Lance, his sword, and Keith
Hunk and Pidge are team “Punk.” They always do all the techy stuff together and whenever that kind of thing is needed, they’re the go-to people. They fit together as a team seamlessly.
Shiro and Allura are the strategic team. While they won’t be getting along in season 5 by the sounds of it, that’s how they’ve always been. They’re the ones that give the orders, that make decisions. They, too, make a very good team.
Lance and Keith haven’t worked together as seamlessly as the other two groups, mostly because of Lance’s antagonism, but they often times end up together and when they do work as a team, they work phenomenally well together, as leaders, in combat, and in flight.
Which means that the whole time Keith has been gone, Lance has been missing the other half of his “team.” This always takes me back to the episode of Lance playing video games while Hunk, Pidge, and Matt did their thing. He was alone in the dark, not looking too happy, and was left alone again after Allura and Coran didn’t warm up to the milkshake idea. And once again in the clip for season 5, Lance was alone. He was training–something Keith is notorious for–and when he began to lose the upper-hand in close-quarters combat, he had to figure out another way to counterbalance what he was lacking. Thus, we get the sword, which mirrors Keith’s own weapon in the fact that it’s a sword, obviously, but also that it’s the red bayard.
Lance is trying to make up for the space Keith left behind in more ways than one–in combat, in being Shiro’s second in command, in taking up a leadership role. He’s trying to play both parts of his “team.” And while I think it’s awesome that he’s making such strides and even getting new forms to his bayard, it’s also kind of sad.
I dunno, I feel like when his bayard changed, he was probably thinking “what would Keith do here?” Keith is the only swordsman he really has experience watching up close, which means that when he acts, it’s the only example he has to go off of.
I feel like Lance spends a lot of time thinking about Keith, and I don’t mean that in like a shipper way. Like, given Keith and Lance’s interactions throughout the whole show, I really believe that these two both mirror and compliment each other. They’re a team–space ranger partners or whatever. And I’m sure Lance has felt his absence, probably more so than anyone. Shiro and Keith are close, no doubt, but Shiro was able to leave when he needed to (Kerberos). That’s not bad–that’s how sibling relationships work–and he was supportive of Keith when he made the decision to join the Blades, unlike Lance who acted supportive, but was very clearly anxious. Even before they were paladins, Keith’s presence and absence made a huge difference in Lance’s life–this is a running theme in their relationship.
And now Lance is having to fight alone within his “specialty group,” and make up for what’s missing. He’s not Shiro’s righthand man, he’s Keith’s. Even when he was back at the Garrison, Lance was coming in where Keith was gone. Following him, maybe, but carving his own path still, even if both he and Keith were headed in the same direction. Lance is able and willing to take Keith’s place–that’s something we’ve seen multiple times throughout the show–but they’re both at their best when they’re together.
Sometimes it feels like Lance is just… waiting for Keith to come back (that’s literally what he was doing throughout a good chunk of season 4). But Keith just… doesn’t know that. If any of the paladins would just express on a personal level that they wanted him around–not as a necessity, but as a friend and loved one–then I think Keith would be much more likely to stay. Keith goes where he’s needed–where he feels like he’s the most useful, and generally where he’s more solitary, as that’s within his comfort zone. He doesn’t realize that Lance needs him (has kind of… always needed him. These narrative parallels are becoming so repetitive that I could probably write an essay on it at this point. Kinda blows my mind a bit, really, because we just get more and more of them). Lance wants to be valued as a necessary part of the team because he knows he’s valued as a friend/family member, whereas Keith knows he’s valued as a necessary part of the team (or unnecessary when Shiro came back, hence he left), but not as a friend/family member. Keith puts up walls and excludes himself as a defense, whereas Lance shoves himself in as a defense. They’re foils while also having so much in common. And they need each other more than either of them initially realized. I think Lance is probably figuring it out. I just hope that maybe Keith is too.
Kinda makes the whole sword bit rather depressing, really. I’m all for Lance maturing and taking on more leadership roles, but I also hope he doesn’t get too overwelmed with it all. You know, taking on more than he can handle because he feels he has to.
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