that gifset made me think but ‘are we really even friends’ would actually be something keith thinks considering he spend last 2+ years with krolia and before that with BoM with minimal contact with the team like?
or do yall consider people you havent talked with for more than 2 years your friends? Jus saying
Tbh, I understood where Keith was coming from, too??
It’s not even just the time spent apart. The writers didn’t really do a good job making me believe that the Paladins were super close. Yes, they’d fight and sacrifice for each other in battle; that’s how a combat unit survives. Yes, they’ve had some fun times together.
But there are some hallmarks of really close friendships – the kinds that easily endure years of absence – that the Paladins just never hit in my eyes. (At least, not all of the Paladins together. Maybe subgroups.) Really tight friends know your quirks. They know how you tend to think, because you’ve been together through some shit and have had some deep, personal conversations. They can’t read your mind, but they can guess your motives to their general neighborhood and proceed from there.
Pretty much all of the paladins other than Shiro have repeatedly mischaracterized and wildly misinterpreted Keith’s motives. After spending months, if not years, together on this mission, they still don’t seem to know how he ticks. Keith can be withdrawn, yeah, but you’d think there would have been more progress after so long. It makes sense Keith would characterize their relationship as “just a bunch of people thrown together by coincidence” when he’s so often misunderstood.
Good friends also recognize when they’ve gone too far and apologize or – if this is difficult for them – at least express guilt or try to make up for the error. This is another thing that just never seems to happen, particularly where Keith is concerned. The VLD writers have a habit of creating these interpersonal conflicts (good) and then never really resolving them (bad). Lance, in particular, often accuses Keith of selfishness or cowardice, and I can’t remember a single instance of him ever apologizing or even showing remorse. Yeah, you can let some stuff go as “water under the bridge”, but how much?
I dunno. It’s terrible, but I kind of anxious-laughed at Keith’s “Are we even friends?” line, because I felt it was skirting uncomfortably close to the truth. I think the writers meant for the Paladins to have a deep, familial, platonically intimate bond, but that’s not something I think they executed on successfully. I don’t know if it was because of outside sources demanding more robot fights and fewer conversations or what, but for me, a lot of the Paladins’ friendship has been all tell, no show.
Because when Keith demanded to know if they were really even friends, I didn’t think he was entirely wrong to do so.
also, knowing shiro and adams relationship actually makes me like … pretty 👀👀 towards keith’s “like a brother” lines bc to me,,, that feels a lot like Heavy Repression and pining.
imagine, keith falling for his older mentor who is in a happily committed relationship and trying to suppress those feelings because he doesnt want to lose what he has, he doesnt want to make shiro uncomfortable, he doesnt want to push too hard.
shiro is like a brother to him. he repeats it like a mantra every time shiro looks at him to the point that he starts to believe it himself. they cant be real feelings. shiro’s just like a brother, after all.
god ok not to get all sappy and stuff but seriously, shiro values keith on a personal level that we don’t see with anyone else or between any other two characters (except zarkon and haggar lbr). like ulaz is the one who saved shiro’s life twice and i think shiro takes that kind of sacrifice really seriously. he guns for that alliance with the blade of marmora for the entire second season. he goes against allura and the rest of the team to fight for it.
…and then keith wants to keep his knife. that’s literally all it takes. anyone who says there’s a power imbalance between keith and shiro or that they don’t explicitly and unconditionally trust and love each other needs to rewatch this episode. shiro could easily order keith to give it up, downplay the knife’s importance, or at least argue that an alliance is more important than the knife, but he doesn’t. he literally takes one look at keith and calls it off entirely.
this is so funny omg, keith stans back at it again.
its just like, so funny when you ignore keith picking up fights with lance as well when he wasn’t even addressing him. like yes lance may have started it, but keith is just as guilty for continuing it (and again, even starting some fights himself). if keith was the “better person” or “the poor poor victim” he wouldn’t be reacting the way he does, so stop painting keith as some delicate flower, yall are disrespecting him.
