still-into-diaz

[still-into-diaz]

For everyone hoping and or expecting there to be something huge in the mid season finale on Thursday and who will feel let down and upset if there's not I wanted to point out some things.

First of all Tim just came back in s7 and it was a shortened season. I know we all had issues with how that season was handled but I also think Tim had a lot to figure out for having just come back to show. He was bringing 911 to a new network had only 10 eps to tell the entire seasons stories in. It was also a rather important season considering it was where they finally had Buck come out and where the pieces were finally being put into motion for Buddie to happen eventually (like in episode 704).

But I also think a lot of stuff Tim wanted to do in s7 he didn't get to and instead carried it over to s8 where he felt he had more time. The majority of 8a was spent closing out storylines that started in s7. What people have to realize is that a lot of this likely would have been the second half of season 7 had that been a full season. Now going into 8b I expect to see more focus put on Eddie's coming out and more movement towards Buddie happening.

None of this means that the mid season finale will necessarily be a huge ep or have a nde or have Eddie come out or Buddie kiss or anything like that. This ep may be pretty similar to the one we saw last week especially because like some have pointed out Tim and the others may have been expecting 809 to be the mid season finale not 808. And besides that 911's mid season finales have rarely been these huge events. Those were usually saved for other eps.

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S1 -

shortened season - no mid season finale

no real NDE's although you could say the plane disaster was one for Bobby

S2 -

210 - mid season finale - It's revealed that Chim's friend is Doug

*2b*

211/212/213 - Chim begins/ Doug attacks Chim and takes Maddie

217 - Shannon dies car accident

218 - Buck NDE truck bombing

S3 -

302/303 - Buck and Chris NDE tsunami

308 - Hen NDE car accident (a few eps before mid season finale)

Bobby radiation exposure 309 (one ep before mid season finale)

310 - mid season ep - Michael cancer diagnosis

*3b*

314 - dispatch center/Maddie held hostage

315 - Eddie NDE well

317 - Athena NDE r*pist

S4 -

shortened season because of Covid no mid season finale

405 - Buck NDE fire

409 - Albert NDE car accident

413/414 - Eddie NDE shooting

S5 -

506 - Buddie kidnapping

508 - Hospital (where David worked) fire

510 - mid season ep Eddie leaves the 118

*5b*

513 - Eddie breakdown

516 - dispatch fire

517 - Hen/Chim - NDE - jonah

S6 -

Mid season ep - Bobby's sponsor dying

*6b*

610/611 - Buck NDE lightning strike

618 - 118 NDE bridge collapse

S7 -

shortened season - no mid season finale

701-703 - Bathena NDE - cruise ship disaster

708-710 Bathena NDE - Cartel/Fire

S8 -

802/803 - Athena NDE plane emergency

805 - Denny NDE

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Looking at the way 911 has structured it's seasons in the past it's far more likely that if we're going to get a nde for Buddie or one of them we're going to get it later in the season and not at the mid season. We could get a more surprising moment like we've seen in the past like with Eddie leaving the 118 but like I said before I think it's highly probable that 808 wasn't meant to even be the season finale so a more shocking or surprising moments might not even be until 809 when the show comes back.

I just really think we all need to take a look how the show operates and prepare ourselves so we're not too let down. Also as much as I love coming up with theories and love listening to theories everyone else comes up with I feel like it's become a habit lately in our fandom for some people to get everyone excited and expecting certain things from the show. Then when the show doesn't deliver every single episode people are left feeling angry. This isn't just the fault of the people talking about their theories it's a fandom issue in general I think. I wish our fandom would just be more realistic going into each ep and not so quick to turn on the show if expectations aren't met immediately.

I 100% believe Eddie is going to come out and Buddie is happening. I've been watching the show for years and things have never been as close to Buddie canon as they are now but that doesn't mean it will happen instantly. Everything that's being shown and said (in interviews) is telling us that the show is playing the long game. We have to be patient and wait for them to get there, which I know can be really frustrating, trust me I've been waiting for Buddie's love story to be canon for what feels like forever. I think we will see more movement in Eddie and Buddie's story this season but maybe not this episode coming.

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I also think it's important that we show our love for the show and the people who work on it more. I feel like a lot of the stuff I see out of our fandom lately is pretty negative. I'm not saying it's not warranted or that I don't do my own share too (I was talking just the other day on twitter about my issues with Athena's storylines) but I also can't help to think of how Oliver and Ryan and the others must feel. Imagine working really hard on something and then going online to see how the audience feels about it and the predominate reaction is about how awful the episode was. I definitely believe it's possible to love 911 (and any media really) and still be critical of it at times but I also think sometimes our fandom focuses too much on what we're not getting from the show and less on what we are.

We are incredibly lucky to have two amazing actors who put such love and care into playing Buck and Eddie and who have always been supportive of our ship. We're lucky that pretty much everyone involved with 911 (minus maybe KR) seems to be supportive of Buddie happening because trust me that's not common among a lot of other non canon queer ships. We're lucky that Buck has finally come out and that all signs are pointing towards Eddie coming out too. We're lucky that the show is even still on the air because it was seriously on the brink of being canceled before abc picked it up. If it had been not only would we have no chance of Buddie but Buck would never have come out and both men would have ended their run on the show with those lackluster partners. And speaking of lackluster partners we're lucky that Tim got rid of Tommy. I know he could have done it sooner but he also could have kept him around longer. I think some of you need to realize that making Buddie a reality is still a risk for the show and for abc. Having another main come out is still risky but they seem ready to take the risk.

