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[vldkeith]

Ren, why is the blade so bad?

ok. ok. im in the headspace now. here we go

why the blade was bad as a mechanism for character growth and plot momentum: an analysis by ren vldkeith

allow me to remind you of keith's character in voltron: legendary defenders. we are first introduced to him through the words of other characters, lance and commander iverson. iverson heralds him as a larger-than-life, ridiculously talented pilot with an antisocial streak and authority issues. this tracks with keith's official introduction, wherein he is attempting to break into garrison property, alone, to save shiro, his only personal connection. then we have lance, who characterizes keith as his rival; given what iverson said, however, we know this to be false, and thus lance's opinion on keith says more about himself than about who he is describing. both of these keith-related pieces of dialogue, together, serve one purpose: to establish keith as a talented loner. he's an ace pilot, a hermit, a military maverick, and a never be hurt again archetype. okay? okay.

the character arc keith began by joining voltron as part of a team was overcoming his chronic lone-wolfism and learning to trust, love, and have fun with others again. he's already "the best pilot of his generation"; any skills he has to learn on that front are in the vein of learning to harness his talent in a way that can be helpful to others and not just service his own impulse, strict standards of value, morality, and relationships. he needs to learn to rely on and trust others--this is clearly what the first seasons of voltron were working toward, and even if they hadn't been, i would argue that they should have been, because any other character arc keith takes would not make sense (hint, hint).

so! with that established, enter the blade of marmora, a rebel military organization that comes into the story in season 3, just as keith is getting "used" to piloting the black lion instead of the red lion as the Leader of Voltron. based on various character beats & dialogue from keith, we know he wanted to join the bom to further understand his galra side and, specifically, the knife his mother gave to him. the knife's power only accepts him after he says the line, "it doesn't matter where i come from. i know who i am." the knife accepting keith means that the bom does as well. the fact that keith is able to join the blade of marmora specifically after realizing that he doesn't need them to have a sense of self is, in itself, pretty boring and shoddy writing; it makes sense in a kind of platonian "only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it" way, but it's a fairly surface-level take on the concept anyway. but for our purposes right now, we can accept it as valid.

so, keith fucks off and joins the blade after just a single season dedicated to developing his teamwork and leadership skills, half of which he spends failing in his new role by leading the team into battles they aren't ready for, not caring about communication between members, and overall just showing he's still struggling with being a team player just as much as he ever was. only near the end of the season does he begin to turn this around, but that development is cut short by him joining the blade.

now, following the line of thinking that keith's character are was meant to/could/should be "learning to connect and work with other people using his talents," what could him leaving the team, his friends, and his family to join an organization that explicitly values results over lives and the greater good over the individual contribute to this arc? it seems to be the exact opposite of the lessons the narrative was pushing keith to learn--he's not part of a team anymore, but goes on solo missions. he's not valued as a living person, but just on the basis of the skills he can offer to the org. if the seminal revelation keith has in season 3 is that it doesn't matter where he comes from, why did they put him with a group that is his connection point to his mother--aka, literally where he came from? i don't want to get too freudian about this, but it's off.

my assumption, then, would be that putting a character like keith into a situation like this would serve to sharpen the pitfalls in his former way of going about life, to further drive home that opening himself up to friendship and teamwork is good by giving him a taste of his old ways, by saying, "look, this is where rejecting people and recklessly using your talents will leave you--a place where you are not valued as a person, where nobody cares whether you live or die except for how it will affect their far-reaching goals. is this what you wanted? is this what you still want? are you sure?" it's the ghost of christmas future, showing him where he'll end up if he keeps shirking responsibility (learning to lead the team or even just work with them) and closing himself off to interpersonal relationships. the only way keith joining the bom at the time he did would make sense to me narratively would be is if it functioned as a warning.

that's not what happens, though. keith joins the blade, has a few scuffles with authority that he gets over without much mess, returns to team voltron a few times as a guest star to prove what lessons the blade is teaching him about leadership and teamwork (presumably off-screen, since we only ever see keith alone, disobeying authority, or directly subscribing to the blade's ideals a la that one moment where we are meant to think he went back to save someone because he cares about life but it was instead because they had practical importance to the blade's mission lol), goes back to the blade, and finally sets himself back up with voltron full-time to end out the show. at this point, he's a full-fledged leader character, not unlike shiro before him. his character arc has been completed; he gets screentime, sure, but it's mostly to show how much of a rogue action hero he is, a transformation that feels at best unearned based on the text of the show, and at worst out of character to his former maverick personality. keith becoming leader of the blade at the end of the show is the culmination of these disparate elements.

as media critics, we now must ask ourselves: what was it that keith wanted, and how does that compare with what he needed? wants vs needs is something you learn in media studies 101 (trust me, ive literally taken the class), and it describes the difference between superficial character growth and actual, meaningful character growth. my answer to this question is thus:

keith wanted to know who he was and understand his own story. keith wanted to do what he thought was right for the future of the universe and lead on his terms. keith wanted to live a solitary life so he wouldn't get hurt by losing people again.

keith needed to understand that his genetics and past trauma do not inherently determine who he is--he can make that decision. keith needed to learn that other peoples' opinions matter and have value, and may even be better than his. keith needed to let others in for the sake of his happiness.

it is my argument, therefore, that the blade of marmora and bom leader keith gave keith everything he wanted, but nothing he needed. it was a shallow decision made to ensure keith would retain his protagonist power once the showrunners decided, at different intervals, that shiro was 1) boring; 2) traumatized/dead; or 3) gay. keith got the shiro role because the showrunners were sick of shiro's character, and this came at the expense of keith's entire character arc, shiro's complexity, and the found-family plotline of voltron as a whole. it's bad writing, it's a nonsensical end to the character, and finally it's just fucking weird that the organization fighting against the galra still upheld its freakish racial purity standards and aesthetics. also keith leading a group of women is antifeminist too idk.

happy fuck the blade day.