Also I don’t even….. see the problem with half of these gifs like, in some of them lance is saying the hard truth and if keith stans cant handle it then too bad.
and all of these gifs are from like, s1 and s2 (except lance doubting keith being the BP). its not like we’re 5 seasons in with s6 about to drop out that had nothing of a development, not at all :O character growth? never heard of her
It’s 2018 and here we are, trying to put Keith’s behavior on
the same level as Lance’s.
You already derailed yourself when you said, “Lance may have
started it,” and there really is no way to come back from that. You cannot
compare someone’s defensive retorts to someone who genuinely means to attack
your character, you can’t expect Keith to have to put up with any of that and
not turn away from it and brush it off. Why are you expecting Keith to be the
better person when it’s Lance you should be telling this to? Be the better
person, you say? How about telling that to the person who has a serious issue
with you based on their own self-created notions toward someone they’ve never
met, have never talked to in their life, and is constantly using that as an excuse
to justify some of their harsh comments and unnecessary taunts to someone who
genuinely had no knowledge of that person existing? Expecting Keith to take all
of that and shrug it off when some of those comments are at a personal
level—calling someone a dropout, telling them that you’re in a better class
thanks to that person failing out? Telling someone that they’re power hungry
enough to use their dead best friend’s image when they’re obviously grieving
and hurting from it?
You’re gonna sit there and tell me that this is something
Keith fans need to hear? Reminding them that you’re constantly trying to
denigrate someone’s character in an effort to prove yourself better than them?
Trying to influence others to make them believe that Keith is an untrustworthy
and terrible person? You’re really defending someone who only has their own
best self-interest in mind and is trying to pin all the world’s wrongdoings on
another person because of their own need for glory, in Allura’s own words?
Why is it so hard for y’all to recognize that Lance and
Keith are not friends, and are, at the most, uneasy allies? Why is it so hard
for y’all to recognize that you don’t talk to someone like this, you don’t
remind your friends of their previous failings and shortcomings, you don’t tell
them that they’re untrustworthy and will make a mess of everything the moment
someone is thinking of choosing them over you? It’s not “hard truth,” it’s you
being a goddamn jealous bitter asshole who had no real investment on that
relationship. Lance’s grudging acceptance of Keith’s position because
circumstances have forced him to make this choice is not him wanting to support
Keith as the black paladin and leader, when Lance had been sitting in the black
lion for half an hour, hyping himself up to take the black lion, saying it was
his moments, it’s his ticket to fame and fortune?
Keith having egged Lance on pales to the amount of times
that Lance has deliberately tried to pick a fight with Keith, trying every
opportunity to inject how he’s better than Keith into moments that don’t call
for it. It’s Lance’s own insecurity and jealousy over the things that he wants
but sees Keith having that he’s upset about.
Yes, a lot of this is from S1 – S3, and there were scenes I
could have chosen from S4, still some from S1, but it seems as though so many
of these scenes have flown over your head cause all you’re seeing is someone
pointing out vicious and toxic behavior as someone trying to lander your fave.
The amount of people crying about this gifset are all trying to bring up
Keith’s behavior, are trying to derail and act as though Keith is the one at
fault for Lance’s constant attacks, for him existing is the reason why Lance is
that way and it’s not Lance’s fault. It’s also funny how Lance claims Keith to
be the hothead when it’s Lance who has the most emotional POV and reaction in
the show. Is that a bad thing? No, it gives insight about how Lance is feeling
and what he’s thinking. He’s the one who blows up at Keith, he’s the one who
tries to get into Shiro’s face and yell at Shiro about him choosing Keith, it’s
Lance who demands that he’s gonna save Shiro, it’s Lance who’s reacting to everything
with emotion.
