#whereas buddie is amazingly cute of course but i don't see it working very well in the context of the show

[johanna-swann]

Before 911 comes back this week:

One thing I've been thinking about in regards to Buddie is that, whether you like the ship or not, it wouldn't really add anything to the show. (Hear me out.)

We already get a handful of very tender, emotional scenes between them every season or a quick moment of Buck acting as a somewhat fatherly figure towards Chris, we already see them bantering or hanging out after work and helping each other out with the big important things. Both characters are already well established mains. They already have an amazing and unique relationship and are family to each other. They already have a kid (sort of). They already know each other inside and out. And all of that is nice and great even for fanfiction, it's a very comforting idea that they could just fall into that romantic partnership they both yearn for so easily.

[I say both, but personally I think for Eddie it's more anemoia than anything else. He thinks he wants what he believes he had with Shannon, but we all know their romance turned very rocky the second things got serious. Between getting pregnant young and on accident, being constantly pressured by their entire social environment, Eddie enlisting then re-enlisting and Shannon leaving when Chris was about 4 years old… They only ever lived under one roof together for months at a time if the timeline is supposed to make sense.]

Anyway. If either of them found a different partner it would add a lot more fresh content to the show which it desperately needs these days tbh. The new love interest would be a completely new character or at least a side character we now get to know much better. The couple would have to work on their relationship and on building something new together. They'd get to know each other slowly. They'd also get to interact with the firefam and be introduced to that family. There'd be a lot of new dynamics and just generally a lot more wiggle room than you'd have with Buddie.

They had a chance to do that with Tommy and fumbled it. Now I know Bucktommy sparked quite some controversy in the fandom, but that doesn't mean it couldn't still work with another character or even with Tommy if they ever decided to bring him back.

Marisol's actress was unpopular with us (fair, she's a transphobe), but before they decided to jump the shark and break out the Doppelgänger plot I was actually invested in Eddie (re-)learning how to build a romantic partnership with someone on both their terms - not society's. Ana was more a symbol than a girlfriend to him and maybe he wasn't ready to be dating seriously at the time, but when Pepa started bugging him about dating again in 6b it actually made sense. He had his whole getting therapy and getting better arc in s5, more time had passed since Shannon's death, it felt like the right time to give Eddie a romance plot again. But then the Doppelgänger plot happened and that progress was nipped in the bud.

Before that we had Taylor and it was amazing how she and Buck almost had a similar energy going as Bobby and Michael at times. Sneaking around, solving mysteries, being brought in for questioning. The usual. There was also this uncertainty in Buck on how to navigate his first stable relationship that actually could have a future. (Ali didn't live in LA fulltime and they only dated for a short while, he loved Abby but let's be honest they were never gonna last.) And it was so easy to let Taylor be a part of the work related plots? She's a reporter, of course it's plausible she shows up on scenes or during investigations. The writers were on to something here, she's still my favourite out of all of Buck's and Eddie's love interests.

But the point is that if they ever decide it's time Buck or Eddie to settle down (please, I am begging) and with the way 911 works (ensemble cast on a procedural drama that doesn't allow its characters to change) there's much more potential for interesting plots with an outside character who isn't part of the firefam yet instead of adjusting the flavour of a relationship we've already had 6 seasons of.