#save like Lance and Shiro

[ivorygotnobars]

Everyone: We gotta figure out how to save Allura from Zarkon!

Keith: Hey, I got an idea, what if we-don't.

[sapphicchako]

*Coughs* Voltron and Star Trek: Voyager.

I love them so much.

[cushfuddled]

DUDE DUDE DUDE THANK YOU! All your meta on Viktor makes me so happy.

Viktor can be closed off and callous, but what kills me is that he doesn't mean to come across that way. I think a lot of his comments look snide on paper, but are spoken with genuine care. Like their meeting from S1E2:

JAYCE: Who are you anyway? VIKTOR: I'm assistant to the Dean of the Academy—who it may serve you to remember is also head of the Council. He sent me here to ensure that anything dangerous is removed safely. Which, according to my list, includes you. JAYCE: What? How am I dangerous?! VIKTOR: That's for the council to decide.

In my memory, Viktor delivered these lines with a cavalier tone, like, "I'm the ASSISTANT to the HEAD OF THE COUNCIL who's gonna KICK YOUR ASS, rich boy." But look at Viktor's expressions as he delivers these lines!

"I'm assistant to the Dean of the Academy—who it may serve you to remember is also head of the Council. He sent me here to ensure that anything dangerous is removed safely. Which, according to my list, includes you."

There's maybe a tiny flicker of amusement as he reminds Jayce of his place, but I don't think that's Viktor relishing Jayce's plight. To me, these expressions are more contemplative with a tinge of surprise. Less like "haha, look at this dumb rich boy suffer consequences for the first time!" and more like "haha, this kid's got spunk!" He's not put off by Jayce's naive pigheadedness; he's fascinated by Jayce's work and endeared by his outbursts. He relates to Jayce's frustrations and his fighting spirit.

In other words, Viktor may not mean to reprimand Jayce so much as alert him to the gravity of his circumstances. The translation goes, "Don't underestimate the power of the forces you're up against. I'm here as a representative to the Council, which means 1. you're a threat to the oligarchy, and 2. as a man of my position, you can trust me when I say you need to take this situation very, very seriously."

And then look at Victor's face when he says, "That's for the council to decide."

There's no contempt or schadenfreude here. Viktor looks so SAD. To my eyes, this is the face of a man who's seen Jayce's rebuttal to a plea for caution, and knows Jayce won't be able to disguise his passion at the trial. This bright spark will be extinguished under the heel of the oligarchy, and that inspires a regretful tone, not a haughty one.

But again, the words themselves would lead anyone to believe Viktor spoke with derision. And I think this mismatch applies to a lot of Viktor's interactions with Jayce and Sky. Again, I remembered Viktor being aloof and snarky when he saved Jayce, but the reality was much less black and white. On rewatch, Viktor wasn't the pillar of snark from my memory. He seemed out of his depth.

"Am I interrupting?" no longer feels like snark, but a misfire. I don't think Viktor has a lot of experience with giving or receiving comfort, and I suspect his first instinct—even when faced with a scenario as dire as a man on a ledge—was to reach for something light and quippy to diffuse the tension. The "a bit egotistical" comment falls into this category for me too, especially with the way Viktor's eyes dart around as he delivers the line (and how Jayce's offense seems to catch him off guard).

VIKTOR: ...Every page, I might add. Eh, a little egotistical, don't you think?

JAYCE: Is that why you came? To insult me? VIKTOR: [Fervently] No, no.

VIKTOR: I was intrigued by what you said at the trial. JAYCE: [Shooting Viktor down again] That makes you the only one. VIKTOR: Yes, well, I wanted to talk about your work.

The awkwardness of Viktor's "...Yes, well," reads like course correction. If there's exasperation here, I think it's coming from a desire to reach Jayce, coupled with the terrifying knowledge that his failure could spell Jayce's death. He's tried to diffuse the situation, and now he's had to switch tactics; he'll convince Jayce to stay on the merits of his work. Except Jayce anticipates ill-intent and reacts defensively. From Viktor's POV he must feel like he's only pushing Jayce farther and farther away, and there's a desperation leaking into Viktor's expression as he says, "Yes, well, I wanted to talk about your work. This Hextech theory of yours."

Viktor steps closer and closer towards Jayce. But Jayce takes the peace offer as an insult. He's angry, convinced Viktor came here to antagonize him. "It's not a theory!"

But then Jayce gives Viktor an in: "You have no idea how beautiful it is. And now it's gone. No one believed me."

Here, Viktor gives up all pretense of detachment. He steps out of the shadows and joins Jayce in the revealing light of the ledge. He meets Jayce where he's at, and his vulnerability ("Nobody's ever believed in me. A poor cripple from the undercity. I was an outsider the moment I stepped foot in Piltover") is what allows Jayce to finally shift his perception of Viktor from a bully (here to pour salt in his wounds) to a comrade in arms (here to help him achieve his dream).

In general, Viktor strikes me as an autistic man...

with a passion for his work (cough special interest cough) so intense it can make it seem like he doesn't care about other people/being included/recognition/his own health

who sometimes misses key social cues (like when Sky offers to walk him home) and struggles to follow the "right" social scripts, with his flat affect and cut-to-the-chase approach often causing him to come across as detached or mean when he's really neither of those things

Viktor doesn't feel safe enough to show vulnerability very often, which also contributes to that aura of aloofness. He's absolutely got a sense of humor, and I think he can be snarky. Sometimes Viktor even defaults to snark and banter as a buffer between himself and his emotions. Big emotions have always frightened and frustrated Viktor on so many levels.

*whispers* Viktor never once says anything mean or belittling to Jayce after they become partners. Not one insulting "you" statement, not one disagreement where he doesn't remained focused on the point of contention. He never makes ad hominem attacks, he never insults Jayce's appearance or intelligence.

Literally the single meanest thing he says to Jayce that could be considered a "you" statement is "Your mind has become rigid." Basically, he's saying that Jayce has suffered so much recently that it's closed his mind to broader intellectual possibilities like, that is barely an insult, and clearly Viktor just means it as a statement of fact, if not a challenge for Jayce to joyously consider possibilities again. And by the way? That statement is when Viktor is in his full his villain arc. It's remarkable because it's the only time he's pointed out a perceived flaw in Jayce since the night when he questioned if Jayce signed his notes out of being egotistical.

From the moment Jayce told Viktor about how beautiful magic could be, arguably once Jayce became a person to Viktor rather than a subject of academic discipline or skepticism, Viktor has not once leveled a personal attack against him as a person. Not even during the fight on the bridge. Not even when he called Jayce's Councilor work a waste of our time. Not even when Jayce was considering making Hextech weapons, Viktor still remained focused on the substance of the argument, expressed incredulity, anger, even disgust that Jayce would consider making weapons, but he never said it was because Jayce was stupid or privileged or blind. He pointed out specifically that he knew Jayce felt trapped by the decision, he knew Jayce was being manipulated, and then, in a very pointed manner, Viktor reminded Jayce that there's always a choice, challenging Jayce to stand firm and do what was right.

Even when they parted ways in 2.02, Viktor didn't say there was anything wrong with Jayce. He just said their paths had diverged, again not saying anything was wrong with Jayce, or even his choices, but rather that they're two different people who had stayed together longer than their diverging goals normally would have allowed because of the affection they held for each other.

