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I have been recording details about our beloved Eliot Spencer on my latest watch through. And now, it's finally time to reveal the details!!
If I have gotten any details INCORRECT, I beg of you to correct me, at which time, this post will be updated and credit given.
(Note: S1 was aired out of chronological order. I am going by chronological episode numbers - aka the correct order - and providing the episode titles as well to minimise confusion.)
!! This post contains details from Leverage: Redemption! Read the episode references carefully if you are wanting to avoid certain spoilers !!
Shirtless Moments
S1 E7 The Two-Horse Job: The flashback scene when Aimee asks Eliot what his excuse was for not coming back to her, we see him being dragged/tortured, shirtless. "Tell us what you did with the monkey!"
S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Eliot is shirtless for the fight match.
S4 E9 The Cross My Heart Job: Ehh he's not completely shirtless here but whatever. At about 16 mins in, Eliot and Parker are getting changed together, Eliot strips to a singlet then throws his shirt at me the camera. (I didn't include other scenes of Eliot in a singlet here because in this scene he's actively undressing, whereas in others he's not.)
Necklaces
The earliest sighting of his guitar pick necklace is S1 E2 The Homecoming Job. It continues to pop up frequently in episodes, though noticeably less in S1. I thought about recording every occurrence of it here but ... lmao it's in legit waaayyyy too many episodes for me to bother.
S2 E10 The Runway Job: Honourable mention of the necklaces Eliot wears with his fashion week outfit. The longer one is kinda dogtag-esque, the shorter one is ... I think it's a fleur de lis? He also wears a range of chain necklaces later in this episode.
S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Bird pendant (possibly kingfisher) visible at 34 mins 39 seconds. Full credits to @wolves-in-the-world for this one including the time stamp! You can check out their reblog of this post with more details here!
Dammit Hardison
S1 E13 The Second David Job: The FIRST INSTANCE of dammit Hardison in the entire show! Said upon discovering each other in the gallery, around 4 mins 15 seconds.
S2 E1 The Beantown Bailout Job: Said around 22 mins 30 seconds, immediately following, "What are the odds that Eliot's crotch will actually explode?" Iconic.
S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: When setting up for the magic show and discovering the rabbit missing, roughly 19 mins 45 seconds.
S3 E3 The Inside Job: Running from security, around 31 mins 30 seconds.
S3 E4 The Scheherazade Job: Trying to enter McRory's at the same time, around 1 min 30 seconds.
S3 E5 The Double Blind Job: This is an honourable mention because this time NATE is the one to say dammit Hardison! 9 mins 15 seconds.
S3 E6 The Studio Job: Upon discovering the master tape isn't in the case, roughly 32 mins.
S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Eliot and Hardison running in the woods for their lives, arguing as always. This one is a bonus 'dammit' because Hardison says it straight back to Eliot after Eliot yells it at him! Around 21 mins.
S3 E12 The King George Job: Discussing Hardison's forgery work, followed by Eliot regretting touching anything. Around 23 mins 55 seconds.
S3 E13 The Morning After Job: Pretending to be cops and accidentally ending up with a prisoner to take back to jail, around 16 mins 20 seconds.
S3 E14 The Ho Ho Ho Job: Honourable mention of Chaos mocking Eliot by saying dammit Hardison. Roughly 21 mins 15 seconds.
(phew, S3 was rough on Hardison! given what Eliot was going through with the whole Moreau thing.... ooh that's delicious angst)
S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Honourable mention for Sophie saying it this time! While playing the role that was meant for Eliot, around 24 mins.
S4 E6 The Carnival Job: Mixing chemicals for a distraction, roughly 25 mins 30 seconds.
S4 E17 The Radio Job: Hardison running away from being thrown off a high floor, around 5 mins.
S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Sneaking around at the Bellington Dam, roughly 13 mins 35 seconds.
S5 E1 The (Very) Big Bird Job: 'Accidentally' putting a brew pub menu in front of Eliot, around 10 mins 20 seconds.
S5 E15 The Long Goodbye Job: Emotional scene that we do not speak about, around 12 mins 40 seconds.
RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: After knocking Harry out and asking Hardison to help carry Harry, and Hardison refuses. 11 mins 40 seconds.
RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: Upon discovering that security is headed to the vault where Parker is, and the only way down there is through the vents. Around 34 mins 10 seconds.
