#buck and ali for example

[buckleyreid]

To anyone who’s a little discouraged about Tommy not being in episode 7 or 8 , Tracie is also not present in many episodes and Henren still has a beautiful relationship so I wouldn’t be too sad about that, specially since this is a shortened season.

[nymika-arts]

See this is why I am so confused at all the Tommy stans. It was obvious from the start that his and Buck’s relationship was doomed lol. I saw so many of them excited that he was coming back like it meant something but omg the way he did??? It further proved how completely doomed their relationship was lol. I got into 911 late in the game but it’s been interesting to see some people call people who think buddie is going to happen delusional yet turn back around and say Tommy is endgame??? Endgame where lol

honestly I've been saying in actual canon (outside of everything fanon has cooked up for him) tommy is really only about as developed as ana was. he's in a few episodes, they have some fun moments together, but overall not a relationship written to last and ultimately unsurprising when it ends. especially when everything in the relationship has been overshadowed by eddie in some way (JUST like we used to point out with every other love interest these two have had). like. buck spent the ENTIRE episode talking about eddie, including every scene tommy was in lmao. tommy saw eddie as competition and is now crawling back when he thinks the competition is over. buck was sleeping w him as a distraction bc he's so lonely without eddie. I've been watching since before s4 and I've seen a lot of love interests come and go this is like. textbook for this show atp lol

[warpedpuppeteer]

It would be great if they talk about how Buck thought his relationship woes would be "fixed" because he finally figured himself out as bi and that was the answer he was always looking for but that was only just one part of the journey.

Buck's problem with relationships is that he's always taking cues from his partners and course correcting by making unhinged proposals (like moving in) whenever he gets something wrong or thinks he can "prove" his love (or prove he can fall in love with them in the future).

He's never fully himself in any of his relationships. He's always playing the part of what his partners need (service top buck truthers this one's for you). Being an emotional pillar for Abby or a protector for Ali for example.

Even in his first relationship with a man, instead of exploring and having fun, Buck was operating in the assumption that he needed to be a long-time partner material and that it's just like any other relationships he's been in. Hence, the invite to move in with him.

And to be fair to Buck, gender really doesn't matter to him because it's like...okay it's a little bit different but it's still the same in that it's a relationship and it's someone he's interested in. So really, for him, his sexuality isn't where his issues lie.

In all his previous relationships, it's been more about him changing than being himself. He stepped in with Abby, he compromised with Taylor, he was philosophical/spiritual with Natalia, he was discovering a new aspect of his identity with Tommy etc.

And Buck is fantastic in that he's always willing to learn things about himself. He was always capable of being all of this for someone but he just needed time and experience to bring these sides out of him.

Now this would be great except...all his previous partners reacted adversely to these changes. He got too emotionally attached to Abby when she really only wanted the part of Buck that was fun and flirty. Ali liked Buck being strong & protective until she realized that he would risk his own life in being a protector even for strangers.

Taylor liked that Buck was thrilling and exciting until she realized that he had morals he won't compromise on. Natalia was so very interested in Buck's experience with death until Buck was more focused on living. Tommy liked that Buck was newly bi and curious but stepped back once he realized that Buck was taking this very seriously.

Instead of embracing all the changes Buck was going through, his partners almost wanted the Buck they fell for originally. Kind of like...they fell in love with the IDEA of Buck rather than Buck himself.

So Buck actually needs someone who knows him as Buck in his entirety. Someone who likes Buck as he is but also likes him even as he changes and grows. Someone who Buck shows his true self to instead of adapting to his partner's needs.

Take me as I am, flaws and all. Take me as I am, and as I will be.

Not only does he need to realize that he doesn't have to shove his own needs/wants into the background but also that he needs a partner who will not expect anything more from him than he can give. When he does realize this, that's when Buck is truly free of the hamster wheel.

Of course, i can go on about who exactly is the perfect partner for Buck but instead, here are a few quotes that's very important in showing who it is :)

"you're the guy who likes to fix things"

"just do what you always do, talk to him"

"you think you're expendable but you're wrong"

"now am i allowed to ask how you are?"

"once he knows that you're an idiot, he'd love you, like we all do!"

"there's nobody in this world i trust with my son more than you"

"i forgive you...just don't do it again"

And the most damning of them all:

"you don't have to be anything for anybody"

[mintedwitcher]

I am so tired of fighting bobs today that I need someone else opinion on why they love BuckTommy. I have mine and it centered around Tommy and myself, because I need an example of how to let someone love myself... (which tommy needs to learn from buck)

So tell me what is yours?

my reason is very simple, and I've said it a thousand times already but I'll happily do it again: Tommy puts Evan first.

Buck hasn't had a love interest do that for him before. Abby wasn't in it for a serious relationship, Ali wasn't around long enough (and ran when faced with the risks of Buck's career), Taylor was more invested in their sex life than anything deeper than that (and always put her career above their relationship), and Natalia was only interested in Buck's death, not his life.

Tommy puts Evan first. He keeps coming back, even with every reason not to. He came back to the coffee shop after that tragically embarrassing first date. He came to the bachelor party while on call. He came to the wedding after 15+ hours fighting a wildfire. He keeps coming back, and that's what I love about him.

(and also this leads into what I want for s9, which would be for Buck to return the effort that Tommy has consistently put in, and show up for Tommy the way that Tommy has been there for Buck since s7. I just really want them back together)

[vvivacious101]

How to make your best friend and his boyfriend's relationship about you and your best friend? A study in Buddie.

Aka Buck & Tommy never really had a chance

In an absolutely batshit crazy move, 9-1-1 managed to make every moment that Tommy, Buck and Eddie appear onscreen making Buck and Eddie seem like a couple instead.

I'm sorry what...?!

Also, I don't know if this is an actual thing or if someone has experienced it in reality but I have come across it in fiction. It's when you have a guy (Eddie) with a male best friend (Buck) who comes out as queer and then they start a relationship with a guy (Tommy) and you (Eddie) start feeling threatened. The rationale behind it is that sharing you with a girlfriend is fine because she can apparently give you something I can't but if you have a boyfriend there is nothing he can give you that I can't... right? This leads to complicated feelings all around except you have to make peace with the fact that you aren't attracted to men that way and while you love your best friend you don't actually want to be his boyfriend... except what if that is not the case?

But interestingly enough, 9-1-1 decided that instead of making Eddie jealous, what if Buck was jealous of Eddie and Tommy? And then, instead of Eddie ever having to feel jealous, what if we made Tommy feel like he was the one intruding?! How were they getting away with this? I swear to God, it boggles the mind.

The insanity that is 7x04

7X04 - Scenes feat. Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 0/11

Re-watching 7x04 was an ordeal because I was constantly on the verge of passing out from second-hand embarrassment for Buck.

But, let’s do this! So, first of all, this episode is very hard to parse out on a re-watch. Watching it for the first time it was obvious to me that Buck is jealous of Tommy for taking up so much of Eddie’s attention. But, given the conclusion of this episode, I decided to re-watch this episode with the express aim of finding out exactly who Buck is jealous of. And the problem is it isn’t very clear.

If you re-watch this episode knowing that Buck wants Tommy’s attention, the entire episode still makes sense, but the thing is you can’t watch this episode that way the very first time. So, on the first watch, it is going to feel very insane like it rightfully did because I couldn’t get over how obvious Buck is being about getting Eddie’s attention and then you reach the last scene of the episode and you’re thrown an absolute curveball but if you watch the episode with foreknowledge the episode itself doesn’t make it super obvious who Buck is jealous of. So, who is Buck jealous of?

Before we get to that I have to talk about the insane dialogue choices this episode made. Tommy talks about Buck wanting to change things around (which is foreshadowing about his sexuality) and then Buck talks about not wanting to date someone he just saved and how he finally learned his lesson the third time around which is crazy that it took him three attempts to finally realise that dating people he meets on calls is not a solid foundation for a relationship. But, more importantly, that made me realise that all of Buck’s girlfriends since Abby have all been his saves – Ali, Taylor and Natalia, technically Ali was definitely more Eddie’s save but Buck was definitely important in that save too.

But, what drives me the most insane is that -"You're not thinking about jumping ship?" - is an actual line Eddie has said to Buck in front of Tommy.

