#not BuckTaylor friendly

[outrunningthedark]

I am honestly shocked (as a pretty unbiased party) at the GA’s reaction to the bucktommy breakup. I’d hedge a bet that Tim and co are too! I think they knew that bucktommy was fairly well received (by the general audience and not the loud minority) but i don’t think that they realised those same people who were so flippant about Buck’s prior love interests would keep caring to the extent they have. That people would care enough to express their disappointment in a rational manner - not resorting to name calling etc etc. I do wonder where they plan to go from here (or if they even have a plan) because the idea that Buck jumps back to sleeping around now or diving head first into another relationship eight seasons in…. is jarring and i do wonder how the GA will react to that after this week

I think you’ve brought up an important point re: the reaction to prior love interests, and the funny thing is Tim and his staff only have themselves to blame.

Everyone Buck has been with before Tommy has been a woman. Buck was, for all intents and purposes, perceived as straight. It’s not that difficult to get an audience on board with a hetero relationship, right?

Except the audience was able to bounce back from every breakup because the effort wasn’t there. In fact, I’d bet the relationship the audience cared about most was BuckAbby, but they can’t do anything about Connie only signing for the one season. (And just to cover all my bases, sure, you could say that "effort" was made with BuckTaylor given how much screen time they had, but the audience also had the entire half of 5B to prepare for a break up after the BuckLucy kissing scene!) Now here comes Tommy. He already has established relationships with members of the 118, relationships that have nothing to do with Buck. His first episode in s7 showed him helping the 118 not only rescue Bathena, but going behind people's backs to do it so nobody got in trouble. Episode four establishes that he has also made a friend in Eddie, which is a first for these love interests! If Tommy and Eddie can get along, this time might be different, right? After the kiss in Buck's loft, which the GA obviously didn't hate, they have a conversation after a disastrous date, about wanting to see where things go. Buck was happy. People were gonna like that. The wedding episode is, IMO, where Tim started to slip up. We didn't just see Buck bringing Tommy as his plus-one and introducing him to everybody. We saw Tommy show up to the hospital still in his firefighter gear after an emergency. We saw that he wanted to keep his promise to Buck to be there for the wedding, to show that he, too, was serious about seeing where the relationship could go. We saw Buck kiss him. In public. No shame, no regrets. We also saw their dinner scene in the finale. Not interrupted by Eddie's drama. We saw Tommy still being important enough to the story in 8x01 to be present for Christopher's "birthday party". And then we saw everything that came with 8x05. The fandom can take its victory lap and say "the writing was on the wall", but the general audience? All they saw were two men slowly (possibly) falling in love. Tommy was never actually portrayed as the wrong partner in canon. In fact, he was everything the previous weren't. Every single thing this fandom used as an excuse for why these relationships wouldn't work? Tommy was the anomaly. First responder? Check. Friendly with Eddie? Check. Forms some sort of relationship with Chris? Check. Makes Buck a priority? Check. Isn't sidelined for Buddie scenes? Check. Yep, maybe Tim really did do all those things so that when the breakup actually happened it would leave an impact. But how fucking obtuse do you (Tim) have to be to not realize just how important seeing Buck in a happy, healthy relationship - what little we got of it! - was going to be for the audience? Especially when much of that audience has stuck with you through six seasons of the same old shit? How can you be unprepared for the backlash when YOU are the reason people care this much in the first place?

[bvckleydiazs]

bt’s saying all of the major couples on the show got together through a shared trauma (which is not exactly true but whatever) and then saying that’s why bt are endgame bc they got together through a shared trauma when actually the shared trauma was between buck and eddie not buck and taylor so by your logic, buddie makes sense as endgame

[myriadofunchartedworlds]

If they didn’t do the lawsuit arc in 3A then it would actually be interesting to have Taylor be offered a better job outside of LA and Buck deciding to follow her. Hear me out, this isn’t a BT endgame plot, but actually a BT ends plot: So Buck’s tired of running after people, yes; and he’s definitely tired of being left behind. BUT THIS TIME SHE ASKS HIM TO COME WITH HER. It’s not Abby making promises she wasn’t sure she could keep or Ali being unable to commit. It’s someone who’s facing a big change and wanting him to join her amidst it. Not only that, it’s an opportunity to be Buck, the person who doesn’t let his SO get away instead of Buck, just the firefighter. (Red’s life still echoes in his mind sometimes). So he follows her wherever, and that’s how 5A ends. Except Taylor doesn’t actually choose him the way he thought she did. She’s married to her job, even if she’s dating him. Being out there with her but without his family makes him feel even more alone than ever. And it feels like the appetizer to the future he’s terrified to have. So Buck becomes Buck 4.0, willing to extend grace and second chances but not at his own expense. He lays it all out for Taylor, who also realizes that both want different things for themselves and of each other. It’s a mutual break, and maybe they’ll become friends again one day, maybe they won’t but Buck can only think about going back home. So he does. A few episodes into 5B, after a very pointed series of calls about homecomings, the 118 return to the station and find a very familiar giant on their couch, with the one dish Buck has perfected (under Bobby’s tutelage) waiting for them on the dining table. Cue all the mixed feels.  But wait, there’s more. Eddie might not be okay with a ready-made family but he realizes that it’s because he already had a family built amidst blood(clots), sweat, and tears. Only he realizes this when the final piece of the family disappears, and it’s so much worse than the lawsuit. Because their lives are so much more intertwined now and Eddie relies on him for so much more. So when Buck comes back, Eddie decides that it’s time to stop holding himself back. Operation Lock In Buck officially gets put into motion. (Except, we all live for the drama and Christopher is all sorts of pissed at Buck leaving, even if they stayed in touch. Eddie wins him over quickly enough with the idea that if Eddie convinces Buck to give them a chance to be partners in all senses of the word, Buck will never ever leave again.) PS, with the lawsuit arc essentially being an isolated Buck arc, I’m not sure if the writers/Tim would be up for another iteration of this. So as much as I want this to be how 5.10-5.13 turns out, it seems unlikely.

