#leverage 4x04

[leveragecentral]

There's one thing I want to tell you. Don't waste time. Leverage (2008-2012) The Van Gogh Job (S04E04)

[aceofwhump]

Day 10: Alternate Prompt: Drugging

White Collar 5x04 | 9-1-1 Lone Star 4x04 | BBC Sherlock 3x01 | Lucifer 2x16 | NCIS 1x20 | Warehouse 13 3x07 | MacGyver 1x11 | The Mentalist 5x02 | Murdoch Mysteries 9x18 | Leverage: Redemption 1x09

@whumptober @whumptober-archive

[raayllum]

Thinking yet again of what we see of Ziard and especially Claudia, which is to say:

None of the mages we’ve seen so far have been kings. They’ve either become leaders in their own right (Ziard was seen as a suitable mage representative to speak to Sol Regem, who was presumably the Dragon King at that point) or are adjacent to political power (Viren, Callum, Karim) or operating within it (Claudia). The one possible exception is the (Katolian?) mage we see him whispering to in the flashback with the human leaders, but it is unclear if the man is wearing an old form of the crown or just the High cleric circlet.

Which is to say, I think Aaravos cares less about political power in general, and more that people with political power can do more damage if he nudges them in the right way, which is why he targets them. They’re more useful even if they can sometimes be less desperate than a ‘commoner’ mage, y’know? For example: Viren was only so desperate precisely because he wasn’t king and didn’t have the amount of political power he wanted, and that was Aaravos’ way in. He wasn’t actually long-term interested in improving Viren’s standings, but in having leverage and a way to tip the scales. But you have to want that sort of power in the first place, and if you don’t, Aaravos will use other things against you: love and protection for Ziard, Claudia, and now seemingly for Callum as well as curiosity. 

This just plays into the idea I’ve posited before that dark magic is unsustainable and can hurt the body, yes, but is mostly dangerous because of the type of people and personalities it attracts: desperate, dangerous, determined, strategic, ruthless, and ambitious, people who don’t mind a subjective ethical free for all in what or who counts as acceptable spell parts and who are precisely more likely to cross moral and ethical lines in the first place. 

After all unlike everyone else, nothing Aaravos says about Callum in 4x04 is that specific to him alone. For everyone else, they have specific insecurities hurled at them: a failed son, a failed assassin, a failing child king. “A human mage, already tainted by darkness and destined to play right into my hands” fits Claudia, Viren, and presumably many of Aaravos’ victims in the past, which I think just emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation in a way? The ceaselessness of it. This has happened before. This is a very old cycle. They are all, particularly Callum, just the newest form of prey, just the latest pawn for Aaravos to use and discard. 

But Callum is the only one of the three who knows it, and so he’s the one who fears it. Aaravos made him feel “weak and out of control.” Aaravos won’t be able to tempt him with power to counter the affect Aaravos has already enforced on him, and Aaravos doesn’t need Callum to have more power. He’s already perfectly in place exactly as he is. He always has been

[sunflowerdigs]

Tbh, in my ideal ending, Roman gets out of WR and starts his own thing (possibly with Gerri) but I actually think there is a distinct possibility that Roman not only ends up back in but also ends up being the pick for CEO. Here's why.

As Frank pointed out in 4x04, Logan was CEO for so long because he started the company. The board didn't really have a choice. Logan held all of the power (and even when he didn't, he intimidated people into thinking he did). His leadership style was despotic but that worked based on how he came into power - starting WR was a dogfight. He trained his children (particularly Kendall and Shiv) to understand and take power accordingly.

However, the kids' situation is different - even if they want to "take" power, they can't because the board is voting for CEO. And that begs the question - will the board really want to empower a despot like Logan or will they be looking for a leader who is more...collaborative?

Succession is about hunger for power, more than anything. Obviously, Logan's style of leadership brought in a lot of money (and Kendall will likely remind the board of that) but it didn't allow anyone but Logan to have much power. If the board is voting on CEO, I think that there is a distinct possibility that they're going to pick someone who allows the board to hold onto as much power as possible and who will serve their interests, rather than a tyrant.

In 2x05, Nan Pierce only insisted on Shiv being CEO after Shiv fucked up at dinner. She claimed it was because Shiv was a woman with Pierce's political views, but it was really because Shiv was clearly green, impetuous, and easy to control, and Nan's family planned on retaining board seats. Nan knew that Shiv would be easy to manipulate and she was right - Shiv proved it in 4x01 with that 10 billion dollar offer. I think there was a reason Succession reminded us of the Pierce deal from 2x05 in episode 1, despite Pierce playing little role in the season overall. It was to remind us that people don't like to cede power when they don't have to.

