#before he gets with Buck in early s8

[sunflowerdigs]

Apparently people are panicking about Marisol being on set again? I haven't seen much so I guess I follow the right people.

Anyway, it's important to remember that Taylor stuck around until the end of s5 (literally until almost the last minute). So even if she appears to be in episode 10, it's possible that's Marisol's last episode. And even if it's not, I very highly doubt that Tim is closing out the season with both Buck and Eddie still romantically interested in other people. He would be shooting himself in the foot big time with that because of the amount of Buddie promo put out for this season. He's gotta give us a clear path forward to Buddie or people are going to call him a queerbaiter and drop the show before s8.

[bucked-it-up]

i wanted to ramble about where I think Buck and Tommy will be going into season 8 and what I think could possibly happen.

With the gap between S7 and S8 looking to be a shorter time skip and there not much development in the relationship, I’m quite excited to see what milestones they have passed together and which ones we will look forward to seeing.

This quote from Oliver interests me a lot “They’re still learning and figuring things out about each other and what a relationship might or could look like.” I feel like this could mean a few things, one being they are both firefighters and this is something new for Buck to navigate and also possibly new for Tommy as well. Both of them will have to get used to seeing the other leave for long shifts that mean they may not come home completely safe and sound. That will mean navigating the emotions that come with this, learning how to let one another go knowing that they will worry but they have to trust one another and having to live with the feeling that the other could get hurt without them being able to help/ get there as quick as they wish they could.

This is also the first relationship Buck has been in with a man and that will come with many obstacles, these could arise from being something that Buck hasn’t done before. A queer relationship come with pressures and negativity that straight relationships do not. Especially being in a queer relationship for the first time while having a boss like Gerrard and being separated from Bobby, someone he goes to advice and is a major part of Buck’s support network.

Another thing I get from this quote is they are working out how to be around each other and what they want their future to be like. This could include moving in which is something I would love to see but after this quote I am curious if it will be early season 8 or further down the line as a conversation talking about living situations could definitely come under what Oliver said.

I think as well the choice to bring back Gerrard will make things interesting for Buck and Tommy. I think it will give a good look at how they work through problems together and how they come to solutions. It will also show us more about how their relationship works, how they communicate and how they support each other. I hope that their relationship is explored in this arc because personally I think it would be a missed opportunity to not show how a newly out Bi character deals with a homophobic boss and how he communicates this with his boyfriend who has gone through it before.

Furthermore in S8 I really do hope we see many happy moments from them and we get to see ‘I love yous’ and milestones from them, I also hope we get to see some adversity. Preferably from outside sources rather than coming from within the relationship, such as one of them getting injured and having to navigate what that means for them and if they can cope. I would like to see them go through something like this and come out the other side even stronger.

As I have already said I would love to see them move in together and see Tommy’s house. To me this would signal that they (and the show) plan to stay with each other for a while and I would love to see Buck choose to live with his partner not because it just kinda happened like with Abby or out of some kind of guilt like with Taylor. I want him to make the choice and it be a deliberate and loving choice that allows him to spend more time with Tommy and increases their strength within the relatiionship.

To focus a little more on Tommy, I do hope he is featured in the opening arc in some way or another. I will be happy with any scenes he gets but i would love if he got a prominent role and we got to see his skills as a firefighter. I think having a pilot as a character is a good addition to the line up and allows for interplay between firefighters on the ground and in air support and means he can be included in more scenes as it has been shown he also does groundwork.

To end this ramble I hope that we get to see them happy and healthy. I hope the show explores their relationship and how different aspects of their life affect what they do and say. I truly hope that Buck is now off the hamster wheel and we don’t have to see him get back on it. I want to see Buck grow more within his professional life and outside of what he is like in relationships.

[buddiebeginz]

Fandom I'm begging you all to wait and see how the season plays out. Everything right now seems to be pointing towards Buddie and sure I could be wrong but I also think it would be the shows downfall if they didn't make Buddie happen this season and I think Tim and abc know that.

This isn't just about catering to fandom whims this is that since right before s7 they've done so much to put focus on Buddie way more than with any season before. Deliberate choices have been made that if they're not leading to Buddie can't not be seen as queerbaiting. And yes a show with queer characters can still queerbait if they're using a popular queer ship to garner attention and views. Though I don't think that's what's happening here.

The only reason I think more didn't happen with Buddie last season is because the season was short and they got renewed for s8 early. You can tell if you watch from eps 1-6 that they were leading somewhere with Buddie (they had them singing a karaoke love song ffs) but changed gears after getting renewed for s8. At the same time Tim still didn't put more development or focus on b/t so it's not that Buddie happening was shelved (as in it's never happening) it was just paused.

Also I see people spiraling about that pic Ryan posted assuming because he's in a robe and because he put "Don Diaz" on it that it's a reference to Don Juan and this means Eddie is going to be hooking up with a bunch of women. I just don't see that happening. Ryan could have easily just been making a joke or trying to mess with fandom or it could mean nothing. It could be a Godfather reference. Or it could be something like Eddie tries to hook up with a random girl and he just can't do it and then that leads to him talking to the priest. Unfortunately we aren't going to know what that pic really means until the episode airs.

I know we've all been burned by the show (and other shows) before and I get being nervous about what could happen this season. But remember that Buck was supposed to come out in s4 (this has been confirmed by Oliver) and Eddie in s5 (this has been confirmed by the the insider) and presumably that's when Buddie would have happened. Buddie has been in the works for years. The main thing stopping it before was Fox and last season it was just too short to have Buck to come out, Eddie come out, and then Buddie to happen. 10 eps was just not enough time to tell such huge important stories for the show and these characters.

