statsgirl

Maybe he calls it a training exercise. Which would actually be rather stupid now that I think about it because the whole point of Oliver training with Malcolm is to learn how R'as fights, not Slade. He's already defeated Slade. Do they have Amanda Waller's permission? DR said that Diggle sees the reasonableness (is that a word?) of Oliver working with Malcolm to defeat Ra's. I hope Felicity is just working down there to help Starling City and not because she's drinking the kool-aid. If Ray gets his suit going and can justifiably help the city, at this point I can see Felicity leaving Team Arrow to work with Ray over the Malcolm, issue.

I have the feeling that after tonight I will have had my fill of Laurel, Malcolm and Thea. So I'm not looking forward to an episode with little Diggle and Felicity. I have that feeling about what they're going to do to Felicity, and they're not going to let Diggle lay down the truth bomb for Oliver. Right now, I feel like my line in the sand is Felicity telling Laurel what a good heart she has and she should keep on fighting out when what she really should be doing is telling her to call Nyssa and get some more training. There's time for that with Oliver back. Oliver always was a douche though. The purpose of that arc was to show that Oliver was a terrible mentor and give him a chance to get good at it for this season. That's far more creative than anything they're going to come up with.

Don't forget "and have Felicity be really nice and propping to her". Maybe I'll skip this one, except I really want to see the new atmosphere in the Arrow cave.

Thea has the grey part of Moira, as does Laurel but I was thinking of the Moira who not only stood up to Malcolm Merlyn but countered him by figuring out about Nanda Parbat and going to Ra's al Ghul. Since she died, Malcolm has just run over everyone, including Thea and Oliver, as he wills.

I think Barrowman will be gone next season so they'll have more budget for Routh, although what will they do with Ray if there is no spin-off?

But this isn't Oliver. He came back as The Arrow, don't ya know? That's his excuse and MG is sticking to it (if he leaves the scene in). And if he does, you can bet it will show how strong Laurel is to oppose Oliver after that. I think he's really trying to get the Smoakin' Captain ship going. He must get tired of having to play hard ass opposite KC. Personally speaking, the only kind of triangle I have ever liked is person A/person B/ principles e.g. Felicity/Oliver/working with MM. True not everyone is a shipper but that's how they introduced Barry, through Felicity, and that's how they're trying to get the audience to like Ray, through Felicity. Make no mistake, in spite of what AK says, the point of Ray/Felicity is for Ray, not to give Felicity a choice.

I guess this is the "moment" she and Felicity have that MG was talking about - because Felicity is totally going to be that "somebody." Didn't we already have that scene in 311? Except Felicity never said anything about "you have this incredible heart and drive, and everything inside of you — you’re doing this not only for your sister but for you, and the city, and because you care so much ". I love that she's moved into the "Oliver and Laurel are soulmates but sometimes soulmates are just best friends. Reading the writing on the wall, honey? The latter. Something she has in common with Laurel. I'd say she has more access, not insight. I'm sure the EPs told her that there is a chance Oliver will end up with Laurel because as MG said, anything can happen (and it seems like she only gets excited about doing p.r. for the show when she thinks things are going her way) but right now, they're getting a whole lot more positive press out of Olicity than they ever got out of Lauriver and even more than they're getting out of Laurel's BC arc. They're not going to throw that away for a relationship a minority of viewers want. There are some actors who do that, and from what she's said about the show in the past I'd say that's a good possibility.S Someone told her that there is a triangle on the show this season, and she assumes it's Laurel/Oliver/Felicity instead of Oliver/Felicity/Ray.

Is there any chance the sexy times are going to be Lyla and Diggle? Because tbh, I won't find Ray/Felicity sexy. At all. Exactly. The Arrow catches them so the DA's office can cook them. He no longer kills them or extracts his own vengeance. He even handed Brick over to the police. At this point, it makes no sense to go after the Arrow for what he's doing. It makes more sense to have someone running around pretending to be the Arrow and committing crimes. It's an old chestnut but I don't doubt they'll try it.

But why would they want to arrest him now? He's not breaking the law these days. If he's going to forgive Laurel for not telling him (and we know he will), and she saw Sara die and lied to him for months, how can he hold it against Oliver? He thought Olicity shippers would be mad about the end of the last episode and they weren't. He didn't think people would be mad at Laurel not telling Lance and they are. I'm hoping he's misreading this. But he means that Felicity is sleeping with Ray, then he's not wrong. Exactly There was a lot of anger and Oliver/Sara lunge and at that point Oliver hadn't said he loved Felicity as he has now, or Felicity dreaming those dreams about him. And they didn't want to have Sara in her own spin-off. It makes no sense to get the audience angry at Felicity and Ray when they want viewers to like him enough for his own show. Hopefully one of the three EPs has some sense.

