Latest Posts by catradora333 - Page 7

MAJOR DEAD RECKONING PART 1 SPOILERS

My second watch makes me feel much stronger about my theory about the Big Spoiler in this movie, and how Part 2 will follow it up.

At first I bought the movie’s basic reading, but now there’s no doubt in my mind it’s a fakeout: Ilsa Faust is absolutely alive.

I will fully be ready to look like an idiot if she’s not, because I’ve run down everything I’ve thought of that the movie could do to telegraph her death being a fakeout, without actually revealing it:

- establish the idea of IMF people successfully faking people’s deaths in general and Ilsa’s specifically ✅

- Have both plot and character reasons why Ilsa pretending to be dead would be necessary ✅

- Establish that the way she supposedly died wasn’t guaranteed to be fatal ✅

- Have a scene vaguely establishing that the IMF is getting ready to do a con, but not specify what ✅

- No last words or final moments for her character ✅

- Skip past what the IMF does immediately after she supposedly dies ✅

- No one in the IMF literally says “she’s dead” ✅

That last one is big: Christopher McQuarrie has gone on record saying “No one in the audience of a Mission: Impossible movie will accept something is true until Ethan Hunt says it”. He never says she’s dead, and the closest he comes is thinking of her in a montage with Marie (who we also never specifically are told is dead) and Grace (who we know is alive).

Meanwhile, when Grace says “she’s dead”, Luther says “No, you’re alive because of her, and that’s the truth”, which is very specifically calling attention to the beginning and end of that sentence.

People are angry at this decision, but McQuarrie has also gone on record as saying “We want the audience to think we’ve ruined Mission: Impossible”, and if you want ways to make people think you’ve ruined any franchise, randomly and cheaply killing the leading lady is an obvious place to start.

I love Ethan and Ilsa so much. He meets her once and she saves him and he’s like wow, she’s amazing. She can do no wrong. Shoots him and benji? Tries to assassinate someone? She had no choice. Literally electrocutes his friend? It’s fine, he turned out ok. She performs any action and he’s just like “you’re doing amazing sweetie!!” And he so badly wants to get her out of the spy life. That’s something he can never have and something he couldn’t give back to his wife and he wants so badly to help Ilsa achieve it.

Meanwhile she thinks he’s the best person in the world, she just goes behind him saving his ass and staring wistfully at him.

Except, in between these times, they always end up on opposite sides and have to shoot each other, chase each other down, and hit each other with cars. But somehow they still trust each other bc they never lie to each other about their goals or intentions, not anymore.

If she dies, I will riot :)

One thing I love so much about the MI movies is that at the beginning they were just another bond movie. Replaceable female love interest, and everyone else was also replaceable

But with six movies Ethan managed to find himself a little found family. With the writers changing every movie it was definitely never planned. But then everyone liked Luther so much - so he stayed, and then everyone liked Benji so he stayed. Then everyone loved Brandt so he stayed. Then McQuarrie appeared and delivered and hell, did he delivered. And he wrote Ilsa and the found family was perfect

And now Ethan, who started like a second bond, a lonely lone wolf, now says things like: you life’s matter more then the mission. If anything happened to you I will kill everyone who ever hurt you“

I am a Little emotional

The daily amount of new hazel fanfics is getting smaller and smaller each day and if I'm being honest that's very bad for my mental health

STOP! being mean to hazel callahan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

„Inside job“ might easily be one of my favorite Leverage episode so far because it has „found family“ written all over it, from Nate cooking to Sophie teasing to the entire team going full on deadly-serious in order to get Parker back out.

Not to mention that Parker, team AND Archie point out that the team is Parker‘s real family