Also, you can’t call Lance and Keith not interacting for two
whole seasons as character development. What’s the character development for if
there’s nothing happening for it to take place? Grudging acceptance is not the
same as accepting something out of freewill if the circumstance didn’t call for
it by force.
Again, I still keep coming back to you saying it’s Keith’s
fault for responding to someone who is trying to slander his character, someone
who spends their time together trying to make you look like an idiot and a
fool. It’s Lance who should have swallowed his pride, Keith shouldn’t be blamed
for trying to defend himself or getting upset because of Lance’s words.
Nice try to put the blame on Keith and not acknowledging
where the blame truly lies.
Lotor is coded as half white/half POC with his white side being the side of his abusers and treated as being less than for being half POC (Altean) so,
Nevermind Lotor is proud of who he is. Nevermind Lotor is proud to be of Altean and Galra descent. Nevermind that you just slandered half of Lotor’s heritage in the name of defending him. Stripping his character down, stripping mixed race down, to a single sentence in the name of hate and uwu/woke points. Yes, Lotor is a survivor of abuse and wears that openly. But. Lotor is proud to be of Altean AND Galra descent. Proud of BOTH sides of his heritage. Washing over that and boiling his abuse down to a single sentence is a disservice to a phenomenal, nuanced character. But nevermind any of that. Let’s talk about:
What Voltron Owes Imperialism
or
Why Fandom is Missing the Point
Lotor being coded as half POC / half white may be completely on the money, but to say the Galra Empire is white coded is wildly inaccurate when we look at real life empires across history. Empire is not exclusively white. Empire does not know age, does not know gender, does not know race. Sci-Fi owes a great deal to European (white) imperialism but for this fandom it is important to remember Voltron originally came out of Japan. A country that has also parented deeply imperialistic ideologies and committed grave atrocities in pursuit of that imperialism. It is important to remember BOTH SIDES of Lotor’s heritage because, like all mixed race people, he pulls from more than one culture. But above all, IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER EMPIRE IS NOT THE ANSWER. Imperialism is bad no matter what form it takes.
The Galra as Imperial Japan-
Altea and the Galra both hold imperialistic views that closely mirror real world historical justifications for imperialism, but the Galra are not white coded. The Galra Empire holds more in common with Imperial Japan’s doctrine than with European empires in terms of structure, conquest, and internal justification. Looking at their structure, the Galra work on a class system. We have to assume there are at least a few classes given the complexity of such things, but we have only been shown a serving class and a warrior class, the latter being of the utmost importance and seemingly occupied by most of their citizens. We’ve only met 2 named non-warrior Galra across this war; and we likely were only shown the serving class to demonstrate that Zarkon has always been elitist. Like Imperial Japan, the Galra have a very rigid, militaristic internal hierarchy based on strength and blood, in that order, but always together. They elect their emperor based on valour and fighting prowess. They rise through the ranks based on how successful they are in battle, through honorable rite of combat. And following this ideology, Galra conquer because they are the strongest. Because others are weak and if a species is not strong enough to defend their people and their land then they deserve to be conquered and used for the glory of the Galra Empire. And the Galra consider their blood to be the source of that strength. The strongest are strong because they are pure and it is in their veins. But then we see that ideology tweaked as the Galra expand and spread. We see people like Shiro, who meet their criteria for strength without blood to bolster their claim, who have admirable fighting prowess. So Shiro becomes elevated; they call him Champion and brand him theirs by outfitting him with a piece of their culture, their technology. Because it is not enough for Shiro to be strong; he must be strong in the way they are: as a Galra. We see this again with mixed race Galra citizens like Lotor and his generals who have Galra blood and therefore are strong enough to be a part of their ranks, but they are still considered ‘less than’ because their blood is impure- ideology that was so deeply ingrained in Imperial Japan. This intense stratification in the Galra is perfectly illustrated when we are first introduced to Lotor:
The Galra also match Japan in terms of conquest. Colonization is achieved by sending merchants, missionaries and families to new territories to occupy the upper class and maintain hold on new land. But we learn Zarkon was not interested in this when Lotor recounts how he worked alongside the native inhabitants of his conquered planet. Zarkon was not out to colonize but to conquer. Like Imperial Japan, he sent soldiers and they conquered like locusts. They came in, stripped the area of resources, and put the appropriate fear into the local population. Like Imperial Japan, they preyed on the weak because they were strong. But a large part of why Japan was never conquered isn’t because of their tremendous fighting prowess. It’s because other imperialists, white imperialists, came to their lands, saw similar ideologies being practiced and sought alliance instead of subjection. And Japan eagerly accepted alliance, not out of fear, but because they sought to enhance their wealth through knowledge and technology. Sound familiar? If you’ve paid any attention to the early relationship of Alfor and Zarkon it should.
