#Anti beardjane

[lunar-years]

I wouldn't say Ted Lasso did any of its abuse/abuse recovery narratives "well" but I do think they did parts of all of them like really well, which is what makes it all so incredibly frustrating. Like, showing how hard it can be to intervene by having the Diamond Dogs be avoidant and non-confrontational despite their mutual concern about Beard's relationship with Jane, but then having Higgins step up and say something anyway (and even though Beard didn't take his advice, it still felt like okay, this is a good, this is a realistic and messy and complicated narrative to tell that nevertheless highlights the importance of speaking up and being there for your friends even if it doesn't always work out how you'd planned), having Beard & Roy jump in to help Jamie at Wembley and Roy respond so well to Jamie's story in Amsterdam, humanizing Rupert in International Break and giving the backstory for why Rebecca fell in love with him and offering them a moment of real connection again without once pushing the narrative that he should be forgiven or that Rebecca even considers for a second taking him back...all that shit was GOOD!!! it was really nuanced and complex and good!! andddd then it ended with the BeardJane wedding, a James Tartt Sr. forgiveness agenda and Rupert morphing immediately into an over-the-top cartoon villain like what 😭 they had the capacity...and yet!!! nooooooo.

[coachbeards]

something something “we accept the love we think we deserve”

[tomlinfonda]

There are some inconsistencies that bug me a lot.

At the beginning of the episode, Beard reveals that Jane shredded his passport to keep him trapped with her. That's blatant abuse. I truly expected the show to leave Beard in a better place than this. Bringing this up at this point seemed like a way to acknowledge her abusive behavior for real.

And yet, this is the last shot of Beard. In the entire show.

This cringe, ugly shot of him tying himself to Jane. Til death do them apart. Regardless of this probably being Ted's dream, it is an awful, awful place to leave him. It's a nightmare scenario, for this to be the last shot we ever see of him.

And they didn't even give us any hints that Jane might have become a better person (not that this would have excused it). No. Up until the last mention of her name before the wedding, the show never wavers in showing her to be toxic and abusive, even if the characters themselves brush it off.

With other characters like Jamie's father, the writers gave us hints that he was working on himself (which, for the record, doesn't mean that he should have a right to even be in the same room as his son, after what he did). My point with this is that if they wanted us, for some reason, to take this wedding as Beard's "happily ever after", the show about people changing and becoming better could have shown Jane change and get better. But they didn't.

The second inconsistency I wanna talk about has to do with Trent.

"You're part of the squad now". That's awesome, and he has actually been shown growing closer to the group and becoming a member of the team throughout the season. From being shunned in Episode 2, to being part of the squad now.

And yet in his last two scenes, he is alone? No one from the squad with him?

He isn't at the Higgins' party, he isn't at the wedding. There's no indication that he stays at Richmond. EDIT: Actually, his desk is empty in that shot of him in the office. So yeah. He doesn't stay at Richmond.

The show leaves him, once again, alone and disconnected from the team, from the community he's found.

What gives, showrunners? Why do these parts of the montage directly contradict things that have been shown and pointed out in this very episode?

Is this a case of sloppiness? Was the ending suddenly changed for some reason, maybe to make room for season 4? Was it supposed to be a different ending, consistent with what the show has been telling us for 11 episodes? Did things suddenly change behind the scenes? Or is this a case of bad editing? Or is it intentional? For some reason, it doesn't feel like it's intentional. It seems really weird that they would have written the passport scene and "You're part of the squad now" AND the wedding and Trent being alone in the same draft of the script. It's weird, and it feels harsh and forced and out of left field.

[ughhhdavid]

3x12 / 1x01

Let's analyze these 2 scenes: Ted coming to London and Ted going back to Kansas.

They're pretty much inverted, except for the "ussie" part at the beginning.

To which the guy says "wicked"

Now the first scene we see in 3x12 is Ted walking alone in the airport. In the last airport scene in 1x01, Ted is with Beard.

