#i'd be happy to give you my opinion on how he'd act in certain situations though!

[keiths-stupid-mullet]

can you link/post a shiro characterization thingy? im writing a fic and im super bad at characterizing and i dont want to make him ooc

Aww, don’t worry too much about it!^^ OOC isn’t necessarily bad, I’ve just had my fill for the day :’D 

But I’m absolutely ready to help if you want it. Before s3 came out I made a post series with little things I liked about the characters, so if you’re looking for random facts about him to bring him to life you can check out this post. I’m writing a little more about how I personally interpret him and his relationships with other characters under the cut :D 

(Keep in mind though that this is my personal interpretation, I’ve never actually read a lot of Shiro-centric works)

Generally, Shiro seems to have 2 different attitudes. One for his team and one for pretty much everyone else :’D

Shiro with the team is incredibly patient. He never yells. The only times where he can be considered rude or abrasive towards his team is when they are in a pinch or a time-sensitive situation, he has already made a decision and someone speaks up against him. Normally he would be the type to talk any problems out but since he doesn’t have that time he puts his foot down and makes everyone else follow him. 

Other than that we see him being dorky (although he doesn’t initiate stupid things he never hesitates to join them, like the food go fight or the laser gun sounds or the spore fight) and we see him giving out compliments whenever he deems it necessary. He is extremely attuned to everyone’s mood and when he’s near and realizes that someone isn’t feeling well he’s always the one to comfort them:

Shiro feels responsible for them. He was the one to hang back when Lance was injured and he is protective of them without being overbearing. Like, he always offers emotional comfort, but when he gets rejected and realizes that it really isn’t wanted he leaves it. He doesn’t fight anyone on needing distance, especially not when they are feeling bad. 

However, Shiro is also a very reasonable person (and, as I already mentioned, attuned to everyone’s feelings) so when he’s approaching someone they are usually prepared for it and open up to him. He doesn’t joke to diffuse a situation. Everyone knows that Shiro will take them and their concerns seriously which is why they usually feel safe enough to talk about what’s bothering them.

One of the problems Shiro has though is that he’s worried about his image. Not in the way Lance is, more in the way of that he never looses his cool in front of his team. He’s scared of who is and who he might become - you can read more on that in the middle of this post (that I wrote after s2 which is why there’s no Allura :P).

Moving on to his general relationship with different characters on the team: Keith.

Shiro and Keith are very close and, more than anything, they are equals. They don’t really tease each other. Most of their conversations are honest and relaxed and they always know when the other one is feeling bad:

They have phrases that they repeat “(it’s good to have you back”/“it’s good to be back”), they have the ‘shoulder touch of comfort’, they know how each other’s minds work (“patience yields focus”), they openly depend on each other. Yes, that goes from Shiro to Keith too - Keith said that he was the only one that never gave up on him, Shiro thinks Keith would make a good leader, Shiro opens up about feeling unsure if he’s ever gonna make it out alive at the beginning of s1. Most of their smiles don’t come from jokes but from shared memories that they’re fond of!

[more on Shiro and Keith]

Pidge. Shiro is undeniably fond of her. Once again, there’s no teasing in their relationship - it’s just honesty. Pidge, who can be rather scathing at times, becomes very soft around him. She feels safe around him, probably because he respects her decisions:

He went with her to search for her brother in episode 1. He would have allowed her to leave the team if she really wanted that. Shiro has confidence in her - “go, be great!” - and he never hesitates to show it. There is no ‘this girl is 10 years younger than me, I’ve got to protect her from the world’ in his behavior, he was the one that gave her the confidence needed to first claim the green lion. Whenever she rambles he lets her talk, he’s not the one to tell her to get back on topic. 

Allura. Shiro is older than Allura, the head of Voltron, has more battle experience, has graduated from the academy - and he still addresses her as his superior. Whenever the team has to make a decision outside of battle he always leaves her the final choice. I’m not completely convinced that it has to do with rank (“Princess” vs “officer”) since he never insists that anyone amongst his friends has to address with ‘sir’ as much as it has to do with respect. Allura is the one with the knowledge about the entire universe and she’s the one that gave them a purpose out here in space, so he is damn well going to respect that. 

Apart from that, he seems to get along really well with her. He comforted her on two different occasions:

I think it’s safe to say that he recognizes some of himself in her. She too bottles up her emotions, feels responsible for all of the paladins, is serious rather than funny and has a secret dorky side. She too has suffered from the hands of the Galra and got forced into something she wasn’t prepared for. But, once again, he never doubts her strength: he has no problems with her joining the team on the infiltration mission in s1.

Lance & Hunk. These two get the same category because there’s not much to say about them. Shiro has never been around when Lance has felt the need to talk about his insecurities or homesickness and Hunk has never freaked out past the point of listening with him at the helm in the middle of battle. Since both Lance and Hunk are extroverted people that talk and joke around a lot Shiro doesn’t quite click with them as much as with the others. That’s not to say that he won’t ever do it - he just needs a little more time for it. 

Despite that, he has the same general effect on Lance and Hunk as on the rest of the team: they feel safe with him around. Hunk hid behind him when they first entered the castle of lions and Lance knows that he’s allowed to keep joking around despite Shiro reprimanding him when he starts saying inappropriate stuff. Shiro compliments them when they succeed with something good - “nice job, Lance! That’s why we bring our sharpshooter” - and he doesn’t make jabs at Lance’s intelligence/Hunk’s fear of flying.

(there’s not much to say about Coran. He seems to get along with him quite well when Coran lets go of his quirky behavior for a moment. Shiro knows that Coran too has suffered a lot but keeps on fighting and he respects him for that.)

Matt. Matt addressed him with “sir” in s4 and he was shown to still wear a cadet uniform on the ‘gone missing in space’ pics in s1, so I’m not actually sure if they knew each other before the Kerberos mission. Either way he was very protective of him - enough so to take his place in the arena - and was extremely relieved when he met him again in s4:

Despite not having had a lot of appearances together, Shiro acted a little differently around him though. Directly when we first saw them on screen he joked “you guys get a little more excited about ice samples than I do” - which is teasing - and he pulled Matt into the hug:

-which can also be considered teasing. Shiro has a playful side that he allows to initiate stuff around Matt! (Part of it might be because Matt just… doesn’t seem to get angry/offended when you tease him. Not even in a fake offended way, he just laughs it off and keeps doing his thing!)

Now, his personality outside of the team. He’s a prime example of a leader when he’s meeting new people as the head of Voltron, put together and to the point. However, his fuse is a lot shorter than with his team:

Slav was driving him up the wall, when the BoM refused to cooperate and believe Keith he was ready to abort mission, the moment he met Zarkon on the Astral level he was ready to fight. In general, he has very strong morals and wants to do anything to set right the injustice in the universe, but he is a lot more patient than (for example) Keith when it comes to that. To top it all off, his will to live is extraordinarily strong too - he survived the fight in the arena. He was forced to fight against and probably kill multiple creatures/aliens.

…and yet he was willing to trust Ulaz and give the Blades a chance. Shiro doesn’t generalize, he observes and makes his decisions or goes with his gut and does whatever it takes to survive. It’s pretty clear that he’s battle-hardened and very strategic, even if he has suppressed most of his memories from his time with the Galra.