Voltron: Legendary Defender (Re)Watch 8.6, "Genesis"

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

As the final season of Legendary Defender reaches its midpoint, it arrives at a nadir, indeed.

---

8.6, "Genesis"

Written by Mitch Iverson
Directed by Eugene Lee

Synopsis

As the Atlas proceeds through the cosmos, the Coalition forces aboard review the intelligence they have gathered so far. Honerva's Robeasts continue to make planetfall on worlds across the universe. Shiro calls for calm and assigns tasks. Meanwhile, Honerva addresses her people, exhorting them in her late son's name. The Robeasts she has sent out awaken and begin their machinations.

No, that's not ominous at all.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The Atlas learns that the Robeasts are siphoning off the vital energies of the planets where they have landed, and debate erupts among the crew as to how to proceed. Allura calls for a direct assault on Honerva on Oriande, laying out why. Honerva plots to pull power from across a galaxy, and Voltron and the Atlas proceed to make the assault, while other forces move to address the other problems occasioned by the attack.

The Robeasts transfer the energy they have stolen, and rescue operations begin as the Atlas proceeds toward Oriande. It is defended, not by the guardian that had previously stood vigil, but by more Robeasts. Melee ensues, with the Atlas running a screen for Voltron.

It is not like to be an easy fight.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Honerva's machinations and rescue efforts continue as the fight goes on. The energy collection proceeds, funneling untold power to Honerva in Oriande. She channels it into the unmaking of the guardian, increasing her power immensely and enacting a dark ritual while the Atlas and Voltron continue to fight. Ezor and Zethrid, prisoners in the brig on the Atlas, move to assist, as well.

Enemy of my enemy...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The fights continue. So does the ritual. The boundaries between realities are rent again, and the reality-ending potential of the threat is made explicit. And, to all appearances, Lotor is returned from the dead.

This is never a good sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Melee resumes between Voltron and Lotor, and the suborned Alteans look on in awe as a bestial Lotor badly batters Voltron. At least one is disturbed by the sight, and Allura makes to attack Honerva personally. Lance moves to defend her, ultimately unsuccessfully, and Lotor attacks the Altean nearest him. Honerva holds the attack and makes a bargain with Allura: her life for Lance's. Allura accepts, and Honerva restrains Lotor before continuing on with her plan, taking the structures of Oriande into space in a manner that the old Castle of Lions seems to have copied. The Paladins flee, as well, before they are trapped. They narrowly escape, and matters look poorly for them.

Discussion

It continues to be good to see the series work to close off plot threads left from earlier seasons, or, rather, to use ideas from those earlier seasons to reinforce narrative continuity. Despite certain tendencies in the series, the return to already-established methods and actions helps to promote the cohesion and authenticity of the milieu; it looks more like it plays by its own rules, following a variation on world-building advice given by Tolkien in "On Fairy-stories" and refined by other writers since.

Among the ideas that continue to be in use is the twistedly Marian devotion of the suborned Alteans toward Honerva. Indeed, one of the Alteans remarks on a need to "protect our goddess" when Voltron reaches Oriande. And it is not hard to see why she might be regarded thusly; aside from having lived for millennia and having mothered the similarly-millennial savior, she visibly returns him to life from the dead, if in a corrupted form suggested by her own return from beyond the grave and her husband's. But it is a false devotion, to be sure; Honerva is the mother of a false savior, and she is herself far from an immaculate figure. And those who remain in that devotion begin to suffer, not only through combat against Voltron and the associated coalition, but by the dark products of the unholy rituals performed by and for their masters--something not  uncommon to medievalist productions that involve magic, as so many do.

As in many previous episodes, the present does not introduce new medievalisms so much as reiterate and reinforce those long present in the series. But that does not make it less medievalist an item.