#and these two people who love ted

[pineappical]

would calling this something like "the sun to his earth" be a little bit too cliche? maybe...

[flickeringflame216]

graveyards are places of history and memory WHY did we let them become creepy-coded

[sideboot]

In the 2011 article where Professor Schaverien publically debuts her concept of boarding school syndrome she has this fucking line, “For the first time in their life the child may be in a situation where there is no intimate contact; no love,” which pulled the ripcord right out of my spine.

Roy’s potential trauma at boarding school isn’t just about the environment he was in but the home that he was deprived of.  Roy was nine years old and there was nobody around him who loved him.

His grandfather’s death wasn’t just a tragedy.  It wasn’t just being deprived of anymore time with him or a lack of closure from being unable to say good-bye.  It was the Kent family losing an adult man who could drive and had a car.

When Roy was sent away his parents would have understood that Roy’s grandfather was going to be around to help.  He could visit Roy himself or he could take over childcare duties for Roy’s sister, so that Roy’s parent’s could make the trip.

Then there is the extra financial and scheduling flexibility that is inherent of an additional adult.  Working, retired, it doesn’t matter.  There was one more person in the family whose job it was to help take care of everyone, and by extension Roy.

Now Roy’s family is not only dealing with grief and arrangements, it might now be impossible for there to be frequent subsequent visits from the family.  It could have been very hard for Roy to make it home for the funeral.  Roy might have missed holiday’s he expected to be at home because there was no one to provide transportation.

Roy spending so much time with Phoebe may be a commitment made in deliberate response to the trauma of this event.  Phoebe is six in season one, so by season three she’s almost at the age Roy was when he went away.  Roy might find it incredibly important that he and his sister are able to provide Phoebe a childhood with not only financial security, but adults that are physically present in her life who do not have to send her away. 

From the subplot of Roy smothering Keeley, we know that Roy’s expresses  affection by being physically present with his loved ones.  He has no innate grasp that people can max out on time with the people he love.

He seems to experience a deep feeling of rejection at the idea that he would leave Keeley to go on vacation without her, as opposed to spending his time at home even if only one of them is not working.

I always stumbled at how strongly Roy reacted to Keeley suggesting he vacation by himself, especially after how easily he suggested canceling the entire thing.  I think Keeley, after being the one to push Roy towards punditry, was trying to give him permission and encouragement to do things for himself.  This is something that she herself has often needed.

But I think Roy’s takeaway emotionally was that Keeley was proposing, essentially, that it would be relaxing for Roy to abandon his girlfriend,  and that she herself was unbothered by the idea of their separation.

The entirety of his latest plotline is a showcase of the depths he will go to in order to avoid being left.  He broke up with Chelsea and Keeley.  He categorically cannot risk giving that which he cares about the chance to leave him first.

[st-peculiar]

Thinking about Ted singular from midnight burger podcast.. what a guy

[jrueships]

can you please walk us through the relationship between wemby and jabari the people need to know

i think the most notable thing about vic and Jabari's relationship is that they don't have one, when it would be so beneficial if they did. they're like two soldiers fighting for the opposite sides of a war, too loyal to the cause to stop and think about what could have been if they just lowered their respective weapons aimed by cold hands larger than their own. foils by fate, friends by freedom.

' remember, you will Always be Different. '

' remember, you will Always be Replaceable. '

'Replaceable'

Jabari's dad made it in the NBA, then didn't. He was a big that could shoot, but wasn't a post-up man. Back then, post-up was the desired style. Ironically, now, it's all about shooting. But his dad didn't live in the now, and his career in the US was short-lived, to keep it cordial. Jabari's older brother played basketball throughout his whole life, but stopped after college. Jabari's cousin, Kwame Brown, was drafted 1st overall in the lottery, and became a notorious bust for the Washington wizards.

Basketball is a business. Basketball is fleeting.

It doesn't matter that a big with sharpshooter skills is valued as something so 'prized' in today's nba, not back then, not when it would have mattered for Jabari's dad. Making it is one ballpark in its own, but Staying in it? Can perhaps be an even more painful ordeal when the hoops to accomplish it aren't circus hoops, but a plain hill some just don't have the strength, mentality, or the materials to help climb without distraction or pitfall.

