You know, for all I really love the episode “Crystal Venom” I can’t help but see how rough it was on Lance. And he doesn’t hide it, not one bit. It starts with getting locked in the healing pod, he obviously isn’t very thrilled about that. But we get to see how much it really affected him once he gets out of it:
He’s on an alien ship with fancy advanced tech that just froze him and locked him away. And he’s Lance, he can roll with the punches, but that’s a little much. He’s fine as long as Coran talks to him, but as soon as he leaves he just-
-and runs. He’s still hugging himself when he walks along the halls of the castle before the lights go out:
And I don’t even need to provide screenshots from how freaked out he was when that happens, we all remember that. But while he’s screaming for help there are moments where he looks positively defeated – he genuinely thought he was going to die there:
Once Keith saved him, he just sits like that for a while:
Close to the ground where the wind can’t reach him, legs still in position to run away. Just looking at that I can feel how shaky and weak he must be feeling. And once he meets Pidge and Hunk, he actually legitimately gets angry at them for “floating around” while the castle was trying to kill him. He’s agitated, he’s shaken up, he is fucking done with everything:
But the most important part is probably when they run to Allura after the alarm has sounded. He has reached his limit, he is done, he can’t deal with even more weird stuff that’s trying to kill him. As soon as he catches sight of a pretty much sleepwalking Allura, he hangs back:
No more. Lance loves his friends, he has proven in the exact same episode still that he would run down a haunted hall to save Coran – but that turned out to be a trap, so he’s not taking any chances anymore. He is scared enough that he doesn’t join the other paladins in running forward to help Allura. And once he finally tentatively catches up-
-he’s still in the very back, body turned away, ready to run. Just. I hope he got a lot of sleep after this episode was over, he deserves the rest more than anyone D:
Real talk though, you take every interaction between Lance and Keith and put those same interactions/scenarios on a het couple I guarantee you the same people that said there’s no chemistry there would be the same ones going “Ugh why don’t they just date already.”
seeing a picture of hunk is like getting a thousand hugs from someone i love ,,, so like imagine actually getting hugged by that boy i would probably just combust
consider: lance waking up to a really dark and quiet castle and feeling a familiar sense of dread as he walks around and calls for his missing team.
consider: he turns a corner and hears the faint sound of waves crashing by the shore, but he’s not sure.
consider: he follows the sound and realizes it’s the control room where they initially found coran and allura during their first landing in altea. he walks closer cautiously.
consider: the doors open and everyone in team voltron is there, excitedly greeting him happy birthday with makeshift party poppers and noisemakers. a simulation of varadero beach surrounds them, and lance almost tears up at just the sight of it.
consider: shiro holding a banner saying happy birthday to the best sharpshooter in the universe. pidge and hunk grinning happily despite looking tired from rewiring the simulator all night. allura and coran holding seashell necklaces they made from the shells they managed to barter with in the space mall.
consider: keith holding the cake they all helped hunk make, smiling as he says, “save the ‘i’m older than you’ jokes for later, okay?”
consider: lance not even holding back when he cries and rushes to give his team a group hug, his cheeks hurting from smiling so hard, his laughter a little choked from crying.
reckless & terribly gay 