#bucknatalia

[johanna-swann]

You know, sometimes I think we as a fandom completely misjudge Buck when it comes to romantic things. In fanon he's often depicted as this clueless guy who needs to be hit in the face with a pick-up line before he notices someone's advances, but then again he's a really thoughtful and attentive partner who talks about his own feelings freely once he gets into a relationship. And then I look at canon Buck and like. Yeah, no, this is not that.

Buck is really good at picking up on sexual / romantic tension. He flirts constantly and recognises when his flirting is reciprocated. That's how he landed the snake-lady in 1x01, it's how he knew Abby was down for phone sex (or at least wouldn't dump him over bringing it up), it's how he got with Taylor, etc. Buck is good at the flirting part. The only reason he was so awkward around Tommy was that for the first time ever the target of his advances was a man.

He's terrible at gauging where his (more serious) relationships are at though. I doubt that Abby ever thought she'd be with Buck forever. She cared about him, sure, but let's be realistic. I don't think she saw a future where she'd eventually marry him and settle down with him. Buck on the other hand was full on in love with her, waited months and months for her to come back even after she broke off contact. And the hot air balloon ride was a huge gesture, but did he think it through? What if there had been an emergency with Abby's mother while they were up in the air instead of immediately before?

With Taylor I don't think he had any idea where that was going. They were attracted to each other, they had a lot in common and they both really wanted to make it work, but in the end they just weren't compatible. He was really bad at communicating with her, first invited her to that weird double date with Veronica and Albert without being up-front, then the thing with Lucy. And in the end they broke up over something he knew about her all along. He knew Taylor wanted to use the material from when Bobby was high on the gifted brownies back in the day, how was he surprised that this same basic conflict became an issue again?

And Natalia. He had coffee with her once and suddenly "she really [saw him]". Then he turned around and broke up with her because she talked too much the one topic over which they bonded in the first place. Death is her job. You having died is what got the two of you talking. You valued her insight on the topic at some point even. But then you act like it's an annoying hobby she won't stop talking about?

The same with Tommy. How did Buck spend 6 months dating that man - knowing from very early on that the man had issues, that he grew up in a regressive environment, served in the military as well as under Gerrard, came out rather late in life (only a few years ago), doesn't have much family - and then just jump the whole "move in with me, we can get married one day, we can spend the rest of our lives together" on Tommy instead of sitting down and having an open conversation about the future without any heavy expectations? How does he not know a single detail about Tommy's coming out story, about his exes, about what he wants out of this relationship?

Honestly. Buck means well, but he never thinks things through and is kind of a disaster when it comes to actually dating the partner he finds. It's like he's not dating the person, he's dating for the sake of dating.

[colberine]

let’s be honest guys, buck and natalia look reaaally good together and that’s like the only reason why i don’t 100% dislike them. plus her not looking like his sister is a win for buck

BUT

where the fuck did the “he’s accepting to be alone and not changing for anybody” go? what the actual fuck is oliver talking about them potentially being endgame and her understanding him? what does she understand about buck? what does buck understand about her??? girl gave us nothing except for a pretty face. and we all know who’s fault that is

no matter if natalia is buck’s endgame or not their finale would make sense to me if

natalia was introduced around episode 5 or 7 the latest, have her and buck be friends or even dating that whole time, giving us her nonexistent story that we never got, showing them getting to know each other besides buck’s dying experience and how they like each other not only for their appearances

with that the events of the last two eps could still happen the way they did, but at least we would know why buck likes her and decided to give her a second chance

[sickofthistoxicshit]

I have to say that if one is going to create a certain ship, at long last, the emergency of the opening season shouldn't be of Athena.

Athena and Bobby have done their share of bonding.

And even though Buck and Eddie have been closer than ever, the clown couple (derogatory) of showrunners have ruined all progress, one by a certain death doula that "saw Buck" 🤦‍♀️ for an episode and a half and a shotgun relationship created with little sister insignificant Marisol. And the other by Buck literally road killing Eddie to gain "T's attention" (calling bullshit) never apologizing and then have him caught up in himself (what else is new) for the rest of the season. All the while shoving Eddie away from himself and his now not new friend or friend at all, Buck has all the attention now and tbh not sure that toxic crap is the attention I would want, but Buck’s messed up childhood dictates that bad attention is still attention so why not.

Don't even get me started on TM literally burning Eddie’s so called relationship with a TVD doppelganger crap, that is so far fetched and not who Eddie is that my hands are still itching to bitch-slap Tim for ruining Eddie in the name of "the plot" and regressing him mentally to fucked up S3-4 state of mind. Hate him! (TM, never Eddie)

So really the emergency again being an Athena brand, also fucking far fetched because SHE IS A POLICE SARGENT- SHE WORKS THE STREETS!

