HEART WAR

gladiolus: strength of character, honor, conviction

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Alright I’ll probably miss something here but I’m gonna try, so bear with me–just sticking to what I felt was most important, so let’s get to it:

Joaquim: “He latches onto Shiro at times because Shiro’s sort of the only thing that can really calm him down and keep him in check.” (source). This was from one of the initial interviews where they were describing their personalities of each of the paladins, so it’s something we’ve known since very early on.

Josh: “Also, I know the fandom has already started shipping Keith and Shiro. If a name hasn’t yet been suggested, I’d like to submit ‘Sheith.’” (source). Before Voltron even aired, Josh had already coined the ship name and clearly supported it. Interesting how people were already building hype for sheith so early on, and I absolutely love it (especially since this was back before antis tried to ruin it). 

Art director Chris Palmer’s Shiro loves you, baby #he’s looking at keith drawing. This came out very early on as well, about a few weeks after I’d watched the first season I think. It was really heartwarming to see, and made me all the happier about shipping sheith. 

Josh: “[Keith’s] constantly scared that he’s gonna do something or say something wrong and he’s gonna lose Shiro.” (source). From an interview following season 2. You can tell Josh really feels for Keith here and knows just how much Shiro means to him.

Bex: “That shot where the only two lions that you see kind of outside of the lions are Black and the Red…I just love those two shots, where you’re looking outside through the Red and you see Keith. And then you see the Black Lion in the background, and you’re looking at Shiro and you see the Red.”

Joaquim: “Lauren storyboarded that scene.” (source) A really interesting bit of an interview following season 2. They’re talking about that scene where everyone else is knocked unconscious and shown to be alone. But then Shiro and Keith have each other’s Lions in the background, and it’s really neat to see Joaquim confirm that it was very much intentional. No matter what, these two are always meant to be together.

Steven: “I actually think that [Keith] was in more or less ways called upon to be a leader from the beginning. That’s not to say the leader of Voltron, but to say that Shiro always took him under his wing. Keith always hoped that he could reach a place where Shiro was and hopefully more. I think Shiro saw that in him and tried to stoke those flames and cultivate that within him. There’s a nice history that he and Shiro have where if Shiro were to ask him to do that, he would understand where it was coming from.” (source). A really fantastic quote from Steven Yuen here about the nature of Shiro and Keith’s relationship. It really is a shame it’s so often overlooked. 

Joaquim: “[Keith’s] got this emotional side to him.” 

Lauren: “It’s kind of exasperated by the fact that Shiro’s gone. Like he’s having a hard time dealing with it, he doesn’t really know how to feel. And I think he just goes back to that inner part of himself where it’s just—he can’t control his emotions. And that comes from the galra side.” (source). From an interview following Shiro’s disappearance, where they really tried to drive home the fact that losing Shiro was this very gutting, visceral process of grief. Shiro was his anchor, and without him, Keith just couldn’t cope. 

Joaquim: “[Shiro] and Keith have the closest relationship.”

Lauren: “The Black Lion probably got from Shiro what Shiro saw in Keith.” (source). Followup on why Black chose Keith. Something we expected all along, but still so nice to hear it out loud. And yes, more than anyone else, Shiro and Keith are the closest. It’s lovely. 

Josh: “Yeah, Keith’s kinda getting dragged into it kicking and screaming–not really, I mean, he knows that this is kinda what he needs to do. But he’s still questioning himself. And Shiro sees the greatness in him, and wants to help that come to fruition.” (source). You’ll all remember this as being from that little bait and switch where we thought Keith would still pilot Black. Really interesting point here though, but…Josh says Shiro “sees the greatness in him.” Which, you know, sounds incredibly similar to Allura telling Lance, “You have greatness within.” Kinda drives home this romantic aspect to it a bit. 

Lauren: “Keith is not going to take Shiro’s black outfit and wear it. He would never do that to his beloved mentor.” (source). Beloved. Beloved,, I,, I–

Josh: “I mean at that point, Keith has basically come up to him and expressed what he wants and what he needs. And Shiro is–he’s selfless enough to see that. He’s selfless enough to see that this is something that Keith needs to do.” (source). Josh discussing how Shiro felt about letting Keith leave the team.

