Ariah
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Posts posted by Ariah
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Felicity should, by all means, have a life outside the Arrow Cave. She should have a love life that makes her happy, not miserable and perpetually angry.
But why would the writers let her have those two things at the same time her friends were keeping a deadly assassin in the Arrow Cave and the man she supposedly loves/loved goes on another suicide mission (with her good friend tagging along)? The Felicity I know would hack satelites and hang over coms to keep her bespectacled eyes on the two dots signifying Oliver and Diggle...
This is not the Felicity I know and love. This is a construct / plot device.
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The word is that if you cut all the scenes between Ray and Felicity from all the episodes and put them together, you'll get an ATOM episode.
It has a different pace, it's a sort of action comedy with it's own music cues.
(I hate being bludgeoned over the head with musical cues and there were all over the episode, in each Ray/Felicity scene the triumphant ATOM cues come in... Yes, show, I get it! It's his theme! Now stop and get back to Oliver, show!)
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I don't get it with power levels on this show either - I mean, if I were to categorize the characters, like Super Saiyan level categorize them, how would that go? In this episode alone, we've seen:
- Malcolm is better than Oliver (first sparring)
- Malcolm is better than Laurel (duh!)
- Malcolm is worse than Nyssa
- Oliver is better than Nyssa
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ok.
So Malcolm is both better and worse than Oliver? (Oliver has beaten Nyssa who had beaten Malcolm...)
I just don't get it. Or maybe I missed something, could be as I was ironing at the time.
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Laurel's quote about her not believing that she could have been in love with Oliver once... Now this came so out of the blue that it made me wonder if the writers didn't put it there to remind us that yes, Oliver and Laurel used to be an item.
Because sure as h*ll they couldn't show us that for 2,5 seasons.
Ok, hear me out: Laurel now mentiones that she once loved Oliver to remind the viewers about it... So that it can be brought back again. Like in two episodes' time she can change her mind and be all like "Now I know why I fell in love with you once" and "I can see the man I fall in love with in you!" (In my mind that man she fall in love with is a douche and womaniser, and we have photo-proof that he looked darkly dreaming Dexter, but whatever, Laurel).
Anyhow - I'm all ready for Laurivel 2.0. The writers are on a roll with bad relationships...
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Speaking of which.
Ray and Felicity. I guess everything has been said on the matter.
I knew it was bound to happen (a repeat from Sara/Oliver in S2). It also felt forced to me, like painting by the numbers: meet cute, bond over common interest and common loss, be forced into a situation in which there's a towel, a bed and no other human being.
I know I'm not watching my Felicity - the one I fell in love with in S1 and S2. I'm watching a plot device dressed up as Felicity, a plot device that imitates her babble (but not good enough, as her Oliver-oriented babble was much funnier), a plot device that is used to make me like a character I don't feel the need to like.
#bringBackFelicity!
#thisisnotFelicitySmoak!
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The flashback - too confusing.
On any other show, written by competent people, I'd asume Tatsu and Maseo will meet Oliver again and find out what happened to Akio. Because if that was not the case, Tatsu would ask Oliver what happened to her son when they met in the mountain hut. So they must have met later on, and this is not the last time we're seeing Tatsu and Maseo in the flashbacks.
But on this show I'm not so sure.
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Oliver as the head of LoA?
I can see this:
Oliver: "We have a new set of rules from now on. No killing. I repeat, no killing. I know, we're called the League of Assassins, but let's not be so dependant on names! From now on, we use only sleeping darts - you know, the ones you've been using on Laurel so often. By the way, can I have some? She's been nagging too mch lately..."
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A few lose thoughts:
- Diggle, I love you, never change. ("Friends call me Dig...")
- Malcolm, you can kick Laurel's arse anytime. Does it make a bad person if I liked that scene?
- Oliver, the fall from that cliff (and the writers) took away your brain. #giveTheInteligentOliverBack!
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The thing is - with Ray being seemingly the only one who values Felicity's opinion - that had she ASKED something of Oliver, like really verbalized her needs in a coherent manner, he would have done it.
"If you're asking, I'll do it."
But Felicity keeps suggesting things, not really saying anything outright. Now imagine her saying "I don't want you to work with Malcolm." - this could have lead to a genuine discussion, with follow-up questions like "why?" or "what do you suggest we do?". Instead, we have this rom-com pile of half-words, only this rom-com is not funny at all.
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The show is such a guilty pleasure for me!
The actors are all way too young to be employed at their respective workplaces (apart from the chief of the police unit), but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the camp.
What is funny, I know I should be guessing who is the killer (is it someone we've seen already, is it a totally outside character?) but I'm past that. At this point I can theorize it's someone we think is dead ;)
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And the men go down with agency, unlike the women.
