Nate Ford - Tumblr Posts

At the end of season 1 episode 11 The Juror #6 job Hardison jokes that he will be an astronaut. I can't seem to get screen grabs but he becomes an astronaut!

While I don't miss Nate himself, he was an absolute bastard a lot of the time, I do miss the delicious darkness he brought to the series.

"God killed you, I just made sure it stuck"

No one in Redemption carries the same demonic vibes Nate sometimes would.

Not to invoke Muppet's Christmas Carol but the line

"your future is a horror story written by your crimes"

that really described how Nate went after some of the marks.

The Ice Man Job (S02E08)

- The victim's main complaint is struggling to keep a roof over his family's head, so it does feel like one of those rare ones where they could've solved it just with money. Seems like it was more about the money than reputation/revenge. But this way's more fun.

- Eliot pushes Parker away from sitting with him and won't move next to her when asked by Nate. Which is funny because usually they're so physically close. I like that their characters have variation within them, they're not totally consistent 'cause real people aren't either. Like this episode Eliot just seems to have got out the wrong side of bed and we're not offered an explanation for that, except I guess he may be missing Sophie. 

- Bless Hardison for being the peacemaker. Also I find something so intimate in him sitting close to her and saying "you happy?" like "you happy I'm physically close now, you comforted by my body being near yours? I see you, your needs matter to me, even if I don't understand them always."

- Eliot immediately knows Hardison being the main grifter is a bad idea and knows why. It begs the question why Nate doesn't make Eliot the main grifter, given he's so much better at it. Because he thinks he needs the muscle to be a separate character I guess?

- Weird Eliot thirst is when he bends the mark over the pool table, twisting one arm behind him and his other hand between his shoulder blades. You see where I'm going with that. I'm gonna need to learn how to gif.

- I don't know whether Nate is impersonating Sterling by giving his insurance guy character the same name, or just making an homage for his own amusement, but I like to imagine the latter.

- "I'd like to hear you do an accent." "I'd like to hear YOU do an accent." is some of my favorite Hardison/Eliot bickering. Especially because they both very much have a point.

- I get so frustrated watching Hardison going too quickly through the heist. Just slow down! They told you so many times. Nate actively has a gun pulled on him and is handling it better.

- Hardison and Parker's little moment of closeness escaping the vault. Underated Pardison ep.

- The Nate/Sophie conversation at the end: tv phone conversations are very weird. I'm not sure I've ever seen a realistic depiction of a phone conversation on tv and this is no exception.

@nicemom93 💖

People like that… corporations like that, they have all the money, they have all the power, and they use it to make people like you go away. Right now, you’re suffering under an enormous weight. We provide… leverage.

LEVERAGE (2008-2012)

They don't talk about it.

But there's no way Nate should know those things. No way the client could have told him, no way he could've figured it out on his own. Not when these things were nothing more than fleeting thoughts from the mark. But Sophie notices him quietly go for the scotch behind the counter and rub at his head in pain with extra vehemence some days despite the latest con having no personal connection to him.

They don't talk about it.

But someone should've recognized Sophie on that con. There's no way she could have that many characters per con. No way none of those diplomats didn't recognize her from any of her previous cons. Not when she didn't change any more than her clothes and accent. But Nate notices her features seem to flicker at the peace and safety of home when she thinks he isn't watching.

They don't talk about it.

But no one could've survived that. And certainly not looking the way he does. There's no way he didn't come out of that fight broken and bloodied to all hell. Not when instead he walks out with a purposeful stride and only a clenched jaw, rolling his shoulders. But when he's cooking and accidentally burns himself, Parker notices the unmarked skin left behind.

They don't talk about it.

But not all vents are human sized. They all saw the size of the vent cover as she exists with a grin. There's no way she could've fit in there. Not when the human body can't bend that way, a way that even the greatest contortionist can't bend. But some days Hardison notices as she seems to stretch and bend before his eyes when she's feeling relaxed and safe enough.

They don't talk about it.

But that's not how computers work. There's no way Hardison could access that kind of thing. Not when he describes how he did it like that. Not when he does it so quickly like that. Not when he says he's taken berries and the next thing they know he's recreated a colonial era journal to perfection. But Eliot swore he shoved a glass of water at him, not more goddamn orange soda.

They don't talk about it, the thing lingering over their heads as they conduct each con, the unacknowledged thing between the five of them that's a little deeper than just a desire to take down the rich and powerful.

They aren't perfect, they all know that- sometimes they're too good with their covers, sometimes they have to shift gears as the con unfolds before them, but somehow things always seem to work out.

But no one asks about it, so-

They don't talk about it.

Don't mind me, just ugly crying about The Long Goodbye Job

They don't talk about it.

