why do so many people think shiro is such a dick, and why do they think its acceptable for him to be the way they think he is?? why do they like him if they think he takes his insecurities out on keith or uses keith to avoid his issues or whatever??
When Shiro truly believes he’s going to die in S3E5 we get flashbacks of the team, of people he’s close to and fond memories of him and his team together.
Yeah we’ll talk about this pair of screenshots later. EVEN MORE THOUGH when Pidge thinks Matt is dead in 04x02 that entire run up and sequence is built on personal flashbacks:
So this is a very conscious thing that happens in key moments and has happened when it concerns a long build-up sequence of paladins & facing imminent oncoming death (or their own death). And this does a lot in terms of connecting us emotionally to the character’s events and trying to better understand what they’re dealing with.
Keith’s entire sequence is a stark contrast.
Keith has nobody in this scene. He doesn’t call out to anyone. He doesn’t speak to anyone. He doesn’t give himself the luxury of having anyone by his side as dies, at least not enough for us to see it or for the viewer to be made consciously aware of it. We’re given nothing.
Just. Him.
Yes we get flashes back to the team sure but the horrible thing is they don’t know what he’s doing, there are two dire situations about to unfold here and they’re reacting to the bigger one “we’re not gonna make it”. The scene changes that happen here aren’t attached to Keith explicitly. It’s all situational.Only Matt (and inferred Coran - see this) know exactly what Keith is doing. That’s proven moments later, when team voltron actuallycongratulate Keithfor his work!!
In such a notable moment honestly, these contrasts are so telling, given the way they have used flashbacks in paladins + near death experiences, this absence of such HERE is revealing. This speaks volumes on Keith and where he’s at regarding his relationships with everybody else. Keith seems to think he is alone here, and he will die alone. The fact is, we can only speculate as to what his final thoughts were. Given the sequence, and what we know about Keith it’s plausible he was focused solely on getting this done and completing the mission. Whereas with Shiro we are explicitly shown his memories of the team. With Pidge, we are explicitly shown memories of Pidge & Matt.
Keith is purposefully detached and isolated in many senses visually, thematically ect. during this entire scene.
Can I just point out that when Keith was about to sacrifice himself, they zoomed in on the eyes of the paladins except for Shiro? They zoomed in on one eye, and it was widened much more than anyone else’s.
new discourse: did they realize what he was going to do? i’m genuinely asking. i’m not convinced they did.
matt and coran however:
i think they knew. matt was on the radio with keith, and i don’t think the others weren’t looped into that. we see coran realize after he sees where keith’s ship is headed. yeah, i don’t think the others knew though.
If I may chip in here-
I don’t think they knew either. They could hear Matt yelling Keith’s name, so they were aware he was up to some kind of Crazy Shenanigan, as Keith is want to do.
But I think the screenshot here of them looking so distraught was them reacting to their own situation; they all thought they were about to die, as well. They thought they weren’t going to make it, even after fighting so hard. That’s a terrifying reality to be faced with, and I feel for the whole team here.
But I don’t think they knew exactly what Keith was about to do at all. Because as soon as the barrier went down, and they pulled through? Shiro’s immediate reaction was to congratulate Keith.
Shiro didn’t have a visual on him, he couldn’t have known that Keith didn’t end up following through with his plan (thank god). He just assumed that Keith had supposedly achieved whatever it was he was trying to do to get the barrier to come down. I don’t believe team Voltron have any idea of how much Keith was seconds away from sacrificing.
honestly keith is in a super bad mental place right now yet i haven’t really seen that many people… care?
now i hate to say this, but if it was lance going through all of what keith’s going through right now? you know the fandom would be going CRAZY.
…but it’s not. it’s keith.
his teammates all keep dying around him left and right, he keeps nearly escaping death (like when he was stuck in space in e1), and he’s being given a bad mindset just being with the blade altogether. but that’s not even all of it.
we all know keith pushes people away before they reject him, but how do you think he felt when the team, the only family and friends he has, did reject him?
as someone super similar to keith, i can tell you that does not feel good at all.
and i know they ended it all with a hug saying they’ll always be there for him, but don’t tell me it didn’t hurt keith when not a single one of them actually said they wanted him to stay.
especially when shiro knows the blade of marmora way. victory/knowledge or death. and he knows how keith is.
