#they're no leverage ot3 but they could be really fun

[willowmosby]

So I decided to watch the new abc Doctor Odyssey, because God forbid I finish one of the multiple other shows I'm working my way through. My thoughts are below the gif (that i did not make in case that wasn't obvious)

Please please let me know if you have thoughts id love to know how others are vibing with this show!

So my thoughts. Is this a theme heavy pick apart the screen for details hold be accountable for their options show. No and honestly I'm kinda glad. Like I love me some Buffy or Black sails, of interview with a vampire. But honestly right now I'm super excited for super sexy boat time so whenever I use the world silly in this review please know I mean it in the best way possible.

The only weird thing is that I felt super weird the covid is now old enough to be a tragic backstory. I mean covid is absolutely tragic backstory material but like I thought we would give it a few more years.

Unless it ends up in some twilight zone shit it will be a little murder she wrote in the sense that like there's no way that a small town has that many murders and people still want to live there. There is no way they have even 3 emergencies a week that are as serious as this weeks on a cruise ship of that size. - but hey I'm not mad cause " work like a captain party like a pirate" is so silly but also so sexy and the ship is show shiny and pretty and the homoerotic tension is so there.

Like Tristan and Max had way more chemistry than either of them had with Avery. I could see an Ot3 cropping up but I don't think ABC is going to be able to actually do that - like it's still a stretch for me to think they'll go through gay route- but I think that could be fun.

The bit where Max decided not to sleep with Avery did feel very much like he's gay and just not out about it and got caught up in the homoerotic fight but somehow ended up with the girl? (Like you know that scene from how I met your mother where it's not Ted fighting someone for a girl or the girl and someone fighting for ted? )but if it's not that's fine too we love a man who realizes there is a power imbalance.

I just think it's a weird way to set up a straight will they won't they. You know cause most times in a will they won't they It takes them a while to get to the first time. Like if they were setting up a romantic trope they did it better with enemies to friends to lovers ( please please let this be the case) with Tristan and Max.

Anyway Sorry sorry for the ship discourse it's too early in the show to really tell maybe next week the cast will have settled in and the chemistry between Max and Avery will be off the charts.

For some ship discourse I do really like the set like it is so clean and sparkly and like it just feels like a glamorous, sexy, and fun time. Like nothing too serious or gritty can happen here no sir. Which isn't always my cup of tea but this time I think it could be fun.

I like the captain as a character cause he goes so far in being serious that it comes back to silly. I do think that if the show wants to last a long time it needs a few more regulars. I don't need a full ensemble ensemble but like 4 characters that we know by name is not enough. Give me a reoccurring lifeguard or bartender or something

Anyway just thought I get some thoughts out there while it's relevant, who knows if I will actually continue to watch ( just so many shows so little time) but I will try my best.

I'm super excited to see other people's thoughts and feelings!

[spacedace]

hey in your tags you mentioned a “batfam leverage au” can u explain what that is

Happily! :D

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the show Leverage, but the quick summary is that it's about a group of "bad guys" (a hacker, a hitter, a grifter, a theif and the mastermind that directs them all) that help people who have been hurt by the rich and powerful by using their skills to pull heists and cons on the bad guy of the episode to ruin them and get back whatever was taken/right whatever was made wrong.

It's an amazing show that I can't recommend enough, very clever, very funny, big found family vibes and an OT3 that's *this close* to being canon (and has been supported by the writers). The heists are amazing and it's all around an AMAZING show.

Anyway, the BatPham Leverage Au is basically just: a collection of DP & BatFam members join together to make a robin hood heist team like in the show Leverage. I have a couple versions of the BatPham Leverage AU rattling around my head, but most fleshed out right now are:

Business of Family - the Uncle Oz AU (Penguin Adopts Jazz & Danny): My plan for this story is for Jazz and Danny to decide to start running heists in Gotham on the people in the city that tend to fly under Batman's radar but who are still very much doing a lot of harm to the city and it's people. The Leverage AU part of this story is going to have Jazz as the Mastermind, Jason as the Hitter, Tim as the Hacker, Danny as the Thief/Maker (basically engineer), and Elle as the Grifter (shapeshifting Elle for the win lol).

Another Leverage AU I've been thinking about for awhile but that I haven't turned into a story yet is one where Team Phantom (Danny, Jazz, Sam, Tucker & Elle) are tasked with finding and returning various Infinite Realm artifacts that have ended up in the mortal world. And for some reason Gotham has just so many Infinite Realm artifacts in it. Like most of the artifacts in the world are in Gotham for some wild reason (it's Gotham there doens't need to be more of a reason).