But there's no way Nate should know those things. No way the client could have told him, no way he could've figured it out on his own. Not when these things were nothing more than fleeting thoughts from the mark. But Sophie notices him quietly go for the scotch behind the counter and rub at his head in pain with extra vehemence some days despite the latest con having no personal connection to him.

They don't talk about it.

But someone should've recognized Sophie on that con. There's no way she could have that many characters per con. No way none of those diplomats didn't recognize her from any of her previous cons. Not when she didn't change any more than her clothes and accent. But Nate notices her features seem to flicker at the peace and safety of home when she thinks he isn't watching.

They don't talk about it.

But no one could've survived that. And certainly not looking the way he does. There's no way he didn't come out of that fight broken and bloodied to all hell. Not when instead he walks out with a purposeful stride and only a clenched jaw, rolling his shoulders. But when he's cooking and accidentally burns himself, Parker notices the unmarked skin left behind.

They don't talk about it.

But not all vents are human sized. They all saw the size of the vent cover as she exists with a grin. There's no way she could've fit in there. Not when the human body can't bend that way, a way that even the greatest contortionist can't bend. But some days Hardison notices as she seems to stretch and bend before his eyes when she's feeling relaxed and safe enough.

They don't talk about it.

But that's not how computers work. There's no way Hardison could access that kind of thing. Not when he describes how he did it like that. Not when he does it so quickly like that. Not when he says he's taken berries and the next thing they know he's recreated a colonial era journal to perfection. But Eliot swore he shoved a glass of water at him, not more goddamn orange soda.

They don't talk about it, the thing lingering over their heads as they conduct each con, the unacknowledged thing between the five of them that's a little deeper than just a desire to take down the rich and powerful.

They aren't perfect, they all know that- sometimes they're too good with their covers, sometimes they have to shift gears as the con unfolds before them, but somehow things always seem to work out.

But no one asks about it, so-

They don't talk about it.

I suddenly woke up stupid early on my day off with multiple weird random aches and pains and a revelation about the Leverage chess metaphors.

They’re all wrong.

Look, I obviously adore the white knight/black king motif, and it works really well for that very specific discussion of Nate’s shift in morality and position at the opening of the series. But the show as well as I and other fans have then tried to take that equation and apply it to other jobs and to the crew as a whole. This is fun and awesome, but I believe you’re going to get it wrong every time if you start from the white knight/black king line. 

Because in all other situations, Nate is not the king.

Couple important things about kings in chess: 1. They don’t move much. They can only move one space at a time, and for most of the game they stay in their own little box, well guarded by other pieces. This is because 2. When the king is checkmated (threatened with capture and no possible escape), it’s game over. There is no more hope. This is the sole requirement for losing the game. No matter who else is in play, if the king is down, you lose.

This is NOT how Nate operates. Yeah, he makes the plans, but he doesn’t just hide in the office while everybody else carries them out. He’s almost always right up in there playing the most obnoxious guy you’ve ever met or smashing windows or something. And if Nate gets captured, it’s not game over, in fact, it often isn’t even a PROBLEM. Let’s look at a few times that happens, just for fun: - In The King George Job, Nate’s getting beat up and Eliot slightly panics and is about to run to help, when Sophie says “NOPE, don’t do that, I can fix this without blowing our cover” and saunters in at her leisure. The jig isn’t up and she’s not even particularly concerned about him getting punched. I love it. - In the Maltese Falcon Job, Nate sacrifices himself to save the team. This is a classic thing to do in chess and chess metaphors, but, I cannot stress this enough, you cannot sacrifice your king. That’s just called LOSING. -In The Long Goodbye Job of course the whole con is structured around Nate getting caught. I guess this one kind of makes sense because the whole point is to look like they HAVE completely lost, but then at the end it appears that Nate’s going to secret prison and everyone else is escaping WITH the black book, so they STILL would be losing Nate but winning the job. 

So if Nate isn’t the king, who is?

Hardison.

Let’s look at our points about kings again:

1. Doesn’t move as far or as quickly: Yes, Hardison ALSO gets out there and participates in the cons, everybody does. But Hardison does stay in the background more often, because that’s where his power is. He does the behind the scenes tech stuff and the remote stuff, he can wreck your shop without showing up through the power of the internet. He also does the forgeries of identities and objects, which are also done in his own space. At the same time, he has less physical power and less range – you don’t want him in a fistfight, or a gunfight, and his grifts are notorious for being a little… uh… interesting. So he has limited physical range and power but at the same time… .

