A lil Keith theory+ character analysis (kinda) ALSO LANCE IS KEITHâS STABILITY EXPLAINED
Ya girl is back with a theory that quite honestly breaks my heart. But it has nesttled itself into my head and oh boy, oh boy does this make me sad.Â
BPD, or borderline personality disorder is a mental illness a lot of people donât really understand. Its also pretty hard to diagnose for some reason and often confused with bipolar depression and autism.Â
Lets take a look at the symptoms;Â
Having an unstable or dysfunctional self-image or a distorted sense of self (how one feels about oneâs self). Keith definitely has a problem with feeling worthless. We all know that Lance has problems with insecurity, but what goes over a lot of peopleâs heads is that Keith does too. He assumes people dont like him, the only thing heâs actually sort of proud off are his flying skills. He doesnât want to lead Voltron cause he doesnât think heâs any good as a leader, and while heâs not as good at it as Shiro, he defnitely has some leader qualities but he doesnât see them himself. He came a long way in season 3 in a very short time but he didnât see it. And his self-sacrifice at through-out of season 4? It could just be the blade of marmora influencing him with their âthe mission is more important than the individualâ crap, but I donât think it is. He goes back for other memembers and even tries to fight Kolivan to save the guy when he would maybe be able to throw the guy to safety but never run back himself. And the final eppisode? Keith cares more about anyone and anything than himself. Heâs literally willing to die to save anyone else.Â
Feelings of isolation, boredom and emptiness. We all know Keith suffers from not really feeling a connection with others. Heâs literally been on a ship in space with six other people for God knows how long and they still describe him as the lone wolf, he still trains on his own all the time. And the common misconception is that he wants to be alone. He really, really, really doesnât. I cannot stress enough how much this boy would love to join in on the fun all the time, to not be so far away from the rest of them, but he just canât. Heâs too scarred heâll be rejected or something along those lines so instead he just⌠Lone wolfs it.Â
Difficulty feeling empathy for others. I decided against highlighting this one because we havenât really seen a lot of it. Although, there have been a few cases of this, like when Pidge tried to leave. In my personal opinion, I donât think he can summon the empathy very well unless heâs going through or has been through the same thing. When he and Allura went out to space because they both though Zarkon was tracking them he showed quite a bit of empathy towards her but that was also because they were in the same boat (no pun intended) he was sort of going through the same thing. So he understood. When Lance came to him with his issues of insecurrity he got it because heâs scarred of being kicked out too. Of not being a valueable member to the team. But when Pidge wanted to go find her family he couldnât relate. Cause heâs never really had a family to look for. We donât know what happened with his dad, whether he died or just up and left like his mum did. But seeming itâs more logical, lets assume his dad did die, he doesnât know his mother, so⌠He doesnât understand Pidge wanting to look for her brother. You may argue that he had Shiro to look for, but if you watch the first episode of season one its pretty clear he wasnât looking for Shiro. Heâs surprised to see him there and he was tracking Voltron before that. Finding Shiro was merely conicidental.
A history of unstable relationships that can change drastically from intense love and idealization to intense hate. Again, I didnât want to highlight this one because, well, we donât know enough about his backstory to be able to judge if heâs had unstable relationships in the past. However, you cant tell me he doesnât have and intense idealization of Shiro that kinda turned into a sort of hate (but not really) when he was left in charge of Voltron. But thatâs all I got on that one. He doesnât really seem to hate people or idealise them (apart from Shiro) Some may argue that he hated Lance in season one, but honestly, I call bullshit on that. Annoyance, yes. Hate, no. Annoyed neutrality.Â
A persistent fear of abandonment and rejection, including extreme emotional reactions to real and even perceived abandonment I feel like I dont have to go into thisâŚ. So I wont⌠AT LEAST NOT THE OVERLY OBVIOUS STUFF. Okay so, our boy has abandonment issues. We all knew that. But I honestly donât think yâall are seeing just how far this stuff actually goes. When he though Lance hated him (EXACTLY HOW CANNON THE HATE IS IS UP FOR DISSCUSSION, FIGHT ME ANNONS) he really didnât want much to do with him. Even made a few jabs at him so that he could reject Lance first. With the B.O.M however, we see him literally almost work himself to death during the trails in fear of being rejected to the group. The boy has major issues with self esteem, which is probably why he did so well at the garrison, cause he needs those results to feel okay about himself. He doesnât think heâs good enough so he works towards being better, yes its pragmatic, but ultimately heâll end upâŚ. oh I donât know⌠sacrificing himself.Â
