apinknightmare

Because future!Dinah is on my trash list, I hope that belt rides up in the most uncomfortable way imaginable.

Not that this couldn’t change, but isn’t she supposed to be 19 or 20? They picked that age for a reason.

I would really love it if Diggle's failings as a friend were addressed, but it's difficult to tell whether they were purposely done as part of a larger arc, or if his character was thrown in the garbage simply to give Felicity a reason to turn to Watson and then Black Siren, to give her a storyline now and make us question what's going on with her in the future. We have way more examples of the latter on this show (like Diggle's whole arc from last season), so it doesn't make me very hopeful for the former.

Her ~redemption didn't really bother me until last week, when she gave Oliver that a-hole speech about good and bad, that I know the writers meant to really be some kind of defining moment for her. Which she then totally negated because she ran right back into a comfy, safe apartment that she has because she got a comfy, safe job by pretending to be someone she isn't - which is something she had just claimed not to be doing anymore. I know everyone here has different requirements for her redemption. Personally, I don't need her groveling or weeping in regret over her days of gleeful murdering (I accept that this is something the show likely isn't going to address, because the writers are nothing if not lazy - they've already justified it as getting ~revenge for Oliver and Quentin on her earth). But I do need to see her at some point disengage from this cushy life that she's gotten through being a lying liar who lies. I need for her to be uncomfortable and really work for it, instead of just coasting by on OG Laurel's name and education and friendships. I doubt it'll happen, but it would be nice.

They're focusing more on the current episode, and what ~sounds cool and good for the character in the moment to get where they need to be instead of having everyone's reasoning and motivations consistently make sense. MG talked about them writing to tentpoles (I think that's what he called them), and that's why O/F's breakup was so messed up in S4, and they're still doing it now even when he's not around. Diggle needs to be worried about Felicity at this point in time because it's going to be an issue soon, never mind what he did before that. Just like Laurel needs to have her big stand up moment to Oliver about how she's doing things for herself and not because she's trying to be the other Laurel, right before she goes back to...pretending to be the other Laurel. LOL. I'm honestly surprised they've been writing Felicity and Oliver consistently so far, for the most part this season. Baby steps, I guess (until it goes off the rails, which I'm dreading is going to happen soon).

It's this. There's zero chance we're supposed to be seeing him as an asshole, LOL. If Beth is intending that it would be the shock of my Arrow viewing life.

No, she’s saying that this isn’t Star City’s ultimate fate and that it’s not depressing because our future “heroes” can still get the city back from what we’re seeing in the flash forwards.

Look out, Zoe. She's already done a shit job considering the one thing a "vigilante resistance" should want to do is investigate, oh, I don't know, plans they find to level a city. But Zoe didn't want to look into it because she was afraid of getting killed. Great job, Dinah! Both of you should quit. I actually don't care how it ends up. That it's an absolute shitshow in worse shape than it is now twenty years into the future doesn't speak well for anyone involved with the team. It's depressing - it getting better at the end of the season doesn't really matter to me.

I think it was @KenyaJ (forgive me if I'm wrong) who said that this show greatly overestimates her moral compass - and I couldn't agree more. I can go along with a whole lot of these people doing a whole lot of questionable stuff if I think it's for the right reason. For example: I can't get behind Black Siren melting Vince's brain, but I could get behind her melting Diaz's. I can't get too upset at Felicity using Anatoly to get at Diaz, because Anatoly willingly threw in with him.

I think maybe their nanny does it.

I'd love to know his thought process when he decides which comments to respond to - like, there were some legitimately nasty comments about his wife and the two of them on that post, but he responded to the one commenting on her coat (which did look like a bathrobe, LOL).

I'll give Beth some credit if the show doesn't wind up going off the rails at some point this season as it always does - even MG managed good stretches before it all went to shit.

People are assholes online. That whole group is always doing something fun - they get to vacation and party way more than your average person. I cannot imagine giving two shits about what anonymous Insta commenters were saying about me and my friends to the point of trolling my friends' insta comments to pick fights with them. I find the acknowledgment of the crappy things people say about them so strange - it's never going to stop people from thinking what they want to think, or from being assholes, and all it does is draw attention to whatever it was they wrote (which they will likely write again!).

The author is probably confusing 5X08 with reality.

"I'm my own person!" she says as she retreats back into an office that she only has because she can pretend to be a person who looks just like her. A+ amazing.

Yeah, it's really weird how he was a dick to a woman who conspired with THREE different villains, who have all repeatedly tried to kill Oliver and his family (and successfully got his son's mother killed). I can't imagine why he wasn't warm and welcoming to her. Huh.

Not criticizing you, just him - and this stupid storyline that has him being a terrible friend. Although, I can't really blame it on this season - he's been falling down this hole for a while now.

I'm really proud of him for mustering up the strength to do the bare minimum.

I thought it was pretty interesting that they uncovered this giant plan that they (stupidly, god