Shance

Shance is the slash ship between Shiro and Lance from the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom.

Season 1
THE RISE OF VOLTRON

After a failed flight simulation, Lance suggests a “team bonding” exercise. He and Hunk find Pidge outside listening to “alien radio chatter,” when a ship is seen falling through the sky, before crash-landing. All three go to investigate when they notice it’s Shiro who crashed. Upon seeing Shiro, Lance exclaims, ''“That's Shiro! The pilot of the Kerberos Mission! That guy’s my hero!”'' With Lance being “properly motivated,” he thinks of a plan to rescue Shiro. Large explosions go off in the distance, and Pidge uses her binoculars to see a man, deeming the explosions to be a distraction for him. Lance takes notice of it being Keith running for the quarantined tent containing Shiro. Lance runs after him. Once inside the tent, he pushes his way through, saying, ''“Nope. No, you- No, no, no. No, you don't. I'm saving Shiro.”'' With Keith’s help, Lance carries Shiro back to Keith’s hoverbike.

The morning following the rescue, everyone is inside Keith’s shack. Shiro turns to thank Lance, extending his alien prosthetic, saying, “Lance, right?” Lance is hesitant at first to take Shiro’s hand, but soon does so with a smile.

With Hunk having made a “Voltron Geiger Counter,” it isn’t long before the Blue Lion is discovered. As the group is making their way for it, Lance asks of anyone else “gets the feeling it’s staring at them.” Shiro is the only one to tell him, “No.”

The Blue Lion is now with group and they’re spotted a Galra battle ship. Lance manages to fly them out of immediate danger which gains him praise from Shiro, telling him, “Nice job, Lance!” The Blue Lion “feeds” the idea of traveling through a wormhole. As Shiro is the “senior officer,” Lance looks to him for what they should do. Following Shiro’s instruction, the group goes through.

Once on planet Arus, having met Allura and Coran, and then having retrieved the Yellow and Green Lions, Commander Sendak opens a video communication to Allura, threatening he’ll destroy the planet. Allura is quick to remember that the castle has a particle barrier, to which Lance attempts to flirt a bit, but is cut off by Shiro sternly saying his name.

FALL OF THE CASTLE OF LIONS

During a celebration party being held in the castle, an explosion goes off and Lance is severely injured protecting Coran. Shiro and others run where the bomb went off to see Lance and Coran on the floor. Upon seeing Lance, Shiro immediately runs to him, cradling him in his arms. Shiro comments, “He doesn’t look so good…” With the castle down and needing a new crystal and with the Arusian village under attack, the team spits up. Shiro stays back at the castle to tend to Lance. As Shiro is walking with an unconscious Lance, he sees Sendak approaching the castle’s entrance. Shiro tenderly lays Lance down before running out to meet Sendak.

Shiro ends up losing in his fight with Sendak as Sendak’s partner, Haxus, uses Lance: “Let him go, or your friend won’t make it.” With Shiro distracted with Lance’s wellbeing, Sendak hits Shiro, causing him to land next to Lance. They’re then both dragged away to another room.

With the help of their teammates, they’re saved and Lance is placed in a healing pod to fully recover.

Season 2
THE BLADE OF MARMORA

The team travel to the Blade of Marmora’s base with the coordinates given by (former) BoM member Ulaz. They contact the Blades, with them allowing only two people access. As Shiro walks over, Lance asks him who’s going on “this little mission,” as things might get hot, so he’ll need someone who can “stay cool.” Shiro agrees, and then turns his attention to Keith, saying, “Keith, you’re coming with me.” Lance is shocked, and he starts listing reasons why Keith wouldn’t be the right one for the mission, all while getting in Shiro’s face, believing he’s better suited to partner with Shiro. Shiro places both hands on Lance’s shoulders and pushes him back. With that, Shiro and Keith leave for the base.

ESCAPE FROM BETA TRAZ

A plan is created to defeat Zarkon, though there is much preparation that needs to be done first. Lance flies Shiro, along with Pidge, to a fortified prison holding genius inventor Slav. One the way, Lance tells Pidge he’s an “excellent shot,” which as Pidge questioning, “…You are?” Lance tells her, “Yes, it’s my thing!” Pidge loudly tells him, startling Shiro, “Since when?!” Lance ignores this and opens the Blue Lion’s mouth to drop Shiro and her off at the base while he finds a place to land the Lion. Once Lance is inside, he meets up with them and Shiro greet him, ''“Okay, faze two complete. Welcome to Beta Traz.”''

