statsgirl

Anyone know which episode they're shooting?

EBR tweeted something about a chin up being really hard to do even when you think you're in good shape so maybe it's that.

I get the feeling that the conversation is during Barry and Cisco trying it though. Not that they need to fuel the Barry/Caitlin ship any further. I think the shirtless scene in the mountains in 3x09 must have been really difficult, as in really really cold. I'll take shirtless Roy even. Maybe the three of them can trade off. (Not Ray though, that scene in the last episode was weird.) (I think it's so funny the current emphasis on chiseled male bodies where before it was only about the women looking unrealistically good. Nice to see the neurosis being spread around.)

I liked Longmire in the first season but after that the manpain took over, for Longmire, for Branch and even Vic's marital problems ended up being about her husband's manpain (a minor recurring character) rather than hers. I like the show and I'm glad it got renewed but I think my manpain quota is about used up. The show I really wish had been renewed is Perception. Apart from being a decent mystery, there are very few shows that get the medicine/psychology right on TV and it was one of the best.

quarks, will you settle for the show giving you shirtless Diggle in the lair working out? Shirtless Diggle at home holding Sara? Shirtless Diggle crushing Ray Palmer? I worry for Diggle's safety.

Don't Barry and Cisco both try the salmon ladder? I think the TV Guide article said that Felicity and Caitlin are talking about the regimen while Barry and Cisco use it but I can't find the link now. But yeah, no shirtless Oliver and no shirtless Diggle reinforces the idea that they really don't know what people tune in for. Agree it will be heavily promoted and people will tune in to see the first episode of Black Canary and also to find out what happened to Oliver. By the second, though, we should get an idea of whether this was a good idea or not. ETA: Found it. I think Barry should be able to do the salmon ladder -- he doesn't have muscles like Oliver but he also doesn't weigh much and he's got super-fast metabolism.

I think at this point, I'm fairly confident that Oliver/Laurel is not longer endgame, even if I'm still not ready to say that Oliver/Felicity is. Usually when an endgame couple is apart or with other partners, there are still longing looks and the occasional anvil from another person that they should be together. What we've had is repeated statements by both characters that they shouldn't be together starting from Tommy's grave site, and third party statements, from Diggle, Barry and even Moira that Oliver and Felicity have a connection. Plus Oliver/Felicity is way more popular to the general audience than Oliver/Laurel ever was. On the other hand, I don't really trust these EPs to do what is better dramatically rather than is what in their comic book hearts. As for the question of whether Felicity fought hard enough for her relationship with Oliver, it reminds me of this old joke: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? - - - - - One, but it has to really want to change.

I hope so. But in order for it to be about how the team survives without Oliver, they have to focus on the Team (Diggle/Felicity/Roy) and not on Ray or Laurel, and I don't have much faith that will happen. They're too excited about their shiny new toys.

Diggle could definitely make it work. But I'm worried that he could get hurt in it. Bullet graze + black leather is safer than buller graze + bare arm.

I think most of the lines are from Felicity. I guess even though he loves Laurel, he knows what gets people excited about watching the next episode.

Agreeing with both that what Ray needs to make amends for is keeping secrets (EBR said that one of the reasons Felicity is attracted to him is because he's "transparent") and that Ray won't be in the lair while Oliver is gone. There's just too much drama to be milked by having Oliver discover when he gets back what Ray has been doing, and only then letting him in the lair. Felicity may not get sidelined in terms of screentime because she's probably going to be prominent in Ray's story, but it does feel like she'll have little to do in the lair in terms of actual character as opposed to being on comms and computer searches. IIRC, the only spoilers we have for the post-break episodes is the Laurel trilogy that is four episodes long (3x10-3x12 plus 3x13 "Canaries") and that we're going to be learning about Ray's plans. And then EBR posted the photo of Arsenal and Black Canary.

I like the idea of an emblem in the chest area. I've always thought that cowls and masks limit vision and something bright and eye-catching in the chest area with otherwise black gear would pull people's attention away from his face (because sadly, for too many people, all black men look alike). And it has to be something that draws attention to his arms. If I were a bad guy, just looking at the size of those arms would make me run.

I think the decision to announce when an actor is leaving the show depends on what the show-runners want to do with that character. If it's for maximum effect, like Will dying, they'll keep it quiet. If it's to tear at your heart during their leaving arc, they'll announce it early.

Just as Oliver idealized his relationship with Laurel, I think Laurel refused to look at the real Oliver, the facile, cheating guy, because she wanted to be the future Mrs. Oliver Queen. She was there when he was at his worst but she didn't see it because she didn't want to see it. They're more honest with each other now but for most of the time they've known each other, there were too many lies between them.

I think one of the EPs said that they were going to move Diggle's HIVE stuff to next season. Just like first they said we'd have Felicity backstory in s2, and then moved it to s3. But I think the real reason is that they're more interested in playing with their Flash and metahumans toys than giving us Diggle. At SDCC, Paul Blackthorne said we would see Quentin trying to deal with not being out in the field any more and a blue collar guy who has to do administration now. What did we get of that? Nothing. Three short scenes with Oliver and the rest has been about Laurel and her issues. The most interesting and complex characters for me (beyond Oliver and Felicity) are Moira, Walter and Quentin. And none of them know that Oliver is the Arrow, or at least we didn't know that Moira did. We've barely seen Lyla and I prefer her in the lair to Laurel. Even Sin has potential. The problem is always Laurel and what to do with her, whether she knows the secret or not. There is just no place that she fits into as a lead character (i.e. more than their legal help) without forcing her in. Think what the Oliver-less episodes in January could have been for Diggle, Felicity and Roy if the EPs weren't determined to make that Laurel's time. And now Ray Palmer is getting more time than Diggle. Diggle really needs his own costume and a secret identity. Any suggestions?

