#vld 8x04

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x04 – “Battle Scars”

8x04 – “Battle Scars”

This episode contributes to the season’s unbalanced storytelling. This is a whole episode spent on what really amounts to like five or ten minutes of story. That wouldn’t be a problem if the season didn’t also have so many episodes later on in which too much happens in a single episode, causing everything in those episodes to be really confusing with really difficult to follow logistics.

Given this episode’s focus on Pidge and her Olkarion/plant thing and the threat of a weblum, this episode feels like it was written after someone finished rewatching season two, though this episode revisits two of the least interesting stories from season two.

The big reveal of why the mecha was attacking Olkarion does not provide an answer to at least one of the mysteries the episode sets up: Why is Olkarion now a dead planet? Also, we’re shown several Olkarion ships evacuating Olkari, so why did they not immediately contact the Voltron Coalition once they got clear of Olkarion to tell them they had been attacked?

The episode starts with the mecha sent by Honerva at the end of last episode arriving at Olkarion. Cut to somewhere in space, the Lions travelling wherever they’re going. I like the first shot of this big shot of the nebula with the Lions so small since it helps make space feel appropriately large. They’ve checked, according to Pidge, 11 star systems in three days, and haven’t found any sign of the mecha. They talk about the “quadrant,” and if you’ve read some of my past commentaries, you know that I’m really not a fan of the use of that word since when it gets used, it almost always is not referring to one-fourth of an area like the word quadrant means. Here, Pidge says that this quadrant is “230,000 light-years in diameter,” Hunk says that he “can’t even process what that means.” Well then, let me help. The diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 150,000 light-years. The Milky Way is not particularly a large galaxy. It is possible that the Paladins are in a really large galaxy, and that 230,000 light-years could amount to a quarter of that galaxy, so maybe, just maybe “quadrant” could be an applicable word, but I doubt it. It’s more likely that the show just yet again threw around that word without thinking. I imagine most of the writers on this show being just like Hunk in this moment, not able to process what astronomical distances mean. Of course, Hunk, having been a student at the Galaxy Garrison and having spent considerable time travelling throughout the universe, should be able to have an idea how big 230,000 light-years is.

Allura says, “Perhaps we should set our heading to the Altean Colony.” Keith counters, “We talked about this [….]” Anyone remember when Allura was a leader? When she was viewed by the Paladins as the Princess of Altea? When what she wanted to do had weight with the Paladins, and they didn’t condescend to her the way Keith just did? Moments like this is why Allura becoming the Blue Paladin was a demotion. The executive producers’ desire to have Keith as Black Paladin, and thus the leader, didn’t just take a leadership position away from Shiro, it took a leadership position away from Allura too.

Allura wants to go to the Colony to look for clues. Keith doesn’t want to go because of how difficult it was for him when he and Krolia went there in the past. What Keith doesn’t include is that his progression through the quantum abyss was through use of his jetpack and a space whale; if the Paladins went now they’d be using their Lions. I think their Lions can handle things far, far better. We’ve had Lions navigate a precise path between two black holes and a giant blue star before (2x08 “The Blade of Marmora”), so clearly the Lions can handle navigating through complex gravity.

Allura becomes very understandably annoyed, “I’m tired of hearing what we can’t do and what we don’t know.” She specifically locates her annoyance in the fact that what Honerva is doing is being done to Alteans, her people, so this feels personal for her. I think she’d be totally right to feel annoyed just because everyone else seems casual about what’s been happening. Allura says to the group, “You don’t understand.” Lance jumps in with, “I understand what it feels like to see someone I care about hurt so much.” Honestly, I’m kind of over people acting like this. If someone tells you that you don’t understand what they’re going through, then just countering by saying that you do understand is not demonstrating that understanding. (I get that Lance was technically saying that he feels sorry to see Allura so upset, but I’m focused on how he was written to use the specific words he did.) The person wouldn’t have said that you don’t understand if you were demonstrating that you do. The fact that they told you that you don’t understand indicates you need to reevaluate your behavior toward that person. Too often, it feels like when someone says that others don’t understand what they’re going through, people who counter by just saying that they do understand are just trying to avoid self-examination, they’re trying to take the cheap way out of the social situation. Applying that to this situation, I don’t think anyone has demonstrated that they recognize what effect this situation is having on Allura. It’s been well over a season of this show since anyone’s really paid attention to Allura, and Lance wanting to date and kiss her does not count as anyone paying attention to her thoughts and feelings about what’s going on in her life.

