apinknightmare

Well, I mean, he definitely wants Ra's dead to erase his blood debt. Whoever kills him takes over the League (per MG). So, since he sent Oliver to try to do it, I don't think controlling the League is his first priority. Getting out of his blood debt is.

Seriously. There better be a huge twist, because...god, what a moron.

I think she'd look generally terrible with that color hair on a full-time basis (she looks much better as a brunette IMO), but between the head-to-toe leather, the wig and the mask, I cannot imagine how hot that costume must be. I might bleach it just to get some sweet, sweet relief.

Seems to me like it might've been a tongue-in-cheek thing, like Malcolm has already filmed a big scene with Felicity.

I'm wondering if they're really gearing Malcolm up for redemption, or if they were just heavy-handed with the good guy talk last night so a) we could see how hoodwinked Thea is, b) it would give Roy some leverage in the Laurel/Roy vs. Felicity/Diggle fight for the team up, and c) make Oliver maybe not look so cray for teaming up with him and continuously keeping the secret that Malcolm had/(has?) drugged her? I have a feeling this good guy stuff might be dropped pretty quickly.

My issue is that I'm increasingly seeing language like, "whiny, emotional bitch," being used to describe her and denigrate some of the things that she does (not here, on other message boards), and that makes some of the discourse pretty tough to take. Like I wrote in the Felicity thread, given the character we've come to know over the past couple of seasons, I absolutely understand why this Felicity would be off-putting to people. She does cry too much and if I were Ray Palmer, I'd be worried about her emotional stability (or the instability is part of her appeal to him). It's just that when Diggle's been criticized after being bent to plot or making stupid choices, or even making the difficult but correct or emotionally driven choices, it seems to be done without calling him any names.

And the funny thing is that you could tell Diggle agreed with Felicity. Oliver's sitting there talking about how he and Malcolm are going to figure things out and Digg's looking at him like, "this fucking guy..."

Maybe 3.15 is when Oliver tips his hand as to the long game he's playing with Malcolm and we find out Oliver or Malcolm has been colluding with Ra's. Or something. We've been spending this whole season thinking Malcolm's running from Ra's, but what if he's not? Or...something, I don't know.

I wish they'd move. I can see Felicity being distracted/sad enough to not realize Malcolm had hacked into her system (MAYBE), BUT THERE WAS A HUGE LENS RIGHT ON HER COMPUTER, ARE YOU TELLING ME SHE DIDN'T SEE THAT? Did grief make her blind? Ugh, the plot stupid. It hurts. I wonder if that's something that's going to be addressed or if the cameras are going to come back into play Slade-style at some point? But yeah, if he's conning Malcolm he needs to come clean about it. It seemed like when he was talking to Malcolm that he just wanted training, but the way he explained that to the group and later Felicity did make it seem like they were in cahoots on more than training. I can't believe no one told her up till now, but it seems like Roy and everyone else completely forgot she existed. Roy did tell her that they needed to talk, but alas, he had to push that conversation off so he could organize a good ol' fashioned rumble! I wonder if he ever actually managed to let her know her friend was dead.

I'm glad the ratings went up for Oliver's return. More superheroes or not, hopefully we won't have to deal with some BS death storyline again.

Oh, yeah. I didn't read that review, I was just speaking to the general tide of dislike/anger that seems to be shifting in Felicity's direction, since you commented that the reviewer thought Felicity should remain "fun." :)

Yeah, I got that he was asking to be trained, too. But he really needed to explain that when he was in the foundry, because "Malcolm and I are working on that" sounds like they're in cahoots. Even Diggle was giving him the patented "THIS DUMBASS" side eye.

Maybe they're at fancy trivia night at Jitters?! Honestly, the most disappointing thing about that picture is that Iris has still hitched her wagon to the most boring man alive. But since this isn't the place for that complaint let me just say that I hope they're out to dinner to do some surveillance or something non-mundane.

Hey, you know. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. And I can see people feeling that way about Felicity. Lately she really hasn't been the quippy, fun person we've known on the show for two seasons. If someone enjoys her for her one-liners and thinks she's a good side character, I can see how her getting a bigger, more emotional arc would be off-putting. Honestly, it's a little off-putting to me, too. They're putting her through a lot, although that's par for the course on a show where everyone gets kicked repeatedly when they're down. And I don't mind watching it so much because it is arguably character development, and I care about her and her character. I just wish they'd scale it back a few notches, because it's exhausting to see her upset almost ALL THE TIME. And I'm not even talking about the last few episodes where she was reeling from Oliver's death - it seems like she's been emotionally wrought in, like, all but maybe two episodes. And that's the fault of the show, because everyone's there. I need some capers or some team hijinks or...something that doesn't make me want to rip my eyeballs out from depression. Apart from all the emotional stuff, she seems to do well with Oliver in the Arrow cave, even reverting back to her old quippy self more often than not, so hopefully now that this is out there she can dry her eyes for a bit and get back to business. Until she gets kicked again, I guess.

That's what I'm hoping for. This student defeats the teacher BS doesn't even make sense in this context - Ra's didn't train Malcolm. Unless it's amounting to Oliver and Thea taking down Malcolm.

I'm hoping that they're having Thea defend him so fervently so it makes her taking him down once she finds out what he did to her all the sweeter.

It wasn't really explained apart from the fact that Oliver was really close to dying but the snow cushioned his fall and his shirtlessness/the cold helped staunch his bleeding, so he was almost dead when Maseo brought him to Tatsu and apparently she's just super gifted at surgery/healing.

He did ask Tatsu to train him, and she told him his only hope was Maseo (only the student can defeat the teacher or some such nonsense). But by that point Maseo had returned back to the League.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of "whiny, emotional bitch" complaints being thrown at her ever since Oliver died. Especially since she committed the unspeakable act of turning the lights off in the foundry while Digg and Roy were still standing there, haha.

He doesn't anymore. Oliver injected him with the cure at the end of last season, and it went away altogether. At least it has so far, maybe it'll reappear at a later date for plot reasons.

I think what was supposed to have happened was he went to the foundry to suit up while everyone was in the van (MG said as much on Tumblr). What doesn't quite make sense to me is that his costume was back on the dummy when he went to say hello to everyone, so at what point could it have gotten there? Did everyone leave again at some point and then come back? Show.... And yeah, I'm glad Laurel made herself scarce. Did Oliver see her out on the street? Either way, her being down there probably would've led to some questions that she probably didn't want to answer, haha.

*except, apparently tell her that Malcolm's drugged her and manipulated her. Here's hoping that comes out at some point soon.

It's pretty smart. With one tweet she could've gotten some shippers on board with her, hoped for a bunch of retweets and a BC trend. Bless her for trying it.

Yeah, Felcity was harsh. I have a soft spot for her in that regard because I can be really mean right off the bat when I'm upset, and I often have to take a breather or just not talk to the person I'm mad at for a while just to calm down so I'm not hurtful. If Oliver would've just given her a few minutes! I understand where they're both coming from: Felicity is being overly idealistic and Oliver's being protective. I could get behind Oliver a bit more if he was also 100% honest with Thea about what Malcolm has done. She might not believe him, but at least he would've tried. And I would believe without a doubt that he was actually serious about protecting her. Oliver has tunnel vision sometimes though, so I guess he can't see the forest for the Ra's.

Positive: the way Oliver whispers "it's okay, I'm okay" as he hugs Felicity is KILLING. ME.