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singaroundelay · 11 months

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I just have one thing to say about the finale and where this all ended.

Yes, it's a bittersweet ending. Yes, Ted's smile is one that doesn't quite meet his eyes. But there's a sense of relief there, too. He's happy with the choice he made, even if he might not be fully happy right now. Even if we might not understand the choice he made.

It doesn't mean he'll never be happy.

But also — he left the UK.

He's not banned from re-entry.

Phones still work both ways.

He's not cut off from everyone.

Nothing says he is going to be in Kansas forever. He's in Kansas for now. And to quote Avenue Q: everything in life, is only for now.

The conversation he had with Trent in the office? I don't see it as a rejection or a shut down of Trent's affections. Ted's in a space of turmoil but something Trent wrote made him laugh. (I think screenshots show it's the night of the Indian date?). Ted doesn't push him away. Trent knows that Ted isn't actually going to give good feedback if he's constantly hovering. So he leaves him to his reading.

But it's not like they're never close again. There's still the Diamond Dog scene. Later on during the match, it's the first time that we actually see Trent is in the coach's dugout. There's still a closeness to them. (And he has a front row seat to Ted knowing the off-side rule.)

I always had my tongue in cheek with all my weekly Tedependent posts — I knew we'd never get to see a queer Ted on screen. We were never going to get the kiss. We were never going to get their relationship on screen. That's the thing with slashing characters. We were lucky to get Trent declared gay canonically. I only ever expected him to be coded as queer. I'll accept my bisexual-coded Ted.

Just because he went back to Kansas doesn't mean he's living in the closet forever.

What is it that Trent said in the last Diamond Dog meeting?

I don't think we change, per se, as much as we just learn to accept who we've always been, you know?

Maybe Ted isn't ready to accept that part of himself and it's why he goes back. Ted, single, in America? It's the best ending for those of us who want to create content and ship TedTrent together.

Nothing's stopping Ted from going back to London to find the man he finally realizes he loves and left behind after he reads the love letter Trent wrote to him in the form of The Richmond Way, right down to the dedication that reads Still love our chats.

Nothing's stopping Trent from coming to America to find the gaffer he's never been able to forget.

Nothing's stopping Michelle from realizing her ex-husband is miserable and — after plotting with Trent — figures out how to move everyone back to the UK.

Nothing's stopping Ted from finding his happiness in the end.

What that happiness is? Is up for Ted.

He's on the path to finding it. And it's okay that it wasn't on the screen.

Because whatever Ted's happiness ends up being... is just for him.

And I think we should be happy for Ted.

#ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso spoiler #ted lasso season 3 #ted lasso meta #ted lasso season finale #ted lasso deep thoughts #trent crimm #Trent Crimm independent #tedependent #tedtrent #ted lasso/trent crimm #Trent Crimm/ted lasso #ted/trent #trent/ted #trent x ted #ted x trent #ted lasso analysis #honestly some of the takes I've seen are not it

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rowanellis · 10 months

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youtube

Can we define "good" and "bad" LBGTQ+ representation? 🤔

"Ladies and Gentlemen and those who are not members of the aristocracy, I’m a video essayist standing in front of a wall of red string, I think you know what that means - it’s chaotic conspiracy deep dive time!"

Well, I'm certainly going to try in this unhinged deep dive!

#video essay #youtube #rowan ellis #deep dive #ted lasso #keeley jones #ted lasso colin #trent crimm #ted lasso analysis #gay representation #queer representation #y: the last man #bill and frank #ltou #Youtube

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ghostvibesonly · 1 year

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So Ted Lasso is my current hyperfixation and I need to talk about this or I will explode (sorry it’s the tism/Trent Crimm kinnie in me).

This entire final season we’re being led to believe Ted will be returning back to America at the end of the series.

But why would he do that? Ted has found a family in Richmond. He’s found a place where he finally belongs and where he can make a difference. Going back to Kansas would only be worse for his mental health.

