'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 11: Stayin' Alive

Stayin’ Alive

A big strength for this episode is the genuine emotional satisfaction in the status of the Galra defeat plan through the moments of team members looking back on their progress.  In fact, the start of the episode demonstrates this with Allura confiding to Coran about the prospect of defeating Zarkon which includes discussing how strong they are from their alliances.  It’s a calm moment showing the heart of the adventure that’s pleasing to see in a show with lots of big action scenes and space adventures. 

Also helping is that we see this idea through many alien races helping with the battle strategy such as the Olkari and the Balmerans.  Speaking of the Balmerans, it’s nice that unlike some alien creatures who show up in one episode and never again, the Balmerans come back after over a season and provide a big help for the greater good.  There’s even another scene to fit the calm tone where Allura, who healed the Balmera, is trusted enough to take its most enormous crystal.  It really brings to mind the heart of what the Paladins are fighting for and has an endearing use of many characters we’ve met together for a noble cause. 

However, the nice tone of the episode is compromised for the majority of the episode when the Robeast who attacked the Balmera last time appears for a fight, now powered by crystals.  This means that the focus is on a huge monster brawl fitting the overall tone of the series.  Allura proves to be very reliable in her own way and capable of more than simply giving orders to the Paladins as she fights the Robeast for a while.  However, despite holding a good fight, she still needs the Paladins, so they come in to help.  The fight itself is as thrilling as one would like an action scene to be with added challenges of the enhanced power of the Robeast and that they start out the fight with only a few Voltron lions, so it’s not so easy to defeat it the way they did before.  However, a few of the advancements the lions got this season play a role in the final takedown like the blue lion’s ice powers and the green lion’s vegetation, so the fight stands out more for reminding how much the Paladins’ lions have changed for the better. 

While this fight is great, it connects to a major concern of the episode.  The whole Robeast fight doesn’t have a point and just seems to pad things out while the teludav is being built.  The Robeast comes at the right moment, the Paladins fight it for a while with their new powers, and we move onto the attack plan once it’s defeated.  It feels like a standalone battle you can skip and not miss out on much despite how fun it is. 

However after this when the rest of the team meets Coran at Olkarion where the big teludav is completed, the nice, wholesome tone from the beginning returns resulting in another heartwarming moment of the Paladins looking back on the good times they had and what they could do after defeating Zarkon.  They kind of exaggerate when they say there won’t be a need for Voltron after that ignoring that there could be other evil threats out there, but that’s just me.  It’s still a sweet ending that’s nice to see from a show like this just before the following episode’s more substantial battle. 

While this episode is mostly a detour, its moments are impactful enough to watch and enjoy on your way to the season’s final two episodes. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Shiro’s Escape
2. Greening the Cube
3. The Blade of Marmora
4. Escape from Beta Traz
5. The Ark of Taujeer
6. Eye of the Storm
7. Stayin’ Alive
8. The Belly of the Weblum
9. Across the Universe
10. The Depths
11. Space Mall

The next Voltron: Legendary Defender review puts the takedown of Zarkon into action while somewhat turning the best laid plans upside-down.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Steven Universe episode that resolves an arc, "Friend Ship."

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