#keith meta

(there’s also the headcanon that Keith was the kid his dad ran in to save and his dad died protecting him which means Keith had his dads dead body holding him for hours until they were found buuut that’s a story for another day)

Honestly, I love every headcanon that dives into Keith’s father — especially the ones where he was a firefighter (which, honestly, feels basically canon at this point with all the hints in the show).

About the ring i actually had a similar headcanon — just a little different.

So, in my mind, to activate a Blade of Marmora weapon, you need a specific kind of Galra DNA tied to that particular blade, right? (At least that’s how I remember it — I don’t think anyone besides Keith or Krolia could transform his blade.)

And what if adding someone else’s DNA to your blade is basically the Galra version of exchanging rings on Earth? Like— two Blade agents exchange their blades, add each other’s DNA, and later their child can inherit either of the two blades.

So based on that, I like to think that Krolia had a ring, and Keith’s father carried her blade. They promised each other that when Krolia returned, they’d both have a ring and a blade — tying both their cultures together in full.

Okay, so lets start with this screenshot:

THIS IS NOT AT THE GARRISON. Look at the teacher, she’s in plain clothes, so are the students. This is a high school and Shiro is here to recruit students. Assuming the Garrison works like a Service Academy, it’s like a college and requires a high school diploma. The minimum age for service academies and ROTC programs is 17, and it’s safe to assume that that is the Garrison’s minimum age requirement too. I guess they might make exceptions for extraordinary students, but I honestly doubt it.

This next scene is also not at the garrison, and occurs shortly after the classroom scene:

Now, we know that is Keith’s bike. We also know he and that he can probably fly it at this point. Why does that imply he is at least 16? Because he lives in a group home, and any younger than that and there’s no way he would have a chance to get away and learn. At 16 he could get a license, which his caretakers couldn’t stop him from. Even with a license I doubt he has insurance though, meaning he can’t fly the thing in public.

My personal headcanon is that one of the workers at the home knew about his passion for flying and turned a blind eye when he snuck out to the desert to practice. This person is the same one who points Shiro in his direction, where he sees Keith fly for the first time and convinces him to join the garrison.

It’s this last scene that really has me convinced Keith is in his mid to late teens though:

Here, when he’s sitting outside the teacher’s office with the other kid he presumably got in a fight with. The other kid is obviously an older teenager, and is Keith’s classmate, meaning they if they aren’t the same age they must be at least close to it. How do we know? Look at the gold stripes on their shoulders. The strips mark rank, and presumably how long they’ve been there. They each have one stripe on each shoulder, marking them as younger students. Older students have two stripes. In the first episode the garrison trio all have two stripes on each shoulder, and so does Matt at the launch in Pidge’s flashback.

The stripes are also used for officers. Look at Shiro, in this scene he only has two, and the officer he’s defending Keith to has three, it’s his superior.  At some point Shiro gets promoted because in the picture from the Kerberos news report he has three.

Anyway, back to the point. In this scene Keith also talks about going back to the home. Home refers to a group home for children in foster care. Generally teens that get placed here, usually due to a lack of foster parents or because of behavioral issues, though there can be other factors. I’m not going to go into all that in this post, just wanted to note that these homes tend to house older kids because they are harder to place than younger ones.

So that’s why I believe Keith is 16+, but why is he so gosh darned tiny?

There are a few potential explanations for this:

Keith could just be a late bloomer, potentially due to his Galran heritage. We haven’t been given a lifespan for the Galra, so if they live longer and age slower they probably grow slower too. I mean, Krolia looks the same in the flashbacks as she does now, and 20 years have passed. Keith’s growth could be stunted due to lack of food. He was a foster kid, and it is quite possible he just didn’t get enough to eat, either because there wasn’t enough to go around, or because food was used against him as a punishment. One or two bad experiences could have left him scared to ask for more or take seconds even when offered.

