#but that's just it. robin ramy and victoire saw them as arguments but letty didn't

[archiveofliterature]

letty couldn't handle the fact a brown man rejected her, but also couldn't handle knowing that ramy would pick robin over and over again, that he would rather have a (chinese) MAN over a (white) woman

she tried to connect with him the ways robin could, by talking abt his foreign land, by "appreciating" him ("but your skin is lovely—"), mimicking his banter with robin (constantly going against every mundane opinion he had in an effort to tease him) but she could never see how she was constantly hurting him by never listening to him, by putting down his feelings of britain's settlement in india, by her utter ignorance to the group's collective experiences

but no, it's ramy's fault, obviously. he wouldn't even look at her and she couldn't stand it

[fandomplex]

I will say this contradicts just a little about what was said on p. 355:

"And it made Robin deeply ashamed, for only now did he see the cruel pattern of their friendship. Robin had always had Ramy. But at the end of the day, when they parted ways, Victoire only had Letty, who professed always to love her, to absolutely adore her, but who failed to hear anything she was saying if it didn't comport with how she already saw the world.

And where were he and Ramy? Looking away, failing to notice, hoping secretly the girls would simply stop bickering and move on. Occasionally Ramy made jabs at Letty, but only for his own satisfaction. Never had either of them paused to consider how deeply alone Victoire had to have felt, all this time."

And also what is said after:

"Letty, Robin thought, was close to a breaking point. She was running out of arguments. She had the look of a dog backed into a corner. But her eyes darted around, desperately seeking an escape. She would find any flimsy excuse, accept any convoluted alternative logic before she let go of her illusions.

He knew, because not so long ago, he'd done the same."

Pointing out that Victoire and Ramy had joined Hermes pretty immediately and instantaneously -- Ramy specifically saying he'd been waiting for something like this his entire life -- while Robin needed a significant amount of time to come around to it.

I don't think what you're saying is wrong -- I do think Robin was stuck with comforting Letty a lot, and that he often tried to smooth over things between everyone and wants everyone he loves to be happy -- but I also do think it wasn't 100% sacrificial on his end. It feels like his proximity to whiteness allows him to truly sympathize with her to some small extent.

the NUANCE of how robin and ramy split between taking care of letty and victoire respectively because ramy can understand victoire in a way that robin and letty would never be able to and robin is left to deal with letty because although people are still racist to him he knows him being able to pass grants him an undeniable privilege above ramy and victoire (and is well aware of what they go through) but letty is definitely NOT aware of such things and personally i think robin loves victoire and ramy too much to let them suffer through the indignity and injustice of letty victimizing herself and so he takes on the task of being the one to comfort her