I don't know, I get why people write Viktor as catty or mean or dismissive of Jayce. There's definitely some quotes from the day they met, before they become partners, that lend to the idea that Viktor can be quite dry and sharp with others. And conflict is the stuff of good fiction so again, totally get putting some conflict between him and Jayce in fic.

But I also think there's a tendency in derivative works like fic to Flanderize the characters, or worse, put them into narrow archetype boxes that are vastly different from their more interesting and nuanced canon selves.

How many times have we seen a wiggly man/straight man or blue vs. red personality partnership duo? How often have we seen those partners not be able to fucking stand each other, who are bickering all the time, who are snide or backtalk, or are perpetually sarcastic?

It's so common that I get why people see it with Jayce and Viktor but that's why it's so damn fascinating to me that they aren't like that.

Jayce and Viktor don't suffer each other unwillingly at any point, even when they're having a goddamn flying superhero fight in the final episode they're talking about how they're happy to see each other and praying that the other will please step away from this destructive path! They don't want to hurt each other, even verbally!

During the years of their partnership, they're constantly delighted by the other's presence, they are instantly comfortable together and never have a bad word to say to or about each other. They actually don't bicker! When they have disagreements, they stay entirely focused on the point of the disagreement and they never dip into personal attacks of any kind.

Even the tone of the time Jayce yells at him on the bridge, arguably their most acrimonious moment in the whole first season, isn't an actual argument, no more than a parent yelling at their child for running into traffic is an argument. Jayce says awful things but it's clear his anger comes from fear for Viktor and for their precarious situation. And it's clear this is a deeply unusual moment for both of them, Viktor is taken aback at how unusual it is, Jayce once called out backs down immediately, arguably because it's so unnatural for them to fight at all that it takes the wind out of the sails of Jayce's anger instantly when he realizes he's crossed a line.

No one can drag a bad word about Viktor out of Jayce, and vice versa! When Singed implies that Viktor might lose loved ones over his choices, Viktor immediately (and correctly!) states that Jayce will understand.

They are rigorously protective of one another too. Arguably all the times Viktor excludes Jayce from his Hexcore experiments in S1 is to protect him from his reckless and likely illegal experiments (as well as not wanting Jayce to stop him and wanting to live, but it can be many things). Jayce constantly cites Viktor as his partner and constantly reiterates that Viktor is his priority in life, that saving Viktor comes first. Jayce overthrows the goddamn founder of the city in order to protect Viktor!

Jayce's love for Viktor is so extreme that literally in S2, the only person who can convince Jayce to hurt Viktor, after seeing the post-apocalyptic Hell of a future that is caused by him, is Viktor himself. Jayce doesn't even get mad at Viktor after he learns Viktor is the cause of what he saw! He is instead desperate to get back, to avert the damage caused by their joint work in Hextech, and saved Viktor from the fate worse than death that is Mage Viktor's total isolation in the aftermath. And every step of the way, even knowing what he knows it's clear he's in agony at the thought of having to raise a hand to Viktor at all.

Now of course I'm getting into just how insane their love for one another gets in S2, but I just feel so baffled sometimes reading fic where Viktor is constantly undercutting, insulting, or belittling Jayce every which way. He never once does that after the partnership begins. And it makes me so insane because we have so many partnerships in media that do devolve into sarcasm, cattiness, and backbiting but Jayce and Viktor aren't one of them and that's really really fucking interesting and worthy of exploration I think.

[not-an-outfitrepeatr-a-cartoon]

Rewatching Voltron- could you IMAGINE the kind of hell that would have been the Garrison if Pidge and Keith were able to meet? Everyone else was normal before Voltron, Shiro worked as a regular Space pilot, Lance was trying to sneak out and talk to girls, and Hunk was trying to sneak out and pull Lance back and get him to behave.

Pidge and Keith on rhe other hand? Katie gets banned from the Garrison and probably put on a government watch list after breaking in and stealing government secrets, so she runs away and creates a FAKE IDENTITY strong enough to fool a STRICT GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION so she could hack into radio stations, discovering aliens and rhe rest of the plot long before anyone else on earth. The first time we meet Keith is when he's blowing up random shit (those explosions were MASSIVE what) to break into a sketchy, heavily guarded government facility single handedly, fully planning on taking out every opponent in his way on his own, and save Shiro. And the only thing we know about Keith before this is that he got kicked out the Garrison for shit like this.

If Keith was never expelled, and he and Pidge met, (and she told him that there was a cover up involving Shiro) nobody would know peace. And nobody would be able to prove it was them.

[cateyeswrites]

it's always insane to remember how much the writers hated Lance

lance professors talked so abusively to him

he never got to confront them

they gave him his best friend blue to just snatch her away

they made him switch lions by having blue reject him

he never connected with red

Keith abandoned him after they had connected and made Lance feel like shit because he already felt like the 7th wheel keith leaving to make space for him did NOT help

they never talked about this

he had no real pot arc after season 1

his friends froze him out of their trio

no one bated an eye at shiro screaming at him

he got replaced by matt real quick

oh yeah HE DIED

no one ever knew or talked about it

he was alluras second choice

allura died and MADE HIM ALTEAN?

he almost died again and his lion didn't even save him

He threw away all his dreams, was consumed by grief, and became a farmer never able to move on from the pain and no one AGAIN bated an eye.

[bluemantics]

When he looks in the mirror, sometimes Keith searches for Shiro. He tilts his head, eyes tracing his nose, his hair, wondering if blinking hard enough will change things. It never does. 

Keith knows it’s stupid— Shiro isn’t actually his brother. It’s just difficult for him to watch that empty seat in the dining room, hard for him to hear the deafening gaps in conversation Shiro would fill. 

So he looks, and he tries. When Allura approaches him to strategize, his mind races to Shiro’s normal responses. If Pidge seems to work harder than normal, he lectures her, ignoring her muttered “isn’t that rich, from you.” Hunk cooks and Keith remarks on how delicious it tastes, thanks him for feeding the team. All of this leads to stares. 

Nothing is seamless anymore, not even waking up. He has to walk by Shiro’s room every day. One time, he stepped foot inside, and left immediately after. Shiro’s walls closed in and suffocated him, pressured him. It still feels wrong to be occupying any space where his echoes ring out. 

Black is no different. She reminds him that she knows, she knows he is not Shiro, tries to comfort him with soothing pulses. Yet all he can see when he looks through her eyes is someone who is smaller, angrier, and vulnerable. He can’t get comfortable in his seat. Keith never envisioned himself at the helm of anything, much less the team designed to save the whole universe. When he’s alone, and thinks of it too much, a gap between his ribs aches. 

This team might be destined to save the universe, but Keith Kogane was never destined to lead it. 

The worst times are when he forgets. He lets himself feel eased, laughs with the team like it’s natural, issues orders without deliberation or second guessing. In those instances, guilt weighs on him like a thundercloud. How could he have felt so familiar in someone else’s role? Keith quickly retreats, reminds himself of his place. Not the helm; he’s the stand-in. 

All this self-loathing would be so much easier if it weren’t for Lance, badgering him constantly. Day in and day out, his new “right hand” constantly pushes him. 

“Join us for dinner or I won’t participate in tomorrow’s training exercises.”

“Team movie night! Your turn to choose.”

