statsgirl

I appreciate that SA wanted to do a nice Team Arrow video on his FB page but seeing them together having fun just empathizes how much the show is not giving me what I want. It's like the 2.5 comics, it's got everything that I want from Arrow, none of which I'm getting on the show itself. As much as I loved Firefly and Chuck, I well never be able to see Adam Baldwin on my screen again without wanting to smack him. Judgmental ass. .

I meant that it would be cheating Ray because he thinks she's ready to move on to a relationship with him when she's not. Unless they both agree that they're in a mutual rebound relationship, him from Anna and her from Oliver (although I don't think that's the case on his part any more), and it means nothing more than comfort sex to both.

All these speculations make me even less inclined to want to watch. I have enough troubles in my own life. I think if Diggle were to get killed, an in-character Oliver would be more likely to do a "scorched earth" on the LoA rather than join them. But also think that Diggle/DR is too popular to kill On the other hand, I worry about baby Sara. If Akio in the flashbacks gets killed, they may want to parallel it with her and cause tragedy and break-up between Diggle and Lyla, thereby solidifying Oliver's beliefs about not being able to have happpiness in his life. Sure. He's already made Oliver stupid this season, let's turn this into a very bad romcom.

I think what makes a great couple on screen is different from what makes a great couple in real life, although sometimes the same things apply to both. On screen couples need a visible spark that makes people want to tune in to see them that real life couples don't. Sure she's allowed to move on, just not when she's still in love with the first guy. As I said, it this is a one night stand, I have absolutely no problem with it. But if she starts getting into a real relationship with Ray, like regular dating, exclusive, committed, then it's cheating unless he knows she's in love with someone else, and even if he does, it's doomed. This isn't a society of arranged marriages where you can live a pleasant life with a man you don't love but can be content with. Libraries of books are written about those tragedies, from Wuthering Heights to Anna Karenina, where one of the couple is in love with someone else. How can she be happy, really happy, when she's settling for the one she can get rather than the one she wants? The timing of it is the only thing I don't have a problem with. It's like with Oliver and Sara, Felicity was upset at the idea that Oliver was going off to maybe get himself killed again and once again she couldn't do anything about it. Sex as a narcotic. The real problem I have with it is that just like with Sara and Oliver, something that should have been a ONS is now going to go into a relationship I hate the idea of. (The difference is that last season, there were other storylines in the show that I wanted to see, like O/D/F and Moira. This year there's nothing.) Marc Guggenheim can tease great Olicity scenes coming up all he wants, having seen the episodes when Oliver is dating Sara and Felicity hurt, I don't want to see Oliver and Felicity in a scene together again till Raylicity is over. and I absolutely don't want to see Oliver making hurt eyes when he sees Felicity with Ray. (The scenes with Diggle is Draw Back Your Bow still give me shudders.) The Adlerians call it "spitting in your soup" and MG's certainly spit in mine.

I don' t mind Ray, I find him inappropriate and yet rather bland at the same time but I do think he's a good guy and he respects Felicity's brain as well as finding her attractive. My problem is that three weeks ago, she was dreaming about what it would be like with Oliver back and finally with her. She's barely accepted again that it won't work before jumping the first guy who finds her attractive and jumping into a committed relationship with him (I'm assuming committed because that's the way she rolls, and relationship because that's the way the show rolls). If it were just a ONS to make herself feel better, I'd be okay with it. To get into a relationship with him, when he's not really over his fiance and she still has feelings for Oliver (aka emotional cheating even if she tell Ray it's just FWB), is Oliver-levels of emotional stupidity. But I could be worrying for nothing and this is just one time distraction sex. That would still make me think she's needy but it would be understandable. Maybe we can all agree that this is a storyline we don't want to see play out on our screens.

If that's all it is, I'd be okay with it., just as the Oliver/Sara lunge in 2x13 made sense. But you know, deep in your bones, that this is not all it's going to be. Just like Oliver/Sara, this is no one night stand but a relationship that will be badly written and last far too long on screen. Felicity will think that since she can't have Oliver, Ray will make a good pillow, as he did before he squeezed out from under her to go work on his toy, and Oliver will make sad puppy dog eyes for a couple of episodes seeing Felicity with Ray, and then decide to take Ra's offer because he's lost Felicity. It's all going to be so trite and cliche and horrible to watch.

