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「自古紅藍出 CP 」
Is a saying which basically means "Red & Blue make the perfect couple, ever since the beginning of time" and it's true.
In terms of character and colourisation, red and blue typically stand to be oppose each other, their characters reflect that as well in their personalities. Red and blue characters turn couples tend to also always start off as enemies, or at least some sort of rivalry, before they get to know more about the other and develop the enemies to friends to lovers arc.
Coloration of these traits are usually found in a character's colour scheme, and is especially obvious in Lance and Dot in MASHLE as both their hair and eye colour are of their respective colours, blue and red(amber? Brown? We won’t know because it’s Komoto).
In merch, Dot typically gets the color orange, my point STILL stands because orange and blue are contrasting colours.
(I have no idea how Komoto colours his characters, but the blue and red in their respective characters are especially prominent. That’s because they’re basically these characters color schemes)
Dot Barrett is hot-headed, a bit too cocky, obnoxious and loud for his own good but still a good kid who stands up for what he thinks is right (suffering from main character syndrome/中二病, lol); Lance Crown is cool, a pretty boy character who's powerful and uses this power to help others as the team mom (values his sister above all else, weird but respectable once you understand how close he was to losing the person who he shares unconditional sibling love with. Also it’s in a platonic way so it’s alright (?))
Dot hates all pretty boys (Lance) and Lance despises rude boors (Dot). This sets the stage for the rivalry between the two early on in the story. Purely comical but it becomes much more.
Lance has announced that him and Mash were rivals even earlier on after their fight, but to me, this rivalry is more of a friendly rivalry one sided rivalry than true rivalry, as their rivalry stems from them fighting for the same goal rather than unconditional hatred. He takes care of Mash and the rest of the gang.
Plus, LanDot rivalry seems more mutual, something that needn't be announced and stems from the soul, appearing solely for the fact that they are incompatible, yet in the end they still find a compromise but that might just be my delusions.
Of course, both rivalries have underlying friendship between them, they are still a group of friends after all.
It’s funny how each character in the group gets along with each other individually EXCEPT these two.
Prominent LanDot interactions in the story line would be their first meeting(CH18), baby fight(CH64), training arc(103?), and Endgame fight (122).
But besides these, they've been shown fighting in the background sometimes dumbasses fight in the ED)
SO lets start with the prominent points first
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•Chapter 18
they were being dumb and stupid and declares hatred towards each other.
• Chapter 64. Dot, Lance and how babies are made ( sus title but ok)
During the fight with Sitter Baby, who's basically Alessi's stand Sethan from JJBA pt.3, Sitter deages Dot into an adorable bb. With limited magic as a baby, Dot reluctantly finds Lance for help, in which was can see that Lance is just fucking pissed at Dot for turning into a baby. Thinking that Dot turned into a baby as a prank at a time of love and war and having the audacity to think that Dot is annoying to look at, we know that the loathing is actually very much mutual.
Comparing how he reacts to Dot with how he reacts to Mash, Lemon or Finn when they want his help shows that this dynamic is unique to them.
Dot also comes to realise just how powerful Lance actually is.
This establishes the enemy part in enemies to friends to lovers
• Chapter 103. The Training Arc
Lance wants to get strong for the endgame fight and for his sister, in which Dot follows because why not.
(I'm not sure if Wahlberg especially assigned them to work together or if Lance just went to find Wahlberg for training and Dot came with)
During the training arc, they train under No.1 Mash Bully, Orter Madl, who throws our boys into shadow realm with water for basic sustenance, where they are forced to train together despite each other's dismay. Dot had briefly considered actually working together but Lance being stubborn and self reliant makes it hard, Lance being naturally stronger than Dot, having the whole world on the line of course makes it understandable on why he considers Dot to be dragging him down ( mean, but ok??)
A mini speech from Dot on how he'd die than be a baggage to anyone seems to cause Lance to set aside their differences and actually train together.
Lance still doesn't trust Dot to not drag him down but their bond has still somewhat strengthened in learning how to fight together, a little bit of the friends to lovers bit but mostly still enemies.
Orter sees himself and his junior in them multiple times throughout, I will expand on this later.