Pidge makes for the control room, with Shiro and Lance looking to her guidance on how to proceed. She tells them they’ll have to hook her up when on the level three floor. With that, Shiro and Lance head for the floor level. They comes across a paroling droid when Lance asks how they’re going to get by him, Shiro doesn’t answer, but merely attacks, leaving Lance smiling, “Good teamwork on that one.” Being on level three, they part ways, giving Pidge access.

Once Lance has the Yupper (believing it to be Slav), he tells the beast, “And Shiro’s our awesome leader!” Remembering how Pidge reacted to him being an “excellent shot,” he starts to question whether or not his “has a thing” like his fellow teammates do.

With Shiro having Slav, the team head for the hangar bay where the warden of the prison attacks them. Slav manages to open the hangar gate, sucking them out into open space, unfortunately Slav is grabbed the warden. Lance aims his rifle, shooting the warden’s arm, releasing Slav from his hold. Shiro looks to Lance, proudly telling him, ''“Nice, Lance! That’s why we bring our sharpshooter!”'' Throughout Lance’s insecurities during the mission, Shiro is the one to make him feel better and feel he’s worthy of being on the team.

Season 1
The Rise of Voltron Fall of the Castle of Lions Taking Flight Crystal Venom
 * Lance describes Shiro as his hero, then later barges in and tells Keith that he's going to be the one to rescue him.
 * After an explosion goes off, Shiro is the first to run and help Lance.
 * Lance starts making siren sounds, Shiro clamps his hand over Lance’s mouth, saying, “Nope, not doing that.”
 * As Lance flirts with Nyma, Shiro elbows him.
 * As Shiro waits for Sendak, Lance stands incredibly close to Shiro, eyeing him.

Season 2
Escape from Beta Traz
 * Lance describes Shiro as “awesome” to the Yupper.

Season 4
The Voltron Show!
 * When a drugged Coran dubs Shiro as “Shiro the Hero,” Lance is seen smiling widely in approval.

Season 5
Postmortem White Lion
 * When the Paladins gain access to the astral plane, Lance is the only one who can communicate with Shiro, albeit briefly.
 * Shiro confides in Lance about how he hasn't been feeling like himself recently. This is enough to make Lance, who had been freaking out over Allura's safety, focus his concern elsewhere.

Season 6
Defender of All Universes
 * When Keith explains that the real Shiro died and was absorbed into the Black Lion while the Shiro among them was a clone, Lance remembers what Shiro tried to tell him in "Postmortem" and breaks down in tears, apologizing for not realizing sooner.

Fanon
Though not as popular as Klance or Sheith, Shance does have a fairly large following in the Voltron fandom. Fans of the ship theorize that Lance’s hero-worship of Shiro is indicative of a crush, one that could possibly become requited love eventually.

The Shance fandom’s favorite phrases are “that’s why we bring our sharpshooter” and “Give love a Shance.”

Since the release of Shiro's Vlog, when Shiro says, “What I do know, this that these heroic men and women… and Lance.” a sparkly-like sound can be heard afterward. Fans have come to believe that Lance is the one filming Shiro and Shiro is acknowledging him.

On AO3, Shance is the third most written ship within the Voltron: Legendary Defender tag; Shiro’s second most written, and Lance’s second most written.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Variations

 * Kurance refers to the ship between Clone!Shiro (Kuron) and Lance
 * Shallurance refers the ship between Allura, Shiro and Lance
 * Shancelot refers the ship between Lotor, Shiro and Lance
 * Shidgance refers the ship between Pidge, Shiro and Lance
 * Shklance refers the ship between Keith, Shiro and Lance
 * Shunce refers the ship between Hunk, Shiro and Lance
 * Shvance refers the ship between Sven, Shiro and Lance

Trivia

 * Shiro’s voice actor, Josh Keaton, was the one to coin the ship name, as well as the phrase “Give love a Shance,” on his Twitter.
 * Shance placed #15 on Tumblr’s Fandometrics ship list on March 5, 2018. (3 days after S5 dropped)
 * The Paladin's Handbook guidebook states that Shiro is 25 and Lance is 17, though there is some doubt as to whether this information is accurate to the canon because the book was not reviewed by executive staff.
 * The show staff previously gave “safety zone” ages of “25” and “late teens” respectively, while agreeing that Shiro is an adult and the other Paladins are not, and Lance’s voice actor estimated Lance was around 16.
 * Official show descriptions describe the Earth paladins as “five teenagers,” placing Shiro as a teenager in contrast to his published age; Josh Keaton grants some insight into the discrepancy by stating that during production of the show as early as the voice actor auditions, the pitch was “five teenagers,” but certain character models ended up looking different than the description, so the writing adapted to the finalized designs. This suggests the book does not take the ages from the original pitch as staff feared and reflects the organic changes they have made, while the official show description is the original pitch that is inaccurate to the canon.