RS2 E1 The Debutante Job: We get 3! In this whole episode! Probably to make up for Hardison being gone for most of Redemption. Anyway! First one when Eliot and Hardison are in Ralphie Roy's place and Hardison has no idea who Ralphie is, around 23 mins 15 seconds. Second is when they're breaking into the elevator and Hardison won't help fight or move the unconscious guards, roughly 37 mins 40 seconds. And third, after the job when Parker says that Hardison was the one who took out all the guards. Around 45 mins 10 seconds.
RS2 E3 The Tournament Job: Right at the start after Eliot says gaming isn't a sport and Parker texts Hardison, so Hardison starts blowing up Eliot's phone. Lmao. Around 4 mins 20 seconds.
RS2 E4 The Date Night Job: After realising Breanna stole his truck, Eliot says dammit, then aims it at a grinning Hardison, since Breanna is already running away. Around 46 mins 50 seconds.
Dammit Parker
S1 E4 The Snow Job: Parker jumps out of a second floor window, Eliot catches her. 15 mins. (Parker gets a dammit from Eliot before Hardison does!!)
S3 E8 The Boost Job: Parker driving erratically, Eliot thrown around in back seat. (Technically there's a pause between dammit and Parker but I'm still including it) 35 min 35 seconds.
S5 E12 The White Rabbit Job: Searching the mark's house, Parker wants to steal a shirt. Again, this isn't technically a proper dammit Parker, as Eliot instead says, "Put it back! Dammit." But I'm still including it because it was aimed at her. 21 mins 20 seconds.
RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: Parker is pretending to be a hacker heavily modelled off Hardison. Not a proper dammit Parker as, again, Eliot only mutters "dammit" under his breath, but still counts to me. Just after 18 mins.
RS1 E10 The Unwellness Job: At end of episode, after Parker admits that she didn't even learn Eliot's name till after the team broke up the first time. 44 mins 30 seconds.
RS1 E13 The Hurricane Job: After washing up on shore and entering the Beacon Inn, Parker and Eliot are bickering about Maria. He doesn't strictly say dammit Parker but there's absolutely no doubt who he's directing the dammits towards. 3 mins 30 seconds.
RS2 E6 The Fractured Job: When farewelling Billy and Parker says next time she'll finish telling him about the robot bodies. Again, it's just dammit not dammit Parker but it's close enough. 41 mins.
RS2 E8 The Turkish Prisoner Job: Another standalone dammit that is most definitely aimed at Parker! When breaking Romero out, Parker says she's a firefighter (with far too much glee), around 14 mins 30 seconds.
RS2 E10 The Work Study Job: A full dammit Parker this time! When Parker reveals that it's super easy to steal from a university and produces a whole bunch of stuff, roughly 22 mins 40 seconds.
Very Distinctive Moments
S1 E2 The Homecoming Job: Eliot ID's the weapon from the gunshots, around 8 mins. Later, he ID's a guy off his knife fighting style, around 18 mins 50 seconds.
S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: ID's a CIA guy from his stance, roughly 7 mins 45 seconds.
S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: ID's the smell of peppermint on Hardison's breath, around 21 mins.
S3 E12 The King George Job: ID's former British paratroopers by their haircuts, 30 mins 10 seconds.
S4 E1 The Long Way Down Job: ID's a former spetsnaz guy by his footprint, 13 mins 45 seconds.
S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Honourable mention of Eliot ID'ing ex-military personnel by their stances, he just doesn't say very distinctive. 18 mins 50 seconds.
S4 E11 The Experimental Job: Honourable mention of Eliot ID'ing a helicopter by the whumpa-whumpa (there's 7 of them did you know). Around 7 mins.
S5 E3 The First Contact Job: ID's military satellite transmission by the static, 7 mins 20 seconds.
S5 E9 The Rundown Job: ID's a Navy Seal who enlisted between '90-'95 by his watch, around 16 mins.
RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: ID's a drone (Breanna's) from the sound. 11 mins 50 seconds.
RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: ID's Russian mob by the tattoos, 36 mins 30 seconds.
RS1 E7 The Double-Edged Sword Job: Honourable mention for Maria ID'ing the way Eliot disarmed her gun, 7 mins 50 seconds.
RS2 E4 The Date Night Job: Eliot ID's a guy as not having a distinctive anything - which is what is so distinctive. 20 mins 40 seconds.
RS2 E13 The Crowning Achievement Job: ID's MI6 off their search pattern, 6 mins 50 seconds.
