#guess who started watching leverage redemption | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onyxbird · 1 year

Text

These are my thoughts about fan content clarifying what fandom values about a work that I mentioned in a response to @trivalentlinks.

The optimistic side of this post is that I think there is value in fan content forming a record for whoever chooses to look (even if that's only other fans), in the form of thousands of fanfics and fanart and fanposts, that these are the things fandom got out of a source work that made them love it. These are the versions of the characters that fans loved (or hated), whether or not that's quite what the writers/actors/etc. intended. These are the story beats that resonated so well that fans delve into them over and over and over, and these are the ones that flopped and get "fixed" again and again.

However a lot of the stuff below the cut is more pessimism and frustration about the crudeness of the "dialog," such as it is, between fandom and creators, using Leverage/Leverage Redemption as an example. I have no real answers, here.

Mostly, the thing is gets me is that 1) I know viewer numbers and ratings are what drive decision-making in TV/movie production and 2) on the viewer's end, the choice to watch or not watch a show/movie/whatever is such an incredibly crude, binary signal about something that so much factors into.

So taking Leverage as the example, since that's what touched this discussion off, imagine if Leverage Redemption just tanks next season. Lots of people who tuned in when season 1 launched stop watching. The obvious question that a lot of people are going to be asking is why. When Leverage originally aired, it was clearly popular enough to get 5 seasons and to eventually spawn a sequel series, and enough people started watching Redemption to get a second season greenlit, so the question would be what changed?

If you're looking solely at the show end to try to diagnose viewership/ratings trends, there are quite a few changes that could factor into reception, both obvious and subtle, and very limited "signal" from just numeric viewing/ratings data. Some of those changes are (all stuff I recall seeing discussed in fanposts in one form or another, BTW):

They became an Amazon production. They killed off Nate. They added Harry. They added Breanna. They made Sophie the Mastermind. They moved the setting to New Orleans. Hardison was away for most of the season. They gave Eliot a multi-episode love interest for the first time. They shifted the focus more towards the way the powerful can twist the system to their own ends to legally screw people over (linked to Harry's incorporation in the team). They had a more diverse pool of clients for the crew. They went little further over the realism line into the fantastical (e.g., literally talking guards to sleep). They seemed to explicitly refute the OT3 dynamic ("robot bodies" scene). They made a number of smaller, possibly unintended characterization changes to established characters (e.g., various stuff with Parker's portrayal). And, separate from Leverage Redemption itself, a local Portland news outlet put out an article (which doesn't appear to have been picked up by any wider news outlets) about alleged sexual harassment/assault on Electric Entertainment productions, including Leverage.

Lots of changes, both large and small. Some changes I think were excellent. Some were not. Some were non-ideal for the show, but obviously limited by circumstance (e.g., working around Aldis Hodge's availability). With (I hope) the exception of the abuse allegations, I suspect every change on my list has some fans who like it, some who hate it, and some who don't really care.

So… how would you figure out what accounted for a hypothetical drop in ratings/viewers?

In the absence of any direct feedback about what the fans are saying (or expressing through other fandom participation), there would be a lot of guesswork. The show is very centered around the crew, so I would guess the impact of cast changes would be a major objective change to look at. The original crew was well-liked in OG Leverage, so they'd probably assume no problems with returning cast. (Fans perceived some changes to how the OG crew were portrayed, but those are relatively subtle/subjective and likely not deliberate on the show's part.) Harry is a newcomer, but Noah Wyle was a core character in The Librarians, which also got 4 seasons, so I doubt him turning off fans would be the first guess. That leaves removing Tim Hutton (well-established actor, central to previous well-received series, resulted in major restructuring of crew once removed) and adding Aleyse Shannon (who seems to have fairly few previous roles) as major cast changes. (If the "Silence on the Set" article had gotten more press and really blown up, then that might make the list of possible reasons for turning people off, but I have only seen that discussed on Tumblr so far, and it appears to be only the one local article in a location they don't seem to be filming in anymore.)

Now, from what I've seen in the Tumblr fandom (both on my dash and in the main leverage tag), my impression is that people here largely think removing Nate was the right choice (either because of the allegations against Hutton or because Nate's arc had ended or both) and adore Breanna and her casting. But to know that, you have to look at what fans are saying and/or how they're engaging with the fandom rather than just looking at the fact that the new line-up isn't holding viewership. Otherwise, you might conclude, e.g., that getting rid of the (older, white, male) Mastermind and bringing in a young, queer, woman-of-color geek were a mistake for the show's popularity.

In terms of fanfic (the topic of the other post), I've seen people remark before about how little "fix-it fic" there is for Leverage. In terms of the changes in Leverage Redemption, I certainly haven't seen much, if any, fic that brings Nate back. I've seen plenty of fic that's enthusiastic about both Breanna and Harry. I have seen fic "fixing" the OT3 or having Parker do more masterminding or keeping Hardison in closer contact, suggesting that those are things that people genuinely did think were problems with the new setup.

Another obvious takeaway from the Leverage fanfic/fan content in general is that the Leverage fandom loves Eliot, but from the fic and posts I've read, my impression is that the Eliot the fandom loves is one who would never do the kind of shit Christian Kane is accused of. E.g., the fan content often delves more deeply into Eliot's bloody, ex-hitman past than the show ever has, while at the same time "Parker and/or Hardison have to practically sit Eliot down for a Powerpoint presentation to convince him they are romantically/sexually interested in him, too, because otherwise he will never make a move to avoid crossing their boundaries" is practically its own Leverage fic genre.

Now, are the creators/producers/etc. going to come to Tumblr and AO3 to figure out why their show is or is not doing well? Likely not, especially not AO3. (In this specific case, perhaps more likely than for other shows, since I think at least one of the creators has explicitly mentioned writing fanfic themselves.) But I do think there is value in the fandom talking about what they do like, what was done well, in addition to the things that make them walk away from watching further, even if the only people listening are other fans.

Leverage/Leverage Redemption isn't the only place where I have this frustration, BTW. I had a lot of fun with the MCU, before Infinity War/Endgame killed a lot of my enjoyment. And then, of course, they start rolling out a lot stuff following more diverse heroes, etc., whether that's highlighting already-established side characters (Sam Wilson, Black Widow), stuff that I'd never heard of before (e.g., Moon Knight; Shang Chi), and stuff that I had heard of and wanted to do well (e.g., Ms. Marvel, one of my cousin's favorite comics). And I just want to shake the people in charge and say "Why didn't you feature these characters before you soured me on the franchise as a whole? I didn't stop wanting to watch because you shifted away from white male superheroes. Now, if ratings go down, you're probably going to say people just don't want to watch [POC/Muslim/mentally ill/etc.] main characters, and that's not it at all."

I'm not really arguing that the fandom version of the show is actually going to get back to the creators/people deciding show funding/etc. and influence their decision-making or have a tangible impact on the way mainstream media operates, outside of (perhaps) explicit reviews of the work. I'm not arguing that people should continue to make fanworks for this reason, or should continue supporting shows just to avoid creators drawing the wrong conclusions. I'm just saying I find it comforting that there is a record out there, in all the fan content, of what it was about these works that spoke to people. And of what, in the show universe, put them off enough to warrant discussion or fix-its. I just think it matters.

#ethics of fandom #(sort of)#silence on the set #leverage

70 notes · View notes

gnar-slabdash · 1 year

Note

I know some otherwise intelligent people that can't seem to appreciate "Leverage". How can this be?

I mean I feel like mostly the answer is "because different intelligent people naturally have different tastes" and also "one does not control the special interest." But here's a few possible answers just for kicks: 1. If you can't get them to START watching, are you sure you're meeting them on their level? I've been telling my bff about Leverage for years and he's never been interested. Then I remembered that he was never interested in MCR either until I showed him the Danger Days music videos, because what he IS into is apocalypse stories and comics and classic anime. BAM, he was obsessed. So I told him about all the people from STAR TREK who work on Leverage and he was like "WHY did you never tell me this before???" He still hasn't actually WATCHED it because he's just become a full-fledged Ivy League professor and also has ADHD up the wazoo, but now it's actually on his radar because I started where he's at.

2. If they've started watching and aren't getting into it, make sure they're watching in the CORRECT ORDER. As with a certain other halcyon 2000s show, the episodes were originally aired in the wrong order, and that's the order that streaming services usually retain (I believe the DVDs have the intended order). You can just google to find the right order, I usually find it in imdb's trivia section. How big a difference the change makes will vary by person, but for me watching int he wrong order made the emotional storylines make a lot less sense. Episode 3, for example, was SUPPOSED to be the Wedding Job, not the Two Horse Job. So it feels like she's really jumping the gun when Eliot's ex tells him he has a new family now -- really, he's known these people for like a month?? Well, that was supposed to come later. And likewise, this was supposed to be the point where Sophie freaks out because she doesn't know where her relationship with Nate was going. But because they moved THAT to later, it feels like she's happily settled into the status quo and then blows up out of nowhere. I legitimately didn't like Sophie at all when I first watched the first season, and it's NOT HER FAULT -- it's because they fucked up her emotional storyline by putting the episodes in the wrong places.

3. A lot of people fucking hate that the main character is a white male tortured asshole genius trope. Yeah there are lots of other characters they can focus on, but Nate is kind of a lot if that's not what you're into. I will never in my life UNDERSTAND not being into it because that trope is literally what got me into the show, but I realize I'm in the minority there.

4. Gotta get a little more serious now. One thing I appreciate about the Leverage fandom is we usually don't get hung up in arguments about what's problematic about the show and what issues people "should be talking about." We realize it's a show from the late 2000s created by a couple of white guys and it's not perfect, and then we focus on all the great stuff it was able to accomplish anyway. I LIKE that. BUT. It means when we go to recommend it to people, we sometimes oversell it. "It's a queer poly band of thieves trying to take down capitalism!" Well, no, it actually isn't. Just because JR likes to talk about how the OT3 is so totally canon actually doesn't make it true. He says he did everything the network allowed him to do, but now that he's making Redemption the way it is, we can guess that's not entirely true either. I think there are actually no canon gays except that one lady cop. And speaking of cops, there are a lot of those, and they're sometimes corrupt but they're very often good guys and sending the bad guys to jail is very often written as a major win, and that is understandably a problem for a lot of people. And finally, they are not actually trying to take down capitalism. I think it was Latimer who told them that they were actually just trying to REGULATE the system, not take it down -- and HE WAS RIGHT. They're trying to fix the system by taking down the Bad CEOS and replacing them with Good CEOS, which is an easier sell on 2000s network TV than it is to a new watcher today. There are other issues that might be more problematic to some people, I'm just using these ones to make my point that some of the most commonly mentioned selling points of Leverage aren't entirely accurate. So just be realistic when recommending it to avoid some serious sticker shock.

#leverage #thanks for coming to my ted talk #and thanks anon for asking!

52 notes · View notes

seriouslycromulent · 10 months

Text

Thoughts on the 2nd Season of Leverage: Redemption

OK. So I finally got around to watching Leverage: Redemption season 2. It was a decent season (or half-season?). I do remember liking more of the episodes from season 1, but that may be because there were more episodes overall (Hence, why I referred to this as a half-season.).

Random Thought #1 --

I can say one of the major pluses of season 2 was the opportunity to see Aldis Hodge more. And of course, that wink at the audience regarding the DC cinematic universe was not lost on me. I’m glad he was able to participate in more episodes this time around, but I am just as happy to see his career flourish on the big screen too.

Any chance to see more of Aldis is always appreciated. But you know who I did miss?

Random Thought #2 --

None of the episodes were directed by Jonathan Frakes this season. I’m not saying I can’t enjoy Leverage without Jonny behind the camera, but when he’s not there, his absence is certainly felt. I can only guess it was because he was off getting his Captain Riker on in the 3rd season of Star Trek: Picard. Sure, I loved seeing him on ST: Pic, but he better direct some eps for the next season of Leverage or I'll ... stew silently like the impetulant child that I am.