I know Tim and others behind the scenes of the show have made decisions we haven't always loved and maybe it's naive of me to still have trust in them after all this time but it's not just that. I see the signs. If I had seen more effort being put into b/t last season and into promoting them as a couple and especially if I saw that happening this season I'd be a lot more skeptical about the likelihood of Buddie ever happening. But I haven't seen any of that.

This season Tim has talked about how b/t are still together but he doesn't talk about the ship like it's this important thing, he talks about it like T*mmy is just like any other person Buck has dated. Meanwhile Eddie is ALWAYS mentioned when b/t are talked about including by Tim. Networks and showrunners know how to handle these kinds of things. If they wanted to minimize the attention Buddie gets they would have done so. We know this because that's exactly what they did in past seasons while they were with Fox, particularly after Tim left. Instead though since last season they've actually been putting more attention on Buddie, Ryan, and Oliver.

Like I said I get being nervous that something we've all hoped for for a long time might not happen. I know that Buddie and Eddie coming out means more to a lot of us than just some fictional characters and a ship. I know a lot of us see ourselves in them and we also see how important and groundbreaking in a way it will be when they finally go canon. I get why the anxiety around this season is heightened probably more so than any other season before it. We've never been as close to Buddie happening as we are now and that's so exciting but also scary.

But this is why I think we need to take every bts and spoiler etc that we get from the show and people involved in it (including the journalists who review it) with a grain of salt. We just aren't going to know what each episode is about until we watch them. Even when the season starts we need to remember to let the story play out. We might see things we won't like with b/t or Eddie in 801 but there will still be 17 more eps to get through where anything could happen.

We are so lucky that 911 is still on the air with most of the original cast still there and not looking to leave. That all the people that matter Tim, Oliver, and Ryan have all spoken out in support of Buddie happening. I've shipped non canon ships before that just were never going to happen, where showrunners and actors literally made fun of the fans for even shipping it. That's not what's happening with 911. Buddie now is being treated like a legitimate possibility we just have to be patient.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

so what youre saying is buddie canon early 8b

Hey Nonnie

Ummm I’m not 100% on an exact timeline, but that would kind of be where I’d be expecting canon to land - I’m sort of hovering in it either being an end of 8a cliffhanger picked up in the first episode of 8b or early to mid (at the very latest) 8b.

I think Buck will be ready and in position before the end of 8a - I think the Gerrard arc - him possibly bring ignored by Gerrard and repeating patterns of behaviour - and acting out for attention (as he did with his actual father and got attention etc and then tried with bobby but didn’t get what he was seeking but eventually figured it out and got something better) only for it to blow up massively in his face (because Gerrard is going to effectively be the more evil mirror of Philip) and lead to some much deeper figuring out and learning about himself - accepting and moving on from that will be his big early 8 thing - then the stuff with Tommy will build off of that and probably lead to a relationship termination somewhere around 8x07 and him finding his inner happiness in freeing himself from the weight of Tommy (his past inner child and subconscious negativity!)

It’s Eddie’s timeline I’m less certain on - because there’s a lot more going on for him and I can’t quite figure out where they want to get him to on the various threads at which points. He has the still lingering Spector of Shannon (please put her to rest poor woman) and his mommy issues? as well as the catholic guilt wrestling with his faith (another reason I think we might get fight club Eddie back just without the illegal nearly killing someone aspect!) and its impact on him.

Not to mention the Christopher and his return of it all and how that ties into Eddie finding out who he is. All these things play into his unrepression and gay awakening.

So yeah it’s the Eddie timeline I’m not quite sure about but buddie is coming s8 Ive never been so certain I can feel it in my bones

[glorious-spoon]

@inell, @sibylsleaves, and @daffi-990 tagged me to share something i've been working on! this is from the hickeys and hangovers fic, which i'm pecking away at a hundred words at a time and may, with some luck, finish before s8 airs

-

The breakfast rush is pretty much over, so they manage to get a table outside, under one of the cute little jewel-toned umbrellas that isn't really enough to shade them. But the sunlight feels good, this early in the day. Better than the noisy press of bodies inside; Buck still feels oversensitive, almost raw.

Eddie lets him finish his coffee and pick apart a green matcha muffin in peace, methodically eating his scone and offering occasional scathing color commentary on passing tourists like he isn't a transplant from Texas himself.

"Yeah, but my abuelos are from here," he says when Buck points this out.

"Aren't they technically from Guadalajara?" Buck counters.

Eddie points at him with a stern look that would probably work better if he didn't still have scone crumbs in his mustache. "Watch it."

"Just saying."

Eddie rolls his eyes and finally grabs a napkin. But it's nice, watching him like this. He seems looser than he did back at the loft; looser than he has in a while.

He has the good grace—or at least the good strategic timing—to wait until Buck finishes his muffin before he asks, "So what happened with Tommy, anyway?"

-

no-pressure tagging @homerforsure, @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove, @what-alchemy, @fraddit, @colonoscopys, and anyone else who wants to play!

[bibellebibuck]

BELLE OMG HIII

7x09 THOUGHTS???

I have no thoughts. I am in shock. Actually no I do have thoughts.

- Tommy pisses me off SO SO BAD. His negative attitude brings down the mood in literally every scene I do not understand why he’s like this if we’re meant to be rooting for him as bucks love interest? (Spoiler: we’re not).

