statsgirl

I'd like to think that the episodes from 310 are Oliver's wound-induced dream but the writing seems too determined to make Laurel the Black Canary. Right now it feels like they would sacrifice everything else on the show to get to Green Arrow/Black Canary if they could, Diggle, Felicity, the whole crusade and flashbacks, everything they've set up. So unfortunately, I thin this is the new Arrow show. I noticed that and hoped I was wrong. I don't feel strong enough at this point to go through a whole "Thea is evul and has a plan" story. Also, if Thea goes bad then we're stuck with Felicity and Laurel as BFFs forever. I was hoping Thea would take Laurel off Felicity's hands.

I think Felicity knows enough. She knows that Oliver almost died even though she doesn't know about the being kicked off the mountain part or the Maseo & Tatsu part. If this were well written, Oliver and Felicity would sit down and talk about their differences in whether Merlyn should join. But it's not, and so Felicity is written to be cold and angry while Oliver gets beat up and suffers.

Andrew Kreisburg said in an interview recently that he was 1/3 of the responsibility for the planning of Arrow. I think any decision to kill off Sara would have come from all three EPs because it's that big a thing. I think that's what happened. In addition to being a great Canary physically, CL brought a vulnerability to Sara which made you sympathize with her and what she went through, and was in great contrast to KC who (unknowingly) played Laurel like a bitch. Sara was supposed to be a place-holder till Laurel became the true Black Canary, like Billy Wintergreen was the first Deathstroke. (Billy who?) It must frustrate MG greatly that people won't hurt Sara and give up on her like he wants. It's almost twisted how dead they made her, shot, dumpstered, fridged and buried, and yet people still call for her back so he's left to write Felicity saying that Laurel has a light that Sara didn't. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to get rid of Felicity too because she's in the way of Laurel being the leading lady but CW, if they have any sense, won't let him.

I don't think the EPs have any intention of giving Felicity another episode about her unless they get into her father next season. For them, her functions are 1. humor (not so much of that this year) 2. tech for Oliver 3. t ech for Ray and getting him into his suit 4. telling Laurel to keep being the BC because she's so special so that people don't complain there are no female friendships on the show. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 are about her relationships with other people and if we talk about that, it belongs in the relationships thread. I define propping as 'acting out of character to make another character look better or to push his/her storyline'. There has been far too much of that for Felicity (and Diggle) this season. Just me, but I find talking about clothes boring. I'd rather talk about ideas and interactions. How she does her jobs is connected to Oliver and Ray again because she appears to have no life outside the Arrow cave and Palmer Industries.

Someone just pointed me to this twitter account. A great way to deal with Arrow these days I can't paste any of the images here because they're too large so you'll have to see them there: https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob (followed by Colin Donnell)

We'll have a scene with Laurel and Tommy, where Laurel is weak and so upset that Oliver and Sara are gone, that sequeways into a scene of present day Laurel, kicking ass in the BC costume alongside Roy and Diggle.(I suspect there are no depths this show won't go to to raise Laurel.) And that. Meanwhile Felicity will still be angry at him when he's going through so much poor baby.

The red wasn't dark enough?

So ready to fight that Oliver leaves Diggle behind and takes Laurel. I love the realism of the show. I've been reading posts saying how wonderful it is that Oliver has finally stopped lying to her and I want to shout "No, he hasn't. He's just stopped lying to her about being the Arrow. He's still lying to her about what Malcolm did to her." Technically, yes. But the meaning behind the Bechdel test is about women having respect for each other and when person A tarnishes the memory of her dead friend in order to prop person B, that doesn't count for me. Like the voice synthesizer, it will always be showing just how low they're willing to take Felicity to make Laurel happen. The absolute low point of the episode.

The Return will be 1. Oliver to Lian Yu in the present and 2. Oliver to Starling City in the flashbacks. MG probably thought that technically it didn't apply to Oliver returning from the moutain because he was already back. Can I just rage for a moment on the idiocy of Amanda Waller sending Oliver, who was only half-trained and who had his picture all over that paper as a playboy billionaire, to Starling City to get the drug? I doubt there will be any real consequences for Laurel from lying to Lance. By the time they get around to it, it will be so far in the future, March sometimes, that it will be assumed to have been dealt with.

I love the way you try to make it all better, quarks.

I'm glad they used the original Team Arrow members instead of some of the other characters on the show. Although I wouldn't mind one with Quentin having a search warrant looking for love.

Part of the problem is that they thought Felicity was bullet proof so they could use her to prop any character or storyline they were currently pushing Hopefully they've realized their mistake after Canaries. I think the real Felicity is down there somewhere, and she should emerge again around about the game-changing 18th episode. (Not a spoiler because MG uses 'game-changer' as he uses 'epic' and "as a drunk uses a lamp post, for support rather than illumination."*) Maybe then the Felicity we know will be back and we can talk about who she is again. *Andrew Lang

I'd tell you about the Canadian promo but I had stopped watching by then. I do think that Malcolm will have a redemptive moment before he dies. But I can't see the idiot that is Oliver right now playing such a long game. She's always pretty bad in interviews (I don't know why she doesn't get someone to write her a script with talking points beforehand) but I agree, she just wants to be the lead without consideration for the overall quality of the show, just like she designed the BC suit with all the buckles and fingerless gloves so her nail polish can match her lipstick. I really wanted Slade to interact with Diggle and Felicity but now that's not going to happen. I don't care about Oliver/Thea/Malcolm on the island, if I ever see Laurel again it will be too soon, and I'm so angry at Felicity that I don't even want Olicity. Has anyone got a reason for me to tune in again?

