#For my fellow trekkies out there: Keith is like a mirror-verse Brom

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Keith vs. Brom

I love comparing Keith and Brom because on the very first glance they seem like Gabe playing the same character (dumb jock, incompetent but filled with undeserved confidence, regressed to/stuck in ye olde' glory days while hung up on an ex-girlfriend, ironically "woke" dialogue, I could go on) but the moment you dig past the surface, they're actually opposites.

Keith, bless him, is just unfiltered id. Everything he says or does goes back to an agenda simply labeled "Keith." Even the feminist talk is just about sucking up to Gwen or sounding like a good guy. Insecurity, social alienation, childhood success, and that fame's immediate end after Cluebert's brutal murder have left him broken, shallow, and likely too stuck in the past to ever meaningfully change. He craves the love of Gwen and the rest of the Solve-It Squad in a life otherwise so empty and devoid of meaningful connection.

But Brom, for all his shortcomings, genuinely wants to do good for its own sake. He might not understand all the intricacies of social justice, but he goes for it anyway because he knows it's right. When Matilda calls him out, he listens and successfully corrects himself so as to be a better man for those around him. He starts out as the self-absorbed "leader" he'd been socialized to be, but only really starts to shine and meaningfully lead (see his scenes with Judy and the Bards in the finale) when given the chance to truly make things about someone else (whether Matilda or Ichabod) for a change. Brom is in constant growth and motion, powered by a genuinely huge heart. He wants to love because he has so much love to give away to the people in his life.

(Also Brom might have almost drowned in a waterbed once, but I think he'd still kick Keith's ass.)