#i know enough of the internet to know that the buck and eddie ship is big but like let’s talk about the amazing relationships

[pendragonsclotpole]

hi i just started watching that 911 show in the background while working thinking it would be a basic cop show/procedural drama i could play for white noise to boost my productivity like i did with all six seasons of SWAT (shout out to shemar moore’s overly passionate pecs and BECAUSE SWAT IS FAMILY speeches and that one ryan and shane cameo for getting me through my job onboarding months ago) and avoid the attention issues i get with british legal and cop dramas (shout out to the current loml rupert penry jones on silk and whitechapel, his roles as clive reader and di chandler are iconic)

and like yes. 911 is exactly that. so cringey. so feel warm-y and trite in the worst ways possible, filled with random monologues, oddly paced and placed one-liners, random quote intros that desperately try to replicate the word bangers of criminal minds, unnecessary flashbacks interspersed in the worst episode arcs ever and completely destroying the suspense, and with the weirdest combination of over-acting and under-acting in the entire fucking world that i have ever seen, and some entire scenes i just cannot stand to watch but do anyway because of how unrealistic and ridiculous they are but oh my god when this show hits its high points, it hits them

i need angela bassett’s athena grant to come and railroad my life. i want her to point her finger in my face and threaten to cuff me to my bed like she did that boyfriend in that season one episode (and yes THAT HAPPENED THANK GOD THE BUCK CENTRIC SEXY SCENES DID NOT LAST AS LONG AS SOME OTHER SHOWS COUGH SWAT COUGH BUT WHY NO MORE ATHENA?) you my friends have not lived until you’ve seen her on the other end of a huge tv screen raising her eyebrow and acting like she’s about to beat you up with nothing more than her commanding tone.

and also like all the other fucking characters.

i watched this show hoping to have inane drama and dialogue watching over me while i send emails and plan. i did not watch this show to bite my nails over maddie buckley’s psycho ex husband storyline, nor to swoon over the romance between to her and chimney (howard han i would die for you, your bg episode was so sad but so beautiful and if you had died i wouldve been so sad, yours were the flashbacks that won me over), nor to fangirl over ROBERT FUCKING NASH AND HIS GUILT COMPLEX (I LOVE YOU BOBBY), or to have my heart grow three sizes with the fucking tsunami episode

like you guys, i was on the edge of my seat, eating my dinner and actually wondering if they were about to kill off christopher diaz and break my heart and buck’s heart and ruin everything and like they didnt but now evan buckley’s character growth is such an inspiration and i just dont want him to fuck it up by trying to go back to work early and ahhhhhhhhhhh this was supposed to be a casual watch but now im writing this so im gonna have to find something else or worse go back to watching silk or whitechapel in the bg and be enraptured by rupert

[louisjude]

im a multishipper. i ship buddie and bucktommy. but if im being honest one side is being incredibly more hateful and toxic than the other side. (aka the one thats been around longer) maybe i’ve taken off my rose-colored shipping glasses, but seeing ppl make hate posts abt tommy/lou gives me the ick. it makes me actually realize why oliver left twt. bitterness will get you nowhere. if buddie is meant to happen then it’ll happen. you cannot force it to happen. everything i’ve seen and read tells me buddie was more of a consideration pre-s5 than it is currently. and that fucking sucks but just because things aren’t going your way doesn’t mean you need to get on the internet and be a bully. it’s truly mind-boggling to see people so intense in their hate for a character that has righted his wrongs, who is now friends with the people he wronged, is well-liked among said characters and is now being a positive influence on buck’s newfound sexuality. their dynamic is also nothing new, pessimist/optimist ship dynamics have been around forever and it’s only a problem because it’s not eddie.

i would be happy for buddie to go canon as much as the next guy. getting buck canonically bisexual is mind-blowing enough in itself, i’m glad we’re witnessing it at all. if ryan doesn’t want to do buddie because he feels its important they stay friends then so be it. platonic friendships between a queer man and straight man are important, especially one that runs so deep like buck and eddie’s. sure, their friendship could be read as romantic throughout the show, but partly because oliver and ryan truly share a great chemistry on screen which helps lean into it but also because these shows are not written with an endgame in mind. 9-1-1 is very much a go with the flow show, and if bucktommy is where the show is flowing then that’s what is meant to be. invisible string theory isn’t because ppl think it was always planned from the beginning, it’s because it’s amazing how well buck and tommy becoming a couple comes together so perfectly out of pure coincidence.

