shirogane-s:

Okay I want to talk about this scene, which I have mentally dubbed “The Duality of Keith”, and how it plays into how I think we’ll see Keith develop in s3. Out of all the characters, Keith’s introduction is probably my favourite, because it establishes some key facts about him within a minute of screentime. He’s a competent fighter, able to singlehandedly take out 3 grown, military-trained men armed with nothing but his fists. He knows and clearly cares about Shiro, as evidenced by how his face goes soft and his eyes do the emotional anime shimmer™. The juxtaposition of these things - Keith taking out a bunch of Garrison men, and then getting all soft when he sees Shiro - is something I’ve seen mentioned a lot, but something I’ve never seen brought up is how within a second of seeing and recognizing Shiro, Keith is already working on an escape plan. In the middle gif, his eyes flicker over to where Shiro is bound and he pulls out his knife as soon as he finishes saying Shiro’s name.

It’s a really tiny detail, but imo it’s such a great character defining moment, especially in retrospect. Like understandably, this is an emotional moment for Keith; Shiro is the closest thing Keith has to family and he’s finally here, alive, after being missing/presumed dead for over a year. But here’s the thing: Keith only really gives himself a second to get emotional about it. Then he pulls out his knife, cuts Shiro loose, and is already on his way to carrying him out when Lance shows up.

So here’s where the Duality of Keith stuff comes in - yes, he loves Shiro (whether you interpret that platonically or romantically is up to you). Yes, we’ve seen time and time again how strong Keith’s Shiro Radar™ is, how he’s always at Shiro’s side when he needs it most, how distressed he gets at the thought of losing Shiro. His grief in the wake of the s2 finale would be 100% understandable. 

But at the same time, Keith is so much more than his relationship with Shiro. He’s a fighter, a man of action, the determinator trope personified. More than anyone, he’s shown that he knows what’s at stake here. We’ve seen him face every obstacle in his path head-on, we’ve seen him quickly adapt to unfamiliar situations, assessing them and reacting accordingly. (Receipts, if you need them, off the top of my head: adapting to having 4 unexpected passengers during the chase scene that comes right after this one, using the geysers to propel himself in s2e01, using his knife to get through the opening in the floor in s2e08, infiltrating Zarkon’s base alone despite the danger in the s2 finale). 

So the notion that he’ll mope around wallowing in despair, unable to function after Shiro’s disappearance is??? kind of ludicrous to me tbh?? It’s weirdly prevalent in sheith content, and I think a lot of this stems from 1) the fact that the show heavily implies that Keith’s expulsion from the Garrison has to do with the Kerberos mission failure and 2) Keith’s own admission about how felt lost after getting expelled. But in the aftermath of his expulsion, Keith took his grief and channeled it into finding the blue lion. He didn’t just sit around in his shack, consumed with grief. This isn’t to say that he’s unflappable and will just take Shiro’s disappearance in stride - he probably will get emotional, because Shiro is undoubtebly the most important person in his life and losing him is a huge blow (and I actually hope he does, because Shiro and Keith’s relationship is hands down my favourite on the show, and because emotional catharsis is a good thing, and because it could make for some solid bonding moments with the rest of the team).

Then he’ll pull out his metaphorical (and literal, lbr) knife, and figure out a game plan for getting Shiro back and saving the universe.