Okay, Somebody Can Correct Me If I'm Wrong- But At The End Of The Nigerian Job, When The Team Was Convincing

Leverage OT3 Casual Touches

(Cont.)

This is mainly for @werewolfsmile and anyone else who wants to shout into the void with me about this ot3!

So far season 4 started off strong with lots of little ot3 moments I’ve been clocking on my latest rewatch. Today I watched “The Office Job” through “The Gold Job” and wanted to recap. Ngl it isn’t much…

Still good things but it was a lot of what we already see which is still beautiful. But mainly it was a lot of leaning, being in each others spaces, and a lot of the handshake. (For the purposes of this post I’m skipping “The Girls Night Out Job” and “The Boys Night Out Job” simply because those two are a whole other beast of ot3 moments that I would like to gif separately and also not a lot of touching (besides the handshake in the boys night) which is what we’re focusing on here.)

“The Office Job” is my favorite comfort episode of Leverage. Everything about is pure gold. Despite Hardison and Eliot arguing the whole time about a sandwich they still manage to pull together in the end and have one of the funniest moments in the episode which is of course topped off by the handshake. Once again mainly in each other’s spaces or leaning this episode.

“The Lonely Hearts Job” also such a great episode of basically the ot3 parent trapping Nate and Sophie and Eliot out here doing the absolute most showing he knows his team in the end of the episode.

As for casual touches a lot with Eliot and Parker (I feel like there’s always more with Eliot and Parker in trying to find more with Eliot and Hardison but mainly they just always lean in each others spaces and orbit each other, compared to Eliot and Parker which sometimes have a similar but different dynamic due to comparing how Parker in the beginning of the series was very adverse to touch. Not from Hardison and Eliot now though:)).

This scene starts out with them with a gap but they gradually get closer (I know this can happen when scenes are reshot. As I always say though let me read the subtext how I want. They were further apart then they got closer soooo)

My favorite thing is the shoulder bumping as they’re walking out. All I have to say.

Here they’re betting whoever gets the highest bid gets a steak which is super cute later because Eliot loses and puts up a fight about making it but then totally has heart eyes and smiles when he “loses” that argument too. Why wouldn’t he make his boyfriend a steak. There’s also a later scene I totally forgot to gif when they’re getting the guy flirting with Sophie out of the way and he calls Hardison (who’s in character) an idiot and I know Eliot did not need to take him down as hard as he did all I have to say.

And once again we have the leaning in each others spaces, shoulder touching, and once again the handshake. None of the other bachelors were standing this close on stage just saying.

Then we have “The Gold Job” where Parker literally gets up to sit next to Eliot? Wonderful. But then there’s some shoving but for context the whole scene was kinda tense because Hardison was running his first con. But then right before the camera changes Eliot moves closer!!!

But then they end up further apart again which I’m assuming may be due to reshoots.

Just generally the comfort between all of them gets me in these scenes. They’ve come a lot way and even though the beginning of season four I feel like shows this a lot more I’m still glad I’m finding scenes with their casual touches as I’m finishing out season 4.

That’s all I have for tonight :D I’m finishing up season 4 tomorrow so I’m sure I’ll be adding to this later.

Hope you like my gifs :) haven’t gifed in so long but I’m happy I’m learning again. Quality still needs work though.

Bonus:

Here’s a bonus gif of Eliot looking like he’s blowing a kiss in the button cam footage in “The Office Job” because I thought it was funny. This is once again getting added to my “why didn’t I notice this before” list. I just wanna know for whom Eliot. :)

I feel like this is an accurate representation of my current mental state

which fucking queer sat down in the writer’s room for leverage and wrote the rundown job huh ??? HUH ???

why is hardison fist bumping his “best friend” about how hot his girlfriend is ?? why is eliot grabbing hardison by the back of neck, pulling him in with the most intense stare ever, and then doing the verbal praise equivalent of making out with him ??? eliot is an obviously traumatized self reliant prickly bastard, and yet he decides to throw away his crutches and completely rely on the other two for support ???

god take me now. leverage writers had absolutely zero business drenching this episode with all this polyamorous energy in the year of our lord 2012– hell gay marriage wasn’t even federally legal yet. they knew exactly what the fuck they were doing and i am kissing them on the mouth for it.

Please!!

Friends. If you do nothing else this week, please. Please stream Lockwood and Co as much as you can. The completed viewing hours matter so much and this story deserves a season two. The fandom has grown exponentially in the last three weeks, people are loving the show and finding the books. It has more than earned that renewal but Netflix needs the numbers to authorize it.

Let’s give them no choice.

it would be so incredibly dumb of netflix to not renew the night agent…. it’s one of their best shows. ever.

Fucking hell, I miss the wilds already

I really hate it here…

the feminine urge to listen to the entire soundtrack of the movie/series you've just finished.

Found Families and Why We Love Them

Dominic Toretto once said "I don’t have friends, I got family" with that in mind, that will be our intro for today! Although we find that iconic line cheesy as cheese, the audience loves a great found-family setup.