- Athena approaching Amir as a way to help Bobby feel better about himself is/was wrong and she could have gone to a whole number of other people instead. I love mother Athena but Bobby/Amir had every right to react the ways that they did. I also firmly do not believe that Amir started the house fire, it’s gotta be the cartel (the old guy from the car) or a plot twist other character.

- I’ve rambled enough on here already about my thoughts on the batshit Kim/Eddie situation so I won’t repeat myself too much but. Good lord. Kim matches that man’s freak and takes it ten steps further. I saw a theory that Kim is going to become a bit psycho obsessed with Eddie and not know how to let him go. I don’t really think this is likely (though who tf knows what to expect the minute) but I do like the idea. It sounds fun, crazy Kim is a wild ride and I wouldn’t mind more yaknow?

However, I was heart BROKEN when Chris came in, that poor boy does not deserve the feelings he’s about to feel. I sincerely hope this whole drama doesn’t badly damage his and Eddies relationship :(

Also as much hatred as I have for Marisols actress, her actual character is harmless and I do feel bad for her too- I will defend Eddie with my LIFE but his actions reaaallly are having some serious consequences on those around him. I hope he sorts himself out soon and can somehow make amends.

- HenRen and their kids… my HEART ACHES for them so bad. I can’t help but feel like this storyline is a little bit forced? Like the councilwoman so easily getting their adoption/foster case halted and the judge doesn’t see a conflict of interest there? All her “evidence” that she present against Hen can be debunked so easily. I do feel confident that HenRen will win their appeal and Mara will come home safe and sound. But I hope there are real consequences for the councilwoman acting like this over her druggy son who REFUSED GODDAMN TREATMENT AND GOT PEOPLE KILLED (or was that just almost?) ugh.

- in terms of buddie/bt. I want BT bones like.. last week. But I do think it’s coming, that stale ass interview, their lack of scenes, Tommys complete void of any character/kindness and Buck prioritising Eddie as he goes through his struggle, all point to BT bones either next episode, in between S7/8 or early S8 at the latest. I cannot wait.

Buddie needs more time to cook. I KNOW we’re desperate for it and have already been waiting a long long time, but it needs time. It would be too rushed and out of place and kinda risks being tone deaf if it were to happen right now/too soon. Eddie needs to get through this and be in a better place before their relationship can develop healthily.

That isn’t to say they can’t feed us more Eddie/Buck or BuckleyDiaz family scenes in the meantime though… really bring this simmer to a boil 🥰

[bucksdaffy]

https://www.tumblr.com/bucksdaffy/750482450750308352/i-mean-i-think-its-fair-to-ask-what-show-yall?source=share

Okay, let's talk about development. Buddie shippers love to throw shade at Tommy. So, quick question: it's been 5 years now, where is Eddie's character development? Since Season 3, he has been suffering because of his wife and has run away from a new relationship. He's in the same place as in Season 7. The truth is, Buddie shippers don't care about Eddie's character. They see Eddie as an extension of Buck. Buck manages to get some self-improvement. We can see his changes from Season 1 to now. Eddie? They don’t care; they're too worried about karaoke scenes and their only concern is to make Buddie canon

Sorry, that annon got me so nervous

truth be told, the show favours buck, and eddie is often neglected in terms of development. i must admit i actually saw some eddie-leaning bobs express frustration about this early on when it was revealed that a gay eddie arc was under consideration before tim and co ultimately decided on a bi buck storyline. but their voices were pretty drowned out by the constant yapping of how the show could make buddie canon, and now it's hard to see anything else.

i think you're right in saying bobs don't care about eddie as a character. but i'd even go so far as to say they don't care about buck either. superficially? sure because they both are part of the ship they love. but in reality? i wouldn't be so sure about that.

because the thing is they don't seem to think about buck and eddie as separate individuals. they always make one's storyline about the other. there is no buck without eddie and no eddie without buck in their eyes.

when you love a character, i think it's only natural that you want them to be happy. but when you love a ship more, your brain is wired to believe that the only way for them to be happy is if said ship ends up together. i don't want to condemn anyone for their feelings and choices because it's everyone's right to enjoy what they want to enjoy. you can't force anyone to change their view on that. i just wish they admitted they are not actually buck defenders or eddie defenders – they are just full-on buddie shippers, and that's it. don't pretend you care about them as individuals because it's obvious it's not true.

bobs don't care that buck is now in a happy relationship with a man who treats him as his equal, doesn't glorify him, understands what it means to be a firefighter, supports him, and makes an effort to be there for him when he needs him. they don't care that he is good for buck right now. they want tommy gone because he stands in the way of buddie canon (does he really? not the fact that eddie is canonically still very much heterosexual?), and because the audience seems to enjoy him much more than they anticipated. and they don't even care about an amicable break-up anymore – i saw some bobs say they want tommy dead. now you can't tell me you care about buck if you wish for his love interest to die. it's fine if you don't like tommy and if you personally think buck would be happier with someone else. let's agree to disagree and move on. but when you wish to seriously traumatize (one of) your favourite(s) character(s) in order for your ship to become canon? that just shows where your priorities lie, and i can guarantee that most people will disagree with you.

when it comes to eddie, he doesn't have the happiest storyline right now, and hasn't for a while. but if/when in s8 or some later season (provided they get renewed for more) he gets the development he deserves, and finally finds someone who he truly likes (and that someone isn't buck) and treats right, or perhaps decides that being single is fine and lets go of the pressure to be in a romantic relationship, do you think they'll be happy for him? i highly doubt so. they'll still push for buddie canon, not taking into account the individual characters of the story and their needs. what matters is that they get what they want, and everything and everyone else can go to hell.

if that is your stance, i personally think you should just quit watching the show and move to ao3 full-time for your and everyone else's own good. tim and co will not make buddie canon just because you want them to. it has to make sense for both buck and eddie individually first. and right now that is not the case for either of them.