Why Galra and Alteans got along-
Earmarking Zarkon as Lotor’s white oppressor is an easy and thoughtless conclusion. Something fans like to jump to because the Galra Empire has been winning for thousands of years. Altea is not the oppressed POC wiped out by the evil white coded Galra. Altea is the white coded European imperialists overthrown by the POC coded Galra imperialists. It’s important to look at the other original Voltron paladins to understand this.
In VLD’s narrative, it is clear Alfor and Zarkon lead the alliance of their planetary system, the “formal agreement to work alongside each other.” Look at the screenshot above. On one side, we’ve got Zarkon, with Gyrgen and Trigel, and on the other we have Alfor backed by Blaytz. Instead of showing 5 individuals coming together on equal ground we are shown Zarkon and Alfor shaking hands while the others stand by. This implies that both Zarkon and Alfor had been working with other planets, shoring up allies and additional resources, to protect and expand their culture. Perhaps they were doing so in a peaceful way, but perhaps not.
We have this story of five warriors coming together to form an unlikely bond, but it’s interesting that we never hear anything about the other three paladins or their cultures, no mention of how they may have influenced Altea or Diabazaal. Just a clip of Alfor visiting one of their planets. We don’t even know if any of the other 3 paladins’ people survived the mass genocide that was Zarkon and Alfor warring with one another. The implication in all of this is that Zarkon nor Alfor were interested in adopting or preserving other cultures but rather sought to spread their ‘superior’ way of life.
Altea as Imperial Europeans-
Everything about Altea’s practice and ideology points to a very imperial European (white) concept of Believed Moral Superiority. Their decisions are very paternalistic, holier than thou, and centered on the idea that they are thinkers who only need others, like the Galra and Blaytz, for brawn. Allura and Coran set Alfor up as this great peacemaker, a very European justification with promises of prosperity that is never delivered. Alteans built a giant near-indestructible magical war machine and labeled it ‘Defender of the Universe.’ They had castle ships which they used to maintain their lifestyle and culture during prolonged visits to other planets. Alteans were regularly making off-planet visits to Weblums and Balmera to collect recourses for their technology. And ages before Alfor’s alliance with the Galra, Alteans ventured far enough into space to discover a mystical, magical place of secrets and wisdom which only a select few from their race were bidden knowledge of and access to. All of this adds up to the fact that Alteans have been conquering in the name of exploration for some time. Alteans operate under the guise of spreading peace and knowledge but that only lasts as long as the leader has pure intentions. When a leader becomes corrupted or a new one takes their place, what happens? Oh wait, we saw that in 03×04 Hole in the Sky with Empress Allura.
This alternate reality furthered the story line in so many ways, but for this post let’s focus on how it helped our understanding of Allura. There she was known as Empress Allura where she “put down the Galra uprising and established the Altean Empire 10,000 years ago… Without [her] will to fight and avenge the loss of [her] father, Altea would not have been able to spread peace and stability throughout the universe.” An imperial justification rampant throughout European empires. And Princess Allura lights up at this description of herself and her people.