Something about how a bunch of misfits and inconsiderate douchebags developing to be a family of their own in spite of their quirkiness and tragic backgrounds makes us love them more than the typical and already functional groups. Like most families, there is the father, the mother, and the child. The rest is kind of subjective.

I've talked a little bit about actual families via [The Addams Family] but I think Found Families are a different breed. Let's discuss that and explain why we love them so much~

- Crows Never Forget -

While conversing with a friend I've met on Tumblr. My friend suggested that I should watch the show < Shadow and Bone > based on the Grisha Trilogy by [Leigh Bardugo] The story mainly follows Alina Starkov who lives in a world divided by the haunting dark cloud placed at the center of the three counties known as; The Fold.

Aside from the main plot you can already guess if you know enough fiction. The show features a merry band of dangerous outcasts. The Six of Crows from Ketterdam. Led by the cunning leader; Kaz "Dirty Hands" Brekker.

The team is supported by, Inej Ghafa The Assassin, Nina Zenik The Heartrender, Jesper Fahey The Sharpshooter, Matthias Helvar The Convict, and Wylan Van Eck The Runaway. Like every group that shares this type of beat. The teammates do not trust one another and are only united for the cause.

This will develop as the series goes on and their trust will change from strangers to allies to family beneath the backdrop of a sinfully cut-throat and exciting city. While the series only showed Five of the Six so far. I've grown very quickly to love this group for their chemistry and their respective motivations to stay as a team.

What's so interesting to watch is, despite how typical this trope is. I still couldn't keep my eyes off this concept. It's so much fun to see the Six interact even though for now, it's just Kaz, Inej, and Jesper (also, The Goat; Milo) planning a heist to kidnap our heroine. On the other end of the world, we learn about Matthias and Nina. The Convict and The Witch (Matthias's words, not mine)

Dysfunctional groups like these feel very human. They don't act like they care for the world or for one another but instead, grow in the process.

Similarly, another dysfunctional group called < The Guardians of The Galaxy > shares the same vibes as the Six. Their talent is great but it's their destructive tendencies or personal vendettas that make them less like heroes. Rather, they are people who just so happened to be doing heroics.

- Where is your Supervisor? -

Part of the trick in making fun found families is the will to condense the group down to about four or three characters. In most Shonen manga/ anime, the main character (eg, Naruto) is often supported by a lancer character (eg, Sasuke) and the heart (eg, Sakura) There is also the mentor/senior (eg, Kakashi) and it will always be these four. Other examples like Harry (Potter) and Co are good samples of the main trio with a mentor (Hagrid).

It's rare that we find trios with no mentor figure. Such is the case of another show I recently watched, < Lockwood and Co > based on the book series by [Jonathan Stroud] For a quick summary, Lockwood is set in London with one big exception. The city/ world at large is haunted by lethal ghosts (AKA The Problem) and only kids can sense them. Therefore, fight them.

The main cast consists of Anthony Lockwood, the cool and fearless badass gentleman who is strongest with Sight. George Karim, an all-rounder but a highly talented Researcher. Finally, our main character, Lucy Carlyle. An incredibly talented girl who's the most gifted with Hearing and Touch. Unlike the other agencies which are by the book and led by a Supervisor (an adult). Lockwood is purely independent but is unfortunately small and always in trouble with the law due to their incredibly dangerous methods.

Still, they are the best at what they do. Hunting ghosts while solving the bigger mystery behind The Problem. Despite their terrible coordination, the team has proven themselves to be better and far more personal with the cases they crack. Making it less like a job.

They are reminders that less is better. The cast plays the role of Hero, Lancer, and Heart very well and their chemistry is great and funny. Anthony and Lucy will sometimes bud heads, George will do his own thing making two of his partners incredibly proud and, you might see some tender/real moments between them.

Lockwood also removes the typical hero's journey of losing a mentor figure and instead makes the characters each other's mentors. The team relies on one other with their lives to survive every mission and navigate through life as a whole.

It felt more organic for them to grow together because there's a sense for when an adult shares a piece of advice (no matter how good it is) feels very smug and dull. The characters feel like actual teens because the setting for the agency sounds like something actual teens will do. Break the rules and do right for the fun or for some deep-rooted conspiracy that the world has yet to know.

- You Chose The Wrong Side! -

From the dysfunctional groups like the Six or the Guardians to the power of Three. There is one other interesting layer to the Found Family troupe. The Disbanded Found Family.

While most stories tell of how the team came to be, rare stories tell of how they split off and are no longer on speaking terms. For a while, The MCU's Avengers were at war with one another during < Captain America; Civil War > With Steve Rogers and Tony Stark budding heads harshly over the Sokovia Accords.

Seeing a well-rounded team break up is difficult for the characters and the audience because. For all the disagreements they had with one another, they've developed along the way to be close like a family. Seeing them split is like watching a divorce happening on screen and it's heartbreaking and sometimes a little bit awesome because you've got the best of the best competing to declare their superiority.

