#he's an asian parent that is literally canon you cannot change my mind

[threestripeslider]

Splinter cutting up fruit and just wordlessly giving it to his sons as a snack without being asked as a silent sign of love and care can literally be so personal–

[pepperpaprika]

Thinking about this recently cos a couple of folks brought it up in comments/chat. :’) @takashiskeith 

First off-  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Shiro and Keith having a brotherly dynamic headcanon. Nor is there anything wrong with shipping two people because of intense fictional ‘brotherly’ dynamics that pretty much don’t really occur in real life siblings. The intensity of such fictional relationships is shipped across a LOT of fandoms. Choosing to ship or not on that basis is valid. But. 

Blood-related Br0gane is NOT canon. And there is plenty of logical evidence to suggest a blood relation or adoptive family relationship isn’t in Keith and Shiro’s pasts, either. 

(Also, as an aside, saying two potentially same-race characters are siblings is kind of like Hunk assuming “do you guys all know eachother” to Galra!Keith.Not to mention we got confirmation that Keith is PART Galra which is NOT asian or even human and cannot be Shiro’s fulll blooded brother.) 

Some breakdowns:

You’re LIKE a brother to me. VS. You’re my brother. 

This was supposed to be an impactful scene. Keith is teary. He is appealing to mind!Shiro and wants him to know how important Shiro is to him, but that he’s still going to do what he wants/needs to do. The scene loses all impact if he’s saying his brother is like a brother- basically spitting in your brother’s face because “oh but all this time I never saw you as a brother”. 

So we assume this scene is meant to read as “you are important to me” not “I deny our brotherly relationship”. 

With that context, options. 

Option A: They’re adoptive family= Not Blood Related and he is trying to affirm that bond.

Option B: They have a brotherly relationship, similar to blood brothers who swear to care for eachother as though they were of the same blood. = Still Not Blood Related. 

Option C: You Are My Very Important Friend and I Don’t Know How to Express It Enough. Given that the most intense relationships in the show we see are familial ones (Pidge with her fam, Allura with her dad), it makes sense to latch on to that. As other people have pointed out, there’s also a sense of “no homo, bro”to this. But Nope, not blood related here, either. 

Is it possible they won’t see eachother sexually because they ‘feel’ like they’re siblings and it’s gross? Certainly. Just as it’s possible that one or both of them are not sexually interested in men. Until proven otherwise, the only canon romantic/sexual attraction we see thus far is Lance towards female aliens. Everyone else could still potentially be straight or queer. 

On the other hand, if they DID grow up together, then a few things don’t add up in their current relationship. 

If they grew up together, then WHY didn’t Shiro know that Keith had a knife? That connected to his past and his Galra heritage? That is implied to have been given or left by his father, the human parent who could potentially also be related to Shiro? 

Keith says “I’ve had it all my life.” and Kolivan asks if it’s true. Shiro says he doesn’t know. Ergo, he CANNOT confirm that Keith’s had it all his life because- well, a)he’s never seen it. b)he was NOT with keith ALL of Keith’s life. 

He would have been living in the same house. They presumably had a close relationship which is the basis of their current close relationship, so he would’ve at least figured out that Keith was always hiding a knife-shaped thing somewhere in his room or person. He literally just wrapped up the blade, not even the handle. Shiro also did not notice that Keith suddenly was wearing this knife more or less openly on his belt. If he knew a time when Keith didn’t have it that stretched back as far as childhood, he would’ve been able to answer Kolivan or been able to give a time frame instead of just total nothingness. 

Him not knowing makes it hard to believe that he grew up with Keith. 

The other thing that suggests they didn’t grow up together?

“That really stayed with you, didn’t it?”

“You’ve given me some good advice. If it wasn’t for you, my life would have been a lot different.”

You changed my life usually means that there was a point BEFORE ‘you’ came into the aforementioned life. And that you were cognisant enough to realise there was a ‘before Shiro’ and ‘after Shiro’, so probably around gradeschool at earliest. Taking prior points into account, though, I’m inclined to think they met at the Garrison.