This entire season he’s mentioned multiple times how he feels like he doesn’t belong. That he doesn’t know why he’s still in England. But I believe with Total Football will come a realization as to why he’s there. And I think Trent’s ramblings at the end of the most recent episode (and possibly Trent himself) will help Ted greatly.

This show is all about subverting expectations. Why do we think Ted will go back home? Because that’s the expected ending. What else is there in Kansas waiting for him besides loneliness and isolation?

Henry, his son.

Ted loves his son with all his being. He also misses him incredibly. We expect that he’ll return to America to be with Henry.

However, the first shot of every season is a direct parallel to its final shot. For example, season 2 starts with a closeup shot of Nate that pans back to show him with the rest of the coaches happily cheering for Richmond. The end of season closes with Nate now manager at WestHam, walking towards the camera with a smug look.

The creators of the show know what they’re doing. Everything placed, every choice made, every character behavior or interaction is purposeful. There is intent behind everything.

At the beginning of season 3, Henry left Ted and England behind to go back to America. Who’s to say the show doesn’t end with him coming back to live with Ted? (Especially with the hints that he isn’t doing too well in America either, what with the bullying incident)

Maybe I’m putting my tinfoil hat on and hoping Ted doesn’t leave Richmond (god knows I already have my clown makeup on for Tedependent). Maybe it’s the hope that ends up killing me. But Ted Lasso is a show that will do things no one expects. The hope might kill me, but god it’s fun to clown until the end

#pleasee i just want him to stay with his himbos and boyfriend #ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso analysis #analysis #show analysis #trent crimm #tedependent #tedtrent #big 🤡 energy

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yolatirra · 1 year

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Ted’s Save the Cat Character Arc

Introduction

The Save the Cat plot structure originally intended for screenplays and described by Blake Snyder (to learn more, look up his book and the novel-focused version by Jessica Brody). While I can’t be sure the Ted Lasso writers are intentionally using it, the beats do map onto the show very well, and since we know the show was originally planned as three seasons, we can assume everything up to the end of season 3 is one complete arc. Thus, there’s a lot to be learned by using this plot structure to analyze the show.

Save the Cat can be applied to a story’s overall plot, but in a character-focused show like Ted Lasso it often makes more sense to apply it to each character’s arc individually. So in this analysis I’ll mostly be focusing on Ted.

I know this structure pretty well, as I’ve used it for my own writing and to analyze several other stories from various kinds of media. That said I’m not an expert, so if you also are familiar with it and have differing ideas, I’m very interested in your perspectives on the show.

But first, a disclaimer. I ship Ted/Trent and while I originally set about writing this analysis as neutrally as possible, that kind of went out the window when I realized how much the plot is pointing to their relationship being deeply important for Ted, whether it’s romantic or not. So while I’m not assuming their relationship is romantic in this analysis, I definitely talk about how important they are to each other and how intertwined their stories are.

Also, I didn’t spend a ton of time on this, so I apologize if it’s not entirely coherent or I’ve missed or misremembered things.

So, what is Ted’s plot arc? In one sentence, it’s this: Ted struggles to heal from his past while searching for a new sense of belonging in the aftermath of his marriage.

ACT 1

Act 1 Summary: Ted’s starting point and important relationships are established. He adapts to life as the manager of AFC Richmond and accepts divorce.

Opening Image

The first actual scene we get of Ted (not including the news report of him dancing with his American football team) is of him on the airplane to England. Initially he’s alone, and then he’s with Beard except the two are not seated together, so even though Beard is with him he’s still kind of alone. And then the lights go out and everyone tries to sleep, but Ted sits awake looking at Michelle and Henry on his phone, the light from the screen illuminating his face and setting him apart from everyone else. He is alone in a crowd.

Also, no one believes in him. He asks Beard if what they're doing is crazy. Beard says it is, and so does the “ussie” guy.

From this we can take away that Ted is isolated from family and friends. He doesn’t fit in, he is apart from others. Beard is with him, but that isn’t enough. No one believes in him in the way he wants or needs.