Random Thought #3 --

Moving on. My favorite episode of the 2nd season was the non-Leverage Leverage episode titled “The Belly of the Beast Job.” I liked how our team takes a bit of a backseat to others in this episode, and let a duo of novices attempt to save the world for once.

It was all very cute watching the Fab 5 help from the sidelines, plus the realistic scenario of the villain and the victim(s) really resonated with me. The storyline was incredibly honest regarding the nature of workplace harassment, even affording the reality that sometimes when there’s a woman in a position to help, she may be more concerned with looking out for herself than protecting others. I really appreciated that honesty in storytelling on such a sensitive issue.

Also, the actor who played the bad guy, aka the smarmy record executive, was fantastic! I remember him – Jeffrey Vincent Parise – from an episode of Burn Notice where he played a fairly distinctive villain who was similarly flamboyant, but very different in other ways. In this episode of L:R, it seems he has turned up the creeper factor to 11, and delivered an especially realistic performance in a character that you love to hate. Kudos to him and whoever was responsible for casting him on the show!

Random Thought #4 --

I also have to admit some of my favorite moments of season 2 involved Harry Wilson. Particularly when he had to imitate Eliot in The Walk In The Woods Job. He actually did a pretty good job with the Spencer Growl™, but he couldn't get the rest of the voice exactly right. It was still funny as hell though.

As for his first time in the vents in The Museum Makeover Job, oh my goodness. 😂 At first, I felt a bit sorry for him because tight spaces are not my friend either. But then he started acting like a cartoon character and I couldn't help but laugh. I have a feeling that was intentional (by the writers) for us folks who might have felt some residual claustrophobia when watching through our screens.

So having Harry freak out in an absurdly cartoon-y manner helped keep the situation light, I think. And it just made me adore Noah Wyle's complete lack of ego when it comes to comedy even more.

Random Thought #5 --

Finally, I know I’m late to the party here, since the season 2 finale aired in January, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was shocked to find out that Eliot Spencer is adopted. And that his adoptive parents are Black! [insert head exploding emoji]

But let me tell you this … I don’t hate it.

Here’s why:

It’s just like Eliot to keep this type of info to himself. He plays everything close to the vest, and this definitely would qualify as info that no one needs to know but him.

It adds a different kind of beat to Christian’s roles where he often plays men (usually from Oklahoma) who have estranged relationships with their father. I wasn’t too interested in seeing him play that same character beat yet again, so adding in a transracial adoption angle actually gave it a fresh twist.

His dad was played by Keith freakin’ David. Keith. Freakin’. David. If you only know Keith David through his voiceover work in animation, that may not seem like a big deal to you. But for those of us who grew up on this man’s film and TV work onscreen coupled with that very distinctive voice of his, … well … let's just say I fangirled for quite a while when he first appeared on camera. And when it was revealed that he was Eliot’s dad, I had the stupidest jaw-dropping grin on my face for like 5 minutes.

And on top of that, Christian got to shoot a fight scene with Keith too. Dude! I don’t personally know Chris (although I’ve met him several times), but I am sure he pinched himself more than once while preparing for and shooting that scene. I can only imagine he was trying really hard not to picture himself as a stand-in for the late great Rowdy Roddy Piper in that iconic fight scene in They Live. Heck, a part of me was doing it myself as I was watching it. I genuinely felt incredibly happy for Chris for getting the opportunity to work with Keith in this way.

With that said, I did make my way over to ao3 to see if anyone has written any fanfic around the whole adoption storyline. So far, I’ve only found two. There may be others, but they’re not too easy to track with the search tool, so it's a slow process.

Anyway, I noticed in the comments section on one of the fanfics I found, the author mentioned that they saw a comment on Facebook stating that the person wished that Eliot’s father had been Native American instead. And the author worked into the story the idea that Eliot’s biological mom was Native due to this comment.

Here’s the thing. I don’t have a problem with the author at all. They just wrote a quick story offering a wee bit of background on how Eliot ended up with the Spencers.

But I admit that I find that Facebook comment to be unnecessary and giving off some skanky anti-Black vibes. Yes, Chris has Native ancestry IRL. But how many times has he played characters where both of his parents were white and not Native? Did this person leaving the comment ever lament over his parents not being Native for any of those other roles? And if not, why not?

Here was an opportunity to allow Chris to be a part of multiracial onscreen family in a way that he hasn’t been able to in the past, and apparently, someone objected to that multiracial family being of African descent instead of Indigenous descent. They apparently didn't care about how it affords Eliot a new layer of complexity that we would rarely see in any other role Chris has played in the past (assuming the writers want to do something with it). It also acknowledges that Black people adopt children of other races and ethnicities too, which typically isn’t shown or discussed on American television. Transracial adoption is often painted as something only white or Asian-American parents do.

I’m not saying that the Facebook comment was racist, but it definitely seemed to have anti-Black bias that is far too often brushed aside when it comes to non-Black communities of color. And I hope that this person's sentiment is the exception, not the rule in the Leverage fandom.

Ok. That's it. I just wanted to share my thoughts on those aspects of season 2. Feel free to agree or disagree or something else. Thanks for reading my ramblings, and I will now happily sit over here and wait on season 2 of Almost Paradise premiering in July.

#leverage #leverage: redemption #fandom #christian kane #keith david #noah wyle #racism in fandom #aldis hodge #jonathan frakes #eliot spencer #billy spencer #harry wilson #alec hardison

11 notes · View notes

suddenrundown · 2 years

Note

I was rewatching Leverage: Redemption with my girlfriend, and had a sudden thought about the Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist AU - when Elliot starts hanging out with Maria Shipp in the AU, Parker starts worrying that maybe he wants a more “normal” relationship than the one that she and Hardison can provide him. And then the Hurricane Job happens, and Maria is flirting with Elliot during all the chaos, and Elliot launches into “Shut Up And Fish” by Maddie and Tae in the song space, and Parker realizes that Elliot is ABSOLUTELY not romantically interested in Maria.

Ok first of all, this delights me for so many reasons: A) I didn't know this song existed until now and I'm cackling because B) we know that Eliot thinks that fishing with someone he loves is THEE epitome of romance but you know who doesn't know that? Parker, because she wasn't there when Nate heard Eliot singing about his love for Hardison fishing all those years ago in his kitchen, and in the past 10 years since, she hasn't gone out with them on the one, maybe two times that Eliot's convinced Hardison to go again, so she doesn't hear him sing it then either (although, if she were there, he totally would be singing "fishing in the dark", that's just fact lol).

So maybe she doesn't know about this very specific fantasy of his, but she does know Eliot and she's gotten very good over the years at interpreting the meaning behind the heartsongs she hears, so......

(also, I don't know if you were specifying that the ot3 were in a relationship or if you were sticking to canon, but when I was thinking about this ask today I kept thinking of it in terms of canon and this waffly non-relationship they seem to be in, so)

Poor Parker is having this weird "I'm gonna crawl out of my skin" type of feeling, and she doesn't really understand it. Sure, she feels like a drowned rat and the hotel they're in is swarming with corrupt cops so no wonder, but that's not it. Not really.

When she looks over and sees Eliot and Maria standing close, scheming up some sort of plan (without her), it's very....couple-y. She tries not to get distracted with wondering why she feels that way. It's not because she dislikes Maria, and if Eliot trusts her then she can trust her, she guesses. Parker's not gonna tell Eliot who to spend his time with.

(He hasn't spend any time with her, lately.........huh. *skin crawling intensifies*).

Eliot does eventually make his way back over, wordlessly asking her with a specific look if all's good on her end, and she's distracted for a moment by country music that's starting to play through the room to give a reply, so she nods for him to follow her around the corner and through the kitchen door (it's still playing, but vaguely muted).

"I have the mics wired above the cops' rooms," she tells him.

"S'good," he replies, "anything been said yet?"

"No." She shivers a little and pulls at the wet fabric sticking to her neck.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," she says dismissively, though it isn't true. She feels icky. "What are you and the marshal doing?"

"Maria thinks we'll get somewhere if we wait it out a bit".

There's something hesitant there, and she doesn't really want to get in the middle of it, but she asks anyway, "Well what do you think?"

"S'fine, Honestly though, I could tell pretty fast she has more than just bass on her mind."

She's about to ask what that means, but then the music that's been muted suddenly is all around them from no particular source, and all at once she realizes the source is actually Eliot when he sings:

♫Oh I was fishing, she was wishing we were kissing, I was getting madder than a hornet in an old Coke can ♫

Parker blinks and wordlessly watches him slide up beside her.

♫ Getting closer, sliding over, crowding up my casting shoulder, reaching out and tryna hold my reeling hand♫

There's warmth now where he's pressed into her, a familiar kind but not one she's felt lately as he puts an arm around her shoulder.

♫And saying I'm pretty, saying she's in love, and how it don't get any better than this♫

It leaves just as quickly as he pulls away, sliding away again.

♫I say yeah it could girl, if you would shut up and fish♫

The song ends just as abruptly as it began, and Eliot runs a hand through his hair, slightly agitated. "You know?"

Well.....no. He sang through what he was saying in reality, so she doesn't know, but she nods anyway.

"I can do a perimeter check in the vents," she says, not sure how well that lines up with their plans.

"Sounds good."

When they part ways and she climbs into the nearest vent, she takes a moment to orient herself, and to think about the heartsong. And how warm Eliot is, even soaking wet.

"He really likes fishing," she giggles to herself, suddenly feeling far less icky than she had been.

For some reason.

#hey THANKS for the ask!! sorry i kind of took it and used it as an excuse to do whatever lol.#also picture me saluting you because anyone who willingly rewatches the hurricane job is braver than any US marine #the hurrican job my nemesis my worstie....#answered #a heartsong au #leverage #eliot spencer #parker #otp: it makes us us

8 notes · View notes

dru-reblogs-stuff · 1 year

Text

Get to know you tag ('ship version)

Tagged by @wispstalk, TY Ray <3

3 ships: HMS Victory, the training ship Queen Galadriel, and the research vessel Prince Madog.

[ Martin Septim/ Baurus (TES: Oblivion); Bilbo Baggins/ Thorin Okensheild (The Hobbit); Anduin Lothar/ Garona Halforcen (Warcraft (2016) ]

1st ever ship: the Purbeck Princess (I think. I may have been a Maid of the Harbour. I was nought by a babe in arms - I think I'm allowed to have forgotten the name).

[Bilbo Baggins/ Thorin Okensheild (The Hobbit) I guess - I only started paying attention when I started really getting into fandom, otherwise it didn't occur to my asexual ass ]

last song: Currently listening to Peace of Akatosh from the TESIV: Oblivion Soundtrack by Jeremy Soule, trying to channel funerary energy for a fic.

last movie: Speed Racer (2008). I need to finish watching it...

currently reading: I dipped back into The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities: A Yearbook of Forgotten Words by Paul Anthony Jones so I guess that's what I'm reading XD

currently watching: Leverage: Redemption and Reacher.

currently consuming: Black Cherry tea from Celestial Seasonings.

currently craving: I have an intangible ache for new fanworks for my favourite media... but that are fresh and not just a rehash of the same old storylines, 'ships and characters. I read The Other Donton Diary, which is backstory of Vilena Donton, the other day and it was so nice to have found something besides another smutfic featuring Martin/HoK.

Tagging back: Anyone who fancies it (gods I have got to get a gen tag list XD)

#tag game #get to know you tag

2 notes · View notes

kalinara · 2 years

Note

Fandom and NoTP - Leverage, Leverage: Redemption

This is going to get me in real trouble but I'm not all that into the OT3 in a romantic sense.

