#commentary on representation

[atomicrebelfire]

❌ What Should Not Happen Between Buck and Tommy in Season 9

(And why it’s harmful if it does)

⚠️ Disclaimer:

This isn’t about policing queer identity. People explore. People learn. People fall in love late. That’s all valid. But this is about how media frames queerness — and how 9-1-1 risks reinforcing damaging tropes that queer audiences are exhausted by. When straight love stories are treated as stable and romantic, but queer ones are messy, painful, or never quite “enough,” it stops being representation and starts being a pattern. Especially in 9-1-1, where Buck and Tommy had a chance at something emotionally grounded and real — and the show chose to throw it away. What happens next matters. Not trying to overstep— — just putting into words what I don’t want to see happen.

TL;DR: Stop treating queerness like a detour. Buck doesn’t need to date around to realize he loved Tommy. Tommy isn’t a placeholder. And if Buck won’t talk to him now, don’t pretend he’ll magically be ready for someone else. Growth means honesty. Not avoidance.

🚫 What Should NOT Happen:

1. Buck “explores” queerness by dating multiple men or women before realizing Tommy was “the one” → Bisexuality doesn’t need to be proven through hookups. Tommy is not a test run.

2. Tommy stays emotionally stuck, waiting for Buck to figure himself out → That’s not love. That’s sidelining. Tommy deserves a story that isn’t on pause.

3. Buck returns with no growth, just longing → Love isn’t a Band-Aid for what you refused to confront. Do the work or stay away.

4. Tommy is framed as Buck’s “first but not true” queer love → This is the starter-boyfriend trope. It’s outdated, demeaning, and Tommy deserves better.

5. Tommy starts dating someone else, but they’re just filler before Buck returns → New relationships aren’t fake just because they’re not with the protagonist.

6. Tommy is punished by the narrative for moving on → Moving on is not betrayal. Stop treating emotional survival like a character flaw.

7. Buck’s queerness is only shown through hookups or heartbreak → Being queer doesn’t mean suffering has to be your default love language.

8. Tommy’s new partner is written as toxic just to make Buck look good → That’s not drama. That’s manipulation dressed as plot. Let Tommy choose well.

9. Buck dates someone awful just to realize Tommy was “the good one” → Let Buck grow — not get traumatized into appreciation. Regret isn’t a love story.

10. Buck avoids accountability, hoping time will “solve” things instead of talking to Tommy → You don’t magically become ready in the next relationship if you never faced the last one. Passivity is not a personality. It's avoidance.

If Buck truly loves Tommy — he should talk to him. Be direct. Be honest. If he doesn’t love him — then he should stay away.

✨ Bonus Tropes to Watch Out For in Season 9:

(Because Sometimes Writers Can’t Help Themselves)

11. “Now that he’s queer, Buck must suffer more than anyone else” → Buck has already carried a mountain of emotional pain. Queerness shouldn’t mean more punishment.

12. “Tommy should forgive anything, because Buck’s figuring it out” → This is the same trap Hen/Karen fell into. Hen cheated, Karen had to be “understanding.” Emotional labor ≠ love.

13. “Now that Buck is bi, he becomes hypersexual or ‘confused’ by everyone” → Being bi doesn’t mean you lose your emotional depth or loyalty.

14. “Queer love is always tragic; straight love is stable” → Hen/Karen? Nearly broken up. Buck/Tommy? Already broken.

15. “One queer character is deep, the other becomes a plot device” → Tommy should not become “the guy Buck almost texts.” He deserves his own arc, not ghost-status.

16. Buck’s queerness is “proven,” then erased by pairing him with a woman → Bisexuality isn’t a checkbox or a detour. If Buck dates a woman just to “balance” the narrative, that’s not representation — that’s quiet erasure.

🛑 For contrast: Lone Star handled queerness with more care. (not perfect or that they didn't frustrate with lazy writing)

TK and Carlos already knew they were gay — and their story began with clarity, not confusion. Buck’s journey is different. That’s valid.

