“For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”
You ever think about... despite everyone on the team having various reputations, it's Sophie that the criminal underworld is so afraid of. Specifically when it comes to Leverage's kind of con game, Sophie is the undisputed queen.
Like. Parker's the world's best thief, but she's just that - a thief. Eliot, Hardison, neither of them are inherently conmen, even if they're both very good at it. The trio were all in other criminal buisnesses, Nate was on the right side of the law. But Sophie is known across names and countries, heck, Second David implies that she's the one with easily the most outstanding warrants.
You do not try to out-con Sophie Devereaux, and unlike everyone else, her specialty is exactly what Leverage do every single day. It's the foundation of it. This is her game and it has been from the start, that's why Nate brought her in to begin with - he picked her. He didn't pick the others. As soon as he decides to run game on Dubenich, as soon as he sets the cogs into play for creating what will become Leverage Inc, Sophie is a core facet of that. This is her game.
Sophie is the only crew member who we've ever seen someone decide to kill because of reputation alone. The only one. And Chaos... he's smarmy and slimy and all that, but he's smart. I bet that his reasoning there is solid. You do not try to out-con Sophie Devereaux. Taking her out of play entirely is by far the most drastic solution, but with someone like Sophie... I'm not sure there were any other options, and I am sure that if there were then Chaos had very good reasons to dismiss them. She's terrifying.
Sophie is terrifying. Terrifying in a very different way to how, say, Eliot or Parker are terrifying - but she's terrifying. Nate maybe evolved into a siren, but Sophie's been one from the start. Luring men to their doom. It's not really surprising that she ended up our mastermind in Redemption - she didn't always have the leadership skills, but it's been her game all along.
I. Just. Sophie Devereaux, everyone. World's worst actress, world's best grifter.
one of the best gags in leverage is when the crew starts naming random cons, even better when they disagree and give us just enough information to be more confused - "it's like the cherry pie, but with lifeguards" or "the roper has a glass eye. No! It's a cue ball." bafflingly perfect, 10/10.
But a close second is when they just reference a con they did, without giving us any useful information. Now we see physical bits during like the broken wing job which is great. Or the night out jobs where they show the chaos of both nights in pieces from the other side. But I had forgotten in the 'cross my heart job' they were doing crazy crazy things. They were on the emerald isle, Sophie was pretending to be french on a topless beach, Eliot was in a shipwreck fighting three ex-brazilian combat divers with harpoons underwater, and hardison apparently faked a volcano eruption??
Everyone misunderstands what makes Nate so scary. What makes Nate scary is not that he might snap and kill someone. What makes Nate scary is that if he wants you to die, you will die, and you will do it to yourself. You will walk onto the platform and put your head into the noose and pull the lever, and you could turn around and stop at any time but you won't, because he's calculated everything and he knows exactly what will make you want to do all of that. He'll never pull the trigger because he'll never need to.
“we live in an uncaring universe” yeah dude and I live in an uncaring house. and I shit in an uncaring toilet. but do you touch an uncaring lover? do you comfort an uncaring child? do you guide to sleep each night a cold and uncaring self?
bro it was so good im going insane, I'm so delighted.
im just going to repost some thoughts here:
8 minutes of J in 2026- and I was giggling the whole time....
the fact we got to see more team dynamic, pleased me so much. j seemingly pretty close with V- N coming to J when his tummy hurts, big sister J extra confirmed.
a confirmation she still draws as a way of reimagining her surrounding with her office covered in skyscrapers, note the sunlight gleaming ove the top. her ass misses it
her messy "lounge" that she frequents and gets sloshed in. girl the escapism of it all, and having to be dragged back to her awful reality.
the well put together business person who has bad habit, yes I did enjoy her drinking LMFAO. her getting sloshed on her own, with only the company of dead human skeletons- entirely sad and funny in its own right, her idea of relaxing? being silly and actually getting down. is that why you cant stand N at times J? he gets to be oblivious and himself?
as soon as she got that call she was petrified, sobering her up instantly. Cyn also knowing the anxiety it causes, doing it to torture a bit more. confirmation on top of what we already know that her being on Cyn's team is solely from fear.
after that call she hugged that worker drone head for comfort, and every instance of contemplation afterward her ass was staring listlessly at dead worker drone bodies. yes actually, I do think shes also feeling levels of guilt and reluctance!
the key moment in all of this is that its very "team member" heavy. which is the heart of the short imo- like actually J does feel better when the others are around. J is purposefully keeping secrets concealed to protect them!
what stands out to me in her moment of confusion when V throws her that Jcjenson pen , her brows immediately furrow down at it " oh thats-", and then she remembers herself. I really believe the pen is not what she cared for here- more so the symbolic kindness it represented. what the company represents- the illusion that keeps the team safe, the "family" as J called it.
"Stop scrolling and please help me spread the word, because if I've landed on your page you're most likely either a black woman or someone who cares about black women and the simple phrase I'm about to share could help save a black woman's life.
Doctors are to black women what police officers are to black men. That may seem controversial but I believe it to be true and I speak from personal experience.
If you've seen this TikTok you know that a 2016 study showed that 50% of medical students and residents thought that black people couldn't feel pain the same as white people.
And we learned from this video that because of a 1999 study, to this day, there's a black correction factor for the creatinin levels in black people's kidneys, meaning we're less likely to recieve a kidney transplant if needed.