This is, to be honest, entirely a fandom thing. See, when I watched the show originally, there were a lot of people who shipped Elliot and Parker. And there's nothing wrong with that, per se. But there was a tiny group that I'd encountered that got louder and louder as the series went on.

Who'd watch episodes like the Boys/Girls Night Out episodes, or the one where Elliot goes undercover as a chef and Parker discovers a joy of food, or when he bought Parker the plant in Hardison's name (he bought flowers for Sophie too, but no one seemed inclined to break up Sophie and Nate!) and start talking about how Hardison and Parker were clearly wrong for each other. And well, at that time, I was seeing a lot more Elliot/Parker fics than Parker/Hardison fics and while no one was really saying the reason why...

I mean, we can guess one reason.

So that kind of soured me on Elliot/Parker as a romantic pairing, and that kind of extends to the OT3 a little bit, because a part of me resents the idea that Parker and Hardison just can't be a couple. Elliot's wonderful, his friendship with the other two is great. But he seems perfectly content with his own, very rich emotional and sexual life. Does he really need to be involved with the other two like that?

And as much as I love OT3s on general principle, you know there are some where fans place way too much focus on one particular character. Or worse, one particular pairing, and the third might as well just be around for window dressing. So I get uneasy about the idea. We know who's most likely, statistically speaking, to get neglected in this dynamic.

I am NOT saying that OT3 fans do this. I think pretty much the entire fandom loves the idea of the OT3 and all three characters. But there's that one tiny group of fans that I still hold a grudge toward.

Also, to be honest, while I admire the Leverage creators a lot for what they do, I think the fanbase gave them a little too much credit when it came to the OT3. Encouraging the fanbase isn't the same as making something actually canon, and the creators got away with that because the show was already done. The revival, so far, has been pretty ambiguous in that direction (Elliot, at least, seems to enjoy some outside relationships too. And good for him if so), and so I think the creators really ought to put their money where their mouth is. Pay up or shut up. And other silly cliches.

Most of the time though I really do enjoy the OT3 idea, even with my little stewing resentment toward one tiny part of a fandom, who may not even exist anymore.

#notp meme

4 notes · View notes

richardsphere · 1 month

Text

Leverage Redemption Log: The Muddy Waters Job

Penultimate episode, with a name that implies ambiguity and shady-ness (also potentially actual mud, EG: a company that's been deforesting a mountain and as a result destabilised it/removed the soils ability to absorb rain into treeroots and caused mudslides that killed people.)

Yeah this is definitly gonna be a 2-part finale in disguise, ending on some kind of cliffhanger. (knowing the show, and how they've kept teasing "harry is still keeping secrets" and "Harry's old firm still kind of wants him back cause he's good at being evil" im gonna say, probably ends with Harry "defecting" to team Evil again, only for the finale to do a Trojan Horse reveal). --- Little Modern-day Romeo and Juliet scene? Unfortunately as Juliet descends of the balcony she is shocked to find a kidnapper? Well that is awkward.

Romeo runs in front of the Would-be-kidnappers car and makes him crash it (he's dead now). --- Ok so I dont watch Who, but my family does and I get the references. (do wonder if they ever get in trouble cause people assume its an obviously fake name, or if they just "Parents agreed mom gets to name the odd-number children and dad the evens."-splain it away)

Also why is Hardison using the presumably female River Song ID?

Teddy Bear, Sophies Personal Irregulars are making a return (or at least one of them is). So this is gonna be one of those "is she re-retiring" plotlines.

Wait... Julliet is Harry's daughter? (Alsoi thought his daughter was a "Nick?"-name, not saying he cant have multiple kids or anything, but its weird to have a second kid dropped on us?) Any way "Becky" is confiding in her dad (apparently a child-tracking app works both ways. Normally i'd complain about parents violating childrens privacy, but the dad in question used to be a billionaire's personal lawyer, the kind of person who makes enemies that may have a desire to put pressure on him to "fail" in his job. So with her being a particularly high-risk kidnapping target. Im gonna say he's justified in putting it there, but not necessarily in trying to be sneaky about it)

Ethan and Ex-wife (Maybe she is Nick? Was he on the phone with his wife talking about his daughter in the christmas special instead of talking to his daughter?)

--- Ethan is the CEO of an oil company. Im sorry Harry you have some splaining to do if you want us to trust this guy. (Presumeably Harry is right and its the "not so good" members of the company trying to coup him)

Harry thinks its a competitor trying to get GulfOil to go back to being Black after it started a pivot to Green. (absolutely not, its an inside job)

Harry, I get that you are presenting this stuff the way you'd present a case (Story first, disclosure second) but this is definitly a "disclosure first" case. Also Breanna is on Strike, (minor note to the writers: Parker should know that striking is an option. IE: Hardison in the Gold Job)

Ok admittedly not a good look for Harry to be trying and get Sophie to Scab on Breanna as a hacker. --- Parker and Elliot arrive to the interogation mid-assasination. (my guess: the man isnt an assasin or kidnapper, he's an attempted whistleblower trying to reach Ethan)

Ok guy in a suit showed up with his grandkid, says that would-be-assasinee works for him against his (the employer's) will. --- Suit is a lawyer working pro-bono to deal with the oil spill. Vantons kid has leukemia from Benzene (oil) poisoning the groundwater after a hurricane caused a mudslide (muddy water).

Ethan isnt the good man Harry thinks he is, he's just a PR Guy.

"every bit of data is in the hands of the legal team", and there we have our motive for Harry to turn Trojan Horse. Be part of Legal Team=Get the Data. Harry's gonna double-check Ethan, (he still has faith in his ex-wife's husband) Wife's name is grace (Seriously am I misremembering a Nick? I swear that was the name he used on the phone). Parker is waitstaff, (classic Bard and Rogue)

Ethan insists that though he'd love to pay her a check legal refused (also insists they do have the wrong company. I think this might be the number 6 job again. Good Corpo being forced by Bad Corpo.

Better encryption then expected, little stall here. ("gonna have to card you" is a great compliment if you're old enough) Sophie is gonna go after the evidence,

Legal doesnt actually have real data. All they have is doctored stuff. (real data is on probably the oil rig, the less people know your crime, the less potential for whistleblowers) The question is still if Ethan knows.

And there it is, "he lied to my face", fucking damnit. Im gonna be honest, im a bit dissapointed there, Like i get we need a bad guy and we're too far into the episode to make it anyone but Ethan without having to do a really late character introduction but man... I really hoped we'd get a non-evil stepparent. We need more good stepparent representation in media. Its a hard position, with strange powerdynamics as you try to fill an already semi-taken chair at the dinnertable and figure out the role of parent to a child. (remember, most parents have 2-3 years of learning opportunity before the kid forms their first permanent memory, stepparents have to figure it out from scratch while the kid is already old enough to know what it's like to be alive. Now imagine having that struggle in a world where the only cultural referenceframe a kid has for "stepparent" is Lady Tremaine and you can see why we need more examples of good stepparents in media)

--- So... Breanna can just see into Elliots flash-forward imagination sequence? Also the fact that our formula-mandated once-an-episode Elliot fightscene is taking place in a hypothetical flash-forward tells me the mission is gonna go way South. Like "hey look how flamable this chemical accelerant pumping station is" type of "goes south". --- Harry is watching his daughters house. Talk about morality being seperate from legality, honour amongst thieves. --- Back on the Rig, Parker is shocked to find that Breanna's never been on a helicopter before.

Maria calls Elliot (i thought phones werent allowed on the rig?) and they talk relationship status. (another thing that is gonna go South before the end of this two-part finale)

Harry is talking with Grace. Elliot is asking Parker for relationship advice (she's shocked to be considered an authority)

Sophie discovers that the time limit is 1 hour, not multiple days, and unfortunately the rest of the team is out of celular reach.

Ok so personal phones arent allowed but Satelite Phone is. Good to know. Nice improv conversation. --- Elliot suprised to find he doesnt have a dozen mooks to punch, mysterious stranger aproaches from behind: his cover is blown. Harry and Sophie are trying to figure out a way to stall for time. Elliot ready to knock heads, finds a "you're a dad"-party held for him. (most heartwarming heist-complication in the history of the show)

The look on Parker's face when she realises how Sophie just accidentally solved ALL of their problems by clearing every worker from every station except the cameras.

"rewire this whole place so we can send it back", you mean open up all the electrical wiring, posibly causing a bunch of sparks and setting the entire rig ablaze? Bad Plan. --- The Raw Data doesnt exist because the machine mucks the math at the source. (Thats... suspicious? Are we sure Ethan is evil? Cause at this point all evidence we have of him being evil is "Harry thinks that Ethan has a tell)

Why in the hell do they have a CAMERA POINTED AT THE LEAK. So im fairly certain that this might technically count as a discovery violation. But also this is now clearly publicly available information.

The judge agrees that this evidence is unproven, and insists that though it cannot prove guilt it defintly means that the defenses assertions ("they havent been able to prove a causal link" is not correct. This opens us up to further discovery.)

No Sophie, that is not what this means. This means that they're about to destroy the evidence before the Department of Whatever Governing Body Is Responsible can find it by destroying the oilrig. (its a single old rig tapping into a drying well. It would be more profitable to write it off as a loss and blow it sky high then risk hundreds of multi-million dollar suits)

Ok so was Harry doing this to get back with his wife? I dont think so, i think he's trying to redeem himself to be worthy of his daughter, wife doesnt count into it. He's just legitimately shocked at his wife's apathy to her new husbands evil. (but then, she married you so... maybe she's just got a taste for bad people.)

Breanna with the video, goddamn man. Props to the writers for using the fight-scene subversion to make us personally like the people who just died. These might be the first post-leverage victims in the shows entire run. --- Harry is at RIZ playing presenting himself as a Trojan Horse.

#leverage #leverage redemption #leverage redemption season 1 #The Muddy Waters Job

1 note · View note

be-gay-do-heists · 3 years

Text

hello yall :) the holy month of elul started last night, which is typically a time for contemplation, so since it is impossible for me to stop thinking about leverage, i decided to write an essay. hope anyone interested in reading it enjoys, and that it makes at least a little sense!! spoilers for leverage redemption

-----

Leverage, Judaism, and “Doing the Work”: An Essay for Elul

When it comes to Elul and the approaching High Holidays, Leverage might seem like an odd topic to meditate on.

The TNT crime drama that ran from 2008-2012, and which released a new season this summer following its renewal, centers on a group of found-family thieves who help the victims of corporations and oligarchs (sometimes based on real-world examples), using wacky heists and cons to bring down the rich and powerful. In one episode, the team’s clients want to reclaim their father’s prized Glimt piece that had been stolen in the Shoah and never returned, but aside from this and the throwaway lines and jokes standard for most mainstream television, there’s not a ton textually Jewish about Leverage. However, despite this, I have found that the show has strong resonance among Jewish fans, and lots of potential for analysis along Jewish themes. This tends to focus on one character in particular: the group’s brilliant, pop culture-savvy, and personable hacker, Alec Hardison, played by the phenomenally talented Aldis Hodge.

I can’t remember when or where I first encountered a reading of Hardison as Jewish, but not only is this a somewhat popular interpretation, it doesn’t feel like that much of a leap. In the show itself, Hardison has a couple of the aforementioned throwaway lines that potentially point to him being Jewish, even if they’re only in service of that moment’s grift. It’s hard to point to what exactly makes reading Hardison as Jewish feel so natural. My first guess is the easy way Hardison fits into the traditional paradigms of Jewish masculinity explored by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin (2). Most of the time, the hacker is not portrayed as athletic or physical; he is usually the foil to the team’s more physically-adept characters like fighter Eliot, or thief Parker. Indeed, Hardison’s strength is mental, expressed not only through his computer wizardry but his passions for science, technology, music, popular media, as well as his studious research into whatever scenario the group might come up against. In spite of his self-identification as a “geek,” Hardison is nevertheless confident, emotionally sensitive, and secure in his masculinity. I would argue he is representative of the traditional Jewish masculine ideal, originating in the rabbinic period and solidified in medieval Europe, of the dedicated and thoughtful scholar (3). Another reason for popular readings of Hardison as Jewish may be the desire for more representation of Jews of color. Although mainstream American Jewish institutions are beginning to recognize the incredible diversity of Jews in the United States (4), and popular figures such as Tiffany Haddish are amplifying the experiences of non-white Jews, it is still difficult to find Jews of color represented in popular media. For those eager to see this kind of representation, then, interpreting Hardison, a black man who places himself tangential to Jewishness, in this way is a tempting avenue.

