Alec Hardison
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Alec Hardison |
| Occupation: | Hacker |
| Relationships: | Parker (teammate, romantic partner) Eliot Spencer (teammate, romantic partner) Nate Ford (teammate) Sophie Devereaux (teammate) Nana (foster grandmother) Colin "Chaos" Mason (nemesis) |
| Fandom: | Leverage |
| Other: | Played by Aldis Hodge |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Alec Hardison is the hacker in the Leverage team. He is a genius in many aspects, including technology, art, music, history, fandom, and much more. As a main character, Hardison is often deeply involved in cons, grifts, and dangerous situations. His favorite catchphrase is "Age of the geek, baby!" He is known to be charming and excellent in social skills.
Canon
Hardison is the hacker on the team and frequently gives exposition about the bad guy of the week. He slowly gets closer to Parker as the series go on, until they develop a romantic relationship onscreen. In addition, Hardison has been confirmed via Twitter by the series creator John Rogers to be in a polyamorous relationship with both Parker and Eliot Spencer.
Alec Hardison grew up in a foster home with his Nana. He is an amateur artist and specializes in forgeries of art, historical pieces, and more, though he admits he is not good at what he calls "dead guy art." He is also a talented violin player and an inventor - he came up with the team's earbuds and an EMP gun. In addition, Hardison is financially savvy - he takes what the team makes and invests it, churning out millions for his teammates.
He is also the creator of the team's aliases, backing them up with paper trails and forgeries to the level that they can fool major organizations. In fact, Hardison is so prolific at creating aliases that "Alice White," one of Parker's aliases, gets called for jury duty.
Hardison's weakness include his immaturity, overconfidence in grifting (he scares the marks off in one job, and blows his cover in another), his inability to use firearms in an effective manner, claustrophobia, fear of heights and repelling, and his difficulties with physical combat.
Notable Episodes
Season One
- The Nigerian Job
- The Mile High Job
Season Two
- The Three Days of the Hunter Job
- The Ice Man Job
Season Three
- The Scheherazade Job
- The Double Blind Job
- The Gone Fishin' Job
Season Four
- The Van Gogh Job
- The Grave Danger Job
- The Experimental Job
- The Boys' Night Out Job
- The Gold Job
Fandom
Hardison/Eliot is a popular slash pairing for Hardison, and the canonical Hardison/Parker is a popular het pairing, but the most popular ship is Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer.
In some works Alec is portrayed as an active and long time participant in fandom. Some of these works are canon compliant or canon AU works, while others are Fandom AUs. They often offer a meta commentary on fandom activities, and may reference multiple fandoms and older platforms like Usenet and Livejournal.
Comments from fans
[xtaticpearl]
I will never tire of remembering things I love about Leverage but my fave are these:
[...]
2. Alec Hardison and his importance to the team : Even though it was Nate who formed the team, it was Hardison who brought them together with a proper place to be, not just once. He is cool but also emotional when needs come, allowed to be nervous, allowed to have hobbies and be so much more than a ‘typical’ geek, especially a black man playing a tech whiz, could be stereotyped as. Alec is the one who buys a pub and brews his own beer, gets excited over lasers in cooking, complains about things people would do in certain situations like insane stakeouts. He isn’t a crusader, isn’t representative of any mission, and isn’t an ideal. A human character and a great one at it.[1]
Example Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Four Times Hardison Told His Nana He Was Sorry, And One Time He Said He Was (But Totally Wasn't) by LJC (2009 Yuletide fic}
- Life in the Twenty-First Century by aces, for the prompt: Fandom or other online activities help Hardison come to terms with his sexual orientation. (2010)
- The Room Where It Happens by Poetry (fanwriter), Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. (An Alec Hardison character study.) (2015)
- The Fandom Job: A Wank Report by lady_ragnell, The documentation of the fall of a BNF, as told by LJ user ageofthegeekbaby. (2015, Fandom AU)