#2) this is probably Hardison's biggest in-canon negative character moment and fans *hate* it

[mr-chatterboxs-column]

This is such an interesting conversation (and it's really good to see it happening in a bunch of places)! Sorry in advance, white trying-to-be-anti-racist fan with an interest in data analysis here. ... I tried to keep to the main points this brought up for me, but. Well. I do use the handle "Chatterbox."

Since I've been following the sporadic bursts of Leverage fandom since the show ended, and the last "A Fandom" I was peripherally involved with was Captain America (there was just a lot of people rightly getting called out for writing Sam as "handy therapist on call with no other character traits, except maybe being sassy", which did have the positive side effect of a lot of very visible discussion of sensitive presentation of Black men in media), I've been trying to stay aware of this re: Leverage fic and meta. I do generally think Leverage fandom is better than most, probably because the people who stay into a show for years after it ended are people who value the things the show was actively trying to succeed at, and as some of Vicky's prev posts/conversations have brought up, it's clear that (especially for the era it was being produced in) the showrunners were really trying to avoid stereotypes with Hardison (which is part of why it's so hard to imagine a Aldis/Christian role switch, I think -- Hardison is the anti-thug: a tall, built black man who is never compared to a basketball or football player) and fanfic writers, intentionally or not, seem to have mimicked that. It's a relief to see that the data at least partially backs up those largely positive impressions.

(Sidebar, I listen to the commentary tracks a fair amount and I've definitely noticed a trend where Nate and Hardison are the two characters most likely to be directly channeling John Rogers' opinions or character traits. Nate gets a lot of the cynical opinions and negative traits, and Hardison gets a lot of the positive "tech utopia" stuff. Eliot calling him "the smartest guy I know" and that whole hype-up speech in Rundown Job is drawn from an interaction between Rogers and a really close friend, where Rogers was the one needing the reassurance.)

I've read... so, so much OT3 fic, and although hurt/comfort is not a thing I'm really into (I'm very happy to suspend disbelief about the side effects of concussions in the Leverage universe, thanks), I feel like I see very little of that centering on Hardison being hurt, but a lot of it centering on Hardison getting to be nurturing and empathetic. Same in OT3 getting together fics -- the ones that have a lot of Hardison/Parker content are mostly focusing on the ways Hardison is emotionally open and communicative with Parker, and I feel like that's a big part of what people find fantasy-worthy about Hardison that they aren't finding represented in other media. When that's the fandom version of how a character is presented, and it's so strongly backed up by the show avoiding giving Hardison a traumatic backstory and other negative traits, it makes sense to me that, e.g., in fic where Hardison/Eliot is a sexual pairing, Hardison is rarely uncomfortable with being bi and is often talking Eliot through that mental realization, as opposed to other fandoms where that is a more even split (Stucky is a good example, actually, where both characters are canonically white and seem equally likely to be the focus of a "coming out to yourself" fic)-- I've had the impression that white fans are actively avoiding writing Hardison as having internalized homophobia at least partly because that can reflect a racist stereotype. So even though "coming out and getting together" fic is a staple of most fandoms where characters don't come out on screen, if there's internal angst or pining, it's generally going to be about Eliot.

I was going to predict that the highest-ranked character not appearing in the show (...and not from another fandom. Good grief, Dean) was Nana, but I'm not sure that there are many others (besides Eliot's dad?). But when I do see internal-angst fic from Hardison's POV, it's usually about introducing the others to Nana, and usually about coming out as poly, not queer. And she's pretty universally accepting in those fics, which I suspect is both because that's the most common structure of that kind of fluff fic and because most fans write Nana as Black and religious, and, again, there's an aggressive racist stereotype about older, Christian Black women being homophobic, and religious foster parents being homophobic, and addressing that in a serious way without falling into those stereotypes would be very hard to write well, and Leverage fans tend to prefer subverting negative racial stereotypes.

Another factor I'm guessing plays into those data points, seconding the reply this is directly below: man, Leverage fans really love the canonical representation of the Hardison/Parker slow-burn romance. I cannot think of another fandom where an in-canon couple that was not the most popular ship overall was still retained in essentially all fic. (White Collar is probably the closest? But El is usually still a secondary character even in OT3 fic) Most fandoms have a tradition of fix-it fic; most Leverage fans don't have a lot of things they want to fix. I agree with prev poster, probably a minor factor in the popularity of Eliot-POV/focus fic, given that it affects how much "bringing Eliot into an existing relationship" fic there is; having them all get together at once would affect the timing of Parker & Hardison's on-screen romance, and it's so easy for OT3 fic, even set during season 5, to be utterly canon-compliant.

