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kismetconstellations · 4 months ago

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What is Keith's problem with Allura?

Consensus among certain flavors of Keith fans seems to be that Allura never outgrew her "racist" opinions of the Galra, and remained cold, rude, and stand-offish to Keith, never apologizing for the handful of glares she shot his way, and the icy inflection she used when addressing him.

This is, of course, patently, provably untrue. In Season Two, Episode Twelve, Best Laid Plans, as Keith is preparing to head for Zarkon's base in what Kolivan had declared a "suicide mission", Allura approaches Keith in the hangar to tell him:

"I... just wanted to say... The Galra... They've done terrible things. Destroyed entire civilizations. They took my family. But, in time, I've grown to consider you and the Paladins my family. So when I learned you were Galra, I... I didn't know what to think. I wanted to hate you!

"But, it's not you. It's me. My anger has blinded me for too long. I'm so sorry I misjudged you. You've proven it's not what's in your blood. It's who you are that counts.

Please come back to us."

I couldn't come up with a more sincere, heartfelt apology if I tried.

Allura took it upon herself to, unprompted, own up to her less than stellar behavior toward Keith, admit that she was wrong, and express that Keith is important to her and she wants him to return to her, Coran, and the other Paladins alive and in one piece, because he is her family.

You would think this would be more than enough to bury the hatchet and resolve all tension between them. Or, at the very least, that any issue Keith may have with Allura in future episodes could be traced back to her (and Coran) withholding the fact that Zarkon was the original Black Paladin from the rest of the team, and to the handful of glares that Allura directed at Keith after finding out that he's half-Galra.

But, this is not the case. As early as Season One, Episode Twelve, Collection and Extraction, well before either of these potentially inciting incidents, Keith's attitude with Allura was showing signs of being less than friendly.

Keith is the first to object, rather snidely, to the prospect of Allura accompanying the Paladins on an infiltration mission to gather intelligence from a Galra transportation hub.

"I'm sorry, Princess, did you say 'we'?"

Despite Allura being instrumental in restoring the Balmera and helping the Paladins liberate the Balmeran people from Galra control.

And, it only worsens from here.

The very next episode, after Allura had allowed herself to be captured by the Galra, sacrificing herself to save Shiro, the man who Keith claims to love, Keith puts forth the idea of leaving Allura in the hands of the monster who betrayed and murdered her father and mercilessly annihilated her entire home world and all of the people living on it.

"Or, maybe we shouldn't go on this mission [to rescue Allura] at all. Think about it. We'll be delivering the universe's only hope to the universe's biggest enemy."

Which prompts an understandably galled Hunk to respond, "Keith, that's cold even for you."

Keith snaps back, "I'm not saying I like the idea. I'm just thinking like a Paladin."

Arguably, being willing to allow even one life to slip through the cracks is the exact opposite of the mindset of a Paladin. And, Keith is aware of that, come the top of Season Four, when his saving Regris lands him in hot water with Kolivan.

Kolivan: "Every member of the Blade of Marmora understands that the mission is more important than the individual. This isn't Voltron."

Keith: "I understand that. In Voltron, we would have gone back in to save Regris. I went back to save the mission. Regris had the intel. Getting him and it back on the ship was worth the risk."

He never apologizes, however, for even attempting to argue that saving Allura wasn't worth the risk.

In the third episode of Season Three, The Hunted, he actually scolds Hunk for going back to assist Allura after she took a hit on a hopeless folly of a mission to pursue and attack Lotor that Keith, acting as their new leader, pushed the team into long before they were ready. When rightfully chastised by Lance for acting so rashly and showing no regard for the input and welfare of his team, Keith justifies his actions by arguing, "It's not about the team. We have a mission that's more important than any one of us."

Even after Lance confronts him, again, once the team has been split up and all of their lives needlessly endangered, and Keith at last acknowledges how badly he messed up, he doesn't offer a single apology to Allura, or anyone else.