[lovecolibri]

I am always so baffled at the people saying that Eddie breaking up with a*a was a retcon of their relationship in season 4 because like, if anything, Eddie wanting to have anything to do with her after what happened with and what she said about Chris is the real retcon (same with Evan "loyalty streak a mile wide" Buckley ever going after t*ylor after the shit she did in 2x06). Also season 4 made it pretty clear that not only was Eddie not nearly as invested, but also made some very obvious contrasts between her and Buck with Buck always coming out on top, and a*a basically being a cardboard cutout in the background. She didn't even get to say anything or have an emotional moment about her bf being shot. We don't see her getting told, or see her with him the moment he wakes up. We only see Buck, and his reactions to these events. So like, IDK why anyone thought she was going to stick around. Which got me thinking about why she was brought back in the first place.

Because neither a*a nor t*ylor, especially, were well received when they were originally on the show previous to season 4, even by the general audience. So having either if them come back (especially after 5x03 when it was confirmed a*a wasn't even sticking around) didn't make any sense to me.

Except. Except if you had a plan in motion but needed some more time, why would you spend time developing new guest characters when you could just bring back old ones? Why NOT take the safe bet and choose characters you know people didn't like so when they get the boot the majority of the audience is happy to see them go? Why show that you can tell exceptional love stories (the other couples are great and solid but damn Madney is the top tier shining example here) only to make every moment with Buck and Eddie's partners in season 4/5 feel "getting teeth pulled" levels of uncomfortable?

I have been burned by writers rooms before *side-eyes RNM especially hard* but that's not the vibe I have been getting from the writing, acting, directing, music, editing, and even costuming choices with 911 this season, especially looking at their track records for previous seasons. Is it painful AF to sit through right now?! Yes. It ABSOLUTELY is. But it also feels very intentionally uncomfortable. Like that godawful "sexy math date" scene. I won't say I'm 100% certain that Buddie is happening because there are still a LOT of higher ups with opinions and weight to throw around that could sabotage that narrative no matter what the writers and showrunner are doing. But I WILL say I am sure (fairly to pretty damn) that t*ylor is leaving soon and b*ckt*ylor is ending.

[mikereads]

Just a reminder to keep your expectations low and don’t be surprised if nothing more then build up happens.

[missmitchieg]

BuckTaylor playing wingman for each other would have been so cute and fun and nice. Why did she have to kiss him after establishing not once but twice that she just wanted a friend again?

Taylor Kelly + Just wanting a friend

[aashiqeddiediaz]

friendly reminder that just because someone doesn’t like bucktaylor doesn’t make them misogynistic. sometimes, poor writing choice and poor plot continuity are annoying af, and turn people away from certain ships.

[helioptilie]

really hoping that the bucktaylor breakup is just a mutual realization that they’re not compatible as a couple bc i really lIke taylor and loved the friendly exes dynamic they had going on before

[blakegallo]

i thought you said you shipped buddie first but then you saw that they probably never gonna go canon, which is kinda stupid cause before most of the last ep, there was firm evidence. now you're a defence blog for all of taylor kelly's bad traits?? also the part about the copaganda. yes, there was copaganda in the first few eps. it doesn't matter if others are liking the new ep. there was still copaganda in the first few eps. it doesn't matter what their motives were and are. there was still copaganda in the first few eps. and you saying stuff like that isn't gonna change that.

let's clear some things ups.

1) yes, i have stated that the very first watch through of the show i went in to ship buddie. if you go back to my monte watches 911/chrono tag you'll see that i was waiting for the gays i was told about to arrive. esp when i got to s2 of the show. as of s5 i have come to the conclusion that i don't see them going canon and so i still engage with buddie in fanfic, because i think that fanfic!eddie is usually more interesting to read because he's actually emotionally available, and in gifsets that i think i'd like to have on my blog.