Jabari's dad made sure Jabari had this threat forever ingrained in his mind. When he yells at Jabari for misplaced eye contact, for typing the wrong words in a public social media reply, for reacting in a way a camera might misinterpret, it's out of love. Jabari's dad was known for being a hassle to coach back then, maybe because he knew his potential and no one else did because it was too new to the mold. So he makes sure Jabari doesn't follow his same habits. Jabari is polite to authority, simply replies with a 'Yes Sir' or a 'No Ma'am', he holds eye contact, he wakes up hours before he needs to just to jump rope, just to uphold the standards that his family could not. He is Everything his father is and isn't, plus more. When his team wins, he's still talking about his missed freethrows even 8 hours later. Because someone else could have won the game And hit those free throws too . someone from a family that gained success and stayed in that success. Someone who wasn't Just Another Son of a basketball player trying to do what his father couldn't, someone who was Different .

Everyone knew wemby was different. When his literature class was asked to write an essay about your future dreams in life, he wrote a fictional romance about a couple where the woman got in a car accident and was comatosed as a result, but got better in the end. He didn't write about being a great basketball player one day, because his parents don't pressure him to hunker himself into the norm, even though his mother once was and now coaches. If Wemby one day realized this wasn't for him, they would encourage him to leave and follow whatever greater passions propelling him. He's so agile for his size because his dad was an Olympic talent in track and field. He is someone who has hobbies and talents that are considered common alone, but strange combined, because he loves what he has and what he does. He reads every night for one hour before bed not to appear as some pseudointellectual, but because he Genuinely loves it, and when he loves something, he excels at it. He does try to be different, but not out of ego. He just loves to be. He either accomplishes at 200% or zero. It may be 200% in an unexpected direction, but it's His direction and that's what matters. If he somehow does wind up a bust, a possibility he considers without fear but acceptance as potential fate, then he won't go down as yet another failed first pick. He'll fall as he flew, Victor Wembanyama.

' Different '

' Replaceable'

Jabari winces each time he's subbed out, even for a second, even on an injured ankle, he's silently Stubborn, his posture shrunken and his gaze at the ground yet his eyes, big, wobbling, staring up always at the speaker, he's silently scared.

Jabari doesn't Want to be different. He just wants to be what his family couldn't be when it came to fame: irreplaceable . His parents split when he was younger, he tries his hardest to appease them both as to not cause any more issues. The relationship relies on his shoulders more than ever, and he can't fumble it again. He has to be what his dad couldn't so his dad can stay, commenting on commonality or surprises. He wants to support his still working mother, especially after the split. He doesn't Want to be unique, he just wants Security.

Because this can crumble any moment now, it doesn't matter how high your pick was or how bright the future Could Have been or how the game would later shift to your style if you had just somehow Stayed. Why bet on low chances if you know you can't handle the risk. He shakes any college coaches' hands that showed up to his practices, personally thanks them for coming even though he's one of the best in the country so their presence should be a given to him, it's not. When he picks a college, he picks one that guaranteed their faith in him from day One, and didn't require any further prodding to finally say '.. Maybe we'll offer you a position' like Kentucky did, as big and famous as it is, it wasn't Secured . They saw him as a risk at one point, and that's everything he's been trying to avoid when it came to attention, negatively standing out.

Jabari wants to be known as the strong shoulder to the world. He WANTS to be known as That One Guy who can just carry everything, nameless but Good. He just wants to be Good. Please tell him he's good. Please tell him what he's doing is Good. That basing his entire personality around yet another soldier who ultimately fell in battle but fought nonetheless being nameless is Good. Please feel free to give him all your burdens to bear like he's just some mule, an animal, a Tool .. because that means he's Useful, at least. That means he's Good. And if he isn't good, then he's nothing. Because you can always just buy another one anyways. A better one.

'Different'

Although his parents try not to treat Wemby by simplifying his differences into a strictly labeled, simple FUTURE BASKETBALL PRODIGY box at birth, that doesn't mean that can always stop others from doing it. Wemby signed his first autograph at ten years old.

It didn't matter if he was a kid who was so much more than just his basketball future, basketball fans wanted one thing from him and one thing only: Success. People didn't care about his literary skills or his drawing hobbies. The eyes on his alien needed to be smaller 'so your shoe can sell better, trust us, it's still Your drawing.. your weird little .. not money-making hobby, do believe me, Vic, We know what We're doing. You just stick to whatever you do.'