Hahahahahahhahahha

I think the BBC disaster started when they killed Maid Marian instead of shipping her off to a convent for a while and then re-casting. They killed Robin Hood too, and Guy of Ghisbourne and just about every secondary character I liked. Yeah, big mistake. I think the Oliver-less episodes worked because 1. they weren't really without Oliver since he was there in present and past, and 2. it was about how they reacted to Oliver being gone/dead. That's not going to work again. The scene in 3x14 that is going to make us grin -- my guess is that Felicity does something to either help or hinder Oliver and he says something to the effect of "I could love a girl who does that". As John Barrowman said, we see things go 360. (I really think he meant 180 but I'll go with 360.) In 3x15, it's a game changer and things turn 180, and then 3x18 is another game changer and they go another 180, which equals 360 and we end up back at the start. (rme)

Oliver not being in Starling City in 3x18 could also explain why he's not crying. What's the point of bringing on Charlotte Ross just to interact with Felicity? A sad waste of a good actress and character. As much as I would love Oliver to be upset that Felicity got hurt and finally get his head out of his ass, I'm not going to torture myself writing scenarios that won't come to pass. Been there, done that imagining their reunion when he gets back from the duel.

I love Felicity's snark at Malcolm. The only reason I'd watch this episode is for Diggle's and Felicity's reactions to MM in the cave. As MG said, they get a lot of mileage out of that. I see their problem, even though I'm not happy with the solution. The show is about Oliver/Arrow but that burns through material really fast and they have 44 mins x 23 x 5? years to fill. So if you want Oliver to be the centre of his story, as opposed to Laurel or helping Ray becoming the Atom, he has to stumble (take a few steps back) so that we can cheer him on when he wins over the problem. Think how great it would be when he finally figures out Malcolm's game, defeats him, and grovels to Felicity. Good try, though. I think they're going to say "Look, she started out stumbling but she worked hard and fixed it" in the 15 minutes of 311 and from now on, we get full-on comics Black Canary.

I think it depends on how important Felicity is as a character, which translates into how much effort they put into writing her. She wasn't important in 2B until they needed to set up the mansion scene. But she (and EBR) has had a lot of press in the past year so I'm hoping they won't just use her for a hat peg to hang Ray on.

I believed he was ready to move, and he seemed really into Linda. It's a stupid old trope that he was distracted by his Secret so everyone assumed he wasn't ready to date -- I think I've seen that in old I Love Lucy episodes. I wonder if they're just so distracted by all the shiny new superheroes that they forget to write for Iris, or if they really don't know what to do with her. Victor Garber makes anything better.

It's right around the corner from the Greasepaint! All Colors! shop. I doubt that there will be any real consequences for Laurel, she has such a big heart and she was only trying to protect her father, and besides now she's out saving the city. Surely a little thing like lying to him for months can pass.

I was surprised that she got caught at the end. I thought there was going to be an 'on the run" cliff-hanger till next season. But I'd really rather keep this show than get SHIELD back. Add to me the list that was not amused by Jarvis getting Stark's just desserts. Yeah, psychology didn't so much as exist until later. At that point, it was pretty much Freud, Jung and Adler. Most of the other theorists developed after the war. What got me though is that they let a Russian hang around their offices like that since Russians were already not so trustworthy. The worst part of the episode -- the accent of the actor playing the Russian psychiatrist. It kept pulling me out of the scene to throw things at the TV. I worked with a Russian psychiatrist a few years ago and the TV accent was nothing like his. (When David Nykl can do such a good Russian accent on Arrow, there's no excuse for this.).

Apparently now both 15 and 18 are "game-changers". They've got another 8 days of filming to do on it though. How far away form Vancouver is LA? and do they get to keep their own frequent flyer points? Is the thing the guard fears the most a Zombie attack? He needs to cut down on his TV time. There's nothing in the sneak peek or the spoilers I care about.

She's been all business with him but she still wanted him. Now she doesn't. And now he knows it. No more "And you know how I feel about her" dangling maybes. Up to now he's had it all his way, now he's going to have to deal with the reality that it's not so much that she's move on to someone else but that she's shut the door on him and locked it. It may be a retread of 3A, but this is the Hopes thread.

