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.
Just don’t even get me started on Eliot Spencer, okay, because you do not want to hear it.
Okay, so I’m gonna say it anyway so you might want to keep scrolling.
I just… he’s smart, really smart. Black Widow smart, and almost as lethal to boot (it’s a very specific haircut/footprint/handgun/way of breathing – Eliot Spencer has you figured out in seconds). He’s got a code, and morals, and he was scared of who he was becoming. And then he let the people he met change him (the chef who he was meant to kill and instead befriended, the alcoholic mastermind who gave him a family). And he’s honest (Don’t ask me that, because if you ask me, I’ll tell you. It’s for both of them. But he’s not that man anymore). He rarely laughs, but he remembers how to smile in a way that reaches his eyes. He’s not proud, but he’s confident. He doesn’t really want to kill anymore, if he doesn’t have to, but he will. He doesn’t use guns, and I think in part it’s to give everyone a fighting chance, but it’s also because he doesn’t like the way guns make people (I think he saw enough of that on his first tour when farm boys were given rifles and told to kill. But I also think it’s because he wants to remember what he does, wants to consider what he’s doing. It’s always intentional, you know?).
He’s not just a weapon. He’s an amazing cook, and he can sing, and grift, and…
When you are writing characters, it can be really easy to make them into caricatures, or to just mash two seemingly contradictory characteristics together. Like Buffy (no shade thrown on Buffy), the girl who would be a cheerleader was also the slayer. But Eliot’s not that. In fact, none of them are. He says it best himself, when he left he was this kid with God in his heart and the flag on his shoulder, and he looks in the mirror for him everyday, but he’s gone. And that’s Eliot Spencer. Gifted hitter, talented chef, isolated by the ghosts of what he’s done (for country, for money) and who he has become because of those things. Leverage is a redemption arc, all five series, right up until the end, when he says ‘until my dying day’. Because it’s at that point that he lets himself be defined by something other than his ability to hurt, destroy, kill.
Okay, I can’t be the only one here obsessed with Leverage characters, can I? I’ve been thinking about those sortings (using the lovely @sortinghatchats system) for far too much time, so HERE WE GO.
(Spoilers ahead, so be wary)
Parker, the quirky thief, is a Gryffindor primary. In The Boost Job, she’s warned the girl working in the chop shop, wanting to give her a chance, perhaps against her better judgement. In The Long Way Down Job, she insists on taking the man’s body back to his wife, despite the fact that it’d be a vain effort. She snuck back to the orphanage to save all of the kids. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. She often knows that the way she feels isn’t, logically, the best way to go about things – but her moral compass does win at times, since no matter what anyone says, no matter what she uses to convince herself, this is what a good person would have done.
She shares this Primary with Hardison. He’s very much an Idealist house – doesn’t have neither the broad loyalties of a Hufflepuff nor the pinpoint ones of a Slytherin. His fondness for the team might sometimes feel like a Puff group bonding, but as big as this nerd’s heart is, he’s not a Loyalist. He doesn’t have a sense of duty, really – just does what he thinks is right, and his morality is intuitive. Some things are just wrong, no matter how you phrase them.
Our cute heights’ fan’s Secondary is Slytherin – Parker thrives best when thrown into a situation. She’s able to figure her way into and out of any building, using more cunning and cleverness than Gryffindor’s brash force.
Hardison, alongside his Gryffindor Primary, mostly uses his vast knowledge of technology to deal with current Leverage jobs. He’s a Ravenclaw Secondary through and through – he’s usually the one to provide exposition on their current mark, going through their records, analysing data, gathering information, etc.
He does, however, model a Slytherin Secondary on top of that. He thinks his nerdy Ravenclaw isn’t cool enough, and so he tries to build this clever and witty persona on top – someone who’s able to thrive in any situation, who doesn’t need preparation and just successfully wings it every time. And he doesn’t just want to seem like that – his ambition to become the mastermind and run his own cons proves that he actually wants to be good at it. The truth is that, while this kind of method works just fine for Parker, he’s absolutely unable to pull it off. He doesn’t enjoy working under pressure and, when unprepared for the sudden twist, usually needs rescuing – or succeeds thanks to pure dumb luck. Slytherin doesn’t look good on you, Alec, sorry.
This cocky act is probably what annoys Eliot so much about our beloved hacker. Why? It’s quite simple, really: while all the badassery and punching might suggest otherwise, the hitter is actually a Hufflepuff Primary/Hufflepuff Secondary combo. Eliot’s not all that good at building communities, but he thrives off ones he joins. He’s loyal to his current group – the army, the mercenary bosses (Moreau), to Nate. He doesn’t question orders. His morality is need-based: they need him, so he shows up. He’s all about integrity and hard work, and doesn’t like cutting corners. He’s the one to say “hard work beats talent every time”, one of the most Hufflepuff things I’ve ever heard. People rely on him, because he’s dependable and solid and trustworthy, even with his rather questionable past – and he never betrays that trust.
He does have, however, a nice Ravenclaw Secondarymodel that he uses quite effectively. It’s a very distinctive sound, he says, and nobody questions Eliot’s knowledge. This guy’s much more intelligent than anyone gives him credit for, really.
Finally, he performsGryfindor Secondary like nobody’s buisness, and lots of people fall for the act. He’s the hitter, Mr. Punchy, the muscles guy – the one who rushes headfirst into things, right? (Lots of those guys don’t stay concious long enough to understand just how grave their mistake was.)
…Here I need to admit: I didnt really figure out Sophie or Nate that well. They’re clearly both Slytherin Secondaries, because, duh: it’s their job as the grifter and the mastermind. I’m thinking Ravenclaw Primary for Nate, but, eh, I’m not sure about that at all.
starry-eyed 