#kolivan who recognizes this is clearly Krolia's child but sees none of her spark in Keith

[discordiansamba]

if keith recognizes shiro as his commanding officer, what happens when kuron comes into play? (and potentially doesn't realize hes a clone)

An excellent question!

By then, Keith would have become the red lion's paladin, as Allura would end up filling the role of black paladin after Shiro's disappearance. Keith is... far from recovered at this point, more a tiny flame than a raging inferno. But it's enough for the red lion to call out to and connect to him, with the hopes of stoking it's paladin's inner fire even more.

Then Kuron shows up.

Keith... kind of broke for awhile after Shiro disappeared. He didn't- and couldn't, really- realize just how important he was to him until he was no longer around. He just kind of stays there in the black lion's hangar for awhile, until someone finally gets him to leave. He just kind of goes through the motions after that, and if where he'd been showing even the slightest signs of personhood before, he just seems to completely shut down and revert back to his old ways in the absence of Shiro... until the red lion calls him.

So Keith understands when Shiro returns that he... cares about Shiro. He's important to him. And 'Shiro' is happy to see that Keith finally seems to be coming more into his own. There's a short period in which things are great, and then...

...then it happens. There's a disagreement. Without even thinking about it, Kuron uses one of the specific command orders Keith was trained to respond to- and Keith hasn't broken free of his programming anywhere near enough to refuse it.

And Kuron, to his credit, is horrified. He did not mean to say that. But it's also too late to take it back, and a rift is formed between them. Keith shuts down again, and starts to struggle with the red lion as a consequence. Eventually he's shut out completely, forcing Allura to take back over- and Kuron to become black paladin in her place.

But Keith still has more agency now than he did before, so he makes a choice to leave, and join the Blade of Marmora. He was always an extra piece on the Castle. He can do more here. He let himself forget it for a little while, but now he keenly remembers what he is- a weapon.

(Being a weapon hurts a lot less than being a person.)