Set-Up

This beat is usually the first 20-25% of the story. Episodes 101-104 and the first half or so of 105 set up the world and the main characters. We learn about Richmond (the town) and AFC Richmond (the team). We learn who most of the main players in the plot will be and most of their initial relationships with Ted are established.

Theme Stated

So this is a really interesting beat in this show. Normally the theme in this beat is a lesson the protagonist needs to learn, and it’s usually said to them by a secondary character. But in episode 103, we get this line, said by Ted to Trent:

“For me success isn’t about the wins and losses. It’s about helping these young fellas to be the best versions of themselves on and off the field. And that ain’t always easy Trent, but neither is growing up without someone believing in you.”

Ted says this about the people on the team and it does summarize many of their character arcs, but it also describes Ted’s character arc. He has to heal from his father’s suicide (growing up without someone believing in him) and his upcoming divorce, before finding his new place in the world (be the best version of himself). He also needs someone to believe in him. But at this point, he doesn’t realize this is a journey he needs to go on. That’s the lesson he needs to learn. That he also needs to heal and find people who believe in him in order to be the best version of himself.

Interestingly, this is opposite but complementary to Trent’s arc. Trent has people who believe in him (he’s a well known and respected journalist), but he doesn’t have something (or someone) to believe in. He comes to believe in Ted and The Lasso Way, and over time that belief inspires him to change his life and be more freely himself.

Catalyst

Michelle and Henry come to visit, and at first it seems to be going well. Then Ted catches Michelle crying, and she says she’s trying to love him again. This is the moment that leads to Ted realizing he has to let Michelle go, which sets him on his path of healing and self discovery.

Debate

Ted spends the second half of episode 105 thinking about what Michelle said and debating with himself (and the soon-to-be Diamond Dogs) about what to do. This is pretty short for a debate beat, but Ted has done a lot of thinking about this relationship before Michelle showed up in England, and the showrunners likely didn’t want to or couldn’t have Michelle be a significant character for two episodes, so it makes sense that everything from the Catalyst to the Break Into Two beat is squeezed into one episode.

Break Into Two

Ted tells Michelle she doesn’t have to keep trying to love him, choosing to let her go and accept divorce. From this point on, Ted has begun his journey, and we have entered Act 2.

It’s interesting to note that most other characters got their Catalyst, Debate, and Break Into Two beats in 104, but Ted gets an episode all to himself. The show itself can’t move into Act 2 until Ted does, so he’s the last, and he’s the title character, so he gets the most focus.

ACT 2

Act 2 Summary: Ted builds his new relationships and accepts his struggles with mental health, taking steps toward managing it and healing from past traumas. He struggles with feeling torn between his new life in England and his son back in the US, as well as a shaken belief in the Lasso Way, leading to depression and apathy toward his job.

Fun and Games

This beat encompasses everything up until the midpoint of the story, so episodes 106 to 206. The world and the characters and Ted’s relationships with them are further developed, setting up the second half of the story.

B-Plot

The start of the b-plot is usually a character being introduced or re-introduced soon after the start of Act 2. This character is normally someone who will help the protagonist learn something, either through words or actions, intentionally or not. This is often a romantic interest, but it certainly doesn’t have to be.

Ted gets a new b-plot each season, (as do the other major characters), but Ted’s show-long b-plot character is Sassy.

Sassy is introduced two episodes after Ted agrees to divorce Michelle. The only other character introduced in this time is Dani Rojas, but he’s the b-plot character for Jamie, not Ted.

So what does Sassy teach Ted? Honestly I’m not sure yet, and that makes me think there’s still at least one significant scene between Ted and Sassy we haven’t seen yet. We could say that she teaches him that casual sex is okay. This wasn’t established by the theme as something Ted needed to learn but we can argue it’s part of finding his new place in the world. We can also argue that she helped him realize he’s a “work in progmess,” which would be part of healing from his past. But neither of these things feel significant enough. I think overall her role is to help Ted move on from his divorce, and it’s possible that’s all she needs to do and has already done it, but I just feel like something is missing with her still.

