#Buck & Eddie’s relationship is the most serious & healthy one that either has ever had

[buddiesmutslut]

When people say “I’m okay with Buck & Eddie not ending up together as long as their friendship doesn’t change”, I hate to say it, but that’s just not possible.

I’m not saying that they’re going to stop being best friends or anything, but if they get into actual, healthy, serious relationships, with people that are well matched & good for them, their current relationship is going to change. It’s inevitable.

I do believe that they’ll always be family, that they’ll do their best to be there for each other & for Chris, but they get so much from each other. In the past, even unintentionally, they’ve been more emotionally connected to each other than they have been with their partner, & that’s part of why their friendship is so solid, because they’re both only ever vulnerable with the other.

If they find good, healthy, stable partners, they’re not going to need each other in the same way, and that’s going to change their relationship. Do you honestly believe that Eddie is going to leave Buck as Chris’ legal guardian if he finds a partner that he actually & genuinely loves and enjoys being with? (The fanfic writer in me wants to say yes, but the realist in me says no lol.)

If Buck falls in love with someone who is accepting & soft and kind and understanding with him, that person is going to be the one he goes to first for everything, not Eddie.

So much of their friendship is rooted in the way they show up for each other in ways that only committed partners really do, and if they fall in love & get serious and marry other people, it’s not going to be the same.

I just, idk if I’m explaining it eloquently enough, if I have the right words for it, but unless Buddie goes canon or they keep ending up in these half-assed relationships where they repeat the same mistakes over & over again, their relationships and these “moments” everyone loves so much are going to stop.

[hmslusitania]

A meta about Buck and Eddie’s current relationships compared to their past relationships (but it's under a cut so that I don’t have to tag the characters for people who have them blocked, thereby putting this into those characters’ Tumblr-wide tags and summoning angry stans back to my inbox)

Because I haven’t seen anyone else mention this and it’s sort of been driving me nuts. On the one hand there’s a relationship where it’s:

someone he was previously with and this is a renewal of what might have been

someone who he has serious sexual chemistry with but a blatant emotional disconnect

who he separated from and time (roughly two years) has passed during which interim there has been no contact between them

and now they’re trying it again and although he clearly forgives her for past transgressions he still doesn’t trust her when it comes to the most important things, even if he's enjoying spending time with her to a certain extent

but he’s decided to have her back in his life after some negotiation which definitely included her saying at least one excoriating thing against his character that cut directly to the heart of his insecurities that made him feel like he'd failed and needed to do better ("I needed you to have my back" vs "You're so needy")

And when it was Eddie and Shannon, the resolution of that relationship was Eddie deciding that he wanted to try and make it work, build a family and a future together, only for Shannon to bail on him (again). And obviously we haven’t seen the end of Buck and Taylor but based on everything we’ve seen about Buck’s development and growth, it seems pretty clear that what he’s looking for in the long run is to build a family and a future, most likely with children.

Now, we don’t know enough about Taylor to know how she feels about that sort of future trajectory but based on the very little we do know about her, I would hazard that this sort of future seems…unlikely as something she might want.

And obviously, the relationships came about in different circumstances, but the structure of season 4 Bucktaylor versus season 2 Eddie and Shannon feels like a funhouse mirror to me.

And then on the other hand, there’s a relationship where:

It starts after they met once a while ago

With a person who is also presented as a contrast and possibly a more reasonable choice than the other relationship mentioned above (“Ali’s a more grown up and less wild choice than Taylor” vs “such a healthy choice moving on from Shannon with Ana”)

Which begins with a coffee date

And which is all the development we really get in the relationship until an episode that seriously implies doom ahead

And ends with him getting severely whumped

with her there for the initial homecoming

But there’s something kinda off about that homecoming (Ali being unsure the firefighter lifestyle is for her; Eddie kissing Ana on the cheek the same way he kissed his grandmother?? Like my dude my guy there are perfectly acceptable chaste and polite ways to kiss someone on the mouth if you’re worried about scandalising the Youths or the Elders and that ain’t one of ‘em)

And the resolution of that relationship is that Ali was gone without ever officially saying the words “we should break up” before the next season began, and based on behind the scenes sleuthing while it seems like we will see Ana at least once at the start of season 5, it doesn’t seem to be a significant presence.

And idk!! I don’t know what to do with this, but like it seems really obvious to me that in a structural way, Taylor is Buck’s Shannon and Ana is Eddie’s Ali, even while the characters of Taylor and Shannon don't really resemble each other (and I'd argue we don't actually know enough about either Ana or Ali to say how alike or different they were/are, but they don't strike me as similar people), and I hope the boys both get the same as things out of these relationships as the other did -- just with better resolutions.

