#that said mecha still suffers from people liking one show and shooting down the other it’s just not as prevalent bc mecha content is low

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x06 – “Genesis”

8x06 – “Genesis”

I’ve watched this whole series, so I know I’ve seen this episode before, but going into this rewatch, I totally didn’t remember what this episode is about. Like, at all. The title “Genesis” makes no sense. I guess it’s being used to mean a beginning, but nothing is beginning in this episode. Honerva has been well into her plan for a while now. Nothing that Honerva accomplishes in this episode marks a beginning of anything. We are in the middle of things, not at the beginning of anything. The title just does not work.

This is an absolute mess of an episode. Once the story got well into the events at Oriande, I finally remembered that this is when Honerva gets Sincline. But what’s so confusing is that Sincline acts as if it is still being controlled by Lotor. Sincline refuses to shoot Allura, as if it’s still piloted by Lotor. Merla (or some miscellaneous female Colony Altean; I couldn’t tell for sure if it was Merla) interprets Sincline as being Lotor. Sincline stabs the mecha piloted by the male Colony Altean, like its being piloted by Lotor. Honerva speaks as if Sincline is being piloted by Lotor. Everything in this episode suggests Lotor is alive inside the Sincline. But this show eventually shows Lotor’s melted corpse inside. So, he can’t be alive and acting in this episode. This is a fundamental inconsistency in the writing.

No wonder many members of the audience feel this season was re-edited super late in the production of the season. I think I still would need to have someone who worked on the show provide an explanation for why such a change would have happened in order to think it did happen. I think the easiest explanation is that the executive producers, the story editor, and the writers just completely lost control of their storytelling and they didn’t care to regain control. I think because the series was ending. and they stopped caring about working on this show, they just totally half-assed everything. They didn’t care if the story made sense. They were just filling out time and completing their contractual obligation.

If they did make this season and episodes like this one and think that they were being coherent in their storytelling, then they have severe preceptive and interpretive problems. This episode is a storytelling disaster.

Staff meeting: We know now Honerva has been to certain places. Pidge says, “The wormhole signatures we discovered on Olkarion: they were a map to where the Robeasts were headed. They must’ve been waiting this entire time!” I don’t understand this conclusion Pidge is making. What is it that she thinks indicates Honerva’s forces actively waiting for something? And what is that supposed something Pidge thinks they were waiting for? Veronica reports that Honerva’s mechas are on planets, but not yet attacking them, instead just sitting there surrounded by a particle barrier. Now, with that report, a report given after Pidge’s comment, it would make sense to subsequently comment about them waiting for something. It’s like Pidge’s reaction is out of order with the knowledge that would prompt her reaction.

Meanwhile, on Oriande in front of the pyramid, Honerva gives a speech. I still think that Honerva’s voice sounds strange. She’s so emotionless, like she’s totally bored with what all is going on. “For eons our people have suffered, cast out from our home,” she says, but it has the same emotional energy as someone talking about needing to go to the store to buy toilet paper. “We have sacrificed much; you have sacrificed much,” she says. I guess the Colony Alteans don’t know that Honerva/Haggar was a participant in committing genocide, right? Who’s this “we” she’s talking about: She hasn’t sacrificed a damned thing. She’s been the one violently taking things from others. This series expects me to sympathize with her, but she’s a total hypocrite.

“Lotor gave more than any of us, and today, his ultimate wish will be fulfilled,” Honerva says. What wish is she referencing? Because his wish, expressed multiple times by him throughout the show, was to find a death-less source of quintessence so that he could try to change Galra culture to be less violent, so that he could show them a different way of achievement. I haven’t heard Honerva say anything that sounds like anything Lotor revealed about his motivations and goals. Honerva says, “The Galra will pay for what they have done to the Alteans. The end for anyone that dares oppose us is near.” Lotor had serious problems with the Galra, but it wasn’t until right before he died that he became totally anti-Galra, so that’s hardly his long-pursued goal. Even this season in 8x02 “Shadows” showed how much Lotor was invested in trying to show the Galra that there was a better way for the Galra to do things. It’s like Honerva, like the show’s executive producers and writers, is ignoring what Lotor himself explained again and again what his goals were.

