You know when there’s one thing a character says that’s so perfect, it epitomizes their personality? I have been realizing that along with description, my characterization is somewhat weak, and I can see that when I realize another’s is very strong.
Christian Kane as Elliot
Specifically, I was watching Leverage Season Two last night. Now, I love this show because of the characters; I barely pay attention to the cons, I just want to know what the characters will do next. My favorite is Elliot, the thug. So, he’s a heavy, goes in to beat the crap out of whoever threatens the rest of the team, simple character, right? But his character is so beautifully defined. Elliot doesn’t like guns. And the actor, Christian Kane, gets a beautiful look of disgust and disbelief when he takes a gun from someone, removes all the ammo in one swift move, and throws the gun down as if it’s dirty. He loves pure, hand to hand combat. Anything else is offensive.
He also is a gourmet cook (“These pears aren’t going to braise themselves!”) and a fashion guru (“I date a lot of models.”)
But Elliot said one thing in one episode that was a complete metaphor for his character. They were talking about baseball, and he shook his head. “I don’t like baseball. I don’t like a game where you can’t score on defense.” I was honestly shocked. That was Elliot. That’s how he fights. He always waits for someone to hit first. He will even wait for someone to go get a weapon, and wait for them to attack, before he moves. The only time I’ve seen him attack first is if someone is attacking one of his friends, and still that required the enemy to move first.*
But this one statement about sports indicated how deeply ingrained this sense is, taking his fighting style and applying it to his life was such a brilliant move, and it sounds so simple – but I wouldn’t have thought of it.
* Oh, wait, he attacked the investigator who’s now with InterPol – can’t remember his name cause I always think of hm as “Badger” from Firefly.
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Mark Sheppard’s character on Leverage is named Jim Sterling-the Leverage crew simply call him “Sterling”. Eliot did attack him but it was not an unprovoked attack. Sterling had hired another thug to beat the ever-loving crap out of Eliot and the hitter had told Sterling he had “some dental work with your name on it.”
Denita, thanks for the name!
And I didn’t say he didn’t have a reason for hitting Sterling, I said he hit first. As he’s a fighter who always works on counter-attacks, this was rare. Sterling’s not going to attack Elliot, he’s not that suicidal.