kairiofknives:

This whole “you’re my brother, I love you” thing still has me thinking, days later. And like, what I’m starting to settle on is that…well…

Emotions are so fluid.

As a kid, I felt a lot of weird, complex emotions towards other girls. Some, I wanted to be best friends with even though I knew nothing about them. Others, I hated intensely for no reason other than the fact that I was weirdly jealous of them. As I grew older, I obsessed overing making my female avatars in video games look stunning, thinking that I must have wanted to be just like them. By high school, kissing my female friends on the cheek gave me a thrill I couldnt describe and I chalked it up to “I enjoy affection”.

Emotions are also contextual.

I had dated so many boys in high school, but my good friend coming out as a lesbian rocked my world because I had literally never considered that I could kiss girls the way I did boys. Suddenly every single feeling was something I had to put under a microscope. It is still hard, when I first meet people, to tell if I want to be their bestie…or kiss them. It’s usually both.

Now, for the punch line: Keith has had little to no context. Kid who grew up in a home, having lost his dad? He didn’t know what family was supposed to feel like. Shiro probably stormed into his life and changed everything. He finally had someone to protect him, guide him, maybe even hold him when things got rough. Family is supposed to do that according to books and TV. So, Shiro was family. But he wasn’t Keith’s dad or uncle, so if Shiro were going to have a title, it would be a mix between best friend, mentor and brother.

Then, Shiro disappeared. And it felt like the sun had gone out. Keith grew sad, angry, aggressive. He lived, though, hoping beyond hope to see Shiro again. And wonder of wonders, Shiro came crashing back into his life and brought an interstellar war with him. Now, Keith had new positive relationships, which were usually somewhere between friend and comrade. They weren’t like Shiro though. Throughout the rest of the show, Keith has slowly gained more and more points of reference. Matt and Pidge, Allura and Coran, his own mother, they’ve all taught him a little about what the bulk of certain relationship types feel like. And throughout it all, his relationship with Shiro became ever more marked by fierce loyalty, affection and a fear that he could lose Shiro and never get him back, which complicates his emotions based on the labels and context he knows.

I think the show is leading him toward a natural realization: Shiro isn’t like anyone or anything else. Shiro will always be unique to him. He isn’t just brother, mentor, or friend. If they get together, he won’t even just be lover or partner. He’s all of it. And he won’t always be everything at once. My aunt is very happily married and says her favorite part is that some weeks, she and Rich are best friends raising kids together and others they’re madly in love. Maybe Keith won’t ever have a word for it because I don’t know that I even do. But when one person fills so many roles fluidly, you kinda have to get inventive with your word play.

Where I stand now, “you’re my brother, I love you” makes sense because he is trying to describe a myriad of feelings that fit into no real contextual basis and doesn’t have the words. To over simplify their relationship to be strictly familial is pretty narrow minded and doesn’t at all fit with Keith’s repeatedly demonstrated multifaceted love of Shiro. I’ve heard a lot of people saying Sheith is important platonically because boys need to see that it’s okay for male-male relationships to be loving but not romantic. And sure, they don’t HAVE to be romantic, I agree. But neither does anyone else. No one, literally no couple ever, needed to be romantic. But when your mutual emotions align in a way that makes a physical relationship fulfilling and you want to commit yourself to each other’s happiness, people often choose the romantic route because it fucking feels nice.

And as of season 6, I would say that Shiro and Keith are at the emotional spot where they can make that choice. And it doesn’t diminish the importance of their bond either way whether people like to imagine the scales tipping in either direction. So yeah, I ship the ever loving fuck out of Sheith. And they are canonly in a loving enough relationship that any romantic endeavors would be super positive for both of them and very healthy. And that makes me really happy. And honestly…what is wrong with that? Nothing. The answer is objectively nothing.

murryokeefe:

what really messes me up about that part where keith lirally follows shiro to death are the several expressions on his face as they fall:

1. this shot is very heart-wrenching because of the horrified look on keith; afraid to lose his grip on shiro and letting him fall 

2. then it’s just him holding on to shiro and i am still on the edge of my seat because he’s really falling with shiro. he’s not thinking about what that means for them both he’s just falling

3. and now we see keith’s expression change. it’s like he’s thinking what the audience is thinking: “am i really going to let this happen? what about my mom? my fellow paladins? they can’t do this without me, voltron needs 5 paladins”

4. but after that, we see the clone shiro and it goes back to keith’s face. his look says everything about what he’s feeling: “but i can’t leave him”

5. (this is only a part of the shots of his face as he falls with his husband but i’m really analyzing this one) and i think while he closes his eyes, he’s also thinking about what they could have had if none of this happened and possibly how he wishes he could have said those words during a domestic situation, rather than the one they were in a deadly situation

6. aaand finally this part that shows that he’s made his decision. he’d rather die with shiro, rather than live without him. he cannot bear to live  knowing that he allowed shiro to die. and perhaps not hearing him say that he loves him too.

7. (a bonus, if you will) did i mention he and shiro were engulfed in the rainbow of light???

dent-de-leon:

Literally everyone on Team Voltron combined, all activating their bayards at once to amplify their bond and screaming Shiro’s name in unison: Shiro appears briefly, flickers in and out of focus and is scarcely able to communicate a few words, hardly able to materialize at all,, 

Keith alone, calling for Shiro and just willing himself into the astral plane by sheer force of will: Shiro completely materializes, is able to interact with Keith and move freely, makes physical contact with him, speaks clearly, is able to pour his quintessence into Keith and share in Black’s power with him

And as Shiro said, he’d tried communicating with the others before, but he failed. This was something only ever possible with Keith–and even then, only because of how close they were. “I tried to warn the others about the imposter on Olkarion, but our connection wasn’t strong enough.” That Keith was able to do what every other paladin together couldn’t, that his connection with Shiro ran that deep–it speaks volumes, and it’s a thread of fate powerful enough even Haggar knew to fear it. There’s a reason she needed Shiro to eliminate Keith. “The Red Paladin’s connection to you runs deep. Deeper than the others.” Together, they’re unstoppable. 

Keith’s bond with Shiro is literally deeper and more meaningful to him than everyone else on Team Voltron combined. 

korras-biiceps:

It breaks my heart because unlike the other paladins, his first instinct wasn’t to accuse Shiro of betrayal, or to be angry at him. Instead, his first instinct was to comfort him.

And he never stops reassuring Shiro that he’s got his back, he’s there for him. He doesn’t understand why Shiro’s acting this way, but he knows that it’s not him.

And when Kuron says those awful things to Keith about abandoning him, Keith isn’t even phased. He knows that’s not how Shiro really feels. He’s utterly confident in Shiro’s support of him, and knows that whatever’s wrong with him right now is causing him to say these things. He just ignores it, and tells Shiro he’s not leaving without him.

I think the level of trust he has in Shiro is really beautiful. The writers did a fantastic job of using the dialogue in this scene to convey those feelings.

theprojectava:

k25ff:

Me: “make my day, punk”

Punk: [kisses me gently on the cheek]

Me: [blushes]

I’m just–… gonna leave these here?