The mechas on the various planets start acting, draining the planets of quintessence. Keith suggests splitting everyone up, one Lion per mecha to try to slow them down, which given their combined difficulty taking on one mecha at the end of season seven, I don’t know how Keith thinks that would work. Shiro suggests they use their whole force, Voltron and Atlas combined, and go from mecha to mecha. Allura stands up and says, “No, we must attack Oriande directly.” She goes on to describe what she thinks Honerva is doing. Honerva can create wormholes. She says that the Olkari cubes can “mimic and intensify energy at a distance.” Has that really been established about the cubes? Because I just remember them basically parrying any attack the Lions/Voltron tried until Pidge zapped the cubes with her plant cannon. (Why does she not try her plant cannon on the cubes when they get to the white hole?) Allura points out that the mechas effectively do the same work as the komar did. “Honerva is going to concentrate energy from across the universe to Oriande. She’s making a komar magnitudes larger than anything we’ve ever seen. Something that can drain the quintessence from an entire galaxy.” Everyone has big shocked looks on their faces, Coran quietly says, “That monster,” and I’m left just not feeling any emotion in this threat. It’s too generic, too cliché, too I’m-going-to-destroy-the-world-bwa-ha-ha! The threat just feels flat, and a huge part of why is because this story is not connected to the personal stories of any of the main characters. The only character who’s connected to this story is Honerva herself, and I do not care about her.

Keith says that Voltron will go to Oriande. Shiro says the Atlas will go too. Do any of them remember how they couldn’t actually get to Oriande and only Allura and Lotor were able to go? Is their plan to just get to the white hole and sit there, wait, and hope Honerva and her forces come out? Keith says to tell Matt that he and the Rebels have to handle evacuating planets. Why just the Rebels instead of the entire Voltron Coalition? I get why Shiro says that their immediate Voltron/Atlas strike force cannot wait for reinforcements from the Coalition before going to Oriande, but wouldn’t this still be an all-hands-on-deck moment? Shouldn’t the entire Coalition be responding, and thus helping with evacuations, not just the Rebels? I’ve never really felt this show depicted the Coalition acting as a large force well at all.

The Atlas wormholes the Rebels to wherever they’re going. Allura gives a voice over about how bad Honerva is. As speech like this should energize me, get me excited for the coming battle scenes, but the show has failed to set up what’s coming, so I’m not emotionally connected to what’s happening. The closest Allura’s speech got to having this conflict be relevant to the main characters is Allura feeling like Honerva’s manipulation of the Colony Alteans is an attack on Allura’s people. Aside from them being Alteans though, I don’t know how Allura is emotionally attached to them. Romelle and Luca are the only two she’s ever encountered, and as far as I can remember, Romelle is the only one Allura has ever talked to, and she’s never really talked to her about the Colony beyond listening to Romelle’s exposition about it in 6x04 “The Colony.” Allura has never gone to the Colony, Keith having told her it was too difficult to get to when she suggested going in 8x04 “Battle Scars.” We know the Colony is empty because Kolivan said a team he sent reported it so in 7x05 “The Ruins” (so it wasn’t too difficult to get to, despite Keith saying no to Allura’s wanting to go there). This show really hasn’t had Allura actively trying to find out what happened at the Colony and find the Colony Alteans, so, aside from them being the same species, I don’t know where Allura’s feeling connected to the Colony Alteans comes from.

The episode does a bit of reestablishing the idea of Honerva as a foil for Allura, juxtaposing them both using the two-handed pedestal device used to make wormholes, Allura on the Atlas, Honerva at the pyramid. The mechas start blasting their gathered quintessence from their planets through space to Honerva (so these quintessence blasts have to be moving really, really faster than light).

The Atlas arrives at the white hole. There’s some kind of interference that is causing some miscellaneous problem. Slav freaks out over socks. I liked Slav when he was introduced in 2x10 “Escape from Beta Traz,” but the timing/tonality of having him right now really feels distracting from what’s supposed to be a big, dramatic plotline.

The Atlas gets as close as it can to the white hole and can’t go any further. They see the Olkari cubes hanging out closer to the white hole. Veronica says she’s “picking something up. It’s coming from the white hole,” and Allura instantly thinks that it’s the guardian, the White Lion. So, (the clone of) Shiro never told Allura that he saw Honerva come to Oriande and kill the White Lion in 6x01 “Omega Shield” then?

The Atlas transforms to “clear a path” for Voltron. Voltron goes to launch from the Atlas, and Keith says, “I’m deferring command to Allura.” Rereading this commentary to edit and revise after finishing the episode, I don’t remember Allura giving any commands whatsoever, so I have no idea why Keith’s line even exists. Honerva’s mechas shoot the Atlas, which doesn’t seem to even feel being hit, and tries to counter by punching the mechas. Serious, punching?