Perhaps one of the best examples I have seen is through < Kuroko No Baskue > where our main character; Tetsuya Kuroko entered High School and vowed to defeat/ beat some sense to his Former Junior High School Basketball Team with his newfound team; Seirin High

Kuroko's former team is famously known as The Generation of Miracles; an elite team of young talents that excel on the court, thus making them prodigies of their generation.

The Miracles consist of; Daiki Aomine (The Power Forward Beast), Shintarō Midorima (The Star Shooter), Atsushi Murasakibara (The Ultimate Center), Seijūrō Akashi (The Emperor's Eye) and Ryōta Kise (The Perfect Copycat) From the little we have seen, the team is passionate about the sport they play and they share a very brotherly relationship with one another.

As the series develops, we learn more about their personal relationships with Kuroko and with each other. We see the infighting between them and we learn about how their respective egos build. We learn about their vow during graduation and we get to see them reunited once again.

The series as a whole function in two ways. Kuroko develops new relationships with his new team and Kuroko confronts his old team to mend their relationship. It tackles the dysfunctional team setup at its lowest state and rekindles the flame for the respective parties to be healed. Also, it's really cool to see such a colorful cast together.

- I Didn't Pick The Damn Team! -

With that said, it's a wonder for why Found Families are a timeless troupe no matter the settings. But, like how Amanda Waller sets up Task Force X/ The Suicide Squad. Sometimes it's not by choice and it always starts out bumpy.

What I find fun in teams like the ones mentioned is that they share a common language in spite of their unique flavors. The teams are built on trust, a common goal, and the willingness to open up. For all the gimmicks, the core values stay the same.

We, the audience love a good Found Family because in an indirect way. We wanted a group like that. We longed to have a group that we can call family but, the reality of it all is. It's really up to how the characters interact with one another.

Every circle is different and no matter the status or the seasons. All are maintained by the will to reach out. It's something I hope to use for my own team in the process. To have [Them be there for you, Cause you're there for Them too]

Thanks for reading

- Caw4B -

The best night scenes I’ve watched

I've seen a lot of praise for the Netflix Lockwood and co. adaptation. I haven't read the books, enjoyed the show. Lots of people already said a lot of positive things about this series concerning plot, characters, and so on that I largely agree with

You know what hasn't really been talked about?

How BRIGHT and WELL LIT everything is. Like, this show mostly happens at night, with characters running around with torches to see anything, because their job has to be done during the night.

But I can still SEE EVERYTHING.

I noticed that in the graveyard scenes especially. The sky is pitch black, we know it's the middle of the night. But the grass in green and I can SEE IT.

Love them for not going down the path of GOT, DC, and so many more. Of saying "well, it's the middle of the night, so nobody can see anything, and neither can the audience".

Instead they went "we told our audience it's the middle of the night, we're showing it to them, but we're also giving them the opportunity to see what actually happens on screen".

Amazing.

Some more headcanons when the Pevensies come back to England:

-All of them have a strange lisp from living in Narnia for so long. When they are together, they will often speak Narnian, and when asked about the origins of the strange language no one else understands, all they give you is a mysyerious smile.

-It is absolutely impossible to get a rise out of Susan. When taunted, ridiculed or tested by other girls who envy her confidence, all she will do is smile and offer some words of advice. She has dealt with threats far more serious and deadly than high school British kids, and she finds their little power plays nothing but funny Soon, it becomes an unwritten rule not to mess with her. She'll smile back and kill you with kindness.

-Edmund and Peter spend the first few weeks learning how to walk without a sword at their side. All their adult lives, they've worn one, and they still compensate for the weight slightly. Especially Peter, commander of the armies, feels extremely naked without his blade.

-Lucy has the hardest time getting used to England again. The girls her age are mean and stupid, and she finds it hard not to call them out on it. Her intelligence is often mistaken for arrogance. She throws herself into dancing, the one thing Narnia has given her that is of use in the normal world.

-Edmund is completely changed, overnight it seems. Where he was first a nagging, annoying brat, he now seems a beacon of calmness and wit, able to solve any problem. The bond with his brother Peter is so strong the two seem to be able to read each others minds. This is especially true during fencing class, where they are the two best students by a distance. They move so in sync some people wonder if they are twins

-The first time the Pevensies ride horses together again the rest of class gasps audibly. They all seem to grow taller in the sadle, and they communicate with their horses in a way that seems impossible.

-Peter never gets used to the disrespect other kids show him, and will respond to every insult with a blow. He doesn't get over what they have lost , and writes story after story about the most beautiful imaginary world he calls Narnia. His teachers, from English to theology to history, all agree that he should be a writer. But the fighting only gets worse. Soon, kids have to gang up on him to even be able to touch him. And when Edmund decides to help, it's basically a wrap. He is far smarter than he lets on, and his back is always so straight it seems like he is 3 inches taller than his classmates. Bullies learn to avoid him, and he is fiercly loyal to his friends, even if that gets him in trouble.

-There is a rumour that the Pevensies are royals or at least nobles . No one knows from where, but the war could have changed things. Either way, they are everyone's favorite gossip subject.