nervous Hunk, which is a good
way to exercise his leadership skills by bonding with the rest of the team more.
It happens when, following a light-hearted
explanation on the team’s new plan to defeat Zarkon, they split up with Keith
and Hunk assigned to collect huge teludav lenses from the inside of a giant
planet-eating worm called a weblum. On
the way, there are some nice interactions from Keith and Hunk. It’s not just their personality clashes that
stand-out. After learning that Keith is
part-Galra from the Blade of Marmora, Keith himself feels uncomfortable about
being around the team, particularly feeling that Allura, who’s frequently been
harboring major Galra prejudices throughout this season, hates him now. Hunk, despite being nervous about the new
information, still treats him as a friend and teammate which is very
endearing. In fact, there are little to
no moments of anyone being affected by Keith being part-Galra, and the most we see
of Allura is one little look of discomfort at Keith which makes it feel like
Keith is worrying about nothing. If
there were more scenes of others reacting to the information, Keith would be
more justified to feel how he does.
As
for the weblum, how Keith and Hunk learn about it continues the trend of fun
light-hearted material delivering serious information. It’s through a
10,000-year-old video with Coran explaining about the creature as if he’s doing
an infomercial. With a peppy attitude
and working with a cute Altean in a weblum costume, Coran’s video is another
entertaining highlight for the episode.
Another thing that makes the instructional video stand out is how it
keeps skipping information due to its age.
It seems like an amusing side effect at first, but it plays to the
dangers of Keith and Hunk actually facing the weblum without knowing what to
do. Eventually, when the information
comes too late, there’s a mad dash to utilize it to get away from harm and inside
the beast through its blind spot.
From
there, the two Paladins search for the teludav lenses inside the weblum via
many creative challenges. They’re
pursued by the worm’s antibodies which seem too cute to be dangerous, Hunk is
set down a wild slide of the bloodstream, and he only escapes through literally
getting farted out, making for possibly the most productive fart I’ve
seen in a show. Hunk also gets a crowning moment
by shooting at the weblum’s face, breaking the number-one safety rule which is
the right thing to do to help obtain the teludav lenses. Keith’s moment in the weblum is saving a
Galra soldier trapped inside, claiming that Paladins should help everyone in
need, even if they are Galra. It seems
like the soldier’s on his side through watching his back and helping him out of
trouble. However, in the end, the
soldier takes some lenses and leaves Keith behind which doesn’t tie into his
genuine help earlier. You could argue
that the soldier was hiding his true intentions, but in a season that’s showing
not all members of a villainous race are bad, it doesn’t feel appropriate.
Regardless, with an interesting rarely-seen
character dynamic, legitimately entertaining moments to convey big information,
and more of a sense of imagination to its missions help the episode stand
strong. 9/10
The Ranking
- Shiro’s Escape
- Greening the Cube
- The Blade of Marmora
- The Ark of Taujeer
- Eye of the Storm
- The Belly of the Weblum
- Across the Universe
- The Depths
- Space Mall
The next Voltron: Legendary Defender review covers a jailbreak featuring Shiro, Pidge, and Lance as we explore their part of putting the defeat plan together.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a look at another Steven Universe episode, "Keystone Motel."
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