But Lone Star gave its queer characters stability, love, and respect, even while showing their flaws.

Carlos’s past marriage to a woman was treated with emotional honesty — not used to erase his queerness.

Neither of them needed to “sleep around” to prove their identity or seriousness about each other.

And their pain (drug abuse, deaths, etc ) didn’t define their queerness — their commitment did.

Mainline 9-1-1 could — and should — learn from that.

💬 Before You Write the Next Chapter:

Buck doesn’t need to date more men or women to figure out if he loves Tommy. Either he does, or he doesn’t. What he doesn’t get to do is use other people as stepping stones to decide. Queerness isn’t a test you pass by hurting people. And love isn’t something you discover by leaving a trail of emotional casualties. If Buck loves Tommy — let him show up. If he doesn’t — let him leave him alone. But don’t make someone else suffer just so he can answer a question he’s too scared to ask.

💬 Final Thought:

If Buck and Tommy reunite, let it be because they choose each other again — from a place of growth, honesty, and mutual readiness. Not because everyone else failed. Not because one waited while the other wandered. And not because the show needed one more tortured queer arc.

If they don’t reunite — then let that be a choice that respects them both. No more tropes. No more lessons. No more ghosts. Just grown-ups. Talking. Feeling. Choosing.

Let’s just walk away from using tired tropes to avoid doing the emotional work — in writing and in love. and using stereotypes to compensate for a lack of storytelling courage. Show some heart in the stories.

[ashetheentity]

[girl4music]

I honestly find it so interesting how much of an idealistic romantic Gabrielle is in the first season and how her attraction seems to only be to warriors except that one guy that likes to tell stories like she does. Talus. It seemed to be less about attraction and more about recognition. She recognized in Talus a kindred spirit. He was kind and caring and sensitive and empathetic... Just like herself...

But with the warriors - Gabrielle’s interest in them was more obvious and she wasn’t drawing parallels to herself in them, but rather to Xena. And that’s how you knew that she was just substituting her unrealized attraction to Xena with these warriors. Even later on with the female warriors that had interest in her, she was still constantly rooted on her idealisation of Xena. Of being a warrior or with one.

And that would always be unhealthy for her - unless it was Xena.

But yeah, the other romantic interests that weren’t warriors… She was just drawing parallels to herself even though she wasn’t that way either. At least she was very quickly moving away and separating herself from that. Again - just an idealised version of the real person. And look - Perdicus only ever became interesting to Gabrielle when he was no longer just a villager too. When he was also a warrior with a tortured soul. Someone she could save. Someone she could fix...

But she already had that person in her life and she was already doing that job and playing that role for that person. She already had exactly what she was looking for in a romantic partner in Xena. She just never realized it because she mistook her attraction to and affection for Xena as just hero worship and the fantasy of being an adventuress.

Season 1 just lays it on really thick that the Perfect Match for either one of them is clearly each other. They said they weren’t doing this intentionally and you can see that but they understood the romantic interest characters were just paralleling both their lead characters in that the traits in them are the reason they were attractive to them.

It’s much more obvious with Gabrielle than with Xena but even Xena had romantic interests that were just an idealised male version of what she loved in Gabrielle. What she found attractive and desirable.

So really they HAD TO come to the conclusion that they do in Season 2 that it’s EACH OTHER because otherwise you’d just get this paralleling happening constantly and not really a progression. And only Xena’s bad boy attraction ever makes sense because that’s Ares. That’s what Ares does for and to her. He isn’t an idealisation. He isn’t ever a fantasy for her. She genuinely is attracted to him and desires him. That’s the only romantic interest character that doesn’t feel like a poor attempt to cover up the fact that it’s Gabrielle she wants to be with. But then what happens is every "bad boy" romantic interest character she has ends up just being a parallel to Ares instead. So it’s always either just one or the other. Ares or Gabrielle. Dark or Light.