[hainethehero]

same anon as before: yes, I did read your whole post. a few times.

"I am aware he apologized." - ok I'm so glad you are! But you didn't make any mention whatsoever of that in your post. You could have said it as a quick parenthetical statement e.g. "In the past Ryan defended the use of racial slurs (although he later publicly apologised)".

your post leaves your readers with the impression that Ryan just made a bunch of racist statements, suffered zero repercussion, never apologised, and then, people can and will extrapolate from that - he probably continues to be racist to this day!

"I'm saying POCs have a right to still be upset about it because it shouldn't have been a thing in the first place???" - Great! my ask never said they don't!

"Where in my post did I say Ryan was irredeemable?" - where did I say in my ask that you said he's irredeemable??

You were very fair in pointing out that fandom has said other awful things about Ryan that are definitely not true.

But to completely leave out mention of his apology seemed deceptive and biased, as it's a crucially important fact that he actually listened to people around him, realised the weight of his actions, and publicly apologised. That makes all the difference in the situation.

That's why he still has fans on tumblr. They're not "excusing his racism", they're accepting his apology and trusting that he's learned, grown and changed.

Whereas, if we're going to discuss ljfr and tommy, I would argue ljfr has given some interview answers that sound uncomfortably like he's "excusing" tommy's racism, when he downplayed it as teasing/hazing (I forget the exact wording). Neutral question - did you happen to read his interview answers about tommy's attitude towards Hen? It's rather damning.

Also, the canon evidence you give of tommy having been redeemed is imo flimsy at best, and s7 could have done a lot more with tommy's limited screentime and dialogue to really show he's a different person to what he was in the past. I don't know what will happen in s8, I'm curious to see if tommy's characterisation changes or develops at all.

I just find it truly bizarre to act like it's logical and rational to defend and give the benefit of the doubt to a fictional character, which cannot be harmed or affected by hate, which does not exist outside a fictional story, or act other than according to what the script says, rather than do the same for a real life human being, who most assuredly CAN be harmed and affected by hate, who DOES exist and do things in the real world, who has an interior life unaffected by words in a script.

The point about Ryan has already been addressed. If fans have realized that he's apologized and have it in good faith that he's changed, then that's good. If fans are still hurt by his use of & defense of using slurs, they're allowed to be. That's not for you to decide.

Lou's interviews about Tommy's early times in the show were vague at best. The canon is CLEARLY insufficient but it's obvious why. Tommy's character wasn't really a mainstay. There were no deeper aspects to his character because he wasn't meant to stick around after s2. That's why there wasn't a whole ass redemption arc for him but rather a small montage. The point was to obviously show that both him and Hen and Chim reconciled their past and became good friends. If you & stans who think like you don't get that, then y'all are CHOOSING not to get it because it would be easier to have a reason to hate Tommy, rather than just hating him because he's with Buck. Honestly, it would be better if yall just admitted you hate him cos he's with Buck. No one would have a problem with that. But conflating issues and making them seem bigger than the show intended them to be to justify your hatred of Tommy just seems disingenuous.

If Tommy wasn't with Buck, y'all would NOT give a damn about this man's character I swear.

My whole original post was about toxic buddie stans virtue signaling and conflating the issue of racism as an excuse to justify their hatred of Tommy. And how those SAME stans are sending Lou death threats & hate to him- an actor who's just doing his job.

[lover-of-mine]

IDK enough about when scripts for S7 were written vs knowing 10 eps only and S8 renewal, but I kind of feel like eps 1-5 were written with Eddie/Tommy leading to Buddie in mind and then when the switch happened they changed a couple of things in eps 1-3 (not much, just Buck speaking to Tommy before he headed off after Eddie) and then ep 4 became a mish mash of what was originally planned with Eddie (his whole meeting someone and clicking thing and their "dates"). I feel like they were going Buddie (making Buck jealous while Eddie figured out he liked men in 7a and then going to spend 7b with the fallout of that leading to Buddie) but then found out they had only 10 eps and the woman who played Natalia couldn't come back so they switched it to Buck because it was easier to make him bi/they didn't have a storyline for him anymore if Eddie wasn't dating Tommy, making Buck question everything while still dating Natalia. And THEN they got renewed so instead of pushing Buddie to end S7 they moved it to S8 to give Eddie a better coming out arc, but then had to come up with a storyline for him beyond the nun thing and TM happened to watch Vertigo late one night... IDK maybe I'm crazy, but I just feel like S7 was planned buddie (starting with Eddie/Tommy as catalyst) - even including how they marketed the season before it aired with a lot of Buddie stuff and talking about it in interviews, etc (and that Family Feud ep) after filming the first 5 eps that had been written - and then between only 10 eps and a S8 renewal the plans changed. Does that make sense or am I delusional?

