'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 10: Escape from Beta Traz

Escape from Beta Traz

Like the first two episodes of this season, this and the previous one feature two different adventures fitting the same cause.  In this case, they both progress the Paladins’ Galra attack plan with different Paladins going on their own adventures.  This one is a jailbreak plot where Lance, Pidge, and Shiro break into the Galra prison of Beta Traz to rescue the Blade of Marmora technician, Slav. 

The jailbreak is very engaging with the strengths of the characters involved and a whole mystery element to the operation.  The biggest mystery is that the prison is really big, yet it’s only designed to hold Slav.  Pidge, playing to her technical strengths, even deduces fallacies with the prison description by finding two cells.  This gives Lance and Shiro incentive to go find Slav while Pidge watches over them while downloading a virus onto the security system.  She also finds an opportunity to build upon her personal arc of finding her family who was captured by the Galra Empire long ago, particularly her brother Matt.  This arc got a lot of focus in Season 1, and this being the only episode to give it development in this season, makes said episode stand out more. 

Going back to the jailbreak, another mystery to the operation is exactly who Slav is.  When Lance and Shiro split up, they each find a different creature held prisoner.  One is a tall, lean alien creature who’s always worrying about the future, and the other is a hulking dog-like beast who only says “yup.”  Shiro finds the former alien and has to put up with his constant worrying, complaining, and predictions of negative outcomes.  At times, this potential Slav can be funny, but he gets overbearing quickly and for a technician, his worrying makes him look stupid through actually thinking he can drown in a puddle or thinking his mother’s back will be broken if he steps on a crack.  I think Shiro’s constant frustrations with him will most likely mirror the audience’s feeling for this character. 

Surprisingly, Lance’s moments are more impactful.  While guiding his potential Slav, he laments that compared to the rest of the team, he just hangs around and isn’t useful.  These feelings seem justified since Lance has mostly been known to do very little good and mostly flirt with girls or crack one-liners during serious missions, rarely compensating with any big moments.  This continues here when the guards come looking for the creature, and Lance, without reading the context, jumps in to defend it, blowing everyone’s cover.  It does solve the mystery that Slav is the creature Shiro rescued, and we do get an exciting scramble escape which stands out for giving Lance a shining moment when he gives the shot that saves Slav just in time.  As for the dog-beast creature called a yupper, it belongs to one of the guards who turns out to flesh out the Galra, for in addition to being threating like the rest of them, the guard has a lot of cute and endearing love for his pet yupper.  He’s one of their more human members.  Finally, the jailbreak proves officially satisfying when Pidge uncovers interesting information about what became of her brother, bringing this plot point to new lengths. 

As you can tell, this episode has a lot to love with many strong character moments, solid progression of series plot points, and a great sense of general excitement. 9.5/10

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. The Belly of the Weblum
8. Across the Universe
9. The Depths
10. Space Mall

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where just as the Zarkon defeat plan is about to come together, the Paladins get caught in a random Robeast fight.


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'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 3: Shiro's Escape

Shiro’s Escape

Now, the whole team is finally back together moving in a more plot-connected direction.  In the process, we start so see even more depths to the antagonizing forces.  I said before the Galra Empire consist of boring and interchangeable antagonists, all having monstrous designs and thinking seriously.  However, Prorok sounding scared of Zarkon and Haggar’s interrogations gave a little depth to the Empire, showing that they might not all think as alike.  This trend continues here. 

While recovering from his Galra wound, Shiro relives a memory of how he escaped from prison.  It was one of Zarkon’s own followers named Ulaz who got him out and prompted him to return to Earth and find the blue lion.  So not only did Ulaz personally help Shiro, but he also started our heroes’ entire mission which suggests depths of the Galra’s morality.  From the coordinates picked up from his artificial hand, Shiro urges the team to follow them to track down Ulaz, believing he can help defeat their enemies.  There’s a believable feeling of distrust from the rest of the team.  It can be hard to imagine good from an alien race known for conquering planets, and it makes sense for Allura to mistrust Ulaz the most since the race he’s a part of destroyed her home.  Then again, she DID withhold important information that Shiro’s black lion once belonged to Zarkon, which shows she has no say for judgements, so the decision is made to follow the coordinates. 

They end up in a field of crystal clusters where a strange intruder enters the castle ship.  After an exciting action sequence of the Paladins pursuing him with a lively commentary from Coran, he’s recognized as Ulaz.  From there, the Paladins take the time to learn more about Ulaz which offers more proof that not everyone from the Galra Empire is a heartless conqueror.  In fact, Ulaz is part of a secret group called the Blade of Marmora which resists all rule of Zarkon.  With this information, it helps one to respect the opposing force more especially when Ulaz gives huge support to the Paladins in many ways from showing them a major communication hub for the organization to offering to help Pidge find her family. 

While it seems that Ulaz is a loyal source of healp, Allura is not easily moved given that he’s still Galra, and when a Robeast finds the Paladins, it’s not too far-fetched that Ulaz may have given Zarkon their coordinates.  Even an earlier scene of him and Haggar locking onto them doesn’t rule out the possibility.  In other words, there’s a believable reason to have some doubts in him.  However, in an exciting battle with the Robeast which sucks up everything in sight, even things as big as the castle, when things look hopeless, Ulaz proves that he was loyal after all.  He makes the ultimate move to defeat the Robeast by letting it suck him up, and he destroys it from the inside, sacrificing himself.  Such a drastic move finalizes the idea of the Galra Empire having actual depth, although the wounds of their actions are still felt with Allura still feeling Ulaz was the reason Zarkon found the Paladins. 

As you can see, when all is said and done, there are many impactful aspects along with the believable depth of the antagonist side.  There’s a reveal of a whole resistance to Zarkon, buildup to plot threads of the Paladins trying to find them as soon as they find out how Zarkon keeps finding them, and a genuine emotional aspect from Ulaz’s sacrifice.  It’s an episode that enhances the story in many great ways, allowing the series to truly reach its full potential. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Shiro’s Escape
2. Across the Universe
3. The Depths

The next Voltron: Legendary Defender review follows Pidge learning that there's more to life than technical stuff during a mission to the planet Olkarion.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is one of the greatest Steven Universe episodes, "Sworn to the Sword."

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Voltron: Legendary Defender reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.