*A few Roy-related spoilers.*
a.k.a. Roy fucking Kent. There are plenty of characters to love on Ted Lasso, not least of which the eponymous Ted, but Roy is my absolute favorite of favorites, so he comes first.
When Ted first starts coaching for Richmond, none of the players are thrilled to have him there, and that very much includes team captain/veteran footballer Roy Kent. Roy is a surly misanthrope, whose trademark growl and sweary demeanor is well-known to the fans. However, he’s been plagued by recent knee problems, and as he edges toward aging out of premiere league football, Roy is surlier than ever. The arrival of a folksy ray-of-sunshine coach who doesn’t know anything about the sport is not a welcome sight to him.
Ted, though, is only the first of many characters to start breaking through Roy’s grumpy defenses. It starts with Ted, then Keeley, then other players as Roy begins taking a more active mentorship role on the team. Ted aggravates Roy by cheerfully believing that he’ll step up and do the right thing, playing a game of chicken with Roy regarding some locker-room bullying. When Roy realizes that Ted is ultimately right, that he can use his position on the team to influence younger players who look up to him, he shouts expletives, but he does do it.
That’s because, in truth, Roy Kent is a rather delightfully secret softie. His sweet but grouchy relationship with his young niece Phoebe is a highlight of any episode it’s featured in, and once he starts dating Keeley, he’s a 100%-devoted boyfriend who adores her. He might hide his love of doing yoga with a group of middle-aged women who don’t know he’s a famous athlete, and he makes no bones about his contempt for the cocky hotshot Jamie, but most of the time, he finds himself doing the caring thing despite himself.
It’s a really interesting characterization. While the angry, aggressive Roy might at first seem a poster boy for toxic masculinity in professional sports, he very much subverts that notion, and yet those are still parts of him. Until he establishes trust with someone, his first instinct is to put walls up, to demonstrate that he won’t suffer fools but also that he’s above petty jockeying for status (except where Jamie’s concerned—he has a tendency to be very petty there.) But at the same time, once he does get to know and trust someone, he can be very open about his sweeter, sillier, more sensitive qualities. When he’s having a hard time with his relationship, he (very) reluctantly goes to Ted about it, then is surprisingly chill when he realizes that talking through some of his issues isn’t so bad. When he finds out that Keeley is turned on by a video of him breaking down during an emotional press conference, he’s at first angry and embarrassed but then makes his peace with her loving his vulnerability. He urges Rebecca not to settle for a subpar relationship, he follows Keeley around like a puppy (then realizes she might not always appreciate that!), and he’d do anything for Phoebe.
It’s so much fun to watch Roy’s journey over the course of the show. Part of this journey is genuine character growth, learning through characters like Ted or Keeley to be more open or patient or adaptive. But another big part of it is simply getting the opportunity to see who Roy already is beneath a lot of the bluster. He’s a wonderful character—frequently hilarious, often heartwarming, sometimes poignant, and always compelling.
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