If you're delusional, we both are delusional because I'm right there with you. They already had episode 6 recorded by the time of the renewal but not anything past that, and assuming that the renewal allowed them not to rush things doesn't feel crazy to me. Also I think they switched things around because they realized Buck was more straight forward to get out of the closet than Eddie along with the actress availability, I don't think they planned on shoving Buck on the back burner, they just happened to not know what to do with him because Natalia couldn't come back so they couldn't use her for whatever plan they had about his death, and then they gave him something they had planned for Eddie, because the switch happened while they were filming the cruise, and just kept him in Eddie's storyline for the rest of the season because they didn't plan that far ahead lol the vertigo thing was very clearly a last minute decision because if they had thought about it earlier, they would've expanded the situation to happen all season, imo they could've used Kim in 705 for the conflict with Marisol instead of that nonsense of moving in/moving out, along with actually giving us the backstory on Eddie and Shannon. That deleted conversation with Chris adds a lot and it would be interesting if we had seen some version of it during 701 when Chris is having his crisis about Shannon and talking to 5 girls, and if they had laid the groundwork from the beginning of the season, that storyline wouldn't be so out of pocket. I think it was a combination of the way the actress couldn't come back, the show was renewed early and the way that Buck bi was well received, they kinda realized they could use Eddie being queer to bring the same type of buzz to s8 as biBuck brought to s7, and looking at it from a business perspective, to cram both storylines into one season when they could milk the exposure is kinda dumb, so we ended up with them not knowing what to do for the back half of the season and just winging it. And Ryan said they were getting scrips hours before shooting, so like, it was very clearly we did not plan for this but we need 4 more episodes so they let Tim play in his sandbox of madness.

[buckera]

butting in, sorry lol I also feel like the interviews are confusing but there have been hints in the show too that maybe we shouldn't give up buddie completely? eddie's 'you're not about to jump ship' and buck's 'just keeping my options fluid' was so funny and they have been getting more screen time together than apart, even as friends. I feel like tim being back makes a huge difference and I hope he's staying. I'm gonna enjoy all the bucktommy we can get because as you say, it will take a while to figure things out especially eddie, but it's not over yet! we might still get more than just an ending

yeah tbh I'm pretty sure the "jumping ship" line was aimed at us, the other was probably just a "see what we did there? because he's bi, get it??" lmao

but yeah Tim being back makes all the difference and this is something that Oliver actually articulated on his interview with Zach Sang and I am desperately hoping that he won't go back to Lone Star full time next season, because that'd put everything at risk from a buddie, but also generally speaking, from the show's perspective as well.

I talked about this before, but my ideal scenario and what I think is close to what we can expect is: bucktommy until the end of this season, maybe an 'oh' moment in the finale and then expanding on that storyline in the beginning of the next season and possibly having a get-together moment in mid s8 or the finale.

that all depends on getting renewed early again though and we can't forget about a very possible cliffhanger at the end of this season either.

all in all, I think we're in for a great ride, as long as we got Tim.

[ranbling]

Not sure if you are still looking for things to yap about, but I can’t help thinking about the production meta of it all:

(1) S7’s promo heavily focused on Buck and Eddie and (2) LFJr’s cameo shitstorm revealed that Tommy was meant for Eddie’s queer storyline, but was switched at some point around when production started, with Tim clarifying the switch-up was due to Natalia’s actress no longer being available – which, if it didn’t matter if Buck or Eddie came out first, then was buddie originally supposed to happen in 7b?

But then the show was renewed and they ended up making massive re-writes so Tim could shoehorn in his pet-Vertigo story (yikes) and thus possibly pushed other storylines (buddie) to S8…?

I don’t want to get into the way OS and RG talked about their characters’ storyline pre-renewal and post-renewal. But I also have Thoughts.

And don’t forget the Family Feud of it all! The team composition is literally the openly queer characters of 9-1-1… plus Eddie, which was supposedly set to air in July (and now pushed back to who knows when) – so was buddie already meant to be canon by then?

Have I connected the dots??? does this mean anything???

I am always looking for things to yap about!! This whole thing is gonna be a little bit all over the place, but I love your points

First of all, I don't think buddie was supposed to happen in s7b, but I do think they might have planned to actually start the mutual pinning or have feelings realisation scene for both of them and then do the actual getting together arc in s8. I do think it would have made sense if Eddie came out first (or instead of the Vertigo storyline).

Also, I think LFJ's cameos kinda put the show into a bad position. It's clear he was talking about anything he wanted without checking it with like Tim if that info can be public or not (the whole he was supposed to be Eddie's LI thing, or that he spoiled it will be a medal ceremony) and I don't think the show actually wanted to reveal that the queer storyline was originally supposed to be Eddie's. Now that people know about it, we expect it. It almost happened once, so it will have to happen again kinda thing. And if both Buck and Eddie are into men, Buddie is the only satisfying conclusion of their arcs

For me, it seems like after they got early renewal they decided to change everything. Tommy was originally supposed to be in like only 4 episodes, but instead they kept him the whole season (and did nothing to make him a loveable love interest, they actively made him a worse character), they brought in the Vertigo storyline (which was just a mess and I don't think more episodes could have made it better) and everything.

I'm really curious about the Family Feud episode too! I have no idea why it hasn't aired yet, but it's possible that they picked out who will represent the show before the rewrites started and it actually contains spoilers? (I'm not really familiar with FF)

So, yeah I agree with you, while I don't think we would have gotten an actual relationship between Buck and Eddie in s7, i'm kinda convinced the original plan was to have then both be out

[buckevantommy]

Hey! It's the first time Buck Begins anon from before!! First of all do not feel bad for rambling - that is exactly what that ask was for! I loved hearing your thoughts!