For these reasons, I think it's possible that Roman's show of "weakness" at the funeral (indeed, his shows of "weakness" over the course of the show) could actually give him an advantage with the board over Kendall and Shiv. In an ironic twist, losing everything to become Logan might backfire spectacularly for Shiv and Kendall because the board simply may not want to replace one tyrant with another. Particularly if a non-family member of the board (Gerri) is guaranteed a position of direct influence over the new CEO if the CEO is Roman.

(And yes, it's in Gerri's best interest to continue working with Roman. She doesn't trust Kendall or Shiv. She doesn't quite trust Roman, but she knows him, his strengths and his weaknesses. And Roman listens to her (as recently as 4x07, he wanted advice), so with Roman in charge, she has influence. Additionally, with Roman out, her retirement leverage vanishes - Kendall may be willing to let her release the dickpics and sue Roman; Shiv would definitely let her do it. No hundreds of millions for Gerri and she's in court for however long Roman can afford to be. Better to stay in power and then cash out with her own narrative in a few years).

[ambersock]

From @supamerchant on a soulless!sam post:

My serious question that I ask myself every timeI see a soulless!Sam post: how was soulless any different from all the other hunters? Obviously soulless is different from Sam in the fact that he thinks one-tracked in a calculated manner while Sam is known for his empathy for humans and non-humans, so Sam feels regret for souless’s actions. After all this, however, what made him so much worse than all the other hunters?

This is an interesting question. We do see soulless!sam taking actions that show him unemotionally prioritizing the mission over the safety and lives of humans, the most egregious cases in point: killing a woman to deprive a monster of its leverage and using people without their knowledge or consent, e.g. using sheriff Dobbs as bait for the arachne and "allowing" Dean to get turned (and I use the word loosely because he was nowhere near close enough to intervene) for the sake of a strategic advantage.

Now let's look at some specific examples from our hunter community:

4x04 Metamorphosis - Travis tries to kill Jack's wife on the off chance that the child she's carrying might be a rugaru.

5x16 Dark Side of the Moon - Roy and Walt kill Dean along with Sam, not even for the sake of the mission, but because they don't want him to take revenge.

Killing an innocent for the sake of the mission? Check.

5x03 The End - Hunters try to force Sam to ingest demon blood to use him as a weapon.

Putting people at risk without their consent? Check.

Soulless!Sam was never actually shown to have done anything less ethical than what other hunters have done, including Sam and Dean themselves (shoving a demon back into a host and sacrificing the host to kill the demon, anyone?).

Now here's the key difference: Soulless!Sam is impaired, unable to access the part of himself that is capable of compassion and empathy, and he is aware of this. This is exactly why he seeks out Dean, chooses him over the Campbell clan, and willingly takes direction from him. He knows he's deficient, and he tries to improve.

[kajaono]

I prefere that i might add. A lack of personal space between my OT3. That is so much more in character for Eliot

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Van Gogh Job

leverage 4.04

parker and hardison being adorably domestic and whispering like a married couple ,,, him complaining about his sinuses and her automatically handing him a tissue when he sneezes

- - - - -

so there’s a new table setup now??? eliot was having A Time™ playing around with the screen on the big tablet and messing with hardison’s video call. I stan one (1) dumbass.

- - - - -

*Eliot, fucking around with the new display*

Nate: “No! Not a toy!”

Eliot: “What? He’s telling me to learn technical stuff all the time!”

Nate: “Well, that’ll never happen.”

ROASTED

- - - - -

Eliot: “Oh wow, that’s a level one right there! You’ve got eighty-four percent... L.O.L.”

what a DUMBASS

- - - - -

the scene where eliot is beating up that guy, sophie and hardison are wincing and listening to it over the comms, and the bank guy is annoyed while on hold ,,, comedic gold

bonus: sophie’s scandalized look while hardison looks like he’s trying not to get turned on

- - - - -

PARKER CRYING WHEN THE GUY FINISHES HIS STORY

PARKER HAD FEELINGS

IM CRYING IM SO PROUD OF MY BABY GIRL

SHES COME SO FAR

- - - - -

hardison and eliot doing their handshake, hardison sneezing, and eliot wordlessly handing him a box of tissues ,,, soft interactions between them make my heart M E L T

- - - - -

okay but that whole episode and the narrative of the man’s story was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time

and ALSO especially back then it wasn’t that common for interracial relationships on tv and I’m really proud of leverage for telling that story in such a beautiful, honest way

[darling-i-read-it]

Nero d'Alvola

4x04

Hannibal Lecter x reader x Will Graham

Hannibal Re-Write Series Masterlist (my season 4 version)

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: death, murder, detailed description of dead bodies, cannablism, really eleborate crime scene, burned bodies, knives, guns

Author’s Note: the relationship between miriam and will is the one im most excited to flesh out through this season lol so this one was fun for me

Summary: Hannibal makes a call to Freddie. The reader slightly loses her shit some more.

