BABEL SPOILERS // i am such a firm believer of robin being sooo much more wilfully ignorant than even he himself realised, lest it topple his shaky determination to enjoy oxford’s luxuries. and my favourite example is that in the Don’t You Know Why Scene, robin only pushes ramy about letty after ramy calls him handsome 😭😭
because he does know why!! he all but rattles off a giant list why in the scene where he’s comforting her!!!
like yes you can read robin as simply being an idiot wrt ramy’s sexuality but frankly its so much more interesting and also hilarious to think that robin, in his intoxication and frustration, is pushing ramy to say what he can’t, to articulate the Thing between them that he refuses to articulate himself. and i think ramy is aware of that, and flips it back on him. he knows robin doesn’t want to look at it directly, because confronting their Thing means he’s going to have to confront much more than that, and robin is so so determined Not to do that. he doesn’t want to think about what else he’s ignoring in order to bask in oxford’s luxuries, and he doesn’t want to wonder if upholding the status quo is worth losing all that potential freedom and love.
like robinramy’s tragedy is kind of intrinsically tied to their conflicting approaches to empire for me. robin at first always wanted to fit in, but ramy has always wanted to tear it down. idk i think they were doomed by each other and their circumstances long before letty tbh
