Thoughts about: Keith’s “disciplinary issues”
So, there’s a fair amount of speculation ahead that canon may very well come and smash up for me but for now;
Keith, much like Red, is someone who's trust and respect are hard earned and can be easily lost.
Once he was orphaned, that particular trait was amplified by the loss of a steady parental authority and it sort of plagued him throughout his run in the foster system, until he ended up in the Garrison.
There, he had a goal at least, a purpose, and so a structure that could keep him grounded a little better.
It was easy for him to respect the institution as a whole too, especially with Shiro's influence.
That's not to say he didn't have trouble at all anymore. He just pushed back in smaller ways; defying only certain directives or commands that he judged to be wrong, or misguided, or just plain counter-intuitive.
Something he'll likely to until it kills him, so no one should get their hopes up - Kay?
Then Kerberos happened.
Keith refused to accept their bullshit about /pilot error/. He knew Shiro too well for that. He knew how minuscule the chances were for Shiro to have made that kind of mistake.
The Garrison as a whole lost Keith's respect with that single lie. Then everything just kinda, spiralled out of control.
It wasn't one-off defiances anymore. Some of his teachers, officers, he held in open contempt, the others he regularly disobeyed. Keith knew he wouldn't last long with the Garrison that way, he'd just stopped caring.
As a Paladin
Shiro has always had Keith’s trust and Allura gained his respect pretty quickly, but even them, he'll defy when his instincts tell him too and too fuckin' bad.
Now let's have some speculative fun, with BPLance
If ever Lance gets the reigns. Well, he's actually well on his way to getting Keith to follow him, begrudgingly and with lots of talk-back.
Lance has proven he can come up with solid plans when he tries and Keith has already shown he's willing to go along with them.
But, Keith's also never gonna stop calling Lance out on his shittier suggestions or just straight up ignoring them. Leader or not.