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director

(not my gif)

Freddie was closing in but not as fast as she wanted to. She found that Florence had a gorgeous array of suits that she could get and was happy enough to help herself. She knew though that that was not the reason she was there. She was there to find Hannibal before Jack did. It wasn’t an easy task but it was one she was doing, slowly but surely.

If she could just narrow down which of these many buildings housed a murderer, that would be enough.

===

Alana needed to keep her family safe. Staying at her house was going to drive her mad. Sitting on the couch, waiting for something to go wrong. Margot could tell that her wife was growing more antsy by the moment. Something Margot would catch Alana staring out the window defensively, like something was going to jump through the glass and shatter the life she had built for herself.

That’s why Margot suggested they go.

Alana put her cane on the ground as she walked into the clear white room. She would have thought Chilton would have gotten out of the hospital by now but he was far too burned to do that.

“I’m surprised you aren’t dead,” Alana commented as she walked into the room, hair up in a bun, red suit on. Margot walked beside her. It had taken some convincing to get Alana this far away from their son but eventually she caved. She needed to take some of the power back for herself, and have some sort of leverage for when Hannibal eventually showed up.

Chilton looked up at her.

“Oh yes, I’ve been informed that you can’t speak very well,” Alana said, looking down at him. She was pleased to be standing above him. He had always been the slimy kind. She had taken his job after all, they had never been friends.

His skin was still charred. He didn’t even look like himself. She wouldn't be able to recognize him like this from far away.

“Why are you here?” he asked, teeth grinding as he spoke, the words just barely able to escape his thin lips.

“We’ve come to ask you about Will and Y/N Graham. Ask what you knew about where they might be,” Margot said. Chilton’s eyes, veiny white, darted around the room.

“I don’t know,” he told them after some effort. “You had Hannibal,” he said, referring to when Alana had Hannibal under her care.

“And you had Will. Hannibal is slightly predictable but there are other variables at work here that we should take into account.”

“The only person,” Chilton said and it seemed to be taking him a lot of effort to speak. His chest rose and fell a couple of times before he was able to speak again. “That is allowed to hurt them.” Another long pause. “Is Hannibal himself.”

Margot let that mull over in the air for a moment.

“Possessions,” Chilton said.

“They’re his possessions,” Margot breathed and nodded. Like he didn’t quite love them, further than Hannibal could love. They were things he could play with until he got bored of them.

The barbaric idea struck Margot but it did not strike Alana as she held her cane tight in her hand.

===

Will Graham was not an avid lover of the arts. Hannibal knew this when he decided the three of you had to live together. You could grow to love the things he adored, though it may take some time. But Will would always be the fisherman that liked to use 2 in one shampoo and conditioner. Hannibal didn’t think he minded this very often. Just that it was odd, considering his tastes.

But Will had his own beauty.

He was especially beautiful now, with his hand in stabbing someone's last breath out of them. Blood splattered onto his face, his clean curls frazzled.

“Why did you do that?” Hannibal asked, looking down at the awfully rude dinner guest. It was the fourth death at this house and would surely not be the last. It was however, the first death Will did of his own volition.

“Because he was talking too much,” Will spat.

“I really should get rid of these knives,” you muttered, looking down. If Will didn’t know better he would think you were being held hostage here. You were always just slightly too monotone, just a bit uninterested. “You all keep using them to kill people.”

“You do as well,” Hannibal argued.

“On the contrary,” you muttered. “Will killed this one. You killed the first one and the second one. Bedelia was killed by none of us.” Hannibal mulled that over.

“I’ve been taking all the fun, I apologize,” he said. You shook your head. Will thought the expression on your face looked far too much like Bedelia’s. Angry, helpless. “It’s quite alright.” You picked up the napkin that was on your lap. “I want to go and lay down.”

===

Will and you were in bed while Hannibal stayed up just a little bit longer in the gentle glow of the lamp light. His fingers drummed the phone. He didn’t like to use it, considering where he was at.

But he was now contemplating his happy little family.

Things were coming together. Soon, he imagined, you would come back around. You would be rough around the edges and more ruthless but you would be back. Will was already right where Hannibal figured he would be.

He didn’t want this to be ruined by Jack Crawford again.

This solution was temporary, he knew that.

But it was all he could think to do right now. It would buy him the necessary time to move the chess pieces around the board as he saw fit.

He picked up the phone and dialed.

It rang only twice and then Freddie Lounds picked up.

“Hello, Freddie Lounds here.” She sounded just as she had the last time he laid eyes on her. Pestering, quick, squeaky.

“Hello Freddie.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

Freddie was standing in a wine shop, eyes wide. She walked outside briskly and leaned against the store window. She very quickly went to record the call on her phone.

“Hannibal. Are you aware you’re the talk of the town back in America?”

“I had a hunch.”

“Why are you calling me?” she questioned. He looked through the door at the bedroom. He could see only the blanket indents of yours and Will’s feet but they fueled him with confidence.

“I need a favor.”

“Oh? And what do I get in return?”

“You get the scoop of a lifetime Miss Lounds. But only if you lead our friend Jack astray. Do you have a pen?”

===

Alana swished her wine, looking at her wide. She was skittish, though she was acting like she wasn’t. She was trying and failing to stay grounded.

“I could have ended this so long ago,” she mused. Margot was pleased she was talking about it.

“How would you know it would end up here?”

“I should have known,” Alana muttered, more to herself than Margot. “I knew Hannibal. Will and Y/N were my friends. I should have done something the second Jack wanted Will to work for him.”

“You were clearly otherwise indisposed.”

“You promised not to speak about that,” Alana said but she was laughing. Margot shrugged.

“We’ve all made mistakes.” “My mistake was a murderer,” Alana breathed. “And then he kept making mistakes. Mistake after mistake.”

“By that logic it’s also my fault. I knew Hannibal and Will and Y/N. Why should you be the only one at fault?”

“I know what Y/N would say,” Alana said fondly. “She would blame only one person. One man.”

===

When Will’s breath was even you slipped out of bed. Your bare feet padded on the ground to the bathroom. Hannibal had gone to sleep forty five minutes ago and he too was now under. You watched the two of them as they breathed, trying to feel something for them.

You knew you loved both of them. In your mind you knew that.

But the only thing you could feel was hatred for Jack Crawford. Spite. Vengeance.

You put on one of the suits Hannibal had given you and slipped on your boots. You grabbed the kitchen knife and walked down the stairs to the street level. The knife was cool against your side, where you had kept it so you wouldn’t alarm anyone.

You had checked to see what the last FBI plane had arrived and where they were staying.

You hailed a cab and asked it to take you to the hotel. Fancy. Something Bella would have chosen for Jack when she was alive.

The drive was unbearably long, a good thirty minutes. You told the cab driver not to wait and then you were there, so close to Jack Crawford’s final death. You wondered if he would have the scar you gave him. You thought about reopening it, cutting him where he should be cut, where Abigail had been cut twice.

It would be poetic.

It would be deserved.

You walked up to the front desk.

“I’m sorry,” you said, pulling up your old receptionist voice. “My dear Jack Crawford is staying here but didn’t tell me the number. Could you help me?”

“I can’t give you that information ma’am.”

“Oh I know but it’s a date and I want to surprise him.” You leaned over the desk. “Just lookup Crawford for me. Please.”

The receptionist stared at you and your suit. He was clearly too tired to fight with you. He put some words into the computer and shook his head.

“There’s no Jack Crawford here. There’s a Miram Crawford.” He narrowed his eyes on you. You leaned back, straightening your posture.

“Oh. His wife. Awful timing. Can you give me that number?”

“361.”

“You’re a dear.” You slid a sizable amount of cash to him and walked to the elevator. You rode it up to the third floor. You knocked on room 361, standing at the side so that Miriam couldn’t see you through the peephole.

She opened the door slowly and you quickly moved so you were in front of her, pushing her inside the room. She gasped. You knocked her gun out of her hand and held the knife to her stomach, drawing blood through her white t-shirt.

“Miriam, Miriam, Miriam,” you whispered. “What are you doing here? Jack too scared to face me in person?”

She didn’t say anything. You were too impatient to be nice. You jabbed the knife edge a little further. Her eyes went wide.

“I won’t say anything.”

“I know Jack Crawford is here,” you whispered. “Where is he?”

“He’s not here.”

“Where Miriam?” “He isn’t here!” You rolled your eyes and took a step back.

“That was rude of me.” You brushed off your shirt and leaned down, picking up her gun. He leaned against the window, her back to the glass. She was petrified. She had met you before, or maybe she hadn’t, maybe she had just heard of you. What had they called you in the papers when Will was in jail? The Bloody Valentines. “Miriam, where is Jack?”

“I don’t know,” she said, trying to even her breathing but failing. “He doesn’t even know that I’m here. I-I came here to help him but he didn’t want me in the field already.” “I can see why,” you mused. “You aren’t ready to face Hannibal.”

“I could arrest you right now,” she said, voice stiff.

“Without this?” You waved the gun around. “I doubt it.”

“He’s gonna get you,” she promised. “Jack is gonna get you and Will and Hannibal. You’re all bad people.”

“Are you trying to convince yourself or me?”

“You should just turn yourself in. Tell me where Hannibal is.”

“I should. It’s not like you can take him.” You cleared your throat and put the gun down on the table that was between the two of you. “Miriam you’re in way over your head.” “You and Will didn’t start like this. Will was nice.”

