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team voltron and aspects of alienation
I've seen aspects of "not-belonging" in analyses of Lance and Keith's characters and I'd like to shed light on how it's a sentiment that's very well nestled in every member of Voltron.
Starting off with the alienation (ha, get it) that is most flesh out in canon, we have Keith. From the very beginning the show, Voltron is divided into three factions: the Alteans, the Garrison trio, and Keith and Shiro. Keith has trouble mingling with the trio due to Lance's harsh front towards him, and has slight trouble mingling with the alteans due to cultural divisions and difference in views. Then he finds out he's half-Galran and Shiro is removed from the equation, which removes him further from the team. He gains a sense of disconnect from the team due to his heritage, his lack of bonds, and his belief that he's a failure of a leader.
Lance's disassociation from the team is more subtle. It comes from his views of inferiority and the idea that he doesn't contribute to Voltron. Unlike Keith, his sense of alienation comes more from what he does rather than who he is. He doesn't believe himself to be skilled enough, and when he throws himself into gaining skill, he finds that he's not achieving enough. He finds himself becoming more and more irrelevant as time passes, as if he is blending into the background.
The divide between Allura and the team is a storyline that we were robbed of. It's so plainly laid out for the writers to pursue- the cultural differences between Alteans and humans, the unity the humans feel towards each other that they extend to her in friendship to no avail, as she doesn't understand it. The other paladins will not know the part of the war that she knows. They will not know the loss she knows.
Perhaps she finds comfort in Coran. But even the split between her and Coran may grow as she becomes a paladin and he remains support for Voltron. They're still close and they still care for each other, but the way you fight in a war, the things you see, they can define and shape you. War looks different from different angles. Coran has never been in a pilots seat. Hes never been in the mind meld. And he doesn't need to do these things to have a bond with the people he cares about, but he still may feel the distance in his mind.
Hunk's sense of isolation from the team was also something we were robbed of, but were were also robbed of everything when it comes to Hunk. There is a huge difference in drive and fight when it comes to Hunk versus the rest of the paladins. He is unable to throw himself so deeply into the fight it just- it scares him! And I'm sure it scares everyone else too, but can Hunk see that? He sees the way everyone else stands tall and fights and goes into battle and training every single day, and he doesn't feel made for that. He doesn't want to do that. And it makes him feel guilty for not having the "passion" everyone else does even though his heart is in his actions, but at the same time he constantly feels sick.
Shiro is someone who has been both physically and emotionally distanced from Voltron. His kidnappings have shaped and transformed him- but it's not only that he's changed, Voltron has changed while he's gone too. Shiro has left and come back to an entirely different team filled with people who have changed so much because that's what war does, it changes you. There are months of Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Allura, and Coran that he's missed and years of Keith that he's missed. And they'll welcome him with open arms, but it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't feel like he knows them as well as they know each other.
Lastly, there's Pidge. Pidge is a fundamental anchor of Voltron as she produces so much technology to aid the war effort. She throws herself into her work so much that it consumes her, and this ends up eating away at her connections a little bit. There's also the fact that the technological battle she's fighting to combat Galran interfaces and invention rates is a fight that the rest of the team aren't exactly a part of. They can support her, but ultimately it is only she that can do the work she does. This puts a lot of pressure on her and compels her to do even more. She spends so much time working that she misses so much with the others.
The point I'm trying to make is not that Voltron isn't close or that they aren't a family, but that they themselves might not feel close to the team they love. And it's not a sense of isolation felt by one or two members, but instead by all of them equally. I think that dreamworks could've really worked with this dynamic to show the fact that war can make people grow apart (opposite to how a lot of media shows war bringing people together; both are themes that can be explored). Dreamworks could've also taken this opportunity to let the characters grow as individuals and then come together as an even stronger team.
You see, I find it difficult to believe that Shiro was always meant to be gay because if Coran tried to feed me, I would've folded immediately
i love shy keith but not in the easily flustered way but in the stares-at-you-unnervingly-because-he-doesn't-know-how-to-fill-the-silence way
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!)
a lovely lady asked me to elaborate so i'm back again,,,, voltron the show treats lance's envy and resulting competitiveness as a Cute Funny Haha thing, especially in the beginning seasons as they struggle to figure out how to work together . .
but as someone who's experienced this sort of thing where there's someone in your life that seems to be naturally and effortlessly better than you at something that's Important to you, that you want to be better at yourself, logic tends to go out the window,,, it doesn't matter that you have your own strengths, that you're different ppl with different skills and experiences . . . it simply becomes an all-consuming Skill Issue that's All. Your. Fault.
