The more we learn about Eddie as a person, it lets me know that he's misunderstood as a romantic partner. Like yes he and Buck aren't romantically involved but they do show up for each other in the ways they'd like a romantic partner to.And I think two things are often depicted wrong even though it is a part of Eddie's character.

I think Eddie making decisions without consulting others has been misconstrued as "Eddie knows best" because Shannon might've said something to that effect but we've seen Eddie with his parents and it makes perfect sense why he acts that way.

His parents make it clear his instincts and wants are "wrong" and no matter what he does it won't be the right choice to make, so he tries to minimize himself and the pain he causes, and that way he's only helping.

So when Chris is scared about him working as a firefighter, the solution is to stop being a firefighter that way he can't cause any harm. When Shannon is pregnant, he enlists because he can't be a shit father if he is providing monetarily, right? Same thing with letting Chris go, etc. He believes people in his life are better without him.

on the path to being a gay eddie truther. still have so many episodes to go but there are so many signs already

seeing again the way pepa looked at buck and at eddie when he introduced her to buck rewired my brain. she looked like this when they were introduced:

i mean obviously i don't know, but i've seen that look before on a parent's face - the "is this one of your friends" look. i mean in a loving way. but you guys know the look i'm talking about

and so now i have all these thoughts about eddie as a kid, with horrible parents, exhibiting you know. tendencies. and getting those tendencies shut down, with prejudice. and i guess because of that first pepa and buck scene, i have all these thoughts now of pepa being the more liberal or maybe more loving part of the family who gets it and loves eddie the way he is.

then a whole bar full of women and not one was his type? mm hmm.

then seeing him with shannon in 2x10? why does he look like he's trying to do "what he's supposed to" and then is terrified of his own success when it looks like it's going to work?

to me the question is, does he even know? or is it one of those situations where he's the last to know? obv i could be wrong about all of it but i do feel like i'm watching a slow burn fic on my actual real television, so i could just be losing my marbles

no, but it’s the way eddie saved buck by showing him how important his life is, and how he is so much more than he thinks

and the way buck saved eddie by showing him that he’s not broken and irredeemable, that he doesn’t destroy everything he touches, that he deserves understanding and forgiveness, that he has the light inside of him, that he deserves to be free and happy despite all his mistakes and failures

buck always loved eddie just for who he is - not only for how cool and “macho” he is, but for his silly, carefree side too

eddie always loved buck for his kind and brave heart, for his wisdom and stability (he’s the only one who sees and appreciates how reliable buck is, how he’s willing to stay and make broken things work, how he never gives up)

buck doesn’t see eddie only as this serious, cool guy with a dark past and a silver star - he sees his soft and pure side, the one that wants to be carefree. he lets eddie be himself, let go, and have fun (“i can know weird stuff too” you can tell that being around buck rubbed off on him so much “i know you watch telenovelas with christopher”)

eddie doesn’t see buck only as a funny and reckless himbo - he sees his reliable, selfless, mature, helping, supportive side (that’s why, when eddie is angry at buck, he accuses him of being selfish - and it hurts so much). he takes buck, his words, and his actions seriously

that’s why they’re perfect for each other - they’re each other’s missing pieces

and that’s why eddie’s love for buck is one of the major things that finally set eddie free from all his “catholic guilt”

because buck taught him how to love himself by loving him

thanks to buck’s love, eddie finally realized that he deserves forgiveness, and he deserves joy

and thanks to eddie’s love, buck finally realized how much he matters - how important he is as a person outside of saving people

eddie spent his whole life living a life that doesn’t fit him, but buck saw him and showed him, through his own freedom, that eddie can be free too. be himself. start living the life he actually wants, not the one that was forced onto him by his parents

buck spent his whole life feeling unseen, unappreciated, and abandoned, searching for a place in the world he could call home (he already found one in the 118, but it turned out to be trickier with romantic relationships). and eddie saw him and built a home for him, showed him that he never wants to leave, that buck is someone worth staying for (“there’s nobody in this world i trust with my son more than you” “but i hope you know, you do matter to me” “it’s not nothing” “i don’t like it anymore than you do”)

when ryan described his character in an interview, he said eddie is a team player kind of guy - and that’s exactly what he offered buck in the very beginning (“you can have my back any day”) as a truce gesture, and he kept proving it throughout the show

he sees right through buck’s abandonment issues and even gets annoyed when they kick in, because he’s like, “damn, buck, when will you understand that we’re not going anywhere? that we’re a team? that i have your back? i trust you, i need you - in my life, on the field, with chris, as a best friend who gets me like no one else does” (“you’re stuck with us”)

eddie’s pov of himself: i’m broken and i can’t fix it

buck’s pov of eddie: i love all of him, with all his flaws and imperfections - he’s literally perfect in my eyes

buck’s pov of himself: i’m not good enough for people to want to stay with me

eddie’s pov of buck: this guy feels like coming home

the guy who likes to fix things fixed the guy who felt broken

a nester built a nest for someone who never had a home and was abandoned by everyone he loved

buck is eddie’s joy, eddie is buck’s home

eddie joined the 118 and met buck after he left his abusive home - his start of the journey to finding joy

buck met eddie after abby left - his start of the journey to finding home

everything happened the way it was meant to

i know that initially buck liked eddie because he’s this cool action figure brought to life, and eddie liked buck because he’s kind, cheerful, and reliable - but little did they know how interconnected they were

“you wanted us to bond. we might end up real close”

they saved each other - and that’s exactly why they’re endgame

nothing can compare to this level of love

- it's rotten work

- not to me. not if it's you

Eddie’s reaction to Buck selling the loft and offering to rent his house makes me so emotional, because Buck has been making grand gestures for Eddie, since the beginning, and Eddie’s like “You really did that for me?” because it still takes him by surprise that someone loves him, that much. That someone sees him as a priority, that puts him 1st and has his back without any ulterior motives.

I need to throw hands with every single person who made Eddie feel like he wasn't worthy of being loved and cared for.

love languages

late night call. talking about anything to stay on the line a little longer. eddie lets it slip. about the ballroom dancing. he'll take the teasing just to hear the smile in buck's voice, see that glint in his eyes. and when the joking dies down, eddie will tell him about how much dancing meant to him before his parents made it all about trophies and buck will get that soft pained look he gets on his face that never makes eddie feel like he's being pitied, just makes him feel cared for. and eventually eddie will come home and settle back into a routine and buck will bring home a flyer for a bar that has ballroom dancing evenings for beginners and pros. and he'll encourage eddie to go and reclaim dancing for himself. for joy's sake. and eddie will ask him. he'll say. well then i'll need my partner.

the way these past two episodes have made it abundantly clear that eddie is the best dad but he will never ever have to be that alone. his instincts for christopher are spot on but he will always have buck to be his coparent and partner and that's how he WANTS it. he WANTS buck to tell him to do what he knows he needs to do and he TRUST him to always know what's best for chris

it's not lost on me that the role buck has taken in this storyline is the same exact one eddie asked him to play when he put him in his will. back then, buck asked if christopher's grandparents wouldn't try to take him and eddie told him that no one will ever fight for his son as hard as buck, essentially asking him to not only push back against his parents, but to also win, if that ever happened. and now, eddie isn't dead, but he's understandably hesitant to do anything that might hurt christopher by pushing too hard, and in the effort to not fight him, he'd accidentally stopped fighting FOR him for a time as well. until buck, who has full faith in eddie and doesn't share those fears, starts fighting for both of them and pushing eddie to be the kind of dad christopher needs and eddie needs to be again. all this to say the will was never about what place buck might have in their family if eddie actually died. it was always about the place he already has, the one he's earned over and over again.

thinking about how Buck has been part of the Diaz family for a long time, just in this nebulous way. a sort of quantum state flickering between friend and uncle and dad as the situation demands. his biggest dad moments tend to be when Eddie is absent either physically or emotionally — the tsunami arc, the shooting, Eddie's breakdown — or when there's a wedge between Eddie and Chris (ubering to the loft after the argument over Eddie dating). it's like for years Buck has been an understudy for the role of Christopher's dad, only stepping in when Eddie can't go on. and now their arc in 8b is very deliberately shifting that dynamic. Buck is the absent one here, he's over 800 miles away from Eddie and Chris. and Eddie is still calling him on. there's no natural disaster and nobody's in the hospital. there's just the long hard everyday work of making a family, and Buck has been there every step of the way. he's not waiting in the wings anymore. he's ready to take on the role for real.

someone wake up and see the vision pt. 1

someone wake up and see the vision pt. 2

Unhinged Buddie Thoughts

So, Buddie needs to go canon this very season. They are definitely building to something here and I would hate for a season 9 renewal to mean that instead of a peak we get a plateau.

I feel like a lot of my anxiety has less to do with 9-1-1 and more to do with PTSD from being in the trenches of the SPN fandom where the saying of the day was that Destiel won't go canon till the very last season because and I agree with this, relationships didn't last on Supernatural - so the only way to ensure a HEA was to end the story but that is not the case here. Relationships regularly last on 9-1-1, so you literally can't use the excuse here.

But, unfortunately there is a second excuse which is atleast somewhat founded and relevant to both fandoms - viewership. The thinking here is that audiences react very poorly when erstwhile straight characters come out as queer (as if compulsorily heterosexuality doesn't mean that that is always the case). But, again this is 9-1-1 it has had prominent queer characters since day one, if this show doesn't have a fandom that will accept two main characters not initially intended to be queer to be queer then no show does.

Also, there are so many storyline they can do with canon Buddie. They have so many pages to take from fanfiction but just to list a few:

There is so much to do that dragging out the inevitable will hurt the series as a whole. So either Buddie goes canon this season or make it so that it is the first thing to get addressed in the eventual season 9 but for god's sake don't let them drag this out any longer.

8 seasons is enough!

RIP to everyone else but I do actually need Buck and Eddie to get together and then the show to keep going because I think there's so much potential there!!

For your consideration- Buddie honeymoon 3 part plot where Buck and Eddie go on holiday, and end up caught up in some dramatic drug deal gone wrong scenario. And then consider Athena and Bobby give chase because those are their idiot boys- and there's lots of drama and also whacky hijinks!!

I think it would be great to have a car chase, and Eddie steals a truck and breaks a few road rules while Athena is passed out in the back seat. Buck is like "Athena is gonna kill us!!" and Eddie's like "Not if I do it first-" *drives headfirst through a road block*

sometimes they're both a little messy, idk.

what if eddie's feelings realization is as simple as him standing back and watching on as chris and buck latch on tightly to one another for the longest and most heartfelt hug when they reunite and buck's chuckling through tears and it all just clicks then and there without question