“Will killed a man at dinner yesterday,” you told her and her eyes fell. The idea of Will in her head was so heroic and helpful, albeit slightly jittery. Why would he do this? Why would you?

“Jack’s in Florence he just isn’t with you. That’s fine.” You held the knife in your hand and walked up to her. Her breathing got more erratic as you raised the knife. The edge hit the wall just beside her head. She jumped. “Tell him I’m ready for him to face his fears.”

She went to grab the knife to fight you back but you had already left the room. She scrambled for the gun, rushing forward to the door but at the end of the hall the elevator doors were closing with you behind them.

====

“Are you sure Freddie said Hannibal was staying here?” Theadore asked. He looked up at the warehouse. Jack couldn’t shake the feeling that it was eerily similar to the one he had found Miraim in after he thought she was dead.

“Yes,” Jack said, voice monotone. He took out his gun and walked to the front door. He knocked only once. When there was no answer he kicked the door open, Theadore walking behind him inside.

It was a large empty warehouse that smelled vaguely of decomposing corpses. There was a body in the middle of the room against a pillar. Flowers pooling around the floor, a dead blue face with flowers coming out of the severed neck. Several limbs were missing.

Theadore gasped, gagging.

“Bedelia?”

4x05

Hannibal rewrite tag list: @russian-soft-bitch, @llperfectsymmetryll, @ericacactus, @vlightning95, @lov3vivian

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Dark Greetings this Spooky Season Ms. V. Can we get a list of your favorite Halloween movies and specials? I know you have seen *everything* and I am trying to go beyond my usual rewatches this holiday month.

V. AIMMYARROWSHIGH’S CRITERIA FOR HALLOWEEN EPISODES

Does the Halloween element combine convincingly with the usual universe of the show (ex: Lizzie McGuire 2x09 “Those Freaky McGuires” is not good as a Halloween episode because it changes the rules of the Lizzie McGuire universe, whereas Community 2x06 “Epidemiology” is a GREAT Halloween episode because it manages to logically introduce zombies to the regular Community universe)?

Does the Halloween element advance the plot of the episode/series (ex: the reason Boy Meets World 5x17 “And Then There Was Shawn” is literally the best Halloween episode ever made is that it uses the horror movie tropes it satirizes to provide a CRUCIAL turning-point to the plot of the show)?

Is the Halloween episode in the forefront enough that it’s clearly a holiday episode (ex: HAVING ONE JACK-O’LANTERN ON A DESK DOES NOT A HALLOWEEN SPECIAL MAKE, LAW & ORDER 16x03 “GHOSTS”! You gotta go ALL-IN, like Bob’s Burgers 3x02 “Full Bars”!)?

Does the Halloween theme balance well between spooky and warm-n-fuzzy (ex: Criminal Minds 11x21 “Mr. Scratch” is too fucking bleak, but Criminal Minds 12x06 “Elliott’s Pond” has a joyous/celebratory tone to the ending despite being a genuinely scary episode)?

Is it generally a well-written, acted, and designed episode of television (ex: Saved by the Bell! 3x26 “Mystery Weekend” is seriously, not exaggerating, the worst thing I’ve ever watched in my life; Psych 1x15 “Scary Sherry, Or Bianca’s Toast” is a triumph of the medium)?

THE BEST, bar none, Halloween special ever made is Boy Meets World 5x17, “And Then There Was Shawn.” Period. There can be no argument, except MAYBE Community 3x06, “Epidemiology,” but I like “And Then There Was Shawn” better because the parody and homage as less… biting? And because I think it continues and addresses the emotional core of the regular BMW season better than “Epidemiology” does for Community s3. “Epi” DOES plant the seed (…heh) for the Season 3B major plot arc of Shirley’s pregnancy and Chang Deciding To Murder, but it gets some major minus points for mocking Yvette Nicole Brown’s weight with other characters’ responses to her costume, tbh. And “And Then There Was Shawn” is just fucking iconic. It is THE Halloween episode manual, IMO, if there were to be a textbook on how to write a perfect Halloween episode for your sitcom.

HOWEVER, I also have to give major props to Bob’s Burgers and Psych, as complete series, for their CONSISTENTLY excellent Halloween episodes. A lot of series that have multiple Halloween eps really phone it in after one or two, because they don’t have any more ideas for how to incorporate Halloween pastiches while maintaining the overall feeling of the series (tbh B99, while the Halloween Heists are excellent in general, is/has been coming very close to this line, and I think that if they HADN’T had to switch out the Heist to Cinco de Mayo in s6, they would have jumped their Heist Shark [and I think they know it, too, because it was lampshaded in the episode itself]) or they just straight-up don’t have any more ideas for what or how to have the characters they’re bound to parody or pay homage to a Halloween thing after they’ve already done one or two. And let’s be real: those one or two have probably been either The Shining or Rear Window, because those are pretty much the two that every show starts with.