I'M SORRY? WHAT?!

I don’t think he could get any clearer about what’s going to go down but the intent is clear – DON’T JUMP SHIP! Buck’s reply to this is another foreshadowing for his sexuality when he tells Eddie he is keeping his options fluid. This episode has God-tier word selection.

Anyhow, back to answering the most important question - who is Buck jealous of? I feel like the most telling example of Buck being jealous of Tommy’s newfound place in Eddie’s life is when he is annoyed that Tommy is trying to “ingratiate” himself with Christopher. There can be no doubt that in that instance he is annoyed by Tommy occupying a space he considers his.

The other thing is his hyperfixation on Eddie, we don’t see Buck going out of his way to catch Tommy’s attention but he is going out of his way to catch Eddie’s – buying a basketball and having it delivered to the firehouse (Grade-D product placement BTW), adding weights to his barbell and constantly looking to see if Eddie’s paying attention, going to the basketball match and maiming Eddie.

What was this episode again? Buck is so goddamn jealous of being replaced by Eddie that he literally pulls out the kindergartener equivalent of pulling pigtails to get his attention. If you want to get Tommy's attention why are you injuring Eddie? In the entire basketball match Buck, instead of focusing on Tommy who is also on the opposing team, spends it hyperfocused on Eddie. WHY?

So, I don’t think it is a stretch to say Buck is jealous of Tommy’s newfound place in Eddie’s life and not the other way around but I can also empathize that it’s hard to tell especially if you know what that last scene does. But, again you could never have known that on your first watch-through meaning everyone would have assumed Buck was jealous of Tommy regardless of what he makes it sound like in that last scene. But, again if you are really paying attention some things just don’t add up.

Another thing that wouldn’t make sense is that when Buck talks to Maddie about getting his attention, in that scene, “his” implies Eddie because they just talked about the fact that he injured him to get his attention. Maddie then proceeds to talk about how she was jealous when another girl became friends with her best friend, again the parallel being that Buck is jealous of the new guy taking up his best friend’s attention.

Also, I'm never getting over Chimney's 'I'm your basketball beard’, when being someone's beard literally means helping someone (willfully or otherwise) hide their queerness. Compare this with Eddie wanting to grow a beard in season 8 and the alarms are blaring all over the place!

The insanity that is the rest of seasons 7 and 8

Buck and Tommy's relationship is so defined by Eddie's presence and absence that it makes no sense for that to be the case if Buddie is not the endgame.

7x05 – Scenes feat. Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 1/14

This season is hell-bent on WORD CHOICES. In Buck and Tommy's first date together, I love how Buck concludes that they are – and I quote – keeping their options open!

Also, the minute Tommy tells Buck that he is the one making him nervous, Eddie shows up just to make sure Tommy knows exactly how nervous Buck can get! They could have let Buck & Tommy have this date – why are they so hell-bent on making Buck & Tommy about Buck & Eddie – I guess we do know the answer to that. Going forward I’m not repeating myself, Buck & Tommy’s relationship to date has entirely been about Buck & Eddie’s relationship from the get-go!

God, what follows after Eddie and Marisol interrupt Buck and Tommy’s date brought me to the verge of death, again, thanks to my severe case of second-hand embarrassment courtesy of Buck.

Remember what I said about word choices?

This scene has Eddie make the insane choice of uttering the words – Guess you can never have enough closet space – OUT LOUD! And, then this is immediately used by Tommy to connotate the metaphorical closet queer people apparently live in before coming out!

But, to detour for a second, it’s amazing how thoroughly Buck torpedoed his date with Tommy but the moment Eddie says he asked Marisol to move in with him, his immediate concern is the logistics – NOT YOUR PROBLEM, BUCK! Atleast it shouldn’t be unless…

Buck is driving me crazy! Anyhow after the disastrous date, Buck goes to Maddie and his main point of contention is that he lied to Eddie, not that he embarrassed his date. This guy clearly has his priorities straight, if the list goes -

1. Eddie

2. Everybody Else.

Since, hindsight is 20/20 we need to start talking about Eddie, in 8x11 – Holy Mother of God, there is an implication that Tommy doesn’t think Eddie is straight, basically, he scoffs after Buck claims Eddie’s straight. Given that, it is interesting to note how hard Tommy was trying to go after Eddie, as Buck notes it was insane how much these two were hanging out together considering they had only known each other two weeks. They have a lot in common; both were in the army and are into MMA and basketball. They had a lot in common – almost too much in common – put a pin in that! 📌

Anyhow when Buck mentions that he was actually on a date with Tommy when Eddie and Marisol saw them together at the Italian restaurant his first question is – wait, Tommy’s gay – almost like he is re-contextualizing all their interactions so far and wondering if maybe there was something off.

My theory is, that there is a possibility Tommy was trying to sus out if Eddie would be into him romantically as in he tried to get to know Eddie as much as possible to see if that would be feasible but instead ended up being hit on by Buck and abandoned the endeavour.

📌 But let’s come back to the fact that Tommy and Eddie are a little too similar and this is my second theory - Tommy is an Eddie surrogate.

This isn’t even a stretch but it raises some fascinating implications for Buck. Buck is literally trying to project what he sees as his inconvenient feelings for Eddie onto someone else, someone very similar to Eddie but not Eddie himself. It’s why the show seems to redirect every Buck and Tommy scene into a Buck and Eddie scene.

So far, the only Buck and Tommy scene wherein they do not mention Eddie is directly a result of Buck taking Eddie’s advice to call Tommy and ends in Buck inviting Tommy to Maddie’s wedding. Only for the scene to cut and for Buck to arrive at Maddie’s wedding with Eddie.

7x06 - Scenes featuring Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 2/18

Besides the fact that Buck and Eddie are so BuckandEddie in this episode, I really don’t have much to say. It’s crazy how Eddie is the first to arrive at Buck’s party and the last to leave, wait scratch that he doesn’t leave at all, they both go together – there’s a metaphor in there somewhere. Also, it’s crazy that they are the ones wearing matching outfits when Buck has a boyfriend.

The Buck and Tommy scene is their kiss scene, not much more than that.

7x09 - Scenes featuring Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 3/20

This time is them at the buffet. This scene is more about introducing Buck to Gerard than anything else.

7x10 - Scenes featuring Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 4/21

This time they are having dinner at Buck's loft and talking about Buck's daddy issues.

8x05 - Scenes featuring Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 7/28

This is the Billy Boils episode and all scenes that Buck and Tommy share that don't feature Eddie are very plot-focused.

8x06 - Scenes featuring Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 7/30

They have their sixth-anniversary dinner and break up in this episode and they still can't avoid Eddie. Also, I'm counting their breakup to include Eddie because Tommy specifically says 'I won't be your last' and we all know who he thinks Buck's last will be.

8x11 - Scenes featuring Buck & Tommy that also don’t mention Eddie so far: 7/33

Frankly speaking, everything I have to say about Buck and Tommy’s relationship can be said by this little clip from 7x03 – Capsized, it’s the perfect trailer for the entirety of their relationship.

Ignore Bathena in the foreground and it’s literally poetic, Tommy framed between Buck and Eddie and pointedly leaning towards Eddie even tries to follow him but Buck holds him up, and distracts him for a second only to follow Eddie himself. In the end, there Buckley-Diaz as it should be.

[epiphainie]

why do you think bucktommy has been "hitting differently"? i love them don't get me wrong, but i don't think it's been written much differently than buck's previous love interests (yet)

Hi anon, 

I don't think I agree with you there. Well, first of all I think talking about all of Buck's previous romantic relationships as one thing is doing injustice to those different arcs and Buck's character journey. All served different purposes, all were written differently from each other. When I make the distinction that BuckTommy has been "hitting differently" what I mean is that it has what worked in those previous relationships as well as what was lacking. And I think the reason is twofold: the writers being intentional with their choices and how it's all been executed. 

Intention:

Just to be clear, I don't mean anyone has had endgame BuckTommy intentions. Tim has been very clear about how he doesn't plan that far ahead and it's hard to talk endgames with a procedural format like this. But we know they wrote the bi Buck arc with more care, hence being more intentional with their choices than some of his previous relationships. We know that their first kiss had taken multiple shapes before it ended up being this gentle, surprising but still mutual kiss. We know that they wanted to create a story where Buck felt connected to this guy but also safe and light. We know that they wanted to make Tommy a character who can be understanding and lead Buck as he stumbles. We know that Tim thought Lou's buy was important because he didn't want to repeat the same mistake of creating a LI who didn't fit with the rest of the cast etc.

Now you can say some of these fit previous LIs one way or another but it brings me to execution:

Many people talked about this before me, obviously, but I think the execution of everything they planned with Tommy has been great. I mean before their first kiss, this guy goes out of his way and shows up at Buck's to "clean the air" with this virtual stranger because he believes he caused bad blood between him and his friend. Not just that, he reassures Buck about his place in his friend's life and apologizes for making him feel excluded. Now as the audience we know Buck is the kid who'd get hurt on purpose so his dad would pay him attention, he's the guy who sued the fire department because he felt pushed out and isolated, but Tommy doesn't. I think an LI addressing one of Buck's core insecurities in such a direct and reassuring manner before even knowing him is a great way to set up why Buck would feel safe with and understood by him.

Another is that Tommy immediately meets Buck at that vulnerable place when he admits to being jealous of the 118's bond and Buck reassures him back. This for example, is something Abby had done with Buck imo but Buck back then didn't know himself enough to embrace his own insecurities and at a maturity level to address Abby's despite his best intentions. With Taylor, their whole issue was that they couldn't be honest and vulnerable with each other. BuckTommy in this aspect feels different because from the get-go as they're being honest and are on the same frequency when it comes to this.

Episode five, we see them on their failing date, then we see Buck being nervous that he fucked it up in the coffee scene. We've seen this Buck before, when he got into that anxious mode to make sure Abby knew he wasn't cheating on her. Obviously, the context and the stage of the relationship are very different and they both reassure Buck about it not being his fault. Great on both Tommy and Abby.

But then, the immediate follow-up in Abby's case is that she's leaving for abroad. I don't think Abby is being evil or mean with this decision (where I have a problem with is when she starts ghosting him and doesn't just end it, but that's another topic) but again knowing what we know about Buck as the audience, we know this is a big deal. We know this - and later Ali leaving - adds on his issues of feeling like he's not worth it, we know it leads to him basically trapping Taylor because he's so afraid she'll leave. Again, Tommy doesn't. But Tommy gives him a second chance and then shows up at the wedding.

You can say showing up on one date is not proof that Tommy will always be there for Buck, but I think the execution is so good in painting Tommy as very reliable concerning this. Because Tommy doesn't just show up. If the writers' only concern was to write Tommy out of the A plot of episode 6, he could just come to the ceremony and be like "my shift just ended". No, Tommy says he'll try his damnest to make it to the wedding and then he enters the hospital all rushed, haphazard, covered in soot, hair a mess. The dramatique of that entrance immediately validates in the audiences' mind that yeah this is a guy who will do his damnest to be there for Buck. It, again, addresses a core insecurity of Buck's.

Back half of the season doesn't do anything different but we again see Tommy notice Buck's emotional state, meet him in that vulnerable place, and also match his flirty vibe. They're comfortable; it feels earned even in such a short span because of the well execution of their initial arc. This to me what Buck said about Natalia when they thought the show wasn't coming back (and before that relationship was recontextualized as being a dud), about how he feels seen and comfortable etc. Only this time, there's intention, effort, and execution.

One final note in execution - and this is very ymmv because I've seen even from some BuckTommys that they wished they did this differently - I genuinely love how little BuckTommy there is in 7x03. More specifically, I love that Tommy's reintroduction to the series is not through being Buck's potential love interest. He's there in that episode for Hen, Chim, and Bobby. In 10 mins screentime he's quickly established with motives and personality quirks, is involved in the main plot, bounces off of other characters. Again, great execution of a thing Tim intended to do: a love interest who can fill more roles than just the love interest. This basically makes him in his own category in how purposeful and functional he can be as a character in the greater narrative. So yeah I think both as a person in-story and a character, Tommy has been hitting different.

[tommykinard6]

Buddie fans, my loves, come have a seat for a moment.

I want to have a chat, from a long time Buddie lover to you, whether you’re new or have been here a long time.

It’s okay.

I’ve been in the trenches with you. I’ve been pulling for Buck and Eddie to get together for years. I haven’t given up, even as I’ve seen other fans leave because they lost hope. I don’t blame them. The Buddie section of the fandom has been powerful and beautiful and all consuming. We’ve gone seven seasons and up until this point, not one of the two men in question was even confirmed to be queer.

But we all need to take a moment and breathe. That’s it. Stop doom scrolling for a moment and breathe in.

Good. Now hold for a moment.

And breathe out.

I’m going to get real here, alright? And you might not like everything I say and that’s ok.

We need to stop being a problem. Stay with me. I’m not saying we need to stop shipping Eddie and Buck. Far from it. I will love that ship forever. I’m not saying we need to stop our fanfics or fanart or our love for these two. Our feelings are valid. Many of us have been in love with these two for a long time. The Buckley-Diaz family is a strong unit.

Our feelings are valid and we feel what we feel. But our reactions are utterly and entirely our own responsibility.

We need to stop the bullying.

Let’s face it, many Buddie fans have also been long time bullies in the fandom. Particularly in regard to the actresses who have played the female love interests in the past. Don’t get me wrong, aside from maybe Ali, I have disliked every love interest introduced. But have we not yet learned to separate actress from character? If we are going to dislike an actress, let’s do it for a valid reason. Marisol’s actress for example is problematic. But many fans have rained hell down upon any woman introduced.

I’ve noticed this issue for a long time. But now we’re dealing with the issue being even more widespread because of Buck/Tommy. Now fans are bullying each other. The fandom is divided, even in what is probably one of the better seasons we’ve gotten (in my opinion). I need you guys to stay with me here.

Buck is bi.

Let’s say that again. Evan Buckley is bisexual. A major character on a major show on a major network, previously a womanizer and still a very masculine figure, is queer.

This is monumental. This is amazing.

But so many of you are letting your feelings about Buddie get in the way of appreciating the progress we’ve made. Especially with the reintroduction of Tommy Kinard, Buck’s love interest.

Let’s clear up a couple of things, shall we? Tommy Kinard is not Sal DeLuca. He is not Captain Gerrard. While he was part of the old 118 and definitely was in the old boys club, not only is he not the major problem, but in most cases that he’s an asshole, it can be traced back to his own secret. It’s not great, sure. But let’s look at the facts. Chimney is friends and still keeps in touch with him. Hen appears to hold no animosity and was clearly comfortable with him. In Bobby Begins, they all are friends. And clearly, Tommy has undergone a massive self-growth period. You cannot try to back up your point with inaccurate facts.

People can change. People can also be forgiven. It’s the prerogative of those involved. Enough said.

“But TK6,” you may say, “Buck should be with Eddie! Tommy is a plot device!”

Let’s set aside instant gratification culture really quick and talk about storytelling. You cannot get everything you want when you want it. You also cannot have your cake and eat it too. Buck and Eddie, if both queer, were never going to come out at the same time. Do we really want that?! Because identity is messy. Self discovery is messy. Eddie has Catholic guilt. Buck has self esteem/worth issues. Life isn’t a fanfiction. The real possibility of their relationship surviving such a transition isn’t all that high. IF Eddie is canonically queer, he’s going to have a rougher path than Buck has had.

Also, everyone is a plot device. Let’s get real. If a character doesn’t move a plot along, what’s the point? YES, Tommy is there for a storyline. That doesn’t in anyway invalidate his existence or his presence in Buck’s life.

If you want an instant Buddie storyline, visit ao3! There are amazing stories on there.

Now let’s talk about Buck/Tommy, or TEvan.

I am a long time Buddie lover. I also proudly ship TEvan. Yes, those can coexist. I don’t often multiship, but it’s a beautiful thing. I want Buddie to be endgame, sure! But I’m also okay if TEvan lasts. If they end up being endgame, will I be disappointed about Buddie? Of course. I will also be thrilled because Buck and Tommy are a sweet couple and I’m here for it.

As a queer woman, I’m happy that Buck is bi. Multisexual representation is still sorely lacking. Male sexuality that lets a man keep his masculinity while being queer? Even more so. Just take a look at the ao3 tag. Buck is emasculated in many fics. That’s why I stopped reading a lot.

We have a ship here that includes two very masculine men, who are emotionally vulnerable and exploring something new. I understand ship disappointment. But the negativity is wild. We need to stop the bullying. We need to stop the cheating storylines. We need to stop making Tommy into an ab*s*r only because we apparently can’t handle a love interest being a good person.

At the end of the day, these are fictional characters. It’s a fictional show. But these are real people. All of us are sitting here behind our screens with real feelings. We need to stop.

Buddie may one day happen. And maybe they won’t. TEvan might be endgame. They might not be. Tis the way of 9-1-1. It’s exciting, isn’t it? Waiting for something new and exciting. It was starting to get a little stagnant.

As a queer person, I’m not trying to gatekeep anyone. However, we cannot sit here and say “stop queerbaiting us!!!!” (They weren’t, we’ve always had queer representation on 9-1-1) “give us more representation” and then when they give it to us say, “NO! Not that way!”

If it was about the representation, it being Eddie or Tommy would matter a lot less.

So if you are someone using representation to shield yourself, kindly just be honest with yourself and everyone else.

In the words of our Lady and Savior Taylor Swift, “You need to calm down”.

Now, back off into the world of scrolling you go, my lovelies. Remember, keep an open mind and breathe. At the end of the day, it’s a show. But I for one will happily wait for every episode because I’m loving this.

[eddiediaaz]

alie! I absolutely adore this mirrorball x buck set that you made last year! (/post/701462848238403584/) (also I can't believe it's been a year, like seriously what is time?) I was wondering how you did the shattered glass effect in the first gif? in particular how you made the black and white gifs appear distorted within the glass if that makes sense? thank you!!!

ahhh thank you so much renee! literally what is time lol, this gifset is still one of my faves that i made. the shattered glass effect is mostly just a lot of layer masks to be honest hahaha. i'm so glad i still have the psd, so here's how i did it under the cut~

(this tutorial assumes you know how to put multiple gifs in the same canvas and are familiar with layer groups and masks)

I. PREPARATION

first things first, create an empty canvas of your desired size. mine was 540x540 px.

then, you need to find a cracked glass texture. if i remember correctly i simply googled something like "broken glass png", "cracked glass png", because i wanted something already transparent.

(a texture that's something like black lines over a white background definitely works too, you'll just have to put that layer's blending mode to darken or multiply.)

here's the png i used (and a download link for best quality):

and after positioning it into my canvas.

II. CREATING MAIN SECTIONS FOR GIFS

so basically when i did is i sectioned parts of the texture for each gif that i wanted to put. following the texture's lines, i zoomed in and carefuly drew a first shape along the lines with the polygon tool. you can also put a color fill layer behind the cracked glass layer so it's easier to see, like i did.

once you have your shape selected, click on the folder icon (1), then on the layer mask icon (2). it should give you a nice masked group to put gifs in hehe

then i repeated the process until i had all of my desired shapes. i've put some color layers so it's easier to see, but here are my 6 main shapes and how my layer groups look like so far:

III. GIFFING TIME

after screencaping and making all 6 gifs required for each section, you need to put all of them in the same canvas. i simply put one smart object gif layer in each group created earlier. then, i resized and rotated each gif to fit its group (by hitting ctrl + T while selecting the gif layer), as you can see with the gif labeled 6x02 in the layers preview. for the coloring, i went simple with black and white for most of them.

once i have all six gifs sharpened, colored, and placed in each shape group, the gif looks like this. the broken glass texture does most of the work to be honest:

obviously the center gif doesn't have any kind of effect, it's just colored as usual, so i'm not gonna go over it. it's just one gif layer in a masked group.

IV. SUBSECTIONS FOR DISRTORTED EFFECT

okay so for the distorted effect it's even more layer masks! basically i created more smaller sections within each main shapes already, still following the cracked glass texture's lines with the polygon tool and put them in individual masked groups like i did in the second step. here's how i ended up dividing each main sections:

yep, each color here is a different masked group, for example the 2nd and 3rd shape sections:

for each main shape section, you want to duplicate your gif layer the same amount of times as you have subsections within that shape. so if the main shape has 5 smaller subsections, i want 5 layers of that same gif. just make sure to not change its duration or position yet, and make sure the coloring layers/group stays on top of the groups in its shape section. then, simply put one gif layer duplicate in each group. example of my layers for the second shape so far:

then just repeat this until all subsections have its own gif layer.

V. DISTORTED EFFECT

this is the best part! and it's really easy. basically you want to slightly move each subsection by a few pixels, so they're in a slightly different position than the ones next to it.

to do so, select one of the gif layers and with the arrows on your keyboard, move it left or right, and even up or down if it looks good. i do this for all duplicated gif layers, making sure it looks like they're all slightly offset. focus on the cracked glass overlay's lines while nudging the gif layers, it's easy to see how the shapes break when you move them. for example here:

this is really just all trial and error, you just need to move each subsection gif layer by a few pixels with the keyboard arrows until it looks good to you.

here's my result once i've done this for all (23!!) subsections:

VI. FINAL TOUCHES

i don't think i did much else to this before typography besides adding a bit of contrast overall and a thin drop shadow to the cracked layer texture on top of everything. if you have a transparent png this definitely helps to give a bit more dimension to the effect. so here's the final result:

i hope that was clear enough hehe :D

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Thing about just clicking with someone and not having to put in the work is finding not making and those relationships - whatever form they take rarely last or manage to develop past a surface level.

Buck is such an all in or nothing kind of person that has had to fight for pretty much everything (when it comes to relationships of any form) he just cant comprehend that other people experience various levels of friendships or relationships more widely.

We see it in his training of Ravi, it comes out in his father son reltionship with Bobby, it’s part of the underlying reason the lawsuit happened and stems from his childhood abandonment issues. We even saw it in the other sneak peek where he’s with Tommy - he’s trying so so hard to make a friend that he comes across as slightly intense and focused. And while the worthwhile people will stay (the fire fam, his sister, Eddie) those who can’t take that level of focus will pretty quickly drop away, Abby and Ali are prime examples of this and even Taylor to a certain extent - she just didn’t care enough to be bothered by it.

It’s one of the reasons he’s oblivious to the fact his relationship with Eddie is different on multiple levels and it’s part of what makes Buck so interesting and why so many of us think he’s neurodivergent.

[lover-of-mine]

Let's talk about this and patterns in the show, shaw we?

Okay, so Buck wearing green here is stressing me out now. I have a really long meta in Buck and green and red clothing (you can read it here), but I'll explain the green side of the point here if you don't want to read that. Basically, Buck wears a lot of red, enough for it to be a stable color for him, and red's complementary color is green. He's usually on the reds, pinks, and oranges.

The point of a complementary color, is to create contrast, and they used green on Buck in the coma world, so we would feel like something is wrong even if we can't quite figure out why.

They made a lot of choices about his wardrobe in the coma dream that just looked weird, up to getting him black vans instead of the usual white hightops, and that creates a contrast with the usual Buck that's unsettling.

Why is that relevant? Well, green is his something is wrong color. The coma world being the most blatant example because that sweater is green, BUT he wears green during breakups and when he's doing misguided stupid shit in the name of love. The breakup with Ali, the breakup with Taylor, and I will throw in the graveyard as a breakup with Eddie, because that's the feel of the scene and he's wearing green, but technically he's just being an idiot about love.

He's also wearing green when he takes Red to see Cindy, subsequently when he talks to Maddie about how it feels to always be left, when he's hiding at Eddie's place because he doesn't want to confront Taylor because that would lead to them breaking up and he's not there yet, and when he is trying to convince himself Abby is coming back (this last one really confused me but I did color picked a palette out of that shirt and that's green).

But if we established enough of a pattern to say he does misguided shit when it comes to love, like inserting himself in Red's love life, saying this random woman he met 5 minutes ago really sees him, trying to convince himself the women who fled the country is coming back to him, then Buck wearing green with Eddie is worrying.

Because if you look at the conversations they have in the firehouse, they are usually close to the point but still need something else to truly fix the situation, they hiding something or holding on to something they shouldn't, and it goes from the first fight at the gym with the way Buck is making his insecurities about Eddie and not really working through what's really bothering him, after the lawsuit, they do clear the air but Eddie is still hiding the whole fighting thing and the fighting thing actually makes Eddie flinch away from Buck, when they are talking after the dinner with Buck's parents, Eddie is trying to have a conversation but Buck wants to hold on to anger, when they are talking about the panic attacks, Eddie shuts Buck out because he doesn't want to admit Buck is right yet, and when they are talking about Chris having nightmares, Eddie is fully taking the blame for Chris missing Shannon, even if that's something completely out of his control and that eventually even leads to Eddie quitting and the thought process starts there.

So they always involve one of them wanting to have a conversation but the other not being fully ready to be honest about everything so they are talking but they are not on the same wavelength. They also always end with one of them walking out.

I have a really long meta about the framing in a lot of their big conversations (you can read it here if you want all the thoughts), but basically if they are on the same level, as they are both sitting down they are usually talking about Eddie.

Because when they are talking about Buck, Eddie is usually standing up and Buck is looking up at him. (I have a meta on the looking-up thing if you feel like reading more thoughts on that)

And if they are discussing their relationship, they are face to face.

Random add on, if they are talking about Chris, they are usually sitting side by side on the same surface in a sense, yes I'm counting the counter as one surface lol

So signs point to the new stills being Buck forcing Eddie to talk about something he's not ready to talk about. But when you add the green while Eddie is not wearing blue, so the green is not about the blue and green thing, (I have a meta on the blue and green thing in general and it applied to buddie too that one is truly unhinged tho), and the way talks at the station mean holding on to something they shouldn't and the still of Eddie talking to Bobby, this conversation can very easily be a moment of tension.

AND, I know I'm not the only one who saw those stills and immediately thought about the panic attacks conversation, BUT, stay with me because now I'm reaching, the graveyard conversation tries to call back to the dumb luck conversation (I also have a meta on the graveyard that touches on that if you want thoughts)

But basically, similar outfits and angles, locations we never saw before and probably will never see again. But, while the equine therapy talk works to give Eddie hope and bring them closer together, the cemetery has the exact opposite effect. It creates space between them.

If we consider this and the way it seems to be calling back to a conversation that led Eddie to do the right thing about Ana, they could very much be calling back to that just to do the opposite and having Eddie refuse to listen to Buck for whatever reason.

Because one thing about the dumb luck conversation is also the movement, they are walking, the camera is moving, the conversation is moving and they are making progress, something we don't feel in the cemetery because they are in the same place, the conversation is not leading them anywhere besides away from each other.

And the conversation about the panic attacks that happen while Buck corners Eddie while Eddie is trying to sleep, so Eddie will be in a more relaxed state than when Buck is walking in wearing civilian clothes and Eddie is so deep in his workout he's glistening with sweat, so Buck is walking in on Eddie with a completely different energy. And assuming conflict to the point Buck feels the need to corner him in the gym? That means fight.

This is a very long way to say divorced era 2.0 is upon us lol basically they are arguing and it's about Eddie refusing to listen to Buck about something. Maybe even love related.

If you reached this I love you 🫶

If you liked my brand of crazy, you can find all my metas here.

[starstruckbyacomet]

‼️IMPORTANT‼️: Exploring Buck's Bisexuality — Is It An Excuse to Make Buck Date Women Again?

I don't want to give a click to a Buddie writer's article. Thus, here's the link to Internet Archive:

Based on the above article, there's a good chance that the show would make Buck back to dating woman, using excuses like:

To explore Buck's bisexuality.

To avoid misconception that Buck is gay.

To avoid misconception that Buck's bisexuality depends on Tommy.

while placating the conservative members of audience who don't like to see Buck dates a man.

Considering Tim Minear and Oliver Stark's post Tevan break up interviews, including #LetBuckF–k interview with TVLine, it seems that it was the original plan. They seemed to pivot after receiving a lot of backlash from the General Audience.

In Season 8B, there are several scenes which indicate that Buck and Tommy will be reunited:

Buck and Tommy hooked up.

Tommy watched Buck broke down when Bobby died.

Tommy was saving Bobby in a flashback.

Tommy was one of the pallbearers in Bobby's funeral procession.

From writing perspective, those scenes are unnecessary for the bigger story arc (Bobby died). They seem to have no other purpose than to indicate Buck and Tommy will be together again.

But what will happen after their reconciliation? If the above article gave any indications, ABC and Tim could break them up and make Buck date women again.

To discourage them from doing that, I have sent a feedback to ABC as the following (minus the pictures):

**********************************************

Dear ABC,

A US Weekly article dated on May 14, 2025 entitled '9-1-1’s Oliver Stark Teases Emotional Season 8 Finale, What’s Next for Buck in Life and Love, More (Exclusive)' makes me worry that the show will make Buck date women again with the following excuses:

To explore Buck's bisexuality.

To avoid misconception that Buck is gay.

To avoid misconception that Buck's bisexuality depends on Tommy, etc.

As a bisexual person, let me tell you this:

We love and are grateful for bisexual representations in movies and TV shows, as long as they are done correctly. One of the signs is that the bisexual storyline DOESN'T RUIN THE BIGGER STORY just to 'teach' audience something about bisexuality.

During 8 seasons of 9-1-1 buck has dated FIVE people (Abby, Ali, Taylor, Natalia, and Tommy). Overall, he's had NINE love interests, if we include Lucy, his therapist, the snake lady, and the firetruck hookup girl in the pilot episode. Going through a string of romantic/sexual partners might be tolerable if Buck was a twenty-something who was still struggling with his identity. But Buck is in his thirty now. Keep changing romantic/sexual partners after 8+ seasons will make audience dismiss whatever relationship Buck has, because they will break up anyway. It could also paint Buck as a player. It's not something we want to see in Buck. We want a good love story for Buck. We want him to settle with a good romantic partner. The show already has one — Tommy Kinard — who is accepted and loved by a lot of audience members. Why should Buck find somebody else?

If you have any concerns that Buck could be misidentified as gay, or people assume that his attraction to man only applied to Tommy, there are other ways to indicate that Buck is still atrracted to women WITHOUT having him actually date women. For examples:

Make Buck read a swimsuit magazine like Eddie did in ep. 8x05 "Masks", and/or admire pictures of men in a firefighter calendar.

Make Buck praise Eddie's new female love interest or even flirt with her (if Buck's still single), while Eddie pretends that he doesn't care but is secretly jealous. It will be fun!

9-1-1 has tried to show that Buck was still attracted to women in ep. 8x06 "Confession" by making him blushing when he was talking to a woman. The problem with that scene is that he did it in front of Tommy. It was disrespectful to Tommy as his date/boyfriend. It's also out of character, because at the time Buck has had more than a decade of experience in dating. He should have known to not let his eyes wander in front of his date, or at least to do it discreetly.

Another important note: having Buck date a woman again DOES NOT automatically confirm his bisexuality. Some people could say that Buck is actually straight and dating Tommy is only an experiment. However, having him date women and men interchangably will paint him as an immature playboy whom we loathe.

The only thing to cement Buck's bisexuality is by having BUCK SAY IT OUT LOUD, like Eddie did when he said that he was straight in ep. 8x06 "Confession". Mislabeling our sexuality is a problem that a lot of queer people face in real life, especially people with the newer spectrums of sexuality like bisexual, pansexual, asexual, or gender fluid. One thing in common is that we hate it when other people mislabel our sexuality. We know who we are better than anyone else. Thus, it is important that our voice, or in this case — Buck's voice, is heard.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Best regards,

**********************************************

Tim Minear & co. will start writing for Season 9 very soon. Thus, it is important to give feedback to ABC soon enough.

Please help to spread the word.

🙏🥺🙏

If you want to give feedback to ABC, just googling "ABC feedback". A link to the feedback page will appear as the first suggestion. Or you can click on below link:

If you'd like, you can use my feedback as an example and take the necessary points from it. I have highlighted some points which I consider as important.

Thank you in advance to anyone who participate in this effort 🙏.

