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icantthinkofacoolblognamesposts · 3 years

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So I know absolutely nothing about Leverage except what I've been seeing you post lately and I have to admit you're making it look tempting to watch! Can I ask what are some of your favorite things about the show/reasons you would suggest people watch it? And is there really a poly relationship that is canon?

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am going to do my best not to just “asdfghkjl” at you and answer coherently.

In a nutshell, Leverage is about 5 people. 4 are criminals (Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Sophie) with different and unique skill-sets and 1 is an ex-insurance investigator (Nate) who, at one point or another in his career, has tracked down (or at least attempted to) the other 4. The whole show is essentially: man reluctantly reforms 4 criminals to use their criminal powers for good and 4 criminals move into man’s life and stubbornly refuse to leave because, goddammit, now they have morals.

I’ve got a lot of favourite things about the show but the main ones are as follows:

1. Found family. And I’m not talking about loners who come together to fight crime and happen to co-exist to the point where they realise they happen to have found themselves a family. I mean, Nate and Sophie are the Drunk Uncle and Wine Aunt who somehow become Mom and Dad to 3 beautiful criminal children. Mom and Dad love their criminal babies and the kids love them (as well as each other, but we’ll come to that in a moment). You get amazing family moments such as: Mom and Dad packing the kids lunch before sending them out to kick corporate greed’s ass; Mom and Dad giving the kids ridiculously expensive and personal Christmas presents causing their most Grumpy Kid to go very very quiet and soft as he runs off to gleefully play with his new murder toy; the kids interrupting Mom and Dad’s big Movie Style Kiss to ask if they can please keep their new underground layer and huffing and puffing when Dad tells them no.

2. Found family: the OT3 edition. To answer your question, the OT3 is indeed canon, confirmed by the creator. Now, usually, “confirmed by the creator” infuriates me because most of the time it’s a way for a creator to be seen as “progressive” without doing anything to actually be progressive. That isn’t the case here. The OT3 are built up carefully and while it is obvious the creators didn’t originally intend for all 3 of them to become a relationship in the romantic sense, by mid-season 5 we are given a very clear picture of where Parker, Hardison and Eliot are heading in their relationship. There aren’t any kisses at the end to signal this but there are solid marriage vows in not only one but two episodes. (And by marriage vows I mean literal equivalents of marriage vows: “for better or worse” and “’til death do us part”. I’m not even exaggerating). The OT3 also doesn’t need explicit romantic narratives to convey how much they love each other. Their love is laced through the whole show, from the way they teach each other things to the way they respond to each other and work as a unit. The way they fiercely protect and admire each other. Like someone once said, if you need characters to kiss or say I love you to let the audience know they love each other, you are writing them wrong.

Aside from that, each of the parings in the OT3 are just. Gah. They are so well done, with friendship being the solid basis for them all. The creators never expect the audience to assume anything about them or fill in the gaps. They give us their relationships on screen and reference many things off-screen to show us how these relationships continue to build in between episodes.

Hardison and Parker are a canon couple and date in the show: it’s approached slowly and they are so goddamned sweet. They are basically every fluffy slow-burn trope with a healthy dash of mutual pining in the mix. They are basically that quote “love is patient, love is kind”. (I would like to add their romance never becomes the focus of the show or overrides the importance of any other relationship they have with the other characters, especially Eliot.)

Hardison and Eliot are the Old Married Couple and from day one are already bickering and looking at each other/making comments that are found in every UST fic ever (not to mention Hardison has a very good knack for making Eliot grin like a little kid, when usually he’s basically an Angry Little Chef Man). They argue, they play, and love each other plain as day.

Parker and Eliot are more subtle but every bit as wonderful. They have an unspoken connection and understand each other on a level no-one else can. Parker and Eliot are not good with giving themselves over to affection for different reasons (and Hardison plays a central role in helping them realise it’s okay to want it and have it- that boy has endless patience) but there is something so beautiful in the way the two of them come together on their own and develop their own special bond that works for them. Parker and Eliot are that trope where the characters don’t need to speak to understand each other perfectly. They just do. Their love language is a lot of the time non-verbal but speaks volumes. (Parker also likes to annoy the hell out of Eliot and Eliot....just.....lets...her. Because he’s soft. The softest, grumpiest boy.)