Bob’s manages to make every Halloween episode feel very fresh and organic to the series, which I think they do have some leeway to do because of the nature of cartoons keeping the Belchers living a kind of loop of never aging, yk, but amazingly they’ve only done the “Tina feels too old to trick or treat, maybe? Nope, she’s not 14 yet, so there’s still time!” thing in a way that felt tropey once (in 3x02 Full Bars). They’ve been able to address Tina being 13/in 8th grade, and worrying about it being almost too late for her to keep trick or treating, in ways that were in-character and added to the overall episode in 4x02 Fort Night, 5x02 Tina and the Real Ghost, and 9x04 Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street, without me rolling my eyes at the screen and going “TINA, EVERY SINGLE SHOW WITH A TWEEN IN IT HAS ALREADY DECIDED THAT THE AGE AT WHICH YOU MUST STOP TRICK OR TREATING IS FRESHMAN YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, COME ON NOW” which… at this point, is a Feat. Because like, I’ve POSTED over a thousand Halloween episodes, right? But I’ve watched and screencapped ::checks folder:: 3,905 Halloween episodes since 2014. Which is, um, a. lot. The ACTUAL BEST Bob’s Burgers Halloween episode is 6x03, “The Hauntening,” which is just… achingly perfect television. I know I’ve posted about it before (probably a couple times tbh) but the way that it aired originally back-to-back with The Simpsons 27x04, “Halloween of Horror,” so that the evening of Sunday cartoons juxtaposed eight-year-old Louise whose family worked so hard to scare her like she wanted with nine-year-old Lisa’s family working so hard to keep her from being too scared and make sure that she felt safe… reader, I FUCKIN CRIED. Little girls being deeply loved while also Spoopy Things!!!!!! IS WHAT HALLOWEEN SPECIALS ARE!!! FUCKIN!!!!!! ABOUT!!!!!!!

Psych, though, has the benefit of not really having any, like… central tone to the series? Beyond “friendship” and “having fun with joking,” tbh? So it’s able to do what a lot of series get docked “points” for in my Foolproof Halloween Special Ratings System That Is Completely Subjective To My Tastes And Mood, which is really just run full-tilt into parody and homage without really worrying about overall tonal connection to the rest of the season or series. 1x15, “Scary Sherry, or, Bianca’s Toast,” while it DOES fall victim to the way-too-common Halloween episode trap of making mental hospitals into a Scary Thing (they are a medical normality and a necessary thing for health for many people and should not be feared), is delightful Spooky Fun AND has the benefit of having Shannon Woodward in it.* We all know by now that if an episode of any show has Shannon Woodward as the guest star, it will by default end up being one of the best, if not THE best, episodes of that series. It’s just how having Shannon Woodward as your guest star rolls. I also really like, with Psych’s Halloween episodes, that quite a few of them understand the underlying thematic scope of Horror, which is “The Monstrous Feminine Is A Thing And All Horror Tropes Are Actually About Women’s Interior Lives Because Men Can’t Write Women And Fear Women Always,” yk, in a way that is neither TOO Actual Horror, which I am too afraid of to Do, or too trite and demeaning, which is the other basic trap that Halloween stuff falls into A Lot. Like, Scary Sherry is very much about women villainizing other women, avenging other women, and being in very specifically-female pain, even though Shawn & Gus are still the lens through which we solve the mystery, and so are 4x04 The Devil Is In The Details And The Upstairs Bedroom and 6x03 This Episode Sucks. But they give their Monstrous Females dignity and breadth, which is impressive, ESPECIALLY since they’re one-off guest characters. Also, 3x15 Tuesday the 17th is just plain funny and well-done, like, just give it props for the title alone.

*(Speaking of Shannon Woodward, another amazingly good Halloween episode is Raising Hope 4x07, “Murder, She Hoped,” which is among my very favorite Rear Window homage episodes and has probably the funniest gag in ANY Rear Window ep, in Martha Plimpton floating across the screen in the Grace Kelly silk nightgown and peignoir and announcing that it was on sale at Walmart, can you believe?! and honestly, yes. Perfection.)

