#but there are more people. so presumably more stuff?

[mac-cheez]

Im so glad you like her!!! She's been my brain child for awhile now.

Was Cadmus successful?

When I was first making her, I did some research on why kryptonians are affected by Kryptonite, and if immunity was possible, and got some mixed results. Some people have pointed out that Superman has gotten steadily more immune over each exposure while others pointed out that it was the radiation that hurt Kryptonians so it's impossible to be immune. I almost thought I had to rewrite that part till I realized she was just going through the faster and deadlier version of what superman went through. So while she isn't immune, she is very resistent, which means she can be around a fuck ton of the stuff and act like Clark around and handful. She also can't really use her powers around it, she pretty much turns into a slightly stronger normal teenager. So Cadmus (her specific Cadmus branch is Cratus) did partially succeed, and likely would've furthered their testing to the next stage if the Justice league hadn't intervened.

In the next stage they likely would've locked her in a lab and done intensive testing on her body to figure out why she was resistant. Maybe it was a protein her body developed, maybe it was a buildup of something in her skin, I don't know and neither do they, but if they made it to this next stage she likely would've ended up a Cadmus operative whose one directive is to kill all supers. This would be very easy considering she's the only one who doesn't pass out at x amount of kryptonite.

Whether or not she wanted this to happen depends on the alternate, and there's a hilarious metric we use to know at a glance how evil a Lily is. Boot length. Not even joking. Main Lily has boots up to mid calf, so she's just got some trauma but still a pretty good moral compass. An alternate Lily who shows up later and went through the second stage, has knee high boots, she's killed a lot of people though to be fair to that one she was heavily brainwashed. Then the most evil one of all has boots that straight up are a part of her suit, no end to the boot. (Terrifying) (Also Tim probably slept with her no one's sure)

How does she escape?

How she escapes depends on the Canon. In the original canon, the project is uncovered by Batman and the Justice league do an all fronts attack to swiftly take it out and save to poor Kryptonian (who they believe to be another clone of Clark or Konnor). They do save Lily, but she's been told by her "parents" that they can't be trusted so she is very afraid of them and runs off. Flash, Supes, and WW have to chase her through the woods towards the emergency meet up point they taught her. Eventually she makes it there and is almost shot by the scientist posing to be her dad, but Flash grabs her at the last second and keeps her away just long enough for Supes and WW to arrest the scientist. This leads to a deep mistrust between her and those three, especially superman once she finds out that they are related because why would he scare her like that if they were family? So she ends up latching onto Batman as a result and he takes care of her until she is ready to meet Clark again (Ya know once her nightmares of him go away a bit).

In the Fae au she's being trafficked by a dragon named Cadmus (may or may not be the one from Greek myth), and is found by Tim, who is usually very powerful and kills the traffickers. This version of Lily has more physical trauma to her then the original, her bird wings are scarred and missing feathers and can barely move when Tim first finds her. It takes a few days before Tim thinks to check her wings, only after noticing she refuses to lay on her back. This version of Lily also doesn't remember much pre save because her mind has locked all of that away, so she's practically amnesic for a long time.

In the Immortals au she's still kept by Cadmus the dragon, but this time there's more of a vendetta. Immortal Lily was born in myceneaen Greece, and was pretty powerful. This presumably made Cadmus jealous and he razed her favorite village as a result. Cue the bitter rivalry. Eventually he was able to capture her in Gaul during the Roman invasions and he kept her in a half conscious, barely alive state so he could harvest ingredients from her. Way later he loaned her to Lex Luthor so he could make a clone of superman with her immeasurable casting power, Lex unknowing that she was supes sister. Eventually when Konnor broke out, he convinced Red Robin to help him break her out, because he couldn't stand the thought of leaving her behind when he's pretty sure she's also a captive. So they do, and then she recoups in the chasm where it's really dark so she can replenish her shadows (she has shadow based magic and has a blessing of nyx).

Does she want to be a doctor in og Canon?

No not really, she's more of a strategist and stealth operative in both the Immortal and OG canons. The difference here is that Fae Lily is more close to her roots, and in that canon each El has their "science". For her it's medical Alchemy and strategy and she has old texts her dad left who was also an alchemist so she trying her best to keep that legacy up.

Does Jason come back before Lily? Does that effect how Tim is adopted?