i will never get over the "jeremiah's a bad brother" from the con-gave-me-a-rash supporters. especially if you add in the "conrad is an amazing brother" bc what. did we watch the same show? conrad consistently uses jeremiah's insecurities against him and makes hin feel bad for not knowing things that conrad specifically keeps from him. and the difference between jeremiah finding out about bonbad vs conrad finding out about jellyfish does matter. bc jeremiah said "he'll break your heart" (if one more person is like "he pulled the cancer card" i'll lose my mind, he JUST found out abt it ofc they're intertwined emotions, and conundrum's whole personality is the cancer card so what?) and stops talking to belly, but is perfectly polite to them and privately, kindly, and calmly sets a boundary with conrad. conrad asks if belly only kissed jeremiah to make him jealous (which is so fucked, jesus), and then makes some weird creepy allusion to crashing the car bc he's mad, slut shames jeremiah, calls jeremiah (and belly but this is abt conrad and jere) stupid, picks at jeremiah, asks who the better kisser is, tells him he doesn't know belly, and then refuses to talk to jeremiah until jeremiah forces him to. and he's supposed to be the better brother? also, the "conrad asked for jeremiah's blessing first, jeremiah didn't" one, he at least knew a little bit that jeremiah and belly had a thing, hence why he texted her at the party, and then kissed her anyway. THEN after finding out jeremiah had feelings for her he says "it's jere, he doesn't take anything seriously, be with me" and then when belly (bc if it was up to him they'd be together) said she didn't wanna get together until jeremiah was okay with it, he lied to her to get with her. everyone talks abt the scene where he finds jere doing the bills alone and leaves him there after manipulating him into getting his blessing, but nobody talks about the line jere has "i can't believe you'd come here like this" bc he hasn't been there. he came home to ask jeremiah for his blessing and nothing else. he didn't even try to help jere with the bills. then asks jeremiah if he wants a medal when he talks about how hard it was taking care of susannah? yes, jeremiah shouldn't have said what he said, but the difference is this is one fight that's been bottled up for months, vs conrad consistently crossing the line and hurting jeremiah. him telling him to grow up was soooo unfair. he always picks at jeremiah's insecurities and blames jeremiah for forgiving adam when we don't even know if jeremiah (in the show) knows abt him cheating, and adam is the only family jeremiah (barely) has left. two, conrad getting with belly was planned, belly and jeremiah's kiss wasn't. three, conrad confessed his feeling to belly the night before her and jeremiah's wedding. that's. so. fucked. but jeremiah goes to their wedding, belly blows him a kiss and he just turns away. he tells him he just wants them to be happy. he even tells belly he won't be upset if she chooses conrad in s2. he convinces belly and conrad to talk about their feelings in s2. but the firework, a single fight, and a kiss make him a terrible person.

“I don’t need therapy because my comfort characters are my therapy” and it turns out the comfort characters in question are the ones who need therapy the most

I am vaguely trying to make gif sets dlfkgjfdlkg I think it’s okay??? (insp)

the feminine urge to listen to the entire soundtrack of the movie/series you've just finished.

PITCH PERFECT ( 2012 ) dir. jason moore

Leverage 1x3 - "The Two-Horse Job"

I will not sign it away

Eliot and A'Yan.

Leverage S03E12 The King George Job.

god every time i watch leverage i'm just reminded that like. they didn't HAVE to put in the amount of effort that they did! they didn't NEED to keep nate's storylines about his addiction and his son and his father consistent. they didn't NEED to stretch out the parker/hardison slowburn so elegantly. they didn't NEED to give tara goddamn cole a character arc despite her being in the show for like half a season!

but they did!! they did all of these things!!! and they also dedicated entire episodes to team-building (the rashomon job), they also kept sterling consistent, they also made the goddamn RUNDOWN JOB like. this show did not have to be as good as it is!! but it really is just SO GOOD

My all time favorite quotes of Hardison and Elliot showing support for Parker (S02E13 - the Future Job)

Tara: “He is good.”

Hardison: “He should be shot.”

Parker: “…cut off his arms. And his head. Yeah, I wanna kill him. Can we make that happen?”

Elliot: “Yeah, I can. I mean, I could…” (heavily implies murder)

Headcanon that Tara's backstory is for real basically the backstory she gave the psychic guy Rand in The Future Job, but it goes a little more like this: Tara worked for the FBI but when she got diagnosed with a brain tumor they fired her and she had to come up with the money to pay for brain surgery somehow so she turned her training to the other side of the law. This is why she agrees to help the team and why Sophie asked her in the first place and it's also why she's so set on getting paid (she's never going to be that desperate ever again and if she gave up her law-abiding-ness for crime it's most definitely going to pay).

Another day watching The Future Job, another day screaming and crying about how whenever Parker gets freaked out she goes home. Not to her big secret warehouse where she can be alone but straight to HQ or wherever the crew will be because that's where she's safe, that's home.

