#anti captain gerrard

[littleblackraincloudofcourse]

Honestly, it's hard for me to get excited about this or even the possibility of a Texas Ranger Carlos spin-off from 911 Lone Star

For one thing, while S8 is off to an amazing start, similar arguments could be made for S7 up to this point (compared to previous seasons). There are also some leftover flaws from last season that have yet to be fixed.

But more than that, the fact that Lone Star is ending when it has been literally getting better every season. Even only five episodes in, S5 is arguably the best of them all, and the only argument is we're missing Grace.

Even if the Carlos spin-off happens, we might get TK but maybe not much and probably not in every episode, and we might never see the rest of the 126 ever again. I love Tarlos but I also love Paul, Nancy, Mateo, Marjan, Judd and especially Tommy (Grace too of course). I would rather see their stories continued than try to get interested in either of these new shows.

[ravi-is-my-beloved]

I do love the way Hen's first "order" as acting captain after Gerrard is placed in the ambulance and taken to the hospital is to have a dance party. Because it truly shows how much the 118 had to repress their silliness under Gerrard.

[makorragal-312]

Here's what I think happened in the spoiler video with the firefighter on the stretcher:

Gerrard either instilled some rule as to how the 118 does chores or he neglected to have something fixed in the station so he sends one of the members to do it and they end up getting hurt, hence Eddie talking to the contractor person as the person gets stretched out.

Buck and Eddie watch him get wheeled off and comment about Gerrard's rules, which he overhears and confronts them. Buck steps to him and tells him how Bobby ran the station differently and the way he does things literally caused an injury, only for Gerrard to shut him down and tell him to stay in line and possibly says something biphobic or whatever.

Then, Eddie gets involved and steps in front of Buck and comes for Gerrard in his defense and things get heated. Gerrard starts to get irate and Buck, not wanting Eddie to get fired, tries to get him to calm down, but Gerrard keeps going.

And then, Gerrard like an idiot brings up Chris in the conversation and makes a jab at Eddie about him leaving and how he probably left because of him (which we know is true but not for the reason Gerrard thinks).

And that's when he gets the sucker punch from Eddie.

[jackwhiteprophetic]

Sometimes I feel kind of pissed off that some people centre Tommy and Buck around being Gerrard's main victims, I just feel so fucking bad for Hen and Chim in this situation. This incredibly racist and disgusting man who made them feel unsafe in a job where their and other people's lives are on the line, the man who they thought was finally gone because they thought they could trust the system that they fought to hard to be in, is now back in a leadership position over them. The fact that they brought back Gerrard AND barely let Chim or Hen have any screen time talking about this is so fucking disgusting ughhh and then when people fantasize about Buck or Tommy being "saved" or "defended" by Hen, Chim or Eddie it just rubs me the wrong way bc these characters deserve to be protected JUST AS MUCH IF NOT MORE. Also expecting this of them while brushing over that Tommy actively contributed to the racism and toxicity of the old workplace is soooo fucked up

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

The funniest interpretation of the bet surrounding how long Bobby will last as captain of the 118 is that the bet was created not only because it’s so goddamn hard to captain a station in Los Angeles, but also because this specific station is just chock-full of feral firefighters. We like to laugh at the current members of the 118 for being constantly unhinged, but I truly believe that had Bobby been anyone else, his bet would’ve been lost before the end of the first week. The 118 firefighters were yearning to be adopted by this equally unhinged midwestern gourmet chef, and we all KNOW that Bobby needed the 118 in return. But mostly, I’m just convinced that all the captains between Gerrard 1.0 and Bobby were driven off by the sheer horror of seeing how the 118 firefighters operate on the daily (in life and on the job). Bobby is the only one who knew how to roll with the chaos.

[ranbling]

I'm gonna share my thoughts about the Buck and Gerrard golfing picture

So, first of all I don't think Buck would ever be on Gerrard's side, but it's easy to see why Gerrard thinks Buck is the one who will support him. While Gerrard is a bigot in every way, he was always shown more racist than homophobic, so it makes sense he would ignore that Buck is bi (if he's even aware of it, which I don't think so. Why would anyone tell him?), because his previous experience shows him that it will make Buck support him. It happened before, why would it he different this time?

I think the golfing thing was something Gerrard made Buck go (maybe as a fucked up attempt of bonding from Gerrard, or Gerrard wanting to find out more about Buck and how he'd react to Gerrard harassing the others) and Buck went to keep the peace.

