#altho her being right about langdon taking drugs does make her less objectionable i have to forgive her for some stuff w that

[distantandimpersonalscenery]

i went thru the pitt tag and saw some people saying that santos and langdon are comparable levels of obnoxious and arrogant and the fact that the fandom hates santos and loves langdon is blatant misogyny. well i disagree. langdon isn't one of my fav characters but i really like him particularly in his relationship with mel, who is a fav (maybe if santos had a relationship with like victoria where she was consistently supportive, compassionate, encouraging, etc, i would find her more likeable). anyway many examples were given of langdon and santos being the same but i don't think they work, and i will talk through 2 of them here.

firstly, langdon didnt know how to engage with their autistic patient and got frustrated by it. this is compared to santos using inappropriate and alienating methods to offer comfort to the fentanyl overdose patient. in terms of them both failing in an interaction with a patient they are similar, but the reason i like langdon and don't like santos isn't those interactions, it's what followed. for santos, she told dr. mohan (who is a resident, and outranks her, and plays the role of teacher) that she was open to constructive feedback on the patient interaction then rejected that feedback and got defensive and combative, despite the fact that she had obviously not gotten through to the patient. for langdon, he sees mel interact with the patient more productively and effectively and repeatedly praises her for it, asks her where she got her insight, and tells her that he's learned from her - his pride or stubbornness don't get in the way, even though mel is a junior resident and he's supposed to be the one doing the teaching. crucially, there is a scene of langdon apologising to the autistic patient for how he initially handled his case and they end things on good terms. for all we know, santos still thinks she was right in how she handled the OD patient. langdon comes away from this way more likeable than santos.

secondly langdon insulting and teasing garcia, for example calling her edwina scissorhands, is compared to santos calling whitaker huckleberry (and making fun of him for having a patient die) and javadi "crash". there are so many obvious differences that make what santos is doing far more obnoxious, including

1: langdon and garcia have an existing rapport. we do not know how long they have known each other, but it is certainly longer than the hours that santos has known whitaker and javadi. she is walking into a new workplace and insulting her new coworkers without building any trust or familiarity. we know from garcia that despite their constant jabs she and langdon respect each other as doctors.

2: garcia and langdon are peers. they are both residents and thus on an even playing field. santos is an intern, whitaker and javadi are students. she is picking on literally the only people in the ER who are lower than her on the totem pole.

3: langdon and garcia use generic, fun insults that aren't intended to tap into specific personal insecurities. it's classic doctor vs surgeon stuff, which shows up in every medical drama. santos is making fun of whitaker for where he's from and his lack of sophistication (and again, for having a patient die on him) and she makes fun of javadi for fainting, which javadi obviously found massively humiliating.

4: garcia gives as good as she gets! she never seems upset by langdon's insults, she just throws some back. whitaker and javadi do not hold their own against santos, in fact they specifically ask her to stop. which she doesn't.

so yeah langdon is asshole lite and given many many many sympathetic moments to make up for it. also his asshole moments are far more often played for comic relief than those of santos. his asshole/sympathetic split is probably like 30:70 whereas with santos its 80:20. full respect to people who like santos but i reject the notion that it's inconsistent to be annoyed by her and not langdon