apinknightmare

It's so weird - I've never seen someone look so douchebaggy with a clean-shaven face, but he does.

Nah. Marc Guggenheim said DC had other plans for Green Lantern and wouldn't let Arrow have him.

If you want Oliver and Laurel back together because you like them together, you can say that. It doesn't have to be rooted in a "but comics!" argument. The people who run this show don't seem to be too concerned about comic canon anyway. Well, unless it's Batman.

I really hope he has a plan. I always thought that 'only the student can defeat the master' crap was terrible, especially when I thought he was going to learn from Malcolm, which doesn't make sense. It's marginally better if Oliver is actually Ra's student and defeats him by somehow using that against him.

Fortunately for us, they don't have the final say in that. Right now, the buzz comes from Oliver and Felicity, so the money men are going to make them follow that buzz. If at some point Laurel and Oliver start generating that level, then maybe they'll circle around back to it.

Yeah, I don't think it was either. Apart from leaving Baby Sara alone, I don't think it was bad at all. It was the most bland kidnapping attempt ever. And, I mean, what was Oliver supposed to do? Not save Thea? Not do what Ra's told him to? As others have pointed out, he took the person who could most handle herself, and he didn't lay so much as a finger on her. I get Dig being upset for a little while, but...meh.

I'm just worried that he's going to be real with them to gain their trust, and then wind up playing them, because if that's the case I can't see any kind of happy ending this year. Can you imagine? Would you trust the guy at that point? Would you wonder if he was playing you? I guess that could be easily solved depending on how Ra's gets eliminated. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, and if he does it for an effective, understandable reason, then okay.

I think it's probably real in that there is a scene with Oliver and Felicity in a Porsche - SA tweeted about four people asking him if he could drive a stick shift, so...seems legit on that front. I'm not so sure that the scene is romantic or even real though, so I'm not putting any stock in it until I see it on my screen.

No, I don't think she was. When he first signed up to attend, he was listed as attending Saturday only - so if I bought a ticket then I would've expected his panel to be on Saturday too. He expanded to both days at some point. But yeah, at least it's not a joint panel.

No, I think he's going to the Derby this weekend (per a tweet or FB update, I can't remember). Next weekend is Philly - Stephen's listed as being there both days, but he only has a panel on Sunday (KC has one on Saturday) for some reason. I was supposed to go to that and I'm bummed I can't now, but maybe that'll be a good thing, depending on what happens in 3x22, haha.

It just seems ridiculous to me that with the pics out and the jig up why he wouldn't just say "the ceremony is real. Oliver and Nyssa will be married by League custom" or something.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if time travel figured in, but who knows. I wouldn't put it past them, especially since they do take for granted that viewers of Arrow also watch The Flash. I know the wedding topic has been exhausted, but I was just reading wedding theories on Tumblr and saw this quote from MG: Why doesn't he just come out and say they'll be married? He makes it sound like the wedding ceremony and the marriage are two different things because a ceremony finishing and reaching a conclusion does not necessarily mean the couple is married and I JUST WANT THIS TO BE OVER ALREADY.

Given Tatsu telling Felicity that she needs to fight for Oliver, I'm guessing some of it is about getting him back. But I think that's a back burner mission. :) And logistically I can see why they'd all go to NP and leave the city unprotected. Getting that virus back isn't going to be easy and they'll need all the help they can get - there's not going to be anything left to protect if Ra's manages to get Oliver to unleash that bioweapon. What's letting a villains complete their evil deeds for a few days in order to keep the whole city from being wiped out?

I don't think it is all hands on deck to save Oliver - I think it's mostly all hands on deck to keep that virus away from Starling City (with a very small side of hopefully saving Oliver). There's not going to be much to protect if some psycho unleashes a bioweapon there.

I think it must be what he wears under his ATOM suit.

They left Felicity and Diggle out. Again.