Known Family
S1 E6 The Miracle Job: When discussing Bibletopia, Eliot says his nephew would like it. This is the ONLY mention of a nephew in the entire show, Redemption included; nor is there any direct mention of a sibling beyond this (which leads me to believe that this nephew is actually the son of a close friend/cousin/military buddy, rather than a direct family relation, but that's just my headcanon).
S2 E3 The Order 23 Job: When talking to the abused boy, Randy, Eliot says he has an uncle named Randy.
S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Eliot's dad owned a hardware store and he wanted Eliot to take over one day. But Eliot wanted to get out of that small town, so he joined the service. Fought with his dad the night before he left and hasn't been back since. He goes back at the end of this episode and knocks - but his dad never answers the door 😭
RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: While interrogating/torturing Eliot with Red Haze, Bligh says that Eliot's dad's friend from Vietnam has invited Eliot to join them for Christmas. At the end of the episode, Eliot goes to join them for dinner, only to get a message from 'J' that his dad was a no show. This 'J' is widely accepted as Eliot's unknown sibling but that is incorrect! 'J' is Eliot's dad's buddy from Vietnam!
RS2 E6 The Fractured Job: The ultimate Eliot family backstory episode!! (if you haven't seen it yet and don't want spoilers, skip this one!) Eliot was adopted by a black couple, Billy and an unnamed woman, after being abandoned/surrendered at a hospital as a baby. His father was a war hero who got none of the glory and sustained a wound, ruining his civilian career path, so Billy never wanted Eliot to follow in his footsteps. Eliot loved the stories of his dad in the military so joined up to be like him. His mother died while Eliot was on an op and he couldn't get leave to come back for the funeral, deepening the rift between him and Billy. Ultimately, they reconcile, (Eliot says his dad was always a hero to him, Billy say's he's proud of Eliot, they hug), and I cry every time 😭❤️ [Edit: Eliot being a baby at the time of being found at the hospital and consequently brought home by his adopted mother is unconfirmed and my presumption. We have no clear info on his age at adoption. Thanks to @nival-kenival for picking that up!]
Phrases: Ain't
S1 E4 The Snow Job: Said to Nate, right before Nate tells him to go skip some rope.
S1 E9 The Stork Job: Says it twice while conning Irina.
S1 E10 The Juror #6 Job: Upon being told to go help Parker instead of watching a sports game, Eliot takes his beer back.
S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Discussing the fights the mark runs, says they ain't the UFC.
S2 E3 The Order 23 Job: Said right before threatening to throw Randy's abusive father over the railing of a stairwell.
S2 E4 The Fairy Godparents Job: Upon spotting a hitman sent to kill McSweeten and Taggart.
S2 E8 The Ice Man Job: After hearing Hardison call himself the Ice Man, says he won't bail him out when things go wrong.
S2 E9 The Lost Heir Job: While trying to get Parker to the court room and end up cut off by the police.
S2 E11 The Bottle Job: When Hardison wants help to clean up Nate's apartment and Eliot refuses.
S2 E14 The Three Strikes Job: When Nate says to meet outside the ballpark but Eliot refuses because now he's sucked into the sport.
S3 E3 The Inside Job: Twice while arguing with Hardison about how to rescue Parker, once when Parker offers him a lift down the stairwell with her on her harness rig and he refuses. This is the most he says ain't in a single episode!
S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Once when the militia try to make him kneel, later when the militia kid catches him and Hardison near the train tracks.
S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: When Sophie changes her story to mock Eliot's accent and mannerisms.
S3 E15 The Big Bang Job: When confronting Moreau with Hardison.
S4 E1 The Long Way Down Job: Upon arriving at the base camp and complaining to Nate.
S4 E7 The Grave Danger Job: When looking for a buried Hardison and hearing the sprinklers.
S4 E10 The Queen's Gambit Job: At the end, swearing revenge on Sterling.
S4 E12 The Office Job: Arguing with Hardison about Eliot's sandwich while searching the warehouse.
S4 E13 The Girls' Night Out Job: When trying to convince Nate to socialise at the very start.
S4 E14 The Boys' Night Out Job: Exactly the same as the previous episode, so this one barely counts.
S4 E17 The Radio Job: In the patent office, when trying to figure out who lured Nate into this situation. The same scene is used later as a flashback.
S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Warning Nate of the consequences of taking a life with your own hands.
S5 E2 The Blue Line Job: When ambushed by Marko when leaving the ice rink.
S5 E9 The Rundown Job: Once when going to wring information on the hit out of Riley, once when Hardison steps on the trigger plate of the claymore.
