I've thought about it a lot in regards to horny stuff like this original post- hc that it takes a long time for Lawrence to bottom due to his overwhelming need to always be in control and repression/internalized homophobia, and even tho he likes it once he does it, he still tops at least 60% of the time until he's getting geriatric cuz Adam is like 15-20 years younger than him depending on which version of the script you're going with and his bones probably don't hurt as much when he moves. (Which isn't to say people in their 70's and up don't fuck, they absolutely do, and i hope I am if I live that long)
But I've thought too about their relationship dynamic and who they are as people and how that would grow or change. Saw was released 20 years ago, if Adam had survived, who would he be in his 40s? Who is Lawrence in his 60s? I think most of us who hc Adam and Lawrence living happily ever after see Adam as getting to live a very comfortable life that he only ever dreamed of and never imagined he could actually have- part time dad-life in a house he co-owns in the suburbs married to a man who has emotionally and financially supported him all this time- but what does that actually look like long term? Stories end with "happily ever after," but real life continues.
To me, Adam and Lawrence need each other in that neither can fully recover from the trauma of the bathroom without the other. Lawrence is the broken accomplice to the Jigsaw killer that we see in Saw 3D who made forum posts about seeing Adam's corpse every time he closes his eyes and saying that only the people who deserve to live are the ones who do. Massive cope. The survivor support group is probably the closest thing to therapy he's ever had, which in the Saw 3D basically served to recruit survivors into the cult of Jigsaw that Lawrence was leading.
On the commentary for Saw, Leigh Whannell says that Adam needs Lawrence's stability and the doctor needs Adam's chaos. There is something in Adam that helps Lawrence learn to lighten the fuck up (something that helps Lawrence eventually getting comfortable with Adam fucking him in the ass among other things), and there something about Lawrence's steady hand that grants Adam the ability to focus and grow the fuck up, (Adam's daddy issues my beloved), and I think that as two lost souls in this world yearning for connection with somebody, anybody, they've found one together in one of the most fucked up ways imaginable and neither of them can heal from that experience (or even their past baggage) without the only other person in the entire world who knew what the fuck it was like to be in that room under those circumstances. Sure, Zep was watching and John was chillin on the floor, but neither of them were held captive there, confused and scared. And while I think they wouldn't immediately be super vulnerable with each other and sharing all of their secrets with each other because the kind of damage that prevents you from being able to connect with someone in that way takes a while to undo, I do think Adam and Lawrence went a long way to get there through their experience in the bathroom- they've both seen each other at their worst, screaming crying and bleeding out, Adam already knows Lawrence was a cheater, Lawrence already knows Adam was stalking rich people for money and ruining their lives/marriages with his work, and both still thought the other was someone deserving of living and surviving that trap even knowing all of those things about each other. What do they really have to hide from each other anymore?
So what does a well adjusted Adam and Lawrence look like 10, 20, 30 etc years down the line, when they have had all of that time together? When Adam's humor has rubbed off on Lawrence and maybe Adam is finally getting medicated for his ADHD (cuz untreated ADHD Adam is so real to me as a person who struggled through untreated and undiagnosed ADHD in my 20s), what does it look like as Lawrence ages and he insists he's fine and Adam is shifting into more of a caretaker role and insisting "No you're fucking not, sit down for a sec", but it's still something playful and sweet without malice or hostility, when Lawrence spent so much of their lives taking care of Adam when they were younger, providing him with financial stability and probably the first clean living space he'd had since he was a teenager long enough to figure his life out and get his shit together after they first met? How does it parallel the way their roles change in the bathroom with Lawrence breaking down emotionally by the end and Adam trying desperately to calm him down, but now they've shared decades of love and tenderness and vulnerability and memories and feel safe and open with each other?
To love is to be changed, to be loved is to be known, and I just think it's a beautiful thing the way they can help each other be better and more well adjusted people as they go through life together, and how their love heals and changes them as individuals for the better over time.
Also shameless plug for this fic I cranked out when I was very sleep deprived and burnt out as fuck for Saw's 20th anniversary last year that I should probably revisit and rewrite a bit at some point cuz it was kinda rushed, but if thinking about both of them as middle aged gays in love is something that floats your boat, give it a shot:
