Out of the Darkness And Into a Review

One of the biggest assumptions about fanfiction revolves around pairings. People portray fanfiction writers as horny loners writing out their favorite pairings without any thought to plot or character. While I don't think there's anything wrong with straight forward pairings, many of them go well beyond just hooking people up. Fanfiction comes from a place of honest love for the source material. Pairings aren't just about hooking characters together, it's about exploring what that relationship would mean. I was given permission to review "Out of the Darkness" by Tanya Reed. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7840594?view_full_work=true It's a Leverage fanfiction where Sophie goes blind. The story follows Eliot helping her recover, but it's more than that. This isn't just a story where Eliot and Sophie hook up, regardless of how much I might've wanted it to be that. (See, I'm the dirty minded one, not the fanfiction writers.) Throughout "Out of the Darkness" we see the reactions of the rest of the cast of Leverage. In particular, Nate's reaction to this loss calls his character flaws into question. This creates an interesting contrast because Nate ends up becoming the antagonist for this fanfiction because we don't get to see the crew helping people. While Reed doesn't ignore the jobs the crew part-take in, I think they handle the mostly episodic nature of the show in a clever way. Instead of trying to write entire jobs that incorporates the life changes of the character into the story, Reed chooses to yatta-yatta the particulars of the job. In essence, we as the reader are getting scenes that might come at the end or beginning of the show so that we can see how their relationships are progressing. Because we understand that the crew takes on jobs and helps people, we actually don't need to see those scenes play out. In this way Reed can go through a character arc that might take several episodes in much less time and I think this is a great use of fanfiction to tell a story. Reed is also mindful of the benefits of the written form over film. She doesn't hesitate to go into character's heads. This becomes particularly effective when we see the world through Sophie's point of view. Now that Sophie's blind we can't talk about how things look and instead we have to focus on experiencing the world through sound and touch. But Reed doesn't belabor this point, they know that the readers are there for the journey and not to lament the pain of lost sight, but there are definitely lows in the story.

The core of the story is about Sophie's growth and acceptance. Something interesting is that when she's taken out of the hospital she's more interested in being cared for than regaining her independence or being a burden on others. I thought this was an interesting place to start because it immediately shows how much she's given up on her own autonomy. But that isn't where the story ends, rather where it begins. She quickly enters this unbalanced relationship with Eliot. Eliot volunteered to look after her, bringing her to his house so that she wouldn't have to be alone. But he takes up the role as a guide telling her where things are, putting things in her hands, and organizing her stuff. From there Sophie has no choice but to be vulnerable to him, but they still aren't hooking up. He's there to help her overcome her fear of going to therapy and adapt to her new life. For some this entire story has "nothing to do with Leverage," but doesn't it? How much of Leverage is about helping people who've given up all hope? The idea of Leverage moving the focus to internal problems is compelling and it's not like the show hasn't gone in that direction before. Sadly I wasn't able to finish the story(time), but at the halfway point where I stopped, Eliot and Sophie weren't banging out their problems and there weren't any easy answers. This isn't a story about a girl becoming helpless so the masculine man helps her and they hook up. From what I've seen this is a story about growth, adaptation, and learning to accept help. These are thematic concerns that go far beyond the misconceptions of fanfiction because fanfiction writers ARE writers.