#bisexual ted lasso

[saltyoaktree]

Here is my contribution to the fandom

I call it "The Bi Ted Thesis"

[somecheekyusername]

is ted lasso bisexual? absolutely. has he, or will he ever use the word "bisexual" out loud? absolutely not. that would offend his punnish sensibilities. he goes both ways. he likes his toast buttered on both sides. he's a switch hitter. ambidextual. but it don't matter cause he's all bi himself. call him justin timberlake, cause ain't no lie, baby.

what was it you asked him? he's not listening anymore because he's trying to think up a joke about both sides of a coin and he's wondering if the "heads" part is going to make it sound dirty.

[ohdeargodwhy]

Ted being attracted to men in Seasons 1 and 2 of Ted Lasso

[ughhhdavid]

3x6 "Sunflowers" // 3x12 "So Long, Farewell" parallels

1. "This is how you change your mind."/"How to Change Your Mind"

2. Ted letting Beard leave.

3. Ted, alone, looking down at something through glass. (the museum/the snow globe)

4. People partying and having a good time while ted is separated. Ted is literally above them in both, on the second floor/on the plane.

5-8. Different shots of "Sunflowers", the state flower of Kansas, ending with a wide one/Different shots of Ted in Kansas, ending with a wide one.

9. Close-up of Ted's face. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the only season (so far), where we got this style of close up both as the first and last shots of the season, but also in the middle* of the season. Seems peculiar.

(*technically the middle of the season is between episode 6 and 7, but 6 is half of 12,you get the point)

My theory is that the episode "Sunflowers", up to this point, told us how the finale was gonna go. Ted feeling stuck, uninspired, and disassociated. He lets Beard leave, and ends up alone in the Kansas (the museum). And this is where we leave off.

Next, Ted is in America (he literally goes to an American restaurant),

re-connnects with his roots (the dartboard, the basketball game, the sauce), realizes he's bisexual and breaks out of the box (the box breaking into the bi triangles and pink inverted triangle),

he gets inspired (in "Sunflowers" it was professionally, next time should be personally), and by the end he's back in Richmond with his found family (on the bus with the team).

Bonus:

Ted seemingly changing his drink after Beard leaves from what looks to be orange juice to something that looks a lot more like the tea in Amsterdam.

Another bonus that might be a huge reach:

The guy in blue behind Ted.

[hexiewrites]

on romcommunism, bisexual ted lasso, and the mumford-and-sons of it all

TLDR: this ENTIRE SHOW is about subverting expectations, expecting one thing and ending up with another, trying and trying and trying and ending up with something you never expected but is exactly what you need.

I've been thinking about this a lot, especially in regards to the amsterdamn episode which I think is the show finally 'coming out of the dark forest' so to speak, so I wanted to revisit the romcommunism speech and how it interacts with the theme song and with the other mumford references I see throughout the show, and why I think it points to a possibility of bi!ted, or at least, of a ted ending entirely different than what the majority is expecting it to be.

first off, as a reminder, the rom-communism speech from season 2 episode 5:

"If all those attractive people ... can go through some light-hearted struggles and still end up happy, then so can we. (...) Gentleman, believing in Rom-Communism is all about believing that everything's gonna work out in the end. Now these next few months might be tricky. But that's just 'cause we're going through our dark forest. Fairytales do not start, nor do they end, in the dark forest. That's something that only shows up smack dab in the middle of a story. But it will all work out. Now it may not work out how you think it will, or how you hope it does, but believe me. It will all work out. Exactly as it's supposed to. Our job is to have zero expectations, and just let go."

I've highlighted one of the most important parts of this speech for my analysis here, because when @stevecarrington and I were discussing it they pointed out where that sentiment comes into ted lasso again and again and again:

sound familiar? yup! it's right out of the theme song itself.