His differences, in the end, are minimalized just to that. He's just Different. That's what everyone says who wouldn't really care to say anything at all if he never hooped as well as they wanted in the first place. The youtube videos of 40 year old men criticizing his 15 year old games didn't Really care if he was just a kid, they just cared in the 'imagine when he reaches peak physicality? imagine the points (money) he'd make for the nba.' His beautiful differences, artistic, soft, unique but oh-so wonderfully common and passionate.. are all dissolved into 'Different', the Base definition.

he's an alien. Someone you can just dump all your poverty franchise worries onto because don't worry, he's Different. Trust me, he'll save your team. 'He's Different. ..am i talking about how he'd effortlessly answer questions in class while also trying to hide the fact that he's playing on his phone by tucking his bony legs awkwardly in his chair and crouching his spine over that it looked almost scary? HELL NO? what does THAT have to do with BASKETBALL?? no, he's just freakishly long, but like. Gifted. Though. ... I don't know, man, he's just DIFFERENT, okay? you can trust me, i'm a sports podcaster, okay? everything i say is gold.'

A celebrity approaches him because he was different than most famous basketball athletes. He was Different. And yet, when he didn't recognize or notice her presence due to Different cultures ( due to Being Genuinely, Detailedly Different ), he was scorned and ushered out of public eye so another possible pr bomb couldn't injure his reputation as a Difference That They Really Would Rather Not Want.

that's what his reading falls into, his old friends, his family, his art, his personality. If it's beyond ball, if it's beyond Business. The world only cares if it's marketable. Sure, some reporters will ask a question outside of sport, but only because it'll be a Different.. funny little nugget of knowledge for fans to laugh at then soon disregard for what Really made him famous. But, Wemby is what he always wanted to be. He's Different. So What if it's not exactly the kind of Different he actually wants, he actually functions on? No one has the time to perform 200% anymore. Slap the label you wanted and call it quits, stop being so High-Maintenanced. That's not marketable.

You're just different. And to some people, that's all you'll ever be. No need to explore it any further. Who knows, your Consumers might find something they won't like. And we can't risk that happening to our greatest circus freak.

i mean. Generational basketball talent .

If there's a press conference going on that somehow includes the two, then Wemby just wants to be sure everyone can hear what he really wants to say, in his own words, not echoing anyone else's, and Jabari just wants to Be in the Room.

His brother stopped playing basketball because his family said he didn't try hard enough. Jabari Can't have that. His whole life revolves Around basketball, around sport. He doesn't WANT to be DIFFERENT if that isn't the soundest option, he just wants to be GREAT. Because GREAT is SUCCESS. Jabari Smith is not success. It's just a retry at it . His father shares the same name.

Wemby's life did not always revolve around basketball, to people, at one point. At one point, Wemby's life was just his life. Now, it seems like only his family think that, and they're from a whole other country. When he comments on videos critiquing his playstyle, he doesn't do so out of anger or questioning, he does so because he genuinely Wants to improve. He Does want to be great. But, he wants to be great in Everything that he finds interesting. He always did. When he likes an author, he reads All their books, not just their most notorious novel. He wants to be transported into other people's worlds so he can learn, so he can change, so he can be Different. Even if he somehow were to lose all of this fame, this Greatness, this job, this opportunity, he will never really lose. Because he's someone who's always taken opportunities to the fullest, so even if they pan out a little differently, that's Fine, really, because he's different. Not in the minimizing, dictionary definition then leave the meaning at that different, but in the butterfly effect. What he once was ten days ago is not exactly the same of what he is now, and it hurts, sometimes, when people fail to see that, or simply don't want to because textbook different is easier to digest than worldly different.

IN SHORT.. theyre foils. i can't Exactly walk u thru their relationship bcs .. there Isn't one.. & that's what's so Interesting about them. That's what makes their relationship, to me. Because if they WERE to be friends, if they somehow in some alternate world WERE to get paired up on the same team... they would be friends. I really think they would be. Not only because their signs are so compatible, or their differences are so stark, but because their similarities would triumph everything beautifully. Maybe. We don't know because they Weren't paired together, we can only speculate. But i think it would be big and beautiful, whatever they would have, it would be Something.

unfortunately, we don't live in an alternate world where they're teammates though ! Double unfortunately, Jabari and Wemby's biggest similarity is their loyalty to the game (a double-edged sword in both their lives from Jabari's silent unhealthy desire to be limited and Wemby's silent desperation not to be) Wemby, in Jabari's eyes, is Indeed a powerful...

Problem.

He's not really a person to him . In all fairness, no one really is when they're involved in the basketball world, not to Jabari, not from the way he's been taught. Everyone's supposed to be Replaceable, a faceless tool in the pocket of good business.

