i just think it’s interesting how this episode of ted lasso focused on the straight character’s reactions to queerness, rather than the gay character’s actual queerness.

- we didn’t see Colin actually come out to the team, instead we were forced to assume it happened so we had enough time for Ted’s seven layer dip story.

- we got a conversation focusing on Isaac’s feelings about Colin being gay, but not Colin actually talking about his feelings besides with Trent very briefly.

- we also didn’t get Trent coming out despite the fact that they’ve clearly set him up as gay mentor & continually have him carrying that rainbow mug around

it almost feels like the Ted Lasso writers are afraid to say gay??? like they’re not able to fully embrace the queerness they’re so desperately trying to write into the show.

it would’ve been so easy to actually give Colin his moment without cutting away from that confession, or diluting it with a story about 7-layer dip. there are ways to create comedic moments without taking away from the heartfelt ones we actually want to see, not just infer.

on being a queer fan of media

*this post contains brief mention of ted lasso s3 e5 spoilers!*

this topic has been on my mind for a while, as a queer person who is soooooo normal about media. and after a conversation with @heyheymarrymearchie (hiiii babe ily so so so much i miss you already take me back to ur city please), another queer enjoyer of media, i decided to make this post.

last night, keeley and jack (two women) kissed on ted lasso, one of my favorite shows at the moment. and when i tell you that i went insane, i’m not kidding. sitting next to my mom in bed i was genuinely shaking and hyperventilating i was SO excited. and for those who don’t watch/aren’t caught up with the show, this was a duo that was presented with a lot of tension and romantic subtext. as far as tv relationships go, the hints were really obvious. and so when my mom saw my reaction, she was like “didn’t you see this coming?”

and that’s when it hit me. if you’re not a queer person, you don’t consume media in the exact same way as queer people do — and that’s not bad! we need people to experience media in all different ways, however, i’d never truly noticed the difference until last night.

see, i had noticed all the clues and hints in advance. but because of all the queerbaiting and experiences of me just reading too much into things, i didn’t let myself hope. i’m not used to seeing explicit queer rep in media that isn’t marketed as specifically queer, and i couldn’t let myself believe that it could exist. i’m quicker to look for red flags in (fictional) queer relationships, i’m wary that they won’t work out, much more so than if it was a straight relationship.

i think this is part of the reason fandom spaces are often so dominated by queer people. seeking representation, we refuse to take media at face value. we search for subtexts, we look for the smallest clues in tv (for the record YES i got hyped when i saw trent’s rainbow mug in the background)—hell, there’s an entire online archive where (mostly) queer people can write the stories we don’t get to see. shoutout to ao3. mwah.

we are so used to getting tricked, so used to being disappointed, so used to only seeing ourselves represented in our own imagination that we believe that’s the only place we’ll be seen. the most famous incidences of queerbaiting are well-known in online spaces, we accept we won’t ever see what we headcanon onscreen. and as a coping mechanism for all this, we accept it. we mourn, sure, but then we steel ourselves for the future. we don’t let ourselves hope. we find solace in creating our own content, we acknowledge our hearts are the only place it will ever live in.

so yes. yes, i saw last night coming. i always do. but i don’t dare let myself believe.

and so for anyone who always sees their sexuality represented, they will never quite understand this unique experience. there is joy in the progress we see and the communities we make, there is anger in what has not yet come to be. being a queer fan of media is an experience like no other. but no matter what, i wouldn’t trade it for the world.

me and my mom watch together each week and we both are getting the ick from jack and she keeps being like “and it’s not bc they are gay!” and i’m like MOM it’s ok you’re allowed to not like them together their relationship is just like anyone else’s😭

ngl the whole shandy plotline makes me feel like :\

whew some of the takes i have seen in the tags

you can’t say that men need to work on toxic masculinity and holding themselves and each other accountable while simultaneously calling any portrayal of them *actually doing that* “bad writing because it’s unrealistic” like? do y’all think through what you’re saying or nah?

