Mean Girls (2004) Dir. Mark Waters

i support women being weird sexual freaks… people on booktok are just very boring about it

i love him

Wow I just finished reading this and it's amazing! I loved it and I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that the Black Paladin fight was supposed to be about Keith finally accepting Shiro's death and letting him go (I rewatched all of Voltron recently and had the same impression as you basically). Also, thank you for pointing out the foreshadowing for Black Paladin Lance, because I never noticed it and always thought that he was supposed to be always relegated to a supportive role instead... It definitely changed my perspective on it!

Voltron is a Love Story Between Lance and Keith and I Can Prove It

Remember when I posted this?

Well, I bet you thought I was joking, but now I’m gonna put my money where my mouth is.

A few years ago, I made a very shoddily-put-together analysis that I am going to be using the general outline of in the first section of this analysis. I made it kind of in a rush, purely from what I remembered about the show from 7 years ago. There’s a lot I would change about my analysis. First of all, I would spend more time on it, lol. But second, I regret my bad-faith conclusions. I was approaching this idea and the show with some prejudiced opinions about the showrunners, the crew and their ability to tell a story. I regret that now, and I sincerely apologize.

I believe that a good analysis does not dismiss certain choices that the analyst doesn’t like as simply bad writing. I believe that this is a lazy and mean-spirited way of engaging with art. So, I get to do this all over again, removing my previous biases and preconceived notions of what I thought was going on behind the scenes, when in fact I really had no clue, and I am going to try and look at this with fresh, unbiased eyes. I think I made some great points overall, that I am going to add on to here, because on my rewatch I found a LOT more evidence than I initially provided.

It’s gonna take a while, so strap in, get a snack, take breaks if that’s what you need, but we’re gonna do this. I’m going to prove that Voltron is first and foremost about love, but not just any love. Voltron is a love story between Lance and Keith. And I can prove it.

Read More

Ralph Fleck (German, 1951), Stapel 27/VII [Stack 27/VII], 2013. Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.

Lance is such an interesting character to me in part because of how the narrative wants to portray him to the point it becomes contradictory.

His "arc" is supposed to be "cocky and immature teenager grows from his need for glory into a reliable team member"

And he does! He becomes Keith's right hand man, taking charge in battle, covering the team's backs and becoming an emotional support for other members when the time was needed.

But he is also a Comedic Relief™

Other characters have comedic relief moments too, like Hunk's love for food, Pidge's excitement about tech, Keith being socially awkward, etc.

And as aggravating as Hunk's fat jokes can be they don't contradict the fact that he is a brilliant engineer and became a brave paladin. Keith's social awkwardness doesn't contradict the fact that he became a capable leader.

But then you have Pidge and Hunk, making fun of Lance being "naturally dumb", and then a space deity calling him "the dumb one"one moment then following Lance's orders in battle and having him give emotional speeches to others the other.

The writers want us to take him seriously and see he is growing only to make fun of him when its needed for a laugh.

I feel the episode The Grudge is a good example of this:

Lance finds a way to find where they left their Lions.

Hunk and Allura seem impressed but Pidge dismisses it.

That would be the end of it until later when Veronica is talking with "Keith" (actually a hacker pretending to be him) and the says "Lance has it figured out", Veronica then in a sarcastic way says "Lance, the navigation genius".

Keith agrees and that's what clues them about something being wrong.

Is it a joke about Keith being openly nice to Lance? A joke about Lance navigation skills?

Either way, the joke is at his expense, even when early in the episode we see him actually figuring suggesting a way to correctly navigate.

In the end what I'm trying to say is that the writers want to have their cake and eat it too. Showing Lance growing and being capable but also making fun of him and not really having that much respect for his character.

chains

Christie Tseng (VLD character supervisor) did these beautiful cleanups over my silly doodles.. Allura impersonates Lance, Hunk, and Keith!

Original twitter post: https://twitter.com/cteez/status/751879575534129152?s=09

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1997)

Honestly I kind of find the parallels to Alfor to be quite superficial? Like yes, Lance gets the altean broadsword (which, in the end, serves no real purpose), he has a conflicting relationship with Keith/Kuron (who, like you sad, both represent Zarkon in their own way), he loves Allura and eventually gets the same blue altean marks... But then? What was the real reason to make the parallels in the first place? It would make sense if he became New Altea's ruler or Coran's advisor (and thus making a parallel with Keith who is still involved with the Blades and the Galra after the war), or if he inherited Allura's powers, but no, he's a retired and depressed farmer at 20 years old, which makes no sense for his character at all.

I personally believe in the theory that s08 was heavily edited and that a lot of the material involving Lance's character arc was inevitably cut in the end, but still I don't understand what the writers were actually trying to do... And yes, I heard about that cursed "Lance raises baby Allura" concept, thank God they didn't do that.

Not an allurance shipper but always an Allurance defender

But the one thing i can't defend is the writers insisting on the Lance/Alfor parallels specially since they knew (I presume) Allurance was endgame

What was the purpose of that? Why?

Maybe it was for Lauren's cursed idea of bringing Allura back as a baby and have Lance raise her but that honestly makes it like a hundred times worse

that ship is toxic to YOU. to me it's a complex, multi-layered, essay-worthy dynamic that'd take numerous hours to dissect (during which i'll spend crying screaming tearing my hair out)