They then write Allura to apologize to Lance as if Allura was in the wrong here. Grr!

Hunk says, “Maybe we should head to Olkarion. They’re just a few galaxies away.” I know this show has been the loosest possible when it comes to depicting accurate scale/distance of space and travel through space, but it sounds ludicrous to say something like it’s “just a few galaxies away.” If the distance to Olkarion is so casual the way Hunk talks here, why haven’t they already called up someone on Olkarion and asked them if they’ve heard anything?

“And it’ll be awesome to see everyone again,” Pidge says. “I wonder what kind of technological advances they’ve made in the last few years.” Why didn’t she ask them when a bunch of Olkari came to Earth at the end of last season to help Earth after the occupation?

Allura remains mentally isolated from the group. Not that any of the others can currently see Allura’s face, but she clearly looks sad. This is more of what Allura goes through this season that made me feel during my first time watching this season that Allura was seriously depressed (and no one really cared). With Allura seeming depressed, as I said in my commentary for 8x01 “Launch Date,” having her story end with her death really feels like the show is saying that the only outcome available for someone who’s depressed is for them to die.

Lance asks, “Allura, what do you think?” Why is he asking this? She’s told everyone what she thinks their next action should be: look for clues at the Colony. They rejected that idea. Allura is essentially pressured into dismissing her own judgement and accedes to everyone else’s desire to go to Olkarion.

Pidge tries to contact Olkarion to tell them they’re coming, and no communication can be established. One, Olkarion is probably the Voltron Coalition’s biggest member, at least until now when Earth’s added the Atlas to the Coalition’s resources. Team Voltron spent nearly a whole season parked on Olkarion earlier in the show. Since the Coalition has learned that Honerva has these new mechas in play, why wouldn’t the Coalition/Paladins have contacted their biggest ally a long time ago to spread the alert to the Coalition members?

I’m also left wondering what the parameters were of the Olkari coming to Earth to help post-occupation. Are there still Olkari on Earth? Are there Olkari on the Atlas?

I genuinely laughed at Lance’s, “They’re probably too busy untangling calculations. Am I using that right?”

Pidge says, “I’m guessing there’s a delay due to our distance.” This show has never had distance cause a delay in communications be a thing before, so why would Pidge think it was a possibility? (I’m remembering Pidge expecting an instant communication with her father on Earth back at the beginning of season seven, for example. She was super far away from Earth at the time but didn’t think a distance-based delay was a thing.)

Keith orders Voltron formed, and the animation really feels like it’s just there to take up time. Keith has Voltron use its once-special but now-common wing engines to go faster. They very quickly jet from where they were to “Olkarion’s galactic neighborhood,” as Lance says. He also then asks, “Did we ever hear from them?” You mean within the literal just a few seconds that have passed since you previously tried contacting them? Lance’s line is written like a notable amount of time has passed, but the animation hasn’t had time pass, the animation has had them quickly form Voltron and we saw the literal few seconds they spent in transit, start to finish, from where they were to where they are now. Maybe this is just the director not building the shots of the episode in a way to convey more time passing, but as it is, it’s only been like a couple of minutes, max, for the Paladins since Pidge tried contacting Olkarion.

Pidge tries contacting Olkarion again, and she detects something coming toward them. It’s a weblum. For a bit, Voltron weirdly just floats in the weblum’s way before finally moving so that it doesn’t blast them.