The show even goes as far as to parallel ‘the Altean peace movement’ with slave labor, a strong call back to European justifications for empire in response to viewing other worlds as savage and in need of control and/or redemption. In that reality, Allura established the Altean empire for peace and justice but also vengeance. She spread that empire because she believed Alteans know peace and prosperity and she wanted to bring their ‘good fortune’ to others. Maybe in her lifetime she was good to her newly conquered subjects. Maybe she had their best interests at heart. Maybe, like Lotor, she had high ideals. But the fact is Allura built an empire and ten thousand years later her legacy is not peace but slavery. Back in this reality, Altea is just a more palatable version of European imperialism because it is an empire that was snuffed out before it could grow into something irretrievably evil. But it was still an empire, one in which Allura believes.
The Point is Empire in any form is Not Good-
Empire must justify itself. Empire is not good. Imperialism is not good. Any of it. The point is that Allura needs to wake up and smell the damn coffee known as freedom. Altea is a call to European imperialist ideology and Allura strongly identifies with this because she was born into it and has believed in it her entire life. The point is that Allura must unlearn her prejudices, unlearn her flawed ideology, and look beyond Altea if she truly wants peace for the universe. Seasons 1 and 2 were about her learning to recognize imperialism. Seasons 3 and 4 demonstrate that she is able to see past it for the greater good. But we have yet to hit the beat where Allura clearly identifies what is bad about her beliefs, about Altea. Allura is not a fickle character rewritten every other season to suit the needs of the plot. Imperialism is something deeply ingrained in her and it will take more than a few heart-to-hearts and minor epiphanies to change that.
Enter Lotor-
Maybe the worst part of all of this isn’t just the glorification of Altea as something it never was, but holding Lotor up as an oppressed baby suffering under colonization. Yes, he has suffered under imperialism, but Lotor is also entirely on board with CONTINUING THIS EMPIRE’S IMPERIALISM! (just maybe a little nicer.. maybe) Hint: If you still want to own people and their lands for the sake of owning them, it’s imperialism. Even if you don’t strip them of their resources and commit casual genocide. It’s still. NOT. GOOD. Lotor is whole heartedly owning the Galra Empire. He is not trying to repay the grievances committed against others by his people. He has not talked of plans to improve the lives of his current conquered subjects. He has not concerned himself with quelling the rebellion against the Galra Empire, his empire. (Side note: a lot of rebels are also coded as mixed race.) Lotor has almost exclusively shown interest in making allies who can bolster his status and gain him access to new resources. He talks of improving the lives of his citizens, Galra citizens. He talks of allowing non-Galra citizens who are strong, who are worthy, to join their ranks. But only if they are strong enough. Fans get upset that Allura is twisted into a naive character to suit the needs of the plot, but that is not what’s happening. Allura has saddled herself alongside Lotor because Lotor is speaking to her in terms of her ideology. Altean ideology. Altea’s way of empire. They are both imperialistic as fuck. Lotor talks of improving upon what his father built, but it is still an empire. And Allura buys into it because Lotor is using her terms of empire. An empire that preaches exploration and peace where WE ARE ALL SAFE AND WARM.
Allura harbours deeply imperialistic views and prejudices. Through the seasons we have seen her slowly chipping away at that mindset, but she is still holding on to an idealistic view of Altea. An Altea that mirrors European empire on multiple levels.
A large part of what makes Allura a compelling character is that her coding opposes itself. She comes from a culture built on a foundation of white European imperialist ideology but she knows the struggles of a POC at the hand of the Galra Empire. We are seeing her slowly understand that Altea’s imperialist way of thinking is not going to end well. She needs to change her ways, her beliefs, if she truly wants the universe to be free and prosper.
Pissed at me for calling out our beautiful ebony princess as white coded? Consider how we as a fandom would interpret Altea and Allura if everything was the same in VLD canon but Allura was still a white skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed woman as she is in earlier incarnations. Same behavior. Same character. Same history. Same descriptions. But Allura was white. How would you feel about Altea then?