Ted’s season 2 b-plot character is Dr. Sharon. She’s introduced in episode 1, but doesn’t interact with Ted very much until Ted starts trying to be friendly with her. She of course teaches him that he has trauma from his father’s suicide and that he needs to acknowledge that in order to heal from it.

And Ted’s season 3 b-plot character is Trent, who joins AFC Richmond to write a book about Ted the team. Unlike Rebecca, Trent doesn’t want anything from Ted except to understand him. He is fascinated by Ted and wants to see where his story goes.

I’m pretty sure that between these three characters, Ted learns and gains everything he needs to in order to complete his arc.

Sassy helps Ted heal from his failed marriage.

Dr. Sharon helps Ted heal from his past.

And Trent selflessly believes in Ted. He just “can’t help but root for him.”

First Pinch Point

Technically this isn’t part of the Save the Cat structure. I’m pulling the idea of pinch points from Dan Well’s 7-point structure. But I often find that pinch points fit well into Save the Cat, and since this is a long story told over three seasons, they help provide some additional context for the story’s structure.

A pinch point is a moment in the story that redirects the protagonist and the audience toward the main plot. It usually involves an increase in stakes. The first pinch point is Ted’s final scene of season 1, where he tries to preemptively quit and Rebecca refuses to let him go. Ted hasn’t done what he needs to do yet. He can’t leave. Also, while Rebecca does believe in Ted and has genuinely become friends with him by this point, her belief in him comes from a selfish place. She wants to believe that Ted can win because she wants Rupert to lose. It isn’t really The Lasso Way that she believes in, at least not for its own sake. She wants something from Ted. Still, while this isn’t the belief that Ted ultimately needs, it is a step in the right direction. However, now he has the promise of winning the premier league on his shoulders, and that is certainly a heightening of stakes.

Midpoint

The midpoint is Ted’s first major panic attack during the quarterfinal game in 206. This is the point where Ted can’t ignore his own issues anymore, which means he starts to heal.

Bad Guys Close In

“Bad Guys” represents the rising stakes of the plot. For Ted, this means everything that happens with Nate, Trent’s article about his panic attacks, and his distance from Henry and lingering feelings for Michelle.

Second Pinch Point

This is Trent’s article about Ted. The article is essentially a test of how far Ted has come this season. While the article is not an easy thing to deal with, Ted actually manages the aftermath quite well. He has come to terms with his mental health enough to talk about it not only to his friends but also to the press. It also reminds the audience that Trent exists, foreshadowing his importance in season 3, and makes sure we know that he and Ted have enough respect for each other that even a seeming betrayal like Trent’s article won’t hurt their relationship. They haven’t spent a lot of time together on screen yet, but their relationship is very important.

All is Lost

This is Nate’s outburst at Ted in episode 212. Ted fails to see that something is going wrong with Nate for the whole of season 2 (or at least fails to realize the depth of it), and eventually it blows up in his face.

Even though it is never outright started, I think much of Ted’s depression and apathy in the first half of season 3 comes from his loss of confidence in The Lasso Way, and especially because much of what Nate said to Ted echoed things that Ted feels toward his father. For the first time Ted starts to question his whole philosophy. The man telling everyone to believe has stopped believing. I think as season 3 continues we’ll see that the Lasso Way didn’t actually fail for Nate, but Nate needed some time apart from Ted to learn and grow on his own.

Dark Night of the Soul

I think a lot of peoples’ criticism of the pacing of season 3 is coming from how long this beat is for Ted. And it is very long. Ted starts the season depressed, and continues to be depressed until he starts climbing out of it at the end of episode 305. Depressed characters can be frustrating to follow, because they don’t feel like they’re doing very much. And while I do think they might have dragged it out a little long, or made Ted a little too passive or apathetic without giving more explanation for why he’s behaving that way, I also think that’s kind of the point. He’s depressed, and it’s uncomfortable and frustrating and we the audience are feeling what he’s feeling.

ACT 3?

