Eliot Spencer - Tumblr Posts - Page 3
Hey fun background moment of genius in The Rashomon Job
The first few times we see the head of security come rushing down the stairs looking for Sophie, he’s shown holding a gun, because everyone else saw an intimidating, competent man who takes his job maybe too seriously. They were moving quickly, they saw him holding something long and narrow and black and their brains filled in ‘huge fuck off gun’ because that made sense to them.
That’s sort of the point of the episode (and of Rashomon style stories in general), everyone sees something different because we all view the world differently.
It’s not until the end, during Nate’s story, that the episode reveals the gun was actually a box of roses. When we get the shot of him rushing down the stairs, he’s holding a box, not a gun. We see the guard giving Nate the box, showing him what’s inside.
But.
That’s not the first time we see the box as a box, and not a gun.
Because you know who saw a dangerous man holding something long and narrow and black and did not see a gun?
Eliot
Eliot saw this man the way the rest of the team did – scarily intense, suspicious of them all from the get go, dangerous – but he still saw the box. Because he was a soldier, he’s the hitter, the one most likely to be facing down the men with guns. It is in Eliot’s best interest to see guns when there are guns, even at a glance, even in passing, even if the man holding it is a hyper-competent security guard.
The director didn’t need to make the switch. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Hell, I didn’t even notice until my third or fourth viewing. It flashes by so quickly, the man is far in the background, the camera doesn’t linger.
But they did. It’s such a clever detail, and it shows they have such an attention to the character even when it doesn’t really matter.
Watching The Studio Job and I cannot get over Eliot banging on the glass to the studio and immediately being tackled while Parker goes "hmm where did Eliot go"
Eliot would win an arm wrestle, Parker would win a thumb war.
That’s it. Enjoy.
Eliot would win an arm wrestle, Parker would win a thumb war.
That’s it. Enjoy.
Eliot would win an arm wrestle, Parker would win a thumb war.
That’s it. Enjoy.
So I read a leverage & Jurassic park fic and now I really love the idea of the leverage crew (more specifically Parker, Hardison and Eliot) working at Isla Nublar with dinosaurs! I feel like Hardison would work in the tech department (obvious I know but he’s just so well suited to it), Eliot as security or looking after the baby triceratops, and Parker as a form of Owen Grady character, taking the crazy risks and stuff. If anyone else has an leverage & Jurassic park ideas please share!!
The severe lack in Leverage: Redemption fic’s on ao3 is really bothering me. Are they hiding under a different tag because I’ve checked under leverage and I couldn’t find a leverage redemption tag. So if anyone knows where they might be hiding or has any recommendations, especially OT3 I would very much appreciate them.
Leverage wrote the book on found family.
Request by @quietstorm-thundathighs
@siancrosslin‘s post here (x) about leverage and the old anti-piracy ads has been making me laugh all day and it led to this nonsense, please enjoy. (Warning: it flashes quite a bit at the end)
I already had half a mind to go off about this and then a set of Eliot and Parker came across my dash from the same episode I was thinking of and that pushed me over the edge.
So let’s talk about The Big Bang Job in Leverage and something they pulled off only by nature of being Leverage because it’s practically magic tbh.
The thing about The Big Bang Job is that the climax of the episode is a gigantic, over the top shootout between one of the main characters (Eliot) and a literal warehouse full of goons with automatic weapons. And Eliot not only walks out of it without a scratch, he starts with only his fists to fight back with. I’m talking complete and utter cheese; stormtrooper-like aim from the goons, Eliot never misses a shot, Eliot takes cover behind wooden boxes and doesn’t get hit, infinite bullets, and the scene ends with Eliot sliding on his knees while spinning 360 firing all the while and hitting every single one of his remaining targets.
This scene is objectively utterly laughable, it should flop. It doesn’t.