And to answer your question about how I started watching -- 911 was a show always a show on my 'to watch' radar but I didn't give it much thought? I did watch s1 of lone star tho. until then I saw bi Buck on my dash for the first time after Tommy kisses him and i just went oh??!??! 👀👀 I binge watched season 1 and 2, and then I gave up and ended up watching s7 part 2 live while also watching s3 for the first time 🤣 there were some gaps I had to fill using fanon knowledge but I think it worked? And now I'm furiously trying to watch s4 around my busy work schedule before s8 airs 😅🤣

Hasn't stopped my from reading bucktommy fic or posting gifsets tho. Tommy has bewitched me, I love him. Every time I watch a scene where Buck talks about his love life a part of me is just- don't worry, your man is coming

oh! same here! i'd known about it for years but i'd just avoided it thinking it was just a different take on the same old tired procedural cop shows, or maybe something too dramatised like grey's anatomy. i'm not sure i even realised it was about firefighters until i heard people referring to it as 'the gay firefighter show' and even then i didn't really connect the dots.. 🔥👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨🚒

one of my fave spn blogs (bc i was a destiel girlie before the gay firefighter show consumed my life) was a 911 fan so i learned about bi!buck through her blogging (shoutout to @sunglassesmish: kay, you have changed my life for the better 😚🫶). i mean, i came from spn - where bi!dean is widely considered unacknowledged canon and it's a show now several years past its finale but with a dedicated fanbase still hoping for some kind of reboot or movie or something to fix the shit they did in the finale - to a show with a canon bi character, moreover a character in his 30s who had been presumed (by some)/written as (sorta) straight for 6 whole seasons. and evan buckley.. he's so much like dean wincester: the all american heroic ladies man with a traumatic upbringing and a megawatt smile and babygirl features and a heart of gold who just wants to be loved.. honestly i could write essays about these two.. ✍️

i love that we're on the same page! i started with season 7 (i watched 7x05 and onwards live) and got through seasons 1-3 while s7 was airing week to week, and so my buck knowledge was growing as i excitedly waited for the next ep to air with the rest of fandom (there's just something about that weeklong anticipation, i've missed it so much - the theorising, the time for fanworks, etc). 📺

i was also the same, trying to learn what i could through dash osmosis of the seasons i hadn't watched yet (i knew vaguely about the lightning strike and tried not to spoil myself too much about the family secret but reading fic and meta blew those doors wide open 😅). and even in season 1 i was like: i'm so glad he'll grow to be that person in season 7 one day, that he'll get to be vulnerable and open and earnest and loved and also get kissed by a handsome guy. 🥰

OMG WE ARE BOTH ON SEASON 4!! 🥳 i mean, i knew that, but it's still so exciting to know there are folks out there in the same boat! ⛵ i don't think i've liveblogged any other ep besides Buck Begins, but i think i'll probably do a lightning strike/coma liveblog when i get to it.

omg the amount of bucktommy fics i've consumed since april.. i remember in those early days i was consuming every single fic that got posted on ao3 - about a dozen 1k fics a day - until eventually there was 60+ fics a day and i couldn't keep up, but i'm still reading about 2-5 fics (mostly short ones) a day. this fandom is hella talented. 📚

our love for tommy kinard knows no bounds. 🤝💖🤝 and YES- omg- the way he is just craving love and a partner on the same page as him, someone he can be himself with.. lightning boy will meet him flying into a hurricane and i just think that's neat. ⛈️😘

[buddieisgoingcanon2024]

This might be an unpopular opinion but from the stills I do think the date is after buck’s been at the Diaz house but I actually hope that it’s because they’re going to still show Buck choosing Eddie but in a less cliche/done before way.

My theory is

1. Eddie’s parents show up and find out what happened

2. Buck goes to Eddie’s because of Bobby and him not picking up his phone, finds Eddie’s parents there but say they need to go the hospital (Tommy is also at the hospital so maybe they stopped to pick Eddie up)

3. They go back to Eddie’s (maybe Buck tells Tommy he’ll see him tonight because Eddie needs him right now) and maybe Chris isn’t there and his parents have taken him back to a hotel or something and then Eddie explains to Buck what happened with Marisol and Chris walking in on him and Kim

4. Buck is going to be late for his date and Eddie feels bad so tells him to go, but bucks tells him to call/promises he’ll back in the morning

5. The date happens but I think the stills are a misdirect, I reckon Buck talks about Eddie and Chris and even Bobby so it’s not actually very romantic (also think this will be the case because so far they’ve not done anything except flirt or talk about Eddie so this would track) then when Tommy suggests staying the night or something Buck mentions being up early as he needs to get back to Eddie’s house

6. Buck and Eddie back at the house the next day stills

I don’t think there’ll be super clear tension between Buck and Tommy in the finale but I think it’ll set it up for tension in season 8. So maybe a pan to Tommy’s face when Buck is talking about Eddie and it’s a look of confusion or doubt.

I actually think we will need to have Tommy in S8 and maybe a full circle realisation that bucks not ready and not because he’s a baby bi but because he’s in love with his best friend.

I love this theory too anon. Thanks for this.

[buddiebeginz]

Hey, Justine! Did you see the new article?

https://ew.com/911-season-8-preview-exclusive-photos-interview-8704969

I did. I think things are looking very good for us. Tim has had every opportunity to remove or distance Eddie from Buck's story and he's not. B*mmy's seem to think that's what's happening here but it isn't. When characters and their storylines are being distanced they don't get talked about like this. And this isn't just the journalists inferring this is Tim's own words.

Tim could have distanced Buck and Eddie in s7. If Buddie wasn't happening he could and should have made 704 about Buck and T*mmy and not really included Eddie at all. But really that episode was very loudly about Buck's feelings for Eddie.

You could make the argument that Tim wanted to wait and see what the audience response was going to be to T*mmy before he made any major changes. Which he had plenty of time to do that leading up to the final two eps of s7 considering T*mmy wasn't in eps 707 and 708. 709 and 710 also went through significant rewrites before filming so there was definitely time for Tim to put more focus on B/T but he didn't. He didn't even have T*mmy at the hospital with Buck and that wouldn't have required taking time away from the other characters at all, just like a shot of him there sitting with Buck.