we know buck was supposed to be made queer long ago. we also know maddie originally was brought in for eddie but was put with chimney instead. if tim minear hadn’t left after s4 i truly think buddie could have been already established by now, but unfortunately that isn’t how things work. perhaps the idea of tommy and eddie was pitched but ultimately ryan didn’t agree it would work for these character nor the story being told at the time. buck was already supposed to be queer, so turning it to tommy and buck instead makes total sense.

no one is saying you aren’t allowed to continue to ship buddie. most ships in the world are ships that have never gone canon. buddie is valid even if it’s non-canon. god knows i will continue to read and write for them and enjoy them whilst also enjoying buck and tommy together. the behavior i’ve been seeing though is just weird, especially from larger creators who i understand are very passionate for buddie, but it’s weird when you flip it into tommy/lou hate instead of just talking about buddie itself.

perhaps the theories will be true. we don’t know! maybe buck and tommy won’t last and buddie will be endgame. i’m happy either way because buck’s sexuality is so important for him and at the current state of the show eddie is absolutely not ready for anything romantic because he’s still grieving shannon to a point where he is not ready to move on romantically just yet and we’re literally shown this. even if buddie is happening, it is not happening by the season finale nor is it probably happening by the beginning of s8 considering the current storylines and where they’ll be at by the end of this season. lou probably isn’t going anywhere and from the looks of it, we’ll probably be bumped up into a semi-regular character in s8 like karen. he’s easy to write into the plot, he’s got connections to people and emergencies outside of buck that would integrate him well into the plot. their romance is supposed to be “romcom” esque, they’re taking things slow but they’re obviously happy together at the moment.

im just really tired of the nasty attitudes ive been seeing. sure theres are som toxic people on both sides, but to me its obvious which side is being the bigger bully. reality checks needs to be put in place for some people, go outside and realize you are getting way too worked up over a tv show where plotlines are out of your control. if the show is ruined for you over one relationship then stop watching it.

[lover-of-mine]

OK I need your perspective or for you to talk me down. But looking at like the 100th party where Ryliver were just so soft... To like now how soft. I can never let go of this feeling that they are tired of not doing this story already. Maybe even slightly frustrated over it. How they would probably roll their eyes at the BT shipper that's like season 10 no sooner. Like these men aren't waiting two more seasons!!! I can't shake a feeling they are more desperate to do it then we are to see it. And no I'm not saying they are doing anything in RL. But they are artists. I can't imagine sitting on a potential story for 7 years. Every season production gets you close then says nope maybe next year. Like the worse form of edging!!!

Or maybe I'm just being crazy!!

I'm going to start this answer with a disclaimer that this is speculation and I have no way of knowing how Oliver and Ryan actually feel about buddie actually going canon.

Okay, so here's the thing, Oliver and Ryan they know what buddie could do to their career, it is very obvious that they are fully aware of what being the one m/m couple who actually became a couple could do for them. And we know that it was supposed to be Eddie and that it was switched to Buck mid production so I think they were under the impression that both of them were going to come out at some point in s7. I think that the way that they played 701 is very "we are both getting out" yk? It feels very "it's going to happen this time". They probably don't want to gamble the possibility of not delivering that if it keeps getting delayed because it would be great for them. The bisexual arc did a lot for Oliver and being the one m/m couple that drove the internet crazy that actually got together would give them even more, and honestly they seem to know that it makes sense within the story to get Buck and Eddie together. And the 100th episode party they were closer than usual and there were the jokes that they were sleeping together or that buddie had made out at some point because they looked a lot more comfortable in each other's space then before, like the way that Ryan opened a button on Oliver's shirt and the way he didn't even flinch is a good example, and honestly, two actors who play two characters who might been on the verge of making the switch from platonic to romantic would work on their reactions to each other and they seem to be good enough friends to be fine with doing this type of preparation, I'm not even thinking anything much, just the concept of not reacting to being closer than usual. And sure, they were filming the bachelor party during that so maybe there was just something transferring from the scene that they were filming, but this is 6 years in the making, Buck's bi, and they wanted to get Eddie out first. There is no way that they weren't like "huh they're going to get us together" that assuming that they that the show didn't straight up tell them "we're pulling the trigger, it's happening this season" then changed the plans after the reaction to Tommy, because we know that they rewrote and rearrange everything from 707 to 710, so there is a chance that both of them were told that they were going to be out by the end of the season which would lead to buddie, like there is no way to get both of them out and not get buddie together, and I think that what happened is that the good reaction to Buck being bisexual made them realize that if they made Eddie queer in the same season, they would be losing a lot in promotion because they could use Ryan and the confirmation of buddie to just have a huge promotion run for s8 the same way that Buck's bisexuality made the promotion for s7.

