#rifflesthinks

Adam is able to convince Shiro to sit out the Kerberos mission (or it never happens?). Meaning, Keith never gets kicked out, Pidge would probably join the Garrison under her own name, and Lance would stay in cargo class. All is going swell, until Shiro’s disease starts to get worse. This fucks Keith up, who starts verbally and physically lashing out- but only to the extent of a suspension or less, not an expulsion. Lance, being the kind-hearted boy he is, decides to set aside his rivalry and reach out to his classmate who’s obviously hurting. Over time, Keith let's him in and they become friends. After Lance has humanized Keith in his mind, his inferiority complex is no more and he's able to graduate to pilot class. There, they loop in Hunk and Pidge and become a tight-knit group.

Still, Shiro is getting worse and worse. After a bad bout that ends him in the hospital, Keith starts feeling something pulling him- the blue lion. He takes the gang with him to investigate ("wow my best friends are all conspiracy theorists" - Lance, probably) and they find the blue lion, and they're taken to the castle like in show. now it's time to form voltron but... there's no Shiro. Keith goes for Red, Pidge Green, Hunk Yellow, and now that Lance has been able to really settle in as a pilot in the Garrison without the need to compare himself to others, he's able to step into Black. Allura takes Blue. From here, Voltron continues pretty much as normal, but the found family trope is Founding More Family (basically it's better, they're more connected, etc). Lance gets to be the great leader I know he can be, no crazy lion swapping needs occur, galra ass gets kicked, and of course, Klance gets to be canon king.

and okay i'm not killing Shiro off I just don't know how to solve that whole Problem. maybe some alien tech/magic can help him (that could be a whole keith sideplot? trying to find one thing in the galaxy that could save his brother?). Also adashi stays together!

lance mclain's loverboy jams - mainly current pop, with a sprinkling of throwbacks, r&b, and indie. full of love songs and confidence boosters. he'll listen to this while dancing, doing his skincare, thinking about Keith... but yeah i imagine he's very much the kind of guy to sing everything out loud (relatable)

keith kogane's emo starter pack - almost all upbeat punk/pop punk/rock. think MCR, FOB, Paramore, with a few other randoms thrown in. big themes of abandomnent (damn), being a dickhead teenager, and hating everything. very few love/longing songs that he doesn't let anyone else hear...until Lance goes through his entire playlist.

keith and lance's compromise playlist - the two listen to this when they hangout, and it's a fair mix of both of their tastes with some songs that meet in between. an eyebrow raising amount of them are love themed, but they don't talk about that.

The gang going to space, all with their phones onhand. Lance and Hunk are freaking out about not being able to text their families, Pidge being like “okay I can’t fix that but I can keep our phones from dying”, and concocting some janked up chargers. Now their phones are all basically memory/time capsules. They all use them to look at and take photos (Lance especially), watch the TikTok’s and movies they have saved, and all of them abuse the hell out of their pre downloaded playlists.

Lance rants to Keith that he’s missing new music releases on earth (“new Sabrina! New Chappell! By this time there’s probably even new Rihanna!”) and Keith kind of just shrugs and looks confused because the majority of his music taste is from the 2000s anyway. Keith offers to share his music with Lance so he at least has variety and at first Lance is like “oh yeah…this is something…” (while hating it) but then realizes that the Paramore that did “Ain’t It Fun” is the same Paramore that did Riot! And then he actually gets into it. In turn, he shares his music with Keith who is even more hesitant, but finds himself surprisingly drawn to the Olivia Rodrigo’s more rock leaning songs.