now that we got confirmation that ofmd is free to be picked up, i think it's time we also direct our emailing/calling/social media efforts towards other streamers that would pick the show up instead of hbo since it seems they're not going to move forward with renewal (but don't stop bugging them. do this as well if you can!)

i'm heavily leaning towards apple tv for these two reasons:

they care about good shows with good stories and are willing to provide budget for them. their audience numbers are not always the most impressive or record breaking yet they still allow shows to tell their stories-- Foundation, Severance, For All Mankind to name a few

it's a service that is accessible both in the US and internationally. one of the biggest issues with hbo max was that a lot of international fans couldn't watch s2 of ofmd and had to wait for the show to stream on a local service and for some places ofmd never gets picked up

so here's what you can do to contact apple tv

i had to talk to three separate support reps before i got transferred over to apple tv's technical service and this is what he told me-- use the feedback link for best results as they definitely will review them and take them into consideration: https://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-tv-app/

right now it seems this is the best way for them to document what we want, i did ask for a phone number but the rep said that they'll offer numbers within the feedback form once the feedback has been submitted, so you have the option to call them to elaborate if you want!

here's a script you can use if you don't know what to say:

Hi! I'm planning on getting Apple TV because from the lineup of the shows on the service. I’ve noticed Apple TV values good, original storytelling and allow shows to finish their story without cancelling them, even ones that might be underperforming in terms of viewership. One of the biggest incentives that would make me subscribe immediately is if Apple TV picks up the show Our Flag Means Death, a critically acclaimed queer romantic comedy with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for their second season and incredible audience numbers. The show was unfortunately recently cancelled by HBO. I know Ted Lasso, a flagship show for Apple, recently ended, and I think the service would hugely benefit from another feel good, found family sort of comedy. Plus I would gladly subscribe to as would thousands of the Our Flag Means Death fanbase if we got the show on your service!

now let's get our show back!!! please reblog this post so more people can know about it 🥰

okay let me say this while we’re all here barely recovering. tedtrent wasn’t queerbait. in reality there was no baiting, or actual set up for their relationship to be canon. we took little vague things and turned them into something bigger that we could enjoy, but the writers at no point actually queerbaited us. it’s not like we got references to them hooking up or anything a la tedbecca.

HOWEVER. them giving us queer trent and then no development or context or full coming out story sure as hell was a hate crime.

sorry if you have already answered this, but are we getting any queer rep in Long Live Evil? 💕 i am super excited to see what you've cooked up for us either way!

I came back after I'd gone off on one, seeing the post had struck a chord and being thankful but fearful of my inbox. Let me say with delighted surprise that all the asks are very kind.

Thank you for this one, sweet anon. I am so excited and so nervous about my best beloved, Long Live Evil, and about coming back with a new book of my own after so long, when I believed for a long time it was hopeless.

I'm really grateful to find readers waiting for me. But I know readers are naturally more invested in characters they know: I extremely appreciate you taking an interest in the future.

So, short answer: YEAH you are!

Long answer: Long Live Evil wouldn't exist without its queer narratives.

C.S. Pacat and I were talking in our virtual Brookline Booksmith event recently about our favourite Disney villains. C.S. Pacat picked Maleficent, a fine choice. I picked Snow White's Evil Queen. We agreed we loved most of them.

Here's the relevant excerpt I was quoting in my last post from Carmen Maria Machado's In The Dream House, saying 'I think a lot about queer villains, the problem and pleasure and audacity of them.' Well... me too.

I think many of us have experienced feeling made wrong in some way - for not wanting what society said we should or being what we were expected to be - and that one step along that journey of discovery is going 'Okay, if it's wicked, I'll just BE wicked.' And that's part of why those characters appeal - because they seem free, and free of pain.

But modern storytelling isn't confined to coding, and audiences can now feel free to expect, not the certainty, but the possibility characters who aren't introduced as such still might actually turn out to be LGBT+. The essays I've read about Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Sherlock, Ted Lasso, Fox 9-1-1... I think the latest argued Jaime Lannister was bisexual. (Pretty persuasive.)