“Are you sure that’s the right plan? I’ve been thinking—“

It’s fucking annoying when he’s thinking, but it’s all Lance seems to do. He offers up opinions constantly without being asked, shows up to meetings between Keith and Allura, knocks on his door after difficult missions. Keith can’t remember doing any of this when he was supposedly Shiro’s right hand. 

“Why are you always on my tail, Lance?” Keith demands after a particular comment. 

“Because you need it.”

Lance has a new confidence when he speaks, a bravado that doesn’t need flowery words. His voice is sure. 

Keith knows he’s right. Part of him secretly relishes Lance’s feedback, uses his presence as a crutch. Another part of him is ashamed to rely on anyone at all. Shiro stood tall as a lone watchdog over them and barely needed help from anyone, much less the mess that was Keith. It makes him doubt his older brother’s judgement in choosing him for Black. 

He’s exhausted from questioning himself, his brother, his teammates. At night, he tosses and turns, and every time he tries to train, Lance stops him—or worse—joins him. Keith has a looser grip on his sword and his words at night. Control slipping, he worries he will say the wrong thing as Lance takes him down with newfound skill that only time and practice bring. 

“Since when did you get good at this?” Keith heaves from the ground, chest rising and falling quickly. Lance stands over him, smiling widely with pride. 

“Since you needed a new sparring partner.”

Keith notices Lance doing this a lot lately, anticipating everyone’s needs. Suddenly, Lance wraps Pidge in blankets, tells Hunk not to worry about a broken gadget, and comforts the Alteans by listening to their stories. 

With a pang, Keith realizes something: Lance is a better leader. The whole team probably knows it by now. Effortlessly, Lance fills new shoes without so much as a complaint, while Keith flounders trying to shove his square-shaped self into a circular opening. 

When Shiro comes back, Keith doesn’t even register the differences between This Shiro and His Shiro. He grew up with nothing, so he isn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Instead, he did what he’d been itching to do since he first stepped in Black. 

Keith ran away.

When he’s alone in his quarters at the Blade, he looks in mirrors. He searches for traces of Lance and sees none. Hands cold and stiff, he covers the looking glass with a sheet, unwilling to stare back at an unworthy face.

[angstandhappiness]

BAH HAH

consider the following- Altean! Lance taking the bomb for Coran like he does in canon. Only Coran is now actively furious and wants to pummel some galra punks( cause let's face it the only reason he wasn't up in arms was because it was a Pidge episode)

ok so I hc Alteans are a lot sturdier than they look (like coran just had to take a min breath then was up and running, same with allura, they’re tough)

if imagining the scenario of Altean!Lance pushing Human!Coran out of the way of the explosion, then this comes to mind-

he’s still damn ticked off

[sukisheadlights]

hey there!!! could you make headcanons for all the Voltron guys for when they realize that (she/her) reader is like actually someone they could date/ end up with? like they get turned on by something she did or something like that? you don't have to but thanks for reading anyway </3

Voltron Paladins realizing Reader is someone they could end up with!

req: yes words: 873 pairing: voltron x reader content: fluff a/n: I was actually planning on writing something similar so thanks for the ask anon! <3

Keith

Keith isn’t interested in love (until he realizes he can date you) BUT FOR THE MOMENT HE’S NOT!

Both of you are still determining when you got close as well. You protected him once in battle, and since then, you’ve just stuck together.

And he of course protects you when he can because he's grateful you saved his life.

So you guys became friends,,, that was news to Lance btw.

Slowly you let each other into your lives, and now you train together often.

You were never ‘better’ than him at fighting (you actually just made yourself lose sometimes) and Keith sometimes ‘lost’ to make you just a little happy (little did he know hehe)

But today? Oh, you weren’t playing that’s for sure. He was super confused at first, then he was impressed, and then he was turned on. Which is fair because you looked straight out of a magazine, the ‘hot’ sweaty and perfectly messy hair.

When did you get so hot?

And boom. He felt he was on earth again because realization hit him like a TRAIN.

You were his age, and you were hot, and you could totally be a thing. And wtf is wrong with Keith? He's never thought of you like this.

Yeah, so that’s that.

And then he gets all awkward around you, and you guys haven't had a training session together since then. He always conveniently has something to do when you try to ask him.

Goddamnit.

Lance

You’ve been friends with him since the good old garrison days.

You grew to like the dork’s presence

You’ve always known he’s flirty, that’s just Lance.

Getting you flowers (sometimes), flirting with you in the hallways, and even when you’re fighting with the galra.

You always rolled your eyes, scoffed at him, or brushed him off but today?

Violence

You were so ready to mess with him too

You woke up with mischief on your mind

And mischief you created

BECAUSE BECAUSE BECAUSE

OK SO

Lance was flirting with you while fighting the galra

And he expected you to react normally but nooooo

You flirted back

AND THEN YOU WINK AT HIM

SHOOT A GALRA SOLDIER

AND LEAVE !???!!?!!!?!?!?!!?!?

Lance MALFUNCTIONS

Like lance.exe has STOPPED working

DECEASED

Keith’s snickering in the background! (And Shiro too but he won’t admit that, for Lance’s sake)

“Shut it.” is all Lance says for like 10 minutes

You’re hot, He’s hot, and you guys could end up together

You’re a woman now

And you could have him ENTIRELY at his knees.

Hunk

Hunk misses earth

So much

He stops talking as much and wanders around the castle

He didn't think anyone noticed

But you did

And you felt SO bad for him

So when you stop at the mall to get teleduv lenses you seek away

And get the closest possible ingredients to make his favorite treat

Ice cream sandwiches (real)

You’re testing weird white heavy cream adjacent substances and so much more all for him

You might get sick

Oh well

You sneak back and he gives you a weird “Where were you?” look,

But you just ignore

And then you slave away in the kitchen and finally end up with something that’s ice cream sandwich adjacent 

“What’re you making?”

“Ice cream sandwiches”

“Oh for the team? You should have let me help”

“No”

Confused hunk

“It’s just for us” and you hold up an ice cream sandwich for him

His face LIGHTS up and he gladly accepts it

Then you guys sit on the floor and just talk about life and how both of you feel

All night.

It's freaking adorable

He realises how much he adores you, and how he absolutely loves you and all of your little quirks

It doesn’t even matter when the ice cream starts melting, he’d much rather focus on you and talk. Only occasionally taking bites when you do

Pidge

Pidge always knew you were datable

And an amazing person

But she started falling for you when the paladins were trying to tell her to not go find Matt

You stepped in a stood up for her, gaining Shiro’s support.

And then when she was ready to leave she saw you putting your stuff into your lion

“You don’t think I’ll leave you alone, do you?”

She knows it’s because someone will need to be there for her in case Matt is gone

But she doesn’t complain

It’s a silent brewing of love and appreciation

And she’s so grateful to have you in her life

Shiro

When Keith was confused and stuck without Shiro, you stepped up and found him

He was surprised at first

But you took care of him and helped him out as he got better

You were there for him to lean on. Always.

Literally and figuratively 

His appreciation turned into adoration and then his adoration turned into pure, genuine love

Once he was fully healthy again

He’d try to pay it back to you

By protecting you when you went against any threats

ESPECIALLY when you were out of your lion

And then it just becomes a thing where you protect each other

It’s adorable

He loves you and he protects you

And vice versa

Adorable, I say.

