Angel12d

Just want to highlight two of your points here because I couldn't agree more. I see Oliver's feelings for Felicity as something new and startling for him. I think part of the reason he has kept away is because she is an integral and vital part of his team and he doesn't want to compromise that, but mainly I think he has no guide for how he feels about her and it's confusing for him. I think he's sort of blown away by the depth of what he feels for her - this woman he never expected when he returned to Starling City. Obviously he's going to cross that line in 301 because he's been lulled into a false sense of security but once he puts his feelings for her out there, out loud, there will be no going back from that. The s3 journey will be him coming to terms with that. Also, I think part of Felicity's journey is learning that even though there are other men out there, Oliver is the one she really wants. I'm sure her time spent in the lair will probably be a bone of contention if she ever has a proper relationship with Ray and that will probably bring things to a head later in the season. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 'it's him or me' type conversation happening with Ray at some point.

I agree. I'm glad that Oliver will be all about Felicity from now on and that's not just because I love their relationship but I like who Oliver is when he's with Felicity and vice versa. The whole sister swapping thing has been a major source of discomfort for me and really off-putting at times. I can't root for a hero who thinks that kind of behaviour is ok. And I can't understand two fully grown women who think it's ok either. So I'm really pleased they are going to put Oliver's feelings for Felicity on record. I don't think there's any going back after that.

Wow. There are a lot of names coming onto the show. I hope they can juggle it all. Let's think about this. In S3 there is: 1) Olicity stuff, Oliver struggling with two identities 2) Ray Palmer/The Atom and his dealings with Felicity and QC 3) Daddy Diggle, H.I.V.E and ARGUS 4) Laurel and Ted Grant, maybe (probably) starting her journey to BC 5) Sara and her associations with LoA and Nyssa 6) Roy becoming Arsenal, struggling with life post-Mirakuru 7) Thea and Malcolm arc 8) Ra's al Ghul 9) And now Manhunter And top of all that we have the Hong Kong flashbacks. Wowsa. I have faith that the balance should be good but that's a lot when you lay it out like that! I'm all for shaking up the lair a bit but I hope it doesn't go on too long either. I am all about Team Arrow. It's the most important relationship on the show for me.

I know. I don't get how it could turn into the Olicity show either. Their moments combined barely add up to a few minutes each episode. Some episodes they don't even have a 'moment' because it's all Team Arrow go-go-go dynamic. I think they strike the balance really well actually. I can't see that changing. Obviously Olicity will have a bit more time dedicated to it in 301 because it's an important plot of the season but I can actually see us having less Olicity moments this season. I don't know what the problem is. Some people just have to complain. You know, I don't like Lauriver as a romantic pairing, never did and never will, but I'm interested to see how they rebuild their friendship now that the truth is out. There's potential there to right all the wrongs. Just because they shouldn't be romantic doesn't mean they don't care about each other.

I think stating that O/L are done for now is a good way of stopping all the shipping wars in theory but in reality? Not working. I saw an increase of hate towards Olicity (and then the reactions from Olicity fans) the moment the news came out of SDCC. The fact is Lauriver does have its fans (I am not one of them at all) and I think having harsh tumblr tags on the show's official tumblr page about that ship is just cruel. I'm all for not stringing fans along but there are better ways of doing that. An official tumblr account should be kept neutral. Saying that, I'm still surprised that the EP's and Stephen Amell even came out with everything they did so I guess neutrality kind of went out of the window.

I think those tags are just the case of them knowing their majority audience but ha. I'd buy Laurel as a villain more than I buy her as some do-gooder. Oh noes. I kinda want it to happen now.

Wow. I'm no Lauriver fan but those tumblr tags are just unnecessary. Do we need to incite more shipper wars? Yikes.

Oh, I don't know. I must have missed something if that's true. But it doesn't really add up though. Why bring on a character with a superhero story if you're not going to make use of it in some way? They could have just made up a random character to be Felicity's LI and nothing more. I assumed they chose Ray/The Atom because he has two sides to his character just like Oliver is Oliver Queen and The Arrow. The parallels are too much to be a coincidence, particularly when I've read that he only wants to buy QC because of the Applied Sciences Division and something about being very secretive about what he plans to do with it. The only way I see him not really being The Atom very often (maybe we'll only see that side to him once or twice) is because I don't know how they'd do those kinds of special effects needed for his character.

Exactly. Even though Barry was bought on to introduce us to his character on The Flash, there was a reason he was paired up with Felicity and that was O/F's relationship. It was the perfect way to create a little tension and see some jealousy/curiosity. It stirred the pot perfectly. And that's what Ray will do, only more now that feelings have been established. They could have bought any old LI on to the show for Felicity but there's a reason why they chose a character who is also a superhero. That way Oliver will have to see this other man who has no problems with being a superhero AND being with Felicity. It's basically a way of showing Oliver he can have it both ways. If Ray can be The Atom and have a relationship with Felicity, why can't Oliver? It's really gonna trip up his reasoning for pushing her away in 301.

This is interesting! I still don't connect that song with a love scene, certainly not one with Laurel and Oliver while Tommy is watching broken hearted. I think Oliver's love scenes with Helena and McKenna were more appropriately scored if I remember correctly. Like there was something meaningful there, rather than an epic selfish mistake.