Voltron forms and heads toward the white hole. Is it that they’re able to go in now because the White Lion isn’t there? They really could use a line where they put that fully together because otherwise they should think that they wouldn’t be able to get Voltron in the white hole since Voltron wasn’t allowed in when they tried back in 5x06 “White Lion.”

Beams of purple energy from the mechas destroying those planets come in, hit the Olkari cubes, and a purple ring forms from cube to cube around the white pillar (for lack of a better word) that comes off the white hole. The cubes and the ring bend the energy so that it travels down through the white pillar into the white hole. Voltron nearly gets hit by that energy.

“We got to move!” Keith says, and the show has Voltron once again use it’s formerly-special but now common solution: Voltron forms its large wings and blasts off.

The purple energy hits the pyramid, Honerva screams and her eyes turn yellow, the pyramid starts to glow. And suddenly, the White Lion is in a purple-red ball of energy. What? Seriously, what is going on? So, Honerva did not kill the White Lion in “Omega Shield?” She went to Oriande, she entered the white hole, she walked into the pyramid, she fought and seemed to destroy the stone statues, Shiro saw the White Lion jump toward him mouth first, so that had to have been from Honerva fighting the White Lion, then Honerva walked out of the pyramid surrounded by floating bits of energy, clearly successful at what she had done.

So, is it that the EPs, the story editor, and the writer for this episode didn’t remember the show already had Honerva fight the White Lion in “Omega Shield,” or is it that what Honerva did in “Omega Shield” was so badly written and depicted that they just didn’t properly show us what it was she was doing in that episode? We know from Allura’s time facing the White Lion that it only gave her knowledge of Altean alchemy because she was going to let it kill her. We know that Honerva is not the type of person who would do what Allura did in that moment. At the end of “Omega Shield” we are shown Honerva coming out of the pyramid successful. The bits of floating light around her in that moment was a visual signifier that she had acquired power, so she had to have killed the White Lion then in order to take that knowledge from him. So why is the White Lion now still alive? Are we really supposed to believe that Honerva has been merely imprisoning the White Lion in a bubble for over three years (and for 25 episodes)?

My guess, the show’s creative team totally forgot they already had Honerva face the White Lion. There’s been so many big events in the show, the character assassination of Lotor, the reveal of the clone, the mostly meaningless first half of season seven, the invasion and occupation of Earth, and the new season wasting time, and finally getting around to what Honerva is trying to do, that I can so easily imagine they forgot “Omega Shield.” They certainly never explained why the clone could actually see what Honerva was doing at Oriande. That’s one of my biggest frustrations with this show: that so many things happen, like the clone’s visions of Honerva at Oriande, like the whole reason Honerva had a ton of Shiro clones created in the first place, that things happen, they’re not explained, and then they’re forgotten by the show’s writers.

Actually, let me qualify this for the particular issue of the demise of the White Lion: the show’s writer, singular. “Omega Shield” was written by Mitch Iverson. This episode “Genesis” was written by Mitch Iverson. So, it’s not like one writer wrote one episode and another writer, writing this one, just didn’t pay attention to what someone else wrote for the show. Both episodes were written by the same person. So, he should have been able to remember what he had written previously.

“The Guardian: She’s draining its quintessence,” Allura says. Yeah, she already did that years ago though. Honerva screams some more. Allura cries out, “No!” as it happens. It’s supposed to be a moment that has significant emotion to it, it’s supposed to feel like a loss, but it doesn’t, and a lot of the reason why is because this has already happened 25 episodes ago. When Honerva walked out of the pyramid in “Omega Shield” she was surrounded by those little lights floating upward, which is the same imagery used here in this episode for Honerva’s mechas taking the quintessence from their respective planets. So, in “Omega Shield,” Honerva came out of her confrontation with the White Lion having gained quintessence, so if she hadn’t absorbed the White Lion’s quintessence then, what quintessence was it that she had floating around her when she came out of the pyramid?

Also, what is the logic behind what’s happening right now. Mechas have taken quintessence from four planets, beamed it to the cubes around Oriande, Honerva is using that quintessence to attack the White Lion. Allura says that Honerva is taking the White Lion’s quintessence. So, Honerva is using quintessence to take quintessence? Also, what happened to the conclusion that what Honerva was doing was creating a structure that she could use to drain an entire galaxy of its quintessence? What she’s doing has nothing to do with draining galaxies of quintessence.

Just seven minutes ago, Allura said this: “Honerva is going to concentrate energy from across the universe to Oriande. She’s making a komar magnitudes larger than anything we’ve ever seen. Something that can drain the quintessence from an entire galaxy.” But now, it’s not about draining galaxies but about draining the White Lion. I don’t even know how a professional writer could ever write this inconsistently. And where is the show’s quality control? Where were the story editor and the executive producers?