I saw an interesting theory on Tumblr - that Oliver goes to Central City in 3x22 so he can visit STAR Labs to get Caitlyn to help with the virus. Seems plausible to me, but THAT'S AN IMPORTANT THING TO HAVE HAPPEN ON ANOTHER SHOW.

I still don't understand how this "next Ra's" thing works. Was it explained somewhere and I missed it? Because Ra's said in the last ep that there was a choice between him and Damien Darhk, and he was chosen. Did they both nearly die by that Ra's sword? If so, that Ra's was a shitty swordsman and/or strategist too. This is why the heir thing is so stupid, since HE wasn't a blood heir and neither is Oliver, and the non-blood heir is preferable to his actual blood heir if this is all straight-up no BTS plan going on with regards to Oliver, so why does he give a shit if Nyssa has children to pass the title to? I really need to stop trying to make sense. And I like your theory about that conversation with Oliver being a flashback, maybe getting things into motion before he starts being indoctrinated.

I've now convinced myself that Oliver and Nyssa are going to actually marry, ugh. I didn't think the wedding was supposed to be "shocking," but I had hoped that it would get interrupted and they'd surprise us with another wedding. Anyway, terrible bitch alert: I don't think anything Oliver's done has been so awful that it would be bad if he was faking. If the drugs are having an effect on him, then at the beginning when he saw Diggle, he might have known that wasn't Diggle. He'd been being drugged for 3 weeks - surely that wasn't his first hallucination. Maybe he didn't know who it really was, but he could kill the whole League of Assassins if it made Ra's believe he was brainwashed and allowed him to carry out whatever plan to neutralize the LoA and I wouldn't hold it against him or think he'd regressed. I feel the same way about Nyssa, sorry to say. Not that I think he wouldn't have been upset by having to do it, and I'm not saying it's right, but dude's in deep now - he has no choice but to go with it. If he refused him, Ra's would surely kill him, and then who even knows what he'd do to the people Oliver loves for retribution. I'm actually not sure he was going to kill Diggle in that fight in that warehouse or whatever. And I wrote yesterday that I don't think he did anything terrible with the kidnapping either - it was honestly the most boring kidnapping I've ever seen. Anyway, I'm on the faking train now, because I don't see any reason why Oliver would be faking being himself to whoever he was talking to when he said "we need help," (Maseo or Malcolm) unless Ra's thinks there's a traitor in their midst and is trying to get Oliver to suss him out. That traitor would obviously be Maseo. The scenario I prefer to believe is that he's faking and planning something with Malcolm, sends Tatsu to back up what Malcolm's saying about the virus. I really want Malcolm to turn in that instance and have it be real, but I'm having difficulty understanding how Malcolm would get out if he was working for Darhk (unless Darhk had another LoA double agent), because who on the LoA would release him unless they were working for Darhk too? And if Malcolm is working for Ra's and he knows Oliver isn't really brainwashed, why wouldn't he tell Ra's that? Maybe he does, but...IDK. I hope them yelling "we trusted you!" at Oliver is part of a ruse, goodness. This whole thing is making my brain hurt. I want this season to be over so I can stop trying to figure it out because like Felicity, I hate mysteries.

Well, argument for Malcolm being terrible: it's a trick, and he plans to trap them - whether he's working for Ra's or Damien Darhk, who knows. Argument for Malcolm not being terrible: he said he had League contacts, so they told him. Whether the League contact is good or bad, who knows. As for Tatsu, there's still some Maseo in Sarab and he's been through this before. He lost his son to this virus, and I have to think the better part of him would be appalled if he found out Ra's planned to unleash it again. So, since we know he has contact with her, he could tell her. He could also be Malcolm's contact.

If I had to take a guess, Malcolm or Tatsu tell them about the virus and Ra's plans for it.

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that.

Oliver, Maseo or Ra's better come and let him out. I WANT IT

Is he even looking at her here? I honestly can't tell, I have a different opinion every time I look at it.

Yes.