Sorry this post got so long. I just had a lot of thoughts with the new ep coming and seeing everyone already prepared to be upset about it. Let's just go into this ep with limited expectations and be happy we get to go into a hiatus for the first time in a while without b/t being a thing. Thanks if you taken the time to read all of this. ❤️

[still-into-diaz]

my two cents on christopher, eddie, buddie & the overall writing and pacing of s8 so far…

to be honest, i’ve been thinking this since the s8 premiere but as we are now reaching the midseason finale with very little progress in the way of christopher coming home, it really confirms for me that as a collective we do need to entirely suspend our disbelief with this arc. we already do it so much for this show, what’s one more thing?

chris being gone isn’t really about his feelings towards the eddie and the kim situation. him still being gone isn’t even about eddie’s parenting or eddie’s parents. it is simply because the writers want him gone, in order to keep eddie isolated for his continuing ‘self-discovery’ arc. if it wasn’t about that, then chris would’ve come home in 8x04 like mara and bobby, or at very least by now we’d have seen significant progress in their relationship being rebuilt.

the writers do make a lot of questionable choices, but ultimately they know what they’re doing (hoping they don’t make me eat my words, we’ll check back in after 8x18) and there will be a reason why he isn’t back yet, even if it’s unrealistic following a chronological timeline. but we have to remember that they’re in tv world and a chronological timeline doesn’t exist. need i remind everyone that as of this season, canonically chris was born in both 2010 and 2011. we know they’re not sticklers for cohesive time continuity.

regardless of how long he’s kept away be that a week, three months or a year, that impact is always going to be the same. the fallout of it all and when he returns is going to be whatever the writers decide for it to be. and it will be whatever furthers the plot and develops the characters in the direction they want them to go. in real life if something like this happened of course the longer period of time that the kid was away, the worse the effect that would have on them and the relationship with their parent. but this isn’t real life and that is only going to happen if the writers want it to. helena and ramon wanting to keep chris full time or whatever other worst case scenario catastrophe that could come out of this event, will only happen if the writers want it to. personally i expect it to not have long lasting effects once his initial return is resolved. it would not be the first time characters seemingly get over big traumas without so much as a callback even when given the perfect opportunity (like literally the ladder or well incidents that just happened).

we are seeing things unfold episode at a time, week by week. whereas they already know the full story, we don’t. (even if we can take a good guess at the way they’re going!) so of course things do not make sense to us.

this last episode seems to be confusing to a lot of people, especially in regards to “the lack of addressing eddie’s personal arc”, but i disagree with the sentiment that it wasn’t addressed. it was done subtly and it fit with the episode.

we saw the scene where eddie was teasing buck by taking his phone and a little background moment where he jumped over the back of the couch (direct parallel to 8x06’s ending btw). pre-riskybusiness eddie likely would not have done those things. these were ways of implicitly acknowledging the ending of 8x06. it is a continuation of him lightening up and allowing himself the grace to have fun in simple things. we just didn’t see any further development in his story, which in that case i believe would be more explicitly shown or stated. and i do think it is completely valid that eddie took a backseat this episode when you consider that last week was heavily focused on him and it’s an ensemble show. this was the first time that bobby and athena have had the spotlight since the premiere, and consider too that hen has spent the last two episodes in the background.

being disappointed that your favourite character has less screen time than you’d have hoped or perhaps expected, is valid. but saying that certain plots or characters are “taking away” from another character’s screen time just kinda doesn’t make sense. because who are you to decide which characters and which stories are owed certain amounts of screen time? that’s the writer’s job. and no one character is owed more screen time than the other (although, contractually peter and angela may take the cake there).

just like how we say “this is tv, everything is intentional, there’s a reason why xyz happened or why xyz was said”, the same goes for what isn’t said. i’ve seen the rhetoric that it’s “out of character that buddie haven’t had a serious conversation yet or a conversation about chris” and i don’t disagree, which is why it’s very likely that there is a reason for it. the writers know these characters, there may be minor discrepancies from episode to episode and as the seasons progress. but fundamentally they know them and if they’re being written as very noticeably out of character, there should be a reason for it.

we’ve seen interviews from ryan, oliver and tim, and the implication is that this story of eddie’s is going to take time, especially if the very end goal is gay eddie and buddie like we believe it to be. in regards to buddie we know that they’re going to play into the ‘will they, won’t they’ trope and that it’s going to be a slow burn (as if it isn’t already jfc). with this in mind i think it’s fair to assume that chris will continue to be away for some time, until at least eddie’s self-discovery arc closes out, which i don’t think will be until towards the end of the season. which again is why we need to suspend our disbelief, at this point keeping chris gone is the only way to finish and fully flesh out this self-discovery arc for eddie. i don’t think this was the only way to deal with eddie’s story, but now we are in too deep, chris needs to stay in texas until eddie has done what he needs to do. chris coming home prematurely would be a disservice to eddie, to chris, to the writing thus far and to the audience.

i too do feel frustrated with certain aspects of the pacing this season and the lack of cohesion and also jarring tone switches with the story telling. but i don’t think it is bad by any means. we still have more than half the season to see how everything else plays out. i’m choosing to trust tim. i think even if the route is different than we all hoped, that the end result will be the same.