I stopped watching before the end of the episode. I just couldn't take it, between the Waller torture and the Laurel propping and how much I really don't give a $#!% about Oliver/Thea/Malcolm. I was so excited that is coming back, but seeing just Oliver and Thea there on the island, I realized I don't care about the next episode at all. So much for MG's "love letter to the fans".

Is this the perfect episode? Thea, who at this point is miles better than Laurel at fighting, just got the crap kicked out of her. Her reaction was to say "I need more training". Laurel got the crap kicked out of her several times, was told how wonderful she was by Felicity, and that the city is good in her hands by Oliver who had opposed her at the start of the episode with good reason. Nobody said anything about needing more training. She's got the light that Sara didn't have. It's this kind of bad writing to make Laurel look good that hurts the character.

So in the first half hour, Arrow was #4 and Laura was #5, and then they reversed. In other words

I've been looking at his tumblr and while there are a number of Yay, girl power! comments, there are more that are upset about the scenes and the put down of Sara by Felicity. Since we're only seeing the comments he replies to, that makes me suspect that there are a lot more of the same vein that he didn't reply to (like mine). Even if only half the viewers are upset, that's a major part of the audience. He's in damage control.

Coincidence? I think not. [/Polkaroo] Yeah that would be a helluva coincidence. Didn't MG say that there would be a wonderful Laurel/Felicity scene in 3x13? Guess he kind of misjudged the reaction on that one. ,

Maybe they'll pull it together again for the last four episodes like they did last year. Maybe I'll come back for that. Right now, between Team Arrow broken up with Oliver gone again. Diggle on comms and Felicity OOC propping Ray and Laurel, there's nothing I want to see here. I wish my cats were as supportive. Maybe they were afraid I'd hurt them when I lashed out. I think the show's metaphor has been that Oliver is the light that everyone revolves around. The fact that everyone has to take their turn and go OOC for Laurel propping to make the character work says pretty clearly that she doesn't. At least not the way they are writing her. Sending Oliver and Thea to Lian Yu makes NO SENSE. Oliver already knows how to cope with it, and what's Thea going to learn? I thought the DJ said "I'm going where you won't follow" i.e. Malcolm, is too much of a coward to commit suicide or fight Ra's himself.I I'm glad the Chase arc is over, but what a lot of sound and fury over nothing.

Which is stupid and bad writing. Write for one ship or the other, but don't write so that anyone can put a name in the blank. Remember that little thing called continuity? And characterization? The DJ committed suicide with the cyanide he had intended for Thea when Malcolm had him in his sights and was about to kill him.R Roy's not going anywhere, Oliver left the city in their hands (Diggle, Roy, Laurel ) because they can take such good care of it. Shall I pass you the basin? (Felicity was there too but I'm imagining she saw what a mess the show is and ran.) Can you blame her? Not only did she have to prop Laurel to the skies, Felicity trashed her character in favor of Laurel.

A woman's brain if fully mature at 30 - 35. It takes a man till 40 - 60 for the synapses to reach the same state (from my neurophysiology course).In In terms of brain development, Oliver is still young. He has a tendency to look into the near future while Moira played the long game.

I'm hoping the ship will be long over before the question of relative ages comes up. But ten years isn't that big a difference.

Yeah, definitely shitting on Sara and I completely understand why after this CL doesn't want to come back. Completely nullified Laurel's whole "when you let the dark in it doesn't go away " from last season's Birds of Prey.

I'm sorry I watched that piece of crap. Terrible writing. Everyone was all over the place to service the plot. Felicity was working with Oliver and then she was yelling at him, Diggle was quiet and then he was setting Oliver straight. Oliver was against Laurel and then he was happy leaving the city in her hands. My deal with MG was that I'd stick around for Laurel Canary if I got decent Oliver and Felicity. This wasn't even close. Magic. That's how everything worked this episode. Somehow Amanda could access Moira's personal message machine remotely. I still don't know why Amanda wants Oliver when she's got a ton of trained people already.

I'll take a lot. I'll take Felicity off in the sideplot with Ray. I'll take Laurel becoming the Black Canary. I'll grudgingly accept the stupidity of working with Malcolm I WILL NOT TAKE FELICITY BEING REDUCED TO LYING ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL LAUREL IS AND PRETENDING IT'S TRUE. That is all. Oliver and Thea ended on the island because Malcolm said they needed to go there to be able to defeat Ra's al Ghul, which makes No Sense. But not before Oliver told Laurel the city was safe in her hands. There is nothing I want to tune in for.