Also excellent:

• The Addams Family (1991) + Addams Family Values (1993) • Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU WERE GAY FOR SIBELLA AS A CHILD!) • Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU'RE GAY BECAUSE THE HEX GIRLS!) • Halloweentown + Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge • Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire! • Z•O•M•B•I•E•S (to a lesser extent, Z•O•M•B•I•E•S 2) • Clue (1985) • Coraline • Corpse Bride • 6teen 2x00 Dude of the Dead • Arthur 21x00 Arthur and the Haunted Treehouse • Lamb-Chop in the Haunted Studio • Arthur 8x04A Fern-kenstein's Monster • Arthur 10x02 The Squirrels • WandaVision 1x06 The All-New Halloween Spooktacular (I KNOW YOU, SPECIFICALLY, DEAR @plavoptice, HATE MCU!WANDA AND I DON'T BLAME YOU, YOUR REASONS ARE VERY VALID! But this is a good Halloween special so I'm putting it on my list In General.) • Boy Meets World 2x06 Who's Afraid of Cory Wolf? • Ghostbusters (2016) • Gravity Falls 1x12 Summerween • Leverage 4x02 Ten L'il Grifters Job • The Loud House 2x40 Tricked! • Mockingbird Lane 1x00 Unaired Pilot • It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! (Classic, etc.)

I'm SURE I'm forgetting some that I'll rewatch this year myself. I'm a big Halloween Baking Championship fan, tbh, which is on Discovery+ now so I recommend that if you like mostly-relaxing nice people baking cakes that look like bats and such.

I'm also IMMENSELY INTENSELY EXCITED for The Muppets' Haunted Mansion on Disney+ next week!!!

[starkblazer]

I posted 879 times in 2021

59 posts created (7%)

820 posts reblogged (93%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 13.9 posts.

I added 761 tags in 2021

#black sails - 396 posts

#text post - 98 posts

#leverage - 82 posts

#video - 81 posts

#marvel - 33 posts

#legends of tomorrow - 16 posts

#i love them your honor - 15 posts

#oh my fucking god - 14 posts

#tony stark - 13 posts

#the old guard - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#he's not actually really aware of max until 4x04 i believe but once he's told that she's the power on the streets of nassau he's like sure

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

27 notes • Posted 2021-06-09 22:30:51 GMT

#4

i was going to continue writing the pacific rim au but decided to redraw some screenshots from the movie with black sails characters instead.

this is also a scene from the fic for those wondering, and yes, i gave flint an undercut because he deserves it.

29 notes • Posted 2021-08-17 20:10:21 GMT

#3

anyone want to see a messy, unfinished mermaid!silver? cause i'm not messing with it anymore and i thought i'd post it here

54 notes • Posted 2021-07-26 08:20:59 GMT

#2

Many people will say that Flint is not sexually attracted to women, giving Flint’s behavior towards Miranda as proof for this fact, when it proves nothing.

There’s no denying that Flint loves Miranda, this is not disputed but the type of love is. And I’m here to argue that what Flint feels for Miranda is romantic love and he is sexually attracted to her despite what it may seem. When we see them in the flashbacks it is painfully clear that he desires her and I wish I had the time to pull up receipts but I don’t, so here we are.

By the time we meet them in S1 they’ve been through a lot and sure, they still love each other and care about each other but things are different and they ought to be. It’s been ten years and they’ve been through loss and hardship and relationships evolve and change under any circumstance but more so under bad ones. I will admit that Flint doesn’t seem to want to have sex with Miranda at the start of S1 so I’ll give you that but I don’t think, for a second that Flint is not attracted to women.

All those theories that Flint only slept with Miranda out of convenience because he couldn’t have Thomas or that he didn’t really understand his feeling for Thomas yet and that’s why he slept with her can suck my dick. And no, I will not take criticism, thanks.

I want to talk about grief, and because I know nothing about how the death of a partner affects a poly relationship and I have no frame of reference I’ll just speculate and say that it changes things. The relationship has to change in order to take into account that loss and, depending on the people involved and the role of the person that’s lost, it might fracture or break irreparably.

From what we see and hear in the show, Thomas was their glue, to Flint he was the love of his life and to Miranda he was a partner, an ally in the world they braved together. And as much as Flint and Miranda were attracted to one another, I don’t think a long term relationship would have worked between them if not for Thomas. Flint definitely was not in love with her when they started sleeping together, although you can see how much he cares for her in the scene when Thomas calls for him to tell him that Alfred is coming to the house.

I’m sorry I started rambling again but it’s pride month and in this house we don’t like bi erasure and while a man such as Flint would not have described himself with that word and we cannot go throwing those words around in this historical context, I still think we cannot allow to have his attraction to women be erased just because he fell in love with a man (or two if you think like me and believe Flint loved the shit out of Silver so much that he let him kill him and end the war he started in the name of his first love).

tldr; captain james flint is bi af and you can die mad about it.

edit: i woke up and the typos were bothering me so i fixed them

132 notes • Posted 2021-06-11 19:23:35 GMT

#1

They paint the world full of shadows and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn’t true. We can prove that it isn’t true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom.

