(SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5) There’s a lot of canon Langst and its unlikely to get better anytime soon: A long and stupid tumblr essay
Who doesn’t love Lance? I know for a fact that I do. However, if you actually consider him and his place in Voltron, you’ll notice that there is a lot of angst surrounding many aspects of him.
No biggie, right? I mean, nearly every character experiences a lot of suffering and angst that is given some level of attention in the show. (except Hunk and Coran, bless their souls) Between Pidge and her family, Allura and her dad/home planet, Lotor and his half Altean, my-dad-banished-me ass, Keith’s entire existance, and Shiro definitely being a clone as well as his apparent PTSD, there’s edgy backstories for miles - and Lance is no exception. Then what is this post about, you ask…
Well, to put it simply, unlike the others, Lance’s situation is not getting better. In fact, you could almost say it’s getting worse.
Lets clarify what i mean by getting better - for example, Pidge has found both Matt and Sam, and her angst arc is basically over (for now) because of it.
Allura and Lotor are each recovering from their pasts with each-other’s support. (Lotor killing Zarkon helps with that too)
Keith has found his mom and has come to terms with his Galra bloodlines.
Clone Shiro is becoming aware of himself, and it’s clear that the real Shiro will return at some point. (Lance’s weird astral plane vision is evident of that)
However, if you look at Lance and his arc, you’ll see that it’s clearly on a slippery slope - downhill.
I’ll start at the simplest point: his family. Even though Hunk clearly misses his family too, its on a whole other level for Lance - every time he mentions his family on screen, he tears up. He shows the same level of family attachment that Pidge does, but while the Holts have been reunited and all are safe, Lance knows his family doesn’t even know he’s alive. And even when Sam goes to return to Earth and deliver the messages, it doesn’t make him feel any better, and he actually cries. (Space dust)
Talking about Earth and his family is clearly a sensitive subject for him, and the others know it, but what’s truly sad is that no-one provides him the support he clearly needs a these times, not even Hunk.
I think one of the reasons this happens is because no-one really appreciates Lance. Like it’s mentioned in the show several times, he doesn’t really have a ‘thing’. Shiro is the leader, Allura is the magical princess, Coran is the wacky but wise uncle guy, Pidge is the genius tech wizard, Hunk is the nice guy/mechanic/chef. Even Keith has a thing - he’s the combat pro and bad boy of the group. Lance is a little bit of all of them, but because he doesn’t have a distinctive ‘thing’ he isn’t really considered.
It’s very clear from his attitude that Lance wants to be something other then the comedic relief of Voltron, and he tries to achieve this by becoming the sharpshooter. And even though he is clearly an excellent shot, he receives no praise except off-hand compliments and statements, unlike the others.
Lance is very important to the team, he’s essentially the glue that holds them together, with his uplifting and bubbly personality, but his opinions and inputs are very often ignored or disregarded. He clearly takes criticism and insults to heart due to his very low self esteem, and as seen in the scenes where Shiro apologies for yelling at him and ‘leave the maths to Pidge’ its obvious that whatever was internally disturbing him still bothers him greatly after these interactions.
And from there, we get into a even more complicated mess that is Lance and Keith’s relationship. (And I’m not just talking Klance. Well, maybe a little bit)
This may just be my Klance-biased ass talking, but I feel like out of every member of Voltron, Keith shows his appreciation of Lance the most, especially in season 3, which was a tough time for the both of them. They supported each other to the best of their abilities. However, the story of these two is not a clear cut rivals-to-friends/love interests story.
In the very first episode of the first season, Iverson tells him not to follow in Keith’s footsteps - this was very clear foreshadowing, because as the show goes on, it seems that Lance is not only following his footsteps, but outright walking in them, against his own will.
As stated above, Lance really wants to be his own, unique, valued person. He had that as the Blue Paladin, when he flew the Blue Lion. However, when Shiro disappeared and Blue evicted him, he slowly began to follow after Keith as the new Paladin of the Red Lion. Even though this at the time seemed like a important character development, two seasons later, we can see this is the beginning of something, and that something is probably not good.
Lance begins to parallel Keith even further as season 3, 4 and 5 go on - showing him training alone, like Keith, his bayard being a sword, like Keith, and him getting incredibly skilled when it comes to combat - LIKE KEITH. It seems that unwillingly, Lance is becoming a replacement of Keith - especially in season 5, he didn’t seem as happy. Even in the scenes with the reprogrammed Galra robot, he didn’t seem completely like his over-enthusiastic and completely over the top self from the early seasons. He’s having fun, but not like he used to.
To summarise and conclude this messy jumble of thoughts i call an ‘essay’: I believe the weight of his low self-esteem, being forced into Keith’s place, and being pressured by Shiro and the team are slowly but surely flattening Lance’s spirit, and unlike the others, his angsty situation is not improving.
But it could improve, by fufilling these simple requirements:
- The real Shiro returns.
- Keith comes back from the balcony of marmalade AND STOPS PUSHING EVERYONE AWAY
- The team begins to support and appreciate him, and value him for his talent and skill instead of narrowing him down to ‘the goofball’
But something tells me all these things aren’t going to happen for a while yet, so us Lance stans who just want to see our boy happen may have to wait.