[lemotmo]

.......I am so very confused by these people

Q. I'm hoping I explain this correctly because I don't want to come across as rude. I very much appreciate that you take the time to provide canon examples when you are replying to people but I was curious about your response to the anon who offered you canon examples of why the story is actually about Buck and Tommy, and not Eddie. How come those canon examples were dismissed as 'made up' but your canon examples are not 'made up'?

A. I'm assuming you're speaking of the reply to the person who took my episode examples and resent them to me saying how they were actually about Tommy and not Eddie? And I said it was made up because their argument was asinine. Their argument essentially boiled down to saying that Buck really was cursed by Billy Boils and Tommy helped 'cure' him of said curse by playing along with him as proof of his unwavering support and we were supposed to take the curse thing at face value because Tim said in an interview that it was a curse and Tommy helped fix him. But that's not an accurate description of what Tim actually said. Yes he played along with the curse bit in an interview, but literally no one else did. And you can't say we're not supposed to take Tim saying Tommy is in Buck's romantic past at face value and then turn around and say but we do have to take the curse nonsense at face value.

Then they spent 4 paragraphs on how Tommy saying Eddie was competition wasn't really Tommy saying he sees Eddie as competition. They said the word competition was an accident because he was too nervous to organize his thoughts correctly so he said the first word he could think of and that was the word competition, but that's not really what he meant (even though the word competition only ever means ONE thing and literally no one uses it accidentally) therefore that means it was a miscommunication and they're actually doing the miscommunication trope for Buck and Tommy. Then they argued that Buck also didn't mean what he said except the times he said Eddie was straight. Those were honest words but everything else Buck said was Buck lying to himself because he's afraid to admit that he's in love with Tommy. So that makes it a miscommunication on both sides. And you don't understand why I dismissed that 'argument' as asinine? Then they said that basically the episode was just really badly written and because of that it was confusing in general but basically Tommy didn't mean what he said, and Buck was only telling the truth every time he said Eddie was straight but the rest of the episode he was lying because he's afraid of his feelings for Tommy and is using Eddie as a kind of shield. It makes less than zero sense, anon. Come on, what do you want me to do with an argument like that? You can't possibly expect me to entertain it as any kind of valid argument. If you have to twist the story and yourself into that much of a pretzel to try and project your narrative onto it then the story is not being told the way you're trying to insist it's being told. It's that simple. An alleged curse, an allegedly badly written episode, and now a sister with pregnancy brain and PTSD who shouldn't be allowed to give relationship advice (something so offensive and gross that I can't properly express how gross it is btw) is the hill that they're trying to argue on. Really? Nope. I'm not going to pretend nonsense like that should be taken seriously.

Thank you Nonny!

Well then...

¯\(ツ)/¯

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[saveahorserideaneddie]

In regards to your fic post, no __ bashing bc they don’t deserve the hate” or “we LOVE __ in this house” both these tags sound so weird to me. I mean, you don't have to defend your reasons for writing a character certain way in your story, especially if the character was a plot device and you are using them as such. These are the characters both positive and negative characteristics are easy to project onto, because canonically, they barely have any. Ana or Marisol or Natalia and even Ali are great examples. And even TK 2.0, though he was more fleshed out, in the negative way. I'm personally kinda surprised by how little stories I read where Taylor is presented negatively. Not for being career -driven, but for being ruthless and frankly not very interested in a relationship. There is nothing wring with writing your dislike for a character into a story. Or your like for that matter. But disliking a character is not a moral failing. Even less so when they are a minor side character with single purpose.

There had been some pearl-clutching about "bashing fics" some time ago which I didn't understand at all. 9-1-1 is not the only fandom that has them. Other ones just might use a different word/tag for it. Sometimes you need to get something out of your system. other times a character is just a dick/awful and it's fun playing with it. And it is also fun reading it.

being part of an oppressed group doesn’t just excuse you from bad behavior - and this one, ain't that the truth. One one hand, people yell, don't reduce that character to their *insert minority group* and in the same breath they complain when they are written as not fully wholesome cinnamon rolls too good for this world.

I mean, taking a character trait and running with it is kinda what fandom does. I mean, we got clip-board!Buck and possesive!Eddie and no-nonsense-allowed!Athena and all-knowing!Hen and so on.

Having Ana be ableist, Marisol homophobic, Natalia callous, TK 2.0 a dismissive douche, that is just par for the course. If people don't want to write or read it, then no one is making them. As long as everything is tagged properly, going either way in your story is what fan fic is about. No need for preaching.

Sorry, this got long and incoherent but it was brewing in me for a while and your post was the last straw it seems.

/*rant over

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!

Like- if i don’t like a character I’m either going to filter out that character or if i’m feeling in a certain mood i’m gonna filter the “bashing” tag. You don’t have to preach to me how much better you are bc you like this character.

like… ok? like away, but you don’t have to signal that liking that character somehow morally sets you apart from everyone else 😭😭😭

and specifically the character i saw today is a character i am so indifferent to that if i read them being bashed? so be it. if i read them being written in a really positive light? so be it. if i read them being written neutrally? SO BE IT.

like these characters are of so little consequence that it just drives me up a wall when people try to act all high and mighty about “oh well I like x character” like okay bruh just WRITE THE FIC AND CALL IT A DAY 😭😭

anyway, please never apologize for ranting in my inbox about something i also ranted about- i love getting to read other people’s frustrations over things i also get annoyed at so this ask made me happy lolll

i hope you’re having a great day, friend <3

[catmomjudy]

I’ve often wondered if Buck is the actual introvert and Eddie is the extravert in their friendship.

I was trying to find something else over the weekend, and came across some articles on PTSD/trauma and damaged extraverts (who then appear to be introverts because they become afraid of trusting people). Eddie certainly presents as an extravert:

He seems to have a wide acquaintance/friends group (other firefighters, like Julie and now Tommy; the poker group; the basketball group; the dispatch ladies).

His first day at the 118 was classic extravert behavior—he fits in quickly and chats easily with everyone.

When Buck is standoffish on Day 1, Eddie pursues HIM. He wants to get along with everyone and wants to be friendly with all of his coworkers.

He chats easily with others about THEIR deep subjects (his conversation with May in season 5 comes to mind).

Extraverts tend to have a lot of people they know and are friendly with. They’ll still have deeper relationships, of course, but they’ll consider any number of people to be “friends,” and they are approachable and easy to talk to.

That doesn’t mean that they share their own inner thoughts, though—it’s often surface-level. It actually makes selecting and nurturing people/relationships where they can develop enough trust to share that innermost-feeling-stuff more difficult. And it’s that trust issue that made me wonder if Eddie was an extravert who had trouble diving past the surface relationships because of past trauma. He does trust people, but it’s a select few (Buck; Bobby). Otherwise, people only see the surface. An example would be his coworkers not knowing that he had a son and, later, a wife, until it became necessary (worried during the earthquake and asked a direct question) or beyond his control (Shannon showing up at the firehouse).

Buck appears to be an extravert, but I was actually thinking about Myers-Briggs types for the 118 at one point (while driving in my car, of course!!) and realized that Buck isn’t an extravert at all.

Think about HIS first day at the 118–he was shy and hesitant.

Buck being a “player” in season 1 was more about making connections—reveling in being Seen. Plus he’s incredibly awkward when HE tries to approach new people—I’ve always assumed that the women he slept with approached him because Buck-in-pursuit is just embarrassingly awkward. See his first conversation with Taylor for the cringe of it all.

The women he’s dated have, in most cases pursued him—or at least put the first step forward. Abby called him repeatedly. While he and Ali obviously exchanged numbers, she is the one who calls him and asks him out in 2x08. He met Taylor and Natalia on calls, and they were both inviting and forward. The one time HE tried to pursue dating, we got Veronica.

He doesn’t appear to have any close friends (or even people he hangs out with or activities he goes to) outside of the 118 circle.

Buck is outgoing within his friend/family group, but that’s common introverted behavior—they build that group and keep it close (they’ll fight for this—lawsuit, anyone?), and are comfortable being chatty to people in that select group. Outside of that group, and the awkward conversation and stuttering starts. They don’t necessarily have poor social awareness (particularly when observing OTHER people—I.e. people-watching), but they overthink and internalize it, making them self-conscious.