2. The game is over if you lose him. That far-reaching behind the scenes power is absolutely vital for 90% of the jobs. He does the massive amounts of research and hacking legwork needed just to START a job, even before you get to actually completing the job. You are pretty much dead in the water without Hardison. But that’s just from a practical standpoint. Losing Hardison is also a crisis from an emotional standpoint. He’s our moral compass and our sweet baby brother and when Hardison gets in trouble there is no “well he’ll be fine for a few minutes” and no “well he kinda had it coming.” No, when Hardison is in trouble everything else grinds to a halt and everyone comes running. (See: The Experimental Job, The Grave Danger Job, The Long Goodbye Job.)

So like, yes Nate is in charge. But the king isn’t in charge on a chessboard, the king is just a piece with a very unique role, which Hardison fills much better than Nate does. So, now that we have our real king, who are our other pieces?

Queen: Parker. This has nothing to do with her dating Hardison. The thing about the queen is she can do a little bit of everything – she can move in any direction, making her the most dangerous piece on the board. Parker’s whole character arc is about learning all the different roles and how to access the whole playing field. She’s the only one who plans and executes an entire episode-length job by herself (okay, with a little help from her girlfriend). Plus, the other cool thing about a queen is she has a built-in transformation story – a pawn that crosses the board can become a queen, which Parker mimics by initially being dismissed as “the crazy one” and ultimately becoming the mastermind.

Knight: Sophie. I know, I wanted Eliot to be the horsie too, but this makes more sense. The knight’s deal is that it’s sneaky – it’s the only piece that can turn corners – and it can jump over obstacles. Sophie’s whole philosophy of grifting is that she shouldn’t need to know about safes or security systems, she should be able to bypass (jump over) all that by insinuating herself with the mark (being sneaky by playing a character to get behind enemy lines)

Rook: Eliot. This is the straightforward one – it goes in a straight line. It also literally represents the castle walls. It’s also so, so fucking helpful to have around, I fucking hate losing my rooks. It’s your solid right hand man, basically. Is this a little reductive of Eliot? Absolutely, but I’m jamming five complex characters into five predetermined boxes, it’s not all gonna be nuanced. And I think Mr. Punchy would like being seen as the fortress that everybody depends on, and to let all the nuance go under the radar. That’s where he likes it. 

Bishop: Finally, here’s where Nate is hiding. While the rook can only go straight (lol), the bishop can only go diagonally. Nothing can be straightforward for the bishop, he always has to come at things from an angle. Like, you know, constantly looking at all the different angles of a situation and finding the right angle to come at a mark from. Also, the bishops sit right in the middle right next to the king and queen. I don’t know that this is historically accurate, but when my dad taught me to play he told me that was because the bishops were important councilors to the rulers, they were the ones who had important wisdom that would tell them the best plan of attack. So the king here isn’t necessarily the one making the plans – that’s the bishop. And finally, apparently the bishop is called lots of different things in other languages, but we’re operating in English, which means it makes Nate a priest, and that makes me happy.

I'm sure Nate isn't homophobic - the show makes it pretty clear that all his catholic guilt is directed firmly inwards and we never see even a hint of disapproval over others' personal lives - but he's still an older white guy and definitely defaults to cishet assumptions.

Which makes me desperately want, like, a 5+ type fic of gay flirting for the con where Nate progressively gets his mind blown.

Because Sophie flirting with a woman might throw him for a beat or two, but she's a world class grifter and an actress, of course she can flirt with anyone

And then Parker had to be taught how to flirt in the first place and she's Parker so sure, she's completely faking it either way, she has no internal biases, okay

The first time a man chats up Hardison and the hacker reacts exactly the same way he does when he tries to flirt with women, Nate is so glad Sophie takes over the comms to give flirting advice because it takes him half a minute to recalibrate and edit his expectations

But then Sophie's failing to hook a mark and Elliot steps in without missing a beat, flashing his farm boy smile, and Nate is finally like, "how is it that I'm the only one here who's surprised by any of this?" and the team just shrugs and goes "idk that sounds like a you problem"

The +1 is the only time Nate attempts it and they all agree to never try that again because it was awkward and embarrassing for everyone involved

@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) 

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,

I so want to see his crime buddies forever friendship quilt.

The Nigerian Job.png

Gotta include these tags:

#accurate af#and hardison is everyone's big brother#and occasionally grandmother#XD#leverage

Hardison is everyone’s big brother and occasional grandmother, I love that description.

I feel like it’s really easy to lean towards categorising Sophie as the mom friend but like, no. no Sophie is the Cool aunt who’s always slightly tipsy and whisks you away for impromptu shopping trips and lets you drink but Eliot, Eliot is the mom friend.