If you mean before shes found then no she shows up not long after Tim is made robin. There is a period of time though where Jason is back and she doesn't really visit, especially during the royalty au. I think arrow would know more about how it affects Tim, but he definitely uses her to his advantage to get what he wants. Big, "tell mom you want McDonald's, she'll listen to you" vibes.

Does Jason know it's a proposal?

No, he just gave it to her because she seemed to like it, and he really liked her, so he thought it was a nice gift. It isn't till later when she tells him directly that he decides that yes it is a proposal and asks what she gives him in return. She gives him her matriarch necklace that was passed down from her father, which is her most prized possession and a symbol that Jason is now under the protection of the house of El.

Is Fae!Lily experimented on?

Probably but not as much as the other versions. She's more of a trophy in the ring, a piece of a dragons horde. She's not meant for anything other then to have, whatever else happens while shes in his stores doesn't really matter to Cadmus. There were probably some guards that did their own experiments on her, but nothing as organized as og Canon and Immortal canon.

Yall haven't seen the aus me and my girlfriend have been making and honestly I feel kinda bad for you

[watermelonlicker]

Genuine question: I’ve been in since 2020, and I still don’t get it! Why is the whole fandom saying that Harry is closeted when he’s out there mostly of the time acting more gay than Ricky Martin or George Michael ever did?

Where’s the crux of it? His label and team push the queer narrative heavily—there’s nothing that really indicates he’s straight. And yet, part of the fandom keeps insisting he’s closeted. Why?

bcos he is closeted. to the public being a presumably cisgender man wearing dresses and nail polish is nothing new in music. it was never associated with queerness when it happened in the 70s/80s by the gp unless you were a raging homophobic like anita bryant who got that pie in her face (iconic) who was talking about how music and nail polish was the gay devil. like stuff like that was really only considered “pushing boundaries” and being “exotic” by the mainstream media and that was pretty much that. the queer conversation was very much underground.

and the queer artists who trail-blazed during the time did so while having to maintain super het/womanizer images like prince, bowie etc. stuff like androgyny etc also goes over the gp’s head bcos they have no idea what queer coding means and they’ll be perfectly fine still thinking someone is straight so long as they are photographed with a woman hence the existence/need for a pr stunt and the many stunts harry’s had to do while supposedly being out the closet.

people who think harry is queer are not the majority no matter how loud we are online. like yes his legs woke up SOME of the twitter gp but you still had others in the comments calling him a queer baiter (which is sadly what a lot of people think of him including some gays)

harry’s CLOSET is glass to us but not to the gp and uhh? gayer than ricky martin and george michael who were also closeted what are you trying to say there?

[craigularory-joe]

Day 9

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[blueikeproductions]

The real world reason is Steeljaw and co are a throwback to older G1 toys that Transformed into Earth animals.

There is a catch, as some G1 material like the cartoon implies through Laserbeak that some of the beast bots looked more alien back on Cybertron and then were reformatted into something that resembled an Earth animal.

The RiD15 Decepticon Mini-Cons tend to be nonsense animals, suggesting a similar idea at play. So if one wants more alien looking beast bots, these goobers are the closest thing right now.

Other G1 stuff like the Marvel and Dreamwave comics all suggest most Transformers by default are humanoids that convert into space vehicles, and that some became animals only after coming to Earth as a battlefield advantage (or by some sudden quirk like the Dinobots in the comics being created because they activated during prehistory, or the cartoon where on a whim, the Autobots built the Dinobots from scratch to boost their ranks after they found fossils with Spike). The Insecticons are specifically described as a trio that adapted to life on Earth, by scanning (presumably) giant insects on prehistoric Earth, and survived by being able to consume organic matter, something G1 era Bots can’t do.

Stuff like Masterforce and Galaxy Force, on the other hand, imply the beastial forms of the Decepticon Pretenders inspired Earth’s myths and legends, suggesting Blood and company used other aliens as a basis for their organic modes.

The in universe explanation in RiD15 (and Aligned in general) suggests all animal Transformers are descended from Onyx Prime, whose relics allowed him to see different planets at different times, with different species, so technically all animal Transformers are based on other aliens, not specifically Earth’s. The Predacons in Prime, to go back to an earlier point, all are Dragonoid aliens, the Cybertron equivalent of dinosaurs while Dinobots are a modern day common species. (It’s never clarified how the later works because earlier Aligned stuff described the main Dinobots as genetically modified creations of Shockwave’s after he studied Earth’s still existing at that point dinosaurs, while RiD Grimlock, Scowl, Tricerashot, a proposed female stegosaurus Dinobot, and others all just suddenly exist now on post war Cybertron.) The Predacons that came to Earth during an earlier campaign on Earth also inspired Earth’s myths on dragons and related species.

TFA BlackArachnia’s Beast Mode for example, is not an Earth spider, but a techno-organic version of Giant Spiders from a far off planet.

It’s a common sci fi troupe that most aliens are convergent species that independently evolved into something that resembles an Earth animal. So a planet of dinosaur people (stuff like Dinosaucers), a planet of frog people (Amphibia), a planet of cat people (stuff like SWAT Kats), a planet of duck people from another dimension (bizarrely both Howard the Duck and Mighty Ducks), you get the idea.

Even Sonic has poked fun at this at various points in its history.

Still most Transformers stuff tends to make a big point how Earth and Cybertron are heavily connected, with more often than not, most animal robots being based on Earth animals for that reason. Plus, kids tend to enjoy robot dinosaurs and other beasties so it’s a fun toy gimmick, even if the concept isn’t always properly explained.

Wild King does this too where the Elementros Transformers are all mechanical Earth animals, though Optimus never really draws attention to this (it’s not even really clear if this Optimus was ever on Earth).

So if nothing else, it’s largely purely defined by rule of cool.

I'm having very mixed feelings about the animal based Decepticons in RiD

On one hand, i fucking love a good animal inspired guy. I fuck so heavy with that. Hell yeah robot furries.

On the other hand, why and how is it all earth animals? And they're all named after them too (eg sharkticon, pumaticon, etc). I get that earth and cybertron are deeply intertwined in this continuity, but still, you're not supposed to know what those are?

It's great that they're not all "humanoid"! That makes just as little sense honestly. Let the aliens be weird! But also they should look like aliens and not earth creatures? I think? Maybe at least some of them?

Or, alternatively – let's talk about the implication that Unicron and Primus seemingly used the same blueprints for their planet's species. That does go kind of hard. But then you gotta acknowledge it.

[ganondoodle]

the company i work for decided that its switching from the german formal "You"(Sie) to the informal "you" (Du) in all of our websites so now we have to scour the entire database to change it and i quite frankly hate that, not just bc the unecessary extra work but especially bc its such a weird and unecessary change

i bet its bc everything here is getting englishfied (both literally and culturally it feels like, when my new boss talks its half in english bc every second german word is just replaced by an english one despite there being perfectly fine words for it in german too, its so annoying) and bc they want to sound more personal in hopes of getting more clients bc 'company is your fwiend uwu!!', i know this here is the amercian tm site so you wouldnt understand really but i do not want to be greeted with 'du' by companies, no, thats too personal, you dont know me and im not giving you my data, stay away!!

i guess thats how i would describe it .. the formal you is like a polite distance, like someone you dont know staying outside your personal space, but when its the informal 'you' it feels invasive unless i told you you can call me that, and that goes double for companies

maybe its a small thing that doesnt seem important but i cant stand it, im just a little part time worker doing data work so i got no say in it but the companies founder also announced hes giving his post to his kids some time ago so ...... since then theres been alot of changes and new projects that solely aim to imitate whats popular and whats done by other companies, despite ours being one that is, or used to be, intentionally different, like, that was the POINT, but i guess chasing trends is just too appealing for CEOs

[wherevenusholdssomeofficespace]

Linda Flynn-Fletcher

I think Linda Flynn-Fletcher is potentially one of the most misunderstood characters in the show.

It think comes from a natural enough place. Her role in the show is of course, to act as the potential threat to their summers of fun. While they boys never see her as a threat, narratively she's the big bad. If she sees it, its game over.