I don't think O/F will be together until the end of the season (maybe even s4) but they are building to it. They're going to declare their feelings for each other in 301. It's going on the record so the audience will know how they both really feel about each other while circumstances mess things up and keep them apart. It's the perfect way of keeping them apart a little longer to have some character growth while ensuring the audience knows that yes, Olicity love each other, don't worry, everything will probably be ok in the end. We have to have something to root for and knowing their true feelings gives us this. And after Stephen Amell has been pretty explicit in saying there is only one woman for him, I don't see them bringing on another LI, no way. Olicity have had such a great organic build up that they'd be stupid to throw them with other people. Ray is literally a temporary catalyst for Olicity's story/growth as characters. He's a foil, nothing more.

Me too. I love it so much! There could be a link there too. Felicity is unashamed of her attraction to Oliver so he's obviously very aware of that but maybe he's not so aware of how she feels about him. Maybe another reason he denied his feelings for so long or whatever was because he thought she was only attracted to him but could never love him? It certainly links to how Oliver feels like he doesn't deserve good things. Maybe he couldn't believe that she could ever love him and so he's been protecting himself in some way...

I think Felicity has always been attracted to Oliver but as for stronger feelings, she probably thought they were never a possibility. Not because she was insecure or she thought he was out of her league but because she's been witness to Oliver sleeping with all these different women as well as professing to love Laurel, always choosing Laurel. So she just accepted that and moved on. I never saw her as having a schoolgirl crush or pining over him AT ALL and it bugs me when I see comments like that. Even when she told Oliver in s2 that he deserved better than Isabel, I never thought she was talking about herself. She just wanted him to be happy. Her feelings are very selfless in that way. It's interesting though because while we've seen more of Felicity's physical attraction to Oliver, we've actually seen more of Oliver's emotional feelings for Felicity than vice versa which made it seem like Felicity was in denial longer than Oliver was.

Exactly, she's precious. Oh man that whole scene I'm gonna be like 'Someone call an ambulance! Get a doctor! Why is no one calling 911! What is wrong with these people?!!!'

Interesting! I always thought this 'vision' he sees of himself would be the lengths he's willing to go to when Felicity gets hurt, and it goes against his wishes to honor Tommy. The only way I can see that causing a rift with Diggle would be because Diggle tries to calm him down or hold him back or something like that and he ignores him and does something terrible anyway. Yeah, she seriously needs to be in hospital. Head wounds are serious business.

That's really good casting for Felicity's mom! I can totally see her as a cocktail waitress in Vegas. I'm interested to see how Felicity was able to build computers at age 7 when her mom was a waitress. I need the details to add up so bad! I'm excited!!!

Just to add my thoughts, I definitely think everything happening in 301 is real. After so many people were upset about the 'fake-out' of the love confession in the season finale, I think they'll want to make very clear where O/F's feelings lie. I'm pretty sure there will be no doubt and a hallucination would only serve as doubt. I think they want to avoid that. And the reason why I think Felicity is on the med table in the foundry and not in hospital is probably because Oliver is so shocked/upset that he just took her to a place of safety almost as if he was on autopilot. It's likely she'll end up in hospital later anyway, esp with a head injury like that. It looks nasty!

I love all this talk about their chemistry! I love they are doing something with it too. There's nothing worse than watching a show where two characters have major chemistry and they don't do anything about it or they drag it out too long. It's gonna be fun watching them really acknowledge it now.

Well, personally I don't think she is. But she was cast as the leading female. Her name comes up second in the credits which is supposed to be a big thing if the internet is to be believed. But do I watch the show and immediately think 'leading female?' NO WAY! Ah, yes. Moira. I really liked her even if her methods were questionable at times. I hope we get to see her in flashbacks!

Yeah, I have to be honest, when she wasn't in the episodes in s2, I didn't even realize until after it was pointed out to me when the episodes were over. That's really not great for the leading female.

In my mind they were over when he slept with her sister lol. Never over it. But yeah, the love scene was so wrong but it was confusing when the EP's said that O/L were the epic love story so they were saying one thing but showing us something else. It was just weird and wrong, all of it. Also, I get sad thinking about Tommy because I think he had so much potential. Tommy and Thea bonding! Felicity and Tommy being flirty friends! :(

lol ok! Sally The Salmon Ladder. Got it!

lol can I ask…who is Sally? I'm new around here! (=

This is interesting because this is not the first time I've seen people say that the beginning of s2 was a fast set up full of romantic beats between Oliver and Felicity. I don't quite agree with that. I do think they were building towards something but I never saw it as too fast and I never saw all of their interactions as romantic. I just saw it as a deepening of their friendship and bond. Like when Felicity told Oliver the truth about Thea being Malcolm's daughter, I thought that would have strengthened their trust. Things like that. It would have been weird to me if they had just said 'F**k it!' and kissed or whatever. That would have been too fast. I like to think that Oliver was starting to become aware of his feelings around the Russia and State vs Queen episodes but never really acknowledged or understood them. Also Oliver doesn't believe he deserves good things, esp not someone like Felicity, so I can see why he maybe put a halt on whatever he was feeling and I can see why he turned to Sara for comfort instead. Felicity is not someone he could mess around with. His relationship with her is too important, both personally and professionally and on the team. So him falling into whatever it was with Sara didn't seem all that surprising because he knows Sara was in a similar sort of mindset as him. He knows Sara is gonna come and go but Felicity is pretty much a constant and he wants her to remain that way. Yeah, agreed. I think Felicity is definitely being set up as THE romance for Oliver. I'm glad though. I really like who they are with each other. Felicity just brings a lightness in Oliver I haven't seen.

Team Arrow can only break up for a day. I refuse to allow it to happen for longer than that.