apinknightmare

So is Oliver still alive when Malcolm (I'm assuming, since he got the sword) drags him to wherever? Otherwise what's the point of the blanket? Yeah, music still sucks. I'll still be watching, haha.

Stephen's going to be a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers on February 23rd

Could she be going and just not confirmed yet (for whatever weird, unlikely reason)?

I don't think it's that they don't see any value, I think it's that they know Felicity is going to get lots of coverage-lots of positive coverage at that-regardless of whether she attends this event. Not sure what's going on with Willa - maybe it's something to do with them not wanting to spoil whatever it is they have coming up for her, I don't know. I think they're just trying to put KC/Laurel out there since her trilogy is coming up.

But it's not like Comic Con, because fans won't be turning up hoping to see her - it's just industry professionals, isn't it? You take one out of the equation, and the other's more likely to get more questions. That might be the line of thinking here.

I think the picture in this instance is that Laurel has a big arc coming up and so they want to put her front-and-center for it. At this point, they can try to push Felicity to the back burner to focus on Laurel, but no matter what they do, one's going to remain a fan favorite, and the other one just isn't. Surely they know that. They definitely know that Felicity is their bread and butter - you can tell by the EPs teasers, the fact that they're putting her in the Flash comics. One character needs the publicity, the other one doesn't.

She doesn't really have a say in whether she goes or not, does she? I'm sure if TPTB asked her to go, she would.

Yeah, it never seemed real but since we did talk about it, I figured I'd post his tweet.

A couple of days ago we were discussing the IMDB post with the "Nanda Parbat" synopsis and whether or not it was legit. Marc Guggenheim tweeted that it is "completely untrue," so...take from that what you will. https://twitter.com/mguggenheim/status/553021449909198849

Eh, I don't think so. Him having Sara hasn't really effected his screen time or involvement thus far, and he was supposed to have left the team already. I think it really is just to show Oliver that he can have those things he thinks that he can't - family being one of them. And since SA said that , I'm betting that Ray is either on Team Arrow or working closely with them, so I don't think Felicity's going to be moved to mostly working with him - I think she'd probably help him from the foundry like she would everyone else. This is my eternal optimism speaking.

I thought they weren't going to shrink Ray? I think he's going to be more of an Iron Man type - his suit is going to be his power. I can't imagine they'd have a special effects budget that would have him in a suit AND shrinking.

Excuse you, it's an HOMAGE. ;)

Hopefully she freaks out because, hello, aren't you supposed to be some kind of genius? Everyone knows we don't work on our super suits without proper eye and/or skin protection, sir!

I really hope this isn't what happens. I see what you're saying, and I agree to an extent, but to me the only way that would ever work is if Laurel a) had some kind of actual fighting talent/expertise and b) had actually done some vigilante-ing prior to Oliver leaving. Roy doesn't even have the experience/gravitas to take on a leadership role, and he's been working with them for a year now. I totally expect her to believe she has something to contribute - I think it's in-character for her to believe she has more to contribute than she actually does. But it's another thing to try and take on a leadership role, and yet ANOTHER thing for the people who have been at this longer than she has to follow her. Please, just...no.

It's not out of the realm of possibility, I just don't think there's anything to suggest that she does that. And I personally don't care about Laurel, but could we maybe just refer to her by name or Buckles or any other of the many good-natured/snarky nicknames people have given her instead of getting derogatory with it? Not trying to be a mod here, but we generally seem to be able to keep a good level of discourse when talking about her, and that makes this a more pleasant place to post.

He wrote additionS - plural. That coupled with the "achievements" just led me to believe maybe it was some BTS stuff, not necessarily a casting thing.

I don't know about this - Diggle already expressed doubts about continuing with the mission - he said so to Oliver. I don't know why he'd be confiding in Laurel of all people. And Diggle didn't suit up as a vigilante, so him leaving the team wouldn't leave some void that Laurel could fill by buckling up and going out to fight crime. There's just too much unknown to even guess at this point. What do they tell her about Oliver? Do they tell her he's dead, or just that he's out of town? Does her buckling up have anything to do with that, or does it have something to do with Quentin or her "revenge?" If they tell her what happened to Oliver and why, do they tell her the whole story? Do they leave Thea out of it, and tell her Malcolm really is to blame? How rage-filled is she going to be when she finds out Nyssa and/or Oliver had a chance to kill him but didn't? Is she going to want to work with the team then? I'm guessing she is going to go out and try to be a hero since MG said she wasn't going to be very good at it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's what initially compels her to buckle up, especially since we're apparently going to touch on all the bases of the superhero journey throughout this arc. Maybe she's trying to channel her rage? Either way, since this is supposed to be some epic emotional moment, I think the talk between Laurel and Diggle is going to be about what it's like to lose a sibling and want revenge and not be able to get it. That "I don't know what comes next," could very well be followed-up by "but we're going to keep doing what we do," and might not have anything to do with their "moment." I just don't think Laurel of all people is going to have to compel them to keep going - Roy told Oliver he gave his life meaning FFS - I don't think he's going to quit. And I doubt Felicity would let him go it alone. If she does wind up convincing them to carry on or whatever, someone's going to have to remove a shoe from my TV.

I find it really strange that if it is an announcement like BR becoming a regular or what have you, that Stephen would preemptively post something like that. Maybe whatever it is is on the production side of things, since something like that wouldn't make much of a splash?

I could be wrong because it happened really fast, but it looked like Laurel was kicking someone who was already on the ground. Which is about what I would expect from her, which was nice. That's so Laurel!

Yeah, I don't doubt that it will be emotional, it's just that the promo was not at all what I was expecting after the leader of the team "died." It was like a promo for any other episode of the show, only with Laurel dressed up and Ray Iron Manning it up instead of Oliver out and about doing his thing. I could even deal with it being more action-y if it seemed like some of it might've been related to Oliver, or if someone said something about carrying on in his name or...something. Maybe in the extended promo.

Maybe they're limiting what they're showing and that's why it seems so off? I was just expecting something more emotional, I guess, not all the "action" stuff with Roy, Ray and Laurel. Although I guess that's what we're in for with Oliver gone, so...I don't know why I thought it would be different.

I will of course be watching it, but that didn't get me too excited to tune in, haha. They should've had a dead Oliver promo with sad music or something, and then one with most everything else in this one. They made it seem like...I don't know, almost like no one cared that Oliver was dead, they just got on with it.

How would that give them publicity? You'd have to look at their @replies or on their Facebook page to even see people getting upset about it. The people who are going to see it are people who would've looked anyway.

I agree. I think they'll keep trying to "fix" her and very special Lance episodes will continue to be "epic" and buried in the dregs of January.

The comics make it seem like all Oliver has that's worth anything is what's left of Moira's life insurance money - that would be actual cash, not stocks and other investments that would require a financial advisor. Yes, a billionaire should have had other assets, but it seems like all Oliver had was that insurance policy and the now worthless (at the time of the comics) QC stock. He wouldn't be spending that money all at once, but I doubt he'd be investing it - he'd want that money in a place where it would be easily accessible and he wouldn't be penalized for cashing it in. We don't know how much a "sizable insurance policy is," but we can assume was a lot, and if he's gone through so much of it he only has $4-ish million left, I'd say he's probably not in the greatest shape to be handing out salaries for fake jobs. But the point is that a) he probably would've wanted to keep all of what he had available for Arrowing reasons, and b) the Felicity we know most likely wouldn't have taken his money if he offered it, because she would also want it available for Arrowing reasons. She'd put the mission above having to take a pain-in-the-ass retail job for sure.