It's A Real Time For Celebrating-ing

this is it.

bonding moment.

the first episode starts with their discharge from the hospital. on his way out, shiro notices a familiar figure in one of the hospital rooms, sitting on the bed with his head that’s wrapped in a dozen bandages facing the window, face unseen. however, shiro thinks it’s just his imagination and tries not to dwell a lot on it and swallows his hope. he needs to stay strong for the universe, for “him”, just for a little longer.

lance asks allura out in the first episode, and she accepts. the klance sunset scene still happens the way it did. but when they go out on the actual date, she tells him that she doesn’t think a romantic relationship between them will work out, that she does care about him and cherish him, but only as a dear friend, and not in the same way he cares about her. she rejects him softly and gently, tells him that he’s a great guy and that many would be lucky to have him. it’s just that she can’t see her and his future together playing out well, and that maintaining their relationship as friends would be much better for both of them. she also tells him that he deserves someone who’d love him and cherish him the same way he would for them, a person with a heart full of kindness and love like lance’s. tells him that that person already exists, and that lance knows who they are without her specifying anybody. she thanks him for always being a good friend to her, and hugs him tight. lance accepts her rejection with no hard feelings, yes, he’s a little heartbroken, be he somehow feels relieved. relieved that he has realized that he doesn’t need to be in a romantic relationship to have others care about him and value him strongly and love him for who he is. relieved to still have allura as a friend, and relieved that she was honest with him, and that he didn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to. he just wants her to be happy. they spend the rest of the night hanging out, and lance is content.

the next day when keith sees lance, he asks him how the date went. lance smiles bittersweetly and tells him that it didn’t work out. he still feels heartbroken a little, but not at all as bad as he thought he’d be, and will feel better in a couple days. keith’s eyes become gentle, and he puts his hand on lance’s shoulder to show his support and smiles softly. he tells him that he will find happiness one day, and that he will be there for him all the way if he needs any support. that he is there for him now in case he needs some comfort. lance smiles and tells him that some sort of distraction right now would be great, so they go racing down the mountain on hoverbikes. lance feels much better afterwards.

lance still provides allura with emotional support like always, and she’s so grateful for that.

shiro gets a new prosthetic arm (this time a normal one) and it glows like the old one, though it also leaves a trail of sparkles when he swings it. romelle suggested that, and, well, shiro kinda likes it if he’s honest with himself. it also has the sky symbol of the black lion on the bicep which keith insisted on adding, since shiro will always be the rightful leader of voltron and the best of them. lance seconds that and tells shiro that he’ll always be his role model and his hero. and yes, shiro is still part of team voltron and goes on missions with them, along with krolia. he also dyes his hair black. when he looks himself in the mirror and sighs “god this looks so much better on me” allura glares at him and asks him if he has a problem with white hair. she glares daggers at him for the next five solid minutes he fumbles to find words. keith saves his ass and tells her that black happens to be shiro’s favorite hair color and that he has nothing against her white hair. allura doesn’t look convinced though.

the small, intimate, private talk between lance and keith still happens, though lance is worried about what lies ahead in the final battle, and if all of them will make it out, and even when he feels that he’s grown a lot since their journey started, he worries that he still might not have what it takes to ensure everybody’s safety. keith reassures him that it will all work out fine because they have lance on the team, and tells him that they’ll always have each other’s back and protect each other, and that he’d never let anything harm anyone on the team. lance laughs softly and points out how keith has changed a lot since the beginning too, and they spend time reminiscing about the past and how far they’ve come. they clasp hands, but it lingers longer than necessary as neither of them attempts to let go that quickly.

there has been also another thing on lance’s mind… but he doesn’t tell keith that because it revolves around keith himself.

before they all go to space again, the team takes allura, romelle, and coran to an amusement park. the alteans have the time of their lives. allura breaks the high striker strongman game. she looks so proud of herself, and everybody’s impressed, but not really surprised.