Also, I think this will be the reason for bucktommy breakup. It's shown that Tommy is more than comfortable with Gerrard's bigotry as long as its aimed at POCs (and he's even willing to participate in it), and I'm sure he'll give the same advice to Buck. Keep his head down, don't stand up for your friends, go along with Gerrard etc... And Buck would be horrified about it and breakup.

[confessionsofatvjunkie]

Here's what I need... I need the writers to weaponize Gerrard's homophobia for good. Cause like, you know the entire 118 sees it, you know the entire 118 knows there is something more than friendship between Buck and Eddie, but they're also tactful enough to know that THEY don't see it yet, so they don't bust their chops over it.

Gerrard is devoid of tact! I need him to see them having a quite conversation, maybe about Chris, and tell them to make out on their own time. I need him to shout "Hey Diaz, get your boyfriend and follow me," I need Tommy to swing by for lunch and they're all sitting together and him to make a threesome joke.

I need someone to put the idea into those dumb boys dumb heads that they are actually married, thank you very much, and if we have to deal with that racist, homophobic, misogynistic A-hole... then at least we can weaponize his bigotry to jump start buddie!

[mazzystar24]

Wrote this at 3:30am (before reading that interview my last post was abt):

Gerrard hearing about the lightening strike and making some absolutely heinous joke about god striking buck down (homophobic implications included ofc) then Eddie is there and hears this and goes all Fight Club Eddie ™️ on Gerrard I’m talking absolutely FERAL

And then the rest of this I’m copy and pasting and plagiarising myself from something I wrote in the replies of one of my post:

and then tommy says some shit about keeping their heads down and just wait it out being better and then if it’s Eddie (in the reply we were talking about it it’s Eddie who lashes out or buck) I can so see him throwing a verbal punch and being like “hmm what’s your next recommendation join in to save my own ass?”

Then the sheer drama of having buck be in this really weird awkward position between the two

[swiftiesbuddie]

I don’t understand why some want others to view Tommy as a perfect angel or completely forgive him. Or take Tommy hate and criticism as homophobia. He hurt Hen, Chim, and probably others with his racism, misogyny, and (internalized) homophobia.

It doesn’t matter that it was because of Gerrard’s- or anyone else’s- influence. He decided to say those words and make those actions.

It is great that he has grown as a person since and has figured things out.

But people- whether that be characters or fans- reserve the right to either take a while to forgive him or not forgive him at all. They reserve the right to not like him and even hate him.

[ravi-is-my-beloved]

Why am I seeing posts about how Gerrard's redemption arc was so good?

[makorragal-312]

Honestly, I can totally see Buck struggling with Gerrard taking him under his wing to the point where he straight up tells him that he wasn't even sure if he meant to save him from the saw blade.

And then Gerrard wants him by his side even longer for being honest.

[madlori]

On Tommy and narrative threads

So some fans who are vehemently anti-Tommy frequently use the talking point that they need to have Buck confront Tommy about his past behavior while under Gerrard, or have him find out about it if he doesn't already know, and that he should break up with him about it. Or they need some kind of reckoning to happen with Hen and Chim in order to move forward.

I'm 95% sure neither of those things are going to happen, and here is why: the show considers that narrative thread to be closed.

It has run its course. It's done. It's been resolved. As fans and viewers - and as many of us are fic readers and writers - we always want to see things hashed out onscreen in exhaustive detail but that's not practically possible. The narrative sometimes has to signal that threads are resolved in other ways, in the way characters act towards each other and speak about each other.

Throughout the course of the three Begins episodes in which he appears, the writers clearly selected Tommy to represent the "firefighter who acted kinda jerky but got better through personal growth and friendship with new people" narrative. By the end of Bobby Begins Again, this narrative is more or less complete, as we've now seen Tommy act to support Hen and also be accepted into a friendly relationship with both her and Chim, not to mention Bobby. When he reappears in season 7, nobody acts like he's anything other than a friend, and Chim outright admires him.

This is the conclusion of this thread, as far as the show is concerned. Did he ever sit down with Hen and Chim and make some big speech or have some big discussion about how he's learned and changed? Probably not. Those kinds of direct conversations sometimes do happen in reality, but more often than not, you just spend years working with someone and your opinion of them shifts as all of you change. And remember, Hen and Chim worked with Tommy for years before Bobby even showed up.