It doesn’t because this is Eliot. Eliot, who the show is very, very careful to establish “doesn’t like guns”. Not, “doesn’t USE guns”, “doesn’t LIKE guns”. It has been consistent, up to this point and actually after this point, that Eliot before he met the team was not a nice person. He’s a hitter, he’s not exactly the nicest person now, but before the team it is heavily implied that he did some nasty, assassin-esque work for an even nastier guy.
He’s killed people before, for a living, and he was very good at it.
But by the time we meet him, by the time the team meets him, he is out of that line of work. He doesn’t touch guns anymore, not for personal use. Every single time we see him with one on-screen it’s because he’s disarming someone else who had one and unloading it to make it useless in whatever fight is going on at the moment. Eliot doesn’t like guns. Eliot doesn’t use guns. And it is because that character fact is well and consistently established for three seasons before we get to The Big Bang Job that the over the top shootout is dramatically weighted instead of funny.
That scene, which should read as celebration of a gory bloodbath, is instead an extremely grim and serious character moment. This is Eliot breaking an unspoken vow; this is a promise that he made to himself and that we the audience have seen him hold himself to without fail, and we have to watch him go back on it, for the sake of his team. This is watching Eliot be the man, the monster, he believes he is, the person that he will spend the rest of his life atoning for without ever truly feeling he can have or deserves forgiveness.
It is the context of that character, the back story firmly in place and present in the moment he makes the decision, that makes the warehouse shootout devastatingly gutwrenching instead of what it should be.
It is the only reason Leverage gets away with it and significantly they never do it again. This is the only time we ever see this from Eliot and that’s what gives that moment so much weight.
Eliot: Everyone always asks how I manage Parker and Hardison.
Eliot: The secret is I have no control over them whatsoever.
Eliot: Earlier Hardison called my name and when I showed up to see what was going on, Parker shot me with a Nerf pistol
~~~~some time later~~~~
Hardison: Yeah that was a bad idea. Never challenge a former hitman to a Nerf battle.
This was how the Ice Man Job went right
Another moment I want in the Leverage reboot
In The Rashomon Job, there’s a scene where Eliot is fighting two guys and one of them gets a phone call. Eliot answers and says, “Why are you sending second rate thugs to try and kill me?”
The thug in question, while Eliot has him pinned to the wall with a knife in his shoulder, looks offended, and Eliot tells him, “If I’m not honest with you, you can’t improve.”
I want this guy to come back as the muscle the team have to go up against in a con. Eliot and the thug would trade blows for a bit and Eliot would tell him, “You’ve really come a long way since the last time we fought.”
The thug should look delighted that Eliot not only remembers him but thinks he’s gotten better. Of course, this is then followed by Eliot knocking him unconscious and saying, “Still not as good as me though,” or, “You still need to learn not to lose focus in a fight though,” or something.
I just want this guy to come back.
I am so done.
These people you’re with now, would you leave any of them behind? Ever?
the leverage team as troubled birds
nate:
sophie:
eliot:
hardison:
parker:
sterling:
tara:
bonanno:
maggie:
*bonus*
moreau:
Should you fight this Leverage character?
(I finally finished Leverage so I’m celebrating it with a meme post)
Nathan Ford: fight him to kick some sense into him, he needs that sometimes. you might even win. although, you can never be sure if he intended for you to win so that he can come back later and kick your ass in some kind of a plot twist.
Eliot Spencer: DO NOT fight him unless you are a child. then you have all the chances to win, and probably get temporarily adopted.
Sophie Deveraux: you find her in a bar near the seashore. the sun is setting. she looks beautiful in her bright summer dress. you approach her, your steps growing slower with every second. you look her in the eyes. “fight me,” you say. she responds with a beautiful smile. you come to your senses on the floor of the bar, covered in blood. she is nowhere to be seen. you have been fighting yourself for the last 30 minutes
Parker: do NOT fight her, she will ruin your life, steal your soul, steal your valuables, and then taze you. in that order exactly.
Alec Hardison: i mean… you could fight him… and you could win… but do you really want to find out later that day that someone hacked into your account and ordered 5000 pizzas to your house? and then Parker came by to ruin your life, steal your soul, steal your valuables,
