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#like absolutely Parker and Hardison disagree all the time but there's just a different tone
firebirdsdaughter · 2 years
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Ya know…
… Now that I’m rewatching Leverage (the original, not the new one, I can’t watch the new one)…
I set Leverage apart from most of my Found Family Crime Etc. shows bc it’s much more… Heavily team-focused. While the others may feature a team, what I consider the officially ‘family’/the ‘main focus’ is usually at most three people. Leverage balances between five quite well and keeps up strong family ties and unique relationships between all of them that I don’t feel like it fits in the same class as the others, it’s got so much variety.
But more to the point, the relationship I find myself being particularly fascinated by on this go through is actually Nate and Eliot?? Like… Eliot’s loyalty to Nate and the different ways it manifests. You’ve got stuff like in the wedding episode, when Nate tells him to put the money into a different trunk than they planned, Eliot just double checks that he’s sure and then does it. Then you’ve got the moments where Eliot calls Nate out for stuff, or councils w/ Sophie about Nate’s behaviour, or how he’s the one that steps in when Nate and Sophie aren’t around. In the ep where Maggie’s arrested, he runs the rescue seamlessly and is the absolute picture of the competent, reliable lieutenant. Even just the way he’s often seen standing at Nate’s shoulder, as early as when they first pick up Sophie. Being the last to leave at the end of the ep w/ all the flashbacks about the dagger. Eliot used guns and killed for him and the rest of the team, and the fact that Nate’s the only one who knows and he keeps it a secret. Eliot being willing to kill again to keep Nate from doing it. Walks away from a football game to go help Parker bc Nate asked him to, right now. Eliot being the one to prompt Parker, then Hardison to go when Nate turns himself in.
Eliot is consistently portrayed as a very interesting, complex character w/ a checkered past who has an extensive reputation for being extensively dangerous. He doesn’t seem to have worked very long for anyone besides Moreau, some of them are even out for his blood. All in all not the kinda person that’s going to give out not just trust but loyalty easily—but he gives it to Nate (and yes, the whole team, but I’m being focused here); even after Nate hits his button of conning his team (though that’s probably foreshadowed by his eventually forgiving Sophie for the same), even when Nate’s being destructive. Eliot chains himself to Nate’s corner. And that’s just so interesting to me??
#Leverage#Eliot's loyalty is def something that's hard to come by#and so I just find their relationship really interesting#Eliot's absolutely the big brother the 'lieutenant'#besides Sophie he's Nate's other closest confidant#and I dunno they just feel so understated???#and like it's usually Eliot and Sophie talking quietly about Nate being self destructive#it's them standing up to him that actually like#I dunno it holds a certain amount of weight#like absolutely Parker and Hardison disagree all the time but there's just a different tone#I dunno if I'm talking to myself here but it's just fascinating to me#like I don't exactly wonder 'why' I think events over the course of the series#and their respective natures explain it pretty well#Nate and the team provide Eliot w/ a noble purpose again something he never thought he could have back#I think he also relates to Nate since they both have self loathing issues#Moreau was someone Eliot is now ashamed to have worked for#but I think despite his flaws Nate is someone Eliot is PROUD to have worked for#it's not one of the relationships that gets MUCH focus but it's gotten more interesting to me#not to say it doesn't get focus the show was pretty damn good at spreading focus but it#it was one of the slight let less focused on ones#Eliot is often looked at through the lens of his relationship w/ Parker and Hardison#which I also love and I love how protective he is of them as well sibling soulmate whatever relationships get me okay#but also just… his and Nate's relationship is fascinating#it's one of trust and loyalty that get battered and shaken but never falls#Eliot is Nate's lieutenant/enforcer until he passes the torch to Parker#and even then#that loyalty doesn't go away#if Nate called him he'd come#I should give this show a tag too#Things You Didn't Know Fire Was Into
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theawkwardterrier · 3 years
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Ship game
Rules: Movie/TV ship questions, no repeats, answer with a gif. (I couldn’t make my own, but I’ve credited below.)
Honored to be tagged for this by the fabulous @nevertothethird and my wonderful meme partner, @lavellenchanted. Let’s talk ships!