Regardless, all of the above remains fan interpretation, and there was little in the text of the show that seriously tied Judaism into Hardison’s identity. At least, until we got this beautiful speech from Hardison in the very first episode of the renewed show, directed at the character of Harry Wilson, a former corporate lawyer looking to atone for the injustice he was partner to throughout his career:

“In the Jewish faith, repentance, redemption, is a process. You can’t make restitution and then promise to change. You have to change first. Do the work, Harry. Then and only then can you begin to ask for forgiveness. [...] So this… this isn’t the win. It’s the start, Harry.”

I was floored to hear this speech, and thrilled that it explained the reboot’s title, Leverage: Redemption. Although not mentioned by its Hebrew name, teshuvah forms the whole basis for the new season. Teshuvah is the concept of repentance or atonement for the sins one has committed. Stemming from the root shuv/shuva, it carries the literal sense of “return.” In a spiritual context, this usually means a return to G-d, of finding one’s way back to holiness and by extension good favor in the eyes of the Divine. But equally important is restoring one’s relationships with fellow humans by repairing any hurt one has caused over the past year. This is of special significance in the holy month of Elul, leading into Rosh haShanah, the Yamim Noraim, and Yom Kippur, but one can undertake a journey of redemption at any point in time. That teshuvah is a journey is a vital message for Harry to hear; one job, one reparative act isn’t enough to overturn years of being on the wrong side of justice, to his chagrin. As the season progresses, we get to watch his path of teshuvah unfold, with all its frustrations and consequences. Harry grows into his role as a fixer, not only someone who can find jobs and marks for the team, but fixes what he has broken or harmed.

So why was Hardison the one to make this speech?

I do maintain that it does provide a stronger textual basis for reading Hardison as Jewish by implication (though the brief on-screen explanation for why he knows about teshuvah, that his foster-parent Nana raised a multi-faith household, is important in its own merit, and meshes well with his character traits of empathy and understanding for diverse experiences). However, beyond this, Hardison isn’t exactly an archetypical model for teshuvah. In the original series, he was the youngest character of the main ensemble, a hacking prodigy in the start of his adult career, with few mistakes or slights against others under his belt. In one flashback we see that his possibly first crime was stealing from the Bank of Iceland to pay off his Nana’s medical bills, and that his other early hacking exploits were in the service of fulfilling personal desires, with only those who could afford to pay the bill as targets. Indeed, in the middle of his speech, Hardison points to Eliot, the character with the most violent and gritty past who views his work with the Leverage team as atonement, for a prime example of ongoing teshuvah. So while no one is perfect and everyone has a reason for doing teshuvah, this question of why Hardison is the one to give this series-defining speech inspired me to look at his character choices and behavior, and see how they resonate with a different but interrelated Jewish principle, that of tikkun olam.

Tikkun olam is literally translated as “repairing the world,” and can take many different forms, such as protecting the rights of vulnerable people in society, or giving tzedakah (5). In modern times, tikkun olam is often the rallying cry for Jewish social activists, particularly among environmentalists for whom literally restoring the health of the natural world is the key goal. Teshuvah and tikkun olam are intertwined (the former is the latter performed at an interpersonal level) and both hold a sense of fixing or repairing, but tikkun olam really revolves around a person feeling called to address an injustice that they may have not had a personal hand in creating. Hardison’s sense of a universal scale of justice which he has the power to help right on a global level and his newfound drive to do humanitarian work, picked up sometime after the end of the original series, make tikkun olam a central value for his character. This is why we get this nice bit of dialogue from Eliot to Hardison in the second episode of the reboot, when the latter’s outside efforts to organize international aid start distracting him from his work with the team: “Is [humanitarian work] a side gig? In our line of work, you’re one of the best. But in that line of work… you’re the only one, man.” The character who most exemplifies teshuvah reminds Hardison of his amazing ability to effect change for the better on a huge stage, to do some effective tikkun olam. It’s this acknowledgement of where Hardison can do the most good that prompts the character’s absence for the remainder of the episodes released thus far, turning his side gig into his main gig.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see where Hardison’s arc for this season goes. Separated from the rest of the team, the hacker still has remarkable power to change the world, because it is, after all, the “age of the geek.” However, he is still one person. For all that both teshuvah and tikkun olam are individual responsibilities and require individual decision-making and effort, the latter especially relies on collective work to actually make things happen. Hardison leaving is better than trying to do humanitarian work and Leverage at the same time, but there’s only so long he can be the “only one” in the field before burning out. I’m reminded of one of the most famous (for good reason) maxims in Judaism:

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it. (6)

Elul is traditionally a time for introspection and heeding the calls to repentance. After a year where it’s never been easier to feel powerless and drained by everything going on around us, I think it’s worth taking the time to examine what kind of work we are capable of in our own lives. Maybe it’s fixing the very recent and tangible hurts we’ve left behind, like Harry. Maybe it’s the little changes for the better that we make every day, motivated by our sense of responsibility, like Eliot. And maybe it’s the grueling challenge of major social change, like Hardison. And if any of this work gets too much, who can we fall back on for support and healing? Determining what needs repair, working on our own scale and where our efforts are most helpful, and thereby contributing to justice in realistic ways means that we can start the new year fresh, having contemplated in holiday fashion how we can be better agents in the world.

Shana tovah u’metukah and ketivah tovah to all (7), and may the work we do in the coming year be for good!

------

(1) Disclaimer: everybody’s fandom experiences are different, and this is just what I’ve picked up on in my short time watching and enjoying this show with others.

(2) See, for example, the introduction and first chapter of Boyarin’s book Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (I especially recommend at least this portion if you are interested in queer theory and Judaic studies). There he explores the development of Jewish masculinity in direct opposition to Christian masculine standards.

(3) I might even go so far as to place Hardison well within the Jewish masculine ideal of Edelkayt, gentle and studious nobility (although I would hesitate to call him timid, another trait associated with Edelkayt). Boyarin explains that this scholarly, non-athletic model of man did not carry negative associations in the historical Jewish mindset, but was rather the height of attractiveness (Boyarin, 2, 51).

(4) Jews of color make up 20% of American Jews, according to statistics from Be’chol Lashon, and this number is projected to increase as American demographics continue to change: https://globaljews.org/about/mission/.

(5) Tzedakah is commonly known as righteous charity. According to traditional authority Maimonides, it should be given anonymously and without embarrassment to the person in need, generous, and designed to help the recipient become self-sufficient.

(6) Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot, 2:16

(7) “A good and sweet year” and “a good inscription [in the Book of Life]”

#leverage #miko speaks #jewish stuff #jumblr #leverage redemption #spoilers #lr spoilers #leverage redemption spoilers #written for a non leverage audience because i want my rabbi to read it alskdjflaksdjf #elul

177 notes · View notes

dorothyoz39 · 2 years

Text

5 Shows Rules:

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions.

Don’t cheat. Tag 10 (or however many) peeps.

Tagged by @rubadubdub3nunsinatub

I’m going to have to chose a few old faves, rewatches, and new because I’m not watching many new things.

My Shows:

Stargate franchise (because I’m a gater... and gaters gonna gate)

Leverage redemption (I’ve watched it 3 times already!! I love that my babies are back!)

Ray Donovan (I’ve just started a rewatch of this show... and it’s so good)

Sanctuary

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

Questions:

Who is your favourite character in 2? C’mon! That’s not fair!! How am I to chose between my favorite criminals?! Ok, I’ll say Sophie. I’ve really loved her this season, she was really great.

Who is your least favourite character in 1? McKay. Doesn’t matter how many times I rewatch, I still feel ambivalent about him. I like him but he annoys me... lots....

What is your favourite episode of 4? The one when Helen and Tesla investigate the map to find the underground city. I loved that story line. I don’t remember the name of the episode, it’s season 3, I know that.

What is your favourite season of 5? Season 3 but closely followed by the second part of season 2..

Who is your favourite couple in 3? Bad question for a show about family drama and trauma, with few relationships and many of them toxic or with toxic behaviours. I really liked Abby/Ray in season 5 or Ray/Molly in season 7.

Who is your favourite couple in 2? Parker/Hardison. They’re awesome!!!!

What is your favourite season of 1? I really love season 6 of SG1 with Jonas, and S1 of SGA.

What is your favourite episode of 5? Unnatural habits, when Phryne and Jack go against the white ivory trade.

What is your favourite episode of 2? The one in the train!!! The great train job

How long have you watched 1? Since it came out... I don’t think I want to remember how long is that...

How did you become interested in 3? I remember it from when it aired in TV and recently remembered it and needed a rewatch. It’s a great show.

Who is your favourite actor in 4? Amanda Tapping... I mean she is the Grand Empress of Scifi

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? I can’t chose... ok. Right now, probably because it’s been out a short time and I’m super excited about their return: 2

Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3? I’ve seen both shows fully. 1 has more episodes and I’ve watched it more times. I’m only doing a rewatch of 3 now and I’m in season 1. So I’m going to say 1.

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? Henry Foss, he was awesome

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? Maybe... I guess Ray could help Helen stay hidden... or punch something... IDK. As a fanfic writer I believe everything is possible, you just need the right idea.

Pair two characters in 1 that would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple I think Zelenka and Novak would be a weird but fun couple.

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? I don’t think they can be compared much... I’m going to say 5 because Phryne is awesome.

Which has the better theme music, 2 or 4? I think 2.

What is your favourite episode of 3? I’m only in season 1 in the rewatch so I’m going to chose from that (I remember there were really awesome episodes later on but I can’t chose, I don’t remember well enough) and I’m going to say... Bridget or Road trip... Road Trip, it’s lost of fun to watch.

Tagging @1989nihil , @angelblaze , @captain-grammar @stargateforever and anyone else who wants to play

#Tumblr Games #fandom

6 notes · View notes

milliedazzledust · 3 years

Text

War Rages On: part 2 (Bucky Barnes imagine)

Words: 3234

A/N: Still don’t know where I’m going with this story but I’m really having fun writing this and I hope you’ll like it! Don’t forget to tell me if you want to be tag for the next parts :)

Previously: part 1

Steve had found Bucky deep in the forest of Wakanda. Escorted by the kind T’Challa, he led him to the man they called the White Wolf. He had found his redemption away from mankind. Surrounded by trees and animals, Y/N and him had lived a simple life inside their cottage up until that moment. Before this, Steve had no intention to bring them back. He had planned to come visit the couple but most importantly to let them have their happy ending, to keep them from monsters that had tried so many times to tore them apart. He couldn’t imagine two people more deserving of peace than them. The King of Wakanda had outdone himself to make sure this was achievable.

“Do you remember the last time you saw her ?” Steve asked him.

Bucky sat on a rock near a river, hastily ruffling his hair.

“She left a couple days ago” He recounted. “She had a message from Stark on the burner phone you gave her”

“What did it say ?”

“Need your help asap - Romanoff compromised. An address was attached”

He got worried when he saw Steve dropping his head and rubbing his eyes in frustration. He had known him long enough to guess something was bothering him.

“Buck’, Tony didn’t send anything.” The Soldier confessed.

“What do you mean ?”