The problem, as I see it, is that if Laurel gets the meta human Canary Cry, it will knock the show off-balance since she'll have a meta power to take out all the bad guys (with no real fighting ability) while the others are just fighting for their lives. If it's a sonic device from Star Labs, then anyone can use it and there's no point to Laurel being there again. At this point, it just seems like a lose-lose situation.

My thinking: the EPs discovered that you can have Team Arrow interacting with metahumans they want to put metahumans on Arrow too but now Team Arrow needs something extra to be able to fight them so Star Labs develops a sonic Canary Cry based on Sara's but better and it goes to Laurel because 1. comics and 2. she adds nothing to the Team otherwise.

I think it was in the interview with Danielle T. I'll try to find it. At the Q&A, AK says there are a couple of big Star labs technology things coming Arrow's way. It's got to be the Canary Cry.

I think her legal skills would be the most useful, but she could have brought those without suiting up.

Especially is she's Bumbling Canary, as the EPs say she will be in the beginning. So far, each new addition to the Arrow cave has brought something of value. Diggle brought wisdom and back-up, Felicity brought tech (and humor), Barry also brought tech, Sara brought fighting skills and knowledge, and Roy brought fighting skills and sidekick, especially if Diggle has to be more careful now that he has a family. Ray could bring tech, organizational skills, financing and his new dwarf star ATOM suit.

In the TV Guide interview, the interview said that pictures of his kid play on a screen while they're talking. Yeah, he seems really in love with his wife. He said he facebook stalked her after he saw on on Mad Men. Stephen Amell nixed it but I'd like of like to see Cassandra in a role on an Arrow episode. Ben Browder's wife used to have a different role in each season of Farscape, although in so much makeup you couldn't recognize her from one role to the other.

It could actually be very funny to see Diggle and Roy reacting to that too. Eyerolls and 'children, please' reactions. And then Ray could be all wondering why there's a nightclub above the cave but Thea doesn't know about it, and bumbling around almost getting caught by her.

I can see Ray in the Arrow cave more easily than I can see Laurel there because 1. he wants to save Starling City, not just work off his wrath; 2. he has tech skills Team Arrow can use; 3. he respects Felicity, not just what she can do for him; and 4. he can do the salmon ladder.. Four steps ahead of Laurel already.

I've been calling it bait and switch all season. I agree that the show should focus on Oliver and his origin story. But I don't mind anyone else's origin story because either it's tied in to Oliver's (mentoring Roy; problems with Mirakuru) or it's done in small enough pieces that there is still lots of the Team Arrow I love (Thea, Felicity, Diggle). Except for one character, and that is Laurel. Her story took up a lot of the first two season and now so much of it doesn't even matter to the frame of the show (all that anger at Oliver, crushing on the Hood, hunting the Hood, addiction arc, getting fired, and at Sara, recovery) and now this season out of the first six episodes four were heavily focussed on her, much of it independent of the Oliver/Team Arrow stuff We'll see how much time Ray gets this season before I decide about him. In order to watch a TV show, I have to get more that I enjoy than that which annoys me. Much of the Oliver stuff has been iffy, I've liked Felicity and Roy, and Diggle when we got something of him, but there's been too much Black Canary origin story this season and it's a turn-off for me. It's not completely bait-and-switch yet (it will be if Laurel ever co-leads the team with Oliver) but with less Oliver story, it's getting close.

That was a dangling maybe and Felicity knew it. He knew she wanted a relationship with him and wasn't going to wait patiently while he decided if he could ever have a relationship with her. 'You know how I feel about you even though I've told you repeatedly why I won't be with you so stick around for this shadow life.' At this point, it's getting to be just plain cruel to her, like a cat teasing a mouse who is trying to survive and has little chance. Felicity knows that there is no argument she could make to convince Oliver to be with her because she's pretty much made them all between The Calm and Sara. And we know, if Felicity doesn't, that Diggle has tried to make a few too., but it hasn't budged Oliver There comes a point when a girl has to keep some dignity and self-respect for herself rather than becoming a doormat begging the guy to give her another chance. This. If Felicity waits around for him, it's not good for her and it's not good for him. It's enabling. And nothing is going to change because Oliver doesn't want it to, limbo is working for him. Limbo is what he wants so that he doesn't have to make a change. Freud said that change is so uncomfortable we don't do it unless the situation we are presently in is even more uncomfortable. Felicity is doing the right thing for herself and for Oliver, shutting down his dangling maybes and moving on with her life. I don't want her counting on it, but as an viewer I want Oliver to be so uncomfortable with that that he finally does something. Or doesn't, and lets her move on. This show is called Arrow so it's going to be about Oliver and his perspective (when it's not about Laurel). They don't do justice to Felicity in terms of how little time we get to know what she's thinking and feeling, but they are doing justice to her in making her move on from being "Oliver's crush object."