Voltron: Legendary Defender (Re)Watch 7.10, "Heart of the Lion"

Read the previous entry here!
Read the next entry here!

Matters grow more dire for Earth and its defenders as the seventh season of Voltron: Legenday Defender continues.

---

7.10, "Heart of the Lion"

Written by Rocco Pucillo
Directed by Eugene Lee

Synopsis

It's something of a pattern for Shiro.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Shiro wakes once again on a table under bright lights. This time, however, it is because of a medical procedure he has agreed to and which is being conducted by friendly personnel. The procedure is the installation of his new arm; its capabilities are described to him, and he tests it briefly before matters deteriorate. Allura intervenes, restraining the arm and replacing its power source with one of her own. Shiro is eased by the procedure and enriched.

After, Pidge and Allura explicate Sendak's methods. The Galra commander has installed six massive emplacements around the globe, intending them to serve as deterrents and control points. How to proceed against them is debated, and an infiltration mission is decided upon and planned. Teams are assigned, and the mission begins.

The sniper team--consisting of Lance, Hunk, Veronica, and Kincaid--proceeds to its assigned location. The members confer with one another, learning something about each other along the way. They set up in position, overwatching the infiltration team as they proceed into the Galra facility. Infiltration proceeds smoothly at first, using Cosmos' teleportation abilities to enter and evade detection. At length, though, they are detected, and combat ensues, although Keith and Pidge achieve their objective. They find that the bases are, in fact, planetary siege cannons like those they've encountered before.

This does not bode well.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Outside, the fight continues. The Earth forces handle themselves ably, but the numerical superiority of the Galra forces begins to tell. The Earth forces enact their exfiltration plan, departing in haste but with no casualties--and their objective achieved. Debriefing, they report on the circumstances, and a plan to take out the weapons is hatched. A simultaneous strike on all the weapons is called for, and motion to make it happen begins.

The Paladins proceed to their assigned locations and summon their Lions to them. Their unity of purpose allows for the summons to be answered--save for the red Lion, which does not heed Lance before he and Veronica come under Galra attack. Four of the Paladins enter their Lions, and the attack begins--but Lance is taken out of the fight before it can do so.

Convenient.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

He wakes in pain and finds his sister injured. They are still under fire, however, and Lance fights valiantly. The Red Lion belatedly answers his summons, saving him and his sister. So armed, they add themselves to the attack, and the operation proceeds as planned. Battle is joined, although the Galra defenses are more powerful than expected. And the weapons launch, despite the efforts of the Paladins; it is clear that the Galra knew an assault was coming. What is less clear, though not for long, is that the commander of Earth's military is the one responsible for the Galra having that knowledge. Voltron is formed and an attack on Sendak begun as Sendak turns the weapons towards Voltron, forcibly disarticulating the robot.

Discussion

Something of the appeasement noted in the discussion of the previous episode appears to have happened in the present one. What effects it will have are speculative--but not likely to be better than those appeasement had in the audience's world.

Of more immediate moment to the work of the Society, perhaps, is the manner in which Shiro and Sendak more and more closely mirror one another--with Sendak being the darker reflection. The prosthesis Shiro receives in the present episode resembles Sendak's in overall outward form; rather than being a continuous physical object, it is composed of separate pieces joined together by energy, rather than matter. Sendak's remains brutish and belligerent, while Shiro's remains seemingly elegant, and the color schemes of the two push Shiro more obviously to the side of good. So does the fact that it is Shiro's right hand that is replaced (again); he is gifted with the work of others' hands, combining them in himself and so representing the whole in each of his actions. Given his death and return, it makes him something of a messianic figure, one laden also with medievalist parallels (Allura's attire when helping him with the new arm is reminiscent of the Lady of the Lake who awards Excalibur, for instance); he is more and more clearly the white knight who will ride to the rescue of all in the end.