Josh: And he knows Keith. Keith’s the one that, at that point, he’s the closest to in the story. I mean, he’s got a history with Keith. He’s stuck his neck out a lot for him. Keith got kicked out of the garrison, and Shiro’s friends with him, and you know–I’m sure that there’s other backstory there.” (source). Always good to hear some Backstory hinted at again. Especially now that we know in hindsight that Keith got kicked out because of Keith. So yeah, “other backstory there” indeed,, 

Josh [on the topic of what Shiro would tell Keith about his attempted self-sacrifice]: “And that was a conversation where [Kolivan] was telling him, You have to be ready to die for it, you know? It would’ve been the reverse of the Kolivan conversation, where he probably said dude–no, he wouldn’t say ‘dude,’ but–he said, Keith, this isn’t how we do things, you know? We all have to be there for each other, and What would that have solved? And–You just wouldn’t be here, and it would’ve been that. For sure. I don’t think he knew, though. I don’t think anybody knew.” (source). Not strictly sheith, but I think, What would that have solved? You just wouldn’t be here, was a bit of a touching sentiment so I included it. 

Barlee’s drawn sheith art before–the famous BOM one with Shiro cradling Keith in his arms comes to mind. But at one point she posted one of Shiro and Keith calling them bros, and fans insisted it was just bro/ganes. She disabled comments after that, and antis smugly claimed she did it so sheith fans wouldn’t bother her for posting bro/ganes. She actually disabled comments for the exact opposite reason, and didn’t want antis using her art as some way to justify not shipping sheith: 

Lauren: “I put that shit in there. Oh, I just said a bad word…”

And this was before Keith got punted from the Garrison? He was still in his Garrison uniform.

Jeremy: “Hey backstory, guys. There’s more of it.”

Lauren: “Yeah, man.”

Joaquim: “It exists!”

Lauren: “Shiro was still his guiding light. It was good.” (source) Lauren getting excited about the prekerberos sheith cameo she added. What a gift,,

Lauren: “I think that’s a storyline that we’ve always wanted to explore, and that we have every intention of learning a little bit more of what that relationship is between Keith and Shiro. How much does Shiro mean to Keith and vice versa. And so, to see that they were friends before this is something we want to just lay in there in little ways, until we eventually get to tell that story.”

Joaquim: “I mean, we knew right? We knew that Shiro meant a lot to Keith, or else Keith wouldn’t have attempted to break him out when he landed and all that. We were stoked when people saw that. We thought it’d be an Easter egg that would be around for a while. Day one, somebody was doing screen grabs all blown up and enhanced. It was supper cool.” (source). Aka we’re getting that prekerberos flashback so get ready everybody,,

Art supervising director Kihyun Ryu starts blessing us with his sheith art and I gain like 10 years on my life,,

 Why was Keith booted from the garrison?

Joaquim: “You know why Iverson has a closed eye permanently? There you go. He was, you know…not really knowing how to cope with his galra side, so. He raged out a little–”

Lauren: “Yeah, and he was not coping well with the loss of Shiro. Things take an impact and maybe he got a little…a little out of hand.”

Joaquim: “Iverson got in his face, and he got decked for it, and he did some permanent damage to the guy’s eye.”

Lauren: “Yep.” (source). So fucking glad this was finally confirmed,, it’s absolutely beautiful…love the entire concept…thank you for my life,,

So we know how Allura and Shiro reacted to Keith’s galra reveal. What about the other paladins?

Lauren: “I think the rest knew Keith well enough to know it’s not a big issue. And they don’t know much about galra–do you grow purple fur at some point? But Allura has that history, so…”Joaquim: “And with Shiro, we have that history. But he loves Keith, so he sees the good in him.” (source). HE LOVES KEITH,, HE LOVES HIM,, EVERYONE ELSE GO HOME WE HAVE A WINNER–

Lauren: “But he would have come out to space for Shiro, cause Shiro was his family.

Joaquim: “That is true.”

Lauren: “So he understands, I think, as much as [Pidge] does, about needing to ‘save that person in space.’” (source). Getting into all that recent stuff now, but yeah, this was during the interview where others tried to suggest Keith didn’t understand what it was like to experience the loss of a family. Lauren was quick to point out that he had lost Shiro though, and that the impact of that was very real for him.

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Keith’s nose wrinkles. “It’s kinda hard not to think that way, though.” He looks away. Then back to Shiro’s eyes. “Hey. Hey, Shiro.”

“Yes?” Shiro strokes Keith’s cheeks. Even his prosthetic, with all its flat metallic surfaces, feels calming.

Keith’s mouth twitches. “We don’t have to- to- do anything or decide anything but I just.” Keith bites his lip. Instead of saying it out loud, he gets on his tip-toes and leans closer.

“Oh,” says Shiro. Pleased, low.

“Shush,” says Keith and then their lips meet, complete with all the fireworks and racing hearts and clammy palms Keith has come to expect with crushes and love and like.