• Chapter 114. Entering Endgame
Entering the final arc and deciding who fights who, we get plenty silly interactions and a hint towards who and what caused Anna to lose her magic
Lances fear of ghosts and bugs is revealed when they pass by a floor of bugs. And Dot's bright idea was to headbutt him into a wall🧡
Lance knowing that one of the brothers may be directly responsible to his sisters illness makes him not want to work with Dot, despite their training together, now with his sister directly on the line he'd risk nothing to get his revenge. 3rd brother, Epidermis the pudding cult leader, is the one behind Annas illness and who they fight against. Dot has tea with Epididmus before it was revealed how hes the one behind this. Dot carelessly eats the pudding and has his powers drained. The boys argue:(
• Chapter 122. Ultimate Proof that LanDot is canon
Enemies to friends to lovers speedrun
Lance pushes Dot away more to fully avenge his sister himself, again, his sister is above all else to Lance, hes not risking Dot, the guy that just took a bite of poison pudding so recklessly, to drag him down. He NEEDS to win, NEEDS to beat the fuck out of Epidem.
But to finally be able to confront the person responsible for stealing his only joy of this world from him, he's overwhelmed with anger and unable to summon his thirds, Nemesis. When the condition of his sister is revealed to both Epipen and Dot , Epithelial builds a fake Anna with reference from the pendant, taunts Lance and Dot cant just stand there anymore despite their previous discourse, rushing up from where he stood to steal the Anna pendant back.
"We're friends." And with a slap to Lances face, he stops being stubborn and fights with, then alongside Dot.
Friends, now onto lovers
With Dot having slapped him out of his dumbassery, he summons his thirds in whole, a shit ton of black holes making Epipi intimidated into also summoning his thirds, sailor moon Sisyphus. Having to fight against a machine gun would be hard for most teens, Lance is able to use the black holes to absorb and dodge the bullets but Dot is still a one liner, there's only so much he can hold off. Casting syphilis to end the weaker one (Dot) off,
Lance jumps in front of the finishing blow to protect
Dot
Yes he hates him, despises him even. Loud, crude, Dot is the most annoying person hes ever had the displeasure of meeting.
But
For some reason his body decided to move on its own,
And its up to Dot now to finish it all...
A foolish choice really, letting the weaker one survive? Why?
Seeing his homie sacrifice himself for his sake, Dot goes sicko mode and swears to kill Epidem hundredfold (my boy is so good at maths)
From machine guns to a whole Arsenal, he really just started blasting before Sissy burns into crisp
Dot goes to check on, Lance an emotional questioning of why hed sacrifice himself before Lance tells him to shut the fuck up and that he has Anna pins to protect him. Some mangas got plot armour, we Mashle fans get sister pin armour.
And I'm going to ramble about this scene now and why there's got to be some sort of love
(they also unlock their thirds for each other teehee(๑❛ᴗ❛๑))
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Fellas, is it straight to die for someone you hate?
We've see early on how Lance usually thinks of Anna before taking action, even in battle, and obviously the self sacrifice is a heat in the moment decision.
But I’d like to argue that this means Dot bypassed the Anna protocol. You'd think Anna wouldn't like Lance fighting someone for no reason and would definitely disapprove of his constant quarrels with Dot, right? Even when he was out fighting bullies when he was young there was a net gain even if Anna gets worried.Lance fighting his enemies and that one guy for Mash has reasons (justice and friendship). Lance fighting Dot despite these factors, there's only a net loss in them fighting yet he still does it, making Dot an exception to the brain Anna protocol. It’s truly hatred from the bottom of his heart
And that's saying a lot with how he puts his sister to such a high calibre .
Maybe he’d think Dot’s existence would be a bad influence on Anna and doesn’t kill him because of his friends ?
These fools bring out the worst in each other when they fight ( jealousy and stubbornness) but also the best in each other when they fight together (teamwork, motivation and stability)
Lance is finally able to confront the person responsible for stealing his only joy, yet he throws it all away, for... Dot?
Epidem considers killing Dot to get at least the weaker one out of the way, yet Lance jumps in front to prevent his demise. Dot is weaker than Lance, and Lance is so close to avenging his sister, letting Dot die would mean he wouldn't drag him down anymore and would allow Lance to achieve his goal easier. Lance shielding Dot, preventing him from dying essentially throws away all Lance has worked for.
He believes Dot will drag him down before the fight and reluctance to work with Dot shows that he believes Dot is still weaker than him, and that he doesn't know about Dot's trump card the Ira Kreuz. (Only Finn and Mash has seen Ira Kreuz Dot in action, lack of trust in Dot's strength might mean either he doesn't know it or that he can rely on it)
Which makes it even irrational on Lance's part.
If Lance, the stronger one, dies, what hope is there for Dot to succeed? For all he knows, success lies solely on his shoulders , and maybe, just maybe with Dot by his side too, who's said he'd rather die than be a burden. So why sacrifice success over some chump you hate, burdening you down from an epic win?