There never seems to be a point where Xena’s paired with a romantic interest to recognize herself like Gabrielle is because it’s never about realizing her identity or sexuality. It’s about balancing her nature.

But even so,... it’s obvious the Perfect Match for her is Gabrielle. And this goes on for 2 entire seasons until the half-way point of Season 2 raises the stakes and they have to acknowledge the truth of what’s going on with the narrative when it comes to the romantic aspect.

The real romance is, always was and always will be EACH OTHER.

It’s like Xena had to be bashed in the head, die and come back life for them to get to the point of “Oh, it’s you. You’re my true love. You’re my Perfect Match. You’re my soulmate. You're the one for me!"

Even then it takes them half the fucking length of the TV show to even commit to anything actually solid within their relationship. They know their feelings, they know each other’s feelings by that point but they are still so absolutely clueless. 🤦‍♀️ They have to be told. They have to get this information hand fed to them via reincarnation and AU crazy shenanigans before they can be like “Okay, we can’t deny it now. We’re clearly meant to be together for eternity… so should we perhaps go for an actual romance? Should we be an official couple?"

And it’s so meta how they do this because it’s both an in-show and out-of-show thing. It’s like the moment they decide both in-Universe and in real life that this is where they’re going with their progression.

It just works. It works so well for it to happen like this - for them to progress like this - and it is so interesting to delve into and explore the slow burnish-ness to their character dynamic because these characters discover each other in such a way that you rarely ever see in TV. And when you do see it, it’s never two lead female characters.

I’m just so grateful. I am so fucking grateful for XENA and for a team of creators/cast/crew that AGREED! I mean the way they set it up not even intending for anything like this to occur but it just... does.

Steven L. Sears is right. Is it really a surprise that these incredibly dynamic female lead characters would end up as a WLW love story?

No,... because how else could they have progressed individually? This was the natural trajectory because it made the most sense for both characters to evolve in this way AND to be their Perfect Match. And it is a queer narrative all the way through from episode 1 to the last because... at the end of the day THEY were the heart of all of it. Everything that happens, every narrative choice, every theme, every plot arc twist - it all wraps extremely tightly around their love story. It doesn't matter whether it was initially intended or not. It was THE WAY the story was heading naturally because it's a queer narrative and they let these lead characters evolve the way it felt most right and I feel they really took this relationship seriously as a romantic one precisely because they didn't just make it about a romance. That their "have their cake and eat it too" made this show phenomenal and I don't care what anyone says. It's THE BEST WLW representation.

But only because the creators/cast/crew went there. Only because they agreed. Only because they allowed it. Deep fucking RESPECT!

[subbykittyboythoughts]

Sorry can't be horny too busy playing DOOM mods after myhouse.pk3 got updated

[c-schroed]

First things first: The world of Nimona is a marvellous piece of worldbuilding. That being said...

The local cuisine quite clearly is skewed towards Tex-Mex dishes.

And can we please talk about that lovely little startle of the waiter. Such a great animation! I finally fell in love when they showed him for one additional, sweet split second. With the now obsolete nachos. Poor guy. Excellent movie.

[saphir3333]

I think it’s really important to be able to take an objective look at a show you like. Not everything has to be deep analysis, but it does matter what messages a show sends or the kind of first impression it gives. I see some people get super defensive whenever someone critiques their favorite show, but like… sometimes those criticisms are valid ?

I mean I for one am a huge fan of Osomatsu san but it would be lying to say that sometimes some jokes didnt age well or that some depictions of certain communties or cultures are bad (even for a satire or a comedy).

And it’s also always important to share those sentiments around our favourite shows to show that we are aware that some plot points may be poorly written but that we still enjoy the show despite this. Being able to spot problematic tropes or representation is what makes media evolve.

I think it’s important we talk about this more in fandoms. What are some shows you love that have this kind of complicated relationship for you ?