I could go into so much depth for each pairing and their dynamics as a 3 but that's for another post.

3. Subverting stereotypes. There is the occasional hiccup in the show regarding stereotypes but ultimately, Leverage gets an A+ when it comes to writing characters and making them 3 dimensional people who are not defined by certain characteristics or events. Nate could so easily fall into the White Man Pain trope where he uses the trauma of losing his kid as a reason as to why he is entitled to act like a dick. Nate is a dick but he doesn’t use his pain to excuse it and I appreciate that. Hardison is a black man who is soft and nurturing. Easily the most empathetic and patient of the group. He’s nerdy, an actual genius, and has the biggest heart of all the characters. Nate is maybe the glue but Hardison is definitely the heart. Media’s usual aggressive, amongst other, racist stereotypes can fuck right off. Parker is canonically autistic (I am sure this was confirmed by one of the creators) and she is not defined by it. It’s not written as some kind of singular personality trait. It’s part of what makes up Parker but it’s only one facet of who she is and not once is her actions, thoughts or feelings treated like a joke. Sometimes people don’t understand why she does and says the things she does but it’s met with patience and fondness over the course of the show. Equally, it’s not met with over-caution. Parker is just Parker. No-one tries to change her. The other nice thing is Hardison, who always makes sure Parker knows she’s amazing because of who she is and not in spite of it. Finally, Sophie is in her 40s. She’s not treated like she’s past her prime. Ever. She’s sexy, smart and never is she pitted against or compared to Parker (who is younger) for anything. Sophie is amazing and there’s never even a conversation of “I may be older but I am still *insert adjective typically associated with younger women here*”. Sophie is possibly the first female character I’ve ever seen who isn’t just unapologetic about her age but has never had to apologise for her age. It’s a non-issue and that’s that. The women on the show are written so well, right down to secondary characters and it’s beyond refreshing.

4.) It’s just fun. The show has a “monster of the week” type format. Except instead of a ghoul or a ghost, the monster is some corrupt wealthy and powerful individual or organisation. The show draws on real-life individuals to do this and therefore closely parallels real-life people and events. It addresses important political, economical, social and environmental issues while at the same time remaining fun and light-hearted. The characters constantly get the chance to play dress up and by GOD do they have fun with it. You get to watch Eliot beat up bad guys in the most delightful of ways, usually after a witty non-sequitur and with a weapon you’d never think could be a weapon. The dialogue and back and forth between the characters is everything. And finally - my favourite thing- the team can never resist striking a dramatic pose after they’ve taken down the bad guy, making sure the bad guy sees them. I mean, they COULD just walk away, satisfied they’ve taken the person down, but nope. They gotta be dramatic bitches 24/7 and pose like they are models for every single month of this year’s Criminal Calendar.

5.) Competence Porn. So. Much. Competence Porn.

Honestly, I could list a thousand reasons for why Leverage is amazing but to list them would to be spoiling so many amazing moments you’d get to discover for the first time on your own if you do choose to watch it. It’s the kind of show you can watch with an eagle-eye and sink your teeth into. But it’s also the kind of show if, you would prefer, put on in the background for something entertaining while you do something else. Each episode is about the job at hand but it’s made up of so many moments between the characters that show how much the creators and writers care about them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll do whatever it is you do when something Soft and Wonderful happens that makes your heart melt. I am so beyond grateful for Leverage. It’s everything I always wanted in a show. Nearly every show I’ve watched in the past 10 years has disappointed me in some way, usually either because the writers run out of steam or characters who I love are treated poorly or given some kind of unnecessary “shock value” arc. Leverage doesn’t do that. Leverage is what it says on the bottle. Fandom isn’t something I joined because I needed canon fix-its. Fandom only enhances and celebrates an already excellent canon.

#leverage #leverage redemption #Hardison #Parker #Eliot #aunty #uncle

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icantthinkofacoolblognamesposts · 3 years

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This is the MoUse we're talking about. The bar was already really low and somehow the show is meh..... It's actually blander than synthetic vanilla. Dare I say WandaVision and TFATWS are better!?!?