[catsushinyakajima]

Voltron characters as algebraic expressions/distributions:

PIDGE: the binomial distribution

Binomial distributions display probabilities for a set number of binary trials (only two choices) within an experiment. I feel like this represents her because of her experimental nature as well as the two choices she was faced with in s1: saving the universe or leaving to save matt and her dad.

LANCE: sine function

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WAVES!! Bro is smooth and bro swings both ways. Also, a sine wave is a periodic function, meaning it repeats the same pattern again and again. This can represent how while Lance is moving forward, he feels like is isn't growing or isn't more, but is rather stuck, bouncing between highs and lows.

KEITH: cosecant function

cosecant functions are the reciprocals of sin function (csc=1/sin), so this shows how Keith "reflects" or mirrors Lance. Additionally, the periods of csc functions start at positive or negative infinity and then stray towards the origin, but never quite reach it. This represents how Keith is so far away, and how everytime he comes back he leaves again, and how "home" always feels out of reach for him (csc function approaches horizontal asymptote but never truly gets there)

ALLURA: exponential function

The exponential function starts at an infintessimally small value that is nearly zero, and then rises drastically. The "flatter" values of the graph represent her comatose, and the sudden increase of values reflect her increased power, fight, and drive. It continues to increase forever, which I think can represent her death in canon. She transcends a barrier that the others cannot reach.

CORAN: uniform distribution

MY BOY Coran is the most unwavering support ever. The key aspect of a uniform distribution is that it is always the same value wherever it exists. It doesn't change or shift, just like how Coran has always, ALWAYS been able to constantly be there for the team and the universe.

HUNK: step function

While canon does him dirty, Hunk rises in both confidence and skill throughout the show. He's very methodic and is also a backbone to the team, which is why I gave him a function that's broken so evenly and is still rising. He is the type of character who climbs up. Also, I first used step functions in an engineering class!

SHIRO: hyperbolic function

OMG YALL ALR KNOW!! Not all hyperbolic functions map this way fyi, but THESE particular ones are sooooo Shiro. There is two parts of the graph, one positive and one negative. They never touch but they mirror each other identically and they're mapped by the same function. This represents Kuron and Shiro. They're both made from the same DNA, appear identical, but they have different minds and goals (the same way both parts of this function approach different values as x approaches infinity!)

[weezmancer3]

Galran Keith hcs

I like to think that as Galran's genetics get diluted, the animal they correspond with just gets smaller. Like, since Keith is only half-galra, he has behaviors similar to a bobcat while Krolia and Kolivan have big cat traits.

Like, bobcats are awesome at climbing so Keith is always on top of things he shouldn't be on top of. Also, they don't roar, they scream/yowl, and hiss. AND, unlike big cats, bobcats can purr! Keith has definitely been on a mission with the blades where he gets frustrated and just...yowls. And it makes so much sense for him to hiss when Lance starts getting on his nerves.

His galran traits freak out the paladins/alteans a bit (save for Shiro, he's seen worse) but the blades think they're adorable. Bc, imagine you're Kolivan (completely galran/big cat traits) and there's this scrawny new kid who hisses when he gets pissed.

That's it for now, I love galran Keith. <333

[emotionalsupportgoblin420]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO FINISH IT 😭😭😭

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THEY'RE FUCKING WITH US

PLEASE SAY THIS IS A JOKE

[still--kicking]

got any good fic recs?

oh boy, do i

My favorite lovebug fic is antidote by ardenrabbit, it's an angsty spin on the lovebug trope where Keith feels physical pain when he's not in contact with Lance and I love that level of angst

If you haven't read there, nestled against his pulse yet YOU GOTTA this fic is THE klance soulmate fic it's so fucking good it makes me cry every single time and that's all I'm gonna say

Echo my heart is another incredible soulmate fic, it's a college au where Lance is mute and communicated with sign language and texting / a white board and Keith is grumpy and doesn't believe in soulmates because of course he doesn't. This one is so precious I absolutely adore it

Like a second heart is a post canon fic where Lance and Keith are married, but Lance loses about five years of memories and we get to watch him fall in love with Keith again :') another one that makes me cry. Allura also lives in this one <3

Suspended momentum is another post canon fic where Shiro gets all the paladins to come teach at the garrison for a semester and oh no Keith and Lance have to be roommates because of limited staff housing !!! Bummer !!!

Poor boys and pilgrims is a fucking masterpiece, it follows Keith in the quantum abyss seeing visions of himself in three alternate realities where he falls in love with Lance each time. This one has the in canon universe, a mermaid/pirate au, a coffeeshop au, and a cyberpunk/android au SirCumference popped OFF with this

By the same author, back to the wall is a rock climbing gym au that follows Keith and Lance in their 20s navigating chronic illness and as a chronically ill girlie this fic is so special to me

Picket fence in a yard of stars takes place immediately after the battle of naxzela, where canon Keith gets swapped with a version of himself from another reality where he and Lance are married and have adopted two children. It's PEAK I love this fic so much

Lion at my side is a bodyguard au, Lance is a popstar Keith is his bodyguard and it's immaculate absolutely chefs kiss

Like the night falling is an astronomy grad student au and it included illustrations from the author, I absolutely recommend anything and everything they've written but this one is so sweet

Love me twice, save me thrice is a fey au where Lance is a fey and Keith is half fey half human and it's better than any published fey stories I've read

Anyway I should probably stop but these are all pretty long and I think mostly rated T-M so if you want a part 2 with shorter fics / one shots or less explicit ones lmk and I am happy to provide!!! And if you read any of these please let me know what you think, I'd love to talk about them !!!

[squeakyleftsneaker]

Some Style, Shit Substance: A Very Voltron Postmortem

A tale of squandered potential, and the necessity of multiple drafts.

For the past 3 weeks and change, I have been consumed by watching and taking copious notes on the 2016-18 reboot of Voltron, Voltron: Legendary Defender. This has been a truly baffling journey for me, I won't lie. Having some familiarity with older incarnations of Voltron I went in with a few expectations. That said, fairly immediately upon seeing the first episode, I realized it wouldn't be appropriate to view this show through that lens. Instead, I decided to take it for what it is.

In retrospect I kind of wish I hadn't. Because maybe I would have some residual fondness still for the original shenanigans. But still.

In the spirit of fairness, of experiencing a reboot through new eyes, and because I do not have the time to do an exhaustive and detailed rewatch of all other incarnations of Voltron for this purpose, I will, however, still be taking this show in isolation. I think that's only fair, and I won't be summarizing the show in any detail here either because, well, I'm worried about the length of this as is already. I will be going into this show from the granular to the very broadest of strokes, so obviously spoiler warning for all of this goes without saying.

The myriad issues with this reboot have somewhat ruined my life. I have been consumed by What If thanks to this show. I am haunted by this show. I wish I could tell you it was bad in a boring way. And it is at times. But it is also bad in several very interesting ways to me and so I cannot let this go. I am a dog with a bone. Or just boo boo the fool. I took all those notes and I want to do something with them. Dear reader, I have written so many words about this show without any order and the lack of order and cohesion rocks me to my core. So enough preamble, let's get into it.

It is very important to me to note that some of these characters lack last names.