I remember reading the Raven Cycle going 'oh? OH.' I remember being at a writing retreat in 2013 and running through the halls screaming about Nico diAngelo. Ten years later we got a Nico diAngelo book co-written by Rick Riordan and the amazing Mark Oshiro. I watched Red, White and Royal Blue with a friend and she said 'honestly I hope the guys get together, but...' and I (having read the book) silenced myself with a herculean effort and watched her hopes come true. I didn't know about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and almost dropped the book in a swimming pool. But I've also read and watched many things thinking, just maybe... oh, no. Still that hope existing is meaningful, the thought that if the story had gone differently, if this revelation had happened, if this realisation had happened, if, if, if...

Long Live Evil is a story about the story going differently and asking yourself questions about your own nature, and the escape to fiction of those who really need escape. The book is based on that 'if,' and the 'if' itself is joyous, and brings me back to the idea of gleefully transgressing the narrative that much villain love is based on.

It's also an ensemble story with a rogue's gallery of characters and multiple PoVs. (I was much inspired by the Six of Crows ensemble.) So it isn't about any one character's romance, and by the book's nature there exist many possibilities. A critique partner read and said 'I didn't know you were going THERE' and I responded 'Should I?'

I've never been one to confirm where stories are going, and I won't do so now. I'm not talking about any one character or telling you a direction.

I'm just saying yes to rep. It's baked in.

Everytime someone calls Ted Lasso bad gay rep and says they shouldn't have won the GLAAD award I want to scream. You have no idea how impactful Colin's storyline was for me. A show with wide reach and a large audience didn't need to be queer, no one would have batted an eye over the masculinity sports show being straight and it wouldn't have lost some of its fans. They took a risk and it meant so much. I don't know how to explain to some online fans that my father watched and loved Ted Lasso. That Ted Lasso had some of the only queer rep my dad has ever seen on TV.

Ted Lasso on Apple TV plus: Has queer rep, POC rep, healthy and unhealthy queer relationships and individuals, demonstrating that lgbt people are just people who run the spectrum of humanity, treats storylines with absolute dignity, rejects harmful tropes about being outed, has the drama come from interpersonal relationships and not from the whole "wooooah people are gaaaay", centres an episode about nude leaks being an invasion and showing a mirror to society about their tendency to victim blame, rejects shame and stigma around mental health, promotes deconstructing toxic masculinity and has an open discussion of pegging where characters are not shocked or judgemental, just musing on the discussion and comfortability being established beforehand, thwarts the whole 'single girl and guy must pair up!' trope by demonstrating healthy and supportive male/female friendships, highlights that bullying played off for laughs still causes trauma and self worth issues even when not intended to...

Fans: Ugh this show's gotten so woke and unrealistic, why didn't we get to see Colin SAY he was gay, homophobic if you ask me, tedbecca or we riot, shows gotten dumb and preachy, too many gays, not enough gays, whine moan complain...

Once again putting on my weekly Teddependent tinfoil hat...

Alright, with the ever important disclaimer that no, it's not likely to happen and it's never been likely to happen and it won't in any way be queer baiting when it kinda-inevitably doesn't happen out of the way, LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW "STRAIGHT" IS A MEANINGLESS DESCRIPTOR IN THIS CONVERSATION.

It's all about the ✨context✨

First off, as numerous posts have already pointed out, Ted is technically speaking in the past tense here: "back in the early days of my coaching career" was when he was a "straight fella." This obviously doesn't eliminate the possibility that Ted is still straight, but if he has come out as queer since then, acknowledging that would defeat the whole purpose of his story. He's not looking to come out during the halftime of an important match, but rather to emphasize how "normal" he was back then and, as a result, the ways in which he got creative trying to express his individuality. If Ted had instead gone, "Back when I thought I was straight but wasn't able express that part of my identity because I hadn't realized it yet and/or had been too afraid to come out in midwestern America" that's not only an iffy way to out your protagonist in a show that has treated queer rep very delicately this season... but also totally derails his story. Both in-universe (you want to give the characters time to react to this, especially a potential love interest like Trent who is in the room) and from a writing perspective (the whole point here is for Ted's story to impart the moral of the "right idea sitting behind a couple of wrong ones") then a coming out moment is going to fit awkwardly here and detract from the anecdote's purpose.