I have a lot of feelings about the theme song in general, but specifically the fact that it's... it's not exactly a sitcomedy theme. it's not actually a hopeful song on first read through, but it also kind of is. because one of the unfortunate and inexplicable truths in life is that it's pretty much assured that you might not get what you want, but, as the rolling stones and the season 3 trailer itself tell us, you can't always get what you want, but if you try some time you just might find you get what you need

I'm viewing this very much from a point of, Ted is going to find what he needs this season. he doesn't know yet what that is (winning the whole damn thing? moving back to his son?) but it's our job as the viewers to have no expectations, to not assume that things are going to work out in any specific way but that they will work out. and that you're going to keep trying, you're not going to know what to expect, and what you end up with may be something entirely different than what you thought when it started.

(kind of like having a giant bi awakening, no?)

I also have a lot of personal feelings about mumford and sons (and marcus mumford's) influences on ted lasso. I've started writing that post a hundred times but it's kind of a mess so I haven't posted anything (in the meantime, go watch the hopeless wanderer video, which exists because jason sudeikis is a close friend of marcus mumfords), but the one I come back to over and over is the song believe, and how the lyrics fit so perfectly into this romcommunism concept to the point that I think the entire central theme of the show is built off of mumford&sons lyrics:

and again. this drags it home so hard for me, on all of this. I could do a literal dissertation on what I think are other major mumford and sons influences on the show but this post isn't that. instead, I just want you to think about how the believe lyrics fit in with everything we're seeing. "your world's not all it seems" <- ted is not all he seems. he doesn't know if he believes yet, he needs someone who can "open up [his] eyes, tell [him he's] alive" and it needs to be someone who communicates openly, who talks to him

ted doesn't yet know if he believes. and he might not get what he wants (his marriage to be fixed, an easy relationship, an ending where everything is perfect), but he is going to get what he needs. he is going to try, and try, and we as the audience will go in with zero expectations and trust that it is going to work out.

I think different people will read this differently, but to me, it's a great subversion of the obvious idea that ted and rebecca are going to end up together. the cast has already said again and again that people seem to expect tedbecca to be A Thing, partially because they're both attractive, or they're both leads, because romcoms have trained us to expect this. ted is in a lot of ways some of what rebecca has been in need of, and there are some great posts about rebecca as the rom com heroine and what that means for her arc. but for me, the writers and cast saying that their relationship is strictly platonic, that they're brother and sister, is an excellent example of 'you can't always get what you want, but if you try you get what you need'. they might have some thoughts, they might start to think they'd be right for each other, and they are, but not in the way we might be primed to expect.

what ted and rebecca both NEED in each other is that confident. that platonic love and support that they're both craving in a lot of ways. sure, ted has some of that with beard, and rebecca has some of it with keeley. but their relationship, their connection, is so powerful to me from a platonic place, and this season is going to show them that's what they need from each other and always have.

and what ted needs is someone who can open up his eyes, who can, as mumford say in "white blank page" (which is also a very ted coded song):

he needs someone who can lead him to the truth.

perhaps... someone we might not expect? someone who built his career on finding the truth, and who destroyed it to do just that, to give ted the truth even at the cost of his job and the life he had built?

perhaps now that we've come out of this dark forest, we're going to start to see those expectations shifting, and we're going to see ted get exactly what he needs, even if he doesn't yet know what he wants.

(I want to be clear that I think you can also view this very strongly from the angle of 'ted does not need to end the show in a romantic relationship, he just needs to surround himself with love and truth and platonic support' and truly I think that's more likely to be what we actually see. I just couldn't help the tedtrent implications slipping in a little at the end here.)

[scatteredsunshine]

things that are canon in my au where ted has a daughter:

- beard was the first person ted called when he found out about her

- she and jamie are the best of friends

- ted got full custody of her when she was 12

- she also attempted for the first time when she was 12

- she has bpd, and ted doesn’t always know how to handle it

- her gf and henry hang out even when she isn’t there

- she is half egyptian

- she hated trent at first

- beard beat up her stepdad when they found out what he did to her

- ted is bi and he and beard dated in college

- ted absolutely adores her gf

- she calls beard “papa” because he and ted were basically the ones who raised her

- she and michelle are really close and michelle cries when she calls her “mom” for the first time

ok that should probably be it 😭 there’s so much i love about this character

[koakshawaii]

Ted: *monkey noises*

Trent: *gay thoughts*

[trentcrimmisgay]

i am a bi ted truther in my BONES and they did nothing but fan the flames of that fire this week. once again.