At this point I’m not sure if his Break into Three moment happened in episode 306. If so it would be the whole barbeque sauce-induced hallucination about triangles leading to him choosing to use Total Football. I can’t say for sure until I’ve seen the rest of the season. But if that wasn’t it, I definitely think we’ll see it by the end of episode 308. The fifth episode from the beginning had his Break into Two moment, so it would make sense that the fifth episode from the end would have his Break into Three moment, especially since both episodes involve Michelle and/or Henry visiting him in England. There’s parallels happening!

Conclusion (For Now)

We’ve either just entered Act 3 or are about to enter it, which means shit is gonna start happening. All we have left is the Finale and the Final Image. The finale can be broken down into five separate beats, but not all finales use those beats, so I’ll wait to get into those until I know more. For now, uh, I hope someone found this interesting and I’ll try to add onto this post either with edits or reblogs once I’ve seen more episodes and have more to say.

#ted lasso #trent crimm #ted lasso season 3 #plot analysis #save the cat #plot structure #ted lasso meta #ted lasso analysis

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enduringenthusiast · 1 year

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Keely Jone, Bisexual Women Characters and What Needs to Be Said

I'm ecstatic about this new development in Keelys story, but I've seen a number of complaints that celebrating "Canon" bisexual Keely Jones is erasing her bisexuality earlier because she was with a man. I understand that feeling, and the pain associated with the very real, harmful rhetoric that bisexual people in relationships with the opposite sex "aren't queer enough." But I also think when talking about media, it is a different context based on all the behind the scenes decisions. Putting queer people in shows is a risk. It could get canceled, censored, banned all sorts of stuff. And I dont think it should be erased that bisexuality will be used exactly for this reason. Not because bisexual people are bad, but because studios are. Think about it plainly- Having a bisexual character means you check that diversity box, you can have references and mentions, but if you put them in an opposite sex relationship, all that other stuff can be cut without affecting the story. Thats the catch 22 of bisexual characters- that a studio could manipilate the character in such a way, and yet still have advocates condeming anyone who says that portrayal is a bit disappointing. In the real world a bisexual person being in an opposite sex relationship is valid and doesnt make them not bisexual, but we can still acknowledging a harmful pattern in media where it always seems the bisexual characters primarily find themselves with the opposite sex. A lot of bisexual characters are bisexual in the same way Keely was up to this point- explicitly and often shown in opposite sex relationships, but maybe a wink wink nudge nudge to bisexuality that often comes as a flirtatious joke and could be easily written off as being totally in jest. I think about Eleanor from the good place and all the boyfriends we explicitly heard about, but her bicon energy all being somewhat quick jokes at her attraction to the women around her. So it's actually so so important that with Keely we see her in multiple happy opposite sex relationships AND explicitly, on screen, no way to cut it out or pretend they're just friends, in a same sex one. THAT is what we are celebrating. That instead of one and a couple of jokes, she got both EQUALLY, that we, as the audience, got both! There is no explanation, no way to work around it, but bisexuality and I'm not sure the people claiming we were erasing that before really understand how rare that is.

#Keely Jones #Ted lasso #Ted lasso spoilers #Analysis #Ted lasso analysis

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thoughtful-dragon · 1 year

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Ted Lasso 3x11 reaction

Things I LOVED in 3x11:

Pretty much everything about the way Roy, Keeley and Jamie interacted; the way they worried about him and tried to be there for him and it just felt so solid and real, and like I could see how they would all function in a relationship together. Truly a gift

Roy in general was delightful. This has saved his arc for me. Still a bit tell not show, but he’s clearly now at a place where he has accepted he deserves good things and those good things are Keeley and Jamie (in whatever way you would like to read that)

The comedy between these three was fantastic as well

GEORGIE TARTT! I love her, I love her and Jamie’s relationship. I will not have any criticisms and will defend her and Jamie’s right to cuddle each other to the death.

Pep!! He was there! He hugged Jamie! This is all I care about! (They also had him say that he doesn’t care about the wins and losses! That’s ridiculous! I don’t even follow football and I know that it is ridiculous to have PEP GUARDIOLA say this!)

