Voltron: Legendary Defender (Re)Watch 8.10, "Knights of Light, Part 2"

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The Paladins' strangely dangerous sortie continues, and revelations emerge.

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8.10, "Knights of Light, Part 2"

Written by Erik Bogh
Directed by Michael Chang

Synopsis

Their numbers have increased.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Continuing from the previous episode, the Paladins hurtle through Honerva's mindscape, finding themselves in a remembrance of the Galra homeworld. They confer about the implications before advancing. Allura leads them, though dark energies continue to afflict her, and the shade of Alfor warns her against it yet again; she explains her need for the added power.

Within the mindscape, the Paladins come under attack by an enhanced remembrance of one of their earliest foes. The fight is joined, and the Paladins find it a tougher battle than their previous encounter, but the power of their predecessors allows them to press ahead, following Allura's lead.

Allura seems to have a clear idea of what needs doing.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The Paladins find themselves suddenly in a remembrance of Oriande, and Pidge opines about the implications; they continue to encounter psychic traps protecting Honerva's inner being. And as they press on, they find themselves transported to a stormy landscape of her memories--many of which are unpleasant. Among others, the end of the first group of Paladins is detailed; Honerva killed them, consumed them. Allura reacts with rage, occasioning concern that has to be put aside int he hopes of progressing further. And that progress is made, allowing the Paladins to ransack Honerva's mind and memory.

Some of Honerva's recent memories are...unpleasant.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The Paladins enter another layer of Honerva's mind and are assailed by her raw presence. They soon find themselves on a remembered Altaea, where the shade of Zarkon assails them. Keith confronts the shade, opposing it mightily and summoning aid. After a struggle, the shade is released, and Allura inflicts upon him the memory of his misdeeds. In its wake, his contrition, though insufficient, is sincere, and he begins to make such efforts toward finding absolution as he can make.

Honerva's desires are revealed--along with her purpose. She means to find a reality in which her husband and son are alive and love her--at the cost of destroying all other realities. And Honerva becomes aware of the interlopers in her mind, working against them directly. The shade of Alfor and Keith unite the assembled sets of Paladins in the purpose of breaking Honerva's hold upon them all--and they succeed. The present Paladins are returned to physical reality, although Allura remains unconscious.

Discussion

The resonance with dream visions continues in the present episode from the previous, and there is something of a parallel to the Divine Comedy mentioned in the previous episode's write-up; the Paladins continue to progress through ever-deeper layers of Honerva's mind, finding strange and often terrifying wonders as they do. Additionally, the present episode engages what might be thought a decidedly medieval--though certainly not restricted to the medieval--preoccupation: the nature of forgiveness.

The case can be made that the shade of Zarkon, having been imprisoned and dominated by Honerva, is not culpable for the deeds of the corporeal Zarkon. (And, indeed, there is the worrisome implication of his shade being present; what animated the corporeal Zarkon?) Yet the assertion is made in the episode that he was, in fact, aware of his corporeal misdeeds, even if removed from them, and he appears to accept responsibility for them. If he is as responsible as he seems to suggest being, then there is a question of what absolution could actually be available to him; millennia of genocide would seem to stain a soul beyond any scrubbing. At the same time, it seems that Zarkon's fellow shades accept his efforts as contrition, offering forgiveness--and the present Paladins, after Allura's inflicting memory upon him, seem to, as well.

The question the episode poses in that regard, then, is if mindful efforts against an evil previously enabled actually enable forgiveness, or if forgiveness is a thing that can be earned. Again, it is something with which the medieval European mind, typically conceived, did occupy itself. Research such as Marc B. Cels's "Forgiveness in Late Medieval Sermons: On the Unforgiving Servant" speaks to that occupation, as do such works as Piers Plowman and Chaucer's Pardoner's Prologue and Tale. So, while such occupation does not restrict itself to the medieval mind, it does figure prominently in it, and the present episode's engagement with that occupation does just a bit more to connect the series to its medieval and medievalist forebears.