Here's the thing though. She's a not a bad mom. Her children LOVE her. Similarly to how Phineas and Ferb absolutely adore Candace and would do nearly anything she asked, Phineas, Ferb and Candace all love and respect their mother and don't disobey her. Now a bit of this is clearly Linda being a more permissive parent, but any rules that Linda has Phineas and Ferb never do anything to disobey their mother. While I wouldn't be surprised if there were one or two instances where Candace disobeyed her mother willfully, the closest I can think off off hand is Candace not doing a bunch of chores that she was supposed to do. Really, the fact that all her kids love her, shows how much all her kids feel loved in their household. And I think that's super important. Candace wrote a song about how much she feels loved by her mom, even if her mom is dismissive of Candace. But she still goes with Candace to see what the boys are up to even if she doesn't believe it. She sets boundaries on how often Candace can bust the boys sure. But she hasn't forbidden Candace from doing it altogether. Nor does she punish Candace for presumably lying?

At MOST Linda will say something like: "let's get you out of the sun" after a failed bust. The worst of it I think is probably the time Linda made her promise not to try or suffer the Pharaohs curse. Which, was just some guy in a Pharaoh costume telling Candace curse you. Linda goes out of her way to read books to try and deal with her daughter. She and Candace still clearly hold a lot of affection for each other and do spend a decent amount of mother daughter time together. Linda gives books to her daughter, tries to direct her to other activities, and finds her sleep busting cute, and sometimes goes out of her way to do activities her daughter wants to do with her. All things considered Linda is REALLY patient about Candace's busting. Could she be doing more to get to the bottom of why Candace is presumably acting out? Sure. But Doofensmirtz could also be doing a better job of listening to his daughter and not insulting her (or do we not remember why Vanessa wears earbuds around the house) but we all call him a really good dad.

A LOT of shows have kids hiding a secret from a parent for one reason of another. But while the crux of the show rests on Linda not knowing what her sons are doing, its not because its a secret. The boys aren't hiding it from her. The boys genuinely believe she knows. Lawrence genuinely believes she knows. Candace is the only one in the family who really grasps the situation.

Linda's ignorance, her disbelief of the wild shenanigans that her children get into is easily mistakable for normality. For representing the oppressive day to day. The same thematic antagonist as school. A mom who wants whats best for her kids, and thinks that whats best for them is them being normal, without realizing what's really best for them. After all why else we saw what would happen if she found out in Quantum Boogaloo. But the fact of the matter is aside from that one future (which also featured an effectively evil leader in Doofensmirtz, and therefore implies more factors at play than just Doofensmirtz and Linda's characters), we don't really know how it would play out in the long term. Future Linda even just kinda moves on after discovering the truth.

Linda is exactly like her kids. She just does the same things on a less physics breaking scale. The woman has like 37 different hobbies. She takes a cooking class, donated an art sculpture, is part of a jazz group. She has a background in astrophysics. She was a pop star. She won a meatloaf contest. She takes french lessons. The fact that Linda has several hobbies is part of the reason the formula works at all. Linda is constantly trying new things which gets her out of the house, while her sons are trying their own new things. Her absence is what prompts Candace to have to go looking for her. Also, What Do It Do when the moment Linda gets put in Candace's position she acts the exact same way.

Also it's why she and Lawrence are so compatible. They have a lot of weird hobbies they spend together. She likes Lawrence's history references. They watch car racing together. They went spelunking together. They go bowling regularly enough to have equipment. She has played the bagpipes while Lawrence danced (which sidenote: do you think she taught Candace how to play the bagpipes?).

Not to mention her extended family. Think about it. Her mom was a competitive roller derby skater who once bit a skate and shook it like a dog with a chew toy and pulls elaborate pranks with her identical twin. Really she's a lot like Candace with her aggressive passion. Her dad apparently won a balloon race, but tells the story in the most straightforward way possible, sometimes very oblivious, but is overall a lot like Phineas. Her sister is an adrenaline junky. And back to Quantum Boogaloo for a minute: Her granddaughter is just like Candace, Grown up Candace is a lot like Linda. Do you not see the implications!!?!?!? LIKE???? DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT LINDA WAS PROBABLY A LOT LIKE CANDACE AND PHINEAS WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGER?!!?! YOU THINK IT SKIPPED A GENERATION OR SOMETHING???

Do you think Linda used to complain about Tiana??? Do you think Linda thought her family was weird and was embarrassed by them??? Do you think Linda ever called herself the only mature/normal member of her family?? LIKE CANDACE DOES????

Anyway, Linda is just like her family. Sure, she is RELATIVELY more normal, but that's relative, and probably simply because the universe bends itself around to keep her from knowing. Linda literally cannot find out about the real nature of her universe. Linda is just a grown up version of her children, seeking to make the most of each day, but within the bounds the universe has set upon her, both as an adult woman and mother, but also in the laws of physics expected of her. But she still makes the most of her life. You don't have to build a roller coaster to make the most of each day and all that.