She in NOT a US Marshall,

She is NOT a detective,

She is not a US Marshall working on manhunt,

She is not any kind of fed, and she is not SWAT but still was brought in to figure out the sniper MO somehow.

I am so confused.

This show is very copaganda and it's driving me crazy, because the mains are supposed to be firefighters with a side of cop wife and dispatch wife not the other way around.

But seriously, after Christopher leaving and with Buck still visiting toxic lane, now would have been the best time to get Eddie into his wild and reckless side and make everyone worry about him and bring him and Buck closer together.

Buck choosing Eddie, showing him, he's enough. Nudging him towards his own realization, making him fight his instincts to self destruction after his drama queen son left him for his toxic parents.

I am sensing a pattern here. Gotta say no parents deserved even the smallest redemption arcs they received in S6 if this was the natural progression.

Not having much hopes of the next season being at all attractive storytelling wise.

Hopefully, buddie, at least, can get their heads out of their asses long enough to get together.

Though, and this is the most controversial remark I will ever make here (and God knows I made a lot) I don't feel like Buck deserves him rn. I really want better for Eddie, I want him to finally be settled and happy and focusing on enjoying life and on his job.

Maybe start studying for the lieutenants exam and move up the ladder in the LAFD.

Don't you guys find it weird that they are all stuck in some limbo, where no one wants to move higher. And the only time they actually received a commendation was not for daring saves during a tsunami, not for a daring save during earthquake or the dam explosion, not for pulling Eddie from snipers fire and so on.

What they got a commendation for was for just showing up, barely doing any saving with their toy chopper, God knows what they planned to do with it and barely any equipment.

I guess showing up is half the part in 911?

A participation trophy if I ever saw one 🤦‍♀️

That was so lame and kinda dumb.

Anyway, I digress, this turned into a longer post than I meant to, and I kinda went off on a tangent.

Bottom line is, that I cannot believe that Athena is on that plane, in the opening long-ass season disaster, again.

[matan4il]

It's not even that any other LI can't compete. It's also that the writers don't even make them contenders. Hopefully, this comes out right. But intentional or not, they make Buddifer and Buddie time sacred, and nothing interprets it.

Like Natalia running off and preggo Kam just sits down and eats. It was funny, really. Even all the date interruptions were funny, including Taylor.

When Buddie are together nothing interrupts their space and you sort of just know nothing would. Like neither would allow it. If Natalia came not knocking on the door while cookie making with Chris you just know Buck would have sent her away. And not because he's being responsible but because you don't get in the way of his family time.

Hopefully that word salad made sense.

Hi Nonnie, thank you for the ask!

TBH, I think we're at the point where it's a chicken and egg thing. No other LI can compete, so the show isn't even trying anymore. And when the show isn't trying, obviously no other LI can compete with what Buddie have...

I agree, in s2 we already got the foundation for Buddifer, but since s3, it has become so important to the characters AND the show, and no matter what Buck and Eddie are going through, no matter where they are in their romantic lives, they always come together, we always see them being there for each other and the kid they're co-parenting. We saw that in s5, for example! Buck is dating Taylor, but when Chris calls, Buck will ALWAYS pick up. He will always rush out if his kid and his baby daddy Eddie need him, we don't even see him taking leave or explaining to Taylor what's going on. As far as 911 has shown us, he stormed out that door immediately 'coz his family needs him.

You made perfect sense, thank you again and I hope that you have a great day! As always, my ask tag. xoxox

[whateverthedragonswant]

Wait, wait, wait.

I'm expected to see Natalia as "the one" when they're in the same bar Buck hooked up with Taylor in and kissed Lucy in?

And in the very same episode Eddie is a dating fail? And Pepa has to keep setting him up on dates because he can't bring himself to open up the dating app he has on his phone?

In an episode written and directed by JCC?

I see you, 911.

[p4nishers]

how are you real (derogatory)

[unnecessarilygrandiose]

the number of interruptions i'm facing trying to watch this episode if i were chimney i'd take it as a sign

[meraus]

Why do you guys expect Natalia to know and immediately be ok with everything about Buck after 2 dates? Y’all would write some boring ass television

[kinardsevan]

What do you think are the chances of Buck and Tommy getting back together at some point??

I have answered this, here. It's long-winded with specific references as to why I feel the way I do.

If you want specific odds? I still stand by my "I don't have hope, I'm hopeful" statement. I don't trust the writers, but the part of me that understands writing a story and how television works (and hello breaking up in the middle of a season that isn't a midseason finale? pfft.), that part of me feels that we're in the middle of the ride. I also contend with the fact that if this breakup hadn't come out of left field during election week, we wouldn't have reacted as wildly as we did. we put so much weight into those interviews at the time, specifically towards the one that OS and TM did together, and then the one that LFJr did, and so much on the way Fangirlish phrased things. But as I've commented on over and over, OS and LFJr can't tell us where things are going, and TM won't. One, because it wouldn't serve the story, and two, what's the fun in that? Of course they want us guessing so we'll keep watching.

