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"You lot refuse to see the real complexity in him"

Uh, I actually think that his repressed gayness is exactly the complexity you're talking about.

You could be making a good point about the infantilization of grown men, but you've got the wires crossed.

His being gay wouldn't justify his actions, but it sure as hell would explain them a lot better than anything else could.

Either he's horribly written, or he's stone cold gay, because his behaviour (read: assholery) towards the women he dates doesn't make any particular sense otherwise.

Call me crazy, but when the one consistent aspect of this man's characterization is that he represses every single goddamn emotion known to man, it's not far-fetched to suggest that he's repressed his homosexuality too.

We know that his parents definitely weren't the nurturing, supporting kind, regardless of wanting the best for their kid.

He married the only woman he ever dated when he was barely an adult, because he got her pregnant and they both felt pressured to create some sort of family.

Automatically being robbed of the time and space to explore himself, he had to officially "man up" and provide for his family.

He was enlisted in the army, having to endure the horrors of war, knowing he had to come back home.

And, while I don't doubt he loves Shannon, I also don't think that a man desperately in love with his woman would enlist to return to active war zones, behind her back, in an attempt to run away from the weight of the responsibilities awaiting for him if he were to stay with her and have her back, like she wanted.

He was a shitty husband, which is understandable considering the circumstances, but still. Shitty.

He comes back, and he's barely touched Texan soil, before Shannon was the one leaving, but with no concrete intentions to return.

When Shannon did come back, instead of their relationship being rekindled, she was gonna divorce him because she recognized that they were so young back then, that they had to grow up too fast and missed out on, you guessed it, exploring their identities outside of the responsibilities they had to take care of.

This, of course, freaked Eddie out because, he interpreted that as her leaving again, which was not something he wanted Chris or himself to go through again.

But they barely had time to actually address any of this, because Shannon died then.

After that, he repressed all of his grief and anger once more, which blew up in his face. Again.

And this vicious cycle kept on going.

He represses everything he feels like it's his full-time occupation, and the bills are due and Chris is starving.

We, the audience, barely know Eddie's true nature as a person, because Eddie himself has no damn clue either.

Christopher is his number one priority, and he's an undeniably great father, but we've seen him repeatedly making decisions for Christopher's sake, never his own, especially when it comes to his love life.

But even his immense devotion to his kid can't outweigh his instinctive aversion to dating women. His inability to imagine a future with them? His attempts at dating, in order to give Chris a mother figure because he thinks it's what's best for him, but his ultimate inability to commit to an actual partnership with them or let them all the way in?

"Reservoirs of catholic guilt, ready to consume me"? "Dating feels like performing"?? Man had a goddamn panic attack so severe he thought he was dying when he imagined a future with his long-time girlfriend???

Come on now. It's not batshit to suggest that this guy doesn't like women like that.

And even if it turns out we're gaslighting ourselves, it still doesn't erase all the queercoded aspects of him.

We think Eddie is gay, because the alternative is that the writers actually did a horrible job writing him.

Yeah, maybe he's just an emotionally immature dickbag for no reason when it comes to relationships (bad writing+boring+lacks depth), or it's simply a symptom of the fact that I went to the land of homo, and all the sexuals knew him.

I'll be honest, as a queer mexican man the way y'all talk about Eddie Diaz really pisses me off. You lot refuse to the see real complexity in him and admit he has done a lot of shitty things.

I think you've created this story of what you want him to be in your head where he is an eternal victim despite being a grown man and it doesn't do the character any favors.

I think you love the surfice level exploration of "latino culture" (whatever the fuck that means) he represents because he is the epitomy of "the good latino" propagandist figure. The USA army veteran hero, the one who isn't misogynist because he grew up in the US, the one who is brave enough to detach from his overbearing parents, the skeptic who rejects and even mocks the esoteric parts of his family's culture. The one with aspirations to be a model citizen and a "hero" to his son. Throws a couple of spanish words here and there, looks kind of brown but white enough for most demographics to find him hot.

He is comfortable to you.

I think y'all cling until your last breath to the posibility of him being secretly gay because you think if he had internalized homophobia this whole time then you can justify everything.

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Real talk, though.

There are valid conversations to be had about how we actively search for queer characters, and recognize queer characteristics in a given narrative, regardless of the storytellers' intentions or lack thereof.