Allura asks where the weblum is going, and Pidge calculates and says Olkarion. Voltron was headed toward Olkarion. The weblum is headed toward Olkarion. Voltron and the Weblum were headed in opposite directions initially. So, Voltron was headed away from Olkarion then. If the director couldn’t keep something this simple straight in setting up the shots and logistics of the episode, I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that the show’s direction becomes maddeningly confusing when the season’s story gets more complicated.

Voltron had disassembled the wings to make its shield, but then cut to Voltron using its wings, as if it had been in wing-mode the entire time, to beat the weblum to Olkarion. Voltron separates into Lions when they get to Olkarion.

There, they see Olkarion’s city destroyed. I say city, singular, because this show only ever seems to depict populated planets, Olkarion included, as having a single location of habitation. Pidge is sad, saying, “They were our allies, our friends.” Yeah? Then why hadn’t you guys contacted them before now to let them know about Honerva’s mechas?

Keith acknowledges that they’re under a time pressure to act since the weblum is coming there. He orders the Paladins to engage in search and rescue if possible and to try to find out what happened to Olkarion. For not having much time, everyone seems to be acting slowly, taking time to look around. Only Hunk and Keith are using their Lions. There are some really powerful sensors on the Lions, so I would think using them would be the first thing they would do. Instead, Pidge takes time to look at single, crumbly leaf. Allura, being who she is would be the one most able to know, says that the land has been drained of quintessence. Hunk says he and Lance have found traces of the metal that the mecha is made of.

I imagine Pidge being sad over Olkarion’s destruction is meaningful to people who are fans of Pidge’s character. I don’t have any immediate objection to how her sadness is being portrayed, I think it’s logical that her character would be sad, but because this show’s past plots with Pidge have annoyed me so greatly, I can’t help but to just not care that she’s sad.

She falls to her knees, crying, and then there’s a white light and she can see Olkari kids playing before her vision returns to normal. Allura says that because the Olkari and Pidge both have a “profound connection to the land” – despite the show nominally having added this yay-nature dimension to Pidge’s character, I’ve never seen her act in any way that demonstrated she developed a connection “to the land,” but whatever – that maybe the planet is showing Pidge something. How? If the planet hadn’t been drained of its quintessence, I would think that could explain how, but as is, it’s just happening because that’s what’s been written, not because there is any explanation for why. And the show never explains why. Allura says, “Concentrate. See if you can tap into its energy.” It has no energy! Allura literally said the planet’s quintessence is gone just a short bit ago.

Pidge closes her eyes until she starts having visions again. She sees the mecha plunging through the atmosphere. She and Allura move to the city, where Pidge has a vision of the mecha hitting the ground. Ryner was here when it happened. Pidge sees the mecha attack the city. She jetpacks to a location closer to the initial attack. She sees Ryner order evacuations and counter attacks.

Hunk and Lance report that they only have ten minutes to get out before the weblum hits Olkarion due to the weblum tripping some “low orbit trackers.” I guess the weblum’s arrival is supposed to be unexpected? Like its there earlier than its distance and known possible speed would have it able to arrive? But also, they used “low orbit trackers?” A low Earth orbit has an approximate maximum altitude of 2000 km. Most of Earth’s satellites and the International Space Station have a low Earth orbit. Since they knew the weblum was coming, they should have been monitoring to know it was there long before it was knocking on the front door. So, this new time pressure is just the show having a contrived situation again.

Allura asks Keith, Hunk, and Lance to try to buy Pidge time to learn more about what happened to Olkarion. Pidge reenters her vision, sees the donut cannon try to blast the mecha, which reflects the blast and destroys the cannon. Ryner orders Olkari soldiers to hold the mecha off as much as possible while other Olkari “preserve the information from the communications tower.” So, Pidge, knows where to head to next.

Keith, Hunk, and Lance make their way to the weblum, which is visually not even remotely close enough to have tripped any low orbit sensors. Hunk tries to slam into the weblum to knock it off-course. They try various Lion weapons, but it doesn’t slow down.

