S7E4 “The Feud” analysis [lance’s role as the romantic protagonist; klance]
lance and keith took up most of the time in this episode. lance, however, was the focus of the episode.
let’s look at how the paladins are arranged when they arrived.
allura on the far left, lance in the dead center, and keith on the far right.
the more obvious setup would be: lance, allura, keith, pidge, hunk. that’s how voltron is formed.
lance is in the middle because he is voltron’s main “love heroin.” this role is usually reserved for females. in shows like ATLA and LOK, it’s normally taken by the most compassionate, emotional, fond with animals, and feminine.
that’s one reason for lance’s title: loverboy.
he is naturally more effeminate in body shape (slim, curvy waist, long legs, thin eyebrows, delicate hands). many of his interests are stereotypically female centric - skincare, aerial silks, etc.
he has a love for animals - kaltenecker, space mice, etc.
coran mistakes him for allura - refers to himself as “pretty,” and then gets flustered about it.
and lance, let’s be honest: he is handsome.
allura, lance, and keith are arguably the most traditionally attractive in the show (excluding shiro), so it makes sense for them to have somewhat of a love triangle.
throughout the show - lance has two romance arcs.
allura, and keith. both attractions are prominent at the beginning and introduced early so we can see the progression as time goes on.
allura rejects lance at first, but slowly opens up to him. she gets with lotor, which breaks lance’s heart. after keith leaves the team, he and allura grow closer.
keith is open to lance at first, then slowly closes off to him after lance’s denial of their bonding moment. however, that doesn’t stop them from having moments, in contrast to lance and allura’s one sided crush. keith was a lot more closed off because of lance’s denial, but they grow close during season three.
then keith leaves. lance was very isolated afterwards and was often brushed off by the rest of the team (including allura) - but in season seven with keith’s leadership - he’s more confident in himself because he has keith’s support.
their stories are intertwined, lance at the center of the romance. keith and allura have had some trope-y moments with keith showing no interest at all, and lance and allura have had flirtatious moments where allura shows no interest at all.
in season seven, allura and lance have minimal interactions. lance’s focus this season was on keith, not her. even so, let’s look at some moments they did have.
she approaches him first, not usually the case with their relationship. lance is usually the one to come up to her.
his blushing is because of veronica teasing him. lance defends himself - he outright DENIES her feelings for him - not typical behavior for him.
he’s smiling normally before veronica steps in. he’s had a crush on her since season one, so of course he’d blush.
so, there was a lack of initiative on lance’s part when pursuing allura. that seems odd considering his feelings for her. he literally said “i don’t know what you’re talking about,” and got defensive because of it.
that reminds me of lance denying his feelings for keith, as well. “nope. don’t remember, didn’t happen.”
on keith’s side - he wants to grow closer with lance, but he’s been denied the feelings for so long, combined with his absence at the BOM, that when lance reciprocates, keith is too hesitant to admit that he likes him. he has walls up, remember? he doesn’t want to confess to only be rejected - in his mind, that’s the best solution. he still doesn’t look too happy about it, though. i can’t help but believe keith would be happier in a relationship with lance.
on to parallels with allura, lance, and keith.
these shots are so similar, that i can’t help but believe this was completely intentional. take allura out of the picture, and lance and keith are both facing each other.
lance helps both of them through their insecurities through the show. but the only one who helps lance explicitly in return is keith.
so, keeping in mind that lance is the center of the romance, at the end of “the feud,” we see who lance chooses, after seven seasons of growth and character development alongside keith and allura.
the reason allura, keith, and lance were spread out was so his answer wasn’t influenced by who he was standing around. he was evenly spaced out between his two love interests :
