I Believe In You.

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.

Caspian and co were like "gosh this duel idea is great and all, but how the heck are we gonna get Miraz, whos army is like three times bigger, to agree to it??"

And the Pevensies were all like: "No yeah we'll just send this little shit right here, he can provoke anyone into doing anything, trust us"

While Edmund so-you-bravely-refuse-to-fight-a-swordsman-half-your-age Pevensie just raised an eyebrow, grinning.

Why aren’t more people talking about them! They are everything to me right now. She is so smart and sassy. He is so protective of her and loyal. The Night Agent is one of my favorite things right now. Peter and Rose have my heart right now.

nah since marvel is trending again I’m going to say it again louder for the people in back — canon steve rogers would never have chosen an “idyllic 1950s white pickett fence life” because the only place that man belonged was a picket LINE. the whole point of his character was that his work was never done. there was always going to be another oppressor, another bully, another person who takes advantage of the underprivileged for him to stand up to. from the moment he gained consciousness he, a chronically ill son of a working class mother living below the poverty line, used his voice and his body to protect & fight for what he believed in. I’m not sure there was ever a time pre-super soldier serum where he didn’t have a black eye. he could put the shield down all he wanted but he could never retire from being steve rogers — someone who never once turned a blind eye, who never once wanted a “reward” for his work, who never once abandoned his friends. this isn’t up for debate. this is almost a century of comic book & film/animated precedent. he may have been a man out of time, but in his words “it’s tempting to want to live in the past. it’s familiar, it’s comfortable. but it’s where fossils come from”

I absolutely adore the clothes that Lucy wears. Just because there’s isn’t a huge range (which would be weird if there’s was since she came to London with a single bag) and also they’re unique to her style. She has a thick jacket for when she goes to cases (since they do get very cold) but also comfy clothes for hanging about the house. I also love the dress she wore to the ball as it felt like something a teenager would pick out. It’s suitable for the ball but it isn’t some massive ball gown or mini dress. It looks like something she could afford and would want to wear. There’s also no stupid sexualisation that sometimes comes with these types of shows where her practical outfit for missions may be on the tight side. It’s just clothes for a teenager that’s so clearly her style. Also practically all of the outfits are blue which I love. A small detail like a characters favourite colour being in their clothes just really helps to flesh out the show.

I also love the use of clothes when it comes to Lockwood. It’s so clearly his armour so when we see him without it it’s almost jarring how much more vulnerable and younger he looks. ALSO DONT GET ME STARTED ON THAT LOCKWOOD WORE PINK SOCKS FOR MOST EPISODES BUT WHEN THEY WENT TO THE BALL HE WORE BLUE ONES TO MATCH LUCYS DRESS😭😭. I just love the small attention to details

lucy carlyle + comfy

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.

it's probably not healthy how often i imagine portland row years into the future, after the trio's talents have faded, where they no longer hunt ghosts together but they find other ways to pay the bills and never move out because they just love the little home they've made here, and lucy and lockwood are an actual couple and george simply tolerates it because he loves them individually so much and can't imagine life away from either of them, which is good because lucy and lockwood wouldn't have it any other way

i don't know if this is compatible with book canon in the long run, but thinking about it just. soothes my soul. it is everything i want for them

I love all of this 😭

finally made rwby meme slides. after like a literal fucking decade

One of my favourite scenes hands down

Something about... THIS scene

And... ngngnfnds it's something about Lucy not being herself // Lockwood being TOO much of himself...

The words are coming from Lucy's mouth, but they aren't hers; those are Lucy's hands, but she isn't the one using them... an otherworldly force chose Lockwood to be her scene partner here, and once again it's about external voices seeing Lucy's feelings for him before she knows it herself...

And then there's something about how it's in direct contrast to Lockwood, who is PARTICULARLY aware of himself in that moment... this is one of the few times we get a full scene of Lockwood stripped down to a tshirt+hoodie instead of his usual suit+tie number (my brain is buzzing over this, since I presume the suit is sort of a costume for him, with the purpose of masking his inner self/vulnerability)... AND ALSO because this is arguably the first physical romantic scene they share, and while he is clearly concerned and confused about her behavior, the fact that he is having to reckon with Feeling Something Else Too is written all over his face...

I know this take isn't super book-accurate, but it feels almost allegorical to this idea that Lockwood is the one who is being caught off guard and having to realize his feelings early on... versus Lucy, who is there, and she's participating in the dance, but she's also being stopped from experiencing her feelings to the fullest by something within her...

Anyway, I'm sorry this is an absolute rambling MESS because my brain doesn't quite have its thoughts together, but I needed to post this right now immediately, hope you all understand 👋

ngl clarisse's scream from pjo ep2 HAUNTS me. like yeah she's a bully, yeah she doesn't treat percy right, if she were to attack him again with that murderous intent i would be content to see percy destroy that weapon a million times over to protect himself. but also it just gets me how that electric spear is the ONLY thing she likely has of her father, the ONLY token of recognition she has of her worth, the only symbol of pride. dior had exactly 10 minutes of screentime to communicate the absolute depth of clarisse developed over 5 fucking books and she literally changed lives. what a fucking icon