He’s also half Galra. The Galra are also more muscled and most look like they have a very low body fat percentage. Muscle tissue burns two to three times as many calories as fat, meaning Galra need to eat a lot to maintain their weight, and kite need to eat even more, because they aren’t just sustaining what they have they’re adding to it. There’s also the possibility he needed vitamins and minerals to grow that couldn’t be found on earth. His caretakers may have unintentionally been underfeeding him because they were treating him like a human, not a Galra

So yeah, pre-Garrison Keith was tiny, but he didn’t stay that way:

I already made a post about it here but I wanted to add something. A lot of people see Keith’s answer in the feud as intended to be mean but personally, I don’t think that was his intent at all. Why? Because of his expression (face + body). Look at him here:

We already saw Keith angry or annoyed and it just doesn’t fit. But let’s talk about some stuff real quick: for me his expression/words are representing pride and his body language is showing closed emotions. What the fuck does that mean? Well, hear me out:

His face and words: I’m someone who is very prideful lmao and a common reaction I will have when embarrassed or in an uncomfortable position is brushing it off or changing/diverting the subject. Here, Lance put him in an uncomfortable position, he put him under the spotlight with his kind words. So how Keith reacts when it’s his turn? He tries to “change” the subject and bring back the “anyway I hate Lance”. Admitting how he truly feels about Lance (I’m not talking about romantic feelings but admiration or something similar) would be too much emotionally especially after being put under the spotlight like that. If he really wanted to hurt Lance or show that he really dislikes him I do believe his face would not be like that, his reaction would be different. His face is just showing how prideful he is. He’s not ready to say the truth. Also, his reaction is one of the most typical one in shows/anime/cartoons with strong and prideful characters: *character does something nice/is nice towards that one character* —> *character immediately brushes it off with “it’s not like I’m doing it for you/I still hates you/don’t go thinking I likes you or anything”*. Sounds extremely similar.

His body language: it is well known that body language means a lot. Don’t you notice? When you’re asked something you don’t want to answer, something embarrassing, something humiliating or something that has to do with emotions... didn’t you notice that sometimes you’ll close your arms around your chest? Like a barrier? It happened to me multiple times, when extremely stressed or conflicted about my emotions as I’m talking about them and you know what the psychiatrist told me? That I was creating a barrier, an armor to somehow protect my emotions because it made me uncomfortable. Where am I going with this? Well, look at Keith's body. Can you see it? His arms are closed over his chest. As I said before, he’s under the spotlight and he doesn’t like it and he has to answer to a very personal question. All the others were open about their feelings on why they chose that particular person. Keith is not ready to be that open and especially about Lance. He physically closes himself, he doesn’t want to answer, he’s not ready yet so he creates that barrier.

He said because of your treachery

What treachery?

Is there something special about Keith? Something that he did that counts as treachery?

I also think he meant Keith specifically here and not the whole team since he continues with:

He singles Keith out here. 

There is something special about Keith, I feel it must be, since they had a character from the first season return here and have this kind of interaction with him. They had a battle during season 1 in which Keith got his hand burned/turned purple..

...and now several seasons later that same character returns and reminds us of that moment. 

Suuuuspiciouuuusss

He aslo brings up Haggar, which could mean that she is planning something and it is going to involve Keith in some way. We’ve seen Keith having a strong bond with energy/quintessence during the whole show:

He felt the presence of the Blue Lion 

He connected with the Red Lion while being in a whole other part of the universe, something that as far as we know no one else except Zarkon has been able to do

He seems to know where Lotor is going to appear before anyone else during the battle in season 6

He senses where the Druid is going to appear (something he seemed to be able to do even in season 1 during their first battle before his hand got burnt)

This whole scene

No one expected it to happen. Not even Allura seemed to know it could happen

The way it is shown with him concentrating reminds a lot of Allura when she is using her abilities with quintessence

(While this might not be as much proof, Keith was the first one to be able to connect with Allura during the final showdown with Lotor

Which might point to him being close to her level of quintessence abilities? I don’t really know about this part, but I found it interesting so I’ll add it in here.)

The point is, Keith has shown a lot of abilities and sensitivity when it comes to energy/quintessence and maybe (HOPEFULLY) we’ll get the answers to why this is next season.

I have a feeling Haggar knows about his abilities. She already pointed out his relationship with Shiro

This could hint at her having taking note of/taking an interest in Keith, perhaps seeing him as a threat. Or perhaps, after the battle with Kuron, she sees him as an oppurtunity, someone she could use or experiment on - since she still could see through Kuron’s eyes until Keith cut off his arm she might have seen this:

What if she finds that she could use this? What if she has the means to turn Keith into a weapon? Streightening/powering up his Galra senses and making him lose control?

What if?

We can only wait and see.

I don’t see a lot of people talking about this at all, so I want to talk to my thirsty klancers out there about a seemingly not-klance scene. 

That’s right. This scene. 

This screenshot is right after Lance says “we make a great team” 

Sound familiar? 

Now I know this seems consequential at first, but hear me out.