.. except for This freakazoid. Apparently.

APPARENTLY, he's some supposed 'saint'. someone to be feared for being more. APPARENTLY, the reporters just LOVE yapping about him SO much, that Jabari HAS to take the time out of his training just to talk about some guy who doesn't even GO here, yet when they ask him about his opinion on future prospects. WELL, that's ALL wemby IS to Jabari, just another future prospect. Just another problem.

A problem he'll be sure to check off his list.

... okay, so Maybe he's a bit more than a problem.. maybe.. he's just a really persistent problem? yeah, that's it, nothing more. Jabari will work through this. He Always does. That's what he does well, Work.

Wemby wonders if that's all he ever does .

But he doesn't have long before Jabari's marching down the tunnel to beat himself up over all his mistakes other people would never make, and Wemby's being escorted to an interview that other people would never make solely to show how Much he just Stands Out as a soul... in basketball .

I hope they find each other in basketball, and out of it as well. I just feel like

Something would Happen

[lasshoe]

i’ve decided to live right here in these specific screencaps just for a little while

[leupagus]

One of the many, many things I loved about "Big Week" was this: the first person Ted asks out on a date is Sassy. There's been a whole lot of drivel from fandom about how Sassy is awful for sleeping with Ted even at times when he's feeling sad, as if it's manipulative or unethical — which is such a goddamn 9th-grader view of how sex among actual adults work — but this episode shows very clearly that Ted is an eager, not to say instigating, participant in their sex-nanigans.

And thanks in part to Sassy, Ted's finally, FINALLY starting to think about dating. In the second season, he makes a comment about "wouldn't it be great if I found my soulmate on Bantr?" but as far as canon has shown, he never even made an account. But I think Michelle having a boyfriend has prompted Ted to look around in earnest. Not, I think, out of a "I'll show her" mentality (a trap that far too many divorced men fall into), but because he's actually thinking about what he wants the rest of his life to look like, now that Michelle will not be sharing it.

I don't think Ted is necessarily thinking about sharing a life with Sassy, either. We know Ted is a romantic, and he likely wouldn't ask anyone out just for shits and giggles; but he's also been friends with serial dater Beard for decades, and has been around soccer and football players to boot. He understands the concept of casual dating, and it's very possible that he would've been fine with casually dating Sassy.

But he's also ready to go further with her if that's what ends up happening; he likes her enormously, finds her funny, appreciates her for who she is. And she likes him too! So I don't think it can be ignored that, when Ted first starts thinking "who would be a good match for me," he thinks of Sassy.

[callixton]

WEIRD OLDER QUEERS I LOVE YOUUU

[sttoru]

‘i bet on losing dogs, i always want you when i’m finally fine, how you’d be over me looking in my eyes when i come….’ and it’s ur unsteady relationship with assassin!toji, who you think you can fix, but instead get u hurt and heartbroken in the process ☝🏽

[jestersoftproveprophets]

I will never get over Rebecca's mom likening Ted leaving Rebecca to her own experience being widowed. Like. HELLO??? But people are still like "there weren't any romantic tropes involved"

[lunar-years]

re ur stoncy ask - I always think Jamie’s love confession was messed up bc she was in a relationship at the time but at least he didn’t say he wanted to get married and have six ~nuggets~ with her while she fully had a man lmao

RIGHT. the whole conversation was so ??? I felt so embarrassed for Steve like why are you saying all of this man 😭

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

sometimes i forget how much i fucking love roy kent. and then i see a scene he's in or a gifset or something and i'm like god i fucking love roy kent

[pineappical]

ted headcanon? hes in love with trent

REAL AND TRUE

[pronounrespector]

Can I say something

[bambeebirdie]

I gotta say I watched Bill and Ted Face the Music for the first time and why can’t they just be a polycule? The entire plot line of the boys needing to individually tell their wives they love them probably wouldn’t have had to be a plot line if they’re all just dating.

[glassfullofsass]

Something something if I had a nickel for every time an American TV show featured a presumably/arguably heterosexual man and woman and one was brittish and the other is American and one of them started the show by moving to the other's country and over the course of the series they became best friends and they became people who love each other and they had to part ways as the one moved back home and they were able to laugh and cry and tell each other that they love each other but there was never a moment when either of them tried to turn the relationship romantic or sexual and instead that deep and loving friendship that they developed became something larger than either of them ...I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but I'm gonna cry about it happening twice