I think if Linda is representing anything its that even parents can have rich fulfilling lives. Where they make the most out of each day. Having fun with your life doesn't stop with adulthood. Even if you have more responsibilities doesn't mean you can't have fun? Sure childhood is something you can't get back but growing up isn't inherently bad either?

[hyperfixationsposting]

an immortal bisexual witch and the cute lesbian butcher she may or may not have hooked up with once or twice :))

[isfjmel-phleg]

I've been thinking about that story I haven't written about the traumatizing incident that Elystan has with Delclis's Prime Minister that leads to the state he's in in "Visit with the Murderess." It would be told from the PM's POV, and then from his wife's as they have Elystan over for lunch after The Incident. They both strongly disapprove of his parents' methods of raising children and are very displeased with Elystan as a human being, and I mean, they're not wrong but they're lacking a lot of perspective and compassion and don't realize that they're just making things so much worse and...yeah, I should stop being afraid of the elements I'm not sure of yet and get around to writing this thing one of these days.

[fingertipsmp3]

Maybe I did this to myself but it does irk me when people see me knitting and they ask who it’s for and I say it’s for me and the immediate reaction is “you should sell it” yeah… let me spend at least a week’s worth of my free time making an item I like, want, and would wear just to sell it on etsy, making at most a £2 profit on materials and not being compensated for my time whatsoever 👍🏻

[smile-files]

i don't know if ralsei is a transfem or transmasc i just know he is trans

[edwinisms]

see I can’t accept charles’ comic background and socioeconomic status as canon for the show because if I did that would mean the whole group would be a bunch of rich kids and that’s a horrifying concept

[not-cool-enough-to-scuba-dive]

actually I would quite like to hear your thoughts on gender philosophy in omegaverse worldbuilding? :3

hm. anon, I fear this is a far larger can of worms than you probably anticipated. I'm going to spare you the worst of it by only giving you a short version, but be careful what you wish for.

I'm also hiding it under a cut because even the short version is embarrassingly long.

I'm hardly a connoisseur of omegaverse content, nor would I consider myself anywhere near an expert. I don't want to speak for all fics as I've admittedly not read many. I did do my master's diss about legal gender recognition, so this is more about gender and philosophically sound worldbuilding than an indictment of any particular writing or story tbh.

the short answer is I find omegaverse worldbuilding really interesting, but I've never fully been able to enjoy it due to the way a/b/o identities tend to have a biological determinist slant to them imo, and tendency for a lack of real world implications of what the omegaverse does to gender and character interactions anywhere outside the bedroom. I'd love to figure out a version that's more inclusive and philosophically/ideologically consistent, both with itself and with my own views on real life gender (basically, I want to make it make more sense, have less biological determinism, and be more inclusive of the wider range of human experiences). this is a big task, and ngl I haven't achieved it and don't anticipate doing so any time soon. I have like, a concept in my head, taking apart all the key pieces and putting them together again but different, but to make it thorough enough would require more effort and time than I have because I'm like, employed 😔

I feel like someday if I ever get invited to a powerpoint night though, this could be It.

[rustedleopard]

Unpopular Opinion(?): I'm firmly in the "Starlo doesn't have a tail" camp

[lesbiangiratina]

A good while ago i was scrolling through someone’s testament tag and once i got past march 2022 i saw them using she/her for them n i wish i remembered who this was because they were on some remarkable shit

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

The I feel like she sees me line being said to Eddie who is the person that truly sees Buck for all that he is. Are we supposed to take this line at face value which would indicate piss poor writing because they needed to rush to a horrible ending or do we take it as Buck being an unreliable narrator? What was the audience supposed to interpret from Buck saying that, were we truly supposed to believe him or we supposed to be pissed at Buck for saying this to the one person that truly sees Buck?

Good morning to me, I guess.

I'm assuming you haven't really seen people's reactions in the fandom on tumblr because I feel like I saw this said in quite a few posts going around, but you are absolutely not supposed to take this line at face value. I'm surprised that people think you should. 9-1-1 has from the beginning had a habit of turning friendships into romantic relationships (Bathena and Madney) and taking their time with these things rather than having an instalove situation. Even Karen and Hen, who meet when they're set up on a date together, don't instantly fall in love. I do not think they would set Eddie or Buck up for an endgame relationship with a woman by having them date that woman immediately, even if they didn't plan to make Buddie canon.