Ok so i don't have the time to go in and get a screen recorded video with volume but look here

When parker says she wants to kill Dalton Rand, she's looking to Nate. She's asking Nate if they can kill him. Eliot volunteers to kill him. Parker turns to look at Eliot when he starts to speak. Eliot "I don't kill people anymore" Spencer volunteers to kill Rand of his own volition. Parker isn't even asking him, looking to him. He just cares so much about Parker being hurt that he volunteers to do something that hurts himself without being promted or asked personally. This is just something that means so much to me. This is only season 2 but the strong connections are already there

Okay, okay. You all are probably ANNOYED about my Leverage posts- and I was on the fence about posting this one because I'm only on season 3. However, I just have SO many thoughts and I need to process them. So- here it goes;

*takes a deep breath*

Leverage is home. Like, I don't- I don't know to explain it. In another post I said the show was intoxicating and that's still true. But it's also- it's also home. Maybe I'm the only one, but when I watch it- I feel like I belong. Which is ridiculous. I'm not talented at all- but Leverage is almost like a security blanket. It's- it's safe and warm... it's home.

The only thing I can think of why it's home is because of them. Because they make it feel like home. They make feel safe and like your being cared for. Like your not alone. Even if you don't think your good at something- Leverage has your back. It gives you a sense of security. Which is weird because their criminals. But- like they said; Sometimes the bad guys are the only good guys you get.

I mean- you have Nate Ford who is always two to three spaces in front of the bad guy. Who sits there and listens to victims and gives them hope. Who talks to his team and bounces ideas off of them- instead of talking down to them. He's the kinda guy that watches from the background and sees all sorts of angles. Gets into the minds of both the victim and assailant. And if the con goes wrong- he has a second one ready to cover. Whose weakness is an empty bottle in an occupied barstool.

You have Sophie. A terrible actress whose good at acting. She can play any part. Be unseen- while being seen. Whose brave, kind, and gentle- but can kick butt when needed. She's not a damsel in distress- but she'll play the part. And the thing about that part is; it's so convincing- even she believes it too. Despite that- she's honest and sincere, she'll tell you what she thinks. Her heart is gold. Her trust is thin. She's like a snake- hypnotizing. Her weakness is the love she gave to a man who thinks too much and feels too little.

You have Eliot. A man that- if you just look at him- you'll just shrug him off. He's like any other brute. Big and brawny. And that's why you shouldn't ever judge a book by it's cover. He's so much more than that. Yes. He's brawn. A real southern charmer. But he has a brain and a heart. He's that big brother and gives you hugs and you can't help but melt into the security of that feeling. That feeling of safety that you just know has an ocean of anger underneath. But your not scared, you can't be scared. Not of him. He's the kinda guy you run towards- because you know he'll keep you safe. And yeah- maybe he'll use his brawn to keep you safe, but he'll also use his brain and his heart. He'll get you out of the situation in one piece with a grumble and a growl. His weakness is his kindness and that's why doesn't let it show.

You have Alec. The brainiac. The hacker- who isn't all that much to look at (compared to Eliot,) at least not at first glance. Yet, there's something about him that screams safe. Just as much as Eliot. He's outgoing and kind. Smart and funny. And the way that he's got everyone's back- even when it doesn't seem like it. He's your go to- to find any kind of internet mistakes and he's a good shoulder to cry on. He's that brother who is dorky, awkward, and nerdy- but he's honest and sincere. His weakness is not being able to be there when it really matters.

And- and you have Parker. The thief. The master thief- that didn't belong anywhere. Nimble and lean as she flips and slinks through vents. She's the little sister the family didn't know they even wanted. Until finally they realized she was what they needed. She's bright and cheerful despite how she grew up. Her life wasn't easy foster care and street living is a rough life- but she still believes in good things; Santa clause, Nate, Sophie, and Eliot. Most importantly she believed in Hardison. She was on her own until she was found and working with a team. Then she belonged to them. Everything she had done- was so that they knew she loved them. Her weakness is having the ability to not get caught.