That's interesting, considering that Beard and Ted are taking the same flight in both scenarios.

But in one of them he's alone, and his back is turned to the audience.

Next, on the plane, there's a callback to "Are we nuts?" to each Beard, at first, says "Yeah! We are!" but he's all in with Ted, regardless of how crazy it may be.

In the latest episode, he can't do it. Because of Jane, keeping him and Ted apart, isolating him from his loved ones. But Ted doesn't see it, he thinks he's the one holding Beard back.

Meanwhile, in 1x01,Ted seems excited to hop on a new challenge. And in 3x12, he seems unsure, regretful, almost like he's getting cold feet. He rambles about all the things he's leaving behind. And how they almost won the whole fucking thing.

Then, after Beard gets down, and they get separated, Ted pulls out the snow globe.

This parallels the scene where he looks at his phone. Both times looking at something representing his home. But in 1x01, the cabin is dimmed, while in 3x12, the cabin is flooded with golden light.

And here's where things get interesting.

Because I think what follows is a dream sequence. It's not real.

In 1x01, Ted jokes with Beard, that if they see each other in their dreams, they should pretend they don't know each other.

In 3x12, Beard is gone, and Ted dreams. And through this dream, he imagines a world in which he's actively erasing himself from the lives of his loved ones.

The note "it's not about me. It never was" kickstarts it. He imagines his friends having happy endings, even with people that it's not realistic to do so (Beard and Jane). At this point, he just wants them to be happy, and he's telling himself that the way they can be is with anyone else but him.

So he dreams of their lives as they're becoming strangers. Him fading further and further from their collective consciousness, until all that's left is pieces of his sense of belief, silently hanging over them, something at the back of their minds, a passing thought, until he dissappears, to let them live the happy, successful lives, in the communities they formed, without him.

In 1x01 Ted can't sleep. Too busy thinking about not sleeping and thinking about thinking about not sleeping.

But in 3x12, he wakes up from the dream as the plane lands. His face still illuminated by the golden glow that started the dream sequence.

So basically, the flash forwards we see are Ted's dream. I rest my case.

[deardarlingthings]

Jane is fucking crazy. Psychotic and abusive. There isn't even a question about it. If Beard wanted fun with a little flare and spice, Sassy was literally RIGHT THERE. Like, she is spontaneous, fun, a fling, I mean she is the Dream Girl of WILD. And you settled for an abusive, manipulative, spiteful, crazy, insane fucking lady who would tear you down in order to not let you leave??? are you fucking kidding me?

[kittythelitter]

Ted Lasso finale AU where most things are the same but we encourage cutting out the toxic people in our beloved characters' lives.

Jamie gets a restraining order against his dad and they never speak again. Maybe his dad gets sober and supports him from afar. But it's both a bad writing decision for Jamie's arc and a bad message* for the show for them to reconcile without at the very least having Jamie's dad make some kind of reparations in the show.

Beard gets away from Jane even if he doesn't want to because she's so fucking bad for him and dating her is self destructive. Maybe Jane pulls some bullshit that requires the club to get a restraining order against her and then Beard has to choose between her and the club and Higgins puts his fucking foot down and insists that if Beard chooses Jane over the club he at the very least talks to Doc Sharon about it first because Higgins loves Beard, everyone at Richmond loves Beard, but if he leaves for Jane he can't come to games or be in their lives which would tear away his whole support system in England and make him entirely dependent on Jane. Which would be really bad for him. And it's not an ultimatum. But legally Beard can't be a part of Richmond if he's with her. Higgins would try to be there for Beard but the Diamond Dogs aren't the Diamond Dogs if one of them can't legally come to Richmond. It's very fraught but Beard hugs Higgins and talks to Doc Sharon and tells Jane that he needs the club more than he needs her and Higgins helps him block and delete her numbers and email and shit when she flips out.