There seems to be a complete misunderstanding of why people who didn’t like the Loki show, didn’t like it. I keep seeing people saying that we didn’t want a redemption arc, or didn’t want him to have to do the “Hard work” of redemption. Which is wrong. But what we did want is a Loki who didn’t start out at the beginning as “He’s just evil.” We wanted the show to address the trauma which led to his character in the first place.

We wanted Loki to retain his core personality traits of intelligence, wit, and self control.

We don’t think he is perfect and unflawed, we know he did some horrific things. But we wanted him to stop being blamed for all the things he did not do. He did not kill his mother, nor was he in anyway responsible for her death. Thor brought Jane to Asgard, Odin refused to treat her. It was Malikith not the cursed who traced the aether to Frigga’s rooms. Hell Loki didn’t even send the cursed after Thor because how was he to know where Thor was at that moment? Loki did not cause Ragnarok. That was caused solely by Odin and Hela. Putting Odin in a nursing home didn’t kill him and the old bastard had aa thousand years to warn them and set up some kind of way to deal with it but he couldn’t tell his kids what lay in store for them because he was maintaining yet another lie. Even in Avenger’s when he is an out of control bad guy he gets the blame for the collapse of the building which killed 70 odd agents which he did not cause. Also we didn’t like that he suddenly became as physically weak as a human, lost all of his fighting skill, forgot how to use his magic except in random bursts which made little sense. He lost all of his physical grace, because wildly exaggerated in expression and reaction and movement, and his voice didn’t even sound like Loki for most of the show. We didn’t like the other versions of himself be the worst and most shallow interpretation of the character possible and the one character who wasn’t, Old Loki, was dressed like Kermit the frog and made to spout Glorious Purpose so his death was more sad clown then pathos. We didn’t like how Loki’s “therapy” was Mobius manipulating him, threatening him with death, physically abusing him and that was somehow painted as “Friendship.” And Loki, master manipulator himself not only fell for it, but was so happy for the few crumbs of praise and affection Mobius tossed at him he immediately calls Mobius his friend right after Mobius let him out of the prison where he was kicked and slapped and told he was shit over and over. The prison Mobius put him in for trying to get away from an organization that was bent on killing him. We didn’t like how he was constantly upstaged by Sylvie, who could have been an interesting character, if they hadn’t decided to paint her as perfect and powerful and better then every one else, even from childhood. Oh but she doesn’t trust people! How the fuck is that a flaw when everyone is trying to kill you? We don’t like how every black character is deceitful, or evil or brutal. How the Asian characters are window dressing or clueless. We didn’t like the complete un resolution of the final show which had a totally new character monologuing for half its run on how everything that came before was a lie.

This show could have taken the same basic plot and with a few minor tweaks it would have been fantastic. They could have acknowledged Loki’s trauma. Mobius could have been a real friend and not just one more abusive asshole using Loki for his own purpose. We could have been given background on Sylvie to show her as a frightened little girl on the run and build empathy for her. We could have had Loki face his terrible choices in the light of why he did them and realize revenge is not the way without him acting like an idiot. We could have had Loki taking the blame for the evil he did do without having to take the blame for what he didn’t. How about for one not once again saying that being lied to is fine, being betrayed is fine, but if you retaliate you are evil. They could have had maybe one white character be the one who was the bad guy. Old Loki could have had a bad ass costume. The genderfluid baiting could have been acknowledged with one or two lines instead of denied with a show of horrified misogyny. Loki’s magic could have been used logically and consistently not randomly dropped into the plot. Instead of the DB Cooper throw away scene, they could have shown two of the TVA people wrestling a IDK T-Rex down a hall to show that they were super powered. They could have foreshadowed Kang’s appearance and had bits of his story dropped through out the series and not do a boring info dump at the end. That is why the people who hate the show hate it. Not because Loki kissed Sylvie instead of Mobius. Not because Sylvie is a bad ass. Not because we don’t want to see Loki face up to his evil choices and do the hard work of redemption. But because we don’t want once again to be told, kiss the ass of those who treat you wrong. Don’t fight against those who would put you down. Your anger is not acceptable no matter the provocation. You are not a good victim therefore we will not address the injustice done to you. The people in authority did this for your own good, be grateful.

#loki #tom hiddleston #was in it #how is the show background elevator mysic level of bland?

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