I want Buck to be in this relationship and evaluate what he wants from his future the way Eddie figured out he wanted to try being in a family, but I want him to have the opportunity Eddie didn’t and I want him to come to the conclusion that if he wants that future, it’s not going to be with Taylor because that’s just not who she is. And I want him to get the opportunity to end it on his terms in the way Eddie never got to.

And I want Eddie to — god I’m sorry this somehow circles back around to my entire shitpost about getting back on the horse/learning you don’t like horses — but I want him to acknowledge that his relationship with Ana, while important for his growth and for moving on after the traumatic end of the most significant relationship he’d had before, simply doesn’t go beyond that. It’s a relationship and it’s “nice” and “easy” but it’s not where his heart is and even though ending a relationship always hurts a little, it won’t devastate him. But most importantly, I want him to get to acknowledge that he’s choosing what he wants, which Buck sort of didn’t get to do with Ali because she made that choice for him.

And then, because I’m me, once they’ve gone through each other’s relationship mistakes and hopefully learned from each other’s example how to do it better, I want them to embark, nervously but so glad to be doing it, on something new and untried together.

ETA: Eddie and Ana’s first date was explicitly not coffee, but it had the same vibe as Buck and Ali’s first (coffee) date in that it was a casual café setting and we know nothing of it after the initial “its nice we’re doing this right?”

ETA(2): Both Shannon and Taylor have “changed” when they’re brought in to be love interests in season 2 and 4 respectively but Shannon’s change ultimately turned out to be insufficient for building their relationship forward. We have yet to see how deep Taylor’s apparent change runs and it’s clear that so far Buck does not trust it.

[strappingyoungbuck]

just the fact that. since the start of the show, a major part of buck's storyline relates to romantic and sexual relationships. the fact that he recognised constant one night stands weren't healthy for either party so he made the conscious effort to change. and it paid off! he had a good thing with abby, he matured for her and emphasised his best qualities in putting her first, being responsible and kind. and it gained him stability and, briefly, a home! he felt so comfortable he was very quickly practically moving in with her.

and he recognised that he needed a solid foundation to build up to a relationship like that. the fact that he held back, spent all that time talking to her on the phone, helped with her mother. they knew each other before their relationship really began and that's why he was so content with her.

and then abby had to put herself first. which she could have handled better than just leaving buck alone in her apartment but really. was buck actually fully oblivious to the end of their relationship or was he just hanging on to a good thing after it was already gone?

and then there's ali. i don't know how much there is to say there but i think it's key that she was never around for extended periods. buck had just finished a very emotionally intense relationship, probably his first serious relationship, so it seems the way he and ali started dating does make sense for him. but like. what really stands out for me is that he moved into his apartment For Ali. she pushed for him to stop living like such a bachelor and have his own space, only it was meant to be a space with her in mind. so, i don't think anyone really should have been surprised that he's so lonely. he's literally living alone in an apartment meant for a couple.

and so we see buck grow from someone completely reckless, irresponsible, living in a shared house to a man intentionally getting his life together not just for his sake but for the sake of the people around him. he's someone who can provide a sofa for people to sleep on, instead of relying on chim or maddie. he goes to therapy because he wants to be better, for his own sake. he steps up.

and then there's eddie. who is simply the logical culmination of buck's romance arc. there's that initial reckless jealousy, some remnant of buck 1.0 that rears its head, which switches in the course of one episode to complete loyalty and unfailing support. he meets christopher, he loves christopher, and he almost kills himself trying to keep christopher safe. he provides eddie with the support to put christopher in a good school, with someone to look after christopher whilst he works. they barely know each other and buck helps with the person most important to eddie, it's not exactly a subtle parallel to the beginnings of his relationship with abby.

and they're best friends! (oh my god they were best friends.) it's like everything with abby amplified by a thousand, because they know each other intimately, they risk their lives for each other. buck feels comfortable at eddie's home ("i'm not exactly a guest").

and the lawsuit is awful but. it's like watching a break-up where neither party realised they were in a relationship. it's like how ali couldn't handle the risks of buck's work so she left in case one day buck didn't come home, but eddie lived through that. buck wasn't there and eddie lost his co-parent and his confidante. but eddie forgives and buck sees how much he's really hurting and they can talk about it because buck Sees eddie.

abby left because she didn't know who she was after giving so much of herself away, and following both eddie begins and buck begins, both the characters and the audience understand about as much about eddie and buck as we're ever going to, really. there's a solid sense of self, lots of personal progression, and it is literally only logical from buck's point of view to end up with eddie, who knows ("i know you did") that buck has to take the risks he does, and who won't ever up and leave him (he was the first the run in and grab the rope!).

and buck has proved time and again he is a capable and worthy co parent for christopher ("there is no one i trust more"). he consistently steps up for christopher and for eddie. shannon left because she needed time, because she feared being married to eddie made her a worse mother. with buck, being with eddie makes them both better parents and better partners. they have each others backs!

like. don't do it for me, fox. do it for the narrative.