S5 E13 The Corkscrew Job: First time talking to Betty about how Leonard's a jerk.
RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Twice when ambushed by RIZ thugs in the warehouse.
RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: Once when discussing Ryan Corbett at the start, once when refusing to let Hardison have a turn with the diamond-tipped drill.
RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: When warning Breanna to be certain of her calculations for how to get him and Parker out of the casino's vault.
RS1 E8 The Mastermind Job: Once when discussing hiring people to overthrow a government, once when discussing how they're going to do like 6 things at once, including saving Harry.
RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: Said twice while talking with Blanche, after Blanche helped rescue Eliot from RIZ.
RS1 E14 The Great Train Job: While digging through the tainted soil with Harry.
RS2 E1 The Debutante Job: When trying to get to Volkov's plane with Parker and seeing that two guards are in the way.
RS2 E5 The Walk In The Woods Job: Talking to Paul after rescuing Harry, who was pretending to be Eliot.
Fun fact: for every ain't that Eliot says, Hardison says at least two more. And that's too many for me to bother recording!
Phrases: Y'all
Never. Not even once.
Hardison, on the other hand, says y'all all the damn time - every season, multiple times, sometimes even multiple times in the same episode.
Honourable mention for Chaos saying y'all as an incorrect mockery of Eliot's accent in S3 E14 The Ho Ho Ho Job.
... Okay, okay! So Eliot says it a few times in Redemption! But only in ONE episode!
RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Said 4 times when playing a character and convincing people to clear out of the auction house.
That's it.
Aliases
These are all the names that Eliot's gone by or used on cons that I could find, not just full blown aliases.
S1 E1 The Nigerian Job: Detective Lieutenant Carden (the scene with this alias was cut from a lot of versions of this episode)
S1 E4 The Snow Job: Vince Fetkey, Hans Von Schwesterkrank
S1 E7 The Two-Horse Job: Brad Mackie
S1 E9 The Stork Job: Dale
S1 E12 The First David Job: Professor Sinclair
S1 E13 The Second David Job: Professor/Dr Adam Sinclair
S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Kid Jones (on the fight match poster)
S2 E4 The Fairy Godparents Job: Coach Brewer
S2 E5 The Three Days Of The Hunter Job: Earl
S2 E9 The Lost Heir Job: Officer Hilts
S2 E10 The Runway Job: Julian
S2 E14 The Three Strikes Job: Roy Chappell
S3 E1 The Jailhouse Job: Dr Abernathy
S3 E2 The Reunion Job: Lloyd Hickey
S3 E4 The Scheherazade Job: Guy Hamilton
S3 E5 The Double Blind Job: Phil
S3 E6 The Studio Job: Kenneth Crane
S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Agent Quint
S3 E8 The Boost Job: Skeeter
S3 E9 The Three-Card Monte Job: Detective Moffat
S3 E10 The Underground Job: Eric
S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: Dr Wes Abernathy
S3 E16 The San Lorenzo Job: Ray Laroque
S4 E2 The Ten Li'l Grifters Job: Charlie Siringo
S4 E4 The Van Gogh Job: Lieutenant (only granting him this one because CK played him in the flashback)
S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Tom Boonen
S4 E12 The Office Job: Mr Dennis
S4 E14 The Boys' Night Out Job: Luigi
S4 E15 The Lonely Hearts Job: Jackson Cooper
S4 E16 The Gold Job: Tobias Bowden
S4 E17 The Radio Job: Cowboy (*cough* John McClane *cough*)
S5 E2 The Blue Line Job: Jacques "Jack" Labert
S5 E3 The First Contact Job: Willie Riker
S5 E5 The Gimme A K Street Job: Steven Turner
S5 E6 The DB Cooper Job: DB Cooper/Young Steve Reynolds (again, technically not an alias but whatever it's here anyway)
S5 E7 The Real Fake Car Job: Barry McElroy
S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Archer
S5 E14 The Toy Job: Carl
Honourable mentions of Eliot being called:
"Rambo" by Hardison in S1 E2 The Homecoming Job [thanks @independent-fics for this!];
"Emeril" by Parker in S1 E3 The Wedding Job [thanks @aardvaark for this one!];
"Sparky" by Parker in S1 E10 The Juror #6 Job and by Tara in S2 E15 The Maltese Falcon Job;
and "Skippy" by Hardison in S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job.
RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Will Gallagher
RS1 E6 The Card Game Job: Glenn the Savage
RS1 E7 The Double-Edged Sword: Emmett Milbarge
RS1 E8 The Mastermind Job: Frank Farmer
RS1 E10 The Unwellness Job: Hank
RS1 E12 The Golf Job: Reed Wilkins
RS1 E13 The Hurricane Job: Calvin
RS1 E15 The Muddy Waters Job: Armus Vagra
RS2 E7 The Big Rig Job: Kris
RS2 E8 The Turkish Prisoner Job: Nick O'Brien
RS2 E10 The Work Study Job: New Blood, Caterpillar
Honourable mention of Eliot being called "Skipper" by Hardison in RS1 E16 The Harry Wilson Job.
Known Associates
This is in direct reference to hitters/people from the criminal world that Eliot knew or was aware of prior to the Leverage Team. Quinn is not included in this list due to that distinction (sorry Quinn).
S1 E3 The Wedding Job: The Butcher of Kiev
S2 E7 The Two Live Crew Job: Mikel Dayan
S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: Gutman
S3 E15 The Big Bang Job: Chapman, Damien Moreau
S3 E16 The San Lorenzo Job: Damien Moreau
S4 E4 The Van Gogh Job: Frank, Randall
S4 E6 The Carnival Job: Roper
S5 E4 The French Connection: Rampone
S5 E9 The Rundown Job: Riley
Trivia
S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: Eliot claims he only sleeps 90 minutes a day, and that he cured his claustrophobia as a kid by locking himself in the woodshed behind his house for a couple nights.
S3 E6 The Studio Job: Eliot is nervous to perform in front of an audience, to the point that Parker startles him and she's surprised that she did. Interesting to note that he seems to have no issue playing sport in front of crowds.
S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Eliot says he hates beets.
S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Eliot chews gum. He does this throughout a LOT of episodes across the seasons but I've only noted down this one episode for it.... thanks, past me 🙄 [Edit: thanks @nival-kenival for more info! Another confirmed episode is S1 E2 The Homecoming Job, and S3 E13 The Morning After Job!]
S4 E9 The Cross My Heart Job: Eliot says he fought a guy with a Nerf sword in Damascus, 2002.
S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Eliot drives an F-150 to his dad's house in Oklahoma. This is a THIRD vehicle that apparently belongs to Eliot, in addition to the Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Challenger we see in other episodes. The F-150 is not seen again.
S5 E12 The White Rabbit Job: Eliot has 'special sedatives' aka a little psychotropic he picked up outside of Bogota.
Eliot mostly walks at the back of the group, presumably to be the rear guard and make sure no one falls behind. See ... just about every damn episode for evidence.
RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: Parker says that Eliot has cut his way out of an ice cave, escaped a gorilla enclosure, and catered a wedding for the mob.
Eliot is seen wearing glasses throughout various episodes. A flashback in S1 E1 The Nigerian Job shows him wearing presumably his own glasses. All other instances of him wearing glasses (that I can think of) are when he takes someone's glasses for a con. It is unconfirmed if Eliot actually needs glasses to correct his eyesight or not, but is a fandom headcanon. In S3 E1 The Jailhouse Job there is an interaction where Nate ribs Eliot for taking so long in a fight, and Eliot says it's because of new glasses. An argument could be made that this means Eliot does require glasses. [Thanks @independent-fics for picking this up - for pretty much all the details pertaining to Eliot's glasses!]
And there you have it! All the details that I've spent the last 3 months collecting!! Now it's time for me to take a good, long break because my brain is fried! 😂
Once again, let me know if you find any errors so I can update the post. Data from Redemption S2 is where I've most likely missed things, since I don't have it on DVD and it's sooo much harder to scrub through streaming footage to find things. When will they release RS2 on DVD I need itttt.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope this post can be a helpful reference for you!
Two days ago my husband said "...and he was pissed" and I said "don't say that around the kids!" so he corrected himself to "and he was liquid angry" and I've been laughing since
these are hyraxes! they're not rodents or canines or anything like that. they belong to their very own order known as hyracoidea. their closest relatives are elephants and manatees, and these mamas and babies have FREAKY teeth
Of all the redemption arcs in popular fantasy media, I feel like Theoden's in The Lord of the Rings is the most overlooked.
The movies emphasize the magical control that the evil powers exercise over Theoden, but in the books, it's more obviously a depiction of bad kingship, in the British medieval sense. Theoden takes bad advice; he neglects his family; he fails to reward his knights; and he leaves his people vulnerable to attack. He also does not honor his kingdom's promises to help nearby kingdoms, as we can tell from Boromir's account of what Gondor has been going through.