And ask yourself this question: if Hen and Chim have both moved on, and have accepted whatever direct or implicit apology Tommy offered, how is it Buck's business to decide that no, that's not good enough, HE'S going to demand some kind of restitution on their behalf? That's patronizing as fuck. These are people with their own agency who don't need Buck to advocate for them and exact some kind of retroactive revenge for something they're not even mad about anymore. Would he be upset that Tommy ever made off-color remarks, or was less than welcoming to people who are now his friends? Maybe. Is he upset that Eddie nearly killed a man? Is he filled with moral outrage and disappointment that Hen cheated on her wife? Chim physically assaulted him, and so did Bobby. Is he still holding that against them? Is he upset NOW that nobody's speaking up on HIS behalf when Gerrard targets him? Buck's an adult. He knows that people frequently look back on their past behavior and cringe at what jerks they were, himself included.

Tommy has several times alluded to being ashamed of his past actions. He knows the score. The message we're meant to take from those comments is that he's taken steps to not be that guy anymore. Need he flagellate himself forever? Does this need to cost him and Buck a relationship they both value? It can't have been easy to come from a terrible father, go into the army, then into the LAFD with a terrible captain, and then to meet people who challenged your behavior and made you want to be a better person. The fact that he became a better person is something he should be admired for, not punished.

[bekolxeram]

I'm late to the party I know, but I need to learn how to make gifs first. I actually find the Bucktommy dinner scene a bit awkward, but not because they "lack chemistry" or the "flirting is problematic". It's not supposed to be just a cute bonus scene, it's engineered to stuff as much information as possible into mere 55 seconds. Here is my read on it:

The good old always at the hospital joke, probably just Tommy trying to lighten the mood after such a hectic day for the 118, but mainly a set up for the next part.

Buck does not see the humor in it, he seems upset.

Tommy has apparently gotten to know Buck enough at the stage to immediately clock it, and under all the dark humor and sarcasm, he does actually care about Buck's feelings.

The scene of Buck and Eddie in the hospital room with Bobby ends up on the cutting room floor, we've only got that one shot of teary eyed Buck when he breaks the news to Eddie at his house, so this is the first time in the episode Buck gets to express his fear of losing Bobby, his father figure.

And here we are, controversial moment number 1. There isn't much context attached to this line, so viewers interpret it differently. I'm in the minority camp that thinks Tommy is being serious here, Lou's delivery makes it seem like Tommy says this out of concern. I believe it's a call back to this line from the medal ceremony:

Here Buck is talking about Phillip the same way Tommy and Chimney (possibly Hen too) talk about Gerrard: like he's dead. Tommy is probably wondering if Phillip is another Gerrard situation, and he invites Buck to talk about it if he wishes to.

Buck gives a humorous but one word answer, so Tommy gets that he doesn't want to get too deep into it.

From this line on, it's a set up for the Gerrard reign of terror in S8. Tommy reiterates the jealousy he mentioned in 7x04, that he wants to become a part of the 118 family, which he only had a little taste of before he left to become a pilot.

Tommy backstory crumb. Buck and Phillip at least see each other at family functions, Tommy doesn't have a relationship with his dad at all. Judging by the medal ceremony, he doesn't seem to have any family left.

It confirms Gerrard as the anti-Christ anti-Bobby. Buck becomes the person he is because of Bobby, while Tommy behaved the way he did in the 3 begin episodes because of Gerrard. It acknowledges Tommy's toxic ways back in the days, but as we can see by the time Bobby became captain of the 118, Tommy was already on friendly terms with Chimney and Hen, we might have a chance to see the transformation in between next season. I've heard that season 7 is supposed to be a soft relaunch of the entire series, so maybe Gerrard is a good plot device to make new viewers understand the positive influence Bobby has on the firefam.

Classic deadpan humor from Tommy, Buck gets the message that he wants to keep the conversation lighthearted.

Now Buck has the power to decide which direction he's leading the conversation into, and he gives us controversial moment number 2, he brings up daddy issues and makes it horny. Look at his smirky face, he's definitely not trying to have a serious chat about father complex. He's the one who starts flirting, not Tommy, and it shows us unlike the nervous fumbling at the beginning of their relationship, Buck is now comfortable enough to initiate flirting.

Tommy can't say no to that face, so he flirts back, but it can also be interpreted as him being in denial of his obvious daddy issues. More conflict and angst for S8?

More flirting. Boy's got rizz towards all genders. He basically admits he might have "daddy issues" in a sexual connotation.