Now, so much weight gets put into Tim's words about how he doesn't know what's happening in the show more than a few weeks in advance, but we also know that they have general ~ideas of character arcs, at least for the part of the season they're working on. To that end, I maintain my contention that you're not breaking them up and telling LFJr "yeah sorry we might bring you back but maybe not, we'll see". That man broke them up knowing whether or not he wanted for him to return in the spring. He may not know how the story is going to be told quite yet, but he at least knows yes or no. Moreover, if the story was well and truly over, we're not getting mentions of Tommy in 807 and 808, and Buck still hung up on him. It doesn't feed the narrative, once again. If you want Tommy done/dead/in the past, you don't continue to suggest the characters are thinking about one another. You can do Buck being sad about the breakup without that kind of storytelling (i.e., season 2 with Abby's exit).

Once again, though, I want to reference every break up that has lasted on OG: BuckAbby-110. BuckTaylor: 518. BuckNatalia: (off screen but effectively) 618/701. EddieAna: 501. EddieMarisol & EddieKim: 710 By correlation, Madney's breakups were midseason and didn't stay broken up. Bathena never really "broke up" for any period of time, but they did have their struggles... oh when? The middle of the season. The only other "break ups" you can refer to within the context of the show is Doug and Shannon's deaths, which yes were in the middle of the seasons, but they were serving the narratives (and also TM regrets killing both off as soon as he did so....). We've also seen TM pull some of these midseason breakups on LS, only to not have them last. He did an offscreen split with Tarlos that was wrapped up by the end of that season opener.

Even without all of that evidence though (I really just piece it together so y'all can follow my line of logic), at the end of the day, what I'm looking at is a story being told and figuring out how you make the right moves. Maybe LFJr was only intended to tell a small story, but you know what you don't do when a character is embraced by the audience? Send them off into the sunset because you couldn't forge a better plot for them. You go back to the drawing board and figure out how to expand their story. Shows have done it for ages, and I refuse to believe that ABC saw the reaction of people to LFJr and said "get rid of him".

At the end of the day, I stay with the fact that they have to get back together because, narratively, it's what makes the most sense with the information we've been given. I think it's messy to ask people to wait 6 months for that payoff, but I also grew up in a time when streaming wasn't the norm and we didn't wait full calendar years for TV shows to release a new season. I don't put a lot of weight in the weekly interviews at this point because it feels like they're now using those instead of real 30sec. promos the way it used to be. Granted, you can argue that they unintentionally found Buck's endgame "too early" for their own liking.... but then why have him be with someone who calls him by his first name when most people in his life don't? Why suggest that Evan sees a future with Tommy in a way that we understand as an audience isn't starry-eyed like the breakup scene portrays, but is actually out of something real (as the dispatch scene suggests)? Why EVER have Buck suggest something like marriage (which he never has, even about Abby) if we're not circling back to it?

Many have stated that these are ways to just twist the knife, make it hurt more, and I can't negate that or tell you they're wrong. Even if everything I suggest ends up being right, I still can't make the argument that some of those storytelling choices weren't just to make the breakup hurt more. At the end of the day, though, my hope is that at least some of it was done in service of the narrative instead of just callousness.

Anyway. I've rambled again, and I'm sorta not sorry about it. I hope this at least answers your question though 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[maygrcnt]

“bucknatalia breakup was rushed!” oh boy do i have some news for you about how they got together!

[pinknatural]

i liked it a lot and i wish there was more 😭

HI I FINISHED 911

OH MY GOD. WHAT DID YOU THINK????

[lenaboskow]

Jumping off the previous anon's thoughts about the parallel to the BuckNatalia break up. What if ALSO it parallels Eddie's introduction but reversed. So Buck shirtless, getting dressed mentions "Tommy and I broke up" and Eddie is just staring and his brain short-circuits.

i need so many parallels it's not even funny

[cloudaintfair]

I have an idea for a 911 abc - centering around Buck... its up to the writer to make it Buddie/Tevan/BuckAbby/BuckTaylor/BuckNatalia or even no ships at all.

And its SEAL!Buck...

the prompt goes:

Chase Mackey reports to LAFD, LAPD, and Dispatch that he saw his former client getting kidnapped and he doesn't want to be on the suspect list, because he's not the one who got him kidnapped. He may be an ambulance chaser but he will never stoop that low.

more details

Buck gets wind of the fact that his squadmates are missing. But only after the fifth member goes missing. Still reeling from Eddie's words of being "exhausting", even if everything was fine and dandy within the 118... he approaches his lawyer, Chase Mackey.