P.S. A true extravert would have gone to hang out at basketball with Eddie even if he sat and cheered (and razzed) on the sidelines and then got to go out for beers afterward with the group.

(My Myers-Briggs/Keirsey geekiness is showing again.)

(Expanded from comments on a reblog, so yes, you may have seen this before. Originally written after 7x04 and later updated, but nothing in his current relationship with Tommy refutes this.)

(Edited 8/10/24 to correct error.)

[johanna-swann]

Analysing shows to death is my number 1 hobby of all times, so I decided to rank all of Buck and Eddie's love interests that were there for more than one quick flirt (not counting, for example, snake lady from 1x01, Veronica who was in several episodes but only on 1 actual date with Buck or Lucy who Buck was never really interested in in the first place).

For Eddie we have Shannon, Ana, Marisol and I'm also including Kim because holy shit, that really was something. For Buck we have Abby, Ali, Taylor, Natalia and Tommy.

Love interests will be judged by likeability, having their own storylines & character traits, compatibility with Eddie or Buck and how well they fit into the bigger picture of the show.

Coming in hot on the 9th place: Natalia. She was nice enough and the one thing we did know about her (her job) could've come up again in interesting ways, but then it didn't. We don't really know anything about her other than her job and she wasn't on the show very long. I think the fact that she had a different perspective on Buck temporarily dying could've been good for him. For everyone else it was a very traumatic experience and sensitive topic, but for Natalia it's business as usual. It could've been good for Buck to have someone to talk to about this without having to walk on eggshells. But I don't think Buck was really in a good place to start dating again, he had just learnt (via coma dream) that being "just Buck" could be enough and that he shouldn't live his life trying to make other people see him a certain way. And then he came in with the "Natalia sees me" line. Natalia never interacted with any of the other main characters and then they wrote her out of the show between seasons.

Conclusion: She was likeable if a bit bland, but she wasn't exactly a well rounded character, I think she would've been much better as a friend for Buck and at no point did the show even try to integrate her as more than just Buck's latest girlfriend.

Talking about likeable but bland: Number 8, Ana. I'm sorry, Ana is objectively speaking a good person, she is kind and pretty and has an impressive career. (She has a PhD I think? And is also already principal at a school despite being rather young? Good for her.) But aside from the fact that she's "nice", there's not much going here. She's mostly there to give Eddie things to spiral about. The skateboard incident for example was mostly a catalyst to get Eddie thinking about what it means to raise a son with a disability, but he then talked about this in more depth with Carla and Buck, Ana was only the messenger. On the surface they tried to give her characteristics that made her perfect for Eddie. She was great with children and already loved Christopher (and Chris liked Ana too), she had a similar background (big latino family) and she really loved her job. But it was all surface level. Who is Ana other than a picture perfect potential wife? What are her interests, what is she like when she isn't being kindness incarnate?

Conclusion: Likeable, but basically a cardboard cutout. This was a least partially intentional (Eddie does come to the "ready made family with no substance behind it" conclusion too), but still. Boring. She only fit well with Eddie on paper and like most Eddie-related things on 911, she seemed a little removed from the rest of the show and whenever she did appear or was brought up in the vicinity of other main characters, it was always about Eddie. (Is Eddie ready to date again? Is Eddie still hung up on Shannon?) It was never about Ana as her own person.

Number 7: Ali. The way we meet her makes us immediately side with her (her boss is a sexist, predatory piece of shit and she won't let that slide). We don't see her again after the earthquake for a while, but when we do we find out she's an opinionated, career oriented, confident woman who has no trouble communicating what she wants and who prioritises her own well being when necessary. She was there for Buck and supported him in the hospital, but sat him down and openly talked to him about why this relationship won't work for her once he got to go home. She was brought in/back as the polar opposite to Taylor who at the time represented the "casual hookups" option, so she wasn't just added randomly, she was also there as part of Buck's character development. She also had good chemistry with Eddie in the opening disaster (I was honestly surprised when they brought her back as Buck's love interest) and I really liked the scene at the hospital with her, Maddie and Carla.

Conclusion: She was a likeable character with enough personality to make her interesting and while she was good for Buck temporarily (I don't think either of them was necessarily looking to settle down at the time), it was exactly that - her knowing herself and what she wants - that eventually ended the relationship. She was only on the show for a few episodes and didn't make any strong connections to the other characters. In my opinion she was pretty much perfect as a minor character / temporary love interest because she was intentionally written as such, but there wasn't much potential for them to be anything more than that.

Moving on to numero 6: Kim. Likeable? Uhhhhhhrm. Well. She was certainly something, but likeable? At first maybe, but then it was mostly a lot of "wtf?" and "what is wrong with her?!" Very fascinating. Her and Eddie had one thing they connected over and one thing only: Shannon. She briefly interacted with Buck, but the whole thing had nothing to do with the rest of the 118 who had bigger fish to fry at the time.

Conclusion: Brainworms inducing character, I don't know who came up with this and why, but I want to thank them because holy shit. Not very likeable, but very interesting and not boring (which is a far bigger sin on tv), the whole thing was connected to Eddie's previously established hang-ups on the Shannon of it all, so even though it was another Eddie plot that was disconnected from the rest of the show it was at least building on his previous storylines and then developed into a bigger plot including Marisol, Chris and the Diaz parents. Kim was a freak and I thank her for her service, even though the fallout in season 8 was fumbled badly.

5th place: Marisol. Kinda mediocre as her placement on the list suggests. I'm so not sure if I should've placed her farther down on the list (maybe 7th place or so), because in many ways she's basically Ana 2.0. Nice girl / pretty Latina who is good with Chris while Eddie is (unknowingly) still hung up on Shannon. However she has little more personality of her own than Ana. I liked that we met her as a random character with no connection to the 118. We saw her having a close relationship with her brother and the diy thing was alson a cool additional piece of information whereas (in the context of these women being fictional characters) I read Ana's profession more as an extension of her "good with kids, she'd be a perfect replacement wife/mom" trait. Like, Ana was very much written as a symbol of what Eddie thinks he should want, Marisol was handled more like an actual person and gender-stereotypical traits do play a role in that for me.

[A/N: To be clear, irl your profession doesn't say anything about how much of a feminist you can be. You can be the most badass activist and also a stay at home mom, but we're talking about fiction where every trait given to a character is a choice made by the writers to project a certain image. And they wrote Ana as gentle and kind woman who works in childcare whereas Marisol is a very handy person who wears overalls the first time we see her. These first impressions were intentional.]

Back to the point - Eddie was in a good place mentally by the end of season 6, it kinda made sense for him to try dating again at that time. They took things slow and had the whole "Marisol moves in, Marisol moves out again" thing. Season 7 was very short and full, but they still carved out some time for Eddiesol(?) to have their own hurdle before Kim entered the game.

Conclusion: Marisol was likeable, a bit more interesting than Ana who was (as I said) often more a symbol than a character. Her and Eddie had some chemistry and this relationship happened more on Eddie's terms (what he wants instead of what he's told he should want) than his previous one with Ana. As per usual Marisol and the related Eddie plot were somewhat disconnected from the rest of the show once they got together, but Eddie did talk to Buck about her. There was potential here for an interesting, longer love story, maybe Eddie reassessing some of his rather conservative views on what being "the man of the house" means to him, but then Marisol's actress got caught being transphobic on social media and they wrote the Doppelgänger storyline instead so. That's that.

Observation: One thing all the characters above have in common so far is that they all had little to do on the show outside of being Eddie's or Buck's girlfriend. The 4 love interests who are left also had other important relationships or roles on the show that weren't just about Buck or Eddie. Shannon was not only Eddie's wife, she was Chrisopher's mother. Abby was a main character in season 1 and had a lot going on other than being with Buck. Tommy had a connection to Chimney, Hen, Bobby and Gerrard or rather the 118 in general before he ever met Buck. Taylor had soo much screentime and as a reporter was often involved in the calls and emergencies on the show without it being related to Buck (remember the call where this guy got buried alive and Taylor and Ransone both worked the case later?).