Gandalf doesn't just cast out the curse and magically fix everything. He encourages Theoden to free himself from his bad advisor, but Theoden has to take all the subsequent steps. And those choices are not easy; after so much neglect, his knights are scattered, and his only option for defending his people is to gather them at Helm's Deep. The siege does not go well. His people are afraid and despairing. But nevertheless, he holds firm and charges out to meet the enemy -- and Gandalf literally meets him halfway, bringing with him the lost knights, whom Theoden welcomes and rewards after the battle.
Theoden could have just gone home after that. But when Gondor calls for aid, Theoden proves his worth by honoring his promises. He keeps his oaths not only to his people but to his allies.
And the climax of his redemption in the book is not his death, but his leadership. The ride of the Rohirrim against Sauron's armies is described in lavish detail, with an uncharacteristically heated pace: Theoden leads the entire line of Rohan, his banner streaming behind him in the wind as they race toward their foe. And that's the end of the chapter.
I love Theoden's arc so much, and especially that moment so much, because the message is not that he has to win battles or seek power. He just has to keep fighting. Theoden's greatest enemy isn't really Sauron: it's despair. And over the course of the book, he keeps choosing hope and action over despair and hesitation, until finally he can lead his people with courage.
As someone who struggles a lot with despair, I really needed to hear that story.
yooooo. so I literally wrote a 20 page english paper about the Hope/Despair theme in Tolkien’s work once. It was like ten years ago and I don’t think I have it anymore, but oh boy do I have feeeeeeelings about this topic. And I have drunk a little bit of wine tonight! So here are my unasked for thoughts:
Yes, Theoden’s greatest enemy is despair! Everyone’s greatest enemy is despair. It’s the biggest fucking theme of the series IMO and it makes me crazy how often it gets overlooked.
lord of the rings is a story written by a man whose experience of war was crouching in the bottom of a trench. People like to make a lot of hay about the charge of the light brigade and it’s similarity to the ride of the rohirrim, but no. Tolkien’s experience of war was getting fucking trench fever, not watching cavalry charges. Tolkien’s experience of war was listening to the shells fall around him, knowing that death could come at any moment. He experienced war in a way where the soldiers on the other side of the line were a faceless threat, and the closest and most present enemy was his own fear.
this is the hill I will die on. This is why I hate it when people talk about LotR as a morally cowardly story about fighting mindless orcs that exist to be cannon fodder. No. Lord of the Rings is about seeing the dark coming on the horizon, and fighting yourself. Fighting the fear and despair that rise up inside you. Struggling with your own terror and powerlessness, knowing that you are small, and nothing you do will matter in the face of this massive conflict— you’re just here, one more meaningless soul to feed into the machine guns. Lord of the Rings is about taking a deep breath, and bracing yourself, and deciding that if nothing you do matters, all that matters is how you do it. The ring can’t possibly be destroyed— we choose to form a fellowship anyway. Helms deep will surely fall by morning— we still choose to fight. The quest can’t possibly succeed— and yet we choose to march into the teeth of mordor to distract the enemy. It’s not hope, exactly? But’s it’s not not hope.
I did at one point have twenty pages written about this. Tolkien was a deeply christian man— he believed in eucatastrophe. Salvation. A better world to come, after suffering, if you bore your suffering well. But he was also a world-class Beowulf scholar with a kinda viking-warrior-type view of the world. And do you know what the vikings believed? (Pls don’t anybody @ me for saying viking, I know it’s a verb and not a culture). The vikings believed that the time of your death was preordained, and that all you had control over was how you met it.
And that is some seriously Rohirric shit!! Like, we’re all mortals doomed to die, Ragnarok is coming, and this whole world is an inevitable grind down into oblivion… but if we’re fighting a long defeat, all the more reason to fight it gloriously!! That’s epic. Eomer approves the hell out of that message.
I’m gonna be a real nerd now, and quote from a poem called the Battle of Maldon.
“Courage shall grow keener, clearer our will,
More valiant our spirits, as our strength grows less.
Here lies our good lord, all leveled in dust
The man all marred. True kinsman will mourn
Who thinks to wend off from battle play now?
Though whitened by winters I will not away,
But lodge by my liege lord that favorite of men;
By my dear one and ring giver intend I to lie.”
That’s a translation from an Old English poem that’s literally a thousand years old, but it always gets me how much it sounds like something Tolkien would write. Theoden and Eowyn are practically leaping out of that poem: We’re all going to die, I choose to meet my end fiercely. We’re all going to die, so I want to die beside my king.
