Black Site (Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 4 Episode 3) - 'Toon Reviews 31

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Black Site

Prince Lotor has easily been the most enjoyable character the Galra Empire has ever had.  Much of this has to do with his practices as a villain.  Unlike most of every other member of the empire, he’s not just a serious thinker who solely conquers planets to destroy them.  He’s very charismatic in personality, has a crew who’s very easy to tell each other apart, and instead of just destroying planets, he gives them the offer to join him.  This makes him quite exciting and very strategic among his Empire.  In fact, since “Tailing a Comet” featured him attack a base, you could probably say that he considers himself his own faction never tying himself down to one group.  He even has his own accomplishments over the Paladins such as stealing that important comet to make his own weapons. 

For all of Lotor’s accomplishments, subsequent scenes of being interrogated for his practices by Haggar and other Galra generals have shown him to be seen as trouble.  They come to a head here when attacking that Galra base pretty much crosses the line for the Empire.  Now that Zarkon is out of life support and ready to rule again, Lotor’s conquest is threatened.  In the midst of his plans, he’s called over by Zarkon to see that he’s made a full recovery.  During the audience, his father simply relieves Lotor of his conquest and is willing to forget it.  This would normally be seen as a cause for distress, yet somehow Lotor remains very confident in his conquest showing that he’s not going to stop it that easily. 

While that’s going on, a lot of time is devoted to the Paladins meeting Pidge’s long-lost brother Matt.  Unlike most of their adventures, what they get up to here is surprisingly more light-hearted than average.  Most of the scenes involve going around the Paladins’ castle to give Matt a grand tour, a few antics ensuing, and Matt being excited by what his little sister has accomplished.  A lot of these scenes are highly enjoyable and are a great continuation of the brother and sister bond seen from Pidge and Matt in the previous episode.  Other times the antics are just there for fun’s sake and don’t amount to anything.  Most of them involve Allura and Coran asking Lance for help in getting milkshakes from a cow the team once got from a space mall.  They’re funny, but the lack of connection to anything important makes me wonder why a lot of this episode was devoted to this. 

Fortunately, the same can’t be said for Pidge and Matt’s scenes which also plays to what Matt’s been up to this whole time.  He’s been intercepting Galra radio waves to assist rebel forces.  He utilizes what he learned to the castle’s technology, which reveals the location of a large number of Galra forces out there in the galaxy.  This also brings on the Paladins’ most plot-relevant moment in the episode when they spot a lot of forces including Zarkon attacking one blank area.  There's strong sibling compatibility as Matt allows Pidge’s cloaking ability for the green lion to spread to all of Voltron.  It helps them learn that Lotor is being attacked as an enemy of his own Empire and that he’s made more ships from that comet without being noticed for a while.  Lotor’s new status then brings a chilling end where Zarkon demands him to be met with violence and prejudice from now on.  Heck even Lotor seems nervous when under such a big attack that he ends up killing one of his own soldiers, so you know things are heating up amongst the enemy empire. 

Ultimately, while not everything here amounts to anything important, there’s a strong variety to many of the character dynamics.

A-

Season 3 Rankings

1.      The Legend Begins

2.      Hole in the Sky

3.      Red Paladin

4.      Changing of the Guard

5.      Tailing the Comet

6.      The Journey

7.      The Hunted

Season 4 Rankings

1.      Reunion

2.      Black Site

3.      Code of Honor

 

The next Voltron: Legendary Defender review is all about the Paladins boosting morale with their stage shows for better or worse.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Pasture Bedtime" and "Shop Girl" from The Loud House.

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