The familiar sensation of anxiety started to form in the pit of his stomach despite the lack of information. He knew he wouldn’t like what he was about to hear.

“I don’t know what happened, but somebody pretending to be him wrote that message”

“That’s impossible” He shook his head, refusing to believe him.

“Buck’ ..”

“She left, Steve. She left to go help him” He vehemently cut him. He stood up and started pacing. His friend could see his whole demeanor slowly shifting. “If she’s not with Stark, then where is she ?!”

“I don’t know” The Captain replied. Admitting it to his friend was almost too painful.

“Have you talk to the others ? Do they know anything ?”

He was looking more and more like a madman. His body had already understood what his mind failed to grasp.

“She send Sam an SOS”

“What ?” He said it in a whisper, instantaneously freezing on the spot.

“Bucky, I’m sorry but she’s missing”

“She can’t be” He felt the panic beginning to creep into his chest.

He turned back to look at his friend.

“That’s not … She said she’d be back” He explained, as if it would make perfect sense that she couldn’t be gone, as if that promise had been enough to keep her safe “.. She … She always comes back to me”

He dropped on the floor, the captain barely had enough time to catch him. His breathing became more rapid, more shallow. He felt it hit him like a hurricane. There was a logical explanation, but the only one he could think of was worst than any nightmare.

“Steve if it’s …” He suddenly sounded alarmed.

“It might not be” The Captain answered. He didn’t know which one of them he was trying to convince the most.

“Who else ?”

His friend stayed silent. His mind couldn’t wrapped around the fact that this could be happening, that they were potentially facing another threat.

“They’re still after me” The Sergeant muttered. “It’d make sense”

“Even if it’s Hydra, we’ll still find her” Steve promised.

“What if it’s too late ?” Bucky dared to think about that possibility, his eyes drifting into space.

“It’s not”

The soldier put a comforting hand on the Sergeant’s shoulder. When he glanced up at him, he saw the reassurance he so desperately needed. He knew this look by heart, he had seen it so many time on Steve’s face growing up. He had that same determination every time he went on to fight someone twice his size, the confidence and fierceness that had built Captain America.

“C’mon, get up.” He ordered with force. “We’re gonna find her”

He silently followed him, his mind running a mile an hour. He couldn’t remember a time he had felt so vulnerable. The mere thought of her somewhere with Hydra was enough to reopen his deepest wounds. He knew what they were capable of, he had lived through the endless torture for years and to picture a fraction of it being done on her was too much.

Steve had taken him to a jet. After several hours of flight, they had landed in a location he didn’t recognize. The place looked like headquarters, abandoned in the middle of nowhere. They were surrounded by large trees. When they walked out of the plane, Bucky recognized the distinct sent of mint and pine mixed together. He glanced around, trying to find a clue as to where they were, but all he could see was the woods. No other indication.

“What is this place ?” He asked Steve as they walk inside the building.

Before his friend could answer he heard another voice speaking, the sound resonating on the walls.

“Secure location not far from Warsaw, outside of the radars”

Bucky didn’t hide his surprise when he found himself face to face with Tony Stark. The billionaire saw him tense, his body instinctively going into defense mode.

“At ease, soldier” He sighed. “We’re not here to fight”

Still he didn’t ushered a word and looked back and forth between the two men in front of him. After what had happened between them before he found shelter in Wakanda, he wasn’t sure how to behave around Stark.

“Have you find anything ?” Steve inquired, folding his hands behind his back.

“Sam checked the address you sent me” Stark started to explain. “We were about to take a look at the security footage”

He guided the soldiers to a room that seemed like it had been restored at the last minute. There was a violent contrast between the dust on the floor, the half broken chairs and the high-tech computers Tony had most likely installed. It definitely looked like a hideout. He first noticed Natasha Romanoff leaning on the large table at the center of the room. She was studying a file. Next to her was Sam Wilson, scrolling on a tablet he was holding with intense concentration.

Steve greeted both of them with a simple nod and Bucky noticed the side looks he was being given but chose to not acknowledge them. Stark started to type on his computer and the enormous screen he had placed on one of the wall turned itself on.

“Here’s what we know so far” Tony told them.

Bucky recognized a screenshot of the message sent to Y/N on the burner phone, the very same one he was carrying in his pocket.

“I was not able to trace the id or the location”

As he spoke, Stark watched the Sergeant from the corner of his eyes taking a sit on a half torn armchair.

“But whomever send this was pretending to be me”

“How were they able to get her number ? Only you and I are supposed to have that information” Steve interrogated.

“I’m getting there, Captain.” Tony answered. “Somebody infiltrated my system and discreetly hijacked it to get into classified data”

The Sergeant suddenly raised his head and with a flick of the fingers, Stark projected details of his firewall system on the screen.

“They left a trail. Sloppy work if you ask me”

“Get to the point, Tony” Natasha reminded him.

The man rolled his eyes before continuing his explanations.

“They searched through every files I have on Barnes. What they were looking for exactly? I don’t know, but I have a vague idea”

“My location” Bucky whispered.

“Bingo. They were after you, and when they realized I was smart enough not to put any compromising informations, they moved to plan B”

“What’s plan B ?” Sam severely asked.

“If you can’t find the Winter Soldier, then let him find you.” Stark directly offered the hypothesis.

“They’re using Y/N as leverage” Steve finally understood.

“Exactly”

Bucky rubbed his eyes in frustration. This was looking more and more like Hydra’s modus operandi.

“Who is they ?” Romanoff questioned.

“I might have an answer to that” Sam replied, waving his tablet. “I found something on the security footage”

A video without sound started playing and instantly Bucky stood up. His eyes traveling from one corner of the screen to the other, he was closely studying every movement. Whomever was doing this had smartly brought the woman in the middle of the city and away from any camera that could incriminate them.

“Y/N is waiting in the corner of the street, then this man approaches her. She takes a step back, probably figured out something was wrong.” The Falcon explained. “All we can see is her reaching for her phone behind her back, which we know now was to send an SOS”

“Any identification on the guy ?” Natasha inquired.

“No. He stayed hidden from the cameras. He knew exactly where they were”

“Why didn’t she attack ?” Tony pondered. “She could have taken him easily”

“Busy street” Bucky answered mechanically. “If you want somebody to comply, lure them in the middle of a crowd. One move and someone else die. Works all the time”

“Of course you’d know about that” The billionaire muttered under his breath.

Steve hadn’t talk yet. His eyes were glued to the screen. Something wasn’t adding up and he didn’t know what. He watched the video playing four times, his hands on his hips, deep in concentration.

“Rewind it” He ordered Sam.

The man didn’t question the request and did as he was told. Shape after shape the Captain analyzed every detail until the information he was missing was right in front of him.

“Stop there”

The video froze and they stared at the frame, trying to figure out what he was seeing.

“What is it, Steve ?” The Russian spy inquired.

“Can you zoom in ?” He asked, ignoring the first question.

Tony took the tablet in his hand and started to play with it.

“What am I looking for ?”

“His neck” He simply said. “He has a tattoo”

His friend raised an eyebrow in surprise, but got to work. Typing on his keyboard, he cut the video’s frame, zoomed in and used a program to polish the picture and create a clear image of the ink on the man’s body.

As soon as Bucky saw it, he felt a cold shiver running down his spine. What he feared the most had only been theoretical until then, there was still a slight hope he was wrong, a one percent chance he was holding onto that he wasn’t living his worst nightmare. And all that came crashing down when he recognized the pattern of a skull he knew by heart.

“No..No, no, no, no” He kept repeating, pacing around the room, panic striking in his veins. “This is not happening, this is not…”

The Captain stopped him in his track, putting his hands on his shoulders.

“Buck’ ..”

“They have her, Steve. They have Y/N” He was terrified, and his friend could clearly hear it in his voice.

The others were following their interaction, not yet understanding what was happening. Steve raised his head, still holding his brother emotionally breaking apart, and looked at them with an alarmed expression that did nothing to ease their worry.

“We had our suspicion on who might have pulled up something like this » He told them. « Frankly, I was hoping we were wrong”

“Who is it ?” Romanoff demanded.

“…Hydra” Bucky murmured, his head low and his human hand shaking.

They all tensed in the room and the silence that followed was frightening.

“Are you sure ?” The Falcon asked.

Steve stared at the projecting image on the wall, pursing his lips.

“Yes, Sam. It’s them” He answered with a heavy voice filled with concern.

Bucky felt the tears on his cheeks before he realized he was crying. His breathing had become unsteady and he was slowly faltering. He quickly excused himself and left the building. He needed the air.

He was trying so hard not to panic but he seemed paralyzed. There was suddenly a menacing aura around him, holding him in a tightening grip. He could feel his temperature rising, a clear sign of his anxiety, his fear. It was a living force creeping over him like a hungry beast, fed by the agonizing possibility he might lose her. He started to take shaky small breath, like Y/N had taught him every time he had a panic attack, but without her to guide him, it was useless. His pulse was beating in his ears, blocking all the other sounds, and he was sweating. There was a lump in his throat, an emotion so large it was aching to be released. He wanted to scream, to punch something, to beg for mercy. Alas, he closed his eyes, trying to focus his senses on one thing only, find her.

And just as the thought crossed his mind, he felt the tiny device he had in his pocket vibrate. He took his phone out, but nothing was displayed on the screen. Then he realized it wasn’t the right one. Fishing in his pants, he found was he was looking for and grabbed the burner phone. One message. When he opened it, the color quickly drained from his face.

« She won’t stay alive for long, unless you come home. Not Romania, not Brooklyn, your real home. No Avenger. You know the consequences of disobedience »

Attached to it was a photo. His heart stopped and his metal fist clenched the phone so hard he accidentally broke it when he saw the picture of the woman he loved, arms chained on a ceiling, body dangling in the air and covered in blood. He absently stared at his hands, thinking back to their time in Wakanda, in peace, away from the world. Just the two of them. What a difference a couple of days could make. He knew what he wanted to do. There was not an ounce of hesitation in him, only the desire to make sure she would make it out of there alive.

So engrossed in his own thoughts, he didn’t hear someone creeping in behind him. Natasha silently stood next to him. Was it out of pity or emotional support, he couldn’t tell. She observed him for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows like she was trying to read him, before she turned back to look at the sky.

“You know where she is”

It wasn’t a question but a statement.

“What makes you say that ?”

“Two fossils from the 1930’s with the same instinct of preservation and the same tendencies to make stupid decisions based on emotions. Not exactly hard to put two and two together. You and Steve have a lot in common”

He pursed his lips.

“Are you gonna tell them ?” He asked, looking back at the abandoned building.

“Still debating.” She admitted. “You’re not really stupid, Barnes. You know you can’t take them all by yourself”

“That wasn’t my intention”

“Then what’s your plan ?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to, she could see it in his whole demeanor. It was in the way he stood up straight, in the way he was clenching his jaw, in the way his eyes held so much determination and purpose.

“You don’t intend on coming back, do you ?”

“I can’t let them kill her” He explained.

“A suicide mission is by far the most stupid idea you could come up with”

“It’s the only one I’ve got” He replied, resigned.

He turned to look at her. The calmness he was displaying was enough to know he had made up his mind and honestly, it frightened her.

“I don’t think you know how much she means to me, Natasha. I don’t deserve her love, I really don’t, but somehow she saw something worth fighting for in me. She saw all the cracks, all the flaws and all the mistakes I’ve made and she didn’t run. She stood by my side and fought for me. She’s my sanity. She’s all the good that’s left in me. She’s the name I whisper when I’m scared my memories are fading. I can’t take the risk to lose her because if that happens, I’ll lose myself and there will be no come back this time”

The lump in his throat prevented him from saying anything more and he gulped, trying to make the feeling of anxiety subside.

“Whatever it takes, and whatever I’ll have to do, I swear she will get out of there alive” He nodded to no one in particular, a silent and simple sign he would not change his mind.