But why would Ra's go after Oliver now? He knows MM killed Thea. To go after Oliver because he's been turned down himself is so pissy. Yes. The idiot that is Oliver in s3 is going to look at Felicity with Ray at Diggle's wedding, and jump on Ra's offer. Just what I want to see on the show. Not.

My two cents on the slut-shaming: Personally, I think hooking up with Ray when Felicity is in love with Oliver is needy and makes her look pathetic, and I'd say the same if she were male. Oliver hooking up with Sara was bad enough but Oliver didn't think he was in love with someone else at the time. If he did, it was as bad as what Felicity did in 315. When the person you love rejects you, strength isn't finding the nearest person who admires you and jumping their pole, it's saying "I don't need a man (or woman) to be whole, I'm just fine as I am." Oliver may have explained to Diggle and Felicity why he's doing it, but he's shut the book on any feedback about it. You can't fight for someone who's not listening. All you do is end up hurting yourself. From the Spoiler discussion thread: It doesn't matter to me when they break up because it's already spoiled Olicity for me. It was bad enough when Oliver was being an idiot and making stupid decisions, but at least Felicity was a character I could root for and hold on to. Now she's sleeping with Ray, and I've lost respect for her. I know it's a standard trope in soap operas and the CW to keep the couple apart but it's a good thing that the show is on hiatus because right now, I can't stand to see Oliver, Felicity or Ray. When Diggle's wedding happens (or if it does, you can't tell on this show) and Felicity takes Ray, it's going to spoil the whole thing for me. In spite of home much I love Diggle and Digg/Lyla, I refuse to watch that $%^!.

Oh, but now that he's lost Felicity to Ray, as he'll find out in the next few episodes, why shouldn't he start killing people? It's not like the character has made any sense all season. Maybe it will involve the Alpha/Omega drug. The problem is, why would he do it? Because Oliver turned him down and he's pissed off at him? If that's the emotional level the Head of the LoA works on, definitely give it to Nyssa and her PMS. Reply about the Raylicty scene in the Relationship thread.

If I recall correctly, there were supposed to be two scenes in this that break the internet, and a Felicity epiphany? Ra's offer to Oliver is one, and Raylicity sex is the other. But I didn't see Felicity have an epiphany. Was it supposed to be that she gave Ray an epiphany? Are we now going with 'epiphany sex', show? What, not even pictures of Felicity? That's really cruel. To us shippers, that is. Malcolm said to Nyssa that she should have known that her relationship with Sara would knock her out of the succession. That suggests to me that it was the relationship itself and not being over-emotional that is the problem. But we'll see what Berlanti does with it. Oliver's decisions have been both bone-headed and hot-headed. He's lost the ability, if he ever had it, to consult with his trusted advisors, and most of the assassins in the League could probably beat him in a fight. Not to mention he knows nothing of the League's history, traditions or SOPs. Even if he takes power, just how does Ra's think he's going to hold on to it?

I just listened to a very funny rant by comic Erica Kurtz on the models in Fashion Week all wearing black lipstick now. Who knew Laurel Lance, ADA and vigilante, was also such a fashion trendsetter now? (Katie Cassidy's 'passion for fashion' pays off.)

Who knows what Oliver thought. It's not like they can actually have a conversation and use their words. Maybe Oliver thought that after he told Felicity he loved her, mid walking away, she would dump Ray because Oliver loves her. Not actually be with her, but he loves her. *rme* Who knows if Oliver thinks at all this season? Even if Oliver turns down Ra's, I still don't have much respect left for him at this point. MG has managed to kill all of the love I had for Olicity, and most of the admiration I had for Oliver Queen. LOL. If Ray and Felicity break up because Ray is going to his new show, or rather suddenly reasons! appear for them to break up, I'm going to feel even more cheated. This has been such a stupid plotline to keep Oliver and Felicity apart for no good reason. I'm afraid it's going to be teasing hospital sex with Ray now that Felicity is sleeping with him. MG's already ruined Diggle's wedding for me, now watch him ruin this episode to. I really really REALLY do not want to watch Oliver make puppy dog eyes at Felicity when she's with Ray. I want intelligent people dealing in an adult way with life events, not the usual CW soap opera. I get the impression that there was a lot of negative comments about Felicity sleeping with Ray, and MG is grasping at a straw that sees it his way. It's another in what's now getting to be a long list of mistaken assumptions about the audience.