(which shows this shiro… isn’t s2 shiro. that shiro would’ve stopped keith from staying with the blade, like how he tried stopping him from doing the trials.)
now there are really only two reasons keith stays with the blade in the first place.
now that shiro can pilot black again, keith doesn’t feel as if he has a place on the team (similarly to lance). now we do know part of the reason he’s been with the blade so much is because he didn’t like being the leader. he didn’t want that position. he was forced into it, then always criticized for being bad at it. now he did get somewhat better near the end with the help of lance, but i don’t think he realized it. (lance is the only one on the team who ever acknowledged him as leader besides shiro, after all.)
keith tried staying off the team since s3e6, after lance opened up to him. he tried to give black to shiro (which we all know didn’t work) and he let lance have red. so he truly feels he doesn’t belong on the team anymore. the team not stopping him from just straight up leaving cemented that.
the other reason keith stays with the blade is to get a sense of identity. he’s had his knife all his life, it’s his only real connection to who he is. but he’s learning the blade way, the galra way, and it’s not good for him. they keep telling him “the mission is more important than the individual”, which shows why so many bom members we’ve seen (thace, ulaz, etc) have sacrificed themself for the greater good.
keith tried sacrificing himself not only for the mission, but because he believed the team would benefit more having him dead than alive. he didn’t say goodbye to anyone before he did it, not even matt, who he was already talking to. he doesn’t think he matters. he’s just another casualty that (would’ve) died for the cause.
in conclusion keith’s mental state right now is bad. he’s not selfish for leaving the team. he did it because he doesn’t think they need him anymore. he doesn’t think he matters.
and it’s the blade that’s really cementing this in his mind.
What is really upsetting to me about the last episode when Keith almost kamikazes himself is that no one on team Voltron understands that he almost killed himself. Everyone in the lions thought he just somehow managed to get the shield down, and have no idea Lotor literally saved Keith’s life. There was one person who knew though…Matt.
Forgive me for not being able to screen cap this but right here…
Matt is screaming for Keith, because he knows what he is about to do. What confused me though was why he was so upset by it, everyone in that situation was ready to die to stop Hagar, and Matt hasn’t even met Keith…or has he…
In the background of the Holt family pics you can see Shiro with someone who looks suspiciously like Keith. Matt and Keith were in the garrison together! They knew each other before the Voltron Coalition and were probably friends, which means when the Kurberous mission failed Keith lost both Shiro and Matt.
Keith’s mental health has been seriously unstable the last two seasons and what breaks me is that no one but Matt knows just how far into the hole he is. Idk the last episode made me feel many things…
The Marmora can go on without you. They have for thousands of years. Voltron cannot. We cannot.
So, this has been bothering me a bit.
I had a whole load of other scenarios and reasons why the ‘rift’ would happen, what would cause it, and what the fallout will be. But this is the one that hurt the most, I think.
Because… Keith doesn’t belong anywhere. He said it in S3: they ask him to lead, and then complain about how he leads. When he gets a purpose, something worthwhile and important to him, it’d played down. “We’ll discuss it later,” Shiro said, more than once.
His feelings never seem to matter. And you know what? He’s used to this.
So he’ll shoehorn himself into a space he doesn’t fit in until something lets him escape. He’ll hurt himself just until something comes along that might hurt less. He was happy with Red. But they shoehorned him into Black, hell, they forced him to shoehorn himself in there. And then complained. Even Shiro overrode and undermined him.
He’s good at being a Blade. He realizes that he fights and moves and acts in a way that suits their function. Autonomy with purpose. And the Blade are used to death. They’re used to not maintaining deep bonds, because they can die at any moment.
And that suits Keith fine. Who’s gonna miss him, right?
Whenever Shiro or Allura say, “Voltron / We need you,” who do they mean? The Red Paladin, or Keith?
Answer: it’s not Keith.
Hell, in the above clip, Allura says even the Blade don’t really need him. Thanks, Allura. Race of diplomats, yeah?
And the team are going to miss him, are they? They didn’t even say hi to him when he was on the screen. No one asked about him. No one said, after he leaves, “Hey, I wonder how Keith is doing?”
But that’s okay. Keith is used to being forgotten about. He’s fine, right? That’s why he’s been pulling away. This was his plan all along. Maybe.
And he comes sailing in at the last minute, ready to die for the cause, knowing that, hey, everyone will be fine. No one is going to miss him, right? No one ever has, and so why would it matter?
He doesn’t tell the team what he’s doing. Matt knew. I think Coran knew.
So if Lotor hadn’t shown up, and the whooping and celebrating dies down, and “Good work, Keith!” comes through the comms, what are they going to hear?
Matt saying, “He’s gone.”
He’d be gone, he’d have never said goodbye, because, hey, it’s fine, right? They’ll be fine.
Then what, huh, Team Voltron?
Then what?
Learn to miss him more, Team. Because that boy is losing himself, and if you don’t tell him – someone, anyone – that you love him and you don’t want him to die or go or that you can’t imagine a world without him…