And I think that's why Oliver looked as frustrated that he did by the end of the season because he kind of got pushed to the background because they didn't know what to do exactly with Buck especially, with the way that the bisexuality became a ship war, it took away from about his identity, but now they're back at the state that they were in the beginning of season 7 and they have a whole season to play. But the thing is, all the problems that happened that have been happening, they make it so it is really hard to gamble in bringing another love interest in (specially because even Oliver in getting heat), I mean, we are in the 8th combined love interest, it's enough, it's been long enough, and everyone involved has to know that. And we know that fox was the one that was blocking buddie in the past, because blocking Buck bi means blocking buddie, and now they are not being blocked by a network, they have the support. So they are probably like "okay are we going to do it, we need to do this". Because it would be great for their career and they seem to actually enjoy the idea of going there, yk? They look very happy to be filming together, so, yeah, kinda think that there is a part of them that's like "okay, let's speed things up, it's been long enough, we keep making the characters or go around and around and around for nothing" and now it's actually for nothing because Buck being bi makes them possible and it would be a groundbreaking thing for their career to be part of that relationship because if Buck and Eddie get together they will be a genre defining couple because they would be the first and they have such a solid foundation already, the things it could do to their careers is insane, for me it makes total sense for them to want this to happen.

[laurenttheninth]

Oliver would do us all a favour by finally snaping. The people asking thes damned Buddie questions are as transparent as it can get- they know their audience and it is not 30 to 40 year old gay men or Nadine from Nebraska who like the Tommy fella. So they will ask as long as Oliver lets them. The fandom pounces on him the most and he gets these questions the most because he is the most receptive to them. Ryan was on the "Eddie is straight" tour last season and is on his "fight against toxic masculinity" tour this season. He also is not as reactive to Buddie stans complaints as Oliver is on his SM. JLH and Kenny flat out said people should get over Buddie.

Nobody is saying he should go out and flat out deny Buddie will ever happen, he can´t. But a simple "Buck is with (insert: Taylor, Natalia, Tommy) and not interested in anybody else" could help to stop that line of questioning in the moment. Because all the hedging and all the `I don´t knows' and 'we´ll sees' clearly don´t cut it.

ultimately i don't think it's oliver's responsibility to prevent any of this.

they're actors. their job is to perform the characters as written by the writers and as interpreted by collaboration between themselves, their directors, and the rest of the creative team. i think whether or not anyone is more or less "receptive" to questions about a ship is irrelevant in the extreme, especially since these actors do not have the luxury of refusing to answer questions in things like a promo interview they are contracted to participate in with questions that have been vetted by a publicity team. we don't know what their media training looks like; it's very possible he's contractually not permitted to do more or less than give those "vague" answers -- my argument is he shouldn't be constantly getting these questions.

what it all comes down to is that a) artist harassment by "journalists" and "fans" is a labour rights issue we don't take seriously enough, b) inserting shipping culture/priorities into every press opportunity is fundamentally disrespectful to the actor and their craft, c) it is my opinion that constant fan bombardment around shipping is borderline if not out-and-out sexual harassment, especially since people do not uphold a distinction between character and actor.

i cannot imagine what it's like to walk into work every day and know that any interaction your character has with their on-screen best friend is going to be hyperanalyzed by thousands of obsessive strangers on the internet -- especially when you have almost ZERO control over what those interactions look like. i cannot imagine trying to build trust with a coworker playing your love interest, knowing the degree of harassment and vitriol that actor will face simply because they're the "wrong" person being paid to pretend to be in love with you. to know that no matter what you get to do with this character, there is a vocal minority who will not be satisfied unless you're stagekissing one particular person. oliver stark was a newcomer who landed a starring role on a show boasting names like angela fucking bassett, and the only thing anyone can fucking talk about is who his character is or isn't in love with?

fundamentally i believe the fandom firewalls need to go back up. i think we all need to keep our shipping shit to ourselves, as a matter of simple fucking courtesy.

