#sorry idc if the whole point was ted teaching the boys to become better versions of themselves & then leaving once they no longer needed hi

[peraltiagos-paper-rings]

ok maybe i missed something but...why was it not an option for henry and michelle to move to richmond?? like i know people have said "stop acting like ted has NOTHING to go back to, he surely has friends and colleagues and extended family back in kansas" and sure but idk i just feel we haven't seen enough of his home life in kansas to really care about the people he left behind other than henry, plus we really don't see him feeling homesick for kansas or missing anyone from kansas other than henry?? so it really feels to me that he just went home to his son, his ex-wife and his mom who he has a complicated relationship with and maybe some friends he hasn't seen in years, meanwhile his best friend and his found family are all back in richmond.

and i kinda feel the same about michelle like you might say it wouldn't be fair to expect her to just uproot her life for her ex-husband, leave her job and her friends and family behind, but again we don't really know enough about her personal life or her job or her friends or anything so like...i'm just not invested enough in her to care if she has to leave people behind, sorry i guess?? same with henry, i'm sure he has friends in kansas but he can still stay in touch with them in richmond, the internet exists, and he can play roblox with them like he does with ted and stuff like that.

and it just feels like henry would've loved living in richmond. he could move there with his mom so he'd have both of his parents and uncle beard close to him, he'd be able to go to football games and see his favourite footballer jamie tartt and also visit his dad's cool job where nate is and the richmond boys will play football with him. plenty of parents move their kids closer to where their jobs are so it wouldn't be unusual. and rebecca offered to find michelle a nice job and get henry into a good school, so there's that covered. it's kind of implied that henry's struggling at school, he's failing science - maybe he wouldn't mind going to a new school. maybe they could've had it so that that random bullying arc would encourage him to want to move to richmond. like instead of him randomly bullying a kid, maybe he's being bullied at school and doesn't like his teachers (hence why he's doing bad in some classes) so he'd be glad to go to a new school. obviously we don't know this is happening i'm just saying they could've rewritten that arc to give henry the push to want to go live with ted in richmond.

it's also implied that henry doesn't like dr jacob and there might be a strain on michelle's relationship with dr jacob - during the match he's sitting apart from them, clearly not interested in the match while they keep shushing him, idk it just gave the vibe of him pulling away from them and having nothing in common with them, on top of the implication that michelle and dr jacob did not get engaged in paris when perhaps it would've been expected for them to. so if michelle breaks up with dr jacob and moves to richmond with henry, that could make them both happy. plus if henry really is struggling with missing his dad, that would also be fixed by him moving to richmond. and ted would be able to stay in this whole community that loves him and supports him.

i also just don't like the implication that ted just cut everyone out of his life after going back to kansas?? maybe i'm overreacting but like, him not being at his best friend beard's wedding or at the team gathering at the higginses or anything showing he's aware that sam made it onto the nigerian national team, like it really seems he just isn't in any of their lives anymore??? they all just moved on like he was never there???? i know their lives don't have to come to a standstill just because he isn't there but idk it just made me feel sad to see them all there together without him and without even a hint of his presence in their lives, like not even a "hey congrats!" text or a good luck card from ted on roy's desk or anything...it makes me wonder if he did the same when he came to richmond and stopped staying in contact with anyone in kansas, like maybe he really does have no one close to him other than michelle and henry back in kansas. when we see his texts on his phone in one episode, i think in "we'll never have paris," i'm pretty sure we don't see any recent texts to or from anyone other than richmond members and michelle...