Fucking thank you everytime someone ignores how Ted’s whole character is about his relationship with women an angel loses its wings. He won’t shut up about girls and thats ok hes a creep hes a weirdo </3
OF COURSE.
When I got into IHNMAIMS I found his relationship with women to be so interesting. It’s one of his biggest driving factors in regard to his relationship with others. It’s why out of all of the survivors, his dynamic with Ellen is the most significant and highlighted one. Like though he’s a fucked up creepozoid, he is a straight fucked up creepozoid 💗
Idc if people jokingly ship him with the guys or whatever, but when it starts to infringe over people’s genuine interpretation of a pretty complex character, as well as the story itself, that’s when I have to say wait a minute.
Also I lowkey(highkey) think when people start seriously applying these headcanons to the actual story/game/etc it heavily undermines his relationship with Ellen. Obviously Ellen’s characterization and story can be far more divorced from Ted than Ted's characterization and story can be from Ellen. Like Ellen has a lot of stuff that impacts her relationship with every survivor as Well as what AM has done to her and her own individual trauma from her past. Ted’s is naturally going to stand out the most out of the four other guys because his perspective highlights her in every adaptation. Ted’s psychodrama is literally based all around ‘saving’ and ‘loving’ her. Not only that, most of the characters within his psychodrama are literally there with the intention to tempt him from these feelings in various ways.
(Personal gain isn’t really the right word but idk how else to phrase it.)
1/3 of the characters try to seduce him(counting the witch in seduce even though she was immediately like ‘PRANKED YOU!’ Or whatever). Then like the Devil, Surgat, and the Witch try to get Ted to override this 'love' for some kind of personal gain. Ted has to give up this 'love' for the benefit of Ellen, rather than for himself or others, which is pretty significant. Like he got to where he is today from his relationship with older rich women. His way of life had been centered around becoming what is needed of him as long as it results in personal gain. Like he’s developed a billion complexes over it.
Once again no harm intended towards people just having a fun time, but it’s just so annoying when these jokes end up becoming all people see about his character and the other characters. It’s important to keep jokes and headcanons separate from the actual content of IHNMAIMS(perhaps it is too late for this though 💔). Though the writing for IHNMAIMS is spotty at times I feel that Ted's is pretty heavily leveled and quite complex. If they wanted him to be bisexual or gay they would make that pretty clear. Like his world view stems a lot from misogyny while also being a male victim of grooming. You genuinely can't divorce this guy from his straightness I am so sorry(It is sooooo fucked up that I have to write something arguing that a character is straight, but unfortunately I have to for Ted. That is Sir Straight .)
If people genuinely want to analyze a gay character, one whose sexuality is a central factor in how he was tortured by AM, then pleasseeee look into Benny. I know it may sound kind of hypocritical of me to write all about Ted here then say people should write about Benny, but in this case I am saying straight ted and gay benny, not the other way around. It also so crazy that they erased Benny being gay in like everything after the short story. Like sure the changes are maybe acceptable, but short story Benny is FAR more engaging and impactful.
Sorry for getting off topic and making this so long, anon thank you so much for your ask, it genuinely got me really excited and gave me an excuse to think critically about my favorite game/short story in regards to the public perception of its characters.
Also I really have to highlight that this was definitely all sparked by my awesome moot freakenomenon!!!!!(idk if I should @ or not since we haven't ever chatted) but seriously!!!!! If you want even better IHNMAIMS takes check out his account, he summarizes this all even more concisely than I ever could.