Buck is clearly struggling post-death. He's lost and once again looking for the answer from a romantic partner. He did a lot of growth in regards to his family relationships this season but not his romantic ones. Remember, his couch ended up destroyed and he asked his latest girlfriend to pick the new one out for him. Again. He's still not picking his own damn couch. After being unable to sleep on the one his mom gave him but passed out instantly on Eddie's where he ran to feel safe.

If people think this is all, somehow, an accident or the writers are doing this without knowing what they're doing, then I can't help you. Do you also think the symbolism I put into my fanfics are a total accident? Do you guys think I picked the name of the poem "Fuchsia Emerald Alizarin Rose" just because the colors are fun and they accidentally spell out F.E.A.R. or do you think maybe I did that absolutely 100% on purpose and was waiting for someone to realize?

Buck saying that to Eddie is 100% supposed to make the audience raise their eyebrows. Especially when we see Eddie's reaction. He's confused and he's hurt and he's annoyed. Eddie then spends his next few lines showing Buck (and us) that he sees Buck. Buck misses it, it goes right over his head, but the audience is shown that Buck is wrong and Eddie sees him.

I think there was a lot of internal stuff going on behind the scenes way high up the ladder that meant Buddie didn't happen this season. No, I don't mean that in a tinhatting way, I just mean that they knew Fox wouldn't renew them, they didn't know if they'd get picked up somewhere else, Fox hasn't promoted or cared about this show the way it has its other shows in a while, and I think it's pretty clear there was shuffling and changes going on with 6B. So I think things had to be put off. Similar to the pandemic, where I genuinely wonder what kind of season four we would've gotten if we'd had the full 18 episodes and hadn't had to work around Covid. I think that when we know there was a big shift going on behind the scenes, we need to have some grace and patience in how that will effect the story that's told on screen.

But I think that this default to "everything good we see on our screens is an accident and the writers are making shitty choices" is a horrible bad faith argument, and it's exhausting. Aren't you exhausted? I'm exhausted. Fandom shouldn't treat the writing and production team like their enemies any more than the writing and production team should treat the fans like their enemies in some kind of war they have to win (looking at you, GoT showrunners).

We are supposed to be annoyed that Buck is missing the point. We are supposed to see Buck's yearning to be a husband and a father, and how he's missing what's right in front of him. We are supposed to put two and two together and see that Eddie was hurt by Buck's words, that Eddie sees Buck, that Eddie is Buck's safe place, and that Eddie in that moment decided he might not have a chance with Buck and needs to move on, because previously we saw Eddie admit he wants romance again but he doesn't want to go out on dates, we saw his aunt say she met her husband through work, we saw him say 'we have time' and then we saw him immediately after Buck tells him about this new girl who "sees him" flee to visit his mother and then immediately actually try dating. On a meta level this is also because Eddie needs confidence in himself as a romantic partner and needs some more experience under his belt before he's ready to take the plunge with Buck, but in Eddie's mind, I think it's pretty clear he feels Buck will never want him back and he's trying to find the love he wants somewhere else, even if his heart is still Buck's.

So that's what I think. I think it's not explicitly spelled out for a few reasons, but frankly if one of them was a woman we wouldn't need it explicitly spelled out and personally I kinda like that it's not. Something that annoys me with M/F pairings is the constant "we all know you two like each other" talks from third parties that half the time aren't about the characters but are about the audience, to either tell the audience SEE THEY LIKE EACH OTHER THAT'S WHAT THIS IS ABOUT or to give the audience some fanservice while the characters aren't ready to get together. I don't need to be pandered to that way, thank you, so I'm a fan of the slightly more subtle approach that I, personally, see going on with Buddie.

If you or anyone else disagrees with me and feels it was just "piss poor writing" then that's entirely your right. I'd just appreciate it if people who feel that way would stop watching the show, and stop putting their complaints into the inboxes of people who clearly do enjoy the show.

TL;DR - You answered your own question, Buck is an unreliable narrator (and always has been) and we are supposed to be frustrated he said this to Eddie who has proven time and again (and does so in that very scene) that he sees Buck.