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Effects of the Paladins' absence are explored as the seventh season of
Legendary Defender continues.
7.5, "The Ruins"
Written by Mitch Iverson
Directed by Michael Chang
Synopsis
The Lions continue through the cosmos, evidently on autopilot as their pilots and passengers--save for Keith and Krolia--sleep until Keith calls them to wakefulness. He asserts that they cannot allow themselves to lose their edge along their journey and begins battle drills with them. They do not go well, with even Keith falling in it. Krolia notes that the simulation was designed to be unbeatable; the rigged test does not please the Paladins.
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He seems to be enjoying himself.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary. |
Hunk practices his culinary work, preparing food for the others and sending it via the teleporting wolf. Keith rejects naming the wolf as the others agree to call is Cosmo, and there is some commotion as Hunk explains how he made the food he's served. Amid the meal, though, Pidge picks up a signal, finding it to be a broadcast sitcom. The others, save Coran, are not amused. Hunk hears interferences, which Pidge isolates and Krolia identifies as a Blade of Marmora distress signal. The Paladins move to investigate.
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It's never a good sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary. |
As they do, they find ruins but no life signs. The ruins, though, show the result of battle--and there are watchers. Cosmo confronts one such, followed by the Paladins; they take the watcher and question him amid decay. The source of the message is revealed to be on site, and the watcher reveals that the Paladins are thought dead. There is something of a memorial to the Blades of Marmora who fell in battle, and the watcher relates the sequence of events that followed Voltron's disappearance. Galra civil war had allowed Haggar's druids to fight the Blade; a final stand was called for, and the druids attacked in force, taking them at great cost. The watcher's people were slaughtered, as well, and the watcher alone survived. Krolia knows the fallen, including the Blades' leader--but there is suggestion that the leader yet lives.
The watcher reveals himself as one of the druids, using the Blades' base to draw other Blades in and kill them. A trap takes all but Keith, whom Cosmo teleports away. A cat-and-mouse game with the Druid ensues, interspersed with melee between the two. As they fight, Allura's own power begins to work against the Druid's trap, and Keith comes upon the Blade's leader. The Druid's motivation is clear--revenge and return from exile to Haggar--and melee is joined again.
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This is usually a better sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary. |
Allura frees the others, taking the power from the Druid's trap into herself at some cost and discharging it to move to Keith's aid. Battle is joined and the Blade's leader freed, in the end, by Keith alone.
After, they regroup and learn that the Blade is gone, save for a very few. Krolia returns to the Blade, leaving the Paladins in favor of rebuilding the group. Her parting from Keith is bitter, but necessary. They promise to see one another again, and the Paladins depart.
Discussion
The present episode follows on the exploration begun in earnest in "
The Way Forward," doing more to plumb the effects on the universe of the Paladins departure and what they will face as they return. It additionally presents something not unlike the Christianization narratives of the earlier European medieval. In such narratives, there are pockets or holdouts of pagan practice against which knightly forces array themselves in an explicit effort to eradicate the earlier forms of worship. The connection of Haggar's Druids to their medievalist antecedents has already been discussed, as has the connection of the Paladins to medievalist Christian knighthood. (That neither is an "accurate" representation, although both accord with popular conception, has also been addressed.) For the Paladins to fight against a hold-out Druid, then, smacks of some of the less fortunate parts of the medieval, in which perceived-as-always-evil indigenous practices are fought against by outside forces with a different, "good" orientation--and that matters are cast in such a light also speaks to ongoing legacies of medieval European belief that have unfortunate resonances with their own contemporary cultural contexts.
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