[outrunningthedark]

On the post where you mentioned it effecting Tim's career, it reminded me of discourse I see among the Buddie fandom that it going canon would make the ratings skyrocket and help everyone's careers...

And I'm just like, please get off the internet for a day, and hangout with real people.

Lol, even though it's nice to think about canon Buddie changing things for the better, I never quite understand this argument when the things OG fandom criticizes LS and Tarlos for could very well apply to our ship if the GA isn't willing to accept a canon romance. There's no guarantees that the casual viewer will agree with the way Buddie (hypothetically) gets together. There's no guarantees that the casual viewer will find Buddie more interesting as a couple than as close friends. There's no guarantees that the casual viewer thinks both actors are pulling their weight. For all we know the casual viewer already thinks this without seeing Buddie as anything more than friends. The households that factor into the ratings who would watch for Buddie are already watching for Buddie. In whatever way they can get. So how much of a boost are we talking about, really? And if the GA tunes out while new people are tuning in? What will the numbers look like then? If we're lucky enough to see Buck or Eddie become #confirmed queer, never mind in a relationship with each other, I hope people begin to understand what it took for Tim, a man that has DECADES worth of evidence of homophobia in Hollywood, to finally commit to telling a story that matters TO HIM.

[matan4il]

Inspired by the anon who mentioned the 20% because honestly, I noticed it too. Maybe it's also because I live in CA and can't afford a down payment. I really liked how 911 leaned into the homeowner issue even with a couple in their 40s with decent jobs. There isn't a level of pride I wouldn't cross to as Chin said, "we got the house". So curious on your thought on something.

I loathe Bucks loft. Honestly, I just don't think it's him. First, it was the frat house, then Abbys, and the loft inspired by pretentious Abby. May I reflect on how much I hated that closet comment, but thank the mighty lord they cut straight to the internet shipping our boys. The loft was always a reflection of her I guess to me. So if we don't end the season with Buddie roommates I would love to see him move.

I have always pictured him in a cute cottage core 2 bedroom apartment. The colors are blues and yellow and plants all over. But also and I don't why, but he lives in a complex with alot of older people. And he carries their groceries. Eddie finally figures out he got a ground floor and takes Chris every Sunday because they do water arobics with the ladies. Clearly, he researched how helpful it is in PT. Plus, during the heatwave, he has Je and Chris. I don't know I picture cute cozy, and not a party scene at all.

It's like I think the Jeep is the most authentic expression of his personality. It reminds him of his sister. He probably keeps little mementos in it. You will have to drag him away from it the day the mechanic is like we can't fix this lol. That's how I picture his livable space.

Do you like the loft and if we can't have the family under one roof at the end what is the space you dream of for Buck.

Hi Nonnie! Thank you, and I hope you know every opinion about the loft is legit, so if you don't like it? Valid.

Personally, I don't hate it. Yes, it is not something that's cozy and warm enough for me to feel like it truly reflects Buck's personality, I very much agree with you there. He did get it when he was dating Ali, but I didn't get the feeling that she was pushing him into getting this place. I think he WAS excited to get it, that it was the first place that was gonna be truly his. And I think Buck himself likes it. So what made him happy? Makes me happy, too. I would be happier when he gets a place that does reflect his personality, but I never hated the loft. And it gave us such great moments! I do feel it's significant that the most domestic moments this place provided were always with Eddie and Chris. In Buck's kitchen, balcony and living room. Fuck, even his bedroom, in 301, when Eddie just barged in there and just... dommed Buck out of his bed and his funk. These are places that are all marked by special Buckley-Diaz memories, so I'll treasure that.

But yeah, I totally get what you're picturing and I agree that it's much more suitable for who Buck is as a person. The loft feels like it was designed to scream, "bachelor!" which very much doesn't encompass who Buck is, but it also doesn't really show how domestic his life actually is. And in that sense, personally I just really need him to move in with Eddie and Chris and never move out. They're his home. No other dwelling will ever capture that completely, so please 911, just let them be one family under one roof.