They're on the run from the GIW/Fentons, so they're trying not to advertise any ghostly/liminal powers if they can help it, so they largely do heists without powers (minus Tucker doing all his hacking and everything from the Ghost Zone and some occasional invisibility/intangibility when it's called for, but they really do try and keep any power use to a minimum).

In this AU, Jazz is the Mastermind (again, because I love that role for her haha), Tucker is the Hacker, but that's when I can't quite decide who should be who.

I love the idea of Sam being a Hitter, but I think she'd be able to play Grifter pretty well knowing the rich as well as she does, Danny would love being a Hitter and being able to fuck some assholes' shit up while being completely feral but he could also still be a good Thief. Elle could go either Grifter again, but I like her as a Theif in this one, maybe running into Damian in the vents while she's trying to get into a vault or something lol. (I think it'd go with Danny: Hitter, Sam: Grifter, Elle: Thief, but I have no idea if that'll stick if/when I ever write this lol)

Whatever the team looks like, because there are so many artifacts in Gotham & because they can't just use their powers willy-nilly to grab them and run, they're going to be in Gotham for a long time, possibly years. Which means they need some kind of side hustle to pay the bills, which leads them to doing more heists, but this time on various rich assholes that deserve to lose a bunch of money.

Eventually they get on the Bats radar, and there'd be some fun cat & mouse back and forth with the BatFam trying to catch the Phantom Crew (Danny shouldn't be allowed to name things, but he already told Red Robin that was their team name before anyone could stop him). Eventually the GIW do show up and things start getting even more complicated (and maybe someone activates an artifact, resulting in a powerful entity being released in Gotham that they all have to team up to fight).

I have no name for this au other than the DP X DC Leverage Au, but I do know that'll have plenty of Anger Management, Brain Dead (or really Brain Dead + Everlasting Trio, don't know what the ship name for that is), Serious Chaos.

It'll also have Batman aggressively trying to adopt them all because he doesn't actually have anything against them stealing from these assholes as long as they don't hurt anyone. They're acting outside of the law yes but they're doing it in order to give justice to those who have been made victims by the system and he's all about that (the real final battle of the story is between Bruce & Selina who both want to adopt the Pham, who would like to know if they get a say in any of this - they don't).

[ayotofu]

Saw your ask about prompts-something light with the Leverage OT3?

<3

--

The thing is they try to go on regular dates sometimes.

It's just that Parker gets bored easy and also wants to go to Pizza Inn and eat one of the dessert pizzas by herself and Eliot, apparently, will die if he is within twenty feet of a Pizza Inn. Hardison thinks that if they're going to a pizza place it could at least be a good pizza place but then when he looks up the fancier restaurant Eliot suggests they do not have orange soda on their drink menu.

So eating out is off the table, apparently.

Ice skating gets thrown out, too, because Eliot starts talking about using a toe pick to kill a man and Hardison loves that he's being more open, really, he does, but it also leaves him a little nauseous.

Eliot suggests a picnic, then. Parker loves the idea, except she wants to go cliff diving too. Hardison's not opposed to the idea, as long as he isn't expected to jump, but it's not exactly a regular date when cliff diving gets thrown in.

But, he figures, it's as close as they'll get. None of them suggested anything illegal, so he counts it as normal enough. Regular-adjacent.

(Parker throws him into the water. Of course she does.)

"Okay," Parker says when the food is eaten and Hardison is mostly dry, "we did your boring normal date--"

"I thought it would be fun to try!" Hardison says. "And it was fun!"

"--Yeah, sure, but next date is mine and I want to jump out of a helicopter."

"It was fun, wasn't it Eliot?"

Eliot rolls his eyes. "Yes, Hardison, I had so much fun being your personal chef." He says it like he's lying, but they all know better than that. "And I'll have so much fun being your pilot, too."

"What? No, you can't be the pilot, silly. You're jumping!"

Eliot blinks once. Twice. "No. No I am not."

Hardison closes his eyes and lets the argument wash over him, lips curved in a smile. He likes to try normal, once in a while, he thinks--if only to remember why he likes the weird so much.