I don't see how they can have only half of Firestorm on the show, and it's the half without the abs. They've got to put it into the same timeline as Arrow and The Flash, right? Otherwise they shut themselves out of cross-overs. Lazarus Pit makes the most sense for Sara. If they do a time travel, she's got to be alive on the Arrow show too, and her death was (supposed) to be the arc for this season (I say supposed because only Felicity seemed working to find her killer.) Please have Laurel go over ... please have Laurel go over ... please have Laurel go over. I think Thea as Speedy in the Arrow cave makes much more sense than Laurel being there.

With the upcoming Nyssa storyline, I wonder if they're thinking of trying her in the spin-off too if Caity returns as Sara. It would be awesome to have the two together and in a relationship but I was rather hoping that Laurel would be sent over there to make up the female quotient and Thea enter the lair as a junior fighter. I can't see any of that being on Felicity. She's tried to talk to him, to talk about what he's doing, and he's shut her out every time. He saved MM because of Thea, he left for the duel because of her, he left to save MM again for Thea. Felicity didn't enter into any of his decision making, she didn't even have a chance to talk to him about his decisions, so there's no guilt at all on her. If Oliver becomes the new Ra's, it's going to have to be after 3x18 and 3x19 because he's at Diggle's wedding in 3x17 and in jail in 3x18, and 3x19 is Ray's breakout as the Atom. For those who still believe MG, at what point would Oliver leave Starling City to take over training to be the new Ra's?

Lazarus Pit? If they really wanted her back that is.

I don't mind Ray so much but maybe Laurel can join too? I don't see how Arrow can accommodate her Black Canary because she's not good enough to be an equal partner to Oliver (and I'd resent the hell out of her giving Diggle orders) but her fame is such that she can't be a sidekick like Roy. I wonder what they're going to do with Caity Lotz since Sara is so dead, not even Miracle Max can revive her. Anyway, I'm happy for all those actors and hope it takes off.

I feel sorry for Brandon Routh because he seems like a nice guy just trying to do the best he can. I put my hate where it belongs, MG, AK and GB.

BunsenBurner, I hope your nephew is all right now. If we're doing Princess Bride, can I offer this line which seems to fit how quickly Felicity slept with Ray: Berlanti can't be serious about Nyssa being disinherited because she's a lesbian? At the TCAs, they proudly showed off John Barrownman, Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller and Berlanti himself, proudly saying that this show does not discriminate. Er... it doesn't discriminate as long as you're a male who looks white? I assume that Malcolm Merlyn will remain alive, which while I really like Barrowman, I think he has served his time on the show. Horatio Alger stories -- responsible for much of condemnation of people who aren't lucky enough to get themselves out of the pit. Boys Own are about boys having amazing adventures, or books like Cue For Treason where an ordinary boy meets Shakespeare and the Queen's Spymaster and saves Queen Elizabeth I from an assassination plot. It seemed like he was so excited about getting to direct his BFF in a love scene and then an action scene, he made it as sweet and romantic as he could, irrespective of the show's narrative. I think they're trying to write Ray as being so brilliant he isn't aware of normal human boundaries, a Sheldon Cooper-lite, but while I can wave pinging her phone and arriving on her doorstep early in the morning, I just can't with the "Oh, am I only wearing a towels around my hips? I never noticed." Any man who has such serious etiquette issues would never have made it as the CEO even of his own company. Totally inappropriate and squicky. They need better female writers. Wendy Mericle was one of the people responsible for this episode, and she and Beth Schwartz wrote the not-lamented Time of Death last season. THIS so much. None of this season makes sense, and I think it's partly because they assumed that everyone loves the comics and knows them and wants to see them reproduce so all they have to say is "Ra's" and "Nanda Parbat" and we'll go "ooh, scary", or put a character in costume and we'll love it. It's true for some people but those of us who don't come from the comics are left wondering just what is so special about Ra's and his designer bathtub. Oliver isn't broke any longer. Apparently between 3x01, when he was so broke he had to make a present for baby Sara, and 3x03 when he bought the tickets for Corto Maltese, he got the insurance money from Moira's death, about $3 - 4 million. You'd think he would pay his Team for their work but apparently Diggle is living off of Lyla's earnings (ARGUS doesn't give mat leave), Roy off of his part-time job working for Thea, and Felicity from PT.

