Before I begin, let me just say that Keith is my favorite character in the show, so of course I’m gonna be a little biased for this defense, but still I’m not going to let my biases color my perspective and make this a defense for “mah fav character like omg,” I’m going to be as neutral and understanding all the while defending said character, that way it’ll give me a broader perspective and provide a straight and narrow defense without slinking into biased territory. Also there will be spoilers involved, so if you haven’t seen Season 2 yet, please stop reading this and go watch the show! With that out of the way let’s begin.
The thing about Keith being “Boring and bland in season 1 and got a lot of attention in season 2” is more of a subjective claim, let alone a recent one, but it also seems to be purely out of fandom interpretation and in some cases I can see why, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Really if you think about it Keith’s backstory was foreshadowed starting in episode 2 in season 1. Without mentioning as to how, the knife that Keith had in the beginning would only foreshadow the answer that unlocks his heritage as a Galra, a theory that fans have been speculating since day one. Additionally in season 1, Pidge states that only Shiro’s cybernetic arm is the only thing in their group that can interact with Galra technology but Keith was also able to do just that.
Season 2 came and gave us what we wanted, albeit a whole lot more than we needed because the second season focused mainly on Keith (and Allura to a lesser extent). Obviously Shiro still had the focus as his backstory is arguably the most fleshed out in the series, with Pidge coming in second and Keith coming in third. However Lance and Hunk (and Coran if you count him) were relegated to nothing but comic fuel, and this disappointed fans of the show and a witch hunt ensued, okay I’m kidding but in all seriousness, there were people that complained that Keith got more attention than Lance, but there’s a reason for that. Sort of.
According to the writers of the show, Lance was supposed to have more lines alluding to his heritage as a Cuban, particularly lines that were spoken in Spanish, but his voice actor, Jeremy Shada, had trouble pronouncing those lines properly, ultimately putting it off until the next season so he’d have a better handle on it. Honestly I’d rather prefer this route than Lance botching up a Spanish line in Spanglish (I mean I know he says “Hasta la later” or some shit like that, but can you imagine a Cuban speaking like the only Spanish he knows is what he learned from Taco Bell? It’d be like Generator Rex all over again). But I digress. Bottom line, while Keith had a whole lot more focus in season 2 than everyone else, I sort of have to call bullshit that people would complain about it.
Yeah the bad boy trope is about as bland as Wonder Bread and make any “My Name is Keith, I’m So Emo,” joke all you want, but we all know that isn’t really the case. We know Keith isn’t just the “generic bad boy” trope, but like I said, it can be subjective. We all know Keith is more than just the angry hothead, he has his moments where he is sincere, especially around Shiro, but that’s only because he’s the only person he is the closest to, having been an orphan and kicked out of the Garrison and basically lived in a shack for god knows how long. Basically he’s lived in isolation. But that doesn’t stop him from laughing with Hunk or teasing with Lance and their rivalry
Okay before I go on to the next one (to which I can concur that it is in fact 100,000,000% bullshit), here’s a little background of the age discourse for the uninitiated: the discourse itself has to do with two things: age and shipping. Apparently most members of the fandom are American and mainly follow the age of consent in America, which is at least 18, however it is different in many other parts of the world, and in the Voltron universe, Shiro is the oldest of the paladins (being headcanoned to either be at least 19 or 25 at most) whereas Pidge is headcanoned to be 14, but the rest was left ambiguous. Keith, Lance and Hunk are all stated to be in their late teens which to many people means either 18-19, or at least 17.
But all of that doesn’t stop the small sub group of people, or as they like to call themselves “the antis,” as they go on to harass other members, pester the staff and voice actors on Twitter demanding canon ages, to which the ages themselves were left it to the interpretation of the fans, and going to even more extremes that I don’t feel comfortable even mentioning. Tl dr; they are pissed off about certain pairings they deem problematic among other things to be pissed off about. Keith NEVER (and I can’t believe I’m saying this now) started the age discourse just because people ship him with Shiro or Allura or whatever, it’s just some bad apples want to stir up trouble for everyone else because they have different opinions on ships.
I’m glad Keith had more attention in detail to his character because I’m the type of person that wants to find out more about these characters, so just shut your quiznak and let me enjoy my mullet son’s spotlight!