Keep in mind the wrath he has on Epidem, if Dot fails, there's no cure for his sister, the world may continue to lay in chaos, there's no backup plan like with the waiting-for-Mash-to-wake-up-fight later, even if Dot survives, how long can he survive for? There's unconditional trust in that sacrifice.
On the off chance that Lance knew of this trump card before hand, I highly doubt that Lance planned this all out to pretend to die in Dot's arms just to trigger the Ira Kreuz, because that'd be kinda fucked and a bit out of character... it’s still too much to bet on.
• The gay-ass monologue seems to have come from the heart and there's no way his sister pins actually prevented him from becoming Swiss cheese. If hed taken the sister pins into account, he wouldn't let Dot get too worried and say something ambiguous like "ts up to you now", some Romeo Juliet shit.
But what about Lances self sacrificing spree later?
Lance later goes on to actively risk his life for Ochoa and Mash, the latter turning him into a clock with the seconds hand piercing through him, its what Anna would've wanted him to do, he says.
(and Anna would’ve healed at this point, so it’s to save everyone else on top of already avenging his sister)
Through this journey hes learnt the power of friendship and is integrating it into fights. We know hed risk himself for the greater good, but never as extreme as this, so even if you don't agree with on the love aspect, you've gotta agree that something clicked in him in almost seeing Dot die ( and how its reflex to go and save him)
Risking his life for Mash and Ochoa is a conscious decision, I don't think this is the same for Dot.
I actually think he thinks hes about to die in the Epidem fight
While both the fight with IZ and Epidem is important to Lance, both basically meaning the entire world to him, you're telling me he can stay conscious with a minute hand pierced through him but cant stay conscious for an attack that didn't hurt him as much??
I believe that after his gay-ass monologue where he borderline confesses, he actually wanted to die but cant, so he's taking every opportunity to do it now/j
At the start, you can say he hates Dot for being there because he doesn’t want this type of person to talk to his sister. But to jump and take a deathblow for someone is something that’s a first for Lance.
Parallel between LanDot and the dynamic between Orter and his nameless junior (HIS NAME IS ALEX!!! ALIX ELLIOT)
In the Orter fight chapter, his backstory is reveal in which he also had a spikey teethed zigzaggy mark friend junior,that's also way too hot-blooded for his own good. Which is what triggers normally cold blooded deadpan Orter to soften on the two during training arc, especially Dot.
Strong prideful bastards with their silly spikey companions, you can see how Orter and Alex mirrors Lance and Dot respectively in design, at least Dot with Alex. Of course, their personalities and goals differ but its a similar dynamic, similar enough for Orter to reminiscent about his late junior, who sacrificed himself for the greater good.
In the backstory,Orter, who usually doesn't care about anything but his needs, unwilling to put in more efforts given the imbalance of quantity return, eventually starts to actually put effort into his job after juniors constant nagging. There's less fighting going on between them, but the silly one eventually brings out something better in the prideful one.
Amongst the corrupted magic world of Mashle, its rare to see an actual police conduct justice, junior tries his best to conduct justice by the rules but ends up dying in his pursuit of Domina. Becoming a Divine Visionary, Orter takes juniors last words to heart and reinforces everything with law and order (I'm sure killing magicless kids isn't what junior had in mind though) DVs have great political influence, to use this influence to just follow through on what your bestie believed in shows just how much his passing affected him.
While, unlike Lance, Orter had no other friends besides his junior, not even mentioning his brother once, if Lance had to witness Dot die like how Orter did, it'd change him too.
Honestly, i just think having a parallel to LanDot supports my statement already.
Conclusion
To me, there's something inherently special about these two's relationship, whether it be the enemies to friends to lovers speedrun or dynamic parallel, they complete each other despite constant arguing. There will be many pretty boys and there will be many hot blooded sillies, but the underlying fondness and care they share. As a pair acknowledged by an official double sided pillow,
LanDot is my favourite ship in Mashle
Given how Dot still thinks Lemon with no eyes is cute, I’m sure a donut hole to the stomach is no biggie
edit:AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES
it also looks like Dot is holding Lances arm in Vol18’s cover
Dot makes an Anna Tease to tease Lance
He also teases Lance about his fear of bugs, which is why he’s trying his best to overcome it.
They still try to one up each other in year 2
OFFICIALLY Lance is ranked the most handsome in Easton, but he’s is ranked 2nd in Dot’s personal “to kill” ranking. This is probably because of the underlying friendship