In the following episode, Hole in the Sky, Keith approaches a disconsolate Allura, presumably with the intention to offer her some form of comfort and encouragement after the emotional turmoil she endured in the alternate reality.

Instead of making the effort to put himself on a level field with her, and look her in the eye, as one would typically do when attempting to extend emotional support, Keith speaks at Allura's back and remains standing on a platform above her, forcing her to have to look back and up at him.

Perhaps this scene was blocked this way because, like so many other creative decisions in this series, it "looked cool". Unfortunately, this staging with all of its visual subtext establishes a precedent for Keith and Allura's dynamic going forward.

In contrast to being Allura's equal, as Shiro was, and sharing the position of leadership with her, the two of them valuing one another's insight and trusting each other implicitly, Keith is Allura's superior. As she now ranks under him in both age and position on the team, he's become her commander; shutting down any input he didn't authorize as a "lecture", even when that input is coming from a place of earnestness and compassion. See their conversation in Season Four, Episode One, where Allura is there to meet Keith as he arrives back at the Castle from another mission with the Blades that resulted in the death of Regris, and delayed Keith getting to the team he's meant to be leading when they needed him.

Keith: "Allura, I know you're mad at me, but I'm not in the mood for a lecture."

Allura: "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I heard what happened on your mission."

Keith: (after a long, tense pause) "...Thanks."

Allura: (after another drawn-out silence) "I know how important the work you've been doing with the Blades is. They are incredible allies, and have been instrumental in our victories over the Galra. And, while the news of a new quintessence supply-line is deeply troubling, I cannot help but feel that--

Keith: (cutting her off) "I said I didn't want a lecture."

Rather than rise to Keith's bait, Allura continues on, "Keith... Since our battle with Zarkon, we've been able to bolster our forces by uniting those previously ruled by the Galra under a common symbol-- Voltron. It's so much more than a weapon. It's become a symbol of freedom, and, hope for the oppressed to rally around.

"I suppose what I'm trying to say is, the Marmora can go on without you. They have for thousands of years. Voltron cannot. We cannot."

Allura's candid and entreating speech appears to fall on deaf ears. Keith continues to go on missions with the Blades, running from his position as the new Black Paladin and "decisive head" of Voltron.

It can be argued in his defense that he only ever saw himself as a temporary Black Paladin, holding the position in Shiro's stead until Shiro's return. And, with the cloned version of Shiro in proper form, acting as a key strategist and, to some extent, undermining Keith's calls in the field, Keith's concerns that he's unfit for the role have once more reared their head, and he feels that he is no longer needed. This is, of course, despite the obvious inconsistencies in "Kuron"'s temperament, behavior, appearance, and even wardrobe choices when compared to the original Shiro's. Inconsistencies that, as Shiro's closest friend, Keith should have been aware of and more than a bit perturbed by. And, despite the fact that, at this current point in the show, the Black Lion is not responding to "Kuron".

Keith has knowingly left the Paladins down a Lion and without a means of forming Voltron, several times repeatedly. Allura, "Kuron", and everyone else on the team would be well within their rights to be absolutely furious with him. Yet, the next time Keith happens upon Allura, while she and the other Paladins are handing out supplies to rebels and refugees on Olkarion, he's the one glaring at her.

By the end of this episode, "Kuron" has managed to connect with the Black Lion, further enforcing in Keith's mind that he is no longer needed as a Paladin, and Keith announces to the group that he's officially abandoning his post and leaving to work with the Blades full-time.

Allura is right there with the others, enveloping Keith in a group hug and expressing, like everyone else, that she will miss him as he embarks on a new journey down a path divergent from the rest of their family.

That new journey brings Keith face-to-face with his long-lost mother, and the two of them find themselves stranded on a space whale inside of a "quantum abyss" that has a convenient time distortion that only affects them and the space wolf they adopt.