To end this; Leverage is an amazing shoe- because it reminds us that no matter our background. No matter how many times we've messed up and haven't belonged- we are all human. It tells us that we will find our home, our tribe, our safety. That no matter our weakness- we'll always have somebody who can take our weakness and become our strength.

I'm only on season 3. I'll more than likely have more thoughts come by season 4/ season 5. (If you agree or disagree- don't hesitate to message me!

“With the strikes it’s back to watching reruns and old movies!”

Me, who already doesn’t see new movies til like 5 years after they come out and has a backlog of shows to watch a mile long:

Reblog if reading someone else’s fanfiction has helped you get through a hard day

You're telling me Eliot Spencer, the guy who wipes the floor with 6/7 bad guys in SECONDS, the guy who got rid of a goon in the kitchen and didn't even have to stop garnishing and plating coz he'll be damned if he got an order late, that guy, just, tells his Hardison to stop eating his food? Doesn't try to wrestle it away? When we know he could take it away and paralyse him with one hand without even using all the fingers? Instead he just says stop eating my food and grumbles how Hardison can't run a brew pub and then cooks for said brew pub? Huh.

you ever just think about how the leverage writers gave us a canon polyamorous relationship confirmation in the long goodbye job?

like, they didn’t have to go that hard

but they did

parker, hardison and eliot are seen as a unit, working together in sync. there are callbacks to the pilot episode multiple times that are centered around their interactions.

and then there’s the “death” scene: aka, the scene that proves just how ride or die they are for each other. they die in each other’s arms. they die holding hands. what’s even more- the two in a canon established relationship are not the ones holding hands. no- instead, it is eliot who is in the middle. eliot, their hitter, their protector, their best friend. he was the one that was in the middle, holding hands with hardison and then parker. he is the one that reaches out and grabs hardison’s hand, reassuring him one last time and referencing an inside joke. parker then makes a point to move and grab eliot’s hand in her own- her literal last act before dying. you CANNOT tell me that is anything but pure, unadulterated love. they lived together. they breathed together. they died together.

AND THEN, as if that wasn’t enough, we had this scene in the final minutes of the show:

sophie: promise me, (looks at parker and hardison) you'll keep them safe.

eliot: till my dying day.

let's take a minute to acknowledge that literally a minute after nate proposes to sophie eliot says THIS??? something reminiscent of marriage vows about parker and hardison? he will protect them until his dying day and not a second before.

and then we have this:

nate: you know, eliot, I'd say call if you need anything, but you never... never need anything.

eliot: yeah, I did. (looks at parker and hardison) and thanks to you, I don't have to search anymore.

parker never had a family, not really, but it's been established that she knows she's not alone, that she has people that care about her, that she is loved (the white rabbit job). hardison had his nana and his family, but we saw at the beginning of the show he was eager to slide into this new found family of his. he cares deeply, loves deeply. and now, at the end of eliot's arc, he admits that all that time, he was missing something. he looks at parker and hardison and states with conviction that he doesn't have to search anymore.

they all have what they were missing at the beginning of the show- each other.

listen, no matter how you feel about the leverage OT3, I think we can all agree that Eliot needs to engage in some handholding (platonic or otherwise) with Parker and Hardison. It’d be good for his blood pressure.

You know those characters who are so insanely dedicated and loyal to the main couple of the show they’re on?

The one that should be considered a third wheel but, somehow, they just belong there, by their side, and while others may question it, the couple never does.

Not once.

The one that is so ride or die for each person individually and the couple’s relationship that it gives you the most intense yearning/poly vibes you’ve ever felt.

The one that will kill for them. Risk everything to ensure their two favorite people are safe and happy.

Special shout out to Eliot Spencer and Walter Skinner for being the epitome of that character type. They’re the real ones. Best boys, fr.