Something like this seems a rather small quibble to open on. After all, the fandom assigned them some last names anyway, why should we be bothered by Hunk, Lance, and Keith never getting last names? And I think you'd be right to question the methods to my madness, this is a very small place to start, but I think it's a very illustrative place to open this show up.

Three out of the five characters from Earth that are at least nominally the protagonists of this show lack something so biographically simple as a last name. To me, in another context, an oversight I could forgive, I suppose. But you have to wonder, when Hunk and Lance's families are shown, when Lance's sister becomes a named and somewhat central character later in the show, why wouldn't you slip it in?

This is such a no brainer. When you're giving side characters who will only briefly appear, such as the MFE pilots Ryan Kinkade, Ina Leifsdottir, Nadia Rizavi, and James Griffin, full names, to not do so for your protagonists is just an odd oversight.

There's character details that simply don't make sense from moment to moment to moment. But the main thing that bugs me is that the characters, simply put, don't speak to each other. Whenever we see them during downtime, they're apart from each other. We're not watching a plucky group of upstart humans whisked into space with an alien princess to become friends and save the universe. We're watching a main cast with a level of civility comparable to coworkers in different divisions of a big corporation. These guys do not know each other.

Think I'm joking? Try to think of them hanging out. Just hanging out in the background of a shot, spending time together, chatting, anything, really. Or even better, when one character is missing, what happens?

Well you get your first real taste of the utter lack of bonding just two seasons and a bit of change in. Shiro dies, and not one character has a real moment that we saw on-screen to reminisce about with him. Not one. Keith goes away to the Blade of Marmalade and no one really says they miss him, nothing really changes in the team dynamic. Allura dies at the end of the show and we see the characters reminiscing and, well, you guessed it! It's not personal!

These people are not even friends, let alone a found family.

These people are strangers to each other, and to us! We don't know what they like to do, beyond Hunk being of course made to Love Food to the point where the show almost forgets that he's supposed to be a mechanic until they need someone to argue with Pidge.

I couldn't tell you what Shiro likes to do. I couldn't tell you much about Lance's background beyond "He has a big family. He's future-Cuban." I can't tell you anything about Hunk beyond "He's scared, he likes food, and he's a cheap tool for mean-spirited physical comedy for the writers." Pidge is Smart and Always Right. We know about Keith's backstory because he and Shiro share that much as a central focal point for the show until the show forgets about it (and put a pin in that, dear reader, we'll get there).

And lest I be accused of being a relentless hater, I'm being hard on it here because the show itself has a really great example of an interpersonal relationship done right. At least for most of it. From the outset of the first episode we know Keith and Shiro are friends from before all of this. We see them interacting in the background, we see how they interact with each other is different to how they interact with the other characters!

Moreover, the way their relationship evolves throughout the show has bearing on the actual story being told! Shiro's willingness to blow through an alliance with the Blade of Marmora for Keith, Keith's no-holds-barred determination to save Shiro, the way the story has them evolve from a more imbalanced relationship to ultimately becoming equals when they fall together at the cloning facility. It matters for the story that these two are the way they are, and the plot changes their relationship to each other.

And then the show threw all the goodwill from that away in the final two seasons where they effectively do not speak. So we don't even get to see any ultimate culmination of what that all meant for six seasons. And even worse, there's no other paladins that interact with each other. So here we are, by the time we reach season seven, none of the paladins talk to each other anymore.

It's why the romances in the show feel so cheap. There's no consistent characterization, there's just a bullet point or two for what each character Does. In terms of character, we have no character.

This makes a plausible romance for any of these characters really fucking difficult to write. They just don't talk to each other! We see them in meetings, I guess, where we as viewers are getting valuable exposition about the plot that has happened offscreen (and I will get to that, but we're starting on a foundational level), but nothing really outside of it.

The romances in this show are, frankly, messy. Lance will do a total 180 in scenes whenever they need him to, going from a bit goofy to wildly insecure to someone speaking like he's been pulled out of a fourth-rate self published poetry collection, just so they can have Allura seem attracted to him.

Unfortunately it also just makes him deeply, deeply boring.

Allura is flattened down for the plot. She simply must fall for Lotor, and instead of doing so in a believable fashion, her rougher edges are softened away off-screen. Her trust is not earned, it is instead simply placed in Lotor by the writers. Lotor, a character who we simply never have reason to trust because there is no effort to make him trustworthy. They'll show us his childhood, and yes, this could make him sympathetic, but at no point could a viewer truly believe he wouldn't betray the paladins.

As much as he used Allura in the narrative, the writers used her more. Flattened out, shrunk down, and ultimately, I think the worst part is that she wasn't the only one.

A collection of odd and counterproductive choices are made here.

There's any number of decisions made in this plot that are, overall, baffling. For me the most obvious choice would be having Allura pilot the red one once Shiro dies. They establish Allura to being a more instinctive pilot than the others, they establish that she and Keith have a lot in common– and they're both emotionally driven. They establish that it was her father's lion.

And then they have her pilot the blue lion. The blue lion which was kept on earth and is being piloted by the everyman character. The blue lion which is supposed to be an emotional foundation. But Allura doesn't necessarily fill that role in the team! She pushes back against Keith's leadership, rightfully, she fulfills a narrative role that is to push the team, she's impulsive, she's taking actions that are more aligned with how the show itself describes the red lion and Lance is, within the limited degree to which they remember to keep him consistent, in a much more supportive role to the team still.

We're splitting the most human (to us) character from the most human lion! The one with the connection to Earth! Our point of entry into space in the exact same way Lance is our point of entry into this world! We're putting Allura in a role that's not aligned with what she actually does! Why?

It could be an interesting subversion of the trope if they did something with it but they just don't. At no point is that interrogated. You'll see this keep coming up over and over again. And I remain firmly convinced that had this show had more time in development, someone would've come up with this very solution. Time and time again, you see moments that could've been more impactful had she been in the red lion due to her personal connection to it.

There's other odd instances where characters are put at odds with what we know of them. One interesting one for me was making Keith a massive hypocrite and doing nothing with it. Keith who screws everything over to go get Shiro tells Pidge off for going scorched earth for her loved ones. Why? Will they address this tension? Nope!

At the same time they position him as the one who needs to open up and stop fighting with Lance in spite of the fact that to him, Lance is effectively a stranger and Lance is the one who instigates every time. The show also seemingly forgets about this antagonism when convenient but will bring it back every now and then for cheap comedy.

It's fine to have shifting dynamics! But we don't see them shift at all! One moment it's one thing the next it's the other and we still don't feel like these characters are anything other than strangers to each other.

Shiro tells the paladins to spend time with their loved ones before the Atlas launches in season 8. Keith is completely alone. Shiro is completely alone. Lance and Allura go on a date to meet his family where Lance speaks to her in a way that is entirely unlike anything you could reasonably believe. Allura is softened down to an insecure and uncomfortable girl in need of comfort. They took the dynamic between them of Allura being confident and Lance being flirtatious but ultimately insecure and made it so that Lance is a generic romance man and Allura is just so unsure and meek that she needs him.

With all due disrespect, I'm rolling my eyes.

Speaking of eyerolls we simply need to address the Curtis in the room. Who is he? I don't know! You don't either! We know nothing about this cardboard cutout Shiro marries. I wonder what the divorce rates are in this universe.