More mechas at the pyramid attack Voltron, Merla (I think) yelling, “Defend our goddess!” I really don’t like these Alteans. If this show was going to have villainous Alteans, why couldn’t have been the Altean Empire from the alternate reality in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” because they actually seemed like they could be interesting. Merla and the Colony Alteans seem unintentionally funny rather than threatening because of how ludicrously over-the-top and undeveloped they are as characters.

The Atlas keeps trying to punch these much smaller, thus quicker, mechas, and I don’t know why. Did I miss something that said the Atlas loses use of its cannons when in mecha-mode? One mecha does the semi-holographic size increase projection of itself that we saw these mechas able to do in 7x13 “Lions’ Pride Part 2” and stabs the Atlas in the back.

Shiro orders, “Scramble the MFEs. We need their precise striking ability.” These people have access to science fiction weaponry, so that means their weapons should be better than what weapons we have in the real world today. That means, that the Atlas’s own targeting systems should be more than enough for precision attacks. Just because the MFEs are on fighter craft that are smaller and more maneuverable than the Atlas has nothing to do with a weapons system’s precision. The targeting system of the weapons system alone would be responsible for the weapon’s precision. The Atlas has not been shown using literally any weapons in this fight. All the Atlas has done is swing its fists and hit nothing. This is just an absolutely contrived way to get the MFEs into the story and to have Shiro and/or the Atlas look incompetent. This is really just to have the episode spinning its wheels, to look like the story is progressing while it’s actually not advancing whatsoever.

Also, in the hangar, why are there people floating as if there’s no gravity yet the MFE fighter craft are sitting on the floor like there is gravity?

Shiro tells the MFEs to attack the opening in the mechas’ chest, but these mechas haven’t drained any quintessence to be able to power their chest hole cannon, what makes Shiro think they’re going to do so that he can order the MFEs to target that spot? Shiro says, “Give them heavy covering fire so they can get in close.” But the Atlas then fires no weapons. The MFEs fly a significant distance to one of the mechas who’s just wildly firing its blaster all over the place at no targets whatsoever. Seriously, it’s shooting at chunks of rock in a completely different direction from where the Atlas is. So, if Shiro’s right in this statement (though not in the current animation) that the Atlas has weapons it can fire right now, why hasn’t it been firing any weapons?

Cut to Zethrid, Ezor, and the Olkari sitting in the brig. Did anyone really want to see them again? I didn’t even want to see them again last episode, and now we get to have even more with these side characters. The Olkari says, “I think we’re in the middle of a battle.” I think the writer thought this line made the Olkari sound fun and clever, when it makes him seem slow since the battle has been going on for a long time already, now is not when he’d be noticing it. Zethrid says, “We need to get out of here!” Why? Ezor says, “No,” and sounds really weird doing it.

So, they break out of prison. Veronica reports, “Zethrid and the Olkari have escaped their cells. It looks like they’re on their way to the bridge.” How do they know where the bridge is and how to get to it? This is the first time they’ve been on the Atlas, and I’m pretty sure that it’s not standard procedure to give prisoners a tour of key, secure locations like the bridge of the ship.

“We don’t have time for this!” Shiro shouts. Shiro’s comment sums up a lot of my opinion about scenes and episodes this season.

Apparently, there are no security personnel outside the bridge. Everyone pulls a gun and points it at the door after Shiro does so and says to “prepare for a breech.” Shiro holds his gun in his left hand. Last episode, Shiro held his gun in his right, prosthetic hand. Are you telling me that Shiro is equally skilled with a gun in both hands? More likely is that the animators just never got on the same page about how Shiro, with his overly large new hand, would use a gun. Also, because of the ludicrous design of his new prosthetic, in the shot of him pointing his gun at the door, it looks like he doesn’t have a right arm.

Zethrid opens the door and says, “We’re here to help.” If she knew the Atlas’s layout well enough to get from the brig to the bridge and knew its systems well enough to break out of the cell and into the bridge, then she could have used the Atlas’s internal communication system to contact the bridge and offer this help long before she got here. This is absolutely contrived writing in order to fake the audience into thinking Zethrid’s here to attack. But surprise! everyone – you are surprised by this plot twist, aren’t you? – she’s not here to be a villain now.

So, Zethrid came all the way here because she thinks her Olkari technology pirate can help with the Atlas. I know the show last episode had Pidge refer to this Olkari as “a genius,” but seriously? Zethrid this whole time was just totally assuming the Olkari could help.

