Tumblr Im Not Gonna Say It Again Door
Eddie Diaz is the oldest child in his family.
Recently y'all I hit a follower milestone (I'm not gonna say which one cuz it wasn't THAT big but it felt big to me! Hello everyone 🥰) So to celebrate we're going to talk about my favorite controversial topic - Eddie Diaz and his birth order in relation to his sisters.
At this point, I KNOW y'all know how much time I have spent watching this show at a microscopic level so if you want to argue with anything here, you have to bring me something better than "he has the vibes". No, nuh uh, not gonna cut it buddy 😂
The hardest of hard evidence for Eddie being the oldest.
This quote from Eddie Begins - it's Helena, talking at first to Eddie and then to Ramon in the last two sentences. She says -
"Your dad wasn't there, he was in - Galveston? When you were born. And then Sophia, that was - you were in Gulf Port, and then Adriana was an emergency C-section. So you dodged that bullet 3 times."
I hate to break it to yall, but "and then" is a chronological indicator. If she had said, "and Sophia…" or "with Adriana…" there could be wiggle room. But by saying "and then", Helena is indicating a specific order that those events happened in. Which puts Eddie firmly as the oldest, with Sophia next and Adriana as the baby.
Also I've seen many people use Adriana as the oldest for fic purposes, so even if you ignore absolutely everything else I say - Adriana is the baby. Most women have c-sections for all following babies once they have their first c-section. It's definitely possible for them to have natural births following a c-section according to my research, but whether or not that's possible depends on how traumatic the c-section was for the body. And an emergency c-section which cannot even be held off long enough for her husband to come home screams "traumatic" to me. Which is also probably a part of why they just stopped having kids after Adriana was born.
Combine the two facts of "and then" and "c-section" and that already makes it pretty clear Eddie is the oldest, BUT THERE'S MORE!
We've MET Eddie's sisters already.
What?!?!? You say. Uh YEAH! I say back. They're in 2x18, both at Shannon's wake near the beginning of the episode and then at Eddie's ceremony at the end.
This is the actress who plays Sophia Diaz.
Does she look older than Ryan Guzman to you?? Cuz she doesn't to me.
Here's her in the show - which I'd argue actually makes her look even younger than her IMdB picture makes her look, which is obviously a choice made by the show involving the makeup department. There's no way this woman is older than our dear Eddie.
And here's Adriana Diaz.
The actress they hired to play her turned 20 this year, which is a whopping 13 years younger than Ryan Guzman. If they'd intended either of his sisters to be older than him, don't you think they'd have hired women who were/looked older than him?
Here's how Adriana looked on the show -
It's clear they aged her up, but there's still no way, with the c-section info and this photo, that she's older than Eddie. It's just not happening. In fact, she's still young enough that at the wake, she's obviously been put on babysitting duty (you can see her over Helena's shoulder on the left here), and she doesn't get to be part of the adult conversation like Sophia does.
And sure, I've had people try to tell me that this casting most likely isn't set in stone, and if his sisters come back they'll have new actresses, but don't you think that when they made the decision to include his sisters on the show, they knew they had to make a decision they were sticking to? They've definitely changed some details before in the past, but moving Chim's birthday from October to March is a VERY different story than changing whether Eddie has older or younger sisters. All of which is reinforced by the quote from Helena that's above.
(Also if you wanna chat about what I think the girls' personalities are like based off their two outfits we've gotten I HAVE THOUGHTS I'D LOVE TO DISCUSS!)
I got some counter arguments and character discussion now but this is already long so it's going under a cut.
Information which could possibly point to other groupings, but can still absolutely be explained by the birth order for which there is CONCRETE evidence for.
The niece mentioned in 2x01.
Omg whenever I bring up Oldest Child Eddie, y'all LOVE to talk about the niece. Okay, go back to those pictures of his sisters - do either of them look old enough to have a daughter who is capable of working an iPhone to the extent shown in the episode? No, there's no way, not without being an almost exact replica of Eddie's story in which they got pregnant and married REAL YOUNG.
To be honest, I'm pretty sure the niece doesn't exist anymore. I think the writers wrote her in for that one specific scenario and have since forgotten about her in blissful, blissful ignorance. But there are other possibilities for her existence - she's a young woman he's related to who is not actually his niece.