This highly selective time-skip was done, presumably, to accelerate Keith's character development and make him a better fit for his "destined" role as the ultimate leader of Voltron. And, while his two years in the Quantum Abyss with his mother made Keith older, and ostensibly more mature, they did nothing to abate his underlying resentment for? Grudge against? Bitterness toward? Allura. Upon his return in Season Six, Episode Four, The Colony, Keith is ready to launch an attack on Lotor, while Allura is a passenger in Lotor's ship.

Keith: "I promise I'll explain everything once we get to Lotor."

Pidge: "We can't get to him. He just entered the quintessence field with Allura."

Keith: (unfazed) "We traveled through realities, before. Can't we fly in there and attack?"

Lance: (apparently the only one with any sense) "She said Allura is with him.

We can't risk hurting her."

Note the change in Keith's expression when Lance interjects.

"Kuron" attempts to diffuse the situation, instructing everyone to calm down, and assuring that, when Allura and Lotor return, "we'll get this all sorted out".

Judging by his reaction, this is not what Keith wanted to hear.

I'll concede that Keith has been made aware that Lotor is, indeed, dangerous, having manipulated and deceived them all. And, in spite of the Real Shiro's teachings about the virtue of patience, it's Keith's nature to want to eliminate a threat as soon as possible, attacking first and asking questions later. If at all.

Yet, his willingness to rally the troops and open fire or swing fists and/or a sword at Lotor without any regard for Allura's safety is deeply concerning.

Three episodes later, Allura uses her newfound powers and knowledge of quintessence alchemy to extract the Real Shiro's essence from the Black Lion, as the Black Lion had preserved what she could of him when his body was destroyed in the team's final fight with Zarkon back in the finale of Season Two, and transfer it into "Kuron"'s dying body. Which is its own can of worms.

You would think that Keith, having professed his love for Shiro (albeit to "Kuron"), would be forever indebted to Allura; singing her praises and all-but worshipping the ground that she walks on after she brought Shiro back to him.

But, in the sixth episode of Season Seven, The Journey Within, when Keith, Allura, and the other Paladins find themselves cast adrift and floating aimlessly through space for an untold length of time, older and supposedly wiser Keith is the first to snap under the stress of the situation. He reverts to his abrasive, anti-social behavior from the first season, times ten, and decides to use his position of power over the still teenaged Paladins to lash out and make petty, intentionally hurtful digs, with Allura and Hunk as his targets.

Allura: "My father... Had something he always said in dire situations."

Keith: "'Give up'?"

Allura: (diplomatically giving him a chance to retract the deeply offensive words that just came out of his mouth) "Sorry?"

Keith: (doubling-down) "It just doesn't seem like he was a real fighter when the chips were down."

I've had many a conversation with a friend (hi, @sockdooe!) about Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos rather transparently being Altean-hating Galra-supremacists who used Keith as their mouthpiece to spout off Pro-Galra propaganda. This is especially obvious in the series finale, when Keith effectively runs postmortem defense for Zarkon and Honerva-- something I will cover in-depth, a bit later.

"MonSantos", as the fandom has dubbed them, took issue with characters who are innately altruistic, self-sacrificing, upstanding, unwavering in their moral values, and willing to make peace with words, rather than immediately going on the offensive against any perceived threat. This is overwhelmingly obvious in the way that they killed Shiro and mocked him for being "boring", in interviews, only bringing him back to life when their hands were forced, killed Allura to force her to atone for Honerva's sins (one Altean for another, kind of like how Shiro and "Kuron", two disabled gay men with their own distinct traumas, struggles, and personalities, were treated like they were completely interchangeable), and planned to kill Hunk.

They liked "complicated", able-bodied, "morally gray" characters, and characters who needed to grow into their roles, instead of being perfect fits for them right off the bat.

Whether those characters actually achieved any growth under "MonSantos"'s direction is its own topic of discussion.