The reason this is so important is because one scene his feelings aren’t completely shot down, and in the other, they are. The romantic coding of this phrase is essentially confirmed when Lance gets all blushy after saying it to Allura. However he is shot down, essentially closing a potential pathway to get closer with Allura, the only thing that makes it different from the moment with Keith is that he delivers the line in a completely softer way, and Keith remains emotionally open to him, smiling at him with acceptance. However different the deliveries are, the choice of words is where the parallel lies. Writing is a deliberate art. ESPECIALLY in television shows, where creators drop foreshadowing left and right. I think the comparison of Keith and Allura being referred by Lance as being a part of his “team” is intentional, and meant to imply that Lance wants a partnership, he wants to get closer to them whether he believes it explicitly or implicitly.  And the rejection he receives from Allura implicitly shoots down this possibility of a partnership in any more than a platonic sense. While the emotional readiness of Keith to be a part of his “team” could be foreshadowing for a possible non-platonic relationship to come. Essentially, the parallel between the phrase said to Keith and Allura is made. The “door” to Allura is shut immediately at her own volition, however the “door” to Keith is left open and ambiguous, possibly foreshadowing something between them in the future. 

This might seem a tad bit deep for just a one-liner, but I beg to differ. Parallels are added to characters with intention. In this case, I believe the intention of the creators to connect Allura and Keith in this way ties to Lance and his eventual love interest. So while it may be just a one liner, if you think about it, the one liner is meant to connect something ever larger together that could possibly happen in the future.  

The other reason as to why I am so confident about this theory is that the connection between Allura, Lance’s initial crush, and Keith, has been made many times. So it’s not that much of a stretch to say that they would do it again. I’m sure I’m not the first to point this one out, but the connection made between Keith and Allura has been made pretty clear over the course of the seasons.

in season four, with the most blatant connection: 

  Also, his use of the words “The two of us” to refer to both him and Allura (in the same scene that I’ve been talking about) was said in a dreamy voice. While he said the EXACT SAME WORDS to refer to himself and Keith helping Shiro out of the Garrison hospital (back in S3 ep1, during the ‘hey man’ scene)

I probably could find some more parallels but finals are coming and I don’t have that much time on my hands to rewatch the show, so I’ll leave you to find the other ones ;)

One final note: 

I get that people were pissed off that Keith said some really mean things to the team during the Journey Within, but y’all seem to forget what happened literally moments before.

Keith hallucinated that the team was in danger. And you know what he did?

He fought literal air in an attempt to protect them. Not even risking letting them go.

Get this: He is actually protective af now. Guess what he did in season 6.

He went all glowy to reach them and to protect them from Lotor. He was desperate to save them, his team, his friends. 

We all know that Keith loves his team and he would protect him to the end of his days. So why the freaking hell do you all think he meant what he said?

He was clearly hallucinating and insane, heck he even refused to sound-off:

He wasn’t okay. He even did a creepy af smile when he thought he was flying to Earth:

can you hear my insane laughter from this post? I can’t STOP! Oh, Gods.

Yeah...he’s not okay.

Neither was the rest of that team for that matter; they all hallucinated the same thing.

Maybe he felt hurt, maybe he was frustrated. But he SURE AS HECK DIDN’T MEAN IT.

Not being funny, but if Lance were serious with his affections toward Allura (and I mean in love serious), would he really be saying,‘I’m not ready to settle down’ and ‘There are a lot of fish in the sea’? 

One thing we know from the comics, is that Lance is serious about love. He wants to be in love, and he wants to be equally loved in return. Allura has never shown signs of romantic recuperation. She has never returned Lance’s flirtations, nor responded with anything less than disgruntlement and mild irritation from his advances. 

I find Lance’s words ‘I’m not ready to settle down’, very interesting. To me, it tells me that Lance doesn’t feel emotionally ready to commit to a long-term relationship with a loved one, because he hasn’t found someone he feels he is in love with. If Allura were the woman that Lance had totally, and completely, devoted his heart to, then I would be certain in saying that he wouldn’t even look at anyone else. 

Lance is serious about love, real love. We know that he has a deep understanding of it. He knows and values the commitment behind love, and from the show, comics and vlog, we have seen him only ever playing the field, meaning he has never truly fallen for any of the girls he was flirted with, including Allura. 