Hope this wasn't too disappointing of an answer. XD Have a great day, lovely! As always, here's my ask tag. xoxox

[ghostsmp3]

911. You know the drill. :D

I DO KNOW THE DRILL MY FRIEND

favorite character: bobby. duh

funniest character: bobby "i dropped my phone in a dumpster" nash but also chimney and hen <3 they're the dream team

best-looking character: athena. it's angela fucking bassett like come on

three favorite ships: lets be real it's bathena and then henren and then who cares (but it's madney in third)

least favorite character: it's either eddie or buck and that honestly just depends on my mood and what episode/season i'm watching

least favorite ship: buddie like. they're fine in canon i have no problem there whatsoever it's the fans that make me want to gouge my eyes and ears out 24/7

reason why i watch it: there's so much heart <3 like it's cheesy and extra and cliche and FUN. yes the characters are repeatedly getting traumatized but that's just the icing on the cake

why i started watching it: ironically enough it was because the internet was losing its mind over eddie getting shot in s4 and i was like well damn sure i'll watch that

[trippedandfell]

Ok i’ve seen you post about it a few times and now i’m interested - what hockey rpf fics would you reccomend for a buddie shipper?

omg anon!! i’ve been waiting for a reason to post a bunch of hrpf recs, and you’ve just given me the perfect excuse <3

the fun thing about hrpf is that it’s such a big universe, so there’s tons of ships that have excellent fic written for them. the downside of that is that it’s a lot harder to get a grasp on the characters and their stories because, again, there’s so. many. of them. i normally start off by doing a quick scan of wikipedia and then googling events as they come up in the fic (for instance, the 2020 asg), but you do whatever works best for you! i know there’s a fair number of primers floating around on the internet, especially for newer ships, but i haven’t read most of them in detail, so i can’t really vouch for any of them. 

i found the easiest way to categorize this is in terms of what kind of buddie fic you like, so here we go - apologies that it got so long!!

if you like…

buck and eddie as coparents

you’ll probably be a fan of brioux! this article sums it up well, but the tl;dr of it all is - a twenty-something guy moves in with a newly-single father and his three sons and uh. proceeds to basically coparent them. (they did a christmas card together, y’all. it included their dogs. it still makes me feral every time i think about it.)

some personal favourites of mine include:

this exes-to-lovers wedding fic

this one where danny goes back to school, which gives off the Strongest eddie vibes

season one disaster buck

you’ll probably like tyler and jamie! disaster himbo + awkward, anxious captain - these two are wonderful and they have so. much. fic.

some faves include:

the fic of all time, or the soulmate time loop au

the one where tyler works in pr

the obligatory amnesia au

this one, which basically answers the question of “what if season one buck dated eddie”

best friends in love

you’ll probably like tk and nolan! enjoy bitchy teasing, enough hurt/comfort to make you cry for a week straight, and some of the most fun aus i’ve ever read.

there are so many I could pick, but reccing:

the. uh. the onlyfans au

this one, featuring tk as a teacher with the biggest buck energy

this small-town werewolf au

and, if you feel like getting your heart broken, this one about the 2022-2023 season

the dynamic from 2x01

no one does hatesex and rivals to lovers like mattdrai! if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if buck and eddie stayed enemies longer, here you go.

recs include:

this one, where they both wait out the lockout in germany

this secret relationship amnesia au

this 2022-2023 season au, which owns my entire heart and soul

this one, where they both end up playing for st. louis

the dynamic from 2x01, but with even more inadequacy issues

first overall and second overall that were constantly pitted against each other leading up to (and following) the draft. jack and connor are everything to me, tbh.

some of my faves include:

this estranged husband au (soooo many buddie vibes)

the words with friends au that lives in my head rent-free

this one where they take a road trip, which fucked me up for a solid week

the fucking. parallel universe au

this one, which kills me every time i reread it

and then just some other favourites:

this one, which is just. so fucking well-written

this jack/nolan bitch4bitch fic

the entirety of this warped tour au

this ghost hunter au

this one, about messy 20 year olds in love

there are sooo many more i could include but in the interest of keeping my sanity intact i’m going to stop here!! for further recs, i’ll direct you over to @grittyreadsfic, who is genuinely a joy to have in both the 911 and hrfp fandoms.

