TrueMyth

I was only just getting really active in Arrow fandom this time last year, so I can't speak to trends. However, I think the young hacker casting call was for 4x02, right? And that should start shooting around 7/24, so I'd expect they would have completed the casting before then. If, as speculated, this guy is our Mr. Terrific, then I'd expect he'll be announced sooner. Didn't his casting call go out around the same time as DD?

I can't decide if I want Mr. Terrific to have an origin story or come pre-masked. On the one hand, we've used a lot of time during season three building up other heroes, and I'd rather Felicity not be the catalyst for a FOURTH hero (even if this one is gay and therefore doesn't have the romance component). However, if this hero turns up ready-made to fight crime, it makes Lance and Felicity the ONLY non-masked/costumed main characters we know of, right? Emily was so right during one of her interviews today when she stressed the importance of having non-masked people to ground the show in reality and make it seem less like Halloween. Still, if the new best friend character is connected to Felicity's day job, I hope they flesh out some other aspects of that, too. I'm also excited for Oliver to make the rounds as "The Oliver Queen" again. I don't want him to run for mayor (yet!), but I'd love for him to become politically active. Business suits and society dinners are a major plus.

Right? Like can you see the LoA pilot at the end of season 3 being all, "Sir, we have clearance to land at our sooper sekrit assassin airport in Star City." And Ra's is like, "Exce-wha? Star Who? No, I am here to rain down death and disease on Al Sahiem's home city of STARLING." And Oliver is *shrug* and "Maybe they moved?" "Dang it, turn this plane around!" Fini.

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam. (Sorry, had to) I'm fine with the name change, though I do hope they address the WHEN it happened on the show and don't just have people calling it Star City from the jump. Love that Felicity's getting a best friend. Another superhero? *sigh*

Wait, so it was the sleeves making him emo all this time? Shoot! As an old Veronica Mars fan, I should have realized. *shakes fist at emo sleeves*

Also in that interview of Stephen with Laurel Brown, he talks about one of his pitches for having a physical demonstration of Oliver finally being at peace and letting go of some of his drama from the past eight years... do you think he might remove some of the tattoos? That could be really fun. Especially since we don't know how he got the chinese tattoos or when he gets the Bratva star, it could be neat to see him tattooed in the flashbacks in the same episode he is removing them in the present. Also, I'm sure Stephen would be a fan of a little less time in the make-up chair.

Is there a link to the IGN interview? The livestream had passed by the time I saw the link. Is there a better way to find all these interviews in real time? I feel like I'm always playing catch up, though I'm constantly refreshing this forum and tumblr. I thought they were doing their panel earlier, but it must be later. What will be the best way to catch that?

I hope it's big and open with flow, similar to the Star Labs set, so that even the different areas can feel connected by shooting through gaps and windows. The Foundry never looked crowded to me, but I know from listening to the Leverage commentaries that there are eventually only so many ways to shoot a space and it gets complicated with more than three people (Leverage commentaries are A++ recommended, btw). So I can understand they may have been getting disgruntled feedback from directors or crew. The Foundry was great because you rarely saw the outer walls through the shadows, which gave it a wonderful expansive feeling, but it was a small set as far as places to set up cameras and lights, I guess. Of course, they could have just kept my OTA and let Black Canary set up her own space. Ehem. P.s. Nope, it was the one true Sally, because the ledge/hooks are V shaped, while Ray's (pretender!) salmon ladder was flat on the front with only single angle ledges on the backend. Also, it was metal and not wood. Guys, guys, do you think this could be Dig's revenge on Oliver? For his betrayal as Al Sahiem, Oliver will forever lose the affections of Sally?!

Yes, this Monday, I know, but production/sets must already be in the works. I do agree that last season is more likely and this was timed to drop during ComiCon, but... I just really want to know what the new lair set-up will be. :) Thanks, SmallScreenDiva & lemotomato. You are, no doubt, correct.