“At what cost ? What are we suppose to tell her when you won’t be here anymore ?”

“That I fought for her the same way she did for me”

His response shut her up. His voice held so much serenity and resolve she knew it would be useless to argue. She understood where he was coming from, just like she understood the sacrifice he was ready to make.

“There’s a version of this where we win, Barnes. Keep that in mind. It doesn’t have to end in pain or worse. Fight with everything you’ve got and don’t stop until both of you are safe”

He sadly smiled.

“You’ve definitely spent too much time with Steve”

She rolled her eyes before turning to stand in front of him. She hesitated a moment, words on the tip of her tongue.

“I’m sorry this is happening” She gloomily confessed. “But you know why they want you, right ?”

“The Winter Soldier” He replied, closing his eyes. “They want him back”

“Just so we’re clear here, Bucky, and just in case, you have to be aware that the moment you’ll get there, they will torture you to get him back. Your mind is already damaged, you won’t hold long”

“I just need to hold long enough to get her out of there” He vehemently assured her, gritting his teeth.

“Your plan is to walk out with her” She reminded him, insisting on the words.

He glanced down at her and judging by the look in his eyes, she knew what he was about to ask her before he even spoke.

“If it comes to the worse, if I become … him again …” He started.

“I know” She cut him. He didn’t need to say the word, she knew thinking about it was already more than enough pain for him.

She stood there, watched him get into the jet him and Steve had taken to get there, and did nothing. It was useless to try to convince him to stay, he was too stubborn to listen. And she knew this was his best shot at getting back the woman he loved alive. She was aware Hydra would not spare the lovers and she prayed they were ready for the fight that was ahead of them. The Avengers would find them eventually, hopefully before it was too late. She turned around when she saw the jet flying in the air and walked silently back inside the building. She would keep that conversation and the promise she had made a secret, and hope whatever Bucky had planned, it would be enough to prevent the worse from happening.

Tag list: @briannareneea985 - @bangtanxberm - @kissmyoops - @steve-is-daddy

#Bucky Barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagines #bucky barnes imagine #the winter soldier #the winter soldier x reader #the winter soldier imagines #the winter soldier imagine #falcon and the winter soldier #Winter Soldier #winter soldier imagine #winter soldier x reader #winter soldier imagines #tfatws #fatws

110 notes · View notes

gabolange · 3 years

Text

So, let’s talk about Leverage: Redemption. In which I am medium-whelmed at best.

Spoilers below the cut.

I finished the show a couple of days ago and I keep trying to figure out why I didn’t love it. This isn’t to say I didn’t like it, because I did, but it didn’t land for me the way it seems to have landed for a lot of people, and so here I am with, like, meta. Party like it’s 2008 and all that.

2008. I actually didn’t meet Leverage until 2010 despite friends telling me for ages I should watch. It one of those moments that became a forever memory for many reasons, but the most important is this: the show was perfect. Those first hours spent watching a rerun marathon on TNT on a hot-as-fuck July 4 in Albuquerque, New Mexico came with them the understanding that this show was truly special.

It was funny, it was topical, it was sexy, and it was so fucking smart. I fell in love right away with all of them, but especially with Sophie, and with Nate, and with their complicated, complex, adult history. And then over the course of catching up and keeping up, I fell even harder, with them and those themes, with watching Parker and Hardison grow into themselves, with watching Eliot deal every day with his demons. I loved the way the show balanced light and dark, how it could have Archie’s zappy cane in the same breath as Eliot giving Nate advice about what it would mean to kill. I loved that we all loved Maggie, even though ex-wives are known in television to be evil shrews. I loved Tara’s complexity, and Sterling’s wit, and how every episode was a chess game. And oh, how I loved Sophie’s journey, how she had to decide every day not how to live but who to be.

When I say it was perfect, I don’t mean it didn’t have its duds. Of course it did. But it did the thing it was trying to do better than anyone has ever done it, with intelligence and respect, and its finale is one of the three best series finales ever filmed.

This is all to say the bar for Leverage: Redemption was both sky high and very low. When I heard they weren’t bringing Nate back, my first thought was don’t you fucking dare break my heart. If Nate was drunk off his ass in a ditch somewhere, if he had broken Sophie’s heart--that would be the ultimate betrayal (hi, I still have feelings about The Doctor Blake Mysteries). And so the bar was: don’t break my heart, while also being something like the perfect show.

They didn’t break my heart. I said early the best thing would be to kill Nate after he and Sophie had good, long, happy years together. And they did, and it was the right place to start.

They gave me that, and I am grateful, but when I look at the rest, I guess I was underwhelmed. Or at least only whelmed. Medium-whelmed at best.

There were things I loved: Hardison and Parker’s relationship. Eliot’s careful watch over Sophie. Hardison growing up to become the most epic white hat hacker ever. The idea that getting back into the game would be the thing that would make Sophie happy. Hardison’s commentary on redemption. The idea of Leverage: International. Gina Bellman is still made of magic and heartbreak and perfection.

There were things I liked: I am fond of our Mister Wilson, even if I find Noah Wylie about as interesting as plain toast. There were some truly great Eliot beats. I don’t yet like Breanna, but I like the idea of Breanna. I liked the way Nate hovered over the entire thing, because Sophie brought him with her. I think the sets were great, and I was impressed at how much they were able to do in a pandemic. I found utterly baffling but nonetheless charming that we meet Harry in the middle of a failed heist in which the team judges his technique and then adopts him. I liked Fake Nate and everything they did with that. The show had many bright spots, and I don’t in any way want to diminish them.

But. It wasn’t smart. It wasn’t sexy. Except for Sophie’s grief and Hardison’s plans, it picked up the character beats where we left them ten years ago. Has Parker been mastermind for this entire time? I would have loved to see that. Have they learned how to do this well without Sophie and Nate? I would have loved to see that. Show me the history.

Show me the history. Breanna and Hardison and Parker all say this is the worst timeline, and we know it is because we have lived it. But in the universe of the show, it doesn’t really seem that bad -- the plots of the week were silly and so small. I remember finding Damien Moreau too big, once upon a time, but this all felt too easy, the stakes far too small for this to be a show where everything has gotten worse. Nate almost murdered two guys in cold blood, folks. The show was missing any of the darkness that made the original truly compelling, and so lost the balance we loved between that and finding joy. I don’t need it in every episode, but I need a hint that there’s something bigger and meaner out there other than throwaway dialog.

(And, when it tried to go dark, it swung and missed. The episode with the collapsed building was timely, but as someone with anxiety and PTSD, the way the crew played on this guy who had apparently tried to do better this time around...was kinda not okay, to be honest.)

I don’t have OT3 goggles, but I think if I did, I would find Hardison’s absence a little sad--he was the glue, and they needed to do more to bring Parker and Eliot together as friends / colleagues / long-term members of the same polycue / whatever. But even without OT3 goggles, I missed Hardison a whole lot. And I am SO happy for Aldis Hodge growing up to be a real movie star, but he brought so much presence and capability to every scene he was in, even when he was just a kid. Nobody else has his gravitas, or Timothy Hutton’s.

I do have Sophie goggles, and Sophie / Nate goggles. And they didn’t ruin the ship or anything, of course not. But I missed the frisson they brought, the way they made the show just that much more adult. And I am so very, very glad they got their happiness, but I am kinda sad that sexy got replaced with grief.

So yeah. I don’t know. I didn’t hate it at all. I am willing to give it a chance, to let it grow into something I love. But it isn’t, at least not yet.

(x-posted to dreamwidth)

#leverage #leverage redemption #spoilers #leverage spoilers #meta #review #long post

39 notes · View notes

tennesseetrekkie · 3 years

Text

Stargate/Leverage Crossover Ideas

I’m surprised I never see more fics/ficlets/prompts/just plain posts about these two universes. They’re canonically connected! (There are Stargate symbols on the wall in Lattimer’s vault in “The Last Dam Job”, the producers confirm it too). It’s actually the main reason I started watching Leverage and my need for a crossover has only grown since. Here’s a few thoughts I’ve had:

I 100% believe that Eliot was a member of an SG team. When Aimee said “it’s like you dropped off the face of the earth”, well, he did. They only take the best of the best and that’s Eliot. He’s fully aware of the existence of the Stargate program and aliens, etc.

While serving there he got involved with Maybourne’s team, he thought it was in the best interest of his country. He was one of the very few who didn’t get caught. I like to think he still has a few souvenirs from his time off-world, several highly classified things he really shouldn’t have. I don’t believe he left the base empty-handed. It’d make sense if he had a Goa’uld healing device, but that would mean at some point he ended up with naquadah in his blood, which given all the crazy things that have happened to him in his life wouldn’t be too surprising, but that’s a whole different story...

Eliot never mentions any of this to the rest of the team, not only would this put them in danger but earth being at war with ancient, parasitical aliens is pretty heavy knowledge. This is a lot of fun when SG-1 shows up...

In a crossover with SG-1 and the OG Leverage for me it would have to consist of Cameron Mitchell (the timeline puts it after O’Neill was promoted), Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal’c. I can’t figure out a scenario where Vala is included and doesn’t let it slip to the Leverage crew that aliens and spae travel are a thing.

There are two scenarios in which I can think of where these two would meet: First, the Leverage crew uncover something in a job that Eliot recognizes as alien (either an artifact, or maybe even a Goa’uld, that’d be fascinating if he did have naquadah and was able to spot the Goa’uld), he tries to deal with it without letting the team know but finally has to tell Nate they need to call the Air Force, it takes a lot of convincing especially since he can’t actually say why. Second, SG-1 shows up to a job the Leverage crew is already doing. Eliot recognizes them, they recognize him. Sam might even pull her gun. He gets them away from the Leverage crew to see what’s going on, meanwhile Hardison is running their faces through one of his ID programs and now everyone is wondering why Eliot is talking to “two USAF colonels, some loser who should be on Ancient Aliens, and some guy who... doesn’t exist?”.

Whatever the case, it’s inevitable that these two have to work together. Only thing is, the Leverage crew can’t know SG-1 is here because aliens and SG-1 can't know that the Leverage crew is here because crime. The only one who can and does know everything is Eliot, who is the constant go-between for both of these teams, and also very tired. He definitely knows the Goa’uld language and uses it to talk to Daniel and Teal’c about the more... classified details of the job when the others are around. Yet again Hardison is confused when he tries to figure out what they’re speaking only to find out that it doesn’t exist.

Parker is strangely good at guessing things. She immediately 100% believes that Teal’c is an alien. Nate, Sophie, and Hardison assure her he can’t be, even though they’re not completely sure themselves, this whole thing is too weird.

I can’t really figure out the rest of it, which is why I’m writing it this way instead of in an actual fic, but this is... something. Not sure what. This is really the most realistic version I’ve thought up. Headcannon where the Leverage crew actually do find out include (this is not any specific sequence or headcannon, just ideas):

The crew ends up on a small ship (maybe Eliot used rings to get them out of a dangerous situation or something) and Hardison and Sophie are visibly and audibly freaking out. Nate is trying to remain calm and failing, it’s not as intense as Hardison and Sophie, but he’s definitely freaked out. Eliot, of course, just rolls his eyes and yells at them to calm down as he goes to figure out the controls. Space ain’t nothing when you’ve been there hundreds of times. Then there’s Parker... Her reaction is basically to look out a window, smile, and call it “Cool!”. Everyone is a little taken aback by how she can just be okay with this?

Upon finding out about aliens and space travel Hardison is excited, terrified, and absolutely furious at Eliot for never telling him about it. There’s a headcannon I have of those two somehow getting transported to another planet and not knowing it at first and trying to figure out where they are. It takes Eliot a while to convince Hardison that they’re on another planet, because “yeah, it looks like Canada, that’s just what alien planets look like!”.