Listen this is an irrefutable fact; young dracula was the peak of vampire television. Just a lil kid tryin to be normal and his crazy vamp fam? Love it. Odd kid who wants to be a vampire that dresses up in capes all the time? Who hasn't? Van Helsing the WOODWORK teacher like who comes up with these things. Honestly loads of the stories on CBBC were bops, like Wizards vs Aliens was my first time seeing like someone be gay and being a somewhat main character, plus that show was awesome, Wolfblood's soundtrack made up my childhood, oh and Merlin of course, and Leonardo that just followed Leonardo Davinci's everyday life like what???- there's probs more but these are my mains anyway. Kids shows are so cool

you have invited strangers into your home, helen pevensie, mother of four.

without the blurred sight of joy and relief, it has become impossible to ignore. all the love inside you cannot keep you from seeing the truth. your children are strangers to you. the country has seen them grow taller, your youngest daughter’s hair much longer than you would have it all years past. their hands have more strength in them, their voices ring with an odd lilt and their eyes—it has become hard to look at them straight on, hasn’t it? your children have changed, helen, and as much as you knew they would grow a little in the time away from you, your children have become strangers.

your youngest sings songs you do not know in a language that makes your chest twist in odd ways. you watch her dance in floating steps, bare feet barely touching the dewy grass. when you try and make her wear her sister’s old shoes—growing out of her own faster than you think she ought to—, she looks at you as though you are the child instead of her. her fingers brush leaves with tenderness, and you swear your daughter’s gentle hum makes the drooping plant stand taller than before. you follow her eager leaps to her siblings, her enthusiasm the only thing you still recognise from before the country. yet, she laughs strangely, no longer the giggling girl she used to be but free in a way you have never seen. her smile can drop so fast now, her now-old eyes can turn distant and glassy, and her tears, now rarer, are always silent. it scares you to wonder what robbed her of the heaving sobs a child ought to make use of in the face of upset.

your other daughter—older than your youngest yet still at an age that she cannot be anything but a child—smiles with all the knowledge in the world sitting in the corner of her mouth. her voice is even, without all traces of the desperate importance her peers carry still, that she used to fill her siblings’ ears with at all hours of the day. she folds her hands in her lap with patience and soothes the ache of war in your mind before you even realise she has started speaking. you watch her curl her hair with careful, steady fingers and a straight back, her words a melody as she tells your eldest which move to make without so much a glance at the board off to her right. she reads still, and what a relief you find this sliver of normalcy, even if she’s started taking notes in a shorthand you couldn’t even think to decipher. even if you feel her slipping away, now more like one of the young, confident women in town than a child desperately wishing for a mother’s approval.

your younger son reads plenty as well these days, and it fills you with pride. he is quiet now, sitting still when you find him bent over a book in the armchair of his father. he looks at you with eyes too knowing for a petulant child on the cusp of puberty, and no longer beats his fists against the furniture when one of his siblings dares approach him. he has settled, you realise one evening when you walk into the living room and find him writing in a looping script you don’t recognise, so different from the scratched signature he carved into the doors of your pantry barely a year ago. he speaks sense to your youngest and eldest, respects their contributions without jest. you watch your two middle children pass a book back and forth, each a pen in hand and sheets of paper bridging the gap between them, his face opening up with a smile rather than a scowl. it freezes you mid-step to find such simple joy in him. remember when you sent them away, helen, and how long it had been since he allowed you to see a smile then?

your eldest doesn’t sleep anymore. none of your children care much for bedtimes these days, but at least sleep still finds them. it’s not restful, you know it from the startled yelps that fill the house each night, but they sleep. your eldest makes sure of it. you have not slept through a night since the war began, so it’s easy to discover the way he wanders the halls like a ghost, silent and persistent in a duty he carries with pride. each door is opened, your children soothed before you can even think to make your own way to their beds. his voice sounds deeper than it used to, deeper still than you think possible for a child his age and size. then again, you are never sure if the notches on his door frame are an accurate way to measure whatever it is that makes you feel like your eldest has grown beyond your reach. you watch him open doors, soothe your children, spend his nights in the kitchen, his hands wrapped around a cup of tea with a weariness not even the war should bring to him, not after all the effort you put into keeping him safe.

your children mostly talk to each other now, in a whispered privacy you cannot hope to be a part of. their arms no longer fit around your waist. your daughters are wilder—even your older one, as she carries herself like royalty, has grown teeth too sharp for polite society— and they no longer lean into your hands. your sons are broad-shouldered even before their shirts start being too small again, filling up space you never thought was up for taking. your eldest doesn’t sleep, your middle children take notes when politicians speak on the wireless and shake their heads as though they know better, and your youngest sings for hours in your garden.

who are your children now, helen pevensie, and who pried their childhood out of your shaking hands?