Yao-Fei didn't go down with agency, IMO.
True, he did chose to play a traitor to save his daughter, but I do not consider that an agency. I don't think his choice was to die, unlike Tommy who basically traded his life for Laurel.
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Freud would have a heyday with these guys, with their Oliver/Batman and Ray/Ironman projections.
But what does that make Laurel?
A BlackCat projection (with the new costume...)? A dominatrix fetish? An afterthought of a great character that once was and never will be...?
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Theorizing on Felicity breaking the internet (I also thought it was supposed to happen in 3.14, but...) - perhaps it's Felicity in the towel (and only in the towel) stepping out of the office shower.
Because whatever Ray does this episode causes half of his office to blow up and she needs to clean up. I now, it's crazy, I jst grabbed the towel spoiler and run with it.
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That answer MG gave about having over-compensated in making Oliver a monk this season, when people complained about how he slept with everything that moves before sounds like it's related too. I think he resents the hell out of the fact that a 2015 audience were not into a womanizing playboy story. I could have told him that in like, 1995.
I guess some writers just want to fullfill their teenage fantasies through their work: a manly hero, handsome, but not pretty, rough around the edges, but gentle with the fair sex. All women love him, all men want to be him. Even hse women who have all the right to despise him (Laurel, S1) are drawn to him like moth to the flame...
Oliver sleeping around in S1 and S2 was - perhaps subconscious - a realization of the writers' fantasy.
Too bad it's a very American Beauty fantasy.
I certainly hope Oliver stays monogamous till Felicity changes her mind.
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Felicity may be referred to as being in control because:
- Oliver wants / needs her approval before going to rescue Malcolm,
- Ray wants / needs her approval before going off in the suit.
As both men look up to her before making some of their crucial decisions, she takes some of the agency from them - this dreaded agency that everyone has been talking about.
That fan saying Oliver and Laurel is awesome and sexy makes me barf what is awesome and sexy about a Toxic relationship where he cheated on her repeatedly with her sister? How is that sexy and not Olicity?
Frankly speaking - I believe the writers are aiming to approach the low levels of toxicity with Olicity. I don't think they are able to write a different relationship. Felicity scorned acts out like Laurel used to (albeit, I admit, to a lesser extent).
Don't get me wrong, I'm an Olicity shipper and a fan of both Oliver (with his dumb decisions) and Felicity - but I'm a fan of a consistant Felicity, not this construct that I'm seeing now on my screen. Good that I'm blaming the writers, not the character. I trust my Felicity is out there somewhere!
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Let me just say that, having watched the finale of Sleepy Hollow (another great show that went sour because of bad writing and sidelining crucial characters to make room for a "canonical" pairing) that I HOPE the Arrow writers take good notes, rewatch the final episode of SH 2 season and try to duplicate the effect.
It's really nothing too difficult. It can take just one episode to right all the wrongs.
At this point, I don't think many eople would mind if this whole season turned out to be a dream dreamt by a comatose Oliver. I wouldn't.
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A new episode, a new gamechanger. They change the game so many times, it'll return to its beginning... (That would actually be a good thing)
Nyssa seems to have got the Laurel disease - she changes her mind every episode. Or the writers forgot to watch her previous episodes and lost their notes. Either way, she comes across as a bit forgetfull. First she knows Oliver didn't kill Sara, now she's certain he did.
As for the ATOM backdoor pilot - why do we have to have more than one episode devoted to that? I really don't need that on my screen, I signed up for a show called "Arrow".
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The picture is so bad that I keep going back and forth between it and SA current pictures, half sure it can't be the same person. The nose, the chin, those eyes! All wrong and messed up.
I believe it was heavily Photoshopped to make Oliver look younger.
But young Amell did look similar... sort of:
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Yup, let's roll out the cheese:
Ra's (to Oliver): "You're out of your league, boy!"
Laurel, arriving to save the day: "No, demon! The Justice League is here!"
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But Sleepy Hollow is trying to make up for the wrongs they did (at least that's how it looks to me). It's not like in Once Upon a Time (which I stopped watching) and their Regina fanfiction.
I'd like for Arrow to take the Sleepy Hollow route, but I'm afraid they've already too far gone on the Once Upon a Time road. They've lost their initial focus, grabbed their new shinny toys and went wild.
Some producers have hubris. Guggenheim has it - he does not believe he can be wrong. He's shocked when people do not react the way he thinks they will.
You know what? I am bitter about the show, because it made me actually actively hate a character. And not a villain, but one of the protagonists. I have an irrational hate of Laurel. There's now absolutely nothing the show can do to make me like her. She can become a mother theresa figure and save kittens from burning houses - I will still hate her. It's not logical, it's atavisitc, it's a primeaval, guttural reaction.