happy reading <3

[hoediaz]

who is agn? i've seen loads of posts about 'her' but idk who she is or what's going on

sorry to be an absolute bitch but she is the worst blog on this website for real. putting this under a read more so people who don’t suffer rage black outs don’t have to deal with this.

chelsea mentioned some of her highlights before which include some overt racism and homophobia but last night she really decided to up her game. first, she spent weeks pulling the word retcon out of her ass and slapping it on every plot point she doesn’t like or understand instead of rubbing together two brain cells to even attempt to comprehend how narratives might work (including eddie ana’s break up since, according to her, eddie was Clearly in love with ana in 4x13 during the follow your heart scene and yet at the same time he was a misogynist and treated her terribly :/ did you know panic attacks are misogynistic? shame all those panic attacks i’ve had have been out of misogyny and not mental illness if only i had known id be able to attend agn’s school of feminism and cure myself). but then with the end of bt (aka the departure of her most beloved girl boss who can do no wrong, since i don’t think she cares about bt at all past taylor since she actively hates buck) (and yet. while she hates buck she never treats him with the same vitriol she gives eddie. now i’d say that’s racism but according to her eddie’s white so! guess it’s texas phobic or something :/) she went completely off the rails.

part of this was of course! saying it was a retcon despite the multiple references to dosed but what can we expect from someone who learned the word retcon last week and never bothered to dig up the meaning. it’s ok i get it i did the same in the ninth grade with words like pathetic fallacy and i don’t think you need anything higher than a ninth grade education to work at fox news. anyway! that led to saying anyone celebrating the bt break up is a misogynist! bc idk if you knew this but apparently 911 is the taylor kelly show and everything should be about HER development, not buck’s, and if you celebrate buck’s development you’re a woman hater just like eddie ❤️ now EYE am actually a woman hater because i think taylor kelly and owen strand should move to ohio together to start a bed and breakfast, the bt bones celebration was just a bonus.

and when that wasn’t enough absolute bullshit stupidity for one night, she decided to use her time to type out a post onto oliver stark’s internet in which she called buck a “dirty firefighter” for not wanting his gf to report on an incident that involved his family, equating him to dirty cops that protect other corrupt cops. because that’s a totally fucking proportional reaction to having your fictional ship break up, because police corruption is not a genuine thing that happens in real life and impacts real people who aren’t taylor fucking kelly. i fr even hours later don’t even have the words to put together to express how fucking stupid and insensitive and offensive that is. it is genuinely beyond me how you could ever in your life see a FICTIONAL couple break up and become so fucking unhinged you think it’s ok to make light of real issues to force a fictional character into some make believe villain role just so you can avenge a side character on a ryan murphy production. get some fucking help for real.

anyway last night when she posted i reblogged it calling her an idiot and she immediately blocked me, just like she blocked every other person who tried to reblog it to point out how offensive that was which is always a good sign that you’re being rational.

oh also she said taylor and lucy should be together which was just personally offensive to me, a lucy understander, and then also, since miss agn can’t go three seconds without being generally offensive, she has to say taylor/lucy would be better than buddie bc buck and eddie are [checks notes] white men and taylor and lucy are oh dear…. yeah :/

in conclusion agn is racist, homophobic, terminally fucking stupid, and also cowardly to boot and i hope she has an absolutely terrible day. i hope fox news fires her. i hope megan west never has a job again just to spite agn. bt is finally bones and the fact that that makes agn feral is all i need, get fucked agn.

[lover-of-mine]

I think purposely bad. And made worst. Because Tim didn't expect between episode 4 and 5 that those shippers would create a whole new character that never existed. Or that on the side Lou would financially gain and feed them head canons. So now he's like look... Don't you see he sucks.

I actually truly believe the medal ceremony was supposed to be his last scene of the season, then come back for an Ana style break-up. If you look at it organically, there was no reason for the daddy joke scene, and we know he wasn't supposed to be there. I think it was to create an off-putting scene where if he chooses, he could do an off-screen break up and avoid queer baiting accusations.

Lou has already created too much tension. He could still do a break up within a few episodes, but I'm not sure if Tim wants to have the head aches Lou brings... Closing down his cameo is the only reason I think he could be back for a bit. But if that's the case, then he definitely had a meeting, you know.