Shiro's stability and dependability warranted him being belittled and killed, as not only was he "boring", but his mere presence in the narrative somehow, "prevented the other characters", namely, Keith, "MonSantos"'s pet character and Chosen One, "from growing". To Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, people who boast this sort of twisted mentality, a gentle, soft-spoken, space-faring diplomatic king, like Alfor, was, of course, "cowardly" and "weak". While Zarkon, a fierce combatant and military strategist who became a child-abusing, murderous, power-hungry monster, has all of the hallmarks of a "great leader". And, the uncorrupted version of him that Keith and the other Paladins encounter inside of Honerva's mindscape is thus qualified to conclude that Keith has these hallmarks, too. Because they're both Galra.

I guess the contents of your blood are only irrelevant to your character when you're a Galra who perpetrates negative behaviors. Like pitting terrified, inexperienced, and malnourished prisoners against each other in a fight to the death for the entertainment of yourself and your fellow loyal servants of the Empire.

On a micro, character level, Keith's comments are even more repulsive. Alfor sacrificed himself to ensure Allura's safety. Keith's own father, a fireman, put his life on the line for others daily, which is what lead to his dying a hero, and being tragically ripped away from his young son. Of all characters, Keith should have the most empathy and implicit understanding that Allura's father is an emotionally fraught subject for her.

(Or, perhaps not, since he was unable to even look at Allura after she had to shut down Alfor's compromised A.I., losing him for a second time, in Season One's Crystal Venom.

)

This is emblematic of the power imbalance between Keith and the younger Paladins. Keith has his own trauma that he hasn't even begun to work out. Not only has his character regressed, in many ways, his time with the Blades and lengthy exposure to the blasé attitude about death that is standard fare for the majority of Galra seem to have had an adverse effect on his already tenuous mental health. As many without healthy or any coping mechanisms are wont to do when caught in spirals of stress, fear, anger, and despair, Keith is attempting to self-destruct. He's deliberately stomping on proverbial landmines to provoke his teammates into telling him to drift off by himself, as Lance eventually does, so that Keith's (incorrect, based on a cognitive distortion from past trauma) feeling that he is an unwelcome, unneeded outsider will be validated.

This is toxic behavior.

Keith is no longer a surly juvenile delinquent, or anti-social just-turned-legal-adult who is learning to cooperate and cohabitate with others after spending a year in the desert by himself. He's a twenty, perhaps even twenty-one year-old man in a position of power over teenagers who has had two years to do intensive soul-searching with the mother he never would have found had it not been for King Alfor and the Voltron Lions that Alfor built.

And, once again, Keith never would have got Shiro back without the existence of Alfor's Lions, because Ulaz helped Shiro escape his imprisonment on Zarkon's command ship and sent him back to Earth to prevent the Blue Lion being seized by the Empire.

"MonSantos"'s preferred Black Paladin should be beyond grateful for everything that Allura and her father have both directly and indirectly done for him. Instead, the character who is told that he is "the future" (because he's half-Galra), and magically gained the ability to summon the Black Paladin Bayard (which Shiro, the "boring", "broken", former Black Paladin who isn't at all worthy of recognition, given that he's only a measly little human, reclaimed from Zarkon and got to use just once before he died) to him at will, chooses to insult Alfor and hurl verbal abuse at Alfor's daughter.

Who, need I remind you, informed Keith that she considers him to be part of her new family.

Hunk tries to tell Keith to lay off.

Rightfully hurt by Keith baselessly accusing her beloved father of being spineless, Allura verbally retaliates while maintaining a truly impressive level of composure: 'You... have a lot of nerve questioning someone's leadership. Think how you left us."

Hunk, still trying to maintain a semblance of peace, pleads to Allura, this time.

And, Keith, firmly in his self-destructive spiral, decides to accelerate the explosive fall-out of this bone-dry tinderbox of a situation by pouring a bag of salt on Allura's wounds from Lotor, who preyed on her desperation to connect with her lost people and culture.

A desperation that the narrative repeatedly punishes her for simply having at all.

"As I recall, you were the one who got us all cozied up to Lotor."

This leads Lance to again interject, "Keith, you ran away. Maybe you should have just stayed away", and poor sweet Hunk to do his best to put an end to the in-fighting.