Sophie trying to grift aliens... The game has changed and she is loving it! A whole new universe of challenges. Seeing that would be a thing of beauty.

All of it just causes Nate to drink more, unfortunately. It’s a lot to take in. But if Eliot had to tell just one member of the team about it (both to stop them from asking him to explain what’s going on and why can’t he tell them? and to convince them of the amount of danger they’re all in) it’d be Nate. He’d come away from that conversation very visibly shaken and tell the crew that Eliot’s right, they don’t need to know, at which point they accept it and back off.

Parker handles any strange situation well, so aliens are no big deal. I bet at one point someone (not Eliot) brings up Atlantis and she theorizes that “it’s probably actually a spaceship that flew off to another galaxy!”. Nate, Sophie, and Hardison just rolls their eyes or shoot her a weird look or something because what a stretch! But Eliot nearly chokes on his drink! He has to regain his cool really quickly because now everyone is looking at him, but how can she possibly know that?? He wonders if she ever stole classified material, but nope, Parker just made the most random guess possible and nailed it because Parker.

OH! And one more thing! One night in Nate’s apartment when they’re all getting ready for dinner Hardison has it on this weird cheesy scifi show and is all like “look at this garbage!”, Eliot takes a look and is like “wait, what??” and sits down and starts watching. Dinner is now going to be late because this is hilarious! It gets canceled after one episode but he makes sure to catch the TV movie as soon as it airs. This is how Eliot Spencer became a “Wormhole X-Treme” fan and no one has a clue why.

If anyone else has a Stargate/Leverage headcannon, please, please, please share it!! Charater interactions, different senarios, ANYTHING! And let’s all hope that, even though Stargate hasn’t been around for a while, Leverage Redemption will throw us fathful fans a bone with some kind of reference!

#Stargate #Leverage #SG-1 #Eliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Alec Hardison #Parker #Sophie Devereaux #Cameron Mitchell #Samanatha Carter #Daniel Jackson #Teal'c

48 notes · View notes

trekscribbles · 3 years

Text

Triple Threat: A Stones Triplet Fic

Fandoms: Leverage/Leverage Redemption, Librarians, and Almost Paradise Cross-Posted: Ao3 and FF Summary: So I shared some ideas about this fic here, not intending to actually write it. And then people asked for it and I have zero self control, so here you go!

Of course it never works out that way.

She's used to Alex interfering with her cases, but she didn't even tell him about this one. So how did he end up with the smuggler she was supposed to be meeting, and why doesn't the seem to know her?

Or: Eliot and Jake are both in the Philippines for separate jobs that turn out to be related. Kai takes the existence of Alex's brothers as a personal attack on her mental health. Ernesto happily goes along for the ride.

Chapter One: Déjà Vu

A simple smuggling case. That was all this was supposed to be—just a smuggler looking to set up shop on the island, some place where he'd be able to store and ferry goods to the United States without attracting too much attention. Ocampo hadn't even asked Alex for help, even though they suspected drugs were involved. "We need more information," Ocampo told Kai. "Just meet with him and see what you can find out." No need to involve the most annoying man on the island.

Kai didn't tell Alex about any of it. It was only the third time Ocampo trusted her to go undercover, and though she wasn't above using Alex's help when it was necessary, this was something she could handle on her own. Ernesto would be monitoring the meeting from nearby, ready to come to her aid, but she was confident in her skills. It was a simple case. She could handle it.

She made contact with the smuggler, telling him she could get a cargo plane for his use and ensure the attention of the authorities was elsewhere when he was ready to load it. The meeting had gone well, well enough that he asked her to join him in his hotel room the following day to hash out the details. Ocampo had been thrilled, and she'd gotten the proud grin from Ernesto that always made her feel like she could take on the world. "Wrap this up, Detective," Ocampo said, already planning the press release for the end of the case. One more meeting, and it would all be over. A swift ending to a simple case.

The next morning she found the hotel fifteen minutes before their appointed time and knocked on door 211, letting herself in when a voice yelled, "We're on the balcony." The we made her nervous, but she told herself it didn't matter. Once she found out what the cargo was, she'd have enough to arrest him.

But then she walked onto the balcony and found her contact raising a toast to Alex Walker, and it took all of her self-control not to break character and strangle him right there.

The smuggler stood up with a grin. "Ah, Ms. Navarro," he said, motioning for her to be seated next to Alex. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"No," she choked out. "Thank you."

He shrugged and swept his hand toward Alex. "This is my American contact, Marc Rosen. Mr. Rosen, my associate Nicole Navarro."

Alex gave her a polite smile, and his eyes seemed to laugh at her.

"Mr. Flores," she said tersely. "I thought we'd agreed to keep this meeting between us."

Robert Flores shrugged and again gestured to the chair beside Alex. "I assure you, Mr. Rosen is essential to this operation. He has already arranged a buyer in the United States. All we need from you, Ms. Navarro, is to follow through on your promise with the planes."

Kai sat, forcing her tensed shoulders to relax. "The flight is already secured," she said. "But I need to know what it is I'll be transporting."

Flores smiled. "All in good time."

"Time is the problem," Kai said. "We only have three days before the plane is scheduled to depart, with or without your cargo. I can't prepare properly until I know what we'll be loading."

"I will take care of that. Three days is plenty of time."

"Then... once you've made your payment, I will tell you where to bring your cargo." She managed this with only a single glance (not a glare) at Alex, who had returned his attention to Flores. A sand-colored fedora was pulled low over Alex's eyes, shading a face that seemed paler than usual. In an instant her irritation turned to worry. Did he know Flores from his time as a DEA agent? Had he arranged the meeting, or had Flores contacted him?

Why couldn't he just tell her before he did stupid things like this?

"I am glad to hear it," Flores said. He was still standing, and Kai bristled at the imbalance—he towered over them in a position of power while they literally sat in his shadow. "Mr. Rosen was just telling me that his buyer is anxious to get his hands on this shipment."

Alex huffed a nervous laugh. "Well, you know how it is when the guy in the big office wants something. Patience ain't exactly a virtue for my boss."

"Luckily for you, I have what he needs," Flores said, lifting his glass with a chuckle.

"Is that Alex?" Ernesto asked through her earbud. "What's he doing there?"

Kai chanced another glance at him, wishing she could reach over and wring the answer from his throat. His body language was all wrong. His shoulders were drawn in, the fingers of his left hand fidgeting against his palm. His voice had been different too—almost hesitant, self-depreciating. Usually Alex played a loud character, brash and confident, always pushing to keep his mark off-balance. This... this was just another pencil-pusher running an errand for his boss. Insignificant. Overlookable.

And it was working. A hard, greedy glint flashed in Flores's eye as he swallowed the rest of his drink, his gaze lingering on the trembling glass in Alex's hand. "Well," he grinned. "There is much to be done. Wait here. Your payment is in my adjoining room." He set his glass down on the balcony railing and strode into the hotel room. Kai watched him go, but as soon as the door closed she rounded on Alex.

"I'm going to give you ten seconds to explain yourself."

He blinked at her. "What?"

"Why are you here? Did Ocampo tell you about the case? Did Flores contact you?"

"Did—what? Why would—?"

"Or do you just like messing with my life? Because I swear, Alex, when this is over I'm—"

The hallway door opened before she could finish, and two men in black jackets entered the room. Neither of them was Flores. "Your payment," one said, holding out an envelope.

"Oh... thank you." She stood and entered the room, aware of Alex trailing behind her. He stepped to her left, covering her weak side as she reached out for the payment.

But the second her fingers brushed the envelope, Alex flashed past her to strike the back of the man's outstretched elbow. He screamed, staggering, and Alex pulled him away from Kai and hurled him toward the wall. The other man lunged into the room, but Alex met him with a neat punch to the jaw. He dodged a swing and caught the man's wrist, bashing his elbow into the side of his face. The first man had regained his balance by then, steadying himself against the wall before squaring himself to the fight.

That was when Kai reached him. His attention was on Alex, so it was easy for her to get close and grab his forearm. She drove her knee into the man's stomach, using the momentum of his fall to throw him to the ground. She turned as Alex ducked another jab and slammed his fist into his opponent's cheek. The man dropped, sprawling at Alex's feet and lying motionless.

"What the hell was that?" Kai demanded, stomping down on her man's back to keep him on the floor.

"Kai?" Ernesto said in her ear. "Everything okay?"

Alex knelt to pick up the envelope. "They were gonna kill us."

"He was handing over the payment!"

He tilted his hand so she could see inside the empty envelope. "Flores knew you were coming," he said, running his hands over his fallen opponent's waist and producing a long serrated knife. "He should have had the payment ready."

Damn it—she hated when he was right.

"He must have guessed you're a cop," Alex went on, taking off his hat and dragging a hand through his hair. "Probably one of your first undercover assignments? You know what you're doing, I'll give you that, but you pushed too hard for the cargo. You have to let the mark think he's in control."

"What are you...?" Kai started, but she trailed off when Alex put his hand down. Freed from the hat, his hair fell over his forehead and down around his ears, long enough to brush his shoulders. "Are you wearing a wig?"

"Am—am I—?" he sputtered. "Look, I don't know who you think I am, but—" He broke off, eyes widening. "Wait, you called me Alex before. Alex Stone?"

All at once, her vision seemed to shift. The man before her had Alex's face, but now that she looked closer, she could see a handful of inconsistencies. A scar over his eyebrow that hadn't been there before, a leanness about his jaw, a shadow she'd never seen in his eyes. Ernesto kept talking through the earbud, but she was only half-listening.

She stared into the face of her friend, and a stranger looked back.

The door burst open, breaking the tension that had paralyzed the room and tearing Not Alex's attention from her. Ernesto came in with his gun drawn, not quite pointing at the imposter, but not aimed at the men who'd attacked them either.

"Your partner?" asked Not Alex. His voice was calm, but so gruff she could barely understand it. She motioned for Ernesto to put his gun away. He swept a shrewd look over her, checking for injuries, and then knelt beside her man on the floor and pulled a pair of handcuffs off his belt.

The imposter cleared his throat. "Do you know Alex Stone?"

For a moment Kai considered lying, but the sharpness in Not Alex's eyes had softened. The look he gave her wasn't quite pleading, but it was clearly a request. She heard the please in his eyes as clearly as if he'd said it out loud.

So, in a voice that sounded more confident than she felt, she answered, "Alex Walker."

A snort of laughter blew through the imposter's nose. "Walker? He could have picked anything, and he went with Walker? At least I used a family name."

"No," Ernesto said to himself, shooting Kai with a look that somehow contained astonishment, delight, and trepidation all at once.

Kai echoed the denial in her head. This couldn't be happening.

"My name is Eliot," the other man said.

Don't say it. Don't—

"I'm Alex's brother."

No. No no no no no.

There were two of them.

#fanfic #leverage #leverage redemption #librarians #almost paradise #stone triplets #the terrible triplets #eliot jake and alex are triplets #and poor kai has to deal with them #thanks for enabling me by reading this

22 notes · View notes

trashlie · 3 years

Note

I'm loving all your ILY posts! I've also seen your comments on reddit and I enjoy reading your insightful analysis there, too. I would like to know your thoughts on Kousuke and Alyssa. Do you think they will become narrative foils? I noticed they were acting awkwardly around each other too (it kind of reminds me of how annoyed Soushi reacts around Maya) and she seems to have a crush on him 👀 I think she'll be used to contrast how he's still capable of redemption. 1/?

I mean Yui groomed them both successfully. They have shown to emulate her behavior, value their reputation over other people's feelings, and refuse to take accountability for their actions against Shin Ae and Nol. But unlike Kousuke, Alyssa has shown no hint of remorse or even guilt. 2/?

Waaahh thank you so much, anon! Isn't it silly that I still go :O when I realize people actually enjoy what I have to say? I started yelling into the void on tumblr because I got worried I was too active on reddit and I was possibly annoying people lmaooooo so I'm actually really glad you're able to find me on both platforms! It means a lot that I'm not just yelling into a total void.

