btw this might be me swinging a bat at a hornets nest but like. absolutely none of my disappointment from the tl finale comes from ship baiting or any relationships that didn’t happen (though to be clear, i think the tedbecca fake outs were meanspirited and served no narrative purpose - in noted contrast to the season's earlier jamiekeeley fakeouts, for example, which were explicitly there to demonstrate jamie's growth + maturity)
tedpendant is a really fun concept for me, and i LOVE the characterisation + thematic potential there!
but as someone who personally resonated with a lot of ted’s struggles, the idea that ted could leave richmond so… seamlessly, for lack of a better word, really doesn’t sit right with me. the thesis of the shows entire first season - assuming it can be said to have only one - was about how everyone needs the love and support of a community, whether that comes in the flavour of someone who hypes u tf up or someone who will relentlessly call u on ur shit (or, as happened quite frequently, both!).
rebecca, roy, jamie are the clearest examples as the characters with the most screentime: they were all deeply isolated and disconnected from the people around them, and that was making them miserable. the connections they made with the team, the vulnerability they finally allowed themselves to express (the ghost banishing ceremony comes to mind!), and them going on to want *more* out of their life are what made their arcs about *progression* rather than *regression*. without that clear theme of compassion + community inspiring positive growth in everyone who encounters it, there is, frankly, no season one.
my personal favourite scene from season one comes right after michelle walks away from ted, when they’ve agreed to get divorced. ted sits down on the bench looking gutted, and a little shell shocked - and beard sits down with him. hands him the drink, and they sit there together. silent, but together. to me, that scene is an implicit promise from the episode, to the audience: ‘it’ll be okay. it’s going to be hard, but ted isn’t alone, and his friends won’t leave him behind.’
it also makes it clear to the audience that ted isn’t the saintly-giver-of-grace who needs nothing in return, as one might assume on first brush, but rather that he’s Also struggling with his own shit (as is everyone, always, in real life!) and he has something he needs from the people around him too.
and looking at the text of s3, and the conclusion to his arc in the finale, i just don’t believe that he got it. he wasn’t just sad that he was leaving (which would be understandable!), he was completely closed off. unresponsive to the people around him reaching out, borderline confused as to why they were trying so hard!
(side note, while i completely respect the read of ted and trents last interaction being rather rude + ooc on ted’s part, i personally read a different motive into it. for me, it was more like… he didn’t understand where trents enthusiasm was coming from? like, he read that as trent being too invested in what other people think of him, and responded in a way that he hoped would emphasise that ted doesn’t *need* to laugh at everything trent wrote, bc trent Already Knows that he’s done something really cool and kickass, and he shouldn’t value anyone else’s reactions above that. basically, based on his demeanour in the episode, i genuinely don’t think it would’ve even occurred to him that trent was more invested in HIS reaction than he would’ve been with anyone else.)
again, looking purely at the text, the show had already established that ted has really strong depressive + avoidant tendencies, as well as panic attacks (largely triggered by his fear of not being ‘good enough’ in various roles, ie: a father). we saw one area he was able to calm HIMSELF abt these fears (worry for henry, which is a Hell of a choice considering the ending…), but in literally every other heightened moment, he had to rely on his support system to help him make the choices that he WANTED to make, rather than ones inspired by avoidance and fear (ie: confronting michelle abt jake, talking to his mum abt why she was visiting + his dads death).
and to be clear, this is a GOOD THING! we’re not supposed to go through life alone, no matter how bad OR well we’re doing. rebecca and keeleys friendship isn’t worth less for all the scenes where they’re both in good places. if anything, the opposite is true - it’s lovely that they both have someone who want to celebrate the achievements in their life!
and fuck it, we’re sure as hell not supposed to go through life with exactly one (1) person whom we expect to fulfill ALL of our emotional needs at all times either! like, im sure i don’t need to labour my point here, but tying everything to one (1) person in ur life doesn’t make u any less isolated than if u were going it completely alone, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or a partner. i won’t pretend to know the first thing abt what it’s like to be a parent, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that no parent would be at their best if they had absolutely no support/camaraderie/general love provided to them from Anyone other than their child.
so when ted is SPECIFICALLY shown to be in a bad place, over and over again (did he come to terms w his fear to be close to henry overnight???????), and then removed from his community? of COURSE the audience is left feeling unsettled, and like the rug has been pulled out from under them. there was no time in this finale dedicated to how ted would still be in contact with anyone from richmond. no promises of visits, or phone calls - fuck, nothing about emails!! according to the text, we might as well assume this is a clean break (and the maybe-dream-sequence does Fuck All to assure us otherwise. if ted doesn’t go to beards wedding, what WOULD he go to????). and since the show has ALSO completely failed to give us even an IMPLICATION of who/what ted’s support system would be in kansas, there’s… a reasonable argument to be made that this is It for ted. that, after two seasons doing NOTHING but attesting otherwise, the audience is supposed to suddenly believe that ted can (and SHOULD!) pull himself up by his bootstraps, and cope entirely on his own.
that, to me, is a betrayal of the show’s premise. we were promised a show about how, no matter how dark things may get, none of the characters would be left to struggle alone. and then they ended the show with ted alone.
i don’t know. i guess if i had to give this post a tldr; if anyone has any gen fic/meta/Literally Anything in the pipeline, i would absolutely love to be tagged/directed towards it. i’ll be endeavouring to write something myself, as well, but it might take a while before i can return to my WIP, lol.