So if you go to a doctor, feel you aren't getting proper treatment or they refuse the treatment you've requested, say to them the following:
I will need you to document on record that you are refusing the treatment (or medicine) I've requested, and the reason you are doing so."
This works. I have used it in other situations. If medical staff have to document and take responsibility and be on the hook legally for doing shady shit they behave much differently.
If you weren’t already going to spread this advice because black women are at risk, then spread it because it’s applicable to everyone else as well, including you reading this.
But particularly women, and especially black women.
I've seen a bunch of "fandom etiquette" posts on my dash today and I'm going to say something that is maybe going to be unpopular but;
The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.
And I am not going to mince words here:
A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.
That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.
"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.
So much of "fandom etiquette" seems to be about insulating creatives from Feeling Bad and hostility to any kind of negative feedback is a pretty big contributor to why bigotry festers in these spaces.
#imo the potluck analogy applies- it would be rude to critique someone's icing technique at a potluck bc it wasn't as good as at the bakery #but if they had decorated their cupcakes w hate symbols it wouldn't be rude to tell them that's gross and gtfo #in fact it would be inappropriate to NOT say anything in that situation #or to complain that another guest who did point it out was 'ruining everyone's potluck' #and pointing out racism in fan works is 100% the second thing not the first! (via destructions-daughter)
There's also a tendency to conflate anyone who critiques general trends with bad faith randos. Like, there is fandom behavior that is 100% racist and should be talked about, but there are also trends of racist/sexist/ableist preferences.
If I say "I am uncomfortable with fandom's tendency to write trans men as feminine and submissive" I do not mean "I think every person who writes feminine submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I don't even mean "any cis-person who writes feminine or submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I mean "I would like writers to seriously think about why this is so common, why they write that, and if it fairly and genuinely engages with what it means to be a trans man, or if they just think it's hot when submissive people have vaginas and didn't want to write omegaverse of m/f".
Similarly, when people say "fandom is systemically less interested in black characters, less willing to give flat black characters rich fanon than flat white characters, and less interested in black characters in ships", the response is not to explain why you, personally, just happen to like popular white guy in that fanon. Your job is to look at yourself and ask if you tend to "just happen to be more interested" in the popular white guy across fandoms, be honest, and start unpacking that. Sometimes it's easier to love the flat character who's already getting 10,000 fics with headcanons and art and meta.
If somebody says "I wish there were more gluten free options at the potluck. I hate always showing up and not finding anything I can eat*", they are not asking you to throw your cake in the trash and weep. They do not want to hear your long speech about how actually this is your grandmother's recipe, and you've tried it with rice flour actually, but it just didn't work. You think about what you can do, and you listen to how they feel.
*The metaphor here not being that you can't read fic that isn't "good rep". The metaphor here is that it can be isolating to be in spaces where nobody is trying to make sure people like you are welcome.
hi I’m the pal. web and I were talking about how it’s both uncomfortable whenever the vampires’ higher tier appearance changes are romanticized AND when they’re demonized
the cult and sausage are constantly ooh-ing and aah-ing each other’s “upgrades” and focused on conventional attractiveness and clothing changes. this romanticization serves to draw attention away from the horror of having your body irrevocably altered beyond your control, instead praising how “cool” everyone looks. it’s bread and circuses, a gilded cage
meanwhile, characters like ren often overly criticize the later tier appearances of the vampires, dehumanizing them and considering their changes repulsive. this frame serves to portray the vampires’ uncontrollable changes as worthy of scorn which they. can’t really control. it’s disheartening to hear from (for apo and cleo) someone who’s supposed to be an ally or even a friend
basically they all need to get more normal about how vampires look
Azune Nayar is not someone who was failed in his youth by the adults around him.
Azune Nayar is someone whose childhood and youth were marked by adults who, faced with bad choices, made the less-worse one because they cared about him.
His parents starved themselves to give him and his sister the chance of being recruited as child soldiers by a mercenary group, because that was the only way to protect him from starvation.
Thjazi Fang saw a child abandoned by the roadside, desperately, determinedly, and implausibly claiming he could fight. Thazi Fang was in the middle of waging a rebellion against the powers of Araman. That rebellion wasn’t the best place for a child of twelve. But it was a better place than abandoned by the roadside or picked up by another mercenary group, and Thjazi cared, so Thjazi took him in and assigned him to noncombat work away from the front lines.
By 15 Azune was fighting on the front lines. (In an earlier war, the same was true of Thazi at that age.)
Thjazi’s rebellion failed. He asked his brother Hal to look out for the teenage Azune. Hal did so, treating Azune as part of his family. Hal did the same for other people who needed it. Being like family wasn’t the same as being Hal’s kid.
The tragedy of Azune isn’t that he was failed or abandoned or uncared for or used. The tragedy of Azune is that the best that people who cared about him could give him still wasn’t the same as what he needed, because being an adult doesn’t make you all-powerful. Azune’s problems weren’t created by those who loved him. They were created by the world he lives in.
Azune lived his adult life for the Torn Banner because it was the life he knew; or out of loyalty; or because they were the ones trying to change that world into something different.
He offers understanding and empathy to enemies (Julien) and strangers (Vaelus). He learned that somewhere.
He will self-immolate for a cause. He likely learned that from his parents, who did it for him, and from Thjazi, who did it for the same cause.
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