But also robbylangdon would be that couple who have been married for the past twelve years and not realize it themselves until someone points out to them, 'you guys are kind of married' & they make a lot of indignant noises until it slowly dawns on them that they, in fact, are
I feel like robbylangdon would be the kind of couple you just don't know to have been married for the past twelve years until you accidentally run into them PDA'ing in the grocery store & have a whole mathing math moment of 'wait so all that weird sexual tension between them...?'
"i have always been proud of you. from the first moment i've been proud of you, and it was my pride that blinded me. i loved you too much to see what you were becoming. what i was turning you into. i'm s- i'm sorry." shifu and tai lung you ARE robbylangdon
And when that final confrontation happens, Langdon is speaking both to Robby AND himself. And he is saying: Look, I am more than your failures. I have been you. I AM you. And you need help, the same way I needed help.
To elaborate: A patient Langdon did everything right to help but still cannot help but feel like he's failed when he looks at her above-the-knee amputation because HE was responsible for the patient and yet it was Robby who found the correct diagnosis that saved her.
The Patient is Langdon, Langdon is Robby, and Robby is Santos.
Langdon is standing there feeling the exact same guilt that plagues Robby whenever he looks at him. And he realizes right then and there that he's been made an object of Robby's guilt, the symbol of Robby's failure.
@pittifulpedant What do u mean unhinged, it’s the most galaxy brain correct meta ever & if you say it a thousand times i’ll clap each and every time!!!! And you are so right we need to match the unhingedness of robbylangdon BC THEY REALLY ARE UNHINGED sometimes i CANNOT believe what i’m seeing
The thing about Robby & Langdon is that they both saw the most idealized version of each other and wanted to BE each other (Robby living vicariously through Langdon what he sees as what his "undamaged" life could have been & Langdon looking at Robby as his future self)