[blackdollsmatter]

LeBron James gets a Ken doll and some folks are calling it the "death of masculinity." Spoiler: it’s not. Grown men can buy dolls, appreciate culture, and still be strong. Masculinity isn’t dying—it’s evolving. 💪🏾✨ #Barbie #LeBron #Kenbassador #Masculinity #RepresentationMatters

[iguessitsjustme]

I'm just sayin. Rose knew exactly what the fuck she was doing when she guilted Jack into joining that dinner. She fucking knew what she was doing

[bibibusinessman]

I love how the invincible comic series became more diverse throughout its run. Like it was 2003 and we had lesbian war woman and then William came out as gay. Our main character is mixed and although most of the other main characters are white, we have a lot of black and asian heroes. Also we have Freddie Mercury Thragg and our zesty boy Conquest. The show took it a step further with even more diverse characters. There are so many strong female characters like Amber, Eve, and Debbie. Overall it may be the greatest piece of animation I've watched.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Bernard canonically isn't a twink, y'all just love to fling that as an insult to queer men- fictional and real.

[girl4music]

For straight allies they really were such good sports about this stuff.

Other straight allies that play queer or queer-coded characters would be much more hesitant to talk about the queer representation. But they always acknowledged the parts of the show that resonated for the LGBTQ community and they talked about it openly and lovingly.

I'll always have such gratitude to Lucy and Renee because I know that this is something that could have ruined their careers. But they didn't ever ignore. They didn't even recoil. They really embraced us as fans and they listened to what it was that made these characters so important for us. They fully acknowledged the interpretation that these characters were queer and they even understood as to why.

They wouldn't have paid any attention to a queer narrative otherwise.

I would have loved to have seen those other takes where they had Gabrielle go back to Potidaea and have Xena chase after her instead because that poker face she had on never fooled me. She was just as affected and influenced by their "first meeting" as Gabrielle was. 🥰

[thatstudyblrontea]

the real issue is whether indeed there can be a true representation of anything, or whether any and all representations, because they are representations, are embedded first in the language and then in the culture, institutions, and political ambience of the representer.

E. W. Said, Orientalism

[seahorsepencils]

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I'm so excited for this show.

[hermesseus]

[[ VENGEANCE SAGA SPOILERS ]]

I definitely believe it was Ares who aided Odysseus in Six Hundred Strike because Jorge has said that Ares has a power similar to Athena's quick thought that comes with heightened anger and adrenaline and Odysseus definitely sounds more rageful in the song.

Also I don't think Athena would have suggested torturing a god with his own weapon/symbol, even if Poseidon is her rival.

(I have not read the Odyssey so if the answer is known, yk, I didn't know that)

-- Fin 🍾

[fallandfigs]

It would have been so nice if Soon-Lee could have been introduced in Season 7 or 8 and we’d gotten multiple seasons of her individual development and her relationship with Klinger. Like, it’s two episode and one of the best love stories in the whole show. Sigh.

[nachoaveragejoe234]

dude Molly is the only black girl on this tweet. Courtney is said to be Latina and Indian by different showrunners. Alex is canon Latina, and Wordgirl might be Latina.

This makes me think of when ppl mention Gabriella, Ariel's mute friend from the Little Mermaid cartoon and say she's black. She's DEFINITELY NOT. Especially since she was based on and named after a REAL PERSON. A deaf, soon to be deceased, girl who was MIXED LATINA AND ITALIAN. Ppl still call her black and don't believe it when you correct them. Disrespectful to the parents whose late daughter has her fucking race debated by idiots and basically stripped of her humanity and life. Jesus fucking Christ ppl, stop it.

The automatic assumption of so many people in fandoms that every character with a darker skin color = black and every character with a lighter skin color = white. And the absolute outrage that ensues for some reason when artists draw dark-skinned Asian characters as Asian instead of black. More races than just black and white exist, people.