201 notes • Posted 2021-09-30 22:05:12 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[robbiedaymonds]

Share your two favorite episodes from your top three shows and tag six people!

tagged by @danieljradcliffe and oooof this took some thought

leverage - 5x09 the rundown job & 4x04 the van gogh job

agents of shield - 4x06 the good samaritan & 2x11 aftershocks

12 monkeys - 1x13 arms of mine & 3x05 causality

tagging @witch @lettersdeeplyworn @rosetico @perfectopposite @daisylouisejohnson @g-gadot

[shellygurumi]

The Not-So-Short List of my Favorite Leverage Episodes

Season 1

1x01 - The Nigerian Job

1x08 - The Bank Shot Job

1x09 - The Stork Job

1x10 - The Juror #6 Job

1x12 - The First David Job

1x13 - The Second David Job

Season 2

2x07 - The Two Live Crew Job

2x11 - The Bottle Job

2x12 - The Zanzibar Marketplace Job

Season 3

3x03 - The Inside Job

3x07 - The Gone-Fishin' Job

3x08 - The Boost Job

3x11 - The Rashomon Job

3x15 - The Big Bang Job

3x16 - The San Lorenzo Job

Season 4

4x04 - The Van Gogh Job

4x05 - The Hot Potato Job

4x07 - The Grave Danger Job

4x08 - The Boiler Room Job

4x10 - The Queen's Gambit Job

4x12 - The Office Job

4x13 - The Girl's Night Out Job

4x17 - The Radio Job

4x18 - The Last Dam Job

Season 5

5x03 - The First Contact Job

5x06 - The D.B. Cooper Job

5x08 - The Broken Wing Job

5x09 - The Rundown Job

5x15 - The Long Goodbye Job

[bliphany]

So I finished my Leverage marathon and thought of putting some of my favorite episodes here.

1x11 The Juror #6 Job

3x04 The Scheherazade Job

3x11 The Rashomon Job

4x01 The Long Way Down Job

4x04 The Van Gogh Job

4x07 The Grave Danger Job

4x08 The Boiler Room Job

4x12 The Office Job

4x13 The Girls' Night Out Job

4x14 The Boys' Night Out Job

4x18 The Last Dam Job

5x06 The D.B. Cooper Job

5x08 The Broken Wing Job

5x09 The Rundown Job

5x10 The Frame Up Job

5x15 The Long Goodbye Job

Turned out I really enjoyed season four and all those sort of meta storytelling episodes.

[raayllum]

before season 4 came out a lot of us thought that Callum might communicate secretly (as in explicitly not telling his loved ones) with Aaravos through the mirror. Do you think he still might do so? Now through whatever link they have with each other? i.e. Callum willingly reaches out to Aaravos or lets him briefly possess him in order to confront/talk to him, perhaps thinking he’s trying to avoid the “path of darkness” while simultaneously hiding his connections from Ez and Rayla and pushing him closer to said darkness?

I do think that any and all attempts Callum makes to 1) not fall prey to Aaravos and 2) stop Aaravos from escaping have to disastrously blow up in his face. Not only because our main tag team of heroes have to fail for the next two seasons (S5, S6) but because it feels like S3-S4 are setting Callum up to be an Icarus figure: flying too close to the sun, and all that. 

I’m curious how much communication Aaravos will have with anyone next season / if Sir Sparklepuff may continue to evolve, or what. 4x04 shows him whispering (metaphorically in that scene at least, but literally timeskip wise) in Claudia’s ear. I wonder if, if/when we get flashbacks of her timeskip, we’ll see some of her and Aaravos’ discussions through the caterpillar then?

Basically: any sort of premise where Aaravos invades Callum’s mind - possession yes, but dreams/nightmares would honestly make me go even more feral tbh - to specifically Talk to him, I am always a massive fan of. I don’t think Callum would seek it out per se, unless he thought he had leverage or something to intimidate Aaravos with - at least not until he was fully by himself and far away from anyone he might be able to hurt if the connection went south - so I lean more towards Aaravos being the invader / instigator, but who knows

I do think we’ll see both Callum and Rayla’s arcs intersect in a very Greek tragedy kind of way, which is to say: the more you try to prevent something (for Callum, being controlled; for Rayla, Callum being in danger) the more you inevitably make it come to pass, and I could not be more excited

[mythoughtsaretroubled]

E, Q & X for the fic asks

E. who is your OTP?

I always find myself going back to (in tv) Parker x Hardison from Leverage and (in books) Percy x Annabeth from PJO

Q. link your most recent fic.

My Audrey x Claire smut is here

X. give a summary of your current project!

Okay okay so

It's a season 4 au, from Jennifer's pov. It starts after 4x04 (ish) and it focuses on her friendship with Jordan and it's their relationship developing and them dealing with their Troubles and how they feel about the other characters and an alternate version of how s4 unfolds.

And um yeah??? It's also gay???

Send me a letter!!!

[thoughtscascade]

My facial recognition skills are...not great, so it's always such a trip when shows double-cast actors because I spend half the episode wondering if it's actually the same actor or not