#is that James Lance 100% played Trent as being in love with Ted

[gottagobackintime]

Do you think the writers were originally gonna make Ted bi but chickened out? Literally what was up with the bi-angles around Ted's head? Was it bait? Or was it just a queer easter egg or subtle nod to Colin and Trent's conversation earlier?

That is a very good question.

An argument could be made that they wanted to show a straight man who is comfortable in his masculinity, a straight man that doesn’t have to prove how masculine he is. And that’s why he feels comfortable referencing musicals and complimenting other men’s appearance.

BUT an argument could also be made that he was intended to be queer but somewhere along the line they changed their mind or simply felt like they didn’t have time to properly tell that story.

I feel that it’s not that strange for us to read into what the characters are saying and doing, especially since the show has set a precedence for that kind of viewing when it comes to the canon queer characters. Considering that the only hint we had of Trent being gay, was that he touched another man’s arm and told him to wait outside Rebecca (and of course his *heart eyes* at Ted, thank you James!), and we didn’t get it confirmed until he came out to Colin, which made a large part of the audience think that he would out Colin and that he should get together with. When it comes to hints about Colin, we had the Grindr comment and with Keeley we had all of her comments about finding women hot and dipping her toes back into the lady pool. But all of these hints were in large ignored by the straight audience but picked up on by a large portion of the queer audience. So why should we ignore the hints when it comes to Ted?

What makes Ted’s comments and behaviour towards men come from a place of non-toxic masculinity? Why are we supposed to think that he’s straight when there are so many subtle and not so subtle hints that he’s bi? The pink triangle by his head in the same episode where two gay characters are sitting by/on a monument made out of pink triangles and they talk about it. The bi coloured triangles, when they could have picked any other colours, especially in an episode that deals with being queer. All of his comments about men being attractive. I feel like there are too many hints to ignore, especially when, as I said above, the canon queer characters got LESS obvious hints (with the exception of Keeley I guess, but people thought she was just joking so I think it counts) about their sexuality.

But yeah, I don’t know why they seemingly dropped so many hints that Ted is queer and then didn’t follow up on it. I wish I knew what their intentions were. I haven’t even made my mind up about what I think. They might have leaned a bit too much into Ted being a representation of non-toxic masculinity that they ended up with a queer coded Ted instead. But they also might have felt that they didn’t have time to develop a storyline that dealt with that, especially since they added too many characters and stories in season three for them to handle at times. But it was too late for them to change the core of Ted’s character. Then there was also the problem with them sending Ted back to Kansas. Any potential love interest would either have to go with him or they’d have to do long distance. And considering that the only real possible love interest, who is a man, is Trent, that would complicate things. Trent also has a child so he wouldn’t be able to just uproot his life and follow Ted. I think they scrapped the idea of Ted having a proper love interest that would give him a strong reason to stay in England. You know what I mean. That would add another level that would feel complicated, and I think that the writers might have thought that it would be an unsatisfying ending, him having to leave his love interest behind (I still feel like it was unsatisfying because they didn’t convince me enough that Ted was actually okay with his decision, but that’s a discussion for another day) even if the intent might have been to have Ted be queer. OR they want to keep the option open for confirmed bi Ted in any potential spin-offs.

It really all depends on how much credit you want to give to the writers I suppose. And I honestly don’t know where I stand at the moment.