It’s an acceptance of death, and even of failure, but not of defeat. Because— to get back to what I was talking about earlier— Lord of the Rings isn’t actually a story about battlefields. It’s a story about being at war with your own heart. Despair or faith? Hope or defeat? Tolkien wants you to know that even if your city is overrun by orcs, or you’re killed in a meaningless push for another 50 feet of french mud, you can still hold on to your courage with both hands and not cede up your soul to despair-- and that’s the battle Tolkien thinks is really worth writing about.
It’s a battle that every major character in the story fights. Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Theoden, Denethor, Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Galadriel, Eowyn, Faramir, Eomer, Saruman, Gollum, Aragorn. Some of them hold onto hope through everything. Some of them break utterly. Some of them are defeated, and then with help find their footing again, and make a redeeming last stand.
But the point that Tolkien hammers home again and again is: Death and failure are natural parts of life, and should be accepted. Despair shouldn’t be.
Tolkien says: hope is hard, actually. Fuck that Game of Thrones grimdark bullshit. Hope is hard fucking work. And even if you don’t have hope? Fight like you do. Because the world needs people working to make it better. Do the best you can with what you have, and whether you can see the mark you’re making on the world or not, the simple fact that you’re trying means the world is a better place.
Anyway, I fucking love these books. I am going to stop drinking wine, and go to bed now. :)
This is a phrase Tolkien used, by the way, “hope without guarantees”. A very good description of what his book offers. Despair is for people who know, beyond any doubt, what the future is going to be. Nobody’s in that position. So despair is not only a kind of sin, theologically, it’s also a simple mistake, because nobody actually knows. In that sense, there always is hope.
— Dr. Patrick Curry, “J. R. R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle Earth” (extra on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Appendices: Part One DVD)
I can’t find it right now, but there’s a post somewhere on here about the fact that there are two words for ‘hope’ in Sindarin Elvish: amdir, which means something like ‘expectation’ or ‘rational hope’ (literally ‘looking toward’), and estel, which means something more like ‘hope without guarantees,’ ‘faith,’ or simply ‘the absence of despair.’ Estel, of course, is one of Aragorn’s names.
I love this because THIS IS IT! THIS IS EVERYTHING!
and I want to highlight that quote from Dr. Curry (at least I think that’s it, because tumblr’s formatting is fuckéd), specifically the part that says “So despair is not only a kind of sin, theologically, it’s also a simple mistake, because nobody actually knows. In that sense, there always is hope.“
Because as pointed out above, Tolkien was a DEEPLY Christian guy, specifically a grumpy, unreconstructed pre-Vatican II Catholic. Which is the point that my professor made when I took a class on Tolkien. And specifically, she talked about how in that theology despair is a sin.
Despair is believing that your circumstances are so bad that God cannot overcome them. It’s saying that there is something more powerful in your life than God. Or at the very least that you know better than God what the end of these circumstances will be. And Catholic theology does not take kindly to that.
And while we can argue about that as a theological position all day long, you can see it EVERYWHERE in Tolkien, but maybe most clearly with Denethor, the other ruler with a bad advisor. The one who doesn’t listen to the people in his life counseling hope. He believes that his despair is the only true thing in the world, that there is no force that can overcome it. And Denethor’s despair costs him his life, and it nearly costs Faramir’s life and ruins the whole city’s chances at the battle.
So to put it all together, for Tolkien, death will come eventually, but we have a choice of how we face it when it arrives. The best way to face it is with hope and humility, and the fight to have hope is a hard one, but a worthwhile one. Because if you can hold on to hope in the face of impossible odds, if you can trust that there is a purpose you cannot see, then some good may still come of your acts. But if you give into despair, destruction is inevitable.
Okay but can we talk about how when Parker was upset and was like can we kill that guy? Eliot, who strictly does not kill people anymore, locked eyes with nate and as like I mean yah I'll kill him gimme a hour
foreshadowing done well makes me go feral like there’s NOTHING better than getting to the end a book or an important storyline moment and realising that the author laced information so intricately into their writing that weren’t noticeable upon first read but when you read back sections they’re light giant red flags like wow writing is amazing
My favorite title for the new season of Leverage: Redemption has to be "The Swipe Right Job" and here's the completely made-up episode summary that just popped into my head:
Sophie's ready to love again, but she's having a weird time on the dating apps. Things get even stranger when she unexpectedly stumbles onto the mark's dating profile. The crew convinces her to swipe right and set up a date to infiltrate his inner circle. Quickly, she discovers his evil may stem from his loneliness, and there's a good chance he's only one meet-cute with the right woman away from changing his ways for good.