while i've seen this addressed in fic, the feeling is all to eager to peter out, to be wiped away with a random bonding moment and be replaced with love or respect or admiration-- but . . it's not that simple . . ever . . . no matter how hot this rival is (in fact this just adds salt to the wound). the fun part is that these two attitudes can coexist! for maximum angst!!! the resentment can curdle and rot and fester in the center of your chest WHILE staring in awe, while praising and complimenting them.
depending on how your interpret canon, lance spent 0.5 - 1 year in the fighter pilot program after keith left (and Only because he left) where he was canonically periodically reminded by that Bitch that lance, no matter how well he performed, would never be able to live up to keith, piloting prodigy . . he was just casually near-daily told he would always be second-best at one of the things most important to him in the world . . . even logically dissecting that iverson's words were purposefully hateful, unconstructive, and Should be disregarded, doesn't mean that kinda of treatment, that kind of rhetoric, wouldn't become deeply internalized within lance, no matter how calmly and logically he thought about it. the killer, in the end, is that iverson was simply repeating lance's intrusive thoughts back to him Out Loud, and framing it as The Truth. no matter how much lance comes to like and admire keith as a person and not just a Prodigy, that shit will take a long time and a Lot of work to unroot from his thought patterns.
and then there comes keith's perspective . . oh my dear boy, keith, certain things just come easy to him yk? but that's no big deal; who likes flying and martial arts and rather dislikes sitting still,,, so does a lot of the former to avoid the latter.
keith who's been abandoned, isolated, and socially ostracized basically all his life . . who watches lance walk in a room and light it up with laughter every single time; lance, who has a loving family who he talks about and misses, and misses, and misses; who miss him back; who has a wonderful, living mother who's laughing with lance on his lockscreen . . .
keith who's had this secret, implicit belief all his life that there's something wrong with him, something unnamable and terrible that drives everyone away from him, eventually. watches lance attract people like a magnet wherever he goes.
who watches the friendliest, most socially adept and intelligent person he knows recoil from him time and time again. who always has a charming flirt or a kind, reassuring word for everyone on the castleship . . except keith. who sneers and argues and insults and competes with his every attempt to make some sort of connection; the poisonous, wriggling thought squeezes into keith's mind again and again, tinged with a paranoia he's carried close to his heart since forever, that lance knows, that he was able to sense whatever it was Wrong with keith and that he was, disgusted. so he takes that bone-deep fear and points it outward, like a knife.
mayhamps i will write a fic 🫠
klance can be so toxic, they can be SOOO TOXIC and it's so delicious bc their insecurities are exactly equal and Opposite, they want to be each other sooo bad, the other's very existence is like a persistent thumb digging into a bruise if not an Open Wound, there is so much space for resentment, SO MUCH space for resentment and miscommunication and emotional stuntedness and misunderstandings . . . klance nation serve this up please 🙏🙏🙏
i'm talking abt Brutus by The Buttress level of envy btw
klance can be so toxic, they can be SOOO TOXIC and it's so delicious bc their insecurities are exactly equal and Opposite, they want to be each other sooo bad, the other's very existence is like a persistent thumb digging into a bruise if not an Open Wound, there is so much space for resentment, SO MUCH space for resentment and miscommunication and emotional stuntedness and misunderstandings . . . klance nation serve this up please 🙏🙏🙏
idk if i have enough reach for this, but i consistently have rare-ish opinions so if any of y'all wanna send me a ship or character (mostly from hp, voltron, or bnha, but go wild) i'll serve up my most controversial take on them :3
klance can be so toxic, they can be SOOO TOXIC and it's so delicious bc their insecurities are exactly equal and Opposite, they want to be each other sooo bad, the other's very existence is like a persistent thumb digging into a bruise if not an Open Wound, there is so much space for resentment, SO MUCH space for resentment and miscommunication and emotional stuntedness and misunderstandings . . . klance nation serve this up please 🙏🙏🙏
Sometimes you gotta lord your tiny height difference over your sworn rival. I miss early seasons klance.
did you at least kiss the brick before you threw it at my head
canon klance is rly good food for miserable people (me). they both definitely loved each other at some point but there's no guarantee those timelines ever crossed. they were teenagers in the middle of an intergalactic war. almost all they knew was that they felt something towards each other, and the easiest way to deal with it was invent hatred between them. they spat in each other's faces and then turned around and uttered praise in thr softest voices imaginable. they sat in front of a sunset and talked about how much they cared for one another, and then never really spoke again. lance's first love dies and he never gets over it. who the hell knows what keith got up to. the war ends and they still don't know what to do about one another. their lines cross over and over and over again but they never stay intertwined. does anyone have a gun
You are loved.
For Lance’s birthday week, prompt “Friends” and “Comfort”.
the struggle ...