nobody liked beard in that office lmaooooooooooooo

thinking hard on mr. coach "if a relationship lasts longer than five minutes, it loses its flavor" beard...being right by ted's side for at least since college. which, given clues, is probably about thirty years. who canonically bounces from relationship to relationship, but (according to brendan hunt's q&a session) chose within three days to follow ted to london. how he's notorious for being single, and letting his competitiveness or whatever end relationships..........("i did it again." "before the game before the dame?" "yep." "when're you gonna learn, coach?")

but that doesn't happen with ted.

beard might've yelled at ted for his "selfish" acts/his own desire to win...but...he's still there. he still showed up to work the next morning, right beside ted, like nothing ever happened. because the same reasons why beard left romantic relationships before isn't enough for him to leave ted's side.

how...the biggest threat to their relationship isn't anything platonic. it's a romantic dynamic beard has found himself in. because beard having a romantic partner is the only thing that would distract him from ted. not another friend, not a job, not anything other than...a romantic partner. ROMANCE is the biggest threat to their relationship, and it's on beard's end.

brendan "beard would follow ted into hell" hunt saying that beard's more focused on being with ted than nurturing his own relationship....yeah.

that ted saved him, so he'll always be there...and the reason he's not is because he fell in love with --- someone other than ted. like beard falling in love is the one thing keeping him from paying attention to all of ted's struggles...presumably like he would back in kansas. because from episode one we see him worry about ted. episode two we see him noticing the shaking hands, so he tries to calm ted down before it can turn into a full fledged panic attack. and now beard is changing, and yeah...for the worse, because he's in love with jane. because that abuse is poisoning him, and this time, ted isn't saving him and fixing him, because ted can't right now. hm.

beard loves ted. and he loves jane. and those two loves are driving factors for beard's character...because they are the most important people in his life. jane thinks ted's a threat to her, and honestly...she's probably right for thinking that. not that she's going about this correctly, but she's not necessarily wrong for locking on that ted is extremely important to beard. because he is. before she entered the picture, ted was his most loved. he dropped everything because ted asked him to. he doesn't do relationships, but he'd follow ted anywhere he ever asked him to. he's competitive, and that's lost him partners...but ted's still there.

ted is the most important person in beard's life, regardless of what romance beard is having. he just needs to realize that, and find his way back to ted's side where he belongs. brendan says that beard is a rock for ted, that he's full of love...and right now, that love is so misplaced. he's giving it all to jane, when it's ted who got it first.