And I'm bitter about it, because I have thought of myself as a better person. But I am not.
Laurel Lance has jumped to the top of my hate-list, ahead of Barbara Kean, Regina and Katrina Crane.
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Ra's grew his hair! how... not becoming. And his favourite film must be The Last of the Mohicans by Michael Mann. Those hot coals?
But still, I suddenly need to watch this episode because of Diggle in the field. And since we know Digg's alive enough to get married, I'm not worried.
Perhaps Ra's offer is for Oliver to kill Malcolm himself. Probably the episode will end with Ra's making the offer - paralel with the flashback to Col. Shrike and his offer - and the mini-hiatus will leave us without an answer from Oliver.
As for why is Oliver risking his life to save Merlyn? I'm sticking to "saving Thea's soul" theory. This reason may be funny, but I believe it's good enough to the writers. You know? Not wanting another murder to stain his sister's soul? So he'll just risk his own death >again< and venture to Nanda Parbat.
(snarky side note: why didn't he take Laurel? Isn't she good enough?... Isn't her heart big enough to make all the encountered LoA members sucumb to her power?... No? Ok, then.)
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So, Thea is the one to give Malcolm to the LoA and Oliver wants to save him... because he saves Thea's soul in the process, I guess?
Oliver makes dumb decisions for very romantic reasons (romantic not in relationship-sense, but in the doomed generation sense).
But I will really beak my tv if the "twisted ending" or "game changer" is the final shot of Ray in a suit ready to rumble. There will be no coming back after the hiatus for me if that is the parting shot of the episode.
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Wow, Laurel in BC getup sure does look like Lady GaGa.
Oh show, how I'd like to quit you.
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Just came back from the movies. I liked it a lot, especially the church scene (and other action scenes). I usually get dizzy when the camera goes spinning, but this film had all the action and spinning, but still the situation remained clear to the viewer. No shaky cam, thank you!
Gazelle was exquisite - a mix of manga aestetics and ballet. I loved the way she moved.
Eggsy does clean up nicely.
Also, kudos to the film for not making Merlin a mole. And for not forcing Roxy and Eggsy as a pair.
I'd watch a squel, even though the best part (Colin Firth) will sadly not be in it.
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The thing is, I kind of expect something MORE of a thing advertised as a game-changer / a great twist than Ra's offer to take Oliver in.
Then again, I should have know better by now.
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I lost track of all these game changers.
Wasn't one supposed to happen in 3.18?
We have a short hiatus after 3.15 (i believe), so I guess a "game changer" is due to happen then...
[Like Ra's saying "I am your father, Oliver!"]
Either way, I'm not overly interested unless the game changer means Lazarus was used on Sara a while ago.
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Love them, especially Ra's. (Are you going to finish Feathers?)
:) I was so bitter about the episodes after the break I couldn't get myself down to write... Actually, I have most written down, but I need to edit.
Damn you, Guggenheim and your spirit-breaking plots!
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An idea about someone calling Laurel BC:
Roy walks in, sees Laurel painting her nails before going out to fight: "Are you painting them black, Canary?" => there you have it.
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The EPs are still planting seeds for a possible future BOP spin-off show.
You know what?
Let them spin this off. Let the New and 'Improved' BC and Helena leave Starling City and go around the globe taking names and kicking asses. Let them guest star on Arrow once a season during sweeps. I have some savings, who should I send them to to make it happen?
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This probably belongs to the bitterness thread, but you're right - all new and returning characters will probably now prop Laurel as BC.
Let's see who we have:
- Nyssa. "I was wrong. You are worthy of Sara's memory."
- Helena. "I was wrong. You have light inside of you!"
- Maseo. "So you are the warrior who kept the city safe while Oliver was gone? You are a woman of great courage and skill."
- Tatsu. "I will gladly tech you how to fight with swords!"
- Malcolm. "Teach me how to fight, o brilliant one! Also, i wish Tommy was alive so that I could give my blessings to your holy union!"
- Ra's. "Come and join my League and be my bride!"
Guggenheim, you can use my prompts if you run out of ideas. I know they're right up your alley.
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Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye: Who Would Win?
Well, basing on tv/movie versions, Green Arrow would walk over Hawkeye. But Natasha would erase Laurel from existance without breaking a tiny sweat, which is one curb-stomp battle I'd like to see.
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Target Practice: Poisoned Arrow (The Bitterness Thread)
in Arrow
Bitter confessions:
I'd like to quit the show now, but I also want to read and write snark after each episode. I cannot do both and I'm utterly bitter.
(I'd also like to write to CW executives and tell them they should send Guggenheim packing because of his inability to be positive to the fans on social media)