Obsessed with the idea of a Teenager Leverage AU

Ex-Insurance Investigator Nate Ford being forced to team up with three of the best thieves and criminals in the United States but they're literally children and he nearly kills Dubenich on the spot upon learning this

16-17 year olds Parker, Hardison and Eliot all being hired to help this stuffy, sad drunk man rob some airplane plans and immediately imprinting on him like Yes, This is Our Dad Now

Enter Theatre Mom Sophie, who was at first Not Happy about Nate suddenly (involuntarily) adopting three teenage criminals, quickly deciding that Yes I Can Work With This and if they're going to keep doing crime than at least they're going to know how to talk their way out of it (Eliot is the only one she doesn't fear for)

Que every shenanigan that happens in the 5 seasons of Leverage but the silliness and heartbreak scales are turned up to a 20

i wanna know what was going on at IYS back in pre-leverage days when nate was working there, because the 2 employees we get to know are james "hid in a trunk for five days" sterling and nathan "became a robin hood-esque mastermind thief" ford. is this just their standard employee - does the job ad ask for people who enjoy hijinks and have "become a trickster god" in their five year plan? or were all nate and sterling’s coworkers watching them in utter confusion? like HR is getting complaints about them, starting discussions with "look we have a problem with your whole homoerotic rivalry thing but it’s NOT because of the homoerotic part, okay? we decorate for pride month. and i don’t care about the ‘allusion to the high noon standoff trope of cowboy/western movies’, you can’t just be blocking off the hallways to have a dramatic conversation. you stacked chairs in front of the emergency exit door to keep the corridor clear. that’s a fire safety hazard."

the miracle job tells us so much about what nate was like as a young man. this priest sees a miracle in his church a few days after telling his old friend from the catholicism factory that there's nothing to be done about his troubles and immediately goes "nathan ford you wiley coyote-ass bitch you stop helping me right the fuck now"

Either Chris Downey or John Rogers has said on The Official Leverage: Redemption After Show that they knew from the moment they saw the “we provide leverage” scene at the end of the first episode that it would be the ending of the show as well but with Parker in Nate’s seat.

Rewatching the series there is TOTAL foreshadowing that Nate was grooming Parker from the start. He always calmly takes the time to explain what con is what, give little coaching moments (ie “The Order 23 Job”), and towards the end of the series easily lets Parker come up with the plan and follows her lead implicitly (“The Blue Line Job”).

It’s a lot of fun to rewatch and spot the little moments once you know what to look for.

Things I hadn't noticed in the Nigerian Job till my 6th re-watch-

The thing is, Parker does go out on the original count Nate starts on the rooftop, not the one he restarts after Hardison comments. That is her following the plan. The original plan.

Now when Hardison has Eliot at gunpoint in the abandoned factory Dubenich assembled them in, when Nate asked Eliot why he didn't look worried Eliot says 'safety's on', but Hardison doesn't fall for it. It's only when NATE says it he goes to check and gets the gun taken away. He gets the doubt from NATE, not Eliot. Because Nate is the (former) white knight, the straight and narrow, the Not-thief in their merry little band. They show us from the beginning just how powerful Nate's role is, having played both sides of the coin

Thirdly, Nate approaches a pissed off and cheated-out-of-her-money Parker a lot different than he treated the other two. He talks to Eliot in a levelheadedness he knows a professional hitter and extraction specialist like him would have. And he treats Hardison with quick and easy ruses so he's appeased and disarmed for the moment allowing him a moment to calm down. But PARKER, he treats with care and patience. Not condescension. Just a healthy respect for the fact that she is the best at what she does and the fact that she's not gotten her money yet makes her unpredictable and with her skillset nearly unwavering at her stance.

Idk man, every time I watch this show I'm blown away at the details and characterizations

Re: the leverage tipping "discourse", here's my thoughts on the characters' tipping behavior--

Nate: tips 15%

Sophie: tips well as herself but if her persona for a con wouldn't she doesn't

Eliot: always tips well and leaves a note sometimes

Parker: 50/50 if she remembers to tip, but when she does she will leave a vaguely suspicious roll of cash. She gets better at remembering as she gets more exposure to the service industry

Hardison: my man doesn't tip *in cash*. He doesn't have a wallet, and his phone is plenty to let him divert company funds into giving the employees a raise. It's the age of the geek, baby, and that means ensuring a living wage long-term and making up for the assholes who inevitably won't tip at all. He's still gonna rile up Nate and Eliot given the opportunity though

I'm looking for someone to roleplay Nate Ford from Leverage. It would be a long rp, and he'd be falling in love with a woman other than Sophie. It'll have angst, and romance.

I am fine with using Tumblr chat, or discord. Could someone help me out?

18+ only please, while I don't do smut, things can get a bit steamy!