If they grew up together, we know Keith is an orphan, it’s in his official bio- that means if Shiro is his only remaining family, Shiro would probably have had some hand in raising Keith. But here’s Keith, thanking him for good advice which changed his life, not for taking care of him personally. 

Third reason why they didn’t grow up together or are not known to be blood related or even adoptive brothers? Lance. 

That’s Shiro, pilot of the Kerberos mission- that guy’s my hero!

"What are they doing? That guy’s a legend, they don’t even want to listen to him?”

Shiro is Lance’s hero. Shiro is well known, a legend. He knows at least the basic info about him. He also knows Keith personally. presumably sees his name in the leaderboards and knows his surname, if it’s Shirogane or not. But not once does he nor anyone else mention Shiro’s relationship to Keith as family. 

When Keith shows up to rescue Shiro, he doesn’t think “oh his brother’s come to get him”, he thinks “Keith, my rival, is one-upping me again and with my hero!”. He then interrupts with:

Nope. no. Nonono No you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.

 Family is important to Lance- he misses them. He cries about it. I don’t think he’d be callous enough to deny Keith the chance to save his family, even if he is his rival. 

It’s been mentioned before but nobody else mentions Shiro and Keith’s familial relationship at all, even though a lot of season 1 was about family. Pidge looking for her family. Lance missing his family. Allura saying goodbye to her father, her only family. Hunk telling Lance and Keith they’re all brothers. 

But nobody mentions Shiro and Keith are family. It’d be odd to omit that if they were. 

Even apart from LIKE my brother, Keith never acts like Shiro is his blood brother either.

If Shiro were his blood brother, he would include Shiro in the search for his mom/answers. Even something as casual as “hey do you remember mom” or “did dad ever say anything about my mom”? would have established that. But no, instead, he decided to run a gauntlet to prove that he is worthy of getting an answer to his heritage. it’s not Shiro’s heritage and not Shiro’s answer- Keith is very clear about this. he says “I have to do this.” and “I have a lot on my mind.” Mind!Shiro says “then you’ve chosen to be alone.” This quest for knowledge is KEITH’s quest. Not Keith and Shiro’s as a family. Just Keith. 

When he DOES meet his mind!dad, another strange thing happens- his dad asks: “Don’t you want to catch up?” and Keith says “Of course I do.” No mention is made of Shiro being also there for this catch up. Just Keith. No mention of his dad on “where’s your big brother, Shiro?” Just Keith. 

Canonly speaking, all the little cues that would imply a blood or formal adoptive relationship are glaringly missing from the way Keith and Shiro treat or talk to eachother-- and how other people treat/talk to them.

Keith’s Dad Looks Like Shiro.. and that’s okay. 

For the reasons stated above, this is kinda a moot point- but just as an additional aside.

Shiro:

Keith’s Dad: 

The facial shape and brows are similar to Shiro. 

On the other hand, Keith’s dad also has sharp cheekbones (and stubble) and you can see his hairline is not the same as Shiro’s-- his hair parts differently, mind!dad has pointed sideburns to Shiro’s flat look.  The eyes are obviously different as they are Keith’s eyes, made smaller. 

Now look at Keith and Allura:

Guesss what. They share the same brows/brow thickness and the same jaw and nose. They even both have the little curly sideburns. The difference is the ears and altean markings and of course skin color. Even the eyes are kinda similar here, just Allura’s are bigger and a diff color. 

The point being made is that the resemblance MAY be a plot point, but it’s equally likely that it looks that way because of a combination of samejaw style (just like allura, keith and lance share the same face shape) and a stylistic decision to make him appear like an older Keith with a broader jaw. 

As an example look at teenaged Coran ((who also shares the same jaw, body type, and brow thickness as Keith):

And compare with Adult!Coran, whose pointed chin has now broadened a bit. 

So unless Lance, Keith, Allura, and Coran are all related to eachother, there’s no reason for Shiro and Keith’s dad to be related, either.

There’s nothing hard fact about similar appearances except that Shiro and Keith’s dad are both kinda hot in a Nathan Drake way.