[aardvaark]

having just watched the Rundown Job. that fucked. I feel like this is what it would be like if the Big Bang Job had just an iota more self respect. for some reason BBJ is just toooooo corny I can't take it seriously, smth about eliot trying to have his emo backstory and big gun fight in one episode, but hardison and his magic Hacker Overlay and the trio drift compatible action movie-ing thru without a mastermind had me by the THROAT

the rundown job is THE ot3 episode. whether you prefer parker/hardison/eliot, or parker/hardison & eliot, or any other formation of those three, they certainly undeniably work very well together. they move in sync. they know each other so well that they don't even have to talk half the time. they've developed so much trust for each other when you compare this episode to season 1 jobs, and that mutual trust has brought all of their already-incredible talents to a new level.

you'll find that the leverage producers/writers/etc call it "competence porn", ie having scenes of the characters being extremely competent at what they do. it's fascinating and awesome just to watch them, don't even need much dialogue or plot pressure or anything. and that's really a testament to the actors' acting abilities & the stunt performers' skills.

plus we get all of their paired dynamics too! i love the parker & eliot dynamic where they’re both very task-oriented, logical, dangerous people. in the lost heir job episode commentary, john rogers had this to say...

[from @leverage-commentary]

...which i love. i love that dynamic, and you can see it in the rundown job too. except the lost heir job was season 2, and the rundown job is season 5, and that makes a difference in some respects - they're not so much hiding that from hardison, for one thing. and hardison doesn't need them to hide it, cause he seems to mostly think they're super fucking cool. except for when they're scaring the shit out of him, like parker burning the disease at the last second or eliot getting shot etc etc. mostly he thinks they're super cool though lol.

and while i tend to think that the "seeing math in the air" thing is usually a cheesy trope (like the spencer reid version. why is jesus there), i honestly really liked seeing inside hardison's head for once. it wasn't just random numbers like the confused math lady meme:

no, he's mapping the whole thing out in his head: we see some if-then-else flowcharts, he's picturing the direction the gears will turn, etc etc. he's figuring out how it will logically work and how it will mechanically work. to figure out all these problems in his mind, which he does every episode... well, he really is a genius, never forget it!

plus of course we get parker showing off her skills by jumping on trains + laser gymnastics + upside-down bomb defusing, and we get eliot skills of disturbingly calm negotiations + of course the fight scenes. they've each come such a long way too... eg hardison being way calmer about leaning on a bomb (again!) lol... ugh i could rant forever about how much i love these characters!!

i think the big bang job's gun fight is part of the eliot angsty stuff cause he had to shoot (and therefore likely kill) people for the first time in a long time. for action movie enjoyers, The Implications TM certainly dampen the action fun, so i get what you mean. i don't mind eliot angsty moments though. eliot IS kinda emo deep down sometimes - however, if hardison or someone called him that, there'd be hell to pay lol.

thank you for the ask, i love discussing this show!! :)

[my-smial]

9 people you'd like to get to know better

tagged: @agapantoblu

Thank you, Agap, for tagging me! I like doing these things and I always need to do more things <3

tagging: @mornyavie, @rauwyn, @gender-trash, @melancholy--lion, @fandomreferencepending, @thewomanwhobloggedlikeaman, @blankerthought, @in-the-mists, @grundyscribbling, @sous-le-saule, @ainawgsd, and anyone else who wants to do it!

three non romantic duos:

Hmm, this one's tough. There's always a lot going on, so I could name sooo many characters. It would be harder to stop naming duos, so I'll choose a few media that have been particularly relevant to my life lately. Just know there are so many more. Every pairing from The Circle of Magic, for a start.

1. Percy de Rolo & Keyleth. I'm writing this while watching the Legend of Vox Machina TV show, so I decided to choose one of them. Ever since the first episode of both the show and the podcast, I enjoyed how these two bring out fun sides of each other. They're close, they love each other, and they relax around each other as they do around very few people. Even with their respective romantic pairings in the show - those are more fraught and intense. Percy and Keyleth always feel like they're having fun when they pair up.

2. Aaron & Andrew Minyard. Man!!! All for the Game has taken up my dash for months now, so I had to choose one pairing. I will choose the twins, because I can. I want them to like each other. I devour any fic I can find about them slowly blossoming their relationship over the post-grad years.