This is such a freaking waste of time.

Shiro, who realistically would not have agreed to this, lets the Olkari mess with the Atlas’s systems. The Olkari says, “Excellent job fusing Earth technology with Altean magic.” How does this Olkari know anything about either Earth technology or Altean magic. He has never been to Earth nor has he been in position to study Altean magic. There is absolutely zero reason for his character to have said that line. He touches Shiro’s console and the greenish white circuit board lines throughout the ship start glowing. How? I know that the Olkari did the hand-touch-glow thing with their own technology, but that was their technology. This is technology that this guy has never seen before. Is the show trying to say that this Olkari is capable of producing Altean magic himself?

The MFEs are flying around being shot at. I thought they were supposed to be in play because they were capable of more precise weapons fire than the Atlas, but they’re not using any weapons whatsoever. If the MFEs don’t have access to the target they were sent to shoot, and they’re not shooting anything else, then why are they even in combat right now? What narrative purpose are they serving other than wasting screen-time? Maybe sacrifice this meaningless part of the episode to explain the clone’s visions in “Omega Shield” instead? Do something that actually has a purpose.

Rizavi gets hit. It’s supposed to be a big, dramatic moment: One of Honerva’s mechas comes swooping in at Rizavi, the animation goes into slow-motion, the music gets dramatic, her fighter is on fire, we’re supposed to think that she’s going to die. No one in the audience is attached to her character, so of course the show’s not going to kill her. This show pretty much only kills named characters that people actually like. The Atlas swings its fist and doesn’t hit the mecha. Why does the Atlas keep trying to punch the mechas? It hasn’t yet worked even once. Shiro had ordered the Atlas to fire weapons in support of the MFEs against the mechas earlier, and no weapons fire has happened.

I often have found myself wondering while watching this show and writing these commentaries if the writing team and the animation team communicated whatsoever. Did the writers just leave the action up to the animators to figure out, like did they just write in their scripts something like, [Put some ship fighting stuff here,] and that’s it? Did the animators not bother to read the scripts before storyboarding it all out? Too many episodes have left me feeling that there were two very separated teams working on this show.

Out of nowhere, somehow, there are now eleven Atlases. This is whatever the Olkari did. This show is literally just pulling things out of nowhere without any care about this not making any sense. They don’t care how absolutely absurd this is. Shiro says for Kinkade to get Rizavi back to the Atlas safely – uh, to which Atlas? How does Kinkade know which is the real Atlas? Are these new Atlases just an illusion? Or are they physical? Can they fight? Or are they just there to distract? Does Shiro even know what they can do? He certainly hasn’t reported this information to the MFEs, and knowing what your side is capable of during a conflict is hugely important for the unit to function, so I don’t see how this helps.

Shiro tells James and Leifsdottir to “use this opportunity to hone in on the Robeast’s crystal.” I thought they were supposed to be shooting the big hole in the mecha’s chest when they fire their big chest hole cannon. That’s what Shiro told them to do earlier. Now, they’re supposed to be going for some crystal in the mechas? Has the show even demonstrated that the mechas have a crystal in them? I know that the Garrison recovered parts of the mecha that attacked Earth, but I don’t remember there being any crystal shown to be part of the system. This show has frequently had crystals be a power source for technology, but the Garrison (and thus Shiro) learned that these mechas are powered by a living Altean pilot. So what crystal is Shiro talking about here?

Now, after having not used it in this battle before, one of Honerva’s mechas uses its chest hole cannon. But, as has been established previously in this series, it’s supposed to only be able to use this cannon after it has absorbed some quintessence from somewhere. This mecha firing right now has not absorbed any quintessence, so this cannon should not be functioning. It blasts two Atlases, so I guess they are just illusions. How the Atlas can project these illusions is just Olkari magic, I guess. Because who cares about actually having technology behave like technology ever on this show, everything is magic. Now, the mechas are using their chest hole cannon as just a regular, quick firing cannon instead of the big blaster it’s been in the past.

Also, the whole point of the MFEs being brought into this is that they were supposed to be able to be more precise than the Atlas. Of course, again, the Atlas has yet to shoot a single weapon in this fight. But given that the show has been trying to set up this idea that the Atlas is just too slow, and that’s why the MFEs, being smaller and more maneuverable than the Atlas, would be able to be more precise, the show doesn’t allow the MFEs themselves to know when to fire. Their weapons systems, which would be able to target way, way, way more precisely than a human eye could target, are not allowed to know when to fire. No, knowing when to fire is given to Shiro, who’s much further away from the mechas than the MFEs are. Everything having to do with Atlas weapons targeting and firing has been given to Iverson previously in this series. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that Shiro should be giving the MFEs a countdown to fire.