I always thought a soulmate was someone who made you better, connected with the best parts of you. Oliver and Laurel make each other worse. From the spoiler thread This is what MG said in the EW interview: I agree that it was a mistake not to show them having cute flirty moments in the 5 months of the hiatus before they got to the ill-fated date. That would have shown us how they work as a flirty couple. But with the caveat (and it's a HUGE caveat given how this show tends to rush through or skip the emotional beats), this is a huge possibility to show us Oliver and Felicity as we haven't seen them yet. They always got along well and Felicity stood up to him when she thought he was wrong, but their interactions have always been affected by her crush on him and by the fact that he's the leader of the Team. Now not only is Felicity over the crush part because she's seeing that Oliver can have feet of clay, but she's grown in terms of leadership and authority in the weeks he's been gone (and Ray making her a VP probably contributed too). This is a good opportunity to see how they work together as two people with the same mission, without all the feels and romance. Can Felicity really shut Oliver out of her heart? How is Oliver going to take having Felicity shut him out instead of him shutting her out as he usually does? I'm hoping for the best in terms of writing in the next batch of episodes.

They share Laurel's guilt so it's not all on her, and it also makes the team accept her more since they're helping her LIE TO HER FATHER.. If Tommy comes back as The Dark Archer, he wouldn't be in the lair though because he'd be a bad guy. I think making Diggle a single dad would be tantamount to removing him from the show because 1) he would need two nannies because of his hours and 2) he wouldn't go out in the field because that would leave Sara an orphan. So doubt it's going to happen. In ep 317, does the wedding happen before or after the Suicide Squad mission? I always wondered who arranged for Tommy's funeral and headstone. Fanfiction usually has it as Luarel but I think it's more likely to be one of MM's lawyers, in which case, no problem in transporting the body. Looptab, replying to you in the Hopes and Fears thread.

As people have been saying in another thread, it's not just female viewers who like Olicity. The "darkest before the dawn" was definitely code for "don't give up on Olicity".O Oliver and Felicity are not just fighting about his idiocy in thinking he can't be in a relationship, they're fighting about ideology, and that makes them already miles ahead of Castle and Becket were in s3&4 when it was only about being afraid to speak up. (Incidentally, Nathan Fillion always said he was against putting them together; now he open about admitting how wrong he was). * As much as I hate the idea of Felicity dating Ray and would love for her and Oliver to be happy in a Relationship right now, there is still some good stuff to be mined between them in terms of getting to trust each other (especially on Oliver's side) and appreciating what you've got when you finally get it. The writing isn't good enough to do it in a steady stream; it's not a show about Oliver and Felicity. And to be honest, I think what has been done so far is much better than the writing for Laurel or Roy or Ray. The current conflict is organic, it stems from Oliver being controlling, both of his crusade (see the benching of Diggle) and of his relationships.There has to be a point at which Felicity puts her food down and says "enough, I'm not putting up with this" as Diggle did in season 1 or she ends up a doormat (which I'm sure is what the comic fanboys would prefer). I'd also rather have her consider Ray when she's at odds with Oliver about a philosophical matter than she's just tired of waiting around for him, it's active in terms of her rather than just passive. I hope SA and EBR don't tone down the chemistry because they'll get back to Olicity soon enough. Ray isn't going to be a serious contender for Felicity. *It was after the pilot episode that NF and SK were told to tone down the chemistry because it looked like Castle and Beckett were ready to jump into bed together in the next episode.

They think they are being so clever as showrunners, doing things others are afraid to do. Since Ray has all this super tech, and even McGee flew on NCIS a couple of seasons ago, I can buy that. The shrinking, not so much. Because that's what they have at the moment, a relationship like Oliver has with Diggle or Roy. Or Diggle had with Lyla in s2. And tbh, I'm excited at the idea of exploring that and how they hook up at the end of the season. Still hoping Felilcity keeps her brains and doesn't actually date Ray though.

Or permanent effects. Stay tuned for s4, as Oliver becomes a Dumbass once again. I think they've really failed to make Ra's a scary villain for those viewers who didn't come from the comic books. The only time I've really found him scary is when he defeated a whle bunch of his assassins. (And then he killed the last one, which is just stupid.) So for me, at this point Merlyn is a bigger threat than Ra's because he set up the whole situation and because you can't trust him an inch. Tatsu told him that only the student can defeat the master so he thinks that he has to learn from someone Ra's taught, and Maseo is unavailable. It's the Dumbass section of the season so he's forgotten that 1. he got into a lot of trouble not telling Moira and Thea that Slade was coming after him last season and 2. that it took outthinking, not outfighting Merlyn in s1 and Slade in s2. Sara would be alive and Thea and Oliver safe if not for MM.

But would they bring Oliver's son back for the finale if s3? It seems more like something to do in s4 when there's more time.