Eliot Spencer

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Character
Name: Eliot Spencer
Occupation: retrieval specialist
Relationships: Parker (Teammate)
Alec Hardison (Teammate)
Nate Ford (Teammate)
Sophie Devereaux (Teammate)
Aimee Martin (ex-fiancée)
Fandom: Leverage
Other: played by Christian Kane
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For the fanzine, see Eliot Spencer (Leverage zine).

Eliot Spencer is a character from Leverage.

Fandom

Eliot is the fandom's BSO.[1] Some of Eliot's popularity with fans is a result of the existing fanbase for Christian Kane, due in part to the actor's role as Lindsey McDonald on Angel: The Series and his inclusion in many CWRPS and other RPF fanworks.

Eliot/Nate and Hardison/Eliot are both popular slash ships. Eliot/Parker was popular early in the show's airing. Eliot/Hardison/Parker is the fandom OT3.

Eliot Spencer: Woobie?

Eliot Spencer is rapidly becoming the new Daniel Jackson of the television landscape (or the new Ezra Standish -- look, they even have the same initials!) and it's positively driving me nuts.

For those who don't watch Leverage, Eliot is the muscle of the group -- relatively good looking (depending on how much you like Christian Kane with manky shoulder-length hair), able to take a lot of punches, and very good at beating the shit out of people. Mostly his job entails rescuing the others when they get caught, playing bodyguard roles in cons, and very occasionally playing some other sort of role if they've run out of other people to do it. He's well-respected by his team and no one ever questions that if he's brought in, he'll be able to get the job done.

That's the canon Eliot. The fanon Eliot, on the other hand, is totally taken for granted by his team, forced to do endless manual labor between bouts of getting the shit kicked out of him, and is perpetually hiding life-threatening injuries from his so-called friends (because if they *really* cared about him, they'd totally notice that he was stabbed/concussed/walking on a broken leg/whatever). Fortunately for him, there's usually a female OC available to fall in love with him and show the others the Error of Their Ways.

In short, fanon!Eliot is the very essence of Woobie and is generally lamer than a three-legged dog, despite the fact that the whole point of his canon character is that he kicks ass. And while I do find a bit of perverse satisfaction in the fact that the *canon* woobie of the team (Hardison, who frequently complains about how everyone takes him for granted, who is endlessly teased by Eliot, and who has actually had a con run on him by the rest of his team) is perpetually awesome in fanfic, I'm getting really tired of the fact that 90% of the Leverage fandom is determined to turn Eliot into a spineless baby.

Leverage authors: the whole *point* of Leverage is that everyone on that team is the absolute best at what they do. They all kick ass and they *all* have put their lives on the line for the others at one point in time or another. Please stop trying to demonize the rest of the team just so that you can infantilize Eliot. Thank you. [2]

Fanworks

Fanfction

Meta

Vids

Links & Resources

References

  1. ^ For example, see Lies, damn lies, and statistics (Leverage fanfic demographics) , cofax7's look at character popularity based on tags at geteven_getfic, 28 April 2009. Eliot remains the most popular character on Archive of Our Own as of May 2017, with 3,634 works to Alec Hardison's 2,685 and Parker's 2577.
  2. ^ Eliot Spencer, Woobie, Archived version, at Epic Rants, December 19, 2010
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