1. First Ship ↳ Jack/Sue, Sue Thomas FBEye
This show used to air at random times on my local UPN station and I was - completely inexplicably - wild for it. My best friend and I would call each other frantically if we happened to catch it when it was on. A big part of my interest? This very chaste pair of coworkers who wanted to be something more! (Gif via @suethomasfbeye) 
2. First OTP ↳ Buffy/Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Cannot tell you how completely gone I was for this ship for essentially all of high school. Was it the soulmates aspect? The Yearning™ because they couldn’t be together? Their sweetness and encouragement toward each other, the way they relied on each other despite everything? My enormous thing for David Boreanaz? (It couldn’t have been my total 😍 for the symbolism of the cross burned into Angel’s chest in 1x07 - I was not astute enough to appreciate it until later.) Regardless, I spent much of driver’s ed when I was 16 writing a full on treatise about how they were meant for each other. Still do not drive, but they’re still with me, so I think I took care of the important stuff. (Gif via @buffysummers)
3. Current Fave Ship ↳ Elizabeth/Henry, Madam Secretary
It’s not a huge surprise that I got into this show, considering my love of The West Wing and my past as a college aged Good Wife fan, but I was shocked at how absolutely wonderful this ship was. I’m always here for functional married couples, and they are a prime example of believing in each other, having complementary values, communicating, and sticking together through everything. I’m about it. (Gif via @beautifuldisastr)
4. Your Ship Since the First Minute ↳ Booth/Brennan, Bones
I purposefully picked a gif from the first Bones episode I ever watched (2x04, The Blonde in the Game) because from the second they walked through those woods arguing about the possibility of having a pig for a pet, I was gone for them - and they didn’t even get together for another four seasons. The show shifted tone in later years in a way that I wasn’t totally on board with, but at the core, their bickering and chemistry and rock-solid partnership remained a draw for me. (Gif via @becauseyoulovemebb)
5. Ship You Wish Had Been Endgame ↳ Mary/Marshall, In Plain Sight
Y’all. It makes no sense that these two didn’t end up together. I rewatched somewhat recently and liked Abigail much better this time around, but these two had a best friendship that was extremely obviously a romance, and they passed it over to stick them with random others. (Gif via @browncoatgrl221b)
6. Ship You Wish Was Canon ↳ Sam/Ainsley, The West Wing
The idea of the principled Republican doesn’t exactly carry the same meaning these days, but I’m with Aaron Sorkin: not keeping Emily Proctor on West Wing was a huge mistake. Watching these two characters walk and talk through disagreeing on nearly everything and still managing to be friends of a sort is an unexpected joy of any rewatch. (Gif via @donnajosh)
7. Ship that Most of the Fandom Hates, but You Love ↳ Rory/Logan, Gilmore Girls
I’m not completely alone in shipping them, but Jess is definitely the more popular Rory boyfriend and Logan gets a LOT of hate. And in some ways I get it, but my heart belongs to these two beautiful messes who filled my life with adorable moments of banter and affection as they learned to be in a relationship. (They were also a candidate for “different storyline” - where was my revival non-cheating media power couple, Palladinos? Where was it?????????) (Gif via @rosedatlantis)
8. You Don’t Even Watch the Show, but You Ship It ↳ Jim/Pam, The Office
Mike Schur is my guy, but The Office has always been too awkward for me to handle. Still, if I ever force myself to watch, getting to see these two will have been a big factor in the decision. They look adorable, and history has shown that I’m wild for a sweet Schur relationship! (Gif via @bymine)
9. Ship That You Wish Had a Different Storyline ↳ Dawson/Casey, Chicago Fire
Part of the reason their relationship turned out the way it did was because of behind the scenes real world stuff, but I would have absolutely loved for Dawson to stick around and for them to figure out their issues (and maybe even eventually build a family). Also for them to have gone through just a touch less Drama™! My brother was recently binging the show and as I watched over his shoulder I found that I didn’t remember about 400 fairly large obstacles and random soap opera plots they added in for them. (Gif via @jayhalsstead)
10. Fave Ship That’s Endgame ↳ Steve/Peggy, MCU
It’s gotta be them, ya know? It was in the prompt. I’ve been extremely #blessed to have a lot of endgame or at least canon ships (Ben/Leslie from Parks and Rec? Matt/Julie from Friday Night Lights? Parker/Hardison on Leverage? Logan/Veronica on Veronica Mars since they got married and lived happily ever after and nothing else? Jake/Amy from Brooklyn 99? DON/SLOAN ON THE NEWSROOM??????), but the surprise and delight of these two finding their way back to each other? Unparalleled. A joy. 10000/10. (Gif via @onscreenkisses)
I’ll tag @mediocre-mee, @sisforsammi, @nightlocktime, @thesokovianaccords, and anyone else who wants to do it!
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