Saturday, May 11, 2019

The Journey (Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 3 Episode 5) - 'Toon Reviews 31

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:
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.

No comments:

Post a Comment