Notes: HUGE thank you to @akaiikowrites for being an amazing history buff! If you want to scream at me or with me over this or anything to do with VLD my ask is open!
I think I’m a little resistant to the “Lance is actually a genius” headcanon because a. it implies that a character can’t be useful unless they’re super intelligent and b. part of Lance’s charm is that he’s not an expert in anything. He’s all about practical knowledge.
Like, listen, Lance could never fix an engine, but when something goes wrong with their ship in episode one, he knows exactly what the problem is. He can’t fight as well as Keith, but when they need to wreck those Galra ships on the Balmera, he comes up with a plan that’ll take out the most. He probably couldn’t write a code or do all the funky math stuff Pidge does, but he can calculate the number of vargas they have to wait until they’re able to go into the Marmora base.
Lance’s thing is “okay what do we need?” Lance doesn’t have to fix a ship, he just needs to know enough to tell Hunk what to fix. He doesn’t have to know crazy math, he just needs to know enough to know whether Coran and Allura are talking about a minute or an hour so he doesn’t get killed during a mission. And he doesn’t have to be an incredible fighter, he just needs to come up with the best way to stop the ships from taking off without hurting the Balmera– ie, close the door.
Lance isn’t super book smart or amazing at flying or fighting; he’s a creative little shit who’s good at asking practical questions: Do I need to know this or can someone help me with it? Would knowing this help someone else? and Is there an easier way to do this? He’s really good at knowing what he needs to know and putting things together based on what he has. Rover’s here, but Pidge isn’t with it and it’s beeping? Yikes, that’s a bomb. The queen seems to be out of a trance and says she didn’t mind control us? Must be that creepy snake I was asking about earlier.
He’s perceptive. He looks for simple solutions to difficult problems. He’s aware that he’s not the best at everything, so he uses any resource he has to his advantage, whether it be things in his environment (yo his fight against Hunk in the Depths was nice) or people. In the comics when Pidge has to fight a mind controlled team Voltron, she calls Lance a “top priority” because he has good range and is likely to team up with others. Lance actively seeks the help of other people when he can and distances himself from problems when he can’t so that he can come up with a different solution.
I honestly think that his biggest strength is that he’s not a genius in the way the other members of the team are. Because it makes him take full advantage of what he does have.
Lance is the quintessential jack-of-all-trades: he’s not exceptional at any one thing (unless possibly sharpshooting), but he’s good enough at a LOT of things that he’s a very useful guy to have around. Even if he personally doesn’t necessarily have the technical skill to accomplish what he needs, he can provide ideas or partial solutions to almost any problem he encounters. His versatility and practical thinking are, in and of themselves, exceptional.
He’s also, as you said, perceptive, particularly with people. His disastrous attempts to flirt aside, Lance is clearly the best out of the Paladins at functioning in social situations (Hunk arguably is a close second, but he’s generally more shy and nervous around strangers, while Lance is able to dive right in). Lance is able to make snap decisions about people and when he isn’t being blinded by a pretty face, he’s usually pretty spot on. He’s good at understanding the dynamics of the people around him.
I don’t know which headcanons/metas/whatever you’ve specifically seen or are referring to, but for me at least, when I talk about Lance being really smart, I don’t mean it in the same way that I do when I talk about Pidge or Hunk. I do make it a point to talk about his intelligence, though, because I believe Lance has a kind of intelligence that is sorely under appreciated, both by people in real life and by his fellow fictional characters.
Why does no one ever acknowledge that Keith dropped out and went all rebellious because he was depressed and grieving over Shiro?
When people talk about him dropping out it’s always framed as either “it was inevitable due to his hothead nature” or “it was a natural pull by the lions that caused him to leave” but he specifically describes the “disciplinary issues” and “feeling lost” only starting up after Shiro was declared dead.
