About Keith
[series]: Veronica Mars
[character]: Keith Mars
[character history / background]: Wiki knows all
[character abilities]: As a former sheriff and current private eye, Keith has your standard issue skills: surveillance, photography, tailing cars, handgun usage, tracking, etc.
[character personality]: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You want to know the kind of man Keith Mars is? Take a look at the kind of daughter he raised.
But for those of you who'd rather read the book than see the movie, here's the long and short of Keith Mars.
Keith: Almost started without you; you'd have missed my chili surprise.
Veronica: You made chili?
Keith: Surprise.
Keith Mars is not your typical brooding, jaded private eye. Sure, he's got the biting wit, but underlying it is a genuine sense of fun. He's funny, intelligent, charming, and just silly enough to be endearing. He doesn't take himself too seriously, and often makes hard-boiled detective jokes with his daughter.
Keith: It isn't always easy doing the right thing
Veronica: If that isn't on the Mars family crest, it should be
Keith is a man of high ideals and strong convictions. He believes in truth, justice, and the sanctity of the Law, and even before the series starts, sacrifices almost everything he has in the name of those principles. After Lilly Kane is murdered, he does not bow to public pressure to not investigate Jake Kane when the evidence suggests that Jake Kane was lying (although the extent to which it was also motivated by his knowledge of Jake's affair with his wife Lianne is questionable. It was definitely not the cause of Keith's investigation, but he was probably a little more cruel than he otherwise would have been). His dogged pursuit of the truth gets him kicked out of the sheriff's office and makes his family pariah in the community. It also (as far as he knows) causes his wife to leave him. Yet he doesn't roll over and play dead, or run away disgraced. He stays in Neptune and not only manages to eke out a living as a private detective, but continues the investigation into Lilly Kane's murder. He knows that Abel Koontz is innocent, despite Koontz's confession, and he is determined to see the real killer behind bars, no matter what it takes.
It would have been easy -- so very, very easy -- for Keith's loss of status to make him bitter. Being evicted from the sheriff's office doesn't just mean a loss of respect; it's a substantial loss of money. The private eye business isn't exactly a steady source of income. Keith is forced to move his family to a small, crappy apartment and struggles to make ends meet. Every paycheck means the difference between giving his daughter a real meal or a bowl of generic store-brand macaroni. Yet in a business where most are paid to do work without asking questions, Keith doesn't sell out his principles. He refuses to help the wife who wants to entrap her husband so she gets a bigger divorce settlement; despite the massive amount of money Casey Gant's parents will pay him to unearth any illegal activity going on in the Mooncalf Collective, he does not reveal to the police that the Collective is abetting the delinquency of a minor, because he recognizes that the girl is safer and happier with the Collective, and that to return her to the social work system would be returning her to a life of misery and abuse. Sure, it means he and Veronica are stuck with another few months of cold showers, but...well, it's just the right thing to do.
Keith Mars is a Hero -- none of that antihero crap. He may be a disgraced sheriff turned private eye, but that nice shiny suit of armor will fit him just fine, thanks.
Keith: Who's your daddy?
Veronica: I hate it when you say that.
His daughter Veronica is everything to Keith. His only regret in pursuing Jake Kane is that it made Veronica's life at school difficult, but his greatest pride is that she wouldn't have it any other way. He wishes desperately that she could live a normal life as a normal teenager, but he's also very proud of her intelligence, tenacity, and savvy. Everything he does, he does for her. He sacrifices his romantic relationship with Veronica's counselor, Rebecca, because Veronica isn't ready to see him dating again. He sacrifices his relationship with Alicia, Wallace's mom, because Lianne comes back and Keith knows how desperately Veronica wants her family to be whole again. He is a knight in shining armor because that's what Veronica expects him to be, and the only thing he absolutely cannot bear is to disappoint her.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Post-Weapons of Class Destruction
[character]: Keith Mars
[character history / background]: Wiki knows all
[character abilities]: As a former sheriff and current private eye, Keith has your standard issue skills: surveillance, photography, tailing cars, handgun usage, tracking, etc.
[character personality]: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You want to know the kind of man Keith Mars is? Take a look at the kind of daughter he raised.
But for those of you who'd rather read the book than see the movie, here's the long and short of Keith Mars.
Keith: Almost started without you; you'd have missed my chili surprise.
Veronica: You made chili?
Keith: Surprise.
Keith Mars is not your typical brooding, jaded private eye. Sure, he's got the biting wit, but underlying it is a genuine sense of fun. He's funny, intelligent, charming, and just silly enough to be endearing. He doesn't take himself too seriously, and often makes hard-boiled detective jokes with his daughter.
Keith: It isn't always easy doing the right thing
Veronica: If that isn't on the Mars family crest, it should be
Keith is a man of high ideals and strong convictions. He believes in truth, justice, and the sanctity of the Law, and even before the series starts, sacrifices almost everything he has in the name of those principles. After Lilly Kane is murdered, he does not bow to public pressure to not investigate Jake Kane when the evidence suggests that Jake Kane was lying (although the extent to which it was also motivated by his knowledge of Jake's affair with his wife Lianne is questionable. It was definitely not the cause of Keith's investigation, but he was probably a little more cruel than he otherwise would have been). His dogged pursuit of the truth gets him kicked out of the sheriff's office and makes his family pariah in the community. It also (as far as he knows) causes his wife to leave him. Yet he doesn't roll over and play dead, or run away disgraced. He stays in Neptune and not only manages to eke out a living as a private detective, but continues the investigation into Lilly Kane's murder. He knows that Abel Koontz is innocent, despite Koontz's confession, and he is determined to see the real killer behind bars, no matter what it takes.
It would have been easy -- so very, very easy -- for Keith's loss of status to make him bitter. Being evicted from the sheriff's office doesn't just mean a loss of respect; it's a substantial loss of money. The private eye business isn't exactly a steady source of income. Keith is forced to move his family to a small, crappy apartment and struggles to make ends meet. Every paycheck means the difference between giving his daughter a real meal or a bowl of generic store-brand macaroni. Yet in a business where most are paid to do work without asking questions, Keith doesn't sell out his principles. He refuses to help the wife who wants to entrap her husband so she gets a bigger divorce settlement; despite the massive amount of money Casey Gant's parents will pay him to unearth any illegal activity going on in the Mooncalf Collective, he does not reveal to the police that the Collective is abetting the delinquency of a minor, because he recognizes that the girl is safer and happier with the Collective, and that to return her to the social work system would be returning her to a life of misery and abuse. Sure, it means he and Veronica are stuck with another few months of cold showers, but...well, it's just the right thing to do.
Keith Mars is a Hero -- none of that antihero crap. He may be a disgraced sheriff turned private eye, but that nice shiny suit of armor will fit him just fine, thanks.
Keith: Who's your daddy?
Veronica: I hate it when you say that.
His daughter Veronica is everything to Keith. His only regret in pursuing Jake Kane is that it made Veronica's life at school difficult, but his greatest pride is that she wouldn't have it any other way. He wishes desperately that she could live a normal life as a normal teenager, but he's also very proud of her intelligence, tenacity, and savvy. Everything he does, he does for her. He sacrifices his romantic relationship with Veronica's counselor, Rebecca, because Veronica isn't ready to see him dating again. He sacrifices his relationship with Alicia, Wallace's mom, because Lianne comes back and Keith knows how desperately Veronica wants her family to be whole again. He is a knight in shining armor because that's what Veronica expects him to be, and the only thing he absolutely cannot bear is to disappoint her.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Post-Weapons of Class Destruction