#cuz the point of queerbait is to make it obvious that they like each other to get a bigger audience

[diazley]

What I don't like about any of the relationships Buck and Eddie have had is the relationship their love interests have had with the other, that is, their best friend.

As someone who values their friendships a lot and see their best friends as platonic soulmates, if I did have a partner, I'd want my partner and best friend to not only get along, but be good friends as they're both important people in my life and both of them will have to see each other quite often since I will spend most of my time with them.

(The ideal relationship between a LI and best friend would be like the relationship Patrick and Alex from Schitt's Creek have, where they hang out without David, roast David together and just have a really fun time together with/without David.)

We haven't seen Chim and Karen hang out a lot, but they've known each other a long time and have known each other separately outside of Hen and Karen's relationship. He set them up because be knew Karen enough to know that her and Hen would make a good match. And we might not have seen them spend a lot of time together, but we have seen them get drunk together. Karen thought Hen was cheating on her and immediately went to Chim because she's close enough to him to talk about Hen and he knows Hen well. Hence we can assume they are very close and are good friends.

It can also be assumed that she is very close to the rest of the firefam with what we've seen in the show.

In Athena's case, just like in Karen's case like how she knew Chim before being in a relationship with his best friend, she knew and was friends with Hen before even meeting Bobby. And she's always had a close relationship with the firefam as a whole because of calls and of course because of Bobby, but we've also seen evidence that she's close to each and every single one of them (I think we've barely seen Chimney and Athena interact, if not at all, but Bobby and Athena literally host parties all the time and Athena visits the firehouse more often than not and by way of Hen, there's no way they're not close).

Now if we look at all of Buck and Eddie's romantic relationships, Abby and Taylor are the only ones who have even interacted with the firefam. Shannon, Ali and Ana most probably have interacted with them but we haven't seen any instances of them interacting with the firefam as a whole if I remember correctly (Shannon once stormed into the firehouse to see Eddie, I don't think we've ever since Ali talk to anyone in the firefam except Eddie, and we've seen Ana talk to Ravi that one time)

Abby

In Buck n Eddie case, their relationships to each other's partners have not been friendships but acquaintanceships

Eddie disliked Taylor for obvious reasons. Everybody did.

We've seen Eddie talking to Ali during the earthquake rescue but never after that. He could've talked to her offscreen but my point is they were not close. They were acquaintances at best.

Abby had a relationship with the firefam, wouldn't see a great one but they acknowledged her and they got along even though they didn't see her as an extended family member like they see Karen.

If they don't make Buddie canon, and they're planning on bringing new love interests in the future then I would like to see that kind of relationship play out.

It does not seem logical to introduce a new LI who will form a close relationship with the firefam even though it is possible and time consuming.

So Buddie IS the most logical way to go at this point of the show, but that's up to the writers and I'm not at all sure they'll go for it cuz I have trust issues (victim of the Supernatural Queerbait Destiel Disaster). But that's just me. So have faith, o ye Buddie fans, for all hope is not lost until the show has ended.

TL;DR: Biggest issue I've had with all of Buck and Eddie's romantic relationships is that their lovers have never had a close relationship with Eddie and Buck respectively and/or the firefam.

Also, as a side note, I really wanna see Maddie n Eddie interact.

And Maddie and Karen.

And Buck and Karen (have we ever seen them talk to each other? This is unforgivable!)

This was rather poorly written. I don't know how comprehensive it is because I was too lazy to edit it properly. So if you read this till the end, thank you so much. This is for you 🌹

[demadogs]

genuine question for those who have been brutally queerbaited: did the bait go beyond just the script that directed the behavior of the characters? like did you think the characters would get together just because they were flirting or were there also subtle cinematic film choices that alluded to the characters being romantically coded?

and lets ignore any questionable social media posts from official accounts about the characters. only think about the show itself. were there SUBTLE film choices that were queercoded? if any of these were bait for you, think about how subtle it was. was it painfully obvious and hard to ignore or did you have to really read between the lines to notice it? did you have to provide actual evidence to convince people they were romantically coded or could everyone see it from a mile away?

were scenes romantically coded through emotional music, color pallets, and/or close ups?

was there a straight relationship with one of the characters that was shown drastically different through the lighting, framing, music, color pallets, etc?

did they subtly associate either or both of the characters with things like rainbows and open closets?