He didn’t drop out because he can’t work on a team, he can clearly work fine when Shiro is safe beside him. He was depressed. He had depression. Losing the person most important to you, especially when there’s evidence that the organization you work for is covering up details of his death, can make people a bit moody.
Talking about Keith and hobbies a little more, it definitely bothers me where it feels like in popular fanon his only two hobbies are knives and cryptids when in canon he’s shown zero interest in the latter (if anything, I think his personality would gel really badly with conspiracy theories) and the only knife he cares about is pretty obviously because of its obvious sentimental significance to him- he takes to swordsmanship but through the show and the comics the two things he’s wanted to have for himself were 1. a dragon and 2. one of the Olkari mecha walkers and he flat-out ignored what the knife merchant in s2e7 was selling in order to focus on identifying his own knife.
Hobbies Keith does seem to have:
Swimming! Remember he wanted to check out the pool as much as Lance did in in s2e5.
Seems to be pretty athletic all around considering his form taking on the Garrison employees in s1e1 and that he’s later the only one shown taking up independent training (though it’s heavily implied Lance is also doing so in secret)
Explicitly likes the outdoors (s2e4) and finds it peaceful, was basically camping in the desert given how bare-bones the shack is; shown to be very attentive to his environment since as soon as he clapped eyes on the fraunhofer line he immediately recognized its similarity to a rock ridge he’d seen before.
Research– clearly heavily looked into and studied the ‘weird energy’ to try and understand it- even triangulated its position.
This is the part I think wouldn’t gel at all with conspiracy theorists because from what I’ve seen, so much conspiracy stuff relies on bad science and leaping to conclusions and Keith very obviously… doesn’t do that? He doesn’t overlook things, he documents very carefully and thoroughly, and he has a literal supernatural sense of truth sometimes, the idea of holding onto something that’s blatantly false in the presence of solid contradictory evidence is just… not a Keith thing to do.
We see places in s1e1 where he’s ripped stuff off his board, telling us he discarded ideas. And the only time he even suggests what might be responsible for the energy is when they’re standing right in front of an obvious alien machine.
Quite possibly photography- after all he did take all those pictures of the cave markings himself implying he has a decent camera, and since he has physical pictures, he either printed them, or took them using an actual film camera and developed them himself, which takes talent, especially given his limited resources- if he put together a makeshift working darkroom.
OH I WANNA ADD!
Genuinely likes flying/piloting. Especially challenging stuff. Just look at the Hoverbike and how excited he was to chase Rolo through the asteroid field in s1.
Reading. It goes kind of hand-in-hand with the research part, but the amount of books he has in his shack suggests that he feels comfortable around them. Considering how technologically advanced Earth already is, he would have probably had an easier time finding books/articles relating to his research online – he seems to like having a physical copy of them though and doesn’t destroy them for the sake of research. He copies everything down by hand before attaching it his board (the “digitally written” stuff on the board isn’t ripped at the side, they are probably printed articles/copies).
A mild interest in technology. The mentioned mecha walker from the Olkari. Hoverbikes. He has kept the one he has on Earth fully functioning and he has a hoverbike poster up in his room when there are plenty of other posters (or maps) rolled up in the corner. The interest might just be there because of his interest in piloting stuff though.
(there is also an extra photo of a canyon or something on the hoverbike poster – chances are that he took it for his research, it turned out to be useless but he liked it too much to discard of it. or it’s a hobby pic!)
There’s also that stuff from storyboard artists that showed Keith drawing, so I think he likes drawing as well as photography.
Great additions! So yeah, conclusions: Keith is an artsy outdoorsy boy.
Considering the Olkarian Walker, the dragon he was interested by in the comics, the hoverbike and “SICO” poster, I wonder if his interest is specifically in vehicles? It’d go with, as @keiths-stupid-mullet said, his propensity to show off a little with his piloting.
just moving along like everyone else 