Now comes THE controversial moment of the scene, if not the episode. I've seen people online bashing Tommy for "making it sexual" (Buck did), "interrupting a meaningful conversation to satisfy his daddy kink" (no one is actually talking about any kink), or even "exploiting Buck's trauma to put him in an inferior role in a dom/sub relationship" (What? That's not what d/s is about).

I raise you the point that the word "daddy" is no longer some kind of kink exclusive lingo. This word has entered the popular zeitgeist the last couple years, and now it basically just means a sexy older man. I bet the daddy kink thing doesn't even cross the mind of most of the GA, they just take it as Tommy hoping Buck find this older man sexy. I think we might have collectively read too many smutty fanfics, that's why we all immediately jumped to the very extreme of the kinkiness spectrum when it comes to this scene.

Conclusion, the dialog in this scene may not sound natural, but that's not the point. This scene is in fact, an infodump. Kudos to the actors for making it cute.

[ranbling]

If they already brought back Gerrard and Tommy then let's bring back Sal too, get together the toxic white man club

[morewonders]

One thing that does drive me nuts is when people say “oh I don’t even think Bucktommy fans have watched the whole show, if they had they’d know that Tommy’s not a good person and they shouldn’t want him with Buck, they only care about two white men kissing.”

First of all - so what, the planet is dying and shipping is not activism. And I say this as someone who has avoided a lot of major mlm fandoms because they were misogynistic as FUCK. But if you��re just here for two (canonically queer) men kissing and you’re not a dick to anyone about it in the process, great! Have fun!

But second of all…I’ve definitely watched the whole show, and rewatched season 2 very recently, which is the period of time that antis point to for why Tommy is an irredeemable piece of shit. And, no, Tommy did not get on his knees on screen and beg Hen and Chim’s forgiveness for his transgressions towards them. He never will. This is not that kind of show. But in all the Begins episodes, you do see Tommy mending fences with them to the point that they’re having drinks and shooting the shit outside of work. It’s implied that Tommy is one of the anonymous complaints that got Gerrard ousted the first time around. Hen gets him a cake to celebrate his transfer to the 217, something we’ve seen her do for other people she cares about. Two years later, Chim calls Tommy to help save Eddie with the water plane. That all happened on the show that we’ve all watched, well before there was any intention of bringing Tommy back as Buck’s love interest.

And when he is brought back in season 7, Bobby (Tommy’s captain for an indeterminate amount of time, but I’d guess at least a year) tells Buck that Tommy’s good people and good for Buck. There’s no hidden meaning behind it, this is not a subtle show. Buck’s father figure approves of Tommy courting him.

You can hate Tommy’s fucking guts, I don’t care. (Goes extra if you’re a person of color - it’s truly not my place to tell you how to feel about a character who has absolutely been racist and misogynistic, and if you don’t feel like the show has redeemed him enough for you, I get it.) But this condescending “well CLEARLY you’ve only watched season 7” ain’t it. We watched the primetime network procedural drama and took what it was telling us at face value, that’s all.

[louisferrignojr]

that post you reblogged is funny to me because i'm only seeing other shippers wanting them to fight so they can get stronger but of course i shouldn't be surprised there's a side of the fandom that wants buck to suddenly hate tommy for things he already knows

no i think it's not that the op + replier + me dont want them to fight. first of all this is the drama and angst show, there's going to be drama and angst, its unrealistic to want + expect anything different.

it's a certain "theyre gonna fight over gerrard because tommy will tell buck to keep his head down" (aka "do as i did") idea going around which directly contradicts tommy telling buck that having gerrard as his captain did not make him a better man (in 7x10) aka admitting that the way he behaved is something he's not proud of and he has tried to become a better person. i mean it's not like i trust the writers to remember previously established canon facts but... this would be a dumb choice imo.

(the "buck is going to find out what kind of person tommy is (used to be) and hate him" idea is particularly hilarious because it's the anti-tommy crowd of course)

but ivy (@half-oz-eddie ) is right, the relationship started with both of them showing their weaknesses and insecurities and being open and vulnerable with each other so it would be cheap drama, i can't imagine buck being surprised to learn this OR even if he doesn't know, having to deal with gerrard at work, i only see him going to tommy and giving him a hug and telling him how much it must've sucked for him when he used to work at the 118 with gerrard as his captain. like he would sympathise. he wouldn't judge tommy for acting the way he did to protect himself.

the truth is it's really hard to write conflict and arguments between couples that will make you sympathise for both characters involved in the relationship and it's hard to write something substantial that isn't just cheap drama. so my expectations are low so i won't be disappointed 🫶