i have no idea what the plot was or who they fought or what happened outside of character interactions this season because i didn’t watch the past two, but during one of their battles, lance uses his altean broadsword. he conjures it to strike someone aiming for shiro’s back, and keith stops mid-battle to just. gape. he would’ve had his ass handed to him again if lance didn’t turn his bayard into a riffle again and accurately shot whoever was aiming for keith. lance smirks and teases him: “cat got your tongue, keith? never seen a handsome sharpshooter who’s also a swordsman in your life?” and he winks. keith’s flustered for just a second before he smiles softly and tells him while they resume fighting: “yes, lance. you’re the first handsome sharpshooter swordsman i’ve seen.” allura is heard giggling somewhere from behind them while chopping off some dicks with her battle ax bayard and krolia shouts “good one, son” while judo-flipping some guy and breaking his neck. lance just stays silent, and when keith looks over to him, his face is hidden, and lance just mumbles “let’s just get this over with.” keith and lance fight with their swords back to back.

lance unlocks his own voltron bayard upgrade, which is a cannon on each of voltron’s shoulders - one shoots magma, while the other shoots a freeze ray.

when they go to haggar/honerva to stop her from whatever she’s doing, they meet lotor trying to do the same. everyone is shocked to see him back, especially allura. hunk places his hand on her shoulder. lotor tries to ignore them, to not look at them, and focuses on defeating haggar. they’re fighting somewhere near a neutron star like the one keith and krolia orbited on a space whale. the imbalance in the threads of space-time lets them see some of the horrid memories lotor went through because of zarkon. and since haggar is trying to open a portal to jump to other realities or whatever, they got to see how other realities are like, where zarkon and his family are not zombies thirsting after quintessence - where they’re a normal family. this, however, is hard for lotor to see. he’s about to charge at haggar in anger and frustration when allura grabs his arm and tells him not to, that he wouldn’t be able to defeat her alone. long story short, allura finds a way to defeat her, though a sacrifice on her part must be made, since she holds all the magic.

so, in order for allura to let haggar and lotor die in peace and return to the realm of the dead, she sacrifices her altean alchemy knowledge and her marks of the chosen. she won’t be able to use magic anymore, and all her knowledge of altean alchemy would disappear, along with the lions’ connection to her life force. so she gives that up, and while doing that, she rises to the sky and shines like an actual angel, light that appears both plain white and vividly colorful emitting from every inch of her. the lions are heard roaring, letting go of their connection to her. the light then starts to morph into the shape of a white lion above her. her eyes glow a bright, beautiful turquoise, and when she looks down at haggar and lotor, the white lion charges at them with its fangs fully exposed, but instead of attacking them, it passes right through them, and they’re flooded with light surrounding them from all sides. before their souls disappear into sparkles, lotor and allura lock eyes, and they smile gently, and both honerva and lotor thank her. before the light fades out, alfor appears semi-transparently, and tells allura that he’s the proudest father in the universe. with that, the universe is saved.

they go back to earth to rest for a couple days after all of this. with her magic gone, the pink in allura’s eyes disappears, and they become just turquoise (that’s like, to physically showcase that she lost her magic). romelle, hunk, and lance assure her that she’s still as beautiful as ever. since the connection between the lions and her life force is gone, so is her bond to blue. she goes to her to tell her how grateful and honored she feels that she’s got to pilot her, and that she’ll never forget that experience. blue keeps purring softly at allura. lance is with her, keeping a respectful distance for some private chat between her and blue, glad to see that both of his beautiful girls are safe, happy, and doing fine.

the night they return from space, after he and allura return back from where blue was and have dinner with everyone, with lance sitting next to keith like always, lance goes to see shiro before bed. lance tells shiro that he’s always liked keith, and that he wants to start something with him, but he’s afraid that it’s still too soon and that he’s rushing things, especially that he got over allura just awhile ago and should probably wait a while longer before he starts confessing romantic feelings to anybody again. he knows that keith cares about him, because it shows, but he’s… afraid that it might not be in the same way he does. shiro breathes out a soft laugh and places a hand on lance’s shoulder, saying: “keith reciprocating your feelings is the last thing you should worry about. you’ll be surprised when you find out.” lance just stares at him confusedly, and shiro continues “if you need time to put your feelings into words, then take however long you need. keith will be waiting for you. he’s always been.”