3. Wirt & Greg, from Over the Garden Wall. It's rewatch season! I love these two, and I enjoy the way they are brothers first and always. In particular, my favorite moment is when Greg, who is on the surface level scene more thoughtless and random, actively chooses Wirt over himself. He's offered to escape and chooses uncertainty instead to save Wirt and it's incredible. He is more thoughtful than a surface-level viewing would indicate.

a ship that might surprise others: mmm. Hm. This is hard. I don't really come up with non-canon ships often, and I am generally very normie when I do. I have non-canon hot takes like "Leverage OT3 is awesome" (that's a joke). So I'd say my most "surprising" ship is probably from Fullmetal Alchemist. I am firmly of the opinion that Ed and Winry should break up so she can follow her true love for Paninya, the mechanic girl with two metal legs from the baby episode. THEY ARE MEANT TO BE. Or maybe we can do fun polyamory! Winry has two hands.

last song: Come Out Ye Black and Tans by Colm McGuinness, specifically the rock version. Although I was listening to the regular and rock versions back-to-back on repeat. For Reasons.

last film: KNEECAP. I've listened to the band for a while and LOST IT when I found out they made a biopic and it was playing near me. Somehow I missed all the advertising until I randomly looked at a theater schedule??? Extremely funny being the rap fan in what felt like a room full of people there because of the Sundance win. I was honestly preparing to not like the film because Biopic Drama is not my genre, but oh boy was it not that. It was so fun. I was dancing and singing in my seat.

I loved their laissez-faire approach to whether this is a "true" story and the constant energetic thread their music pulled through the movie. It was a riot. As a bilingual film it felt very natural, clearly informed by people who actually live their lives bilingually - slipping in and out of languages happened logically, and the band walked a fun line between "suck it up and read the subtitles" and "99% of our audience doesn't speak this language or know this particular struggle, let's explain a few things in our own way."

Only thing I didn't like is that it's far more vulgar than I normally enjoy, but you know. I listen to KNEECAP on purpose. I knew what it would be like going in, it would honestly be disappointing if KNEECAP chose to clean themselves up for Hollywood. I actively chose to shut off that part of my brain during viewing, and it was a great time. Just know before choosing to view that the Trainspotting references are earned, and I can give you more detail if you want to go watch.

currently reading: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I started it last year but didn't have the spare brainpower for such a complicated story - I got sick of keeping track of the POV swaps. But I did like the worldbuilding, so I eventually picked it back up and it's going much better this time around. For me, this is one of those books that I've been told to read so many times that I knew I would get around to it eventually.

currently watching: Actively on Season 3, Episode 11 of The Legend of Vox Machina TV show. Episode 12 is starting, time to wrap up.

currently consuming: Kimchi hash browns with eggs. Delicious.

currently craving: My fellowship application to get back to me please why does this take you so long.

This was really fun, thank you Agap!

[phoebedynevors]

the ot3 + outta context

[royslovelanguage]

tell me about hardison. please please tell me about hardison. i am asking i do v much want to know what you think

did i make this gifset as an escapism from studying? no. no, of course not.

ANYWAYS. since i already a lil post with some writing about my favourite parts of hardison's character, i thought i'd make a gifset of my top 10 favourite ✨alec hardison✨ moments, in order.

10) 2.08 – it's moments like these that make me remember hardison was the one pulling this reluctant family closer together, and none of them know how to behave now that they're part of a family.

9) 2.05 – this grift in general is just hilarious, as well as the episode. aldis hodge is just great at delivering these kind of comic relief/serious lines.

8) 1.02 – he sets the tone! he is literally the glue – after nate. he is the mission statement. he's just a young sociable guy who's really good with computers, looking to use his skills, and then he finds them, and it's oh, i can steal from people, hang out with these weird, talented people, AND be on the moral high ground?

7) 3.04 – now there are lots of fun moments in this episode, but i like him here, just doing the impossible trying to keep the 'rottweiler' from biting all of his friends.

6) 3.04 – need i say anything? (but i will nonetheless.) i mean, he's just breathtaking here, hypnotism aside. it was one of the times that made me wonder what else is in hardison's past? violin is one of the harder instruments to learn and he just ended up being crazy good at it at 14 (iirc)? literally king shit.

5) 4.10 – he is a problem solver, he is a lover, he is a decent hummer. i just love how into it he gets. the way he loves parker is one of my favourite things about him. just before i started watching leverage i was like "god, are there any good het relationships on tv", and then i just saw hardison with his joy at everything parker did and his understanding when she couldn't quite voice what she wanted yet. a being of love and nerdiness, he is!

4) 4.07 – i swear there is cocaine in the season 4. this episode was everything. but this scene? the quiet but overwhelming fear? him working to help the team find him as much as he can? every time i watch this scene i can't look away. "i don't want to be alone again." sir you are literally driving me insane.

3) 5.09 – now this is obviously one of THEE episodes of the series, the ot3 episode. i also love love love how they went full ham on showing off hardison's skills (which i wrote about here), but i LOVE an unhealthy amount how they showed his fear, and therefore his bravery. eliot and parker work through stressors fairly efficient, but hardison's fear is overwhelming, and alone, he couldn't temper it. this moment for his character was so important because after years of doing the hard job so that other people can have some security, he believes he has reached the limits of his skills. we're nearing the end of the season and we're seeing the most intense version of his fear.

