Sunday, June 24, 2018

'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 13: Blackout + Final Thoughts


Blackout







This is the second part of the Paladins’ battle to end Zarkon’s reign which this season has been building up to, and it delivers on many fronts. 
It starts out with a confident tone that the Paladins can it off considering how they got Zarkon’s base through the teludav in the previous episode.  Working in their favor is Zarkon’s continued obsession of getting his original black lion.  At this point, it’s become so bad, he’s compromising common sense by flying straight into Voltron’s fray and using armor that hasn’t been tested.  Despite Zarkon’s behavior being a huge detractor, the episode knows not to make the battle too easy for our heroes. 
The battle offers Haggar a huge chance to work her magic by powering the base since.  She also creates a black hole that gives Voltron some very nasty blasts and drains the lions of their quintessence or energy.  The first of these blasts leaves a devastating effect when the lions float helplessly and the Paladins are unconscious.  However, as a previous episode established, the lions unleash advanced powers when their Paladins connect with them enough, and it’s a very pleasing sequence when it happens here.  It's not just the Paladins who get up to great moments here.  Usually, the supervisors, Allura and Coran, stay in the castle ship offering moral support behind their particle barrier.  In a battle this big, they let it down and initiate their own attack on Zarkon’s base as assistance.  It’s impressively brave to see them pull off a huge attack even if it gets them struck with a blast from Haggar that costs the castle power. 
Their support doesn’t stop there when Allura makes a bold move to face Haggar head-on with Blade of Marmora members Kolivan and Antok coming for support.  What follows is an intense combat scene with an actual death, a big reveal that Haggar is a being of Allura’s home planet when her mysterious cloak is let down, and Allura unlocking a new power to protect her from Haggar’s attacks, most likely due to being Altean just like her.  As for the Paladins, they continue to put up a good fight once they better connect with their lions. Shiro especially advances when he discovers his lions’ bayard, plugs it in, and unlocks its special powers that come in handy as Zarkon gets closer to controlling the lion.  It’s a great stage of development for Shiro unlocking these powers, and stand out even more when they bring the final attack that obliterates Zarkon’s armor and leaves Zarkon himself hospitalized. 
Like the last season though, there are lasting negative impacts from this last blow when the Paladins find that Shiro has disappeared, and a new Galra ruler, Prince Lotor, is called in while Zarkon is out of commission.  These are heavy aftereffects sure to shake up the dynamic, and give an enticing reason to keep watching this show.  With memorable action set pieces, shining moments for character after character, and moments with lots of promise for the future, this final battle ends Season 2 with style. 10/10

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

Final Thoughts

After leaving such a strong first impression with its first season, Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 greatly capitalizes on that season’s strengths resulting in not just a strong continuation of the story, but a well put together space odyssey that builds up to something great.  In fact, it’s so great it helps the show to move past its previous detracting points.

Through starting off exactly where the first season left off, the show starts to get an idea of where it wants to go.  Each episode offers a major step in the Paladins’ plan to save the galaxy, and when you put them all together, everything falls into a cohesive strategy with a definitive concluding point.  We start with the Paladins regrouping after being separated, then they learn about good Galra members out there, then they try to find out why Zarkon keeps tracking them as they form a new plan, then they form alliances with the rebel Galra groups who help them construct everything, and finally execute the plan which comes with its own consequences.  It’s an instance where nearly every episode matters in the grand scheme building up to a substantial final battle. 

Out of the storytelling is big expansion the show’s universe with many creative planets our heroes end up in like the technology-based tree planet, Olkarion, the decaying planet prompting immediate escape, Taujeer, and the secret base of the Blade of Marmora located between two black holes.  The steps to putting the Galra defeat plan together have many creative adventures to them too that take the Paladins to wild locations with insane and intense jobs to do involving escapades at a mall while getting important lenses, getting eaten by a giant worm, and going through with a jailbreak with a confusing idea of who to rescue.  It can occasionally get bogged down with a lot of time devoted to complicated explanations on how inventions like the teludav or creatures like the weblum worm work, but they usually turn out fine when we also get some light-hearted reiterations of the explanations. 

What really makes the storytelling stand out are strong themes that are prominent throughout several of the episodes.  A big one is about the importance of letting go of any prejudicial attitude as the Paladins find that some members of the Galra are rebelling against Zarkon’s rule.  They start out meeting one individual good Galra creature, Ulaz, builds up with them forming an alliance with an entire anti-Zarkon resistance, and culminates with a Galra traitor helping them at Zarkon’s base.  Some of them even go as far as to give their lives for the Paladins, making for some of the season’s more impactful moments. 

