#people abusing him rather than a P.O.W. situation like Shiro) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sage-nebula · 7 years ago

Text

Meta that, while driving to work this morning, it occurred to me that I should write:

Keith, from the very first episode of the first season of Voltron: Legendary Defender, shows behavioral traits and mannerisms associated with C-PTSD, which is a mental illness that sometimes comes across / is interpreted as a personality disorder due to how it affects how people grow, develop, and interact with the world. C-PTSD is very often (if not always) the result of long-time abuse, particularly in childhood / adolescence. Keith, as an orphan whose past is shrouded in mystery (even to himself; Steven Yeun once said that Keith “doesn’t have a full vision of his past” and that he’s “going through so much trauma in that way”), could very well be a survivor of abuse in his childhood or adolescence, which has resulted in many of the behavioral traits we see from him (e.g. the isolation, difficulties with emotional regulation, hyper-vigilance) we see in the present.

Shiro---the real Shiro---could very well be aware of this, and is also very likely the person who has helped Keith heal and recover since they met, offering him grounding techniques and guidance on how best to cope with his trauma and move forward. This has been hinted at by the crew (most recently, Lauren and Joaquim said that Shiro was like Keith’s pillar, the one who kept him centered), but has also been insinuated and even shown in the canon itself. Between Keith saying that “without [Shiro], [his] life would have been a lot different,” and Shiro teaching Keith “patience yields focus,” which is a mantra that we have seen Keith repeat to himself on multiple occasions to help himself calm down (from anxiety and panic, both things which are part of hyper-vigilance), it’s evident that Shiro has played a big part in helping Keith recover from whatever he went through before they met, and therefore highly possible---even probable---that he knows what that something is, at least in part.

Finally, while Shiro has helped Keith heal and has given him techniques to handle the symptoms of his trauma, Shireplica seems to be undoing all of that and is directly countering the tools and techniques that Shiro taught Keith. Between layering on emotional abuse in various forms and actively arguing against things such as “patience yields focus” (he never says that exactly, but it’s evident enough that’s what’s happening near the end of 3x06), Shireplica is dismantling what Shiro did to help Keith, and is thereby exacerbating old wounds and creating new ones in the process. We could very well (and maybe even likely) see a situation where it’s not just that Shireplica is tearing Keith down, but that he’s also tearing apart potential years of progress Keith had made---that Shiro had helped him make.

This is meta I think I’m going to write---meta I think I should write. Hopefully I get the time / energy for it soon.

#it just sort of . . . hit me when i was driving to work #bc tbh Shireplica is emotionally abusive to Keith in more than just the one scene i talked about #his unpredictability in regards to what he wants from Keith is emotional abuse as well #the way he yells at Keith to do one thing #and then changes his mind later #and when then Keith expresses shock and even mild indignation this is not acknowledged #he just yells at Keith some more #which is confusing and upsetting and can feed into hypervigilance (as the abuse victim tries their best not to upset the abuser #but finds this incredibly stressful and difficult because there's no way of telling what wil l upset the abuser and what won't)#and then i realized that we've already seen hypervigilance from Keith in various situations multiple times #e.g. he was out of bed before the first beat of the alarm started sounding in 1x02 #and how he was the one IMMEDIATELY ready to defend against the Arusian's ''strongest warrior'' in 1x03 #it was played for laughs and treated like aggression or paranoia on Keith's part but it was actually hypervigilance #hypervigilance often comes across as paranoia because an abuse victim / survivor can't help but see potential threats around every corner #considering none of the other Paladins* are this way despite also training at the Garrison we can rest assured this is not a result of #Keith's Garrison training - this is something else. something we don't know about and Keith himself might not even fully remember #(*Shiro is to an extent but that's a result of HIS PTSD as a result of being a prisoner of the Galra. And even then he's mostly like that #re: Galra; he's more chill around the average person whereas Keith isn't which makes me think that Keith's trauma stems from ordinary #people abusing him rather than a P.O.W. situation like Shiro)#and it's so much more than that too because like #Shireplica was shouting at Keith to make a decision in that battle - was yelling at him to hurry up because they didn't have time and that #directly contradicts ''patience yields focus'' - which incidentally Keith seems to silently USE in that scene to HELP him solve the #situation. Shireplica says ''your quick thinking . . .'' but it was really Keith taking a moment to center himself that did it #he took a moment to center himself the way SHIRO taught him #in direct contrast to how SHIREPLICA was shouting at him #like . . . i feel like there's really something here and i want to write this meta out in full #how Shiro helped Keith heal from whatever happened in his past #but how Shireplica is going against everything Shiro taught and did #and is tearing Keith down to potentially disastrous results depending on how far the writers want to take this #(and how long Shireplica is with the team)

14 notes · View notes