2) 4.01 – i would rank this episode in my top 5 of the whole series, but that's for another day. his dramatic moment is funny (and i think that's its main intention) but it's also touching. i mean, he's just tapping at his computers not sure if his best friends' are okay, if the job is going to work, and then he hears their voices again, and you can see the weight come off of him. another show of his strength!

1) 3.07 – if i could describe to you how much this scene makes me laugh. hardison complains so much and his whole monologue is makes me scream (humorously). it's number one just for the pure hysterics of it. (for the reader's peace of mind, i am black.) from a wide view of the show, i just like how, with hardison's character, he's a black guy, not a Black Guy. it's not his personality, but it is his experience. it's not the main act, but it is an undercurrent. obviously leverage is not the type of show to make nuanced statements on race, but i think moments like this are just it! yes we live in a fucked world. yes it sucks. yes write about it and make the stories we tell an escape of that fact and a re-rendering of that fact.

alrighty, that's all folks. tl;dr alec hardison is the king of found family, a genius, and a very talented complainer <3

[theladyragnell]

ficlet prompt! leverage ot3, fake married for the con

Parker has pretended to marry people a lot of times.

Mostly Hardison. It makes sense, usually, with the cons and their ages. So she's been his girlfriend a lot, and his wife a lot. But sometimes there's Eliot, when she needs backup closer, which is fine too, because he makes good midnight snacks when neither of them can sleep while they're sharing an apartment. And one time she was Sophie's wife at a gay wedding they had to infiltrate, and one time she was Nate's trophy wife, which both of them hated and she's planning to never do again.

So now she's Hardison's wife (or she's Eddie Barclay's wife Jenna, but Hardison never keeps up cons when they're alone except as a joke, not like Eliot who always thinks they're being watched or Sophie who thinks it's fun), and he produced a diamond she stole a few years ago set in platinum from one of the places he stashes props he thinks they might need, and it's weird. Because now she kisses Hardison sometimes, and they go on dates, and suddenly she doesn't know how to be married to him anymore.

Sophie is busy with the mark, and Hardison is ordering dinner, so she does the only thing she can think of and shuts herself in the pantry to call Eliot.

“What's up?” he asks as soon as he answers, and a door shuts behind him like he's already on the way in case they're in trouble.

“I'm having an Alice problem,” she says, because that's what it is at heart and he'll know what to do about that.

Sure enough, he heaves a sigh, and a second later, his side of the line gets quieter. “You couldn't call Sophie?”

“She's with Markham.” Parker sits down on the pantry floor. It's dark and cozy and smells a little bit like food because Eliot stocked it for them and he thinks they know way more about cooking than they do. Or he just wants an excuse to cook with all of it when the job is over. With that thought in mind she starts inspecting the shelves, wondering what he's got planned and if it's going to end up on the brewpub menu. “How do I be married to Hardison?”

“You've done it twenty times, Parker. What's the difference now?”

Parker waves a hand. “It's weird! I don't know! We're dating now, I don't know how to be married to him and date him at the same time.”

“You just do what you've done twenty times, and also do whatever you do now.”

“But some of it's the same!”

Eliot sighs again, but he sounds less confused now, at least. Eliot doesn't always understand her, but there are times when he does more than anyone else. “Parker, the Alice problem is always that you don't think your aliases are you, which they are. Some of it's the same. He doing anything you don't want him to do?”

“No.” Hardison never does. There are things he doesn't get about her that Eliot does, but he doesn't ever push.

“Then you're fine.”

“I'm not! I don't like it feeling fake when it's not!” She freezes, wondering how soundproof the pantry is, but Hardison doesn't come knocking, so she's just left wondering what Eliot is going to say.

Eliot doesn't answer right away. He's good at quiet. He's the only one of all of them who is, really. “You and Hardison aren't a con. He knows that. You know that. So you do the con, and you date, and if you do the same things sometimes, it's because sometimes maybe you do things that normal people do.”

Parker wrinkles her nose. “I don't know how to do that, either.”

“Yeah, you do.” Eliot shifts around. He must have found somewhere private and quiet, because she can hear his clothes rustling when he moves. “Is the problem the con, or the dating?”

She wants to say both, but she knows that's unhelpful. “I don't know. I could pretend to marry him when we weren't dating but now I don't like it.”