Intense, highly changeable moods that can last for several days or for just a few hours. Again, I didnât highlight this one because, well I donât have too much to back it up other than that he seems very easy to upset. A little comment like that heâs the lone wolf, even though heâs trying to fit in can really get to him. And just⌠can people stop hurting my baby please?Â
Strong feelings of anxiety, worry and depression Honestly, this is another one I donât feel like I have to explain. It just, Keith is a guy that worries a lot, and he definitely has anxiety when it comes to interacting with others. From the way he talks about his mother to the way he looked at his blade when he was figuring out his Galra identity, and the look on his face when the others were pissed off at him in season 4, I think depression is definitely a concept he touches on. Maybe not fullblown, actual depression, but I think he has⌠issues with feeling like a depressed person feels sometimes. But heâs never actually vocalized this, so this may be me projecting. Though he does show some general symptoms fo depression.Â
Impulsive, risky, self-destructive and dangerous behaviors, including reckless driving, drug or alcohol abuse and having unsafe sex I just, r e c k l e s s d r i v i n g Yes, heâs a skilled pilot but you cannot tell me he doesnât throw caution to the wind a lot. Also remember that king he held hostage? Also remember how he worked himself to death during the B.O.M trials? Also remember the self sacrifice? Also remember the putting himself in danger to safe his teammates? Also remember how he ran away with Allura in the middle of the night because he THOUGHT he MIGHT be getting tracked and left the team unable to form Voltron without telling anyone?
Hostility âWhat? Keith is a total hotheadâ- Lance, 2016. No but, Keith has said himself that he can be this way. Even Shiro has pointed it out to him. This one is kinda also just very self explanitory.Â
Unstable career plans, goals and aspirations Well I mean, his plans do kinda seem to be all over the place. He got kicked out of the Garrison⌠and tracked alien life for a year??? And other than finding Shiro in season 2-3 and joining the blade he never really has a long term plan. His only goal is defeating the Galra, it doesnt go deeper than that. He doesnt necessarily want to go home or settle down. He has no plan. He just kinda floats through life.
With BPD you have these things called modi. Modi are⌠in simple terms, fragments of your personality. There are five modi, the protector, the strict/punishing parent, the abandoned/abused child, the angry/impulsive child and the healthy grown up. Everybody sort of has these a little bit, but when you have BPD your healthy adult mode is a little⌠under developed/overwhelmed by the other modi.Â
I personally also suffer from BPD and I honestly see a lot of these modi in Keith. The protector is the main one that seems to be present with him. (I also have this one, I call mine richard/dick for short). The protectorâs main job is keeping people at armâs lenght, its hard to get past this guy, esspecially if heâs the main dude running the show. Keithâs protector seems to work a lot with the impulsive child which is why he has such dificulty being a leader.Â
I want to give an example here of how Keithâs modi seem to coexist;Â
So lets take the scene where he just started leading Voltron and he chased Lotor into the gassplanet. So, he has an objective; get Lotor. His strict parrent modi will lock onto this WITH A FUCKING DEATH GRIP. It doesnât matter what he has to do, he needs to get his objective. The impulsive child then takes over with the the stirct parent fueling him by telling him he needs to do this, when the team tells him to stop the protector shrugs them off.Â
Later, once he failed, and lost everyone, the child and the protector regress, leaving the abandoned child and the strict parrent to yell at it and make the child feel like shit about itself. This is when Keith is vulnerable. Thatâs why Lance could approach him, and he knows it. And while acknowledging that Keith fucked up, he appeals to the healthy adult in his system to try and get him to move on.Â
THAT is why Lance is so good for him and why he stablizes Keith mentally. He is able to tell him that he made a mistake while still accesing the healthy grown-up. Shiro, on the other hand, doesnât do that. He is constantly trying to shape Keith to be better and sometimes, yes he gets through to Keithâs healthy adult and stuff (patience yeilds focus), but mostly he appeals to the strict parent telling him to be better.Â
It doesnât surprise me that thatâs why he saw Shiro during the Galra trials. He really, really, really wants his approval. He might even see Shiro as the strict modi if he were to personify it.Â
I hope youâre as sad about this as I am, because itâs two a.m and this suddenly hit me like 20 minutes ago and Iâve been keeping my emotions in check ever since.
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