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here's a song about macdennis i wrote a while back. i thought of it again bcs of the frank vs russia ep so im legally obligated to post. lyrics under the cut! (also i am by no means a good singer or writer just a warning)
Am I crazy baby? Am I crazy baby
I feel insane for loving you the way that I do
You say “don’t call me baby, Pet names are fucking silly
Oh god I can’t breathe I think I need to leave”
Backtrack to when we first met under the bleachers in high school
And you said you wanted weed it was a one time thing But you just kept coming back to me
You and your sister both went to college, you were so cool
I visited you every week, you graduated finally, and you asked “do you wanna move in with me?”
I said “of course, I do, of course I do” And we got an apartment and bought a new bar
And you got your sister and I got my best friend and we’d drink all night, thought the world was ours
We were crazy baby, Insane and so unsteady
But we lived our twenties like our favorite action movies
We were crazy baby, We were so unsteady
But you knew I’d be the wind beneath your wings
Fastrack to selling a house together, faking marriage was so clever
So we did it again But you said we’re only friends even if we’d depend on each other ’til the end
And we’d go to that Italian restaurant every month
We’d always dress our best and I always suppressed the urge to ask are we really just friends?
You would’ve said “of course we are, of course we are why else would I live with you and run a bar?”
That was enough for me I always believed that the world would forever be ours
And now, you’re standing in front of me
Your voice is a little bit weak
It’s valentines day and you always hated
Seeing people happy cause that was never you and me
And as you open up the crate I see your face, there are tears in your eyes
And the only time you ever cried was when you thought you were in love and didn’t have to lie
Maybe I’m in love Maybe you’re in love
Well it had to be one of the above
everything changed and you kept feeling pain
you looked at the gift I got you and said
“you’re so fucking crazy, making me act insanely
I have to get away from you, I know what I should do”
I say “don’t leave me baby I know its really scary
But please stay” and you shut the door in my face
And left me there
With forty years of memories just hanging in the air
In our empty home I wonder
How we changed so much since we met under the bleachers
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okay separate post about Will Turner because i love him actually
my man throws his sword twice in this film. Once to block off Jack's exit during their fight in the workshop, and once to save his life at the gallows. This man is a SPECTACULAR swordsman (and during that fight in the 'shop? When Jack tests his skill? it feels less out of curiosity and more sort of mentor-y. I think that's the most truly captain-like we've seen Jack, but that's about Jack, not Will. Still, love that moment). But MORE than that, he is a good man and a good pirate.
His whole arc gets put into a few simple words by Jack:
"The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do, and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man, or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that someday."
Throughout the film we go from Will seeing absolute red at the mere mention of pirates, furiously trying to kill Jack and dispute the fact that his father was anything else than a merchant sailor, to who he is by the end of it. We see him in the brig of the Pearl with the other crew members as he asks them about his father, and when Pintel and Ragetti tell him Bill never felt comfortable with the mutiny and sent off the treasure because he believed they all deserved to be and remain cursed, and Mr Gibbs called him a good man... His face lights up. Because now he knows for a fact Bill Turner was a pirate and a good man. He had principles that he stood by. And it helps Will to accept the same duality within him
There's also the whole class difference between him and Elizabeth and Norrington that i think is so fascinatingly written. Will knows he is of lesser standing and cannot afford to step outside of it ("How many more times must i tell you to call me Elizabeth, Will?" "At least once more, miss Swan. As always." "...Good day then, Mr Turner") while Elizabeth is more brash and outspoken towards him, especially after her dream that transported her back to her ten-year-old self. He behaves like a gentleman (because he is a good man, but also because he has to), but as the film is set in motion, his frustrations at being overlooked and ignored due to his standing despite his heart and skill start to shine through. When Elizabeth is taken, he bursts into Norrington's tactical meeting to retrieve her, telling them all his plans aren't good enough when Norrington responds drily and with this unwavering reason in his voice, and slams a hatchet into the map. Norrington takes him aside and, now with strain shining through in his voice, reminds Will to please remember he is not the only man present who cares for Elizabeth (referring to both himself and the governor, her father, who is also present).
Norrington later calls him rash for acting when the Navy was working on a plan, which does track - Will is rash. But it does make me think if that rashness and the outbursts are supposedly a sign of the fire of piracy in his blood, or also a representation of his class and the effect that it has on him for being treated constantly as lesser than when he in truth measures up so well. He has to fight for everything dear to him. But that fire and passion of course do remain even when he finally gets to be with Elizabeth and no longer has to fight for her. Anyway, all that to say that my man has heart. And i love him very dearly
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