There is no shortage of popular, non-canon gay ships that started because queer people were desperate for representation that they couldn't find anywhere else.

However, that doesn't mean that we're seeing things that aren't there.

When you sit down to write a story, you have to be prepared to face a million interpretations of it that never crossed your mind, and you have to understand that all those perspectives have varying degrees of merit.

The artist's original intentions, and how understood they are by the audience, is irrelevant in many cases.

As for the aforementioned ships, for most of them, there were undeniable queer characteristics that were subsequently picked up on by all the queer people who identified with them.

Because of course they were. I promise you, a gay person knows gay perspective better than any straight director out there, on account of actually living it.

And while the straight directors have no obligation to give the fans what they want, it is decidedly not commendable when they lean into the observations made by all the silly teenage fangirls and delusional gay people, feeding into the audience's excitement via suggestive comments, and then ending their show having made no actual commitments after stringing half the fandom along.

Nothing we haven't seen before, definitely not the first or last time we were left hanging, having to deal with the onslaught of you guys are just imagining things and you're grasping at straws.

But specifically in buddie's case, I'm inclined to disagree with you wholeheartedly.

Because this time, the evidence is more abundant than ever before, contrary to what you're suggesting.

And I'm not gonna go into a detailed rant of every. Single. Piece of it that exists, for fear we'll be here until next Tuesday. There are plenty of people who've done that already, in various formats.

What I am gonna do though, is point out the fact that 911, unlike every other show, has been diverse and inclusive from the get-go.

There are plenty of gay characters, whether they're main ones, recurring ones, or one-and-done's.

And when you pair that, with the practically infinite displays of Buck and Eddie's partnership, profound friendship, obvious domesticity, intense staring, indisputable affection, actual devotion, co-parenting tactics, etc etc, you have the potential of breaking the internet a great ship in your hands.

That doesn't make your interpretation of them as platonic best friends any less valid, but for the first time, maybe ever, I can say with bone deep certainty that non-canon gay shippers have never been more based in their insistence.

Yeah, maybe they're just friends.

Or maybe, a filthy make-out session in that fuck forsaken kitchen will fix all their problems, as well as themselves, better than any therapy will.

...

What? I'm just saying—

Probably the most asshole thing I'm gonna say in my life but guys, guys... *holds your hand* I think this one was on you.

I don't think this is queerbait, and I don't think the show ever intended for buddie to be a thing. I think this was an echo chamber effect of people telling each other 9-1-1 was the gay firefighter show and is time to take a step back.

It was always clear to me they were just friends. The show made it clear multiple times. They are best friends, they love each other, they trust each other. Maybe that's all it is and you need to wonder why you ever thought it was something different.

There is no ambiguity, not that much room to interpretation. No actual evidence.

All I see as a still kind of oursider is fans gaslighting each other episode after episode to think this is some elaborate slow burn romance story and every time someone says that's not the case they MUST be lying.

Maybe there is no secret message every time they look at each other. Maybe their friendship really is that profound and it doesn't mean they are in love. Maybe Eddie has never admited to liking men because he actually doesn't like them.

Maybe the show is not and never was what you want it to be and that is okey.

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No, man, I'm telling you, these bitches are gay

Probably the most asshole thing I'm gonna say in my life but guys, guys... *holds your hand* I think this one was on you.

I don't think this is queerbait, and I don't think the show ever intended for buddie to be a thing. I think this was an echo chamber effect of people telling each other 9-1-1 was the gay firefighter show and is time to take a step back.

It was always clear to me they were just friends. The show made it clear multiple times. They are best friends, they love each other, they trust each other. Maybe that's all it is and you need to wonder why you ever thought it was something different.

There is no ambiguity, not that much room to interpretation. No actual evidence.

All I see as a still kind of oursider is fans gaslighting each other episode after episode to think this is some elaborate slow burn romance story and every time someone says that's not the case they MUST be lying.

Maybe there is no secret message every time they look at each other. Maybe their friendship really is that profound and it doesn't mean they are in love. Maybe Eddie has never admited to liking men because he actually doesn't like them.

Maybe the show is not and never was what you want it to be and that is okey.