When Lance does fall in love (and we know he does have a end-game romance from interviews), he will mature and feel emotionally ready to settle down with that person.  “But I think there is, to some extent, at some point you’ll find that one person that above all you kind of fall in love with a little bit and realise that it’s nice to have that one person than kind of just going all over the place... He’ll mature in all ways.’” - Jeremy Shada

What have we heard from Lance’s mouth? ‘Sometimes what we want, isn’t what we get’. 

What have we heard from Lauren? ‘He (Lance) might look for it, but what he might look for is not necessarily what he needs. I think he needs someone who’s self-assured...so that he can kind of become that same person and know himself.’

In other words, Lance needs someone; 

“Self-assured.” - Lauren. 

“It doesn’t matter where I come from. I know who I am.” - Keith S2E8

Who can help him step up and mature as a person. 

“Keith goes, ‘No, dude. You are super important to the team. You should stop thinking all that because we need you.’” - Jeremy Shada.

 “And Lance? Leave the math, to Pidge.” - Keith to Lance S3E

Who has been there all along 

“Yeah, the show’s going for a slow-burn.” - Jeremy Shada. 

“We used to be in the same class at the Garrison?” - Lance S1E1. 

“We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” - Keith S1E6

Someone who will treat him as his equal, listen and respect him. 

“I respect it’s (the Black Lion) decision, and you should to.” - Lance to Keith, S3E2. 

“Yeah, you kinda did. But now we gotta fix it...You’re right. Let’s go.” - Lance and Keith S3E3

“Someone very different from what he was going for in the beginning.” - Dreamworks.

 “We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck.” - Lance to Keith S1E1

Hmmmmm.

I-

WONDER-

WHO-

THAT-

COULD-

Okay, THIS… I can agree with. 

I feel like the leadership transition could have been done a LOT better, and that Keith should coming into leadership because the team wants him there, because he’s needed, because he’s the preferred choice instead of the ONLY choice. 

Doing this just seems really contradictory to building Keith as a leader. Additionally I wish he was shown to be more well-received and liked in-show by his paladins and crew members as a leader, rather than dismissed and ignored in favor of Shiro. I wish the points that were obvious to viewers (as in, the ones that are paying attention,) were more obvious to the team itself, because it almost seems like the team itself doesn’t see how smart and capable Keith is as a leader outside Shiro. And we’ve been seeing leadership in Keith since season 1. 

Examples include, 

Keith telling Pidge not to leave the team, we can’t form voltron, or else they’d be sunk. Later, in the very same episode, The castle and all five lions are bombed and nearly completely stolen. If Pidge had taken off, they would have lost everything.  -S1E4

“Your kick threw off our balance. We fell.”>> “I’m gonna do a cool kick!!”>>> “No, we’ll fall!”>>>> “Quit living in the past! 

>>>>> “Oh, no!” [grunts]. - S1E3

Keith’s one man rescue mission to save Shiro, his introductory sequence of the very first episode, where he not only distracts the garrison with bombs, but outruns them in a vehicle slower than they are with 3 strangers using only his flight/maneuvering skills. Following that, immediately after the rescue/getaway, he provides the team crucial direction to the Blue Lion, after tracking it in the desert by himself on instinct and skill alone. -S1E1. 

Predicting Zarkons Ambush And Advising against it.

Zarkon: But now your new Paladins will come for you, and they will deliver Voltron to me,Keith, to Team: Or Maybe we shouldn’t go on this mission at all. We’ll be delivering the universes greatest hope, to the universes biggest enemy. --S1E11

Pushing the Black Lion out of the tractor beam, then fighting Zarkon head on to prevent him from getting to it, while Hunk retrieved Shiro and Allura from Zarkons Ship -S1E11

And this is just Season One. There’s even MORE of this in the seasons since then!

Keiths actions from the very beginning haven’t just been helpful, they’ve been absolutely integral. If Pidge had left, there would be no Voltron. If he hadn’t taken the three of them on his bike, there would be no Voltron. If he hadn’t felt the blue lion calling to him, telling him to search, there would be no Voltron. If he hadn’t fought Zarkon against Corans plea’s, Zarkon would have gotten the Black Lion from Shiro and there may have been no way to get it back, and there would be no Voltron. 

His actions save the team as a whole again and again and again. His thoughts predict outcomes of team and enemy decisions alike with scary precision that has even been labelled prophetic by some in this fandom. It’s no wonder Black chose him as her Paladin. It’s so easy to see what Shiro was seeing in Keith. 

And yet, fandom and team alike don’t ever seem to acknowledge it. And it’s frustrating.