did the original score have questionably titled tracks that alluded to any romantic feelings or being closeted that played during scenes of the two characters?

did they reuse any tracks from the original score that were previously used with a canon established couple?

were there subtle parallels between the two characters to established couples?

were the characters often placed next to each other while other canon couples in the same scene were also placed next to each other?

now if we’re talking about behavior alone, did either character have questionable or rude behavior that could have been a result of internalized homophobia? i think of queerbaiting more so of just alluding to two characters liking each other but if you were queerbaited, were there any clues to the character struggling with or questioning their sexuality too?

if there was a straight relationship with one of the characters, did it seem forced or like the character was trying to be someone theyre not?

did the dynamic between the two characters change because one of them was suddenly ignoring them or attempting to ignore them? was there ever an explanation for that?

did a character ever say something that could be considered homophobic but could have also been a result of projecting their own internalized homophobia?

did you see one of the characters ever look at someone else of the same gender in a way that seemed like they may have had a little crush on them?

if there was something else that went beyond just the characters looking at each other or kinda flirting with each other and it was queerbait, tell me what it was and how subtle it was.

[seluvian]

I think there's a lot of good points in this post that I really agree with. I disagree with the simplified definition of queerbaiting, though. It's not as simple as 'oh the showrunners said they'd be gay then didn't deliver', in fact that's very rare, only one show that I can think of actually said yeah they're gay and then didn't deliver. But I've seen a loooot of shows that queerbait. So then, what's queerbaiting, in my opinion?

Queerbaiting is when the show has two dynamic, charismatic leads of the same gender, and these leads have so much chemistry. They start giving each other really intense looks, getting physically close to each other, maybe behaving and speaking in ways that are suggestive of romance, really selling that they're into each other, building up the tension of will they? Won't they? And the audience is hanging on it, because of course they will, they're constantly orbiting each other, they have this chemistry, this romantically (in some cases even sexually) suggestive but not quite undeniable way of talking to each other. It's glaringly obvious that they're going to be an item, we've all seen this exact story play out in countless straight ships since the dawn of modern media. We know how this goes! And if nothing ever happened, then I'd agree. It's not queerbaiting. It's just gay subtext! But that's not usually how this goes.

And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, with no build up, one of the characters is suddenly wildly, madly in love with a random character of a different gender. I've even seen a brand new character introduced for two episodes with the sole function of breaking up the queerness that was brewing. Literally, the character showed up and then died after a few scenes, but left one half of the queer couple(that never officially was) with an obsessive and undying love for her. (If you know what show I'm talking about, my heart goes out to you cuz that was some shit, huh.)

No one needs to explicitly state that a character is meant to be queer in order to 'officially' make it queerbaiting. We know what we're looking at. We understand those story beats, we know what a building romance looks like on tv. It's everywhere, and unfortunately, it's pretty much always the same. We can recognize it. And when all those beats are there and then after they've hooked the audience, the showrunners do a sharp turn like that? Especially when, in a lot of these shows, they make the straight ship so....I don't know how to describe it, but so blatant and intense, as if to mock the idea that we could ever think this character would be queer. It feels like a slap in the face, like... wait what happened? How did we get here? THAT, is queerbaiting.

Think of it like this. What is bait? Is it when a hunter yells "hey deer, come check this out!! Over here!" No. Bait is a lure. It's a trick. Bait is something that is hidden and disguised as something good, with the sole intention of drawing the target in, unaware. And that's what these shows are doing. They know that if they queer it, we will come. We'll inflate their ratings and boost their popularity, spread the word and bring in more viewers. We'll line their pockets with our hope. And they know they'll never have to deliver.

So. That's my twenty cents!

also i desperately need certain people on tumblr to understand that not all examples of homoerotic subtext or gay coding are queerbaiting. i know its a joke that this site has like zero media analysis skills but you have to at least understand that queerbaiting is a marketing strategy intentionally targeting and exploiting lgbt people looking for representation with no intention to deliver. its not just your ship not being explicitly canon even though theres chemistry, sometimes that chemistry might be intentional subtext, and that doesnt inherently make it a false promise of representation. it just means its gay subtext or coding.

unless they promise to make it clearly stated and dont deliver then theres no issue with that on its own. its still there in the text, even if you have to look at it beyond a surface level reading (scary i know). you cant point to characters behaving homoerotically in the actual series as an example of queerbaiting theyre literally being gay on-screen, even if its not explicitly stated.