I'm sorry, I know this is mean, but I feel rather insulted by the show. They spend a rather considerable amount of time getting Shiro to a point where he seems to be an equal to the paladins rather than forced to be their leader, and then he just doesn't speak to them for the final two seasons.

We spend all this time altering the power dynamic for nothing. We introduce the idea that Shiro had difficulties with a relationship, he felt grounded, he felt the need to push past his limits because others were imposing them on him. I'm not asking for Adam to get back together with him in the end, I think that sort of thing would've been unrealistic– it ended messily and before extremely traumatic events for both of them. That's a soup of bad idea right there. But closure for the two of them wouldn't have been a bad idea.

Well. It wouldn't have been a bad idea for Adam to live full stop. If only they hadn't killed him then maybe they wouldn't feel the need to rush a Happy Gay Wedding for the end credits. Shiro's character arc isn't fulfilled by romance! The show tells us he wanted to be free of expectations placed on him, the show strips him of all meaningful connections he might have, and as he finally gets to a place where both of those things can be fulfilled they shunt him off to the side.

But I guess we get two men kissing on screen? I really don't think I have anything kind to say about the show thinking that that's a substitute for a meaningful queer relationship. But with how they wrote seasons 7 and 8, there was simply nothing else they could have done without major changes.

I really think this show could've used several major changes.

It's just not shaped right, I'm afraid.

In the very first season of the show we get multiple multi-episode story arcs. This is a lot. They're very plot heavy episodes. This means the bulk of the first season is not spent establishing the characters, making them interact and setting the tone and overarching themes of the story through episodic plots.

I cannot overstate how difficult this makes setting up the remainder of the show. We enter season two with fuzzily defined characters, with a plot that is already in motion but not well established, and an utter lack of conventions set by the world.

No wonder there's a slew of exposition in the show. There's so much exposition I complained about it nearly every episode. This is bad for our immersion a lot of the time! Very early in the show we're told about the Balmeras and every detail about them. I cannot even begin to express how impactful that information would've been had it come from interaction.

The show spends a lot of time telling. Which, I thought the point of a show is, well, to show.

This bleeds over from the characters, where we're told they're friends but I struggle to see how they could possibly be when we never see them together. We spend so much time in the Castle of Lions, and I frankly couldn't tell you a personal thing about it! They have to give up the damn castle and we as viewers feel almost nothing because it's just not something we interact with beyond being on the bridge for an exposition dump briefing before an episode. It just robs us of the opportunity to connect.

We spend so much time with side characters in the final seasons of the show the main characters get lost. Because they have the exact same degree of development and depth as the side characters. We fundamentally do not know anything here.

There is a world where this show is shaped right– the first season is getting to know characters. Spend that time on episodic and self-contained adventures! Then give us the big tonal swing for the season 1 finale. Season 2 can stay somewhat similar, I think it really hit a good note there, just cut down on the exposition and definitely let us come to the realization of how Zarkon is tracking them rather than just telling us. Build it up like a horror movie. Give us the big sense of loss when they lose Shiro because we've spent time seeing him interact with other paladins! Then they can relate to Keith.

GIVE ALLURA THE RED LION for fucks sake it's an easy fix! Have Lance work through his feelings of insecurity with reference to Keith without having to step into his shoes! Have Keith come to the realization on his own that once they find Shiro, he'd need to step down.

For fucks sake the clone needs to feel insidious. Don't TELL us he's a clone from the start! Have him interact in ways that are slightly off. Have the characters actually notice, have them miss Keith or even just think about him every now and then when he runs off. Start building trust between Allura and Lance, make us trust Lotor before showing us what he's up to (and maybe explore the idea that Voltron is allying with the heir to the Galra throne). Address the character moments.

Seasons 7 and 8 are beyond rushed. I am fully on board for them doing a hero's cycle return to Earth, but my god they lack structure in both of these seasons. Focus. Focus on your main characters, focus on both the ways in which the Earth has changed but they have too. Let us see more of Lance's family and the ways they relate to him have changed! Let Hunk not be a cheap joke please! Maybe let Keith NoLastName and James Griffin work it out on the remix.

Give Shiro something to do please. Shiro and Keith in the final two seasons are friendless and Shiro gets to do fuckall. Keith is pretty damn useless in the show's finale too. Give them something to do! And please, please, please, remember your ensemble cast needs to interact.

What are we doing here, Bob?

The overarching plot of this show is a bit muddled. Ultimately you can, if you try your best, piece together the semblance of a plot as needed– there is a universal threat from the corruption brought in by the cosmic rift, and it must be fixed.

But that's kind of weird, isn't it? It negates the damages done by Zarkon's empire. It even negates Lotor's colonial impulses. It takes away from the Earth, it takes away from Sendak.

And it takes away from all of that not because it exists, but because it removes the source of their wrongs from their own choices. It removes agency. It cuts down our antagonists! Our antagonists are no longer persons, instead our principal antagonist is. A magical blob of evil from the space between dimensions. A primordial evil. One that robs everything that's come before it of intention.

The pacing is all over the place, not aided by the extensive amounts of exposition in every episode. It's not an unfixable show, but in the ways that the season structures are all off, so too is the thematic undertone of the show.

The show's ultimate conclusion brings us to leave one of the main characters behind, because what does Shiro even do right now. Keith is ultimately pretty useless, and really all of the paladins lack agency, even Allura, because they're following the whims of a magical evil space blob. Great. That's a great way to conclude.

And the show looks at Allura, at the first incarnation where she's not represented as white, at this woman who has lost everything and come out fighting on the other end, at this woman who they made fall for a colonizer, and decides that the best thing she could possibly do for the universe is die.

This Black woman must die to fix the sins of her people, that corrupted the villains. You see, it's really the woman's fault. It was Eve that brought Adam the apple. The show at no point questions that. The show concludes, ultimately, that it is a good thing for a woman to die for this. That's a great note to end your story on, I guess.

The assortment of errors tells a story I cannot endorse

To do something worthy, in Voltron, is to sacrifice yourself. Lance does it. Keith does it. Shiro succeeds at it. The show's conclusion is that Allura can only save the universe through her death. Fatalistic, and I can only hope that theming was unintentional.

But there's another undercurrent that unsettles me in the show, with the status quo of the universe. It's the unquestioning belief that Lotor was doing something right at all. It's the unquestioned reality of hereditary monarchy. It's the unquestioning position of superweapons as a moral necessity.

Voltron is a weapon, made of smaller weapons. Voltron used to be the collection of the powerful. Though the show gestures at Zarkon considering there to be inferiors and superiors, it sure as hell does a fantastic job at reinforcing the notion. The Earth is governed by military authority. The Altean castle is weaponized. There is no Eden for Voltron, there is no peaceful before time. We learn the Alteans are supposedly diplomats and not warriors and yet there is a need for diplomacy as organized by a hereditary monarchy, and a desire to make a superweapon from an unknown material.

I keep emphasizing that Voltron is a superweapon because when Lotor ascends the throne and uses Voltron to his political aims, that should matter! There is an inherent tension with a superweapon being considered a symbol of peace. A tension exacerbated when it aligns itself with the heir to a colonial empire.

