Galtean-Human Keith theory
I’ve been floating this theory for a while now (since s2 actually) but when i post about it it’s usually submerged in other theories so im gonna talk about it on its own.
I think Keith is half human, a quarter galra and a quarter altean (or polluxian but I’m gonna keep saying altean because its easier than “altean or polluxian” and I think the two races would be similar enough to have the same features and abilities).
Where is this theory coming from?
Well the first thing that strikes me as off is Keith’s appearance. He is part galra and yet bears no likeness to any galra we’ve seen, especially now that we’ve seen 5 part galra characters, all of whom display at least some galra traits.
I don’t believe that human genes are so dominant as to completely overpower galra genes, so this can be explained by two possibilities:
His galra blood comes from a very distant ancestor and as such is very diluted with human. I find this unlikely, due to his family and history still being such a big mystery/plot point.
His true appearance is hidden in some way.
When it comes to alteration of appearance, we know one way this is possible - alteans shapeshifting ability. This is by no means the only possible explanation for alteration of appearance in vld, as Haggar was able to take on Shiro’s appearance at the end of season 1 in “The Black Paladin”. We don’t know how she did this however, whether that was an altean power or a druid power, or she was just in Shiro’s head. Considering the uncertainty around this, it is easier to focus on the explained altean shapeshifting.
When we first learn of the altean shapeshifting ability, Allura uses it to appear more galra by changing her skin to purple and growing taller in “Collection and Extraction”. After this episode, it is never mentioned again.
In this episode, however, Keith goes face to face (face to mask?) with a druid and is struck by the druids magic. This damages his glove and injures his hand, giving it a sort of burned appearance, except the burns are purple. Before season 2 this was taken as evidence for the galra!keith theory, which was proven to be true.
But galra do not react this way to druid magic strikes. In season 2, “Best Laid Plans”, Thace is struck by druid magic and his injury is a glowing wound. When Shiro is struck by Haggar in “The Black Paladin” his injury is also a glowing wound. This shows that humans and galra have the same reaction to druid strikes, so if Keith only has human and galra heritage, why does he not react like them?
We have seen a different reaction to such a strike, though. When Allura is struck by Haggar in “Blackout”, she absorbs the energy and is able to use it herself.
Now, Allura is obviously a very special case as even Haggar was not expecting this to happen. But in the wondercon panel in April, Lauren Montgomery said that a lot of Alteans have a close connection to quintessence (23:53). Perhaps Keith’s unique reaction is due to altean blood enabling him to absorb some of the energy.
In the same panel, a fan asked about why Keith could sense the blue lion and could fly the black lion, despite being the RED paladin. JDS replied that they went into those storylines knowing that Keith was “sort of going above and beyond maybe some of the abilities of the other paladins” (25:40). Tim Hedrick added on that the season, for Keith, is about “unlocking new powers, finding more about who he is” (25:58). This certainly seems to suggest that there is a lot unexplained about Keith’s abilities that is to do with his heritage. (It’s also worth mentioning that when asking the question, the fan referred to Lauren’s previous point of Alteans and their affinity for quintessence, and when answering the question, none of them denied/discouraged that there could be a connection there. The whole thing was huge spoilers territory and they had a really hard time answering lol)
Speaking of Keith sensing the blue lion, we saw someone else that was able to do this without necessarily having any sort of connection or bond to the blue lion.
Haggar, who is also altean (although, disclaimer: it might just be that she was informed of the blue lion’s return by the galra that gave chase).
Going forward, when Keith is revealed as galra he’s never actually referred to as half galra. The BoM simply say that galra blood runs through his veins. In fact, in the very next episode, “Belly of the Weblum” Hunk lampshades this by asking Keith, “was your mom the galra? your grandpa? how galra are you?” to which keith replies that he doesn’t know.
I don’t think this was a throwaway line - I think it was very deliberately included. Upon finding out that Keith is galra, the audience’s default assumption is that he is half and half. If it were as simple as that, I don’t think attention would have been drawn to the fact that we don’t know this for fact and neither does he. Even in the paladin guidebook, he is described as “part human, part galra”, not half.
We’re probably all aware at this point that Keith’s original design had him have white hair that he dyed and fangs that he filed. Who do we know with white hair and fangs?
both of whom have altean blood (SPOILERS: Lotor confirms his mother to be Honerva in a recently relesed clip from season 4). Haggar obviously did not look like this originally, but it is likely that Lotor does.
So to tie everything up, my theory is that Keith’s mother is half galra, half altean. A member of the BoM, she came to Earth on a mission, where she met Keith’s father. Using her shapeshifting abilities, she blended in with the local population and lived as a human. Eventually, she got pregnant.
This is where it becomes mainly speculative.
She has twins: Keith and Acxa. With Keith, he inherited enough of his father’s genes (round ears, white sclera) to pass as human. He was purple, but his parents managed to get him to shapeshift at a very young age, giving him a human skin tone. Acxa however, inherited more of their mother’s alien features (pointy ears, yellow sclera) and could not pass as human. To protect her, their parents decided to separate, with Keith and their father staying on Earth and Acxa and their mother returning into space. Their mother left her blade as a token.
Somehow, similarly to how Keith was separated from his father, Acxa was also separated from her mother and, similarly to how Keith found purpose and family in Team Voltron, Acxa found them in Lotor’s team. Acxa latched on to Lotor like Keith did to Shiro, which is why they both display that unwavering loyalty to their respective leaders.