Consistently since B/T became a thing Tim has told us in every way imaginable that Buddie is more important and that Buddie (canon) is the goal. Even think back to how Buddie was handled vs B/T at the bachelor party. B*mmy's make all these excuses for what happened there but the main thing is Tim decided he wanted Buck and Eddie dressing up in a couple's custom. He wanted Eddie to be the one there spending the whole night with Buck not T*mmy. He easily could have had T*mmy there instead of Eddie or had it be the three of them there but he didn't.

You can tell this pattern is clearly going to continue when you read what Tim is saying about s8. We already know T*mmy is just stepping stone to Buddie, Lou himself said as much in one of his early cameos. Tim is likely going to use T*mmy for dramatic tension while Eddie has his feelings realization about Buck.

I suspected this was where Tim would go with things this season I just wasn't sure if he was going to bring Lou back after the all the drama him and his fans caused. I'm assuming he got told to stop interacting with his psycho fan base though because we now know he's coming back yet he's not been communicating with his fans at all. He likely was contracted to come back for a few eps with the stipulation he can't cause any more problems.

T*mmy will likely be around for a few eps while Eddie's storyline is getting more of the focus. Hopefully we'll get some jealous and pinning Eddie cause that would just be delicious. I don't see T*mmy lasting beyond mid season if even that. I know a lot of people aren't happy about him coming back and I'm right there with you but also as someone who has been waiting and hoping for Buddie to happen for years I've never seen it so within our grasp. This feels like it will be our year.

Anyway hope you don't mind my long ramble. Thanks for messaging me. ❤️

[eddito]

Soo we have a three week hiatus,and this season will be 10 episodes which means that we may get Buddie end of s8/early s9 cause I want Tommy x buck to be here for a while.

eeeeeee yessss

i’m hoping tommy hangs around for the rest of the season but decides to leave in ep 10 when he realises that buck’s in love w eddie (after eddie ditches marisol and starts wanting to spend more time w buck)

buck’s so giddy and adorable about tommy rn and it’s the cutest thing ever so i want it to last a little while 🥹🥹 but as his first relationship ~with a dude~ he also needs this to end nicely whenever it does, i don’t think it can be dragged out too long before feelings grow and a break up HURTS y’know?

then we can have buddie pining era 😍 s8 finale mayhaps??

[mindthump]

The untold story of how the XPS 13 defied odds to become the world’s best laptop https://ift.tt/2vCoc4N

Dell.

What does that name make you think of? You’re answer is likely beige boxes, affordable laptops or – if you’re a child of the ‘90s – the infamous ‘Dude, you’re getting a Dell!’ guy. Despite his best efforts, Dell spent most of its life as the very definition of dull. The company’s computers were affordable, practical, reliable, but never exciting.

Not anymore. Dell’s XPS 13, our favorite laptop three years running, has redefined what people expect from a premium Windows-powered notebook – and its 2015 release was just the beginning. The company has since unleashed salvo after salvo of cutting-edge products across both its Dell and Alienware brands.

Change like that doesn’t happen overnight – but, as we found out, it can be spurred by just a few talented people with ambitious ideas.

The Birth of the Adamo

XPS (Xtreme Performance System) is not a new brand for Dell. It’s been around for over fifteen years, a carry-over from a simpler time in computers and technology. We all remember those days, right? Gateway controlled the market on high-end consumer PCs, Windows 95 reigned supreme, and Apple was known only as a desktop computer company.

In many ways, Dell’s feet are still firmly planted in that world. It’s a massive corporation that still makes a large chunk of its revenue selling computers to corporations in bulk. Yet something was in the water in the late 2000s. While the MacBook Air was developed in Cupertino, Dell was attempting to pioneer its own radical new direction for the future of computing.

Dell Adamo 13

It was called Adamo — a quiet, short-lived experiment within the walls of Dell that would pave the way to a very different future for the conservative computer manufacturer. It was built by a small team, created as if out of thin air, and disbanded within two years – but the groundwork it laid within the walls of Dell would change it forever.

“It was what we called a dark program,” says XPS Lead Marketer Donnie Oliphant. “It was a ‘need-to-know’ basis. It was literally like three guys in a room upstairs that had a lock on it. If we’d had more exposure to the rest of the business, it never would have made it out the door. We let the rest of the company in on it about six months before we shipped it.”

While the MacBook Air was in development in Cupertino, Dell was attempting to pioneer its own radical new direction for the future of computing.

Oliphant was moved over from the Latitude business at Dell, and he’s the longest-standing Dell employee in key roles on the current XPS team. He was joined by another key figure: Nicolas Denhez. You may not have heard the name before, but the French designer is responsible for some of the most celebrated modern technology concepts such as the Xbox One S and X, HoloLens, and the Microsoft Courier project. Before he moved over to Microsoft, he worked on multiple laptops in the Adamo line laptops, all of them futuristic, risk-taking, and doomed.

“The mechanical carcass cost on that was $570,” says Oliphant, pointing to the solid chunk of aluminum in an Adamo laptop’s chassis. “They were ridiculously expensive, and that wasn’t because of the material choices. It was because of our ineptitude with regards to design.”

The Adamo line produced two products its short life, the Adamo 13, and the Adamo XPS. They’re among the strangest PCs ever released commercially. Launching within six months of each other, they featured an all-aluminum body, and hefty pricetags to match. The Adamo 13 was $2,000 for the lower-priced model, and $2,700 for the higher-end model. But from a design aesthetic perspective, the Adamo 13 was far ahead of its time, even compared to something like the MacBook Air.