If you don't mind, I'm breaking your ask down into two parts, because I might leave somethin off/this will get too long if I keep it all in one lol. BUT you bring up things I love to think about!!!!! So!!!!!

I think we are deliberately kept in the dark about Alyssa - whether it's to subvert the scheming girl trope, I'm not sure, but there's a lot of things we don't know about her and that's definitely on purpose. She's a character who probably won't be revealed more to us for a while yet, too, which is frustrating if only because I want to know everything NOW, but it does serve to make her more interesting.

Alyssa's interest in Kousuke is so obvious I can't believe I never noticed it in my original reads. I've seen this brushed off as "She just admires him" and I'm just like... she actually sulked for a moment about Kousuke leaving! Meanwhile she was straight up all but telling Nol she'll help him pack his bags lmao.

I feel like the cast of her shadow is deliberate, too, but look at that face. Sulking.

Compare with

There's room to argue that we can't see Alyssa's face when she first tells him she won't stop him, but she kind of makes it abundantly clear that Nol being away doesn't really affect her. And, I mean, look at how their relationship is conducted. She's bragged to Meg that she and Nol are so casual and cool and easy breezy.

(I guess that means there ALSO is room to argue that Alyssa is putting on a front and just saying this to make sure people think her relationship is great, but the only People who know is Meg. And as a people pleaser, if Alyssa felt uncomfortable with the casual nature of her relationship with Nol, wouldn't she actually do more to make the relationship more of what she wants? Notably during the conversation on the balcony, she basically tells Nol this isn't really her dream relationship, which leads to the admission that they are together not for each other but for the benefits they each get so......)

Kousuke is the one who confuses me the most, because it strikes me as really weird that Yui has used Alyssa as leverage before against Kousuke. "You should bring a date, Kousuke, Alyssa will be there." What does this mean? What does it have to do with him and why would it entice him to bring anyone, anyway? I'm still really baffled on this one, tbh. Something that really stood out to me was during the dinner when Nol finally revealed he was planning to attend Oxford, Kousuke was distracted by his own news that the CFO position would be opening. In fact, when Nol mentions attending Oxford later, Kousuke seems to act like this is his first time hearing it.

Nol takes note of Kousuke's state of distraction before he finally starts talking about his plan.

The way quim does the dialogue and suddenly Kousuke's interest returning is.... interesting isn't it? From the moment Nol notes Kousuke's disinterest, we don't see his face again until Rand brings up Alyssa. Quim doesn't do anything without reason - in a movie, you wouldn't waste film on Kousuke's interesting returning at the mention of Alysa unless it meant anything, right?

There's so many little moments that make me go what the heck is going on here, too.

What the heck is up with THIS? Why does Kousuke deliberate SO LONG before he calls Alyssa? Like, do I think he's really so weirded out about calling his younger brother's girlfriend, considering he has one of his younger brother's own friends reporting on him and at his beck and call? You can't convince me that he's hesitant only because Alyssa is the sister of Meg. It just seems too wary.

And yes, this moment here?

It really does have the same tone as Soushi's wariness of Maya, except is Kousuke wary of Alyssa in the same way? Is he wary of her intentions? This one is so hard for me to read, because frankly, at this point it's hard to tell if Kousuke even cares about Nol as a brother or because he was forced to and he feels deep-buried remorse for the way he treated him and doesn't know how to handle it. Is he just aware of Alyssa's keen interest in him and that puts him on edge? Would he even care about Alyssa's keen interest unless she starts to get pushy?

I HONESTLY HAVE NO IDEA and frankly, it drives me nuts, so I love to discuss this and see what other people have to say. I'd never even noticed how long he deliberates before finally calling her until someone on reddit pointed that out.

lmao this so much preamble to get to the point but anyway YES they are absolutely parallels and I do wonder if they would become foils. Again, it's hard to know with Alyssa because we've been deliberately shielded so much of her personality right now and it's hard to tell what's real and what's not with her. The way that she worries about Shinae telling Nol what she did absolutely reads to me as a lack of remorse, but maybe I'm just projecting because we haven't been given much reason to like her lol. Shinae definitely makes it seem like Alyssa never actually apologized and the way Shinae just brushes it off makes me feel like there was never actual, proper closure. What Alyssa did is worse than just causing her injury: it was why she did it and how she reacted like Shinae was something dirty and how dare she even talk to her even though Shinae probably just wanted to know why Alyssa stopped being friends with her. Maybe she was even seeking closure at the time.

In the same way that Nol and Shinae are mirrors, Kousuke and Alyssa are their parallel abusers, grooming victims of Yui, those who care more about their image and reputation than anything else and have hurt others (Nol and Shinae) in their quest to fill the role. We still don't know if Alyssa dated Nol because she genuinely had a crush (doubtful so far) or because she figured out the family he's from and wanted to get closer. I try so hard to give her the benefit of the doubt but narratively we aren't privy to that yet. Also, have you noticed that Nol and Shinae both have a relationship of some kind with each others' abuser? This mirror and their parallel abusers thing is INTRICATELY woven.

That's what makes it so difficult to tell if she'll become a foil or merely a parallel that highlights what Nol and Shinae have been through. We know Kousuke will receive a redemption arc, because he's a main character, and also because I think part of subverting his trope is that he has to take responsibility for his past actions, rather than being loved in spite of the things he's done or whatever. In order for Kousuke to proper and develop further, he has to be held accountable and he has to break free of his family. Can we trust the same for Alyssa? At this point, she doesn't want to lose Nol because she knows if she loses him, she can just as easily lose her career and access to the world she's only just gained access to (and if she were to lose it all right now, it would be worse for her because she'd have all those trainee fees to pay back).

I think both Kousuke and Alyssa are likely in for a very public airing of their sins; for Kousuke it may come in the form of the expose YuJing is working on, collateral damage in the quest to take down Yui. I also think the only way to nudge Kousuke to change is that his image has to take a hit in some form. Is it that Rand isn't his father? Is it a reveal that he abused his brother? Is it whatever happened in the past that Nol got in trouble for was caused by Kousuke and he let Nol take the blame? Likewise, I think the fact that people knew Alyssa in middle school means she's not so safe, either; what if one of the girls from after school duty reveals what happened? Surely there were rumors going around school about what happened - Shinae is out of school, Alyssa is pulled from school, kids talk. Frankly, a scandal like that could ruin her career, and worse, if Nol knew what she had done, would he be able to remain shackled to her?

While I know Kousuke won't immediately take responsibility for his actions, I've always believed that such a catalyst would at least make him start thinking about it and force him to admit it. It wouldn't happen over night, but in time it will. But will Alyssa? Would she deny the allegations? Would she just shift blame, insist that it was all an accident, that it wasn't bullying like you think? (Cos look, I do believe it was an accident, but there's a way to call it an accident and still admit fault and blame; but just as easily you can call it an accident and try to shirk responsibility.)

I do love the idea of her being a foil for Kousuke, an Aesop's fable, if you will, of what happens when you barter with the devil (Yui). I'm not opposed to the scheming female character type, but I do oppose it when they take down others to raise themselves up, and if that's the way Alyssa will end up doing it, then I'll be happy to watch her fall. If she can scheme and use her connections without hurting people then hey power to ya. Unlike Alyssa, Kousuke never had a chance to evade Yui, and being able to walk away from her as an adult will be a choice he can make. Alyssa loses... so much if she breaks her deal.

I guess that's the thing about where she and Nol are in their relationship now - it's been made clear he's hanging in here because he's forced to and as a sort of act of self-sabotage, full well knowing she's here because she's taking advantage of the opportunities that "dating" him brings so... if they're in an agreement, is it okay to watch her climb right now? She leaves me conflicted and I know it's largely because she's one of the characters we know just enough to hate but so little to justify. Could it be that it all just got out of hand for her? At first she just wanted friends, was trying to find a place to belong, something good in a life that deprived her of social connections. And then comes along Yui, seducing her with ideas of fame and fortune? Was the desire to be loved and admired so strong it powered over the need to fit in with friends and she readily cast them off? Did she not anticipate what it would actually mean, thought she could have her cake and eat it, too? The way she responds to Nol's texts, and the fact that Dieter and Soushi ask him about her, means she probably isn't even in touch with them at all anymore. Idk, I really look forward to seeing their dynamic pre-idol Alyssa, because I want to know how she fit with them, what was it like?

And then, because this was supposed to be about foils lmao you have the fact that Shinae basically foils both Alyssa and Kousuke in regard to Nol, both as a person who cares about him and also as "a good friend" vs "the person I'm currently seeing" lmao like, everyone is literally set to juxtapose each other and man, I'll never get over how well this has been done lmao. Compared to Kousuke and Alyssa, Shinae is the one who accepts responsibility even when it's difficult, who knows when and how to swallow her pride (even if she's not the one who should) and I think it's why she is the one seen a the champion at Nol's side - they are the ones who care little for their images and who know how to apologize (even when they aren't the ones who should be) and that's why they are at each other's sides.

So yes, this is a very long essay response lol to essentially say: I'm still undecided if I think Alyssa will become a foil or merely remain a parallel. I would love to see her redeem herself but something tells me not all characters in this story will be redeeamable. Maybe one day we'll understand her motivation, even if we don't agree with it. I hope at the very least she makes peace with Shinae, but I get the feeling she'll be forced into it (as in, her secret gets ousted) and that's not as satisfying, but hey, if it helps Shinae then I'm for it.

A friend of mine has mused that maybe Alyssa will be the one to oust the secret herself and I'm ngl, I like that idea though it does feel kind of vindictive towards her character. Maybe accidentally spilling it to Nol would be the segue to a couple episodes from her POV though!

Gosh this was so long I'm so sorry lmao but please follow up with your thoughts and feelings, too, or if this made you think of anything or what! I think at this point in the story we've been given a lot of information but we just don't have enough of it to totally piece together what we're supposed to be seeing. I think Kousuke and Alyssa's weirdness around each other is very deliberate, though, and I'm not sure "She's Meg's sister" is enough to warrant so many panels of Kou being SO WEIRD about her, you know? Am I missing thing? Is there more to be revealed? Are we just blind? lmao Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh

#I Love Yoo #ILY Brainrot #Alyssa Cho #Kousuke Hirahara #at this point always anticipate a read more cos whew i can't shut up!#BUT I'VE BEEN FIXATED ON THIS FOR A WHILE NOW AND I STILL HAVEN'T COME TO A CONCLUSION I LIKE #AND I'VE BEEN DYING TO TALK A LITTLE ABOUT ALYSSA AND KOUSUKE AS UNREPENTENT PARALLELS AND YUI PUPPETS #the way that Nol and Shinae are mirrors and they each have their own version of Kousuke/Alyssa #and conveniently they each have a relationship of some sort with each others abusers does not escape me #what will Shinae think when she finds out how Kousuke has treated Nol?#What will Nol think when he finds out who Alyssa was during her brief stint at public school #I'm dying for flashbacks with Alyssa because I JUST! WANT! TO UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!#so far it's so easy to villify her because we don't know otherwise #we've been given no reason to justify or forgive her #and you know what i am okay with villifying a character like her in a story with some pretty dimensional female characters #Maya is one such character who was easy for readers to hate but redeemed herself by being mature and honest with Shinae #do I trust Alyssa to be mature and honest?#only if she ever becomes okay with the idea of losing her image #i think that's a big thing for Kousuke and Alyssa?#at some point Kousuke will realize his image is a fraud #something he was manipulated into despite what he likes to believe #and once he comes to that realization after he breaks down and crumbles and rebuilds he will find a new path and build his own image #one of his own making #but Alyssa....? Who or what would she be if she lost her image?#if she couldn't control the narrative?#AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

15 notes · View notes