A colonial history that the show itself never questions. When the paladins help to fix a shield on a "labor planet" at no point do we think about what the phrase labor planet implies. In episodes where they're trying to rescue the aliens, very little time is spent actually getting to know the aliens. We have little time for sympathy for the colonized.

We see the Voltron show, pure pageantry at the service of ego, juxtaposed with real loss of life, from the Blades, from the rebels memorialized with the phrase "The path to freedom is won through sacrifice." And then there is nothing to indicate those two things are in tension.

We see Honerva corrupt her husband in something that could almost be a parody of Adam and Eve. He is, of course, narratively redeemed in the end in spite of killing countless people, in spite of effectively committing a genocide of the Alteans. Honerva must be fixed by another woman, a woman who can only do the greatest good for the universe by dying.

I am not inclined to be charitable about these decisions.

Does the show realize it's in tension? Does the show realize it is telling us as viewers that the powerful are sympathetic, that we normal people are to be sacrificed, that the military and weapons are an ultimate good, that good and bad are intrinsic to a person and not

I'm not going to shy away from the fact that it leaves a foul taste in my mouth.

Ultimately I don't think any of the more insidious parts were deliberate. We fall back on tropes, on the stereotype, on the language of a genre that has been largely determined by the society that formed it (psst just a hint for this kind of science fiction, that's a lot of white dudes), when we don't watch ourselves. And how can you keep a wary eye on plot, on structure, on the nuances of the politics of the world you're writing, when you're taking three years to put out eight seasons of this show. That's not enough time for a PhD in my field of study! Let alone a long-term science fiction show with a writing team, animation team, etc.

When you rush, you say things you don't intend to. We all are guilty of this. If you think you're not you're probably lying to yourself. This show was so rushed I'm not at all surprised it turned out the way it did.

I'm just disappointed.

For all its flaws this show displays technical proficiency in a lot of areas. The animation is beautiful, they consistently write and animate great fight scenes that make wonderful use of vivid and unique environments. I think that Keith and Shiro as an interpersonal dynamic for the first six seasons of the show is terrifically done in places. I think the fight between them at the cloning facility is probably the peak of the show in writing and animation. Spectacular, heart-wrenching, and serves to bring them to an equal playing field.

Some moments of the show are genuinely funny. The writers have a good grasp on humor when they're not doing mean-spirited physical comedy with Hunk. There's a lot to like about the potential of Voltron. The voice acting and performances are great! I think they got a really lovely cast together and they play off of each other well!

It's just impossible to write something of this scale in three years and have it work out. It's impossible because we need time and space away from our writing to think about what it needs changed. We need to take the time to explore other ideas.

I love science fiction. I will always love science fiction. And this show was made by people who are good at what they do. They just didn't have time.

El flojo trabaja doble. By not drafting over and over again, they made it almost impossible to salvage this show. Take more time, the work in the later seasons to bring about a fulfilling ending would've been achievable.

As it stands the show is a colossal wreck. A tale of a lot potential, a sea of good ideas, and a road to hell paved with good intentions.

[idiashroudshusband]

Echoes in the Dark - Klance / Angst

The world felt wrong.

Lance McClain could sense it before anyone told him, like the wind had stopped breathing, the stars had dimmed, and gravity had shifted. The hangar of the Castle of Lions buzzed with activity as Blades of Marmora operatives disembarked their ships, moving with grim efficiency. But there was no sign of him. No sign of Keith.

"Where’s Keith?" he asked, forcing a laugh as he jogged toward Kolivan, who was speaking in hushed tones to Shiro. "Where is he? He promised he’d be back before the mission debrief."

Kolivan’s head turned slowly, his eyes heavy with a truth that Lance didn’t want.

"Lance," Shiro whispered, his voice low and broken.

Lance’s breath hitched. "No," he said, his smile faltering as he stepped back, his chest tightening with dread. "No. Don’t. Don’t say it."

Shiro took a step forward. "The mission was compromised—"

"Don’t." Lance’s voice cracked, louder this time. "He’s coming back." His heart raced. "Keith always comes back." He always manages to..

Silence.

Kolivan bowed his head. "Keith gave his life to complete the mission. He… saved us all."

"No." The word left Lance’s mouth as a whisper, then again as a growl. "No! He’s not dead. He wouldn’t just—he’s Keith! He doesn’t die!" His hands balled into fists as he glared at Kolivan, chest heaving. "You’re lying! Where is he?"

The Blade of Marmora leader remained silent, his sorrow a quiet weight that said everything.

Lance felt his knees weaken. His mind spun in a blur of memories—Keith’s smirks, his sharp comebacks, the rare smiles when Lance finally got him to laugh. His eyes squeezed shut, as if willing himself to wake from this nightmare.

"I didn’t… I didn’t even say goodbye," he whispered. His voice trembled, breaking into pieces as tears slipped free. "I didn’t get to tell him… how much he mattered. How much I—"

The words hung in the air, unfinished and broken.

Shiro placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder. "He knew. Lance, I promise you—he knew.”

Lance pulled away, shaking his head violently. "It’s not enough!" he shouted. His fists slammed against the nearest wall, his knuckles splitting on impact. The pain barely registered. "I should’ve been there. I should’ve—"

"You couldn’t have stopped him," Shiro said softly. "Keith made his choice. He did what he always does—he makes rash decisions on his own.. He protects people.. He always puts others before himself.."

"I didn’t ask him to protect me!" Lance choked out, tears streaming freely now. "I didn’t want him to be a hero! I just wanted him to stay! I wanted—" His voice collapsed into a broken sob as he slid down the wall, burying his face in his hands.

The room felt too quiet. Even the sounds of the others on the ship, the other members of the Blade of Marmora, all their noises were drowned out. It was too cold. The kind of silence where Keith’s warmth used to live, where his fierce presence had always kept them steady. And now, there was only the hollow space where he used to be.

Lance gripped his chest, the ache unbearable. "He can’t be gone," he whispered. "I didn’t tell him I loved him. I never told him.”

Kolivan stepped forward, placing something in Lance’s trembling hand. A familiar black and purple knife. Keith’s Marmora blade.

Lance clenched it so tightly it cut into his skin, as if holding onto it would somehow pull Keith back.

The stars outside the Castle burned bright, but all Lance could feel was darkness.

Yeah the Klace fans cant be happy and I’m here to contribute to that.

[quantifiableme]

A big part of this argument is talking about the difference between your *main* character and your *favorite* character.

Like Zuko can be your favorite character. Hell, he can even be the more interesting character. However, the main character’s goal and overall arc also reflects the major theme of the story, which in Avatar is about Balance and Responsibility. Zuko understands both of these things inherently, but is shamed out of them by his Father who wants him to be Nationalistic and selfish. Zuko’s arc is to trust the things he already knows to be true IN SPITE of his upbringing.

It’s an awesome character, but the show isn’t about learning to trust yourself. The show is about responsibility.

Aang trusts himself too much, and he skirts out of responsibility. His arc is about embracing his role as the Avatar, and bringing balance to the world. THAT is why he is the main character.

Now let’s talk about Voltron. What is the main theme of Voltron? It’w a giant robot that needs to be manned by five people. It very easily can be a show about working together, cooperation, and the good of the community > the good for the individual.

At the start of the show, Shiro knows this inherently. That’s why he’s the leader, and must teach everyone else.