Dell Adamo XPS

“It was basically myself and [Denhez] that sat upstairs and built ID models on what we wanted it to look like. And then we took it to engineering and said, ‘put a computer in this.’ Typically, it’s the other way around. Typically, we do a design — architecture, features — and then we wrap a skin around it. This was done the opposite. If you think about it from today’s design philosophies, they were done ass-backwards.”

The Adamo XPS had a very different design story, though it was even more experimental in its conception. Dell completely out-sourced the design and development of the product, hoping to save a few bucks along the way.

“We used an outside design house — so, non-Dell employees. The idea was that we could offshore the development,” he says. “The thought process was that was going to be cheaper, but it just turned into a major headache — and we still had to finish it for them. There was a little bit of animosity toward that second system. But it was cool, because it was sub-10mm.”

Dell’s Adamo XPS is tiny even by today’s standards at just 0.4 inches thick.

In fact, the Adamo XPS was declared the thinnest laptop in the world when it was launched at CES of 2009. At just 0.4 inches thick, it’s tiny even by today’s standards. Oliphant would be the first to admit that ultra-thin designs come with its own flaws and compromises, but the desire to create bold, sleek products would live on in future XPS products.

“When I inherited XPS in 2010, and we took the products that were going to be the next-generation Adamo and we put those on the XPS roadmap,” said Oliphant. “The first XPS 13, codenamed Spider, launched in early 2012. That really should have been an Adamo product if we had kept [Adamo] alive.”

Going from Adamo to Dino

In 2006, Dell purchased Alienware, a popular gaming PC manufacturer based in Miami, Florida. The acquisition made great business sense, giving Dell access to a new market for high-end gaming rigs. Yet Alienware was a very different company than Dell. It was scrappy, down-to-earth, and completely consumer-focused. That ethos was about to get injected into the company in a big way.

Frank Azor Bryan Steffy/Stringer/Getty Images

The face of Alienware today is Frank Azor, who might be the most casual and earnest tech executive you’ll ever meet. He’s the kind of guy that’ll tease his employees for wearing a suit to a meeting and can just as easily talk about the internal components of a laptop or the latest gaming trends. While Azor and his team brought a casual attitude to Dell, for him, a corporate culture of risk-taking is what made the XPS 13 possible.

“You have to have a culture that is willing to innovate,” says Azor. “You can’t have ID with these crazy fucking ideas that are far out there, and then have a product planning team that say ‘I like some of them, but those are too expensive, or ‘my engineering team will never let us do that.’”

Azor started working at Alienware when he was just sixteen years ago, as one of just four other employees. Now, he’s the manager of both Alienware and XPS lines at Dell — and he’s determined to transform Dell’s stuffy culture from within.

“We’re an aircraft carrier,” he says. “To make a turn, it takes a long time. You need to start gaining momentum, and then you’ll start making the turn. I would say we’re in the momentum phase right now. This stuff is leading the company’s image — it’s leading the kind of culture we want to be. It’s all stemmed from the type of stuff we’ve done on XPS.”

Within just a few years of its launch, the influence of the XPS 13’s design has reached just about every screen we look at today.

Compared to the Adamo products, the XPS 13 might not look that strange, but it took significant risks. Starting the trend of thinning out bezels, the XPS 13 dared to move the webcam below the screen. The result when using the webcam was (and still is) odd, shooting right up your nose, and giving you a double chin. The team received its fair share of criticism for it, but the XPS team has stuck to its guns rather than caving in on the decision.

“When everybody’s like ‘we’re bought in, we’re going to be a culture of innovation, we’re gonna take risks, we’re gonna augment the engineering process to help solve for those defects and risks,’” he says. “But we’re going to go into this together with risk — a higher risk than we would if we built a “me-too” product — then you can make amazing things happen. If that hadn’t happened, we probably wouldn’t be where we are right now.”

During our tour of the Dell headquarters, we received an in-depth look at all the advanced engineering that powers the next generation of XPS laptops. (Photos: Luke Larsen/Digital Trends)

The legacy of XPS

Design trends come and go, but they always start with a trendsetter. The 2015 version of the XPS 13 was such a device. Manufacturers of televisions, monitors, smartphones, and laptops have all been on a mission to remove bezels — and that was set in motion by the XPS 13. On the smartphone front, you need only to look to the iPhone X or Galaxy S8 in your pocket. In laptops, look at the MateBook X Pro, which takes the bezel-less approach to the next level.

Dell’s XPS devices even make the MacBook Pro look a little outdated. According to Oliphant, that was always the goal, and the XPS 13 proved it was possible for PC manufacturers.

“Apple was very successful during that decade,” he said, speaking of the late 2000s. “Before 2015, most ultra-notebooks were just deemed MacBook Air-knockoffs or wannabes. What we saw shift with the introduction of Dino, our XPS 13 in 2015, was we started winning some of those head-to-head comparisons. We were actually delivering products with things that Apple didn’t have.”

Like any success, the XPS laptops didn’t spring out of nowhere. It was forged in a fire of bad experiments, lost profits, and finger-crossing moments. Yet Dell stuck with it, because the people behind the XPS 13 believed in the quality of what they’d built. Instead of retreating, they improved, tweaked, and revised. The result was a laptop that impressed critics and changed the company that built it.

“We’ve had to create a subculture for XPS. And from a consumer perspective, we’re trying to change the perception of customers or potential customers of Dell,” Azor said. “That’s what XPS is here for.”