"Lance, Keith, everyone, stop. Look, guys, I understand what's happening here-- you're all brave heroes who don't know how to react to being scared, and it's causing you to attack one another. That, or you're all going space-mad. Hopefully you're just scared. I'm-I'm scared all the time. I can talk you through it."

Keith's response to this remarkable wisdom and insight?

"Sorry, Hunk. I guess I just don't know how to be a coward."

Though Hunk is unbothered by Keith's puerile name-calling, Lance, again, interjects on his friend's behalf, telling Keith to drift off by himself; as stated, earlier, and just as Keith wanted. Hunk takes it upon himself to shoulder the responsibility of keeping the team together, grabbing Keith's leg to prevent him leaving them for a second time, and his efforts net him a positively scathing response from his "new and improved" team leader:

"Why, Hunk? Are we really even friends? Is there anything holding us together besides some messed up series of coincidences? I mean, what are we? Some 'chosen saviors'? Do you really believe that? What are we even doing out here?!"

It takes Hunk almost sacrificing himself to ward off a giant monster, and Lance, Pidge, and Allura reminding Hunk that they are, indeed, a team, and would never leave him to die, for Keith to offer an, in my opinion, vague, flimsy apology for "those hurtful things" he said. Of course, because this is a TV Y7 cartoon made to sell toys to children, Keith gives a little speech about how that "series of coincidences" mattered because it brought them all together as Paladins and, "more importantly", "friends", and that brings the Lions to their rescue, allowing them to form Voltron and travel through space at hyperspeed to end up just outside of the Milky Way.

Once on Earth, Keith dons his Diet Shiro persona and gives Hunk a more in-depth and sincere apology, informing Hunk that he is most definitely not a coward. Allura, however, gets nothing, despite her, once again, coming through for Shiro (her platonic soulmate) in a major way.

After Keith was the one who left Shiro to inhabit a body with only one arm.

At long last, we reach the deservedly widely reviled finale, where the executive producers made their most morally bankrupt, inexcusable, and unforgivable creative decision. Which is saying a lot. Allura commits suicide to undo the damage that Honerva, an utterly irredeemable monster, had done to multiple realities, just so Honerva can get exactly what she wanted.

Before she willingly steps into the void with a brave smile on her face, Allura says a personal farewell to every member of the team. Except Coran, because this show was helmed by people who wanted you to feel miserable and angry at the world and yourself for watching it. Unless you have the privilege of being a Keith and/or Pidge fan. The fourth trauma survivor to be cruelly killed off, and the third member of a marginalized community to meet their end for the sole purpose of elevating "MonSantos"'s pet, Allura's final words for that pet are, "There is greatness in your heart, and your actions."

And, in response, said pet stands there, silent and stiff as a board in Allura's embrace, and showing less emotion than Shiro, who had, at this point in the series, been reduced to a distant military figure and side-character who has no meaningful relationships with anyone.

A year later, Keith stands on Daibazaal, the Galra home world that Allura's sacrifice revived and renewed. And, with all eyes on him, and while being broadcasted on multiple screens, he delivers a big, "epic" speech.

"With the return of Planet Daibazaal, the Galra Empire is at a crossroads. For too long, the people of this extraordinary civilization have been manipulated by a dictatorship that placed a misguided sense of self-preservation above all else. "It was a tragic, unfortunate series of events that lead us down this dark, never-ending path of power and greed. But, now... we... the citizens of the Galra Empire... have an opportunity to make right all of the injustices set into motion by our forefathers. Because of the sacrifice made by Princess Aurora (yes, that's seriously what he calls her), we have been given a second chance-- to come together in rebuilding the Galra Empire."

That's right. "Rebuilding" the Empire responsible for the destruction of Altea and the genocide of its people-- Allura and Coran's people. For the abduction and imprisonment of Shiro, Matt, and Sam Holt. For Shiro's extensive trauma and further torture via his body being subjected to nonconsensual experimentation, his innately altruistic and self-sacrificing nature challenged over and over again by forcing him to kill or be killed, and implied sexual violation at the hands of Sendak.

