@e-vasong / e-vasong.tumblr.com
This is an Alec Hardison appreciation post
I really hope young folks just discovering Leverage understand that in 2008 a Tesla meant basically the opposite of what it means in 2025. They were so exciting. We were so hopeful.
can't believe the plot of leverage is literally 'man gets hired to be a project manager for Crime and then is forcefully adopted by the employees he doesn't want'
and it fucks
anyone who's always wanted to watch leverage but couldn't afford it and couldn't find it to pirate it, or just prefers watching things on youtube instead of futzing with unofficial sites:
Uploads are ongoing! They’ve put up season 4 now as well ❤️
One bastard refusing to approve an insurance payout for a kid with terminal cancer really fucked things up for all of the other greedy evildoers of the Leverage-verse huh
hottest sexiest moment in all of leverage is when “we are on a reset. the main objective is the girl, we find her and bring her back safe. we lose the chip if we have to, we burn connell if we have to.” and then “nate, if im engaged–” “do you worst.” and then “this is a goodwill gesture. what i want for it in return is your undivided attention and the benefit of the doubt. my name is nate ford and in a few seconds the phone is going to ring.” all with the screams of the people at the carnival in the background
The team was willing to kill everyone in their path to get that child back and honestly that is the sexiest thing on earth
“These guys are very bad guys, the guys that took you, okay? But I’m coming for you – me – and I’m going to find you and I’m going to bring you home. Now you tell me, does that sound like the truth?”
“…yes.”
Leverage as Onion Headlines.
certainly not a porn bot tumblr description generator, but for like, the leverage team
hardison, sneaking love through to the team unnoticed: *hacker voice* i’m in
Hardison, sitting up late at night, sewing outfits for the team, singing a little song:
I make every stitch with love! Every single one! Because these idiots! Don’t! Know! How! To receive affection so I gotta make em FBI uniforms!
Y'know, in line of those conversations I've been having today... sure is interesting that Hardison's plan fails in the Gold Job because it's too overcomplicated, and Nate explains that the real solution was simple. That you shouldn't count on a complicated plan, should be ready for it to fall through and use a simpler backup plan.
Then the very next episode, Jimmy Ford tells Nate that his plans are always too complicated. Nate argues back that it's a complicated world and he can't just "smash-and-grab" like Jimmy did. The team pulls off a very clever radio job in only a few hours.
But Jimmy just calls in to a radio station and says he's gonna throw money off the roof, drawing a huge crowd to cover his getaway. A very simple solution. It doesn't replace their plan (their plan didn't fail), just successfully lets him backstab them and get away with it. Still, kinda funny.
Nate balances the simple core/fallback plan with more complicated outer layers, ones that aren’t there for the basic goal but to protect the team.
Hardison’s plan in the gold job is an elaborate structure with the core just being… a land deal. A con Sophie can pull off with a low-cut dress and the right story. It’s complicated, but in a way that uses 100 moving parts to do the same core tasks.
Nate’s plans use 100 moving parts around the core goal; hiding it and protecting the team and keeping the mark from seeing where the chess match is moving to get the king. He’s got multiple different ways to get the goal, then wraps that in layers of protection of the team - how can they account for X possibility? For Y? If things go bad, how do they reset? How can everyone get out safe?
Nate’s plans are complicated, but in a way that wraps a core plan with options & keeps a core skeleton of “how do we help the client” + “how do I keep the team safe” in every plan.
Nate’s dad? Pares everything down to the skeleton and the only wrapper is the distraction. How can he get the thing he wants? Distract the police with fake alarms and then *directly walk in*. How can he get away from Nate? Convince people there’s free money from the roof and *directly walk out.* He doesn’t have back-ups, and his plans don’t even have space to protect himself unless it’s the entire goal.
Hardison’s plans have an elaborate outside structure, but are pretty hollow inside. Nate’s plans have a solid skeleton, and enough complications layered around them to reinforce and protect that core. Jimmy Ford’s plans have nothing but a skeleton, but he throws a piñata off to the side to distract anyone from seeing it.
Also, I think it says something that Eliot also goes for “simple” plans and Sophie for “complicated” in different ways, while Parker goes the Nate route of a core plan with layers added (which fits her progression to mastermind apprentice).
[Eliot’s plans are short and simple, with just enough complication to add protection for his team (and himself, bc if he’s safe he can continue to keep his team safe). Effective, but limited scope. Sophie can pull off a plan, but it has a lot of moving pieces and take a lot of effort with less protective layers and more… many paths pulling to the same goal? Effective, but elaborate and could probably be simplified.]
#HARDISON IS THE BEST BOYFRIEND EVER #AND HE JUST LOVES HIS GIRLFRIEND AND HIS BOYFRIEND SO MUCH #AND HE’S SO GREAT AT READING INTENT AND LISTENING TO /INTENT/ #like eliot heard parker being a dorkface and is like COME ON DIDN’T YOU SEE THRU THAT HARDISON? #but the point is that hardison DID see thru it and what he saw was parker believing in him completely #and he does that with both of them a million times over during the series #so he doesn’t need it perfectly said (thank god for them) and he doesn’t need them to do things perfectly and never mess up #he just needs to know that they’re there and have his back and love him #and all of that he can read between the lines just fine (tags via muirmarie)
This never ceases to blow me away, because it’s something Leverage does fantastically and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else pull off. Usually when a character is supposed to be the best of the best, it’s hard to present them with a decent challenge. So you end up with them making stupid mistakes or self-sabotaging or getting screwed over by huge coincidences.
But Leverage goes the other direction: they’re so good at their jobs that that’s what causes problems. Their police disguise is so good that they’re given an assignment for the actual cops. Eliot is just supposed to join a baseball team and ends up becoming the star and getting recognized while in the middle of a different part of the con. Sophie’s reputation is so terrifying that Chaos tries to kill her preemptively because he knows he can’t possibly out-con her. This stuff doesn’t always drive the plot, but it allows for complications while still allowing the characters to be at the top of their field.
Yeah, I’m not the first person to point this out, and I’m pretty sure I’ve gushed about it before. But seriously, it’s one hell of a trick, and something any writer should want to study.