Also, why have they been sitting around waiting to fire until the chest hole closes? Why didn’t they fire before then? Wasn’t the point that they had to wait until the hole was open to be able to access the true target within? They make their shots and the mecha explodes. It does not feel like a success whatsoever because all of this feels so contrived. Everyone on the Atlas starts cheering, but why? They’re not done. There’s still another mecha, the fight’s not over.

Back to Oriande. Voltron and some mechas are fighting. They seem to draw some quintessence out of Voltron.

Honerva has several large geometric circles, one on the ground, and a couple in the air above it. She’s still at her wormhole-like interface that’s part of the pyramid. There’s quintessence wind blowing all around. Honerva’s appearance shifts quickly between Honerva’s and Haggar’s, including their clothes changing back and forth. Never during her shapeshifting before has clothing ever changed. Maybe this is supposed to be quintessence shapeshifting and not Altean species shapeshifting? Is it supposed to be alternate reality versions of Honerva, and they’re all, like this Honerva, at the same time tearing through realities? The three geometric circles collapse down onto the ground, and there’s an explosion.

The mechas conveniently stop attacking Voltron so that the Paladins can look at what Honerva’s done. Lance looks down at her and suddenly Lance sees a field of purple grass and several people in it. They look Altean.

Pidge says, “According to my readings, we’re seeing into other realities.” That is some seriously sensitive, amazing sensors on the Lions that Pidge can so instantaneously determine that they’re seeing other realities. It’s so contrived. Pidge continues, “There must be some kind of rip in the fabric of time. The essence of realities is leaking out. Honerva is tearing apart timelines. She could cause irreparable damage to reality itself!” This is a whole huge pile of conclusions that the show is having Pidge jump to. The specifics of what Pidge says makes nearly no sense whatsoever. I know that during the Voltron-Lotor fight, that they kept calling it a “quintessence field” and not a rift between realities, but the process of getting into the quintessence field was explicitly through his having an Altean alchemically infused ship built out of a trans-reality comet. The first time we ever saw the trans-reality comet, it was tearing a hole from this reality through the rift between realities and into a new reality. The Paladins going through the rift in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” never had any time-based effects on anyone. Time relativity was an effect applied to going into the rift only at the beginning of season seven.

Maybe! that’s why the post-Lotor time jump has a huge plot hole in it. Maybe the decision to have there be a time relativity issue was only written into the story at the beginning of season seven and wasn’t part of the story at the end of season six. There being no time skip written into the battle with Lotor during season six’s finale would explain why Coran, Krolia, Romelle, and the Shiro-clone being outside of the rift where they should not have been affected by the time passing that we were told happened to because the Paladins were inside the rift. Time to write season seven came along, and they only then decided to do the three years passing while the Paladins were inside the rift, and they just hoped no one would remember that Coran, Krolia, Romelle, and the Shiro-clone were outside the rift and wouldn’t have been affected. If the decision for the time skip happened after they had already produced season six, then they wouldn’t have been able to have written the specifics of the events of the end of season six to allow for Coran and crew to be affected too.

So now, somehow, Honerva is shredding timelines because she’s looking into other realities. But again, the Paladins have literally gone to another reality and came back and never had anything happen to any timelines. That’s because a timeline is not the same thing as an alternate reality. Any particular timeline would only exist within its respective reality.

I don’t know why I’m trying to make sense of absolutely senseless writing like this.

The Blue Lion alerts Allura to its bayard slot, and Allura somehow knows that Blue not only wants her to use her bayard, but that Blue wants Hunk to use his bayard too. Has there ever been an instance where a Lion communicated with their Paladin about what another Lion wanted before? This time, Allura and Hunk combine to make a bunch of missiles on the sides of Voltron’s legs, which look like they destroy the mechas that Voltron was fighting.

Voltron tries to get near Honerva but is repelled. Honerva screams. I’m really not impressed by Honerva right now. Pidge’s reality-could-end proclamation is so over-the-top that it doesn’t feel threatening.

Outside the white hole, there are still several Atlases doing nothing while the mecha shoots miscellaneously at who knows what. The white pillar coming up out of the white hole starts blasting beams of light out of it, causing the illusory Atlases to disappear. Well, those illusions did literally nothing whatsoever. The Atlas is knocked into its ship form in a glowing blast of light. Since its transforming into mecha form is shown to have significant internal structural changes that are part of the process, I hope the crew is okay as it super quickly and spontaneously reverts to ship mode. The MFEs seem to be drifting without power, as is Honerva’s mecha.

