I finished season 5 and buddie has really grown on me. I started watching out of curiosity bc i wanted to see if the shippers were just exaggerating and that definitely was not the case. Eddie and buck tell each other the words they have needed to hear for years, they show the other's existence matters when they think they would be better off dead and they are not scared to be vulnerable in front of each other; they are helping each other heal in many ways. They're soulmates and the people they've been looking for all their lives and it would be narrative wise beyond unsatisfying if they are not endgame and end up with someone else bc we have seen their past relationships and nothing compares to the bond they have with each other :(
Oh yeah, season 5 really drives home the point that they are soulmates and each other's person. I feel like everything after the shooting feels a lot more purposeful in showing how much they mean to each other and the space they have in each other's lives, like, it's less playing off their chemistry and more making a point. But I feel you with the wanting to know if it was just shippers reading too much into it, I didn't know a lot about them when I started watching the show, but I did know of them next to other ships that have enough subtext to create a ship but realistically we all know were never actually go there. The thing with them is that they are legit being written with multiple romantic tropes, they follow the slowburn procedural format, and no relationship they write in now is gonna compare because the bond they have is that deep. They really are something else and they deserve the chance to get that, it is the most satisfying ending. But I have hope we're getting them there.