Back to the countdown: Number 4, Shannon. The fandom is very split on whether she deserved better or wasn't judged harshly enough, so it's hard to say whether she is "likeable" per se. She is definitely a very complex character and as someone who just got off the phone with their mum because she wanted my opinion on what to do about my disabled little brother who she doesn't think she can care for at home any longer- Well, let's say I sympathise. Shannon was barely even 20 (not even old enough to drink) when she had Christopher and Eddie fucked right off to the other side of the Atlantic and especially when you're raising a disabled child money isn't everything. They often need more help, more supervision, have more appointments, etc etc. Eddie was well aware that he was leaving Shannon on her own with all of that, her only support network being the judgemental in-laws who didn't like Shannon very much. Should she have run off into the night only leaving behind a two line farewell note? Hell no. But still, I sympathise. The point is that Shannon is a complex, flawed character who got an extensive background story and her story revolved not only around Eddie but around Christopher too. Sadly they killed her off before her and Eddie's relationship could run its course completely and we'll never know how she would've fit into the bigger picture.

Conclusion: Shannon is a complex character who you can sympathise with, who had her own goals and motivations and who was more than just Eddie's wife. She and Eddie had a long, emotional, complicated past with ups and downs, but they loved each other and Christopher very much (it's debatable if it was true love in the romantic sense of the word, but they loved each other). Still, she wasn't exactly present outside of Eddie's personal life and was killed off after being in only a handful of episodes.

[Personally I think they had a great opportunity to a) have Eddie and Shannon co-parent post-divorce like Michael and Athena did or b) still divorce them but then write a delicious slowburn about how without the pressure, without the church and their families breathing down their necks, without a surprise pregnancy and after working out the lingering resentment they feel, they eventually still find their way back to each other. Kinda like Chimney and Maddie did, but make it a slowburn instead of a speedrun.]

Entering the top 3 now. Tommy. He could've scored higher if the writers hadn't completely fumbled this plot. Season 7 and 8 were hands down the worst seasons yet and all of the characters deserved better. (Yes even Gerrard and Ortiz in the sense that they of course shouldn't have got happy endings, rainbows and sunshine, but they deserved to be written as antagonists with more agency, more substance, more depth instead of whatever the hell that was.) (Not Brad though. Fuck Brad.) A-ny-way. Tommy isn't exactly likeable when we first meet him in season 2, but the show quickly shows that he isn't a complete asshole. We later find out he's been stuck in regressive environments his entire life and internalised a lot of that bullshit before he unlearnt it again much later. But even in season 2 they showed us Chimney and Tommy making peace, Tommy and Hen finding common ground and him being (if not friends) at least friendly with Hen, Chim and Bobby by 2x16. Which already says a lot about the character's complexity. We learn a lot about Tommy's hobbies, he's involved in a high-stakes rescue mission with the 118, due to his job it's very easy to make him part of other calls and emergencies (the show never did that, but it was at least possible) and he is very well connected to the main characters other than Buck. He really liked Buck a lot, showed up for him again and again and only broke up with him because he was scared of getting hurt because he liked Buck so much. Buck on the other hand wasn't written very well these past 2 (1.5?) seasons. He had little to do except come out as bi- No wait, explore his sexuali- No wait, figure out his identity as a queer ma- No wait. Discover he is not straight. Because he didn't come out as bi (he still has no label) and he didn't explore his sexuality or identity as a queer man beyond getting into a new relationship. Yeah, we really don't know much about how exactly Buck felt about Tommy outside of the vague "I can see a future with him".

Conclusion: A criminal amount of wasted potential. Tommy started out as antagonistic, but then got a (short, partially off-screen) redemption arc which to me makes him not only very likeable, but even loveable. It makes him interesting. He could've been very good for Buck, but sadly the show underutilised him and rarely showed their progressing relationship at all. Tommy was very well connected within the 911 universe, even had the perfect job to join a call here and there. The show just didn't do anything with all of that and it's truly a shame.

2nd place, Abby. Honestly, Abby could've been first. She's likeable, just like I sympathise with Shannon because she was in a tough spot I see the same with Abby and her mother. Abby is shown as a hard working, loyal person who will put her own needs second and prioritise family, but not to the point where she comes across as a perfect saint. She snaps at Carla, is (understandably) annoyed with her mom sometimes, etc. I also honestly believe she and Buck were good for each other. She got to feel a little carefree and adventurous from time to time with someone who didn't bring his own obvious heavy baggage into the relationship. And Buck got to experience a relationship with someone who cares about him and not just whether he is a good lay, he got to care for someone who took their relationship seriously and who made him grow as a person. Abby also shared some nice scenes with Athena and Bobby, she was a main character all on her own (covering the dispatch position before Maddie took over) who had her own personal struggles and calls at work. But here's the one thing that to me disqualified her from #1 without discussion: It was obvious from the start that for her the relationship with Buck was only a fling. She cared about him, deeply, but he was an escape. She liked him, maybe loved him, but I'm not sure she was in love with him. They never really stood a chance long term. I think even if Abby hadn't run off to Europe, she would've left Buck eventually.

Conclusion: Likeable, complex character, well connected within the universe, she and Buck made a very good couple - for a short while. Not much else to say.

Which for the 1st place only leaves Taylor. Controversial pick? Maybe. I know many people actively hated her, but personally I love characters who are just a tad bit fucked up. Taylor is shown as a very "modern" woman (I don't know how else to call it, she is still very feminine after all). She is career driven, not exactly a nurturing / kind / sweet girl, treats sex as a very casual thing and has some interesting morals when it comes to protecting an individual's privacy vs being honest with the broad public. She is however very similar to Buck when it comes to their jobs. They both live and breathe for their work and are willing to sacrifice personal relationships for it too. Taylor worked all her life to one day become someone who gets to uncover truths due to the fact that she never found out the truth about her mother's murder and her father's involvement. Buck for a long time measured his worth by what he could do for others, he was "born to safe someone", he's very empathetic and has this intrinsic need to help people and he took all that and made a career of it. Buck and Taylor get up to all kinds of shenanigans together - searching for a treasure, trying to solve a hit and run, etc. As a reporter Taylor isn't a first responder, but it is natural for her to be on scene for calls and emergencies and to investigate those matters further (thus running into Athena or other cops later on), it happened quite a lot actually. On a personal level however she isn't close to any of the other main characters and I think that was their downfall eventually. She understands Buck really well (as for example shown by her take on the "maybe this isn't about you" trope) and she even understands how close Buck is to the 118 ("Your life is full of meaningful relationships.") - she understands Buck, but she isn't like Buck. She prioritises differently and never really gets involved with the 118.

Conclusion: Taylor is a very independant character with a lot of strengths, but also flaws and those flaws made her extremely unlikeable to some of the more rabid fans, but I will love and treasure her forever. I think she and Buck complemented each other really well, but maybe they'd be better as friends? They had great chemistry, they could talk to each other about their jobs and understood each other in ways I think none of the other love interests did (except maybe Eddie and Shannon). On a professional level Taylor fit into the 911 universe incredibly well, she was just never closely connected to the other characters on a personal level.

[leothil]

tbh i can see feeling like the breakup was a little rushed this episode. but this season has been the rushed resolution season lol so what do you expect. it’s the being so blindsided by a breakup at all that i don’t get? and i actually do feel bad some people are so crushed because they built this relationship up into more than what it was.

Yeah I mean people are entitled to feel whatever, I just won't agree lmao. This show has a history of bringing back the LI more prominently right before they break up for a reason; they need to remind the audience that they exist and potentially set up the hurdles that lead to the separation. So showing Tommy in 8x05 and have them break up in 8x06 isn't any weirder than having Ana involved a lot more in 5x01-02 before the breakup in 5x03, having Ali at Buck's bedside in 2x18, or involving Taylor in the Jonah storyline in 5x17 (but she was so present the whole season it's hard to make a direct comparison using her tbh).

I am sorry for people who are sad about this. It sucks when your ship breaks up! But my sympathy ends exactly when and where they 1) start blaming Oliver for the breakup, 2) start blaming buddie fans for the breakup, 3) are saying Buck isn't queer anymore because he isn't in a relationship with a man, 4) start blaming RYAN for the breakup and, 5) keep harassing fans who weren't onboard the bt train.

(None of these are hypothetical, btw, every single example is straight from posts I've seen this morning)