#wew...

However Ted, the typical emotionally distant, disciplinarian, and slightly mean comic relief 80s father, is the only character that has an archetype and sticks to it completely until now. For other characters these cliches are meant to be expectations in the form of obstacles but yet Ted is ironically unique among the Wheelers in that fact that he is one dimensional. He at times seems shockingly out of the loop, can't read the room, cannot take serious situations with any form of levity, and barely has a relationships with his own children. It all comes off as fake to me.

Why is this?

A question I believe is answered through Mike's character arc.

Mike's been paralleled to his father increasingly often in s3-s4. Which is interesting. Parallels have been kept to a minimum before, yet it isn't until Mike hits puberty and became hyperaware of societal expectations did he start to parallel his father. The most obvious has been clothing choices and the most subtle have been restricting POV.

Colors/outfits/bears

In season 3, Mike is undergoing a sexuality crisis. True to the writers words- the monster is supposed to symbolize "puberty".

The first outfit we see Mike wearing that parallels Ted is the teal polo shirt:

This scene shows Mike's gay panic over being in the men's sauna. Even before he opens the door, he's passing by men changing in the locker room and exercising on equipment (a direct parallel to s4 Mike where he talking to the wrestler and is framed directly with men exercising behind him). We see from this scene which type of men Mike is attracted to: muscular, taller, larger men. Bears to be exact.

Onto the end of the season we see El kiss Mike with a stuffed bear between them:

Also obviously- the open closet and Mike's open eyes. He's not into it. He's realizing for the final time, coming to terms with the fact and finally admitting to himself that he doesn't like girls. What is between him and El is Mike's sexuality- symbolized by a toy bear, his specific preference for attraction of men.

This is emphasized much more on s4.

In between those two scenes we get Ted at the fair wearing the same teal shirt and, guess what, holding a stuffed bear.

This scene in particular. As we've seen, the bear is used to symbolize Mike's attraction to particular men at the end of the season getting in between him and El. In that shirt, Mike is faced with men who fall under that particular category. Who is Ted talking to here in this scene?

Hopper.

Do I need to explain exactly what makes Hopper a bear? It's not necessary, just look at him.

Also may I point out, the bear itself is blue but with red inner ears. I've already theorized before but I believe that blue is meant to symbolize conformity while red is desire. The bear conforms on the outside while keeping its desire inside and hidden. Now if the bear is supposed to symbolize someone's sexuality... Well.

(Small tangent: Ted saying that there's "someone for everyone" after Karen mentions that Joyce and Hopper are a strange couple- at first comes off as, again, as a bit tone deaf given the state of their own marriage. Karen looks exasperated at this statement as well. But perhaps there was a double meaning given the symbolism utilized?)

In season 4 we see Mike and Ted sharing another similar outfit

Even the triangle on the pocket over their left side is the same, with the only except that Mike's points to the side while Ted's points down.

In this outfit, Mike gets close to uncovering Wills feelings, but eventually succumbs back to expectations and "confesses" his love to El. His confession was completely disingenuous because he does not love El and is simply only confessing his love under pressure to do so.

Really, I do believe that's what blue in particular symbolizes: conformity, shame, and pressure. However, not overt dishonesty. That's yellow: Mike was wearing yellow over purple when being fake as hell at the airport and was also wearing yellow in S3 when straight up lies to El about his Nan. Mike has scenes where he's actually very genuine in this outfit, however in the end he is reverted back into the same box he was in in the beginning with this outfit.

Also to point out, blue is the color Ted and Mike parallel each other in. Ted very often wears blue and Mike wears blue in moments that relate to him struggling with his sexuality: coming to terms with it and deciding whether to be open about it or hide it.

However when do we see Mike not wearing blue?

1. His hellfire outfit. He's being genuinely himself and coming out of his shell. He's being authentic.

2. The desert outfit. As in, he's taken of his blue shirt. Here he has a heart to heart with Will and relates to what Will is indirectly saying about his sexuality.

3. The airport outfit. Mike isn't being authentic here at all- hence the yellow. He also is wearing purple which is a mix of red and blue.

As you can see, with the exception of the 3rd option, when Mike is authentic- he's not in blue. But each time, he puts the blue back on and is pressured to revert back to conforming (being interrupted in the desert and Will lying to him about the painting).

Why is Ted paralleled to him in this outfit specifically? As the same with the polo shirt from S3 as mentioned previously?

I can't give a definitive answer, but let's think about what we do know about Karen and Ted. Nancy explicitly says that she doesn't believe her parents ever loved each other. We know Karen's side, she married Ted because she had no other choice as a woman in the 60s. She was pressured into that by a society who wouldnt let her have the means to stand on her own two feet.

But what about Ted? At the time of marrying Karen he was a single man in his late 20s, perhaps 30, who had a stable income and a cushy job. Why didn't he have the option to marry someone he loved? Given his age, he certainly had the time to find someone and there are other married men in ST who dont seem to have that problem, ie Lucas' dad and Hopper (previously). Why is he paralleled to Mike in an outfit where Mike was pressured into declaring his love for a woman he was not actually in love with because his heart lied elsewhere (that wasn't socially acceptable)?