...

lemme see if I can have my writer friend write this lol...

[aashiqeddiediaz]

tbf some of us are complaining about this feeling like eddieana/bucktaylor again because it feels like an unoriginal rehashing of those storylines, not just because of love interests per se

but is it? is it really?

before i say anything, i want to preface by saying that everyone is entitled to their own opinion about things, and that being disappointed with how the season ends is a valid feeling to have. except the way that this has spiraled through fandom with all these comparisons indicates that no one's really understanding the use of these storylines to begin with. that no one's taking it with any amount of grace, between the constant negativity, review bombing, etc etc and that's why it's frankly annoying.

yes, there was the whole thing about this potentially being the series finale, and if that had happened, it would've sucked, but it didn't. there are still many stories to tell about this whole thing, why not focus on that?

back to your ask:

eddie, this whole season, has spent time fretting and spiraling about not wanting to be alone, now that he's actually in a place to move on from shannon - who, as we've found out this season, has potentially been his only partner before ana.

think about the way that it is only this season that pepa starts to set him up, and that it's only this season that he even considers it, even if it's for his aunt's sake and he wasn't initially happy with it. think about the way he's been going to frank to unravel some of these feelings, that he and chris are talking more openly about shannon, that eddie is allowing himself to feel his grief so he can carry the weight of it better.

marisol, regardless of how anyone feels about her, comes in front of him and he feels a spark of connection with her at the hardware store. and this time, christopher himself encourages eddie to call her, ending the conflict we saw at the beginning of the episode where he was trying to text her.

eddieana and eddiemarisol are very different just on the basis of how he reaches out to her. it remains to be seen how they intend to continue it, but for the purpose of his arc this season, he's taken the step, his son is on board, and he's moving towards a relationship where he feels less of the grief of losing shannon. those are three securities that eddieana did not have, because eddieana was how eddie was trying to move on from shannon's loss, while eddiemarisol is what he's doing now that he already has.

as for bucktaylor - natalia, whether we like it or not, gives buck something that no other character on the show gives, just by virtue of not knowing him. him dying isn't a tragedy to her the way it is to everyone else, and for buck, who's still grappling with the loss of his life and all, that is a big thing for him to find somewhere.

it's easy for us to sit here and say "eddie sees him" or "how does someone who's known him for 3 seconds know him better than all his friends" or "she sounds too fascinated" but buck does not get afforded the same view that we do. he is an unreliable narrator, going through the things that we see from a bird's eye view, almost.

yes, there are multiple parallels between bucktaylor and bucknatalia but again, those are things we see, as viewers. they're not things that buck is going to notice right off the bat.

that ending scene with the couch - if we absolutely must with this specific interpretation of the theory - ali and taylor both came with couches. this is one where he's taking an active role in purchasing it for his apartment, an active role in pursuing something that'll make him happy. will it pan out? who knows. but where his story stands right now, it's miles different from where buck and taylor where at the end of s4.

and if it's buddie goggles that we're trying to view this through, then i absolutely do understand the disappointment, but with s7 coming up, and so much more for them to flesh out (because 911 does sometimes spread storylines across multiple seasons), there's going to be a lot more to come.

anyway this got very long, but my point basically is that i don't understand how this feels like they're rehashing storylines because when i take a look at the path towards the decision they made with ana and taylor vs marisol and natalia, it couldn't be more different.

[matan4il]

I saw your response to the anon ask about Buck and Natalia. I like to think that Natalia's purpose is twofold. Natalia is obviously interested in talking about Buck's death/coma dream, and while she doesn't have the most sensitive approach, we're shown that Buck needs to talk about his death without worrying over the judgement and trauma of others. Secondly Buck now knows how to walk away from someone that isn't good for him. Walking away without dragging it out would show his growth

Hi Nonnie! Well, TBH there were quite a few asks on that, so I'm not sure which one you're referring to, but if people are confused, it's always possible to scroll back and find all replies in my ask tag or to look at another specific tag, like one for the death doula.

As for Natalia's purpose, I'm sure that just like with Taylor, we'd be better able to judge it once her arc is completed. I did hope Taylor's purpose would be to help Buck choose to be the one who walks away for once, and that was exactly what we got. So I'm good with waiting to see what they have in mind for her that would make this different to what we saw with Taylor (because so far, the throwing himself in too deep, too quickly, is kind of standard Buck. But as we sad, healing is not linear, and sometimes you have to regress in order to be able to take two steps forward in a healthier direction).

Have a good day! Not repeating the ask tag, 'coz it's up there. xoxox

[whateverthedragonswant]

First kiss with Natalia interrupted...uh huh.