Eliot doesn't give advice the same way Sophie does. Sophie would probably make sympathetic noises and then she'd blink and she'd be a relationship therapist and she'd say something right that wouldn't fix it but would give her something to do. Half the time, Eliot just groans and tells her she's weird when she asks him about things. If he hasn't already, maybe she's not wrong to worry. “Maybe things have got to change,” he finally says. “You find new ways to pretend to be married.”

“This works. We know how to do this.”

“Apparently you don't.” He clears his throat. “Sophie, when she pretends to flirt with Nate, it's not always the same way she does when it's both of them, right? So you just do that. Maybe talk about it.”

It's not as easy as that, but she doesn't need to say that. Eliot gets it. “I guess,” she says. It's still hard to talk about dates with Hardison without bringing pretzels into it, but it's always the right answer. She's figured out that much, having a team. “Are you still coming over later? Hardison is ordering pizza.”

“All the groceries I ordered for you not good enough?” he asks, but his heart isn't in it. “Yeah, fine, I'll be over later. With some salad.”

“We have Oreos too!” she says, and stands up.

Eliot sighs. “Did I not just say I ordered your groceries?” And then, after a second, “You good now?”

“Probably,” she says. “I'm going to talk to Hardison.”

“You do that,” he says, and hangs up.

Hardison, when she comes out of the pantry, is waiting, looking a little worried but also like he's trying not to be, but he's a really bad liar, at least when he's not on a con. “You good?”

Same question as Eliot, and Parker smiles, because they're both looking out for her, even when she's still figuring out what she needs. “Eliot is coming over for dinner before anybody starts watching us. He says he's bringing the salad.”

“Man thinks I don't know how to take a multivitamin. Which I do, I'll have you know, I don't want scurvy.” He's still watching her carefully, because he probably heard at least some of that. They're thieves. They steal each other's secrets as much as they steal anything else. “I don't have anything to do till the pizza arrives. How about you?”

Her gear is all prepared, and she knows the plan. She doesn't need to do anything right now, and she's getting to know the way Hardison talks around wanting to kiss her or do more. “Nothing to do,” she says, and grins at him till he grins back.

She takes off the fake ring that could maybe be real since he used one of her diamonds and puts it on the table before she kisses him, and sees him notice and decide not to ask yet.

When Eliot shows up most of an hour later, he notices the ring too, but he just nods at her and tells Hardison that maybe he should just eat spinach because it tastes good, multivitamin or no multivitamin.

It's not their place, not their groceries, but right here, this is as real as it gets.

[diamondot]

Tag x people you’d like to know better, where x = the number of people you want to tag! 

I was tagged by @apocalypsenah for this Get to Know a fellow tumblr friend! If you wanna do this consider yourself tagged :)

Approximately four ships in three categories:

Currently: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Jon/Martin (The Magnus Archives), Helena/Myka (Warehouse 13, sometimes you gotta visit old friends), Carter/O'Neill (Stargate SG-1)

All time: See above, but also Sirius/Remus (Harry Potter), Parker/Hardison/Eliot (Leverage, OT3 5ever), Ten/Rose (Doctor Who, I have different feelings about it than I used to but my brain just won't let it go and you know what, I'm ok with it), G'Kar/Molari, Susan/Talia, Sinclair/Garibaldi, and Marcus/Franklin (all Babylon 5, have you even seen them, my heart)

Honorable mentions: Sokka/Zuko (AtLA), Lacey/The Middleman (The Middleman), John Segundus/John Childermass (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell), Ola/Lily (Sex Education, good lord they're so cute)

Last song: "Blue Eyes" by Mika

Last movie: In the theater was Jojo Rabbit, at home was Cold Comfort Farm

 Currently reading: In the middle of The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (again), The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, and Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire. And I have Gideon The Ninth waiting for me at the library!

Audiobook: oh gosh, I haven't really listened to audiobooks since I worked at a wholesale nursery (long hours of tedious work is sort of the only way I can get into an audiobook well enough). BUT I listen to podcasts like my life depends on it. Right now I'm in the middle of The Magnus Archives and loving it :)

Fan fiction: I'm super enjoying Car Trouble by @summerofspock right now!

What food are you craving right now: I think if I could eat anything right now, it'd be tacos. Carnitas tacos. Yeah.

Thanks, @apocalypsenah! This was fun :)

[peppersonironi]

I completely agree with all your points! I know it'll take more than what just happened for EVERYONE to think they're canon, but for right now, I'm extremely happy with how the finale went down.

