VR Troopers Episode 34 Defending Dark Heart Part 4

Well hello there everybody welcome to another Magic Happy VR Troopers Review, and today we are looking at Defending Dark Heart part 4 written by Doug Sloan, and directed by John Grant Weil.

So we start off where we left off with Ryan carrying Dark Heart in the Turbo Cycle trying to reach the lab but getting no response so Dark Heart tells Ryan he has a secret lab in the mountains so they head over there.

While at the lab JB, Kaitlin, and Jeb are okay but the lab is destroyed, and they can’t contact the Professor but JB says they can fix the lab.

While at Ziktor industries Ziktor transforms into Grimlord, and Decimator explains what happened, and Grimlord snarks about how an Ice cream truck with a flat tire can elude his mutants.

Back at the lab JB, and Kaitlin are still fixing everything, and JB explains that he backed up everything on some discs that he taped under her desk at the Underground Voice Daily so she goes, and gets them while at Tyler’s secret lab machines are repairing Dark Heart but Air Striker finds the secret lab.

Then at the Underground Voice Daily Woody asks Kaitlin why she hasn’t had a story in a week, and she explains she has a personal problem.

Then Percy comes in with the photos he took of the mutant he accidentally summoned but Jeb opens the door to the dark room on him while Kaitlin gets the disks, and tells Woody she has a new story but Percy overhears, and decides to follow her.

While at Tyler’s secret lab Dark Heart is repaired but Air Striker opens fire on the secret lab so Ryan, and Dark Heart escape.

Then Air Striker contacts Grimlord who orders a ground search for Ryan, and Dark Heart to make sure they’re both destroyed.

Then after a comedy bit where Kaitlin sees Percy following her so Jeb decides to get out of the car, and distract him the lab is fixed, and JB brings the lab, and the Professor back online, and the Professor tells them to see if they can find Ryan.

Ryan, and Dark Heart run into Slice who attacks them with a knife but Ryan destroys him with Lighting Hand.

So Grimlord orders an aerial assault while mutants fire on Ryan, and Dark Heart on the ground but JB , and Kaitlin are able to contact Ryan, and after to waiting for the transformation commands to work again transform to help him by piloting the Skybase, and destroying Air Striker, and Fighterbot.

But Ryan, and Dark Heart are still being fired upon by the ground mutants so they split up while Dark Heart fires lasers at the mutants.

Then Decimator informs Grimlord that Ryan, and Dark Heart are trying to get into the dungeon, but Grimlord decides to set a trap for them.

Then we see Dark Heart sneaking into Grimlord’s dungeon through an underground tunnel while Ryan finds a reality break by a cave, and enters that way but Percy spots him, and follows.

Ryan reunites with Dark Heart, and they both invade Grimlord’s dungeon but no one is there but then Grimlord appears, and rigs the dungeon to fill up with toxic gas.

Then Grimlord sprouts tentacles which grab, and electrocute Ryan but Dark Heart shoots them with his laser so Grimlord fires his own lasers at both of them.

Then Grimlord disappears so Ryan, and Dark Heart try to escape but reach a dead end, and their attempts to break are futile but they survive the destruction of the dungeon anyway, and escape through one of Grimlord’s portals.

While all of this has been happening Percy tries to escape from Grimlord’s dungeon, and finds Jeb who helps him escape.

Ryan, and Dark Heart then appear on the surface but Grimlord’s mutants are ready, and fire on them so Ryan, and Dark Heart go back to the portal, and Ryan uses the portal’s guns to destroy the ground mutants while Dark Heart destroys Air Striker, and Fighterbot with his rifle.

But Decimator appears, and slashes Dark Heart, and tries to do the same to Ryan but Dark Heart blocks Decimator’s sword with his rifle but Decimator stabs Dark Heart making Ryan angry enough to beat up Decimator who then leaves.

Ryan transforms back, and finds Dark Heart who’s dying from the wound but thanks to kid show logic it just turns him back into Tyler Steele, and Ryan hugs his dad but he disappears, and Grimlord reveals he’s still alive, and that he abducted Ryan’s father again, but Ryan is just more determined to rescue his father for good.

At Tao dojo Ryan practices the last karate move his father taught him a move he explains he hasn’t done since his father disappeared.

Then JB, and Kaitlin show up, they all talk about what Grimlord could be doing to his father like turning him back into Dark Heart or a different mutant or Grimlord making another fake Dark Heart.

(which I’m guessing is Doug Sloan throwing potential story ideas for later episodes at us.)

Then after all this time we finally get our “I miss you dad” moment”

Final Thoughts.

I’ll start by saying that I stand by what I said about this being my favorite episode of Season One.

It’s not my favorite episode of the show itself that would be Quest for Power but that’s in Season Two

I love how we finally learn what happened to Ryan’s father.

I liked how it started out like a regular episode until the big revelation that Dark Heart was Ryan’s father.

I liked the interaction between Ryan and his father both as David Carr as Tyler Steele, and as Richard Epcar dubbing footage of Top Gunder from Metalder since it was nice to see Ryan being reunited with his father.

I also thought Dark Heart was a cool character with his design, and his laser rifle, I liked how he was almost a Fourth Trooper in a sense.

It also more or less captured everything I liked about VR Troopers, and how it adapted the Metal Hero shows.

The reason is, and I’m going to give spoilers for both Spielban, and Metalder here but long story short in Metalder Dark Heart’s counterpart Top Gunder was just a regular MOTD who’s life Metalder spared, and later became a good guy himself.

In fact it wasn’t all just one great big multi part episode like it was here there was just the episode where Top Gunder was the MOTD then he made various brief appearances in various episodes, and then he showed up in the final story arc, and they just cobbled the parts where Top Gunder showed up in.

The thing is too that was actually a very common plot in Metalder in fact Top Gunder wasn’t even the first time that happened in Metalder that honor goes to Ben K who became our Hammerbot who I previously talked about in Grimlord’s Challenge, and Save the Trees.

Though there was a sub plot later in the show where Metalder’s human friend’s father was brainwashed into becoming a bad guy but that got turned into Who’s King of the Mountain so I’ll until then to talk about it.

Also in Spielban Dr. Bio who became our Col Icebot who ironically was also voiced by Richard Epcar turned out to really be Spielban’s father who was brainwashed, and transformed into a bad guy.

I also liked Percy’s sub plot of him trying to get pictures of the Troopers, and the mutants.

I also thought a lot of stuff like Grimlord sarcastically thanking his mutants for Ryan, and Dark Heart’s bonding moment at the end of part two, and pointing out that his mutants can’t seem to catch an Ice cream truck with a flat tire was pretty funny.

Now was it perfect?

Not really but even then a lot of it is nitpicks.

JB, and Kaitlin spend whole episodes untransformed.

The stuff with JB, Kaitlin, and Percy being trapped in Grimlord’s dungeon, and the comedy bit with Percy in the tree, the Skug battle in part two and two of the parts where Percy is running through Grimlord’s dungeon all feel like they could have been removed without hurting anything.

Other than that definitely a must see.

Tune in next time everyone for more Magic Happy VR Troopers Reviews.