Things I am neutral/unsure about

I am sorry. I am a bit bored of Ted this season. I think he was one of the characters I was most invested in following season 2, but now… IDK. I thought the confrontation with his mother was well done, and I liked the ending but… I don’t know whether it felt as impactful as it could have

Nate coming back to Richmond, especially how it came about, was weird. No, it doesn’t make sense that the players are asking for him back, no, it doesn’t make sense that they would have any say in it. Also, I think I support Nate maybe figuring out what he wants to do without being pushed once again into football coaching. Maybe he would have been able to do that if people had let him keep being a waiter

Beard’s forgiveness of Nate – I LOVED the Les Mis story, don’t get me wrong and Brendan Hunt can really bring it on his delivery of these longer emotional speeches. But I don’t actually think it felt… right. Like, we know that Nate feels sorry for the press leak. WE know that Nate has written a 60 page apology, but Beard doesn’t, really. It’s never been properly addressed. And I kind of think that the writers want us to focus on Nate ripping the sign and shouting at Ted rather than the actual awful thing that he did. I just can’t quite see why Beard would forgive Nate (outside of radical forgiveness, which is… yeah, I don’t like it) without at least an acknowledgement of that. I also… don’t think he should have to. Or, he should let go of his anger, but that doesn’t have to lead to Nate working with him again.

Things I HATED:

Number one is obviously the radical forgiveness of James Tartt (I have already posted at length about this here and it makes me very angry so let’s leave it there)

Yeah. Boot room scene. Sorry. Bits were great. The implied intimacy. Roy. But the extent to which it was played to the audience for laughs was… awful and really uncomfortable. They do not do this with any other character’s trauma/emotional responses. It’s not OK.

The whole Man City game sequence didn’t quite work me. So: Jamie’s being booed by the Man City fans, which is… OK – but they have played them twice since he’s left and we have not seen this level of personal vitriol towards him. When I saw the trailer for this moment, I definitely thought he was getting some kind of negative press attention. So I don’t quite get this. Like, I know they’re at home and there would be more of them but…

The Man City players repeatedly fouling Jamie – putting aside the fact that none of these were caught by referees, in the game at Wembley there is a shot of one of the City players hugging Jamie and a general sense that, actually, he was quite well-liked. Now, this is football. Maybe they’re all different players now. But surely they’re not trying to say that Pep would create this kind of environment where the players would target a former player who was getting targeted by fans? I thought it would have been really nice to see support from the City players but not necessarily from the fans. Because I do think that City was a positive environment for Jamie, which they kind of try to imply with the scene with Pep, but have dramatically undercut it here

Did Ted Lasso emotionally manipulate a player into playing through an injury? Yes. Yes he did. It’s shit like this that makes me hate sports culture. When it happened, I briefly thought they were maybe going to address the fact that Jamie is used to hiding pain, stemming back to trauma and have him insist on playing through, but. No. I don’t think they realise the fucking irony here of insisting that Ted doesn’t care about the wins and losses, and yet putting the safety of a player below that. Arguably, it's not about the win, it's about… something else. But it is not prioritising helping Jamie so why should I give a shit?

Also, it’s only after that that the City fans turn around. Which. Is so fucking. So. Yes. There are obviously lots of different city fans there, but we focus in on a group who are being truly fucking horrible and then… Jamie… wins their approval by playing injured? Seriously, what the actual fuck? I didn’t buy this, but even if I did, this isn’t something we should be aiming for! Why should Jamie win these people’s approval through endangering himself? I hate it so much! And then they dare to show his dad’s friends saying his dad would have been proud to which my audible reaction was: I don’t care (briefly followed by: is he dead? But those hopes were dashed). That’s the whole point! Jamie doesn’t care. He shouldn’t care! Caring about his dad’s opinions was deeply damaging for him!

In conclusion, I will be focusing on the bits I loved and rewriting/fixing the others through fanfic. Just needed to get this out here because it has been driving me insane.

#ted lasso analysis #ted lasso #ted lasso season 3 #ted lasso spoilers #mom city #episode reaction

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