Keith also knows this, but to an unhealthy degree. He’ll starve himself for the people he is loyal to; easily giving up everything to find Shiro. This is also why the BOM arc is so perfect for him, because it’s essentially a sucicide squad of people who ONLY care about the mission. And they are WRONG. Because the show isn’t about mission > individual. It’s about COMMUNITY > individual, which includes the individual. You can’t help the community when you die, because that is killing a part of the community.

So Keith’s arc is about learning he is apart of something. And to protect that community, he must also take care of and protect himself. Again, this is a great message ESPECIALLY for kids.

But the theme of the show is about learning to put the community above the wants of the individual. Keith is a great foil for this message, but he cannot be the main character because he doesn’t learn this lesson.

You know who does?? LANCE.

Lance’s whole arc is about humility. He is the first to get a Lion because he asks “What if you just knocked”? He is friendly and social, and (like I said before) is the only character with a genuine and individual banter with ALL of the other characters. He’s best friends with Hunk, he’s like a big brother to Pidge, he’s rivals with Keith. Shiro is his role-model, but there are so many funny moments between the two in the beginning still. Even with Coran and Allura, who easily could be pushed to the side, Lance as a character works to bring them back into every scene.

Lance CREATES the community. As the comic relief, he creates opportunities for the other characters to react, and we as the audience get to see them more as people. (Note: this is as a study as a character as a tool in the scene. Lance is an effective tool.)

Lance’s arc as a character is about learning to let his ego go, and become a good second in command to Keith. YES, Keith is still the leader in this story, that’s important to Lance’s character development. Lance needs to humble himself and do what’s good for the team, which is NOT being the Black Paladin.

(Now, I do think a better ending would be to make Lance the Black Paladin later, when it is no longer something cool or fun. Instead, Lance becomes the Black Paladin out of necessity, out of responsibility. When he does not want to, but had to.)

Lance should not date Allura. Allura should reject Lance, and Lance should have to come to terms with that. Allura should not die!! Self-sacrifice is a bad message to teach children!! THAT’S WHY KEITH’S ARC WAS SO COOL!! (Shiro can die, but more as a metaphor that he is no longer needed in the narrative. He is a teacher, and they do not need to be taught. (Also this wouldn’t be “killing your gays” because we make Keith gay (don’t even have to rewrite it) and his whole arc if “You are a part of a community” becomes all that more relevant.)

Anyway, Lance being the main character makes the story better because it *focuses your theme*. Instead the story doesn’t make sense.

as a retrospective, it is a kind of tame cruelty what the writers did with Lance as a character

because I have, and will, talk again about they set him up as the perfect protagonist in the first episode. after the prologue, he’s the first character we hear speak, which is a good writing technique to imply his importance in the story. they perfectly establish his arrogance (main character flaw), and how it effects his actions. (They fail the mission because, although he had the skills to lead the team, he gets cocky and crashes the plane.) after they crash, the drill sargent guy IMMEDIATELY chews him out and brings up how Lance was only there because Keith dropped out.

i’m not saying he has to be your favorite character, but the first five minutes of the episode are like a crash course in how to write a complex protagonist. He’s charming, he’s arrogant but IMMEDIATELY faces the consequences for it, and he’s only arrogant because he’s trying to prove himself to the people around him. That’s nuance! That’s good writing! And all of it is done through Lance’s actions and the consequences of those actions.

(We could also talk about how he is the only character who has a genuine and unique relationship with ALL the other cast members, which also makes him a perfect POV character for an *ensemble show*. That’s why Zuko is the FOIL for Aang, but Aang is the main character.)

On top of this, it worked! Audiences LOVED Lance, and they related to him. He’s insecure and want’s to prove himself, which is a goal a lot more relatable than anyone else’s. The popularity of Langst, or fics where Lance was put through extreme situations to test his perserverence, or have other characters appreciate him more, is a good signal that audiences want more from this character. It’s like the kid that imagines his own funeral to think about how people would miss him. It’s fucked up, but its something a lot of teenagers who feel ignored or under appreciated do. (It’s STRONG EMOTIONS)

So, with the knowledge that this is the audience that relates to this character: teenagers who struggle with identity and validation. Teenagers who feel like they always have to help others, but feel abandoned in the process. Teenagers who struggle with insecurity, but are ultimately ambitious, even though no one sees them as capable. What do you do with this character?

You take away all of his lines, give him a love story with a character who spends the entire show making fun of him, kill her, and then make him a hermit.

[blanceyblance]

A study on Lance's underrated role on the team. Pt 6.

Hunk pt 2

Last time we were talking about how Hunk would usually don't let teasing or hurtful words in moments of stress affect him. That doesn't mean Lance will not jump to his defense too.

In the Journey within, Lance says the famous "just drift out by yourself, Mr. Lone Wolf". At this point Lance had not really made any new kind of jab to Keith, and like we mentioned before he was taking Keith's orders very seriously but then really goes to the yugular in this episode and its only after Keith insults both Allura and Hunk.

There are some other small moments this episode that I wanted to mention.

Like Lance focusing on holding Hunk when they get launched in space.

And how he very much refuses to leave a teammate alone, no matter if that teammate asked them to run. He actually sounds confused by Hunk's request.

Lance's protectiveness can also be seen towards Hunk in the way he refused to harm or fight him even when the later was brainwashed and trying to hurt him. In their fight Lance never actually does more than just push Hunk far from him.

And will also support Hunk when he says no, even when its a direct order from Keith.

Like when Hunk refuses to take Kaltenecker with him and Lance arranges it so he can have nice road trip companions.

It is quite cute how Lance is the first person Hunk shows his shenanigans with the mice.

Overall, while sadly Lance and Hunk didnt have that many significant moments or more development for their friendship, we can see their mutual trust and ease around each other. And how Hunk feels comfortable enough with Lance to follow his plans, seek him for advice and be at the end of Lance's own brand of protectiveness.

As the legs, they work well together, often being paired up in missions and usually being the ones to cover the teams front and back when they go on foot.

Shiro

Starting with Shiro, now we have a curious case in that, sadly, we dont have a lot of moments with Shiro and more with Kuron, but since Lance always thought Kuron was Shiro i'm not going to split them.

In the first episode, one of the first things we are told about Shiro is how he is, in Lance's words "a legend" between pilots and his personal hero.

He expresses bewilderment at the Garrison's treatment of Shiro.

And saving him becomes a proper motivator for them to infiltrate after they discover he is there.

Later, when Shiro thanks them for helping in his rescue, Lance glances for a moment at Shiro's new arm, then smiles softly and follows the handshake.

And lastly, Lance is the one who refers to Shiro as their leader even before Allura assigned him to Black.

These little interactions through the first episode are meant to tell us how much Lance admires Shiro and how high he thinks of him.

This does change how they interact but that doesnt erase the fact that Lance still tries to care for him in his own way.

When they capture Sendak and try to see into their memories the paladins gather around to wait, Shiro being the most interested for obvious reasons but it takes too long and one by one all the paladins start to leave. Coran and Lance being the last ones.

Shiro decides to stay and Lance asks him to let them all know if something happens looking a bit concerned before leaving.

Gonna leave it here but what follows is also quite interesting.

It does make me sad that we dont have as many moments with Shiro and Hunk but what we have it's worth mentioning

[Masterpost] [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]