honestly kudos to Elementary for gender swapping John Watson in what we all thought was an attempt to make johnlock palatable to the masses and then proceeding to not only make them entirely platonic but also become the ONLY modern adaptation where i actually feel like them being platonic makes complete sense
I admit, I did not watch it, but I remember when it first got announced I was like oh boy, great, just a way to make it not gay. And then they didn't...and there is so much respect earned from that
To be clear, I don't have any news about any impending doom. But I've heard a bit more about what's going on with staff after the layoff of last week, and there are even less people than I thought still working here.
I don't think even the current staff know what's going to happen, but honestly, I don't see how the high ups could even pretend to intend to keep this place open while virtually unstaffed.
In your blog settings you have the ability to initiate a blog export, and this will generate a backup for your blog.
Fair warning though, if you've been on the platform for a long time this archive is likely to be quite hefty in file size. This blog I have had for 5 years with 22k posts, and the export from tumblr came to be 48GB. My previous blog I made in 2011 and has 95k posts, so needless to say I did not use tumblr's built in export to back that one up.
If you want more control over exactly what you back up from your blog, I recommend that you use tumblr-utils instead. It allows you to backup specific tags, post types, and to ignore posts that you did not create (reblogs where you've added a comment count as a post you created, to be clear).
To use it:
download and install python
create an application on tumblr to get an api key
create a folder where you would like to save your backups and right click to open it in the terminal/command prompt, or type cmd.exe in the address bar from inside that folder
now in the window that opens it should show the current path, and you can type pip install tumblr-backup, and then when it is installed type tumblr-backup --set-api-key [your oauth consumer key], and then finally tumblr-backup [your options] [your blog name], like so:
Backing up just my original posts from this blog with this command came to 632MB rather than 48GB, and also gave me the option to save my posts in JSON format which will be useful for converting my posts to a new format for self hosting.
On that note I'm currently looking into figuring out a simple (and ideally free) way of self hosting a static site blog that utilises activitypub, and also converting my old posts to re-host on said blog.
This post series by maho.dev on implementing activitypub with any static site is my primary source of guidance atm if you also want to try figure that out yourself, as well as having an explanation for why you'd even want to do this if you don't already know
but if tumblr goes down before I get things sorted and write up a post about it then i'll be reporting back on it via my bsky, mastodon, and toyhouse accounts
if you dont have an account on any of these I'll also be sharing an update via my personal site's RSS feed, link of which includes an explanation of what RSS is and some feed readers you can use, I highly recommend checking it out as getting a feed reader is going to be the best way you can stay connected with people if they scatter across the internet!
tldr: download tumblr-utils to backup your blog more efficiently, introduce yourself to RSS and get a feed reader to stay connected with people, consider saving mine so you can find out how to self host your blog later if tumblr goes down
TumblThree is the code rewrite of [TumblTwo](https://www.jzab.de/content/tumbltwo), a free and open source Tumblr blog backup application,
A Tumblr and Twitter Blog Backup Application. Contribute to TumblThreeApp/TumblThree development by creating an account on GitHub.
here's another application that will let you download blogs and your Likes also that's got a lil more gui!
it took me a bit to figure out downloading likes, but here's some tips:
• for the releases link, download the x86 zip for 32 bit systems and x64 for 64 bit.
• unzip and click the TumblThree application in there
• instructions are in the first link for Likes downloading under the "For downloading liked photos and videos" bullet point
• if, after authenticating, your email label doesn't show up and your likes are showing as offline in the blog list, restart the application and right click -> check blog online status
• after you download a blog you'll get a text file in the Blogs -> yourblogname folder just called "texts.txt" - this is text posts and reblog chains. you can open and save this as a .html to view it in a browser. a lot of the content is still hotlinked to tumblr, but at least it's all in a format that can be converted by someone savvy to reference all those juicy images and such that you downloaded along with it
my likes are downloading wayyyy slower then my blogs did (we'll see how long it takes to export all 11 thousand of them LOL) but i'm excited to have them exported 👍
Commentary for The Studio Job says they really wanted to bring back the butcher of Kiev for a scene where he sees a picture that his niece posted to myspace of her and Eliot and freaks out, but the actor wasn't available when they would've needed him, and personally I feel cheated that we didn't get that