Pidge reenters her vision on the communication tower. She observes two Olkari discuss why they were unable to detect the mecha until it hit their atmosphere. They look at a few records of some space-time anomalies and realize that the mehca arrived via wormhole. Ryner communicates orders to them to transfer all data from the tower to a safe off-planet location and then evacuate. They finish their data transmission just as the mecha blows up the tower. Pidge relays the information to Allura but asks for more time. Allura leaves to join the others against the weblum, which continues to be nowhere near a low orbit of Olkarion.

Hunk contacts Coran, who instantly returns communication (so no time delay to long-distance communication in this show), to ask how to stop a weblum from destroying a planet. Coran’s communication conveniently, but at least it’s purposefully done for humor, fades at the important parts of Coran’s instructions. It mirrors the video and audio errors in the instructional video that Keith and Hunk watched about weblums in 2x09 “The Belly of the Weblum.” Ultimately, the inclusion of Coran here is solely for this one joke, and nothing he says has any impact on the story. Allura arrives in time to use Blue’s “sonic” cannon, which causes the weblum to stop an imminent mouth-blast.

Back in Pidge’s vision, she sees Ryner ordering more evacuation, the mecha destroying more city, and (finally something important that the audience didn’t already know) the mecha taking several Olkari cubes. Pidge tries to ask vision-Ryner why the mecha wanted the cubes. The episode thinks it’s giving some big poignant, emotional moment by having Ryner talk to some crying kid who’s “scared [and doesn’t] want to leave.” Ryner spends an unrealistic moment, the city falling around them, telling the kid, “You mustn’t cling too tightly to the past. The Olkari have always been able to adapt and move forward. It is our greatest strength, and it will live on in you. The old must give way to the new, it is the way of the universe,” and she sends this random kid onto the evacuation ship. Pidge leaves the vision, the Green Lion picks up Pidge, and they leave Olkarion.

I just don’t feel what the episode is trying to make me feel with Ryner and the Olkari. It’s not that I dislike either Ryner or the Olkari (though I do dislike how the point-connection for them both to the story has been through Pidge because this supposed yay-nature aspect of Pidge has never felt true to me). But the sadness that should come with seeing Olkarion destroyed just doesn’t happen for me. I think part of it is that the destruction of Olkarion doesn’t get to be about the Olkari. It’s all about Pidge.

Hunk says, “If you think about it, this isn’t really the end of Olkarion. Weblums eating dead planets is just the first step in the process that leads to the growth of new stars, planets, and galaxies.” This is more of the non-poignancy from Ryner’s speech. I know the show has established that weblums eat dead planets, though I guess “dead planet” is specifically a planet that once had abundant life, but something has happened to kill off all the life on the planet? Because the vast majority of planets in the universe are going to not have life on them, thus most planets are dead planets unless “dead planets” is only defined as planets that once had life. Also, the creation of the weblum for this show to function as some kind of space recycling system is kind of obnoxious since we actually know a fair amount about the actual, real destruction and creation processes for stars and planets. It’s pretty much all about stars exploding. The weblum has always seemed like the show trying to apply the circle-of-life concept to inanimate astronomical objects. It’s like the show has misapplied one area of science to a different area of science.

Pidge apparently knows some way to now track Honerva’s mechas, I guess through the cubes the mecha took? The episode ends.

So, can anyone tell me how the entire planet’s quintessence was drained? The mecha attacked one city, destroyed some buildings, grabbed the cubes, and left the planet. The mecha is never shown to drain the entire planet of its quintessence. Maybe a small area within the city, but not the whole planet. So, when did the planet-draining happen? And who did it?

Technically, this episode isn’t totally pointless: it does advance the find-Honerva story by the reveal that the mecha took the cubes at the very end. But I can’t help but to still feel like this episode mostly just takes up time that the season could have better used to keep the second half of the season from being so confusing and so chaotically directed.

[purpleplaid17]

Pidge 8x04 [2/ 6] They were our allies, our friends.

[iimpossible-things]

I have not been so betrayed by canon since Voltron.

[purpleplaid17]

Pidge 8x04 [3/ 6] I know this place.