Sunday, June 10, 2018

'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 9: The Belly of the Weblum

The Belly of the Weblum








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
  1. Shiro’s Escape
  2. Greening the Cube
  3. The Blade of Marmora
  4. The Ark of Taujeer
  5. Eye of the Storm
  6. The Belly of the Weblum
  7. Across the Universe
  8. The Depths
  9. 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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