There is no gravity on the Atlas. The show ignores how near-zero gravity works and has Sam, while floating in the middle of the room, change his direction and float in the other direction without having to grab hold of anything and push to make that change. This is not how physics works. Sam sits down in a chair, which you can’t do without gravity.

Slav says they were hit by “time spillage” which is “a rip in the fabric of this reality.” That makes literally no sense whatsoever. He says something something quintessence something power crystal. I don’t know what he’s saying. The writers don’t know what he’s saying, and they wrote it. The executive producers don’t care what he’s saying. When it’s this clear that the show itself doesn’t really care what’s happening, I can’t blame the audience for not caring. And guess what, I don’t care. Slav continues to rant about socks. Slav’s eccentricities while in a tense moment have totally worked before, but it does not work in this episode. It’s just distracting.

Cut to the mecha on one of the planets off in the universe collapsing. Matt and the Rebels have somehow evacuated an entire planet. I’ve complained about this show making planetary population look like a single village or single city before. I guess that’s still what they’re going with. A population of a planet able to be evacuated by a handful of ships in a couple of hours at most. That doesn’t feel even slightly realistic. I don’t even know why the show bothers to go back to Matt and the planet.

Back at Oriande, Honerva finally collapses from her screaming. There’s a big ball of light and suddenly the Sincline is there in front of her. So, her “tearing apart timelines” – mistaking timelines and alternate realities as being the same thing when they’re not – was her looking for her proclaimed perfect alternate reality, right? And she simultaneously pulled Sincline out of the rift between realities. So, what she did here was two goals. Neither of those goals was draining an entire galaxy of quintessence like the beginning of the episode said it was. “This was Honerva’s plan all along,” Keith says. Thanks for that absolutely pointless dialog. We would have no idea that what Honerva has done had been her plan unless someone, now after the plan has been accomplished, said it.

It very much feels like Honerva is again violating her son by doing this. He hated her so much because she abused him so much for so long. I very much imagine Lotor would totally rather remain in the rift rotting than to be brought back and used by Honerva now. Like I said, this totally feels like a disgusting violation.

Keith orders Voltron to attack Sincline. I honestly got enough of Voltron v. Sincline already in this show. I don’t know why they thought bringing Sincline back would be interesting. Sincline is so fundamentally tied to Lotor, and this show did everything it could to destroy Lotor’s character all for an offensive plot twist. The EPs and writers just couldn’t let Lotor rest in peace.

Surprise, Voltron’s leg missiles did literally nothing. The Colony Alteans’ mechas are still functioning fine. Somehow these Colony Alteans know what Sincline looks like and that Lotor piloted the Sincline. They see Sincline and are instantly, “Lotor!” and “Lotor has returned!”

Merla pulls up a zoomed-in footage of Sincline beating up Voltron. She looks shocked. This is Merla, right? Or is it some miscellaneous, unidentified Colony Altean? I honestly cannot tell. Why is this surprising her? She’s been a zealot wanting to destroy Voltron for a while now, she shouldn’t be unnerved by seeing this.

Sincline knocks Voltron into separate Lions, which hit the ground, powerless.

Merla says, “Something’s not right.” What? Why is she suddenly having a totally change in her personality? She wanted to destroy Voltron. Now that Sincline is trying to destroy Voltron, suddenly she’s bothered by the idea? This makes no sense. This show is really really bad at managing and maintaining characters’ motivations and goals.

Allura can’t get the Blue Lion to do anything, she sees Honerva outside of her window, so she decides to leave Blue and attack Honerva. Sincline sees Allura outside of Blue, aims a wrist cannon at her, zooms in on her, clearly showing it’s Allura. Lance regains consciousness and Red is working again, and he moves to counter Sincline. The Colony Alteans see Red, but only the male Altean goes after Red. Merla doesn’t. The Altean intercepts Red. Sincline stops aiming at Allura. Sincline turns to look at the male Altean in the mecha, the male Altean mecha pilot says, “Lotor?” and then Sincline stabs the mecha through with Sincline’s tail.

So then, this is actually supposed to be Lotor piloting the Sincline? Lotor is never shown in this season other than as a flashback, as a hallucination, and as a melted corpse. This very clearly seems like the episode means for Lotor to be alive right now. Sincline actively resisted firing on Allura. Sincline actively attacked the Altean in the mecha. This cannot be Honerva controlling Sincline remotely. So then, what’s up with Lotor?