The Empire that enslaved the Balmerans, making them prisoners on their own home planet forced so far underground that entire generations had never seen the sky and had no concept of freedom. And, the Empire that mercilessly ravaged and nearly killed that planet, which is a living creature.

The Empire that enslaved the Olkari, left the Taujeerians to die, and inflicted untold acts of unmitigated barbarism all across the universe for ten thousand years.

That Galra Empire.

Now, I'll extend Keith, and "MonSantos", the benefit of the doubt that maybe he (and they) didn't mean the "Empire" as it was under Zarkon's command. Though the usage of that word, considering its unignorable connotations, is profoundly dubious. Maybe, he really means to upheave the entire concept of a Galra Empire, and rework it from the ground up, perhaps with the implementation of a parliament and a democratic voting system. Though, that hardly makes an "empire", as "empires" are by definition:

"A major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority, especially : one having an emperor as chief of state".

Keith (and "MonSantos") could have phrased his rousing speech as, "rebuild this planet and its great civilization, foster peaceful relations with the planets around us, and work together to undo the evil that was done by a tyrant, whose insatiable lust for power has left an indelible stain on the Galra name". Rather than attempting to humanize and absolve Zarkon and his one-dimensional, cartoonishly evil men, many of whom are still very much alive and attempting to make their own grabs for power in the vacuum left by their Emperor and his heir's demise, of culpability, and pledging to help the "citizens of the empire" resume conquering and colonizing surrounding planets, as that is how an empire is formed and maintained.

There's a later throwaway exchange between Shiro, Keith, and Lance inserted in what I can only assume was an effort to present Keith as humble, and offer a "humorous" commentary on his penchant for dodging any and all unwanted responsibility.

Shiro: "Speaking of which, how are things going on Daibazaal?"

Keith: "We're calling for an election to select a Galran representative for the Galactic Coalition. So that's a step in the right direction."

Lance: "Let me guess-- they asked you to be their leader and you said no?"

Keith: (with total nonchalance) "Yeah. Pretty much."

Lance: (like an actor in a sitcom reciting his exasperated straight man character's catchphrase) "Classic Keith."

(Cue laughter from the other guests around the table, like this actually is a sitcom.)

I made that assumption because Coran, the man who was a second father to Allura and loved her deeply, and also would have been absolutely devastated had he heard what Keith had to say about his beloved friend, King Alfor, tells Keith, "Allura would be proud of your decision, Keith. I think she knew that you would always be the key to the Galras' future."

And, yet, Keith was perfectly okay expressing callous and blatant disregard for Allura's life, safety, and emotions on multiple occasions over an extended period of time, and had the audacity to look down on her father for prioritizing making certain that his daughter would live over fighting a futile battle that he knew he had already lost.

Allura came to value Keith and other heroic Galra, regardless of their blood, and made that crystal clear many times. But, outside of the ship tease in Season Two's The Ark of Taujeer, before the franchise staple Keith/Allura romance was dropped in favor of Allura/Lance, when and where did Keith show that he valued Allura? And, that he had any respect at all for her people and their culture?

He scowls at her back over her wanting to personally investigate a trapped ship that is issuing an Altean distress signal in Season Three's Hole in the Sky.

The same episode where he is literally placed above her after the Paladins wind up in an alternate reality that is predicated on a half-baked, "What if the Alteans and the Galra switched roles?" concept, and where Allura is shamed and treated like a foolish, naive little girl for being nearly taken in by pretty painted pictures of a reality where her people thrived, eliminated the "Galra scourge", and set about spreading their "peace" across the entire universe.

I opened this essay by asking, "What is Keith's problem with Allura?" And, I think, all evidence considered, the answer to this question is fairly cut and dry.

Facets of the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom love to characterize Allura as an unapologetic racist. But, perhaps the real racist was the skinny, edgy, half-alien colonizer twink who was appointed the savior of the universe by hateful executive producers who wanted everyone both fictional and otherwise to grovel at their pet Chosen One's feet, all along.

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