#parallels ana skateboarding accident

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Thinky thoughts;

Abandon ‘ships -> Buck abandoning his relationships with Chris and Eddie because of the basketball accident -> Maddie tries to talk him round but Buck shuts her out (because she tells truths he’s not yet ready to hear -> Buck isolates himself and avoids Eddie at work -> Eddie not letting Buck succeed (hand on shoulder scene) -> Buck goes with Eddie to the Diaz house to talk to Chris (Chris bedroom scene) -> Buck realising he needs to deal with his abandonment issues that stem from his parents -> Buck goes to therapy to get the help he needs

[how-queerious]

*reaffixes clown shoes* *adjusts wig* *honks clown nose*

HERES HOW BUDDIE CAN STILL WIN

(this is 90% shitpost. i honestly speaking think ana and eddie are quite cute as a couple, and shes a really lovely character who they better not relegate to only a love interest)

(breakdown below the cut because holy hannah this post got LONG)

okay so first lets state the obvious. We all know the juxtapositions between buck and ana in regards to chris; "he needs to know his limitations" vs *researches/helps build an adaptive skateboard for chris* being the long established of the two, while the latter is the not being ready for ana to meet chris vs whatever that whole domestic scene was when eddie came home from the date (WHAT WAS THE REASON). Ana either holds back with chris or (inadvertently) makes eddie feel insecure in his parenting (eddie feeling like he isnt being realistic with chris, or tht hes pushing too hard/hurting chris with moving on after Shannon's death). Buck however encourages eddie in his parenting, helping eddie figure out how to adapt the world for chris rather than forcing chris to adapt to the world/give up on things that he cant do like the other kids, and reassuring him that chris will come around, being there for both of them. it feels off to me that despite all of these contrasts, eddie and ana are supposed to be endgame over buck and eddie.

second point of mine is shifting over to buck. i hope that buck and taylor don't end up romantically involved, and i dont think they will. a point that was emphasized in 4x08 (our reintroduction to taylor) was not buck moving into romance. his character's focus was in his friendships; with albert, with eddie, with chris, and with taylor. its even emphasized that taylor is in need of a friend, not a partner. i dont think with how their interactions went, and with their history, that those two will end up as partners. that, and buck could really use a friend outside the 118. this has been emphasized. as much as i don't like taylor from s2, she seems to have grown a lot (not unlike buck) in the past 2 years. she and buck could make really friends, something that both they and everyone in the world could use.

my third point kinda circles back to the parallels/juxtapositions thing. the waves of buck and Eddie's friendship versus with their respective romantic interests are intriguing. buck and eddies friendship started off with tension between buck and eddie before being very positive, dipping at the lawsuit and coming back afterwards. each of their relationships romantic interests have done the opposite; initial attraction, followed by tension, followed by a more positive period. neither have gotten to another true tension point (though perhaps you could consider what happened with taylor in 4x08 such, but its much less significant that say the lawsuit or the shit that happened in dosed). this is less of a true point and more of just an Inch Resting thing to note.

my next point circles back to something i brought up in the first paragraph; buck and Eddie's very domestic scene following eddie and Ana's (frankly speaking kind of weird) date. until buck mentions the date, that scene very much reads as romantic. the way buck comes around the corner, and they way he looks softly at eddie throughout. the much more natural way eddie smiles around buck in that scene, and the gentle and fond tone he uses throughout. this scene following ana mentioning that there hasn't been anyone since shannon, and eddies reaction to her saying that, is very odd. the order that scenes fall in and the fact that buck is always there for eddie and chris seems to be no accident, and its well worth considering.

my final point centers around my literal favourite character in the whole of television; christopher diaz, who i would walk through hell for. speaking of walking through hell for chris, do you know who else would do that? eddie and buck. everyone at this point knows The Scene™️ in the searchers. eddie nearly directly saying the buck loves chris like his own kid, and heavily implies that chris and eddie both feel the same way about the matter. despite the fact that ana was already chris's teacher, the relationship between her and chris of them doesn't even come close to the beginning of his and bucks. couple that with the skateboard incident, buck watching chris during the date, and chris and bucks (heart-rending) conversation following chris running right to buck? you have a very interesting view. notable other scenes include chris at the station while they wait for pepa to get off work, and the scene where eddie unplugs the wifi following the Hildy shenanigans.

anyways, like i said at the beginning of all this, everything of what i said here was 90% shitpost. as much as my heart wants it, i dont believe that buddie with become canon ( :[ ). i do love ana, and taylor doesnt seem nearly as bad as she used to be (also they are both very hot and i am a simple woman).

[somebodycall911onabc]

No it’s honestly like... they work Hard to show that Eddie and Buck are exactly what each other need. They rely on each other when they’re in trouble, they trust each other from go— like, sure you may have kissed him, but have you pulled a LIVE grenade out of a man’s leg before you were even really friends, risking your life on the small chance you could save this middle school history teacher with a firefighter first week on the job? Sure, you might have gone treasure hunting with him but did you reassure him after his parents came to visit that he was valid and didn’t do anything wrong and he really did deserve their love, and that you love know him???

Like... just thinking about all the damn emotional parallels to build up this friendship that like... we don’t get for anyone else? And that yeah, necessarily sideline Taylor and Ana. Like Ana can’t “have Eddie’s back” because Buck already does. Re: hooking Eddie up with Carla, putting his life on the line to save Chris, organizing firefam Christmas so Eddie doesn’t have to disappoint Chris, wishing he’d been the one to take the bullet for Eddie???? Buck is in Eddie’s will for fuck’s sake! And Taylor can’t “love Buck anyways” because Eddie has already shown that forgiveness and understanding after the lawsuit, after Buck “lost” Chris, after seeing Buck be reckless, rash, and impulsive and STILL choosing to make Buck Chris’s guardian instead of his own family, instead of Carla, or Bobby, or his Abuela who ADORES and LOVES Chris and ALSO lives in LA so Chris wouldn’t have to be uprooted!