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imagine your a firefighter in LA in the 911verse. you hear about some guy getting impaled through the head with rebar and surviving: the guy is a firefighter. you think “woah what a coincidence”. you see on the news a firefighter getting stabbed and a woman getting kidnapped. it’s the same guy as before. you see on the news a fire truck getting blown up, and a firefighter getting crushed by it. at least it’s a new guy this time. it’s the same station as the guy before. that’s a little strange, isn’t it? he makes a miraculous recovery. a year later you hear about a man saving people during a tsunami. it’s the same fucking guy. you see on the news a firefighter getting trapped in a well, and another firefighter clawing at dirt. the firefighter looks familiar. it’s the same. fucking. guy. whatever, there’s plenty of coincidences, right? a year later you see your colleagues getting shot on TV, one face looks a little familiar, but you don’t place it until after the shooter is caught. it’s the fucking guy who was stuck in the well. this is getting a bit ridiculous now, isn’t it? you hear on the news that a firefighter got caught killing people on purpose, and that is was solved by two other firefighters. you beg, you plead, you pray to the TV gods that it’s somebody new, some other station. it’s not. when you hear about a firefighter being struck by lightning at a scene, you have a fleeting moment of hope where you believe it might someone else. you punch a hole through your TV as soon as his face shows up. you don’t replace your TV. you go to a poker game with your boss, hoping to find some solace in this horrible, hopeless world you’ve found yourself in. you see them and nearly the flip the table. you don’t follow the news anymore, you don’t go anywhere besides work, paranoid that they will appear suddenly. you get a call about a bridge collapse. you quit your job as you as you get to the scene. you go on a cruise. you meet another man who says he’s also a firefighter. you ask him what station he works for (it’s only the polite thing to do). you run away and stay in your cabin. the boat fucking capsizes. a helicopter descends from the sky, and you want to feel relief, but all you feel is horrible, all consuming dread. a hand reaches out to pull you up, you grab it, unthinking, and look up to see who’s rescued you. you let go.

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Fav thing about 9-1-1 are the character quirks

The captain is basically a five star chef. This doesn't affect the plot at all, he just really loves cooking

The senior paramedic loves karaoke. He snagged his hot wife this way

Second paramedic could have been a doctor. She decided not to cuz she loves her bestie too much

The bisexual boy is probably suicidal. This is never addressed

The bisexual's bestie has repressed every emotion ever known to man. This explodes in his face very impressively

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The real reason Chris is still mad at Eddie is because he grew that fuck ass mustache AND still doesn’t realize he’s gay. If my dad terrorized the women of L.A., cheated on his girlfriend with my dead mother’s clone, all while being obliviously in love with his male best friend, and then started morphing into Freddie Mercury and trying to act like everything was normal, I fear I would be mad for YEAARRRSSSS.

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He's getting dragged out, kicking and clawing at the closet!

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Me ranting about Eddie Diaz

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118 extended crew has BEEN certified batshit

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karen wilson is prime shenanigan material, pass it on

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How it feels watching Eddie Diaz traumatize straight 10s like it's his job and rent is due:

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"Josh, you're a dispatcher, not a firefighter. Today, you're a guest in this house."

Eddie Diaz, you're a relentlessly petty bitch, and I respect that

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when im in a yearning for my best friend competition but michael queerler shows up

it's so joeover

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Max is stronger than me, if I had Lucas Sinclair pining after me I would be folding like the world's cheapest lawn chair within the minute I found out.

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I would be a Lucas defender but he's done nothing wrong

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What’s on your mind?

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Oh, I'm curious! What are your thoughts on how the night furies became extinct?? Because I won't lie, I absolutely HATED how Grimmel supposedly killed all of them, I find it genuinely ridiculous 😭

i hate it😭i feel like the only purpose was to have the Light Fury instead so they could sell toys that didn’t just look like Toothless, or maybe it looked better on screen than two Night Furies, but i definitely don’t think it was because it was the best story choice

and I am a firm believer that Viggo>Grimmel. maybe just bc Viggo came first, but Dragons already had their cunning Hiccup-foil villain, and Grinnell was just annoying and the idea that he could wipe out every single Night Fury just leaves too many plot holes and questions. we would need a lore drop about how Toothless ended up in the Red Death’s nest, maybe, to explain how he was the only one to survive? but i don’t think Toothless needs to be the very last of his kind

i do like those early concepts of the Light Fury, however, when she looks more like a Night Fury or just not a glitter bomb