To be fair, Diggle told everyone to go while he talked to Oliver alone. (Why? Why couldn't he have said it with the people who care about Oliver around?) Laurel came back; Felicity went to try to save Ray. Because that's such a romantic thing to do. (I remember how much I used to hate it in romance books when the hero saves the idiot girl.) I don't know which is worse, forgetting how to write for Oliver and Felicity (although a lot of that scene was in the acting), which would imply their ignorant, or deliberately writing them at odds to keep them apart. Of the two, I think the latter is worse, and that's what I suspect MG's doing. If I still cared enough to fanwank, I'd say she was desperate to prove that she can still be alive while Oliver yet again goes off to kill himself. Like when someone you love dying and you have sex just to know you aren't dead too. But I don't care enough about either Oliver or Felicity any moreto argue the point.

I don't think his father's mission is done, there were a lot of names in that book and the .2.5 summer couldn't have taken care of them all. More likely, the EPs got tired of the storyline. I think the only reason for him to stay in Starling City is going to be Thea. Diggle can hook up with ARGUS and the Suicide Squad, Felicity is already off with Ray, and Laurel and Roy can take care of the city. No need for Oliver Queen or the Arrow, he can be Ra's al Ghul now, if Nyssa doesn't murder him first for taking her place. Of the spoilers, there's nothing in 316 - 318 that I want to see. 319 Broken Arrow might be interesting, then again, it might not. MG is teasing an Olicity scene in 316 but I"m not falling into that trap. Felicity is heading into a committed relationship with Ray, she's go no right to say anything to Oliver. I was so looking forward to Diggle and Lyla's wedding, and now MG has completely ruined it for me. I bet if Felicity does catch the bouquet, she turns to Ray with it and smiles.

The problem is that by that point, so many of the fans have given up that the ratings go down and the show-runners can say "See, it's the Moonlighting Curse, we shouldn't have put them together at all." It's the "if ever" that worries me. Since SDCC, he's always been so positive that it's only Felicity for Oliver this season, and while he's teased long journeys, he's never been "if ever" before. On the other hand, I'm hoping that the feedback on Raylicity will cause them to end it sooner rather than later. They really screwed up the writing for that one.

It would explain why they keep using such a craptastic idea when for the past 2 seasons, it was out-thinking the master the let Oliver win. If I were Nyssa, I'd be so furious at being passed over when I'm called 'the Heir to the Demon', I'd form an anti-league and take down Ra's myself. Hopefully consisting of kick ass women of various gender orientations. You mean planned to be a tragedy rather than becoming one because of the bad writing? They've said that there will be two parallel progressions, Oliver losing his humanity in flashbacks and regaining it in the present day. Would they do an obstacle where Oliver loses his humanity in s3 and regains it in s4? That seems to be typical for this group because I doubt they have a cohesive storyline covering 5 seasons. (J.Michael Strazynski, where are you?) Sadly, at this point, I realized I don't care about Oliver any more. He's being a jackass to everyone he says he cares about (except Diggle in this episode) and I have no idea why Waller or Ra's want him on their team.

I don't think MG cares, except that he loves getting people upset. I do hope, however, that angry tweets directed to AK, GB and the Writers Room will have some effect.

Felicity has been laid before, and it hasn't stopped the malpropisms. What they just did here was ruin whatever fun there had been in Felicity's relationship with Ray. The idea that sex with Felicity fixed Ray's mental block truly makes me want to vomit. This really seems to be the 'lack of autonomy for women' season. (Oh, Moira, you kickass woman, how I miss you.) Sara was ambushed and killed, Merlyn brain-washed Thea, Oliver is still making decisions for her, Ra's passes over Nyssa, who is more badass than Oliver will ever be, and now Felicity is the needy woman who will go to bed with any man who is nice to her. Laurel seems to be the only female character who can make decisions on her own. "Now that I've tapped that, I think I'll get back to work." Aaaarrrrgh!

One of those producer interviews, I can't remember which one just now, said that they're writing ep 21 now. Maybe this is the time to get on twitter to the other eps and writers (not MG) and other places to tell them what we don't like while there's still time to tweak the rest of the season.