Actually, the ending reminded me an awful lot of the finale of another show I loved (literally my favourite show ever) called Leverage. I don't know if you've even heard of it, but there's an Ot3 in that show that was as close to being explicitly canon as a 2012 show could possibly be. Your post here has actually inspired me to talk a little more about that! I think I'll do something with it later this week because the similarities really are striking.

Thanks for making this, I really appreciate it! And it was a fun read!

Is Sambucky Canon or Not?

TL;DR: Yes, it is

I’ve seen some people saying that they only see friendship between Sam and Bucky, and I can understand that. Because depending on your education, the environment you grew up and the kind of media you’re usually exposed to, you will have a different interpretation of different situations, in real life or in TV. Just let me insert a short story before I dive into the Sambucky topic:

My best friend’s uncle is in his fifties and has been living with his roommate (a man) for more than 10 years. They lived together, went on holidays together but officially were just roommates. My best friend wondered if they were a couple, but never talked about it to her parents because it wasn’t her business. Two years ago, they decided to come out and get married. My best friend’s parents and his parents were genuinely surprised, they were not expecting that, at all, not even a little bit. Let me tell you that it didn’t even cross their mind that it was a possibility, at all. For them, it had always just been two men who had decided to live together because they were single. And preferred to have a roommate rather than living alone.

What I want to say with this story is that people will see what they want to see, or what they’re used to see, or what they were raised to see. It’s human.

What I mean is that you will have different perception of a same event, depending on your own circumstances. And I think the writers of TFATWS were counting on that a little bit when it came to Sam and Bucky’s relationship. They obviously didn’t want to make some big announcement or big love declaration.

And yes, of course, I have my own circumstances as well, influencing the way I see things. I have shipped SamBucky since Civil War, when they were supposedly enemies. I never expected anything to happen between them on screen. But then they got a show together and I was so so happy about it but I didn’t expect anything other than friendship between them.

I was perfectly fine with that because a show was already more than enough: my man Sam Wilson was becoming Captain America, the show was great, the characters were great, their interactions were great, and this wasn’t a love story anyway but a superhero show. I thought that here was no way the showrunners would ever go there. I changed my mind after episode 5. I tried to stay objective, but it was clear to me that the writers were hinting at a relationship that went beyond friendship between Sam and Bucky. In some of my previous posts, I explained that there are some scenes and writing choices that make absolutely no sense if you read them as a scene between two friends. I can link them if anyone’s interested.

Side note: I would like to know if one person on this website can tell me what was up with Bucky’s behavior with Torres (in episode 5)? What other explanation is there, if not jealousy? It’s a scene they chose to keep, so it was probably written this way, there must be a reason. Please I’m begging someone explain it to me. I’m genuinely asking, because otherwise that scene alone is canon Sambucky.

After episode 5, I was convinced they would make Sambucky canon, one way or the other and I started speculating about the ways they could do it. What I said was that if they did make Sambucky canon, they would do it in a very subtle way, in order not to make it too obvious because that’s generally how Marvel movies deal with love stories. And also because they wouldn’t want to scare away their homophobic audience ( I guess Disney needs their money…who knows)

So here are the scenes of how I imagined SamBucky becoming canon and the comparison with reality:

1.

- What I thought we could get : AJ and Cass calling Bucky “Uncle Bucky” - What we got: AJ and Cass running up to Bucky and playing with him. This point is interesting because it’s also related to the point I made about how the environment you grew up in influences your perception of things. I grew up in a big family and I know that, at least in my family, kids don’t run up to an adult like that just because it’s their uncle’s friend or just because he’s nice… There’s a real bond there. They haven’t seen Bucky just that one time when he slept on the couch. They’re obviously close. But some people might just see this as kids being kids. Also, if you watch at how the kids were fake punching him, they were really coordinated with Bucky. They have done this plenty of times. 2.

What I thought we could see: A non-explicit scene where we were supposed to draw our own conclusions. I thought they could show us Bucky staying over for the night, and the last scene would be an empty couch, meaning we would have to understand that Bucky slept in Sam’s room this time.

-What we got: Bucky arriving in Sam’s car ( A few people on Tumblr pointed out that it was the car Sam was driving in episode 1) So here again we have a scene that a lot of people will not notice. But they still chose to put it there. 3.