It makes so much sense that so many viewers think this season was mostly made and then hastily re-edited super late into the production. This is a fundamentally huge inconsistency that is never explained.

So, Sincline destroyed the mecha when the mecha protected Sincline from the Red Lion, but then Sincline creates a sword with which to attack the Red Lion. Why is this happening? What character motivation is going on with Sincline’s actions? Who is the character actually doing the acting? How could these extremely fundamental elements to storytelling be something the executive producers, story editor, and episode writer all collectively omitted in this scene and in this episode?

Honerva weakly reaches up toward Sincline and says, “Still,” so Sincline was acting on its own, not under her control. Until now. By showing her now exerting some control over Sincline, the show is very specifically saying she was not in control of it before now.

Allura comes jumping in, turning her bayard into a spear to try to stab Honerva. Honerva either goes to teleport or just turn everything black or something. Then Allura stands amid blackness everywhere. Honerva tells Allura, “This is just the beginning. Join me and our people. Together, we will go back to Altea.” Allura fully and clearly states that Honerva is to blame for Altea’s destruction. Honerva completely ignores what Allura says. Honerva says, “Think of your father. I knew Alfor well.” We’ve seen enough of Honerva’s interaction with Alfor to know she was not interested in knowing him personally. They were not friends. “This is what he would have wanted.” I guess Honerva’s just supposed to be trying (really poorly trying) to manipulate Allura?

I do really, really like Allura’s line: “You cannot keep me here forever, and the moment you release your hold, I will end you.” Yeah, that line is clearly the best thing in this episode.

Honerva then says, “Then you will end your friends as well. I am the only thing keeping my son at bay.” So, this episode was written for Lotor to be alive in it? Then what happened that he’s alive now but isn’t for the rest of the season?

Honerva and Allura return to Allura diving at Honerva with her spear. Allura gets tears in her eyes and decides to not kill Honerva. Honerva makes a hand gesture and Sincline leaves the Red Lion alone. She then makes Sincline kneel to her.

I had thought that it felt like a violation for Honerva to pull Sincline out of the rift solely because of how much Lotor hated her. He would want absolutely nothing to do with her. But now that she’s using her magic to control Sincline, to, per her own words, control Lotor, it is an even bigger violation. She continues to abuse him. And the show has the audacity to say that Lotor was fully unredeemable and evil, but that Honerva is not at fault for her gross actions and should be forgiven. She is violating her son. That is not something you forgive someone for doing. Her actions are thoroughly disgusting and immoral. And it’s disgusting that the executive producers and writers tell us by the end of series that Honerva is absolved of responsibility for her actions.

The Atlas powers back up. Shiro orders the MFEs onboard.

On Oriande, the pyramid structure begins to break free of the rock and ascend into the sky. Allura gets back into Blue and starts trying to talk the Paladins into consciousness. The Lions fly away from Oriande. Pidge says, “The white hole is closing. If we don’t get out, we’ll be trapped here forever.” Now, a white hole is only a possibility in theoretical astrophysics, but the term white hole has a very distinct definition, whether they truly exist somewhere in this universe or not. Pidge’s description of it closing and the being trapped in it is not accurate. A white hole, like a black hole, is not a hole. It cannot close. By definition, a white hole explicitly allows for light and matter to escape it. 

Veronica says, “The white hole’s energy is collapsing into a gravity surge. There’s no way we’ll hit escape velocity.” This doesn’t make any sense. A “gravity surge” sounds like an oxymoron. Gravity pulls inward, a surge connotes an outward push. The need for “escape velocity” suggest they’ll be pulled inescapably inward, but a white hole, by definition allows light and matter to escape. Coran says they need a wormhole to escape.

The Lions emerge from the white hole. Shiro orders Coran to make a wormhole. I guess the Atlas, like the Castle of Lions eventually did when the show violated its own premises and moved Allura in to the Blue Lion, can create wormholes without Allura there to provide the power to do so. The Atlas and the Lions enter the wormhole. And then exit into a quiet, peaceful area of space.

Allura says, “We failed. And every reality will pay the price.” That’s a big dramatic statement, but she has no real reason to think that right now. Yes, Honerva seems to be at least having an affect on alternate realities while doing what she was doing at Oriande, but she would seem to have accomplished her goal. That goal would seem to be getting Sincline. There is no reason for Allura to think that Honerva is going to mess with alternate realities yet.

Yeah, this episode is an absolute mess, and I’m exhausted.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #voltron criticism #vld criticism #voltron critical #vld critical #vld season 8 #vld 8x06 #commentary