The final battle is an extremely satisfying payoff to all the work going into the plan with a lot of twists and surprises through showing how advanced the Paladins have become through controlling their lions with exciting blows against Zarkon, reveals of certain characters, and especially the aftermath.  Shiro disappearing and the call for Prince Lotor both leave a lot to look forward to in following seasons, and coming off of what may be the show’s most exciting battle leaves them with a lot to live up to.  The storytelling still isn’t perfect though, mostly through spending time on planets that don’t offer anything significant for future episodes like the trash nebula, the mermaid planet, and especially the space mall, mostly the shops not carrying the item of importance.  Even with that, there’s still plenty of plot development that adds to the appeal of the main story which thoroughly delivers in the end.

The characters we follow also impress with how more interesting they’ve become, at least most of them.  Some of them are still lacking in development like Hunk being predominantly nervous and thinking of food while Lance is still mostly a smart-talking fool, though the latter does have at least one genuinely nice moment on finding out what his purpose is.  Practically everyone else gets new developments that tie into the arcs started for them in the previous season.  Pidge, while not looking for her family nearly as much as last season, has one of the most beautiful moments of character development in the season when she expands her horizons beyond technical stuff.  Shiro goes through a lot of development through trying to make it as the Paladins’ leader through advocating his continuously returning memories for bigger causes, striving to establish a stronger control with the black lion so not to be overpowered by Zarkon, and even gives thought to who should take over for him.  You can easily tell how much Shiro has to put up with, so when he disappears in the end, you really feel for him and his teammates. 

As for his chosen successor, Keith is the standout characters for the season with a compelling arc of his own.  He has his own anxieties that only get more complicated when, in the first episode, Shiro requests him to lead the Paladins if something should happen to him.  A lot of time is devoted to Keith studying a blade with a Galra symbol on it, and protecting it from anyone who tries to take it, even the Galra resistance group everyone’s trying to get on their side.  His hesitations on becoming leader start to make sense when it’s revealed that he’s of Galra blood.  The impressive thing about Keith is that even with this reveal, he still acts the way he usually does while also having a much better control of his emotions when adventuring with the others.  He’s even fairly well accepted despite being half Galra by the rest of the team, though he does get a good amount of disgust from Allura.  Speaking of Allura, she has a relatable arc regarding prejudices against Galra, seeming stubbornly hesitant of believing there are good ones out there since they didn’t do anything to stop Zarkon for thousands of years.  It’s understandable behavior towards any victim of an evil race, though her behavior can go out of proportion, especially involving Keith.  This is why it’s emotionally satisfying when Keith going off to sabotage the Galra base opens her to accept him as a Paladin and family member.  As you can tell, a good number of our heroes are given a lot of defining moments and arcs that make them far more fleshed-out and relatable enough to follow. 

Even the villains feel more fleshed out, which is great considering how one-note all Galra members were in Season 1.  In addition to there being good Galra, this season adds some relatable members to much of the Galra like many of them fearing their leader when interrogated, or getting overly excited and confident over successfully carrying out a mission.  Even the leaders are a bit more interesting with Zarkon having a relatable flaw of obsessing over something, in this case his old black lion, to the point of losing focus on the main mission, and Haggar being revealed to be Altean like Allura, leaving something interesting to explore in the future.  The Galra are still not the most interesting villains, but I do give credit for being more multilayered than they first let on.  If anything, the Blade of Marmora is stiffer than they are at this point, though I would take the Blade over a grating neurotic like Slav, but that’s beside the point.  What matters is that while there’s still a ways to go with character development, it’s apparent enough that Season 2 has brought a lot of progress to that.

There’s no doubt that Voltron: Legendary Defender is more interesting as a series than ever with its second season with a well-flowing story, new heights reached by many of the characters, and an overall creative and epic scope.  If you like the first season, you’ll easily latch onto the second one and, like me, be excited to see what the show does next.  Until the look at the next season of this show, Vrepit Sa.
Highly Recommended
That's all there is to Season 2 of Voltron: Legendary Defender. I hope you enjoyed these reviews and stick around for my eventual look at the third season.
In the meantime, there's going to be a review set of a show new to this blog to fill in the third slot.  From the wild mind of Joe Murray, be on the lookout for reviews on the first season of the Nicktoon classic, Rocko's Modern Life. 
Also, don't forget about the reviews of Steven Universe Season 2 and Hey Arnold Season 3 currently in progress.
I'll see you all next time with more great reviews to share. Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

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