What I thought could happen: Sam asking Bucky to stay in Delacroix

What we got: Bucky wrapping things up in New York, as if he was leaving the city for good and coming to Sam’s party as if he already knew everyone there. You can read my take on this here. 4. What I thought could happen: The scene in the trailer where we see them looking in the same direction and then we get a shot from very far away where they’re holding hands but it’s not so obvious because they are being filmed from a disctance. -What we got: The scene in trailer and then a blurry shot of Sam holding Bucky and then fondling with his neck to find the best spot to rest his hand on. So none of the scenes I was imagining happened exactly like I had imagined, but it felt like all of them happened but in a different versions, which is still crazy to me. If it had been only one scene. I could probably understand the people who see them as just friends. Actually, I still do understand the people who see them as just friends, because everyone has their own interpretation. What I am saying is that they are NOT being portrayed as just friends. There are TOO many scenes in the 6 episodes for it to be a coincidence. One or 2 would be ok but friendship doesn’t explain everything:

The therapy scene (not the therapy scene itself since it was improvised) but the therapist saying she had heard a lot about Sam and wanting them to do a couples’ therapy

Bucky following Sam no matter what

Sam saying ok as soon as Bucky says “do it for me”

Sam asking “what about Bucky?”

Bucky starting to touch Sam whenever he has the chance

Bucky being the one to bringing the suit for Sam

The boat repairing montage

Bucky wanting to stay at Sam’s place, when a hotel room would have been more comfortable than a couch

The second day of boat repair in closed quarters with an intense staring scene.

And there are so many other scenes, soft touches, looks,…

These writing choices are not a coincidence, it’s not involuntary, and it’s not fan service ( Fan service is the roll in the flower field scene, or the therapy session). This is them telling a story.

Let’s not even talk about the scenes in Endgame:

Sam comforting bucky at Tony’s funeral

Sam looking up to Bucky for approval before accepting the shield from Steve.

So yes, Sam and Bucky are canon in the sense that Peter and Gamora were canon in the first movie, or Wanda and Vision were canon in Captain Civil War. Meaning that there was no big moment, kiss or anything, but the show is consistently throwing elements clearly showing Sam and Bucky as a romantic item and hinting at a lot more than friendship between them.

It is normal that some people have a different opinion. Because it is extremely rare, in big productions like this to have two male leads with romantic feelings towards each other, so not a lot people who see it will interpret it as such (I don’t think it ever happened). You’ll see what you’re used to seeing.

I guess it also depends on what you expect from a love story. For me, the storyline between the characters, their scenes, their chemistry, the way their feelings towards each other are described, are the most important. The kiss scene is just there as a bonus, but I don’t need it when the love story is told perfectly. If you’re used to seeing love stories with many kissing scenes, that’s what you will be expecting to see in most love stories.

If you’re only used to seeing male friendships in superhero or action movies. The 1000th time you see men interacting in that type of movie or show, you are more likely to assume it is a friendship and nothing more, no matter how many codes and tropes usually associated with romantic movies, the writers and show makers are using.

Add to that the conviction that Disney would never approve Sambucky in a million years, and there you go, I can understand the people who see only friendship.

But, just think about it, if we had the same show, same scenes, same dialogues, but minus the action scenes and the project was being marketed as an Indie movie, would you think they were just friends or a blossoming couple?

If you read Sambucky’s relationship like a friendship: some scenes don’t make sense. If you read it like a developing romantic relationship: it all makes sense. “When you hear hoofs, think horse, not zebra” If a writer or a film director chooses a last scene with a romantic setting and the two leads are staring at a sunset, smiling repeatedly at each other and then walking away together with one of them touching the other’s neck, with a love song in the background, maybe friendship isn’t the first thought they had in mind.

Some people may say “I see them as just friends” and other people may say “ I see them as lovers” and both are fine, because people have different perceptions, and that’s ok.

What I am saying is this post is that the show and the writers are portraying them as more than just friends, they’re portraying them as two characters who are romantically involved.

Perceive what you want but that’s how they are being presented in the show.

Bucky’s therapist said that the exercise she gave them was for couples who want to figure out what kind of life they want to build together. Then, the show ends with Sam and Bucky, staring at a sunset together, looking in the same direction.

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. “  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What else do you need???

This show had more romance than half of the Marvel projects out there. Not every love story needs a kiss (for now…)

We’ll see in their next projects which direction the writers want to go with this. But since it was said that the writer on the movie is the same as the writer from episode 5, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll keep seeing this dynamic. I don’t think they would have made the same choices if this had been a movie. But I won’t complain that we got this. I hope they keep this going even if it stays subtle like in the show. Just hope they will add one explicit scene where one of the characters acknowledges their relationship. But even if we only ever get this show, it’s already a great love story. Let me know what you guys think and sorry for the typos and grammar mistakes, I was tired when I wrote the last part. I hope it still makes sense!

If you think they’re only being portrayed as friends let me know why! I would also like to know about the way you see this!