Conformity, shame, and pressure.

Lack of POV

ST rarely deals with 1 dimensional characters. Even Billy, a racist and somewhat sadistic character, got a fleshed out background on why he is that way. The whole premise of the show backs this- it takes cliches and subverts them, expanding on why these characters could fit into their box and why they may chose to or not to.

Ted since the beginning has lacked something critical to this, a POV. We don't know why he acts the way he does or why he says the things he does. And it doesn't have to be sympathetic reasonings, just any reason. He is just an slightly exaggerated caricature of a emotionally distant and oblivious father. Which is intriguing to me because, fun fact! I am cursed with the overwhelming need to take unfleshed out characters and dig into them deep until I find substance in the form of subtext. Which is why I'm making this whole post.

Anyways. I digress.

Ted's lack of POV isn't obvious until we get to s4, when another character loses a lot of their POV and also suffers in likability (at least with the GA) for it- Mike.

There is even a completely 1-to-1 parallel of the dinner scene from s1 and the one in s4. Mike, saying something insensitive, causes El to storm off and he sips his drink as if unbothered. Ted does the same thing with his children and Karen.

Both are completely oblivious in this scene, not showing that they understood what they've done wrong. Mike later talks to El and then proceeds to completely brush of her direct appeals him, replying with insincerity. Ted is more sincere, comically asking what he did, but what connects both is that they don't believe that they did anything wrong.

What connects both of them is the emotional insensitivity. Mike doesn't understand why El would be lying to him about being popular. He makes a snarky comment about it, which upsets El. He isn't sympathizing with her, and blatantly waves away her concerns the morning after (saying that he always says he loves her when he clearly doesn't). He calls El a superhero and just repeatedly appeals to superficial aspects of El to justify that he loves her. His love isn't genuine.

Ted in this scene isn't trying to understand or speak to his children in a manner that is constructive. He instead emphasized on things that were insignificant- admonishing them for their language and taking the opportunity to warn Mike against being 'queer' (which really tickles my brain given the obvious queercoding shared between them as mentioned above). He isn't trying to understand why his kids are upset- particularly Mike who is concerned for his friend. He's being the traditional disciplinarian father here- getting in the way of Karen who was actually trying to have a constructive conversation with her children. He doesn't understand what he's done wrong because as far as he's concerned he's played his part to the T.

(Interestingly enough, later on when Will's "body" is found- Ted asks Karen if he should go talk to Mike. A rare moment of levity from Ted, showing that there are moments where he does seek an emotional connection with his son. However he is unsure if he should and is dissuaded by Karen- showing that Ted let's Karen take the lead on emotional matters as it relates to their family -as the maternal figure- rather than acting on his own volition).

I've seen people compare both these scenes but I have yet to see anyone actually point out the underlying meaning of it. Both Mike and Ted are emotionally disconnected (and therefore sometimes insensitive) here because they are playing a part set out for them by the culture. Ted- being the stereotypical 80s disciplinarian father/husband and Mike- playing the part of the heterosexual male protagonist who is head over heels for his gf, the heroine. Keeping up that image leads to both of them having issues in their relationships. We're even shown in Nancy's vision that Ted wasn't a part of it- he was incapable of even forming a relationship with his own daughter.

Aka, pretending to be someone youre not makes your relationships ungenuine and superficial. And that leads to problems as it makes you unable to form a deep connection with anyone you care about.

Mike loses his POV when he starts to actively behave in this manner. This shows that Mike is possibly hiding something, because his perspective is hidden. He comes off as uncaring and distant, like his father, however we know there is much more going underneath that we are not allowed to see just yet. If we extend this parallel to the other direction, does this mean that there is more to Ted than we are allowed to see also? From what I mentioned earlier with clothing and colors, you can see that the parallels often go both ways between them.

You can also see Mike and Ted coming to similar conclusions in s4, Mike calling that satanic panic "media bullshit" in the beginning of the season whereas Ted also rags on the media sensationalism around the satanic panic and the earthquake at the end.

Although it isn't explicitly mentioned, there is a certain hidden subtext to both Mike and Ted denouncing it.

Homosexuality being one of the vilified aspects of the satanic panic, specifically of D&D. In universe, they both would reasonably be aware of this although it isn't explicitly shown. Although Ted still seems to think D&D for losers LOL, while he doesn't seem to be of the impression that it's demonic.

Which is surprising from Ted particularly given his homophobia in s1 and his usually unquestioning attitude towards authority such as the media. Could something have changed during s4? He could have subtly figured what others that season figured out, and what Lucus explicitly says to Jason towards the end: people want to be normal but the satanic panic exposed who being "normal" really is for- "psychopaths" like Jason and others in power who seek to pit people against each other.