None of this happened in a vacuum. Troop inspections are miniature rituals—who moves first, who sets the pace, who stands where—and royal hosts are trained to make course corrections invisibly. Foreign leaders bring their own instincts to the same script, and what looks like protocol drift is often no more than muscle memory from a different playbook. That’s why such moments are Rorschach tests: some see a breach, others see brisk confidence, and still others notice only the reassuring hand at the end.
What lingers is the contrast between ceremony at its most orchestrated and diplomacy at its most human. Even on a day polished for the history books, there’s room for improvisation—and for a host who knows how to turn a near-miss into a photo that looks exactly as planned.