Maybe she does something unhinged and breaks the restraining order and gets arrested. Maybe Beard spends a few nights sleeping at the club to keep himself safe from her. Maybe Higgins puts him up in his house to keep him safe because Jane burned down his fucking apartment.

No matter what, it's important to me that Beard gets away from Jane and Higgins helps him. Because that was such a good storyline that was totally abandoned and it would be a much better message* for the show to have than Jane and Beard getting married without Ted there and having a baby because that's fucking stupid.

As an aside I don't love Rebecca with the random Dutch man. Like I want her to be happy and if he makes her happy more power to her, buuuut it seems less like she likes him and more like she likes the idea of him so maybe instead.

And this is absolutely unhinged but it crawled into my brain and I kind of love it?

Beard and Rebecca have an incredibly ill-advised hookup exactly once right as he breaks up with Jane and she's grieving her friendship with Ted and retroactively like. Maybe I did love Ted romantically? But now it's too late? And like. Whether she did love Ted romantically, or is just grieving and in a culture that values romance over friendship and the power of her feelings are overwhelming her sense is up to interpretation. But either way. She's having big feelings and Beard is the closest thing to Ted she's got and he's having a melt down over Jane so. Exactly 1 hookup that defies every possible odd and they're platonically Co-parenting a child.

Ted loves this kid more than anything and visits way more often because of it, though. To be clear. I agree with Ted going back to the states because this story is an Odyssey and just like Dorothy no matter how much he loves Oz and his friends he needs to return to Kansas. And I could make a whole separate post on that. But anyway. BeardBecca baby that baffles and confuses everyone but somehow works. They're good friends who bond over their baby, their unexpected love of football/Richmond, and their love of Ted and have a very bizarre friendship that involves co-parenting a fucking brilliant chaotic child.

Also. I am a Roy/Keeley/Jamie truther so. I love Keeley choosing herself and I definitely want her to figure out who she is outside of a relationship for a while. But she and the boys eventually start all dating.

*To clarify: normally I'm not one to double down on the message that a show sends unless it's literally something that is educational and/or designed to teach children about their feelings, but Ted Lasso very much tries to teach the average American viewer about healthy ways to process emotions and non-toxic masculinity etc. So the messages it sends about relationships and forgiveness are very much part of the show and its purpose so having these shitty messages kind of undermines the purpose.

[sweettarttt]

“does jane make you greater” AND THEY STILL GAVE US A BEARJANE WEDDING??? WHY???

[tomlinfonda]

Jane won. She was threatened by Beard's relationship with Ted, and in the end, she managed to separate them. She cut Beard away from his best friend, the person who he loved the most. Her abusive behavior chained Beard to her. He can't leave. He's trapped. And no one is coming to save him.

[lunar-years]

beardjane

Anon please 😭

[lunar-years]

i can't believe you're coming out of the closet as a beard/jane shipper after all this time. so brave.

(this is a light hearted ask and not meant to be taken seriously)

ack! anyway. now that you've caught me, I will be ceasing writing on all my in-progress ot3 fics immediately to focus on my true passion: beard/jane 🙏

i can only hope you all will continue to support me in this endeavour, and join in on the love for this sailed ship. What's not to love? they're so quirky and cute and funny and-- 🤪

(🎶hahahaha i can't even say it with a straight face🎶)

[coachbeards]

the show never elaborating on "in all my happiest memories, i'm single. that troubles me." and not even showing jane being someone who makes him happy, but instead showing the anxiety she causes him and the pain she causes....her name is jane payne for a reason.

and actually making them one of the only endgame ships...ok!

like beard admitted he's not happy, and that he struggles to be happy, and that he wants to be happy with jane...because he should be. he needs to be. she makes his life interesting, why isn't she making him happy? we saw her scare him, we saw her emotionally abusive texts, we knew how blatantly she tried to isolate him from ted, etc. like... why did they only give one episode about the seriousness of beard, jane, and their relationship, with zero carrying into other episodes or change??