apinknightmare

Saying "and you know how I feel about her," is a strange thing to say about a baby and generally has romantic connotations unless he's conveying something like, "I even helped Isabel (or some other terrible person) when she was in trouble, and you know how I feel about her," to explain his reasoning for doing/not doing something.

Is he getting all sentimental over Sally? He's missing her, I'll bet.

Isn't one of the episodes named The Climb?

If he does just grow out the 'stache, then it must be because he isn't filming.

Oh yeah, I just figured if he was growing out his mustache, he probably wasn't filming (he did the same thing during the winter break last year).

The way his post was worded, it seemed as if he was only growing out his mustache, so...IDK.

Not sure where exactly this would fall - but since the "Left Behind"/Oliver disappearing theories are here and this could maybe be a very distant spoiler, I'll go with this. Stephen posted on his Facebook that he'd be participating in Movember for 10-ish days, so...is Arrow going on a filming break, or is he possibly just not going to be in one episode since he'll be able to grow out his facial hair?

Haha, I'm just teasing! :)

Hey now, being 40-something and looking terrible do not go hand-in-hand!!! My issue is that he looks like a bug with a smooshed face, a hairy, out-of-control unibrow that's grown onto his forehead, and an overbite from hell.

I cannot deal with those goggles.

Now that Oliver and Felicity have actually kissed in a romantic sense, good lord that would be some type of 9th level of VC Andrews hell, haha.

Yeah, I made a mess of expressing myself properly. What I meant was I think on the personal side of things we were supposed to find him genuine (like with the super supportive mansplainin'), and I just don't.

Yeah, he was better in the 3rd ep. I don't think I'm expressing myself well in this debate. I didn't have a problem with the way he pursued her for her job or anything, and maybe smarmy isn't the right word to use for my interpretation of his personality. I just feel like he's always feeding her a line, and I get the sense that he's not supposed to come off that way all the time. I realize that we're supposed to be wary of him, but I think he's also supposed to be dropping some promising crumbs for us to make us want to follow him along the trail to goodness. I find those crumbs to be...not smarmy necessarily, but not genuine, and I get the impression that maybe I'm supposed to be finding the crumbs genuine. I hope I start finding future crumbs genuine, if that makes any sense at all.

That's why I wrote at the moment - I know it's too soon for a personal romantic relationship. I mean I'm hesitant to root for anything outside the office, even a tentative friendship, with the way he's written now. I think we're meant to find him charming at times (like when he gave Felicity that little speech about her being upset with something that didn't involve him, which I think was supposed to be heartfelt), and I personally am not finding him charming. That's why I wrote that when they eventually do go down that friendship/relationship/whatevership path, I hope they tone down on the slickness, because while I do think some of the way he's coming off is on purpose, I think some things come off as slick when they're not supposed to.

He can only think Felicity is up to so much though, since she did exactly as he asked and handed over all of the data from that drive to him (I kind of wonder if he knew what was on that drive and wanted to see if she'd turn it all over). But I'm not worried about what he thinks she's up to professionally or how he acts towards her in the office at all. I just get the impression that for the most part we the audience are supposed to be charmed by him and root for Felicity to be charmed by him as well, and at the moment, I find him to be too slick to root for a personal relationship of any kind. All I'm saying is that I personally hope they tone down on that a bit and that this is a conscious writing choice instead of the writers thinking they're selling one thing when they're selling another. I think the slickness is probably intentional, but my hackles are up so far this season, so I'm not entirely sure.

Yes, thank you. I expected him to be this way on the business front, just not on the personal front, too. ETA: I know it's still early days, I just really hope he tones down the slickness when he pursues her romantically. I want Felicity to be happy, but I also want her boyfriend to not be a smarmy a-hole.

I didn't write that he was a snake though, just that his brand of charm so far is the slick/borderline smarmy kind, which is just not what I expected when I listened to interviews from the EPs during the break.

I'll wait to pass judgment on the in-the-apartment thing until I see the events surrounding it. I'm not angry that he's there or anything, and it does seem in character for smarmy Ray, it's just that after all the interviews this summer I thought we were to view him as a legit love interest for her, and I don't want a love interest (however short or long-term he may be) to behave like that with her. I thought he'd be charming in an opposite-of-emotionally-constipated-Oliver kind of way, not in a snake oil salesman kind of way, which is kind of what I'm getting from him at this point.

To be fair, he did realize that and was going to tell her the truth, but Diggle-in a move that I still don't understand but will obviously come into play later-talked him out of it.

It looks like he's standing in front of a residential kitchen when he says that though, so if that's Felicity's house, he's already there. Or maybe he's talking to his own mother? This is me being hopeful he's not just randomly at Felicity's house at this point in their working relationship. And I hope Felicity and Mama Smoak save themselves too, especially since there was that whole punch incident between EBR and the guy who's playing Cooper whose name I cannot remember.

Yeah, it's not super gross or weird, just...maybe don't remind people that there's a reason why they would think of each other as brother or sister. In fact, don't have one love interest mention the words brother or sister in relation to the other pretty much ever.

I don't ship either way, and I won't be grossed out or anything when they inevitably get together, but it probably would've been better if the writers had left the brother/sister mention all the way out of it. It serves no purpose in the story, and it's just as easy to remind viewers of their closeness by having Iris say something about them growing up together and that it shouldn't be awkward for him to talk to her about girls, since she's his best friend.

I'm kind of scared that we're going to get this: Without this: They're writing to plot way more than usual this season, so...I don't have much faith in her calling him out. Prove me wrong, please....

I really liked her CNRI wardrobe, I thought 99% of what she wore was really cute. Now she's just way too pants suit-y, but I suppose that goes with being a srs bsns DA and such.

Oh, I know she hasn't, but I think he may have a serious case of 'what-if' going on in his head, so I think it's something he might not be able to let go of until she tells him there's no chance. I really wish they hadn't made them semi-siblings though, because it is gross. It's like these people just can't stop themselves from pooing all over canon relationships.