Carrie Ann

Speaking of Matty Blue Blue, anyone know why Zach Roerig wasn't at SDCC?

I don't think I've seen anyone else post this--apologies if I missed it--but a nice Tumblr-er put together a nice collection of articles, photos, interviews, etc. from this weekend.

I feel like my comments have been kinda cranky or nitpicky this weekend, but I don't actually feel that way. I think that's why I'm nitpicking, actually, because I'm quite pleased with what I'm hearing and I would just be saying YAYYYYYY a lot. So, that said, um, YAYYYYYYYYYY to Oliver cooking and cleaning and being blissfully happy and domestic and never wanting to go back to Starling (gonna keep calling it that forever, fyi). YAYYYYYYY to Felicity being the one who can't stand being away from the action anymore. YAYYYYYYY to Diggle being in charge and keeping that hot-as-fire scruff on his face. And I agree with others that Wendy Mericle is at least saying all the right things and seems to have her head on straight. I don't want to feel hope again; I've been hurt before, but....

Season 1 and 4 are great, but I think Season 2 is probably my favorite because they did such a better job with Lemon post-S1, and I think she was my ultimately my favorite character. I agree that S3 is the weakest. It feels like a lot of wheel-spinning and stalling. Zoe/Wade is really the only pairing I shipped from start to finish, but I think the strongest element of the show is that there are no characters I straight-up hate (except Lemon/Brick in S1), and no pairings that I truly hate either. (That said, I roll my eyes through Lavon/Ruby and George/Lynly.) The writers manage to make everything appealing in some ways, so even if I had preferences when it came to ships, I didn't hate watching other pairings together. And really, even though the show was pitched with the love triangle at the center, the friendships really became so much more important to me. I was about to say Lemon/Wade was my favorite, but really Zoe/Lavon was the most important to me. And Wade/George! And AB and everyone! And Zoe/Rose! And Zoe/Lemon! Oh HoD, you sweet, happy cloud of a show.

I agree. Maybe that's unpopular, but...I just don't think Felicity needs another friend on the show. Not a new cast member, anyway. Dig and Oliver are her best friends, she's supposedly friendly with Laurel, and I was hoping for more friendship development with Thea. Not to mention everyone on The Flash, Ray when he comes back, Sara when she comes back... To be honest, and I can't believe I'm saying this because y'all know IDGAF about her or her storyline, but Laurel is really the person who needs a best friend. She really does need her own outlet. I guess that's maybe going to be Nyssa? But if they're building up a support network for someone, Felicity is not the person who needs that. (Thea could use someone too, of course, but at least she will have Oliver.)

jarettsays: Backstage before the #Arrow panel #SDCC

Well, right, that was the show's argument. My point is that I don't agree that it would ever happen in the US with a city that size. No matter what happened there, unless all that was left was a smoking crater and they were literally starting over from Citizen 1, Building 1.

Right, this has been my problem with it from the get-go. We talked about it somewhere on this forum back in the winter. I just don't think a huge city would rename, period. I think its citizens would have a stubborn pride about the city, the name, what they've all survived, etc. If they wanted it to be Star City like the comics, they should have just named it that from the beginning. Since they didn't, it is kinda ridiculous to just change it with so little fanfare around it (aside from Ray proposing it early on). I think it actually happened in S3, but we never saw it--I'm pretty sure Ray casually referred to it Star City at some point late in the season--and now I think they're just gonna go with it and that's that. Just like Black Canary getting her name.

Sorry, it's happening pretty fast--I'm following The Arrow Writers Room (@ARROWwriters) on Twitter and a few entertainment reporters who are live-tweeting.

Eww, and it sounds like we are definitely calling it Star City. Sorry comic fans, I hate that name.

Ugh. There better be some story reason for these changes (beyond the whole "can't wear the old suit anymore" thing), because...I'm not a fan.

I mean, she looks really pretty in what is basically a figure skating dress, but I'm just not a fan of that illusion mesh stuff in general, and I cannot imagine how she's going to sit on-stage in that thing!

I don't think we know yet what the origin of that whiteboard was, but I don't think anyone associated with the show was involved with it, because they would know better than to call it "The Arrow." So it's kind of crappy for KC (assuming she was even present for whatever that was), but it's not like her own show or fellow cast/crew forgetting about her, and I'm sure when the show's Twitter person retweeted it, he/she didn't check for every name beforehand.

I...I can't...I'd like to thank God and the WB for this gift.

Oh awesome, thank you!

Guys. The Arrow Writers Room retweeted this with the caption "Get excited."

DR keeping that scruff is like #1 on my list of things I want out of Arrow S4. We deserve this. I pray that the producers/hair/makeup/whoever is responsible for these sorts of things can see how perfect it is for his face and that they let him keep it. David Ramsey's Beard: Good for Arrow, Good for America.

"I really, REALLY do not want ________. So it will probably happen." After S3, I think that's probably the safest approach, and the one most likely to be accurate!

On the pro side, I love Neal McDonough. So much. I can't wait to see his pretty face and scary/pretty eyes on-screen every week. On the con side, the casting makes me nervous that DD is Felicity's dad. I hate it and I don't want it to be true, but casting the ultimate in blonde-haired, blue-eyed dudes of a certain age... So a little pre-fanwanking regarding those (technically seven, if you count the pregnancy) years in Vegas: they could spin it that he fell for Donna due to Smoak ladies' extreme charisma and awesomeness, and tried to give up this LOA quest and other life during that time. And then he just couldn't do it, got sucked back in for some reason, and that could tie into the heroes' concerns about whether they will ever be able to have normal lives blah blah. This also requires Felicity (and probably Donna) to have no idea about any of that; they would have had to believe something else about him. They seem to know he's shady, but maybe they only know about one specific aspect. I too wish they'd clear it up this weekend, but they probably won't.

Agreed. It would have made more sense to just use Barrowman. He'd probably love it, be good at it, and he actually has a DCTV connection. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ian can kind of dominate in panels, yeah, and I think he's used to being the center of his own, so I am curious as to how this will go. But if I had to bet, I'd say he'll end up being kind of a non-presence, because each show has its own panel host/moderator, so I don't really understand what his function will be. Maybe he's just doing an intro at the beginning or introducing each segment?

Someone in the Awards thread was asking about how to track down the fics that were appended to the MTV Ship of the Year post--someone on Tumblr collected what looks like almost all of them in this master post.

God love him. Never stop flexing on request, Stephen. Never ever.

Crusie was not one of the two romance writers who reviewed Arrow for USA Today, but she does write romance/chick lit. She's very well-respected in those genres.

I really appreciated Crusie's Arrow coverage for awhile, and then I stopped reading it because she seemed to watch Arrow through the Olicity lens only, and wrote criticism of the show as though its main storyline was the love story between Oliver and Felicity. So her critiques seemed a little...skewed to me, because her approach was basically: how did this plot point advance the love story? If it didn't--or particularly if it hampered that story (Sara)--then it was a failure. That would have made more sense this season, because the O/F relationship really was tied to the central conflict/theme of the season. But Season 2? Not so much. Anyway, even if I personally stopped appreciating her views on Arrow, it doesn't mean they were ever poorly written. But, like @-ing the subject when you're criticizing them, I don't understand why someone would post this to Stephen's FB page at all.