Thinking more broadly, do we honestly believe that Ted hasn't changed since those early days? This show is all about growth, so - for me anyway - describing a young, new-to-coaching Ted doesn't imply, "That's still a descriptor that fits him" but rather begs the question "How much has he grown since then?" Notably, two-thirds of what else Ted lists about himself is no longer accurate. He's not working in middle America anymore. In a linguistic twist, he doesn't have a career in "sports," but "sport." And though we have no idea (as far as I can recall) if Ted is still afraid of tattoo needles, he certainly strikes me as the kind of person who would work to overcome that fear, whether he actually wanted a tattoo or not. The Lasso Way, by default, impacts Lasso himself. And here I'm admittedly reaching, though I find it intriguing that Ted's potential growth is couched in a 'Close, but not quite' metaphor with that comparison. Meaning, Ted's point about his goatee is that he went too far and had to pull it back into a "Foxworthy." Kinda like how, living in midwestern American with all its expectations and homophobia, he might have gone too far into a 'I'm definitely, 100%, absolutely-no-doubt-about-it straight' identity only to later pull back into 'Actually? I'm bisexual.'

Notably, this is metaphorical change comes about when his best friend - Ted's closest confidant and the man he trusts most in the world, someone who is INCREDIBLY queer-coded - tells him a hard truth about what's "not a good look" for him.

On his wedding day.

Which he then proceeds to compare to eating Bigfoot's ass.

Like I said, reaching, but given the loaded metaphors in this show (Oh hey, what does it mean to label "sport" the metaphor and then gift Trent that nickname?) I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was later reframed as more than just a passing joke.

However, the real point is that Ted has changed, a theme that's at the very heart of the whole show, but has been particularly prevalent the last two episodes. Trent freaking throws himself after Ted (WHAT A DORK) in an effort to explain how all these small, incremental changes have led to a monumental outcome - notably one that explicitly allows footballers and their associated club members to feel comfortable expressing all aspects of their identity, sexuality included. The idea that Ted has remained near-static since those "early days," growing only when it comes to what we've seen on screen (therapy, coaching, divorce, etc.) feels antithetic to the show as a whole.

Which brings me to the meta-y question of, "Why now?" Why, after nearly three whole seasons have we suddenly had Ted drop the "straight" bomb? Why is this coming after an explicitly queer episode with not one, not four, but FIVE queer characters re-affirming their queerness, coming out to each other, or coming out to the audience? One of whom is an older, thought-he-was-straight man who has only recently come out after being married to a woman? That's not at ALL the backstory fans were expecting for Trent and it just feels like a mighty big coincidence to me, giving us that surprising trajectory alongside a casual claim the next week that, 'The straightest straight character to ever straight has randomly reaffirmed that he's DEFINITELY straight (but with plausible deniability).' After all, the show never needed to address Ted's sexuality - the marriage and midwestern everything implied enough - and certainly his speech about individuality didn't have to use that as an example. Given how completely unnecessary it was, I'm inclined to figure that a) the writers - who I assume are fairly knowledgeable about fandom trends and fan expectations/desires - tossed it in as a way to let us all down easy (which is totally understandable and I'm sorry it didn't work on my part lmfao) or b) ... they want to lay the groundwork for a plot about Ted's sexuality. They want that nugget of implication to either undermine the, 'He's still straight!' assumption later, or take Ted through the process of questioning his sexuality now.

