Meme and meta time! (Two of my favorite things)
Give me a fannish topic and I'll meta for at least 100 words. Then I'll give you a topic to meta on for at least 100 words. (This part is optional. I will gladly give you something if you want, but if you don't want to, I'll just be happy to meta for you.)All/most of my fandoms are on my profile (and I'm still working on that list that will be up
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I love how on the surface Eliot and Parker’s personalities are probably the farthest apart in the group. It takes a long time for anyone to really understand Parker in general, but the others personalities are more organically fit on the surface. Parker is pretty much always honest, she almost doesn’t know how to lie when it doesn’t involve the job, everything about her personality is in your face and brash and anything but subtle. Eliot on the other hand, while often gruff, is quiet and charming when he wants and or needs to be because of the job. He connects to people, because he understands them, and whatever hardships he’s faced has made him want to help and protect them. Where it’s harder for Parker to connect with people, because she never really learned how, never had anyone really to care about that same way. And there’s lots of (lovely) scenes where this plays out, where she pokes at him until he gets frustrated, and she gives him a gingerbread house and just doesn’t get it, and he messes with her when he tells her about all of the conspiracies that are “true” and “not true” when he realizes that she’ll believe him. It takes Eliot the longest to really understand Parker I think, but once he does I love getting to see him teaching her things (fighting and cooking, etc) and that they found ways to bond and relate.
But all of this is really on the surface. Because in a lot of ways, they’re the two most similar minded people in the group, two of the darker members who have learned the hard way to look out for themselves first and foremost. All of the team members have demons in their pasts and are obviously willing to do morally ambiguous things, but it’s on a different level than Parker and Eliot. For as much of an air of innocence as Parker gives off (and is accurate), there is another part of her, the part that would kill to protect those she cares about and is loyal to, just like Eliot. And she would do easier and with much less remorse, than say Hardison who she shares a lot of similar experiences with. (An example being when she thinks Tara has betrayed them and instantly goes for her throat and dangles her over the side of the building. There isn’t any hesitation, there isn’t any internal struggle, it’s just instant reaction.) I think the episode on the mountain when they find the body of the man they’re looking for, but are forced to leave it behind, kind of showcases this. Parker wants to be a better person, wants to be like Hardison and Sophie and bring back this man to his family because that’s what she knows they would do. But Eliot specifically tells her that this was why it was them who found him, because they could leave him behind. That Eliot knows this side of her just as he knows this side of her, and he accepts her for it. And it’s something that continues on throughout the series. In the episode where there on the train with the virus(?), its Parker and Eliot that create the plan just by looking at each other, who knows what needs to be done without ever having to say anything to each other.
I think, canon wise, Hardison brings out this side of her that Parker’s never experienced before, who shows her love and kindness, and she needs that. And no one but Hardison could do it in that way for her. And Nate is the first person to have real faith in her being something more than just a thief and Sophie is the first person to show her what normal friendship can be like and that there are people out there that want to understand her, who know her and still like her on a friend level. But Eliot is ultimately be the one that understands her better than anyone of them.
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