The other thing this conversation makes me consider is generally why Eliot is the fandom favorite (this is also re: the next ask that Vicky was replying to)? It isn't something that had occurred to me that specifically over the past several years, but I would not argue -- I'd maybe suggest that Eliot is a character that some people find very relatable (I am one of those people), and for several specific reasons that are not found in a lot of other characters/fandoms. The obvious ones for me are 1) from a rural area without it being a show that's all about The Great American Heartland, 2) non-traditional expressions of emotion, but a lot of them and they're treated seriously, 3) openly sexually active without long-term romantic relationships, but that's not presented as a flaw. I can think of ONE other character in an arguably canonical poly relationship who can be read as aro (I think there's like 10 fic for that triad). I've seen a ton of great Eliot-centric fic from other Midwestern/Southern queer folks who explicitly say seeing that represented on Leverage is part of what got them into the show. Lots of people talk about the OT3 being important to them because of how it's possible to read Parker and/or Hardison as ace, and I love the variety in how that's presented in fic -- but I'll also always keep coming back to the actual show and my favorite aro!Eliot fic because it's mind-blowing to me to see someone whose emotional journey is all about a type of love I can relate to, and, far from devaluing it in comparison to the on-screen romances, the climax of the show puts that relationship on par with wedding vows. Damn.

Anyway! Headcanons aside, I think those are some of the main factors in how the fic focus distribution ends up shaking out -- Hardison is more likely to be written as a positive fantasy of an ideal boyfriend, while Eliot is more likely to be written as a POV/self-insert (especially due to the subset of fans who stuck with a finished show due to that character), encouraged by fans' wariness about putting trauma into the backstory of a character written as an inversion of racist trauma-porn stereotypes.

i hope ur ok with unprompted asks abt leverage bc today i am like this :-( because someone is posting hate on the OT3 in the OT3 tags. (not as a mistake either, they refused to use the right tags) tbh i am so so excited for the revival but this modern-day-esque toxicity is what i've been worried abt the whole time.

THE POINT OF THIS ASK: they said something that is wiggling in my brain, and i figured you may have a good perspective since i know you like the OT3 and are aware of/comment on fandom/media racism. they said the OT3 is popular because of fandom racism, because hardison is black and fandom wants to focus on the white guy (eliot). i think if this were true then people would just ship parker/eliot like ive seen people do in other fandoms not make an ot3? but wanted an opinion from another person?

Totally cool to send me unprompted asks! Whether Leverage or whatever else. And first off, sorry to see you've been experiencing nastiness in the OT3 tags. I personally never have, but maybe that's down to me not actually knowing what the commonly used tag is? I legit just found blogs to follow who post enough thiefsome content for me, and pick up more here and there, but I dunno where most people post stuff. leverage OT3? parker/hardison/eliot? hardison/parker/eliot? hitter/hacker/thief? something along those lines probably, I've found some stuff tagged under each but have no clue what the 'main' one is. (Also I came up with my own name for them and post my own stuff mostly under that so I really got no clue what most people do, haha.)

Anyway, I digress. On to your main point - well, I will give a disclaimer first. Pretty much the entire time I've been on tumblr I've mostly been in a happy fandom bubble and not even noticed a lot of the nastier discourse. Probably down to the way I pick blogs to follow and then mostly stick to my dash? But anyway, that remains true for Leverage. And in fact until I started my rewatch I was never really involved in the fandom, despite loving the show. I actually haven't read much fic yet either. So there's probably plenty going on I'm not aware of.

That being said, yeah I would agree with you that generally I think if this was racially motivated then people would just ship Parker/Eliot. I don't think people usually default to poly relationships, so I don't really think that is a good argument against one. The only exception I would say is if there's a huge trend of people shipping the three of them together, but only using Hardison as a prop for the other two. You know, if fic focuses mostly on Parker and Eliot and Hardison is just around to be supportive and not given the same level of depth, that kind of thing. However, in the fandom interpretations I have personally seen of the thiefsome, that isn't really the case. It can't hurt to be aware of trends if you do see them, but I don't think you gotta worry too much about this one.

People can be mean. Try not to let it bother you, maybe blacklist if possible (though I guess that ain't if they're intentionally using whatever the main tag is) or build your own happy dash bubble to retreat to. The people I reblog a lot are really nice if you need a starting point! ^_^

Edit - check in the comments for some other perspectives. Seems like there is a tendency to focus on Eliot more, though perhaps not in a straightforward a way as that person was saying? (I dunno what they were saying exactly though so I can't really speak to that.) Doesn't mean we should stop shipping all three but we can be more aware of how we do so, and make sure not to skimp on giving Hardison his fair share of emphasis! (Parker too obviously but you get my point.)