#but even if they don't treat each other as explicitly father and son or refer to each other | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-amber-raven · 1 year

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Um Hi can I ask this question? When did you think Bobby and Buck's relationship shifted and be seen as father and son?

Like S1 Bobby said Buck has this thing calling him pops but he said aren't family

In S3 Bobby said Buck isn't his kid

In S4 (from LS) Buck considers Bobby close to a dad

In S6 that's when Bobby finally agreed that he sees Buck as his kid

But it's weird because why does he refer Buck as Kid even if much younger ones come to the firehouse?

I think it was growing right from Season 1.

Bobby told Buck they weren't a family because he was actively trying to keep his distance from all of them. He was reacting to his own trauma. More eloquent people than me have spoken about how Buck helped break that barrier down. It's even explored pretty well in the coma episode as well actually - Bobby couldn't bring himself to keep maintaining distance. Hen and Chimney helped with that as well of course - but they'd had multiple captains by then and they were a bit jaded about it all so they weren't willing to push the status quo from the beginning as much as Buck was.

But neither of them were quite willing to admit what they were to each other then. If pressed, they would probably say Bobby was Bucks mentor. And you can see that mentoring relationship throughout the rest of S1 - he gives Buck advice about dealing with the job, about Abby... but then you can also see him doing things you wouldn't necessarily expect from a work mentor, like teaching him to cook and going to the hospital when he chokes on bread.

So those lines were blurred right from the beginning and in S2 it trudges along like that. Bobby is Bucks mentor but maybe goes that step further with being someone he can rely on beyond the work context (see: his support when Maddie is taken by Doug, Buck venting to him about Abby - that plaintive "don't tell anyone" when Buck finally admits he knows its weird that he's still living in Abbys place? So son-coded.)

And then we get Season 3. That "Bucks not my kid"? That wasn't firm setting of boundaries like the "this is not a family" in S1. That was plaintive. He wanted it to be true, but he lost his kids and can't be a father anymore, so it isn't allowed to be true (even though Athena is pretty blatantly disbelieving and don't forget we as the audience also got hints of how heavily Bobby was involved in Bucks recovery which also points to their relationship being deeper than mentoring-Boss and employee).

And one thing the narrative tells us very explicitly through the lawsuit arc is that Bobby is treating Buck differently. Whether Buck should be back so soon after his embolism is almost a moot point to what this arc says about their relationship: Chimneys word was taken when he said he was ready to come back after the rebar and the stabbing, Hens word was taken when she said she was ready to come back after the earthquake, Eddie's word was taken when he said he was ready to be back after Shannon's death.

Bobby didn't take Bucks word because, while he is protective of all of his team, he takes it one step further with Buck and wants to just totally shield from as much as possible.

That's canon - Hen calls him out on it in the episode Buck comes back! And Bobby has to reckon with the idea that he can't rob Buck of his autonomy just because he wants to stop him from getting hurt, and that's how that arc ends (and I've spoken about how I think that leaves so much unresolved but at least we get some resolution for it in S6!)

But they are more settled in their understanding of their roles in each other's lives by the end of S3. To me, that's what their talk in the finale is supposed to signify.

And we then see it in S4, where Buck says outright "my captain isn't my dad but he might as well be".

And this is also the season we finally meet the Buckleys and the contrast between Phillip and Bobby (since we're focused on fathers and sons)? Immense. There's a fantastic gif set somewhere that says something along the lines of "what Phillip heard" and "What Bobby was there for".

And that sums up the difference: even when Buck was being objectively infuriating, Bobby stayed and Bobby helped. He loved Buck anyway - in spite of Bucks mistakes but also in spite of his own deep rooted feelings of unworthiness about ever being allowed to love like a father again.

Bobbys saw this lost kid and his instincts wouldn't allow him to ignore his needs no matter how much he wanted to. Compare that to Phillip whose instincts should have been telling him to love and protect but he ended up ignoring his needs for years.

For the rest of season 4 and 5, I think we then see Bobby settling into the idea that he can be a father again. He owns being May and Harry's stepfather, not just their Mom's husband.

And I think that's what puts him in a good enough mindset that the next time he gets confronted about treating Buck as his kid (by May, another child hes been treating as his own for a lot longer than hed ever admit to)?

He doesn't deny it.

There was no one moment that took us to that point where Bobby was willing to admit to being Bucks dad. It was a culmination of moments, a journey built right from that very first episode of Season 1, where Buck was 'the kid' of the station.

He's no longer 'the' kid, but he'll always be Bobby's kid.

#911 #meta #q&a #captain dad #i knew this one would get long but i still decided to do it on mobile on the train #frantically sneaking out my phone at work to write the last paras #sorry if bits and pieces feel disjointed as a result!#but this one is close to my heart #bobby is bucks dad and I'm so grateful season 6 finally said it out loud

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