In your own space, promote at least one canon that you adore (old, new, forever fandom). Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
It was a relatively easy decision to decide what fandom I wanted to talk about. There are so many good ones that I favor, but when it comes to the one that really captured my muse when it comes to writing ideas I would say the one I have to talk about there is "Leverage". Ah my sweet sweet "Leverage". Don't get me wrong, the plot lines aren't up to Ocean's 11 level of intricacy (as if that were saying something), but as cracky and ridiculous as they are, the show manages to make them work in that they are fun. You will watch this show and keep exclaiming "oh come on there is no way they would believe that!" but one thing I can't fault the creators of Leverage for are their characters!!!
The characters are wonderful and amazing and perfect! They all fill those classic thief movie niches, The Mastermind, The Grifter, The Thief, The Muscle, and The Hacker. But one thing this show does is show over and over again how they are more than the roles they play when working together. Also I feel like the writers might have slacked off with the actual story lines of each episode, but they never failed to come true when it came to dialogue and character interactions. My example for this is Parker.
*BEYOND HERE LIE SPOILERS*So Parker. When you first meet her she is the ultimate caraciture of a thief, super sneaky and lacking any kind of valid moral compass, too caught up in the magpie concept of 'ooh shiny' to care about the potential impact on others. She works alone, which is a standing rule for all of this crew which is what makes their slow meshing of teamwork so much better. Parker is definitely implied to be a sociopath of some kind, but the more you watch you realize that Parker isn't crazy, she's simply broken to the point where she has had to develop her own rules of behavior in order to function. Even better, you can see how the others rally around her and start teaching her what it means to have someone you can count on. Ugh I can go on forever and ever about how wonderful these characters were, with Nate acting like the exasperated uncle who would remind her when stuff she said or did was fine...just a bit not good? And Sophie totally taking her under her wing and showing her that people aren't scary (because Parker is deathly afraid of people in general) they are just a tangle of impulses and wants, you just have to figure out what they want and then you can get them to do whatever you want. Eliot with his gruff and straight forward manner who is constantly running up against Parker's twisting view of things and no matter how much he snarls and throws up his hands, he is always there to catch her when she does one of her crazy leaps of faith.
And then there is Hardison. *flicks away tear* Don't get me wrong, I am a hard-core Eliot/Parker/Hardison shipper and they are my truest OT3 to ever true. But it was always clear from the get go that Hardison thought Parker was one of the most fascinating people he'd ever met, and he was also the first to see that she was scared and broken, and just needed help to remember how to be a good person. He never failed to call Nate to the carpet when he didn't like the way he was treating Parker.
*Flails* Seriously, these characters have so much growth and it makes my heart hurt to watch the first episode and then jump straight into the last season to see how far they came. And we were there for every step of the way. Nate realizing that just because grief broke him, doesn't mean he wasn't allowed to pull himself together and find a new family. Sophie realizing that she didn't need to keep hiding who she was, that she was allowed to shift faces and masks, and that sometimes she could even take them off and no one would care. Eliot finding redemption for the dark things in his past by feeling worthy again, remembering what it was like to stand shoulder to shoulder in a just fight with people who would never fail to come back for him. Hardison learning how to care about the big picture rather than the small one, that taking risks was okay and they didn't always mean he would get hurt. And then Parker, who remembered how to be a person and how to empathize once again, and then went ever further and figured out how strong she was and what she was capable of, beyond having a case of sticky fingers.
I'm not going to lie, I legit cried during the final scene of the last episode, when she was the one sitting in the chair and giving Nate's spiel about how sometimes all you needed was a little 'leverage'. Seeing her take her place as the new Mastermind took my breath away and there were so many tears. So many.
And there you go, Leverage in a winding not at all coordinated nut-shell. I would definitely suggest anyone who swings by to check it out if they haven't already.
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