And after my fi-ehem-ftieth viewing of the David Does The Salmon Ladder video... am I the only one analyzing it for background info? Is this the start of the new lair set? Because OF COURSE the salmon ladder is relocated/remade. The blue tool/weapons chest is the same. Or do we think this was recorded during set teardown after season three wrapped? Please, someone ask about it at ComiCon?

Getting ready to electrocute fans, of course.

Ah, I get you now. We had several such fan awards in Veronica Mars fandom, both general and challenge specific. Would it be possible to run something like that through collections or challenges on AO3? I'm still learning the ins-and-outs of that site. LiveJournal made it easy to set up polls (and even put in some controls for new made dummy accounts). From my personal experience, the biggest obstacle to running such contests is making certain the governing body has time to read a LOT of fiction and sets up reasonable safeguards against personal bias in the initial cut. If anyone is interested in setting up some kind of Arrow fanfic awards, I'd be happy to help. ETA: I just did a little research to see how other fandoms are doing things now-a-days, and found this multi-fandom fic award site which leads with a list of top Arrow fanfiction for 2015. So there's that.

The conversations at a glance will be hard to argue for with people who don't see it. Speaking glances aren't concrete enough for those who don't see the chemistry. Things I love: Felicity continues to stand up to Oliver and when he listens, he is better for it. It started in The Odyssey (her agreeing provisionally) and Dodger, through to her objection to working with Malcolm and her drugging him in The Fallen. I love how varied her responses are because she wasn't even going to talk about it when Oliver returned and announced his (stupid) plan because she knew she was too angry and would say something hurtful. However, at the same time, she doesn't fight against him when violence is the right choice. She straight up tells him that he needs to kill Ra's in The Climb. I find it interesting that Oliver assumes she is going to tell him not to go in The Fallen with their "usual song and dance." At least from what we've seen, Felicity never said 'nay' to his fighting and killing Ra's. It's not until we reach the last episode that we discover Oliver has been having almost nightly dreams where Felicity tells him to stay and he... does. She's effectively become the embodiment of his conscience, which I think is pretty cool (especially since I don't see Felicity abusing that or setting out to make that happen). I loved their scenes in 3x16. Mostly because it felt like an old episode of the show with Team Arrow taking down a baddie with nice brotp moments and lovely caring and sass between Oliver and Felicity.

Additionally, hasn't he mentioned that he wants to sing the Canadian Anthem at a ball game? I think this is part celebration, part try-out.

TV teenagers, maybe. I'll grant you that Caitlyn and Cisco look a bit young to be a few years out from grad degrees, but they are supposed to be geniuses. Grant has a baby face, but I totally buy him as mid-20s.

He could have still taken a girl with him on his "escape moving in with Laurel" trip. Just not her sister.

Yeah, IDK the Waller grab/interest in Oliver. Things go really, really strange without the LoA, though (I know we still have the Malcolm connection), but I do like the idea of Oliver being rescued by LoA instead of Sara. Honestly, doesn't Shado make the better Hong Kong operative? Unless Waller really did already know, eight months in advance, that she would need someone to break the biometrics at QC. I think it comes down to how different they want to set up the cast. Did Oliver ever come home? Actually, I could see him still in the LoA, but Moira gets word to Ra's and Oliver is sent to take out Malcolm's Undertaking. We know the LoA does like sleeper agents, so they could even let him return to his past life at the start of season 1. I guess it becomes a question of how different they want things to be for ALL actors. If Oliver is working as a vigilante and as Oliver Queen, he will bring in Diggle and Felicity at some point, which is too similar to known history. I think, for the full "It's a Wonderful Life" flavor, you need to have Oliver NOT return. No one stops Malcolm's plan until later, he throws Moira under the bus so she is still arrested and the acquitted, but Isabel Rochev moves in on QC in the interim. Mirakuru army never happens, which means Anna never dies and Ray Palmer never works on the ATOM suit. Also, Carrie Cutter never imprints on the Arrow. Oh, also, it would only be mentioned in passing... but Barry might not become the Flash because he doesn't stay in (or maybe even visit ) Starling, so he's not late to the Accelerator opening, so he's not in his lab. I guess he could still become the Flash though, since Firestorm was created at Star Labs, or he is "always late" so something else gets in his way.

While I hope any LoT timeline shenanigans stay far away from most of Arrow, I really wouldn't mind a "It's a Wonderful Life" type episode that lets the actors play different versions of their characters, as long as things are reset before the end of the episode. I don't want a whole bunch of gimmick type episodes, but they can be excellent for keeping actors happy (by stretching their acting) and giving new insight into the show. Sara not going on the Gambit could be a very interesting AU. For example, Felicity would probably still be in IT, working under Isabel's company,so very unhappy. I would hope to see such an episode on Arrow. If they do other AU exploration on LoT, it should really only be with a single cameo.

Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited at the prospect of a Felicity & Diggle heavy, character-driven season 4... but do we know that David has heard more about season 4? When do the other cast members besides Stephen get their 4x01 scripts? I know it should be soon, but do they already have them? I hope we know who they cast for Felicity's Dad by ComiCon. I think the wait past then would kill me!

Different strokes, I guess. I loved John/Aeryn for the whole run and often hold it up as the standard for ships. On reflection, they are one of the few OTPs I like that were intended from the start. I loved their take on the love triangle and wish that Arrow had followed suit, keeping it Arrow/Felicity/Oliver.

I'd sub to an Arrowcast, too! Especially one with new content during hiatus. I do enjoy the AfterBuzz TV shows during the season, and typically listen to them on my way into work following a new episode. If you haven't checked them out, they might help with the withdrawal.

I think she took some time off / was working less when her babies were young. She did a lot of voiceover work for video games. At a Con, she joked that she asked the game designers to work in a special code for her (then) boyfriend so that, after a set time playing or time of night, it would say, in her gorgeous voice, "It is late. Turn off the game and come to bed." I got so excited when you said she was back on TV. Hah! Figures she'd pop up on the show I actually followed for the whole first season. I'll have to catch her episodes. I mean, I watched Queen of the Damned for her, so I'm in for a penny, in for a pound. Have you guys seen Farscape: Undressed? Ben and Claudia co-hosted it as a primer to hook new viewers for season three. There are some mild spoilers for season two, but a whole lot of the thing is just Ben and Claudia making heart-eyes and teasing each other. This YouTube video also cut in one of Claudia's most awesome bloopers:

I was at that Con! It was awesome! After Claudia's first appearance as Vala the "Who's a better kisser?" question became a regular and both she and Ben were so great about it. The whole cast if Farscape had an awesome sense of humor. Ben once got the whole audience in on a prank (I think it may have been the same Con as the Shanks cut-out) when Claudia had to leave the stage... He had everyone wait still she was back and settled... Then en masse we all got up and started filing out of the auditorium. :) Where are you currently with Farscape?

They give literary prizes for fanfiction? I better step up my game! ;) I'd be happy to beta for you if you want to take a crack at your idea. Writing fic like that can be cathartic. I think fanfiction benefits from writing for a narrow audience (or audience of one). I know the classic advice for fiction writers is to "write for yourself," but it is a business. Even more so with TV writing. Writing with a wide audience in mind, you start to second guess yourself or play to tropes instead of playing WITH them. Some of the best fanfiction is written because the author has this little kernel of a story idea which they need to explore or a funny concept they come up with when chatting with friends in their little corner of fandom. When it's done, it is its own reward (not that comments and kudos aren't great, too).

Oliver managed to have sex/relationships more on a "deserted" island than he did for a year in Hong Kong. In that respect at least, it was kind of a Fantasy Island. I think Felicity does an awesome job not pressing Oliver on what happened to him over the course of five years, particularly when it is established how much she hates mysteries, but I can totally sympathize with her or Diggle getting a bit exasperated when Oliver's withholding has a direct impact on their current reality (which it always, always will, because TV).