Okay, first of all, this may sound mean and not trying to and this isn't targeted to you I just keep seeing queerbaiting allegations and you used the word, but Buck is queer, the queerbaiting ship has sailed, a queer storyline not going the way we expected is not queerbaiting. Whatever they do with Buck's love life, there is no queerbaiting just because it feels unsatisfying to us. They marketed Buck as queer and Buck is bi. Not liking the way it was done doesn't change that.

But on the Lou thing, I agree that they didn't plan on having Lou stick around for the whole season, but the relationship was better accepted than anticipated and they are capitalizing on it. Full conspiracy theory, but I think that with how Oliver refuses to talk about bt, and how Ryan changed his tune after 706, something happened behind the scenes that went against what they were told the beginning of the season, because again, a tv show is a living organism that needs to adapt to the circumstances in which is airing, bt brought audience, keep him around a bit longer. The kink scene was there to remind us of how bad Gerrard is, but we could've had that reminder happen with Chim or Hen, so yeah, he didn't have to be there, but keeping bt alive during the hiatus keeps the numbers up while giving shippers time to cool off. And considering the publicity that came with Buck being bi, if they are planning on eventually getting to buddie, they are probably anticipating a similar level of publicity to come from queer Eddie, so they spaced it out to get the most out of both arcs. Especially because queer Eddie has to mean canon buddie and that would break the internet. I don't blame Lou for trying to capitalize from the ship, it keeps him on the role longer and it is exposure, but obviously, there's controlled chaos brought on by the high of a confirmation that a character is queer and there's *gestures vaguely* whatever is going on. There is a chance T will get the Ali treatment, there's a chance he will get the Ana treatment, but there is also the chance he will get the Taylor treatment and stick around while being a bad match for Buck, we don't know the plan and we don't know if Lou created enough problems for them to want to write him off. T is being shown to us in a very specific way, but they can still turn it around if they chose to, because we don't know enough. He is in the same spot Taylor was during s4 so it will all depend on how he will be handled during s8. Sure fanon T is not the character that exists on the show and Lou's cameos probably were shut down because it was creating a level of expectation they didn't plan on delivering, but at this point it could still go in any direction, we can't say anything for sure.

[trippedandfell]

hello i am in ur house ravi becomes tiktok famous???

ahhh this fic concept is genuinely such a fave of mine but i don't know if it'll ever see the light of day! also asked about by @probieravi and @buckbuckbuck <3

Look. Ravi doesn’t mean to become famous.

And yeah, he knows that’s the most cliche line in the book, the soundbite that everyone gives during interviews. But he really, genuinely means it: he doesn’t mean to become famous.

Like most of the internet, he downloads TikTok near the middle of March 2020, urged on by a desperate need for escapism and quite a few bottles of beer. He isn’t planning to post anything, he really isn’t, but then an audio goes around asking people to show off the coolest feature in their home, so he videos the station quickly and puts it up.

It gets 750,000 views in less than 24 hours.

“What,” Bobby says hoarsely after Ravi tells him, and then they spend the next twenty minutes making him an account.

“I can just take the video down,” he offers, as Bobby stares at his For You page with an odd mix of terror and panic on his face.

“No,” Bobby says slowly, scrolling past a video of someone (quite sloppily, in Ravi’s professional opinion) trying to do the renegade. “No, this is fine. Let me talk to the Chief.”

Luckily, because it’s LA, and there’s a wannabe actor on every corner, the precedent’s already been set on how to become a public-facing firefighter figure (which, Ravi cannot stress enough, is not something he was planning to do). But the Chief seems weirdly invested in it, and so does the LAFD’s PR department, and somehow @firefighterravi becomes an official, professionally-approved account. 

The rest of the 118, predictably, finds it hilarious.

Basically the rest of the plot would just be people shipping Buck and Eddie when they appear in the back of the videos, and I wanted to work Sebastian (my beloved) in there somewhere, and then I wanted to touch a bit on the nature of internet fame and people coming up to Ravi and filming him and him figuring out how to negotiate brand deals and keep his private life his, and it was just going to be a lot of fun! I'm the worst at describing videos, though, which is why this one is shelved for the moment.