"But, Clyde, we only have 5 episodes left!" Yeah, fair, but the show also has a tendency to race through some development (in still satisfying ways) while allowing other aspects to simmer. Basically a Roy and Trent vs. Jamie situation. Jamie has had a series long journey, slow and steady to the point where it sometimes shocks you just how much he's changed. In contrast, outside of a little groundwork in season one, we introduced Roy's personal hatred of Trent, the motivation for that, their conflict, reconciliation, and budding friendship all in one episode. It is possible to do a lot of important work very quickly, especially when the show is potentially laying down hints along the way. That's why to all us queer folks, Trent coming out last episode wasn't in any way a surprise: we recognized the coding that was happening in the background. If Ted/Trent did somehow happen - either as an end-game romance or Trent acknowledging an unrequited crush - we'd likewise have a wealth of analysis going, "See! This has been in the works since 'I like your glasses'!"

(Btw, none of which is even getting into Trent's absolutely FERAL adoration of Ted this episode that reads like a crush the size of Kansas)

If I'm being honest, at this point in the series I don't think Ted is going to wind up with anyone. I never came into this show expecting my (back then) teeny tiny ship to have any chance of sailing... and really, I still don't. But I am surprised by - and excited by! - the potential the show keeps giving us, in a way that doesn't feel at all malicious to me. If (when) Ted and Trent part ways as just friendly dorks, I'll have come away from the series not feeling like I was delusional, but rather that the writers were saying, "Here, this is a cool concept. We like it. We support it! It's not what we personally wanted to write, but we're going to give you the tools to keep playing with that possibility." Which, you know, is pretty much what I'm doing right now.

So if hearing Ted say he's straight produced a little nugget of disappointment, take heart! Even if I'm just talking out my ass here, it makes for good canon-compliant explanations in fic :D

ted lasso always subverts my expectations in so many ways but the way they’ve done queer representation has been the biggest example to me. especially after s1/2 had no explicit queer characters when colin finally was revealed to be gay i fully expected that he would be the extent of ted lasso’s queer rep. most shows seem to down this route where they don’t want more than one, maybe two queer characters at most so that if one character finally is revealed to be queer, its something of a bittersweet victory because that probably means you never get another queer character on that show again. but ted lasso said fuck that, when we said all these guys were gay we MEANT it

incredibly unimportant in the general scheme of things but I cannot BELIEVE ted fucking lasso won the glaad award for comedy series over everything else that was nominated. I love ted lasso but their queer rep is one badly handled forced outing, one toxic victim-blamey relationship, and one actual well-handled queer character, all ONLY included as queer in the final season, and it stinks of "we got criticized for not having queer characters so here you go!" type of mentality. as opposed to like everything else nominated where the stories are ABOUT queerness in interesting ways and not just boilerplate tropes

I feel like there's plenty of valid criticism of the queer rep in Ted Lasso out there, but to be honest Colin's conversation with Trent really resonated with me (and my transness) and made me feel seen. Is it flawed? Yeah. Is it bad? I don't think so.

ted lasso’s groundbreaking ending to their queer storylines with colin & trent … I honestly had to laugh a little.

- Colin and Michael kissing on the pitch and nobody saying anything? when the whole thing this season was him not wanting to come out to the world? are we expected to believe no one saw that & that didn’t have any real world repercussions? (not that I wanted to see any repercussions, but to have that be a public gesture was certainly a choice)

- Colin never getting a toy soldier from Ted.

- Colin never introducing Michael to the team as his boyfriend officially after the whole ‘wingman’ set up.

- Trent getting a throwaway line about ‘learning to accept parts of yourself’ or whatever.

- Trent never interacting with Colin again or meeting Michael? Despite most of his purpose this season being to gay mentor Colin? And the whole convo they had about Colin wanting to ‘kiss his fella’ after he wins a match?

- Trent still having zero backstory we actually saw in canon? Who did he come out twice to? An ex-wife? His mom? What’s his daughters name? What’s that situation? There was a pic of her on his desk but she was never addressed again after that throwaway line in Sunflowers

- Apparently he was wearing a wedding ring in the book signing scene but I’d have to go back and watch to confirm? So possibly maybe an implied husband somewhere in the background?

Not impressed. Not amused. Though I can’t say I’m surprised.