Do you think there’s more to Lance’s one-sided rivalry with Keith when they were at the Garrison ? Why do you think he started the rivalry ?
ooh, good question.
i definitely think there’s more to their rivalry xD here’s what i think:
first off, i don’t think it started right away. we’ve gotten flashbacks from their very early days at the garrison, all from Keith and Shiro’s perspectives, and based on those, it doesn’t really seem like Lance considered Keith his “rival” yet.
the one interaction we see between them in that scene is Lance warning Keith, in his own ridiculous way, about the consequences of his reckless actions.
both of them, at age ~13 or so, are MUCH less mature than they are now, but still, this is a huge reflection of where they ended up. Keith being impulsive, and Lance being the one to step in and (much more successfully) calm him down.
believe it or not in that interaction, which was probably one of their first, their dynamic was just a early version of their current relationship. they still had a LONG way to go, but Lance then was trying to help Keith out, just like he does now :’’)
Lance isn’t in any other part of those flashbacks. that episode was focused on Keith and Shiro, with a little Hunk/Keith interaction thrown in there, possibly to foreshadow the development they get later on in the season. we see Hunk’s scared reaction to Keith and James’s fight.
but we DON’T SEE LANCE’S.
Lance WAS there, he’s the one farthest over on the left:
but they chose NOT to include him in the fight scene. they included Hunk, but not Lance.
to me, this means that we’re going to get moments of Lance at the garrison in s8, maybe even this scene again but from his perspective. i wouldn’t be surprised if this scene was not only a big moment in Keith’s character arc, but also in Lance’s.
in this scene, Lance definitely didn’t consider Keith his rival. they had yet to be sorted into groups based on their abilities, and were being evaluated by the staff, probably to see where all their individual strengths lay. but i do think that Lance was already a little jealous of Keith’s abilities here, albeit annoyed.
at some point after these flashbacks, Hunk was made an engineer, Keith a fighter pilot, and Lance a cargo pilot. and what was Lance’s biggest dream?
when Lance was made a cargo pilot, he must have been FURIOUS.
but why pick on Keith? easy, he wanted to be just like Keith, the best pilot in their class. he admired him immensely, but obviously didn’t want to say that out loud, he couldn’t even admit it to himself, so he settled on creating their “rivalry.” and what exactly prompted this decision?
well, seeing how Lance was given Keith’s position as a fighter pilot after he got kicked out, i’m guessing that he was next in line for the spot. Keith and Lance may have been competing for the final fighter pilot spot. Keith, although he was the best flyer, had many discipline issues that obviously made the staff wary of making him a fighter pilot. Lance, on the other hand, had less skill, but was seemingly a good student (that we know of).
and as we know, the staff ended up choosing Keith, probably causing Lance to single him out and make them “rivals.”
if this is true, i have no idea. to me that seems like the best explanation based on what we currently know, but i could be completely wrong of course lol.
i do really think that we’ll get the true answer in s8 though. why? because of what we got for everyone else’s flashbacks.
for Pidge, her arc is about family and perseverance. we got flashbacks about her efforts to sneak into the garrison to find Matt, and individual memories she had of him and her that were important to her.
with Hunk, his arc is about bravery and believing in himself. his flashbacks were with his family, and how he started believing in his engineering and mechanic abilities. we also got that one of a younger Hunk at he garrison, looking worried because James and Keith were causing trouble.
with Shiro, we saw how seemingly perfect his life was pre-Kerberos, and how he selflessly helped and mentored Keith. but we saw how even great leaders like him have flaws, and that even Shiro does not have a perfect life, what with Adam and his degenerative disease.
Allura, we haven’t gotten SPECIFIC flashbacks for, and i wouldn’t be surprised if we got more in s8. but we HAVE seen her interact with her father’s hologram in s1, and saw her as a baby, during Coran’s story of the paladins of old. her interactions with her father were about leadership, the premise of her arc.
Keith, we got flashbacks of his infancy with Krolia and his dad. then we learned how Shiro took him in and the influence he had on Keith. Shiro helped him learn to believe in himself, and became the brother he never had.
i guess i’m trying to say that they don’t just stick flashbacks in for no reason. everyone else’s flashbacks were important parts of their stories, and Lance’s will be too. and with Lance, the most important thing to him was being a fighter pilot. so we will definitely learn more about his journey at/leading up to him becoming a fighter pilot, which no doubt will include how Keith fits in and how he started the rivalry.
their stories are intertwined.
Lance’s flashbacks are going to include this, no doubt. there’s no way they would leave this huge plot hole: the storywriters are great, and they definitely haven’t overlooked this, especially since they included information about everyone else’s pasts in great detail.
holy shit i feel like i got so off topic…i tried to answer your question and of course it got more detailed. whoops. 🙄🙄🙄 anyway, i hope this post suffices. have a good day, and KICK. ; )