My father refers to his cousin's daughter as his niece, and I call her my cousin, when in reality she's my dad's first cousin once removed and my second cousin. Yeah, who says that?!? No one, so it's absolutely possible he has a cousin who is older than him who has a daughter who helped him with the photos. She could even be the daughter of a family friend, and Eddie just didn't want to get into the details of it with Chim while his other hostile coworker is weirdly lurking in the gym on his very first day of work.
Also, that ep where we met Eddie's sisters?? Don't you think that if Eddie had an actual blood niece that age, she would have met and had fond memories of Shannon, and would have been at her wake, and then Eddie's ceremony, since her mom was there? But the only other kid at the wake besides Christopher is a boy who looks to be around 8. No niece. And on top of that, neither of the sisters is ever seen with a man. If Eddie had an older sister who had a kid, it's presumable that she also probably had a husband/bf who would have known Eddie even before Shannon was in the picture, and would have been at Eddie's wedding, and therefore would have wanted to be there for Eddie after Shannon died?
I mean, that's what I think. But at Eddie's ceremony, the only person at the table with Eddie's family who isn't a known member of his family is a random LAFD firefighter…. who yeah, isn't really a candidate for the husband of one of his sisters, ESPECIALLY since there's a woman with him, and the only other person younger than 20 here is Denny.
So the absence of either husband or daughter makes me think neither exist.
Plus we get a good look at Sophia's left hand here, and she's definitely not wearing a wedding ring, so she's not married at this point in time. (God she looks so young here also, tell me again how she's older than Eddie?)
And if she's not married with a kid, you really think Adriana is? If Adriana, the youngest, was married with a kid, you can bet she would have taken some of the pressure off of Eddie, so I really, really doubt she is.
And in addition, those pictures of Eddie had to be taken in Los Angeles, since he would have been in the fire academy for at least two months by the time the calendar would have even been mentioned. And we know his sisters live in Texas - otherwise we REALLY would have met them and had them have lines, plus Shannon says they live in El Paso in 3x15. So the niece what, comes out to visit Uncle Eddie before he even has an official stable job, but DOESN'T come for the wake and his official promotion?? No way. There is no niece. She's either not his niece or she doesn't exist anymore. Either way, she's absolutely not evidence for Eddie having an older sister.
"I remember when my sister was applying to colleges, I think that's half the reason I didn't apply." (3x09) + "If I hadn't joined the army, I'd still be working with my pops." (3x11)
So we know that Christopher was born when Eddie was between the ages of 21-23. So he would be 20-22 when Shannon got pregnant. So between the ages of 18 and 21-23, Eddie: graduates high school (and if he is born around when Ryan Guzman was, he's probably closer to 19 when he graduates), works for his father, gets married, gets Shannon pregnant, joins the army and completes basic (2.5 months), then gets certified as an Army medic (another 4 months), and then gets deployed to Afghanistan all before Christopher is born. So to me, the timeline is - Eddie graduates high school and is not good at school and overwhelmed, so he takes a gap year to work for his father. During this gap year, Sophia is applying to colleges and Eddie watches her stress and decides it's not for him, especially since he just got his girlfriend pregnant. They get married, he joins the army, does basic and medical training, and then he gets deployed, coming back home for Christopher's birth before going back overseas. I think if he had known before graduating high school that he didn't want to go to college, he would have joined the army then, because he clearly always wanted to do more than work for his father. I think working for his father was meant to be his stop gap/breathing room until the YOUNGER Sophia showed him that college wasn't for him.
Character traits I think are better explained by Eddie being the oldest child.
No struggle with masculinity.
Despite all of the intense pressure they've shown us repeatedly that Eddie receives from his parents, Eddie doesn't struggle with feeling like he's not masculine, or even tries to assert his dominance over Buck/Chim/Bobby in a way you'd expect from someone like that (in fact we see that from BUCK, not Eddie.)
Because, I think, he's an oldest child.
Eddie's parents' issues seem to stem more from their desire to control Eddie's life than from any real obsession with him being the only boy in the family. If they were obsessed with him because he was the only boy, I think we would have seen that manifest somehow already, either from Eddie feeling like he has to be macho, or some comment from his parents about how Christopher is the family legacy. But we get none of that. And Eddie is fine being the butt of jokes, he doesn't show off, he's fine deferring to Bobby or Chim or Hen or Buck at calls if they know better than he does. He has decorations for every holiday and he cares about what his couch pillows look like (he even HAS couch pillows at all!)
