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The Journey
As bold as a move it is for Shiro disappearing and our heroes
being forced to move on without him, you really have to wonder what happen to
him after he helped defeat Zarkon. This
episode sets out to answer that puzzling thought, but some of it comes at the
expense of the mature tone his loss has brought about.
At least the start of the episode has a lot
of greatness to it. We’re taken back to
just after the Season 2 finale where Shiro somehow ends up on a Galra ship as a
prisoner and is subjected for experiments.
He manages to escape, but not without getting painful memories of
traumatic events. They include spending
years as a prisoner and losing his memories prior to meeting the other Paladins
and a deceased Galra rebel he bonded with, Ulaz.
Then Shiro finds himself in a barren planet
of raging snowstorms. The following
sequence of events is among some of the show’s most dramatic ways of staging
and storytelling. With very minimal
dialog, Shiro’s struggle for survival leaves huge emotional impacts on how
difficult his conditions truly are. The
elements are unbearable, his shelter is the disturbing sight of animal bones
with signs that the creature was killed by someone, and resources are
scarce. Even when Shiro thinks he’s
found water in a surprise oasis in such a huge blizzard, drinking some gets him
attacked by a savage alien creature. He
does get rescued when someone shoots a laser gun at the alien, but the relief
is total deception. It was from one of
two rebel aliens who proceed to capture Shiro shortly after rescuing him.
From here, the dramatic tone of the episode
comes to a major halt when Shiro has to deal with these aliens and their
frustrating mindsets. They claim to be
rebels from the Galra, which means that they should be trusting of Shiro, but
they’re not. It’s kind of understandable
since they’ve never heard of Voltron let alone that he’s a Paladin of one of its
lions. Then they pick up a signal that
Voltron is heading towards the planet Thayserix, a clever way to tie this
episode into one of the other Paladins’ recent adventures. Still the aliens are hostile and
untrustworthy of Shiro. I just don’t get
why that would be the case when he’s proven to be truthful of his identity all
along. It’s kind of disturbing that
Shiro has to attack them to get them on his side when that all could have been
avoided if they weren’t so dense. They
give Shiro coordinates of passing space vessels, and while he can’t make
Voltron, he is able to intercept a Galra cruiser.
After blowing it up and escaping on one of
its vessels, atmospheric emotion is on full display again. Dialog is once again at a minimum as Shiro
fails to catch Voltron and spends a week with limited nourishment and low
oxygen. By the end of his time drifting
through space, it strikes a powerful chord that he’s ready to pass. It’s heavy stuff you’d be hard-pressed to
find in most family shows. His life is
saved when Keith suddenly appears leading the Paladins’ castle. While it’s great emotional satisfaction that
Shiro lives, there are a couple issues with this direction. It’s all too convenient that Keith just
happened to be flying the black lion at that time. Even bigger is that with so many big changes
in so few episodes, they don’t have much weight to them now that Shiro’s
back. Thanks to the sheer emotional
scope of his travels though, it’s easier to accept him coming back.
Despite slightly devaluing the mature tone
and a few frustrating characters, we’re left with an atmospheric journey of
someone just trying to survive.
A-
Season 3 Rankings
1. Hole in the Sky
2. Red Paladin
3. Changing of the Guard
4. The Journey
5. The Hunted
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where even though Shiro is back with the Paladins, he's doing what he can to help Keith be the new leader.
If you would like to check out other Voltron: Legendary Defender reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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