And like, we already have scenes that set up Ana and Taylor to fail. And I love these ladies, I do, they’re gorgeous as hell and could be interesting characters if the writers developed them more and this is NOT written to bash them. I just can’t help but notice how Ana not only fails Chris with the skateboard accident (which given, could be written away as a miscommunication and a part of the whole love and forgiveness thing) but ALSO that Buck is the one who says let’s KEEP TRYING, while Ana says “maybe our limitations tell us something about ourselves,” which is a powerful scene, but Eddie goes with Buck’s idea. An explicit rejection of Ana. And then meanwhile, we get Taylor at the very beginning choosing her work over helping people (thinking 'bout the 118 news piece she did) which is something Buck would NEVER be able to do or condone. She’s definitely grown, and I think we know she wants to be a good journalist, and Buck clearly thinks she’s a good journalist now, but I can’t help but notice that we never saw him forgive her for that choice. (And don’t get me wrong, I am all for Taylor being a badass journalist who will tell hard truths and I don’t think she needs to apologize, but that’s a part of her that wouldn’t sit well with Buck.) To me it reads that he thinks she won’t do it again. And it sets them up for this tension between what they both believe is right. And then we have Taylor and Buck reconnect and she immediately trashes his decision to do things the right way, to not start a relationship with sex or have meaningless sex. And here’s the thing: they’ve put a lot more work into Taylor than Ana. Taylor’s mistakes and her ideological differences with Buck could totally work—they make a good team now, they tend to work on the same side (for justice), and most importantly, Taylor came back (unlike Abby). But I can’t help but consider how their relationship started off on the wrong foot and she came back into his life when he was extraordinarily vulnerable, and that their relationship took a leap during a really traumatic time for Buck—Eddie getting shot. And remember when his relationship took a leap last time, when Abby’s mom died? And how well that turned out? 👀 (not to mention that Covid has been really hard on Taylor!)

And it’s also not lost on me that... Buck says he decided to “not chase people who don’t want him.” That the writers meant Taylor coming back as letting the universe come to him. But how can we not juxtapose that with “I will always fight to come home to my family” and “I love him enough to never stop trying”?? Because what Eddie is saying is that not only will he come back to Buck, he will fight to. And I think a very lovely and painful parallel of that is how Eddie fought his way out from the well, and then in 4x14 he fought to stay awake in the ambulance with Buck (and is now fighting to keep Buck by his side with the guardianship thing). And for every fuck up, every reckless idea, every hare-brained rescue, Eddie either forgives Buck or is right there with him. I mean... Buck, I think this time, the universe is screaming at you. Because you don’t have to chase Eddie. He’s already holding on tight to you.

And then TALK about “make sure you’re following your heart”—a lot of people have already said how Eddie’s choices to keep Buck in his life and to put Buck in his will are all his decisions. No one pressures him to. In fact, I’m sure a lot of people in Eddie’s life would disagree with his decision to make Buck Chris’s guardian like that, or at least question it. And his relationships with Shannon and Ana have both been decisions made under pressure. The pressure of having a kid together. The pressure of moving on from his wife’s death. The pressure of Chris needing a mother.

But look at that... Chris doesn’t need a mom. When he’s scared, he runs to Buck. When he can’t have Christmas with his dad, he turns to Buck (who flicking delivers). When he gets lost in a goddamn tsunami, he asks for Buck.

So like... who are the writers trying to fool here? Buck is Chris’s second parent, at this point. Buck and Eddie are irrevocably part of each other’s lives in all the ways that they need love and support and acceptance from another person.

So sure. Call them brothers. Sideline Buck as an uncle, not a dad. But realize that you’re trashing an incredible romance you have no hope of matching with any LI going forward, because you’ve already done it. (Not to mention that if you try to unpack all of Buck's trauma again like you spent ALL of season 4 doing with the firefam and with Eddie, it's going to be boring and repetitious. You already beat that storyline to death this season. I don't want a scene where Taylor finds out about Daniel. Because Eddie already told Buck that he's more than just spare parts, that he's not expendable. What the hell is Taylor gonna add to that conversation that hasn't already been said by Eddie, Bobby, Athena, and Maddie?)

And don’t even get me started on parallels between Buddie and Madney, Bathena, and Henren. Tbh that might need to be a separate post.

struggling to put this into words but. like yes chimney and hen are besties. i love their friendship. they have on multiple occasions been in each other’s homes having meaningful conversations with each other and supporting one another. neither one of their romantic relationships ever conflicts with their friendship or contrasts their friendship or takes away from their friendship or vice versa. they clearly love each other in a very platonic friendly but still meaningful way.

but buck and eddie? no friendship in the show has had this amount of care and attention to show Just how close they are. chimney baby sat denny but we heard about it in a story that hen told laughing about something funny he did. we didn’t actually see chimney in their home caring for denny as if he were his own son. NOT saying chimney wouldn’t or doesn’t love denny that much but that’s not shown to us. it’s not such an important part of hen and chimney’s relationship that it’s emphasized constantly. even when chimney was single and he didn’t have much of a family in s1 and s2 it’s not like we saw hen inviting him to things with her and karen and making him feel like he had a home with them. again not to say that they’re not GREAT FRIENDS. but the way they show that relationship vs buck and eddie’s is SO. different. it’s like it’s a completely different kind of relationship.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Just going to be screaming about the parallel to the ana skateboarding accident we’re about to get