2) a defense blog for taylor kelly's worst traits? i mean, i'm a taylor kelly positive blog. i am a bucktaylor positive blog. bc i like what the writers are doing with them. while i don't fall into the camp of thinking buddie is going to be canon and shipping bucktaylor i do think that those things can be true at the same time and that there are certainly people on this platform that think that way. i recognize that the person taylor kelly was at the end of dosed wasn't a nice person. but again if we are looking to canon, as in the things that have actually happened on the show, in buck actually buck talked about taylor to bobby. bobby did not tell that man "she tried to exploit me she's a horrible person", in that very episode he expressed wanting to be more than a hook up. and when she popped back in breaking point it was clear that buck still harbored no ill will towards her. that's the thing about people saying "i like them as friends" bc breaking point established them flirting, they were friends yes, but it was always portrayed as something that was going to be more than that. and s4 showed us the side of taylor kelly that was still driven to succeed in her job, but wasn't going to use people's worst moments to further herself. so clinging to a s2 depiction of a character would be like looking at eddie in eddie begins and saying he's the same father as he was then. megan west is not a series regular, of course there is going to be character development off screen. that's just gonna be what happens when first you were brought in for a couple guest spots and then a few years later writers decide that there's more to that story they started to tell, that was left open ended?? and when they brought her back they gave her scenes to show how much she had grown?

3) i would agree that there was a time that buddie could have gone canon. the only real evidence that i would point to is how between s2 and s3 the writers decided to give buck and eddie this close friendship that didn't exist in s2. they were friendly, yes, but definitely not on the level that i would have assumed buck was playing babysitter and being told that he was the person eddie trusted most with his son. this rapid relationship progression was definitely something they did with a lot of their romantic couples. the thing is the show has never stretched getting two characters out over so many seasons, or this long. i also just think that the writers are sloppy with how they've chosen to depict their friendship, litterally just yesterday i wrote this tome of a text post where i go into a little more, but i think the sloppy nature, the broad strokes and being open to interpretation have come home to roost. while i would never accuse the writers of the show of queerbaiting i think that the way fandom has chosen to highlight those scenes to the point where it is now an in fandom joke that people outside the fandom think 911 is the gay firefighter show shows this. bc the majority of that isn't coming from fox's marketing department. and it certainly hasn't come from the marketing department anytime recently.

4) i am not saying that you can't say that there wasn't copaganda in the blackout arc. this isn't my first rodeo. i think i started watching the show weekly in s3, definitely watched it every week with tumblr in s4 and now s5. so i watched all summer as people started to build their theories about how a blackout arc was going to lead a to a buddie love confession. it was going to lead to that for this character. and then when we got the episodes and they were athena centric it was "copaganda" every other complaint. and again, i'm not saying that element isn't there. but it's baked into the core of the character and has been since the pilot. but it is only ever brought out as a complaint when certain corners of the fandom feel that they were robbed of something they feel they were promised. and it's weird. bc all of athena's stoylines that center around her doing her job are always going to have that element. i'm not saying that people have to like it, but it's obvious that they want to pick and choose when it seems to matter to them. when they can talk about how her doing her job and being dubiously murky with bobby destroying evidence as they flirt to get in a dig at bucktaylor fans they go with it. but when athena and harry are in the middle of a crisis it's fuck the propaganda we wanted buddie locked in an elevator i'm not supposed to see through the bullshit?

[ponykidcurtis]

seven sentence sunday

tagged by @herogrant @paranoidbean @deareddie and @renecdote

it’s not sunday anymore but i love u all so here’s some sentences of a thing i started: 

Taylor isn’t sure why she decided to invite Buck to this thing, but she’s honestly glad she did. He might be an idiot half the time, but he’s a hell of a charmer—her coworkers are absolutely smitten with him. The slightly smug smile he shoots her when she comes up beside him tells her that he’s well aware of that fact, and he’s milking it for all it’s worth. 

“Flirting with my colleagues?” she teases. “Shameless.” 

“I’m just being friendly,” he shoots back. “Eric, back me up! We’re trading work stories.” 

Eric, the colleague in question, laughs and agrees. “I gotta say, Buck’s got me beat. Where’d you find him, anyway?” 

“My team and I rescued her from a helicopter crash,” Buck cuts in before Taylor can offer up a response. She rolls her eyes. 

“I’d hardly call it a crash,” she scoffs. “Just a rough landing.” 

“Sure,” Buck says, “Whatever you say.”

yes it’s more than seven lines, no i don’t care. have some bucktaylor besties vibes :)

i’ll tag @princessfbi @lovebuck @softsatanhq and @tylerhunklin

[outrunningthedark]

Friendly reminder that Tim Minear is making BuckTaylor fandom’s new fave detectives after this already happened!

911 | 4.04 — “What’s Your Grievance?” (2021)