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shirogane-s:

there’s a lot of great black paladin keith meta out there and i don’t want to just rehash what others have said but i want to address people using shiro’s supposed favouritism to discredit shiro’s leadership (and subsequently keith’s legitimacy as his successor). firstly, i don’t think it’s an inherently bad thing for shiro to have a favourite. shipping goggles aside, it makes sense to me that he’d be closest to/place most of his trust in someone he’s known for a while vs. people he’s recently met. it makes sense to me that, after a year in captivity, he’d gravitate towards someone familiar. shiro and keith are close, just like hunk and lance are close, just like allura and coran are close. this isn’t inherently problematic; it only becomes an issue if shiro uses his clout as team leader to show keith undue favouritism.

and here’s the thing: he doesn’t. shiro has no problem reprimanding keith when he thinks he’s out of line: he chastises keith for trying to pressure pidge into staying with the team early in season one, tells both keith and lance to cut it out when they bicker (even when keith isn’t the instigator), tells keith to stay in his lane when he takes out an enemy lance was already dealing with, calls keith out on snapping at his teammates and tells him to have more self-discipline/control his emotions, etc. keith doesn’t actually receive any extra leniency from shiro by virtue of being his supposed favourite.

and while people like to cite things like shiro appointing keith as his successor and choosing keith to pilot them to the BOM headquarters as evidence of his bias, i feel like this is also a pretty weak claim. the first time shiro brings up keith taking over as leader comes right on the heels of their attempt to rescue allura. to recap:

1. keith opposes shiro’s risky rescue plan, which on keith’s part is as callous as it is pragmatic, but gets overruled.
2. the mission is a disaster - they get their asses kicked and just barely get out alive, and end up getting thrown out of an unstable wormhole and stranded on different planets. shiro has no idea where the rest of his team is or if they’re even okay/alive. at this point, shiro is probably reconsidering whether keith had a point - maybe it would have been better to wait and devise a better strategy instead of throwing together a hasty rescue.
3. the black lion ejects shiro when zarkon approaches which, coupled with everything else, seems like it would only exacerbate shiro’s doubts re: his own position as black paladin/team leader (+ keith’s ability to pilot the black lion further cements the idea of keith as a potential replacement).

from shiro’s perspective, keith is a brilliant pilot with great instincts who’s capable of making tough decisions and putting the mission first. it doesn’t take a lot of mental gymnastics to understand why he’d entrust the team to keith. keep in mind that these two have a shared backstory, and it’s heavily implied that shiro used to be some sort of a mentor to keith. he doesn’t choose keith as a successor because keith is his favourite, but because he’s presumably witnessed keith’s growth as a person first-hand back at the garrison and recognizes his potential (“i know what you’re capable of”).

and for his part, keith actually does take what shiro says to heart and tries to be a good leader/teammate, most notably in the belly of the weblum when he encourages hunk (albeit a little tersely at first (“i said, will you be alright?”)). he isn’t perfect, but for that matter neither is shiro. and from a narrative standpoint, it’s a lot more interesting to watch someone who has the potential to be a leader but isn’t quite there yet adapt to being thrust into a leadership position vs. someone who’s already perfect and never makes any mistakes ever. and because keith and shiro have such different personalities, it’ll be interesting to see keith’s more blunt, to-the-point leadership style juxtaposed against shiro’s more genial team dad approach.