In 3x01, Eddie specifically says, "Whenever stuff didn't work out for me, my dad always told me to brush it off and keep moving forward, it wasn't easy but he wasn't wrong." This is a perfect example of why I think his parents' obsession with him comes from him being the oldest rather than the only boy, like it would be if he were the middle child. If it was about him being male, wouldn't you expect a comment like, "my dad told me to man up" or that Buck just had to get over being benched and be a man? But there's none of that.
The pressure to be perfect.
All of Eddie's emotional issues stem from feeling like he can't be seen as weak, rather than anything to do w/ him not wanting to be seen as less of a man.
For the first however many years of his life before his sister was born, Eddie would have been the sole focus of his parents' attention, and I don't think they ever let go of that.
In addition, as the oldest, Eddie would have been told he needed to be an example for his younger sisters.
All of which I think manifests itself in his struggle to be perfect, to hide his emotions when he's feeling less than 100% (and maybe join a streetfighting ring), and not being able to ask for help from others - it has to be forced on him. He can't show his emotions because his parents expected their oldest child to be perfect, not because he was a boy.
(Pressure to be perfect showing up as dating Ana, the 'perfect woman', anyone?)
The pressure to be a provider.
Ramon is obviously gone, A LOT - he literally missed the births of all three of his children. And parentification of oldest girls is much, much more common than the same of oldest boys. So if Sophia truly was the oldest, I think SHE would have been the one expected to step up and help around the house. And like I said, if they truly were obsessed with Eddie because he was the only boy, as would be the case if he was the middle child, don't you think they would have wanted him to have every opportunity to succeed, and do a million sports and get a scholarship and be the bright shining heir to the family, while using their eldest daughter to keep the family/house in order?
But it's obvious that's not what happened, because Eddie really, really struggles with wanting to be the perfect provider for his family, in a way that screams "eldest child trauma" to me.
Baby Eddie, home alone all the time with his mother and his two younger sisters, expected to act like the man of the house because Helena was busy with the two babies, expected to help get his sisters' lunch ready or help them with their homework.
And then when he (probably shotgun) married Shannon and she got pregnant, you can obviously see this trauma come into play, in two different ways I think. For one, part of the breakdown of their marriage was that I think Eddie didn't know how to show love and care other than providing, which was not at all what Shannon needed. But then also, I think when Shannon got pregnant, Eddie saw back to his childhood of helping raise his younger sisters and he panicked. He wasn't ready to be under all that intense pressure to provide for his family again and he ran.
And he's STILL doing it, when he dates someone he thinks would be better for Christopher than because he really cares. He's so used to sacrificing himself and his happiness to be able to provide for his family in a way that really truly rings as oldest child trauma to me. It being middle child trauma brought on by him being a boy just doesn't ring as strongly to me, since if Sophia was older, she would have spend a least a good bit of time taking care of HIM, rather than vice versa.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Sure, some of his behaviors could be explained as middle child symptoms, (the jealousy I think I saw someone say?) But I think they're much more likely just personality traits of an oldest child who finally feels comfortable enough to leave the strict roles set by being the oldest, and is allowed now to be petty during a treasure hunt, for example.
I do think his traumas/character was influenced by him being the only boy, don't get me wrong, but I think that came after. I believe it started bc he was the oldest child, and then once it became clear that they were done having children after Adriana, they focused on him being the only boy, but his role in the family had already been set as The Oldest, so the way they treated him and pressured him was shaped by that more than it was by him being The Boy.
Also, y'all gonna tell me you don't wanna see Eddie and Maddie bond over feeling like they were given parenthood roles over their siblings too early??? Cuz me, I wanna see it. 😂
I hope all of that made sense, and sorry it was so sassy - I just have SUCH strong feelings about Oldest Child Eddie, and I'm about 90% certain that canon is going to back me up on this, if they ever decide to handle it.
(Side note if y'all wanna like tag the official account in the comments or whatever, DO IT cuz I want the show to know we want to see the answers!)
Lots of love!
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Source: https://liesoverthec.tumblr.com/post/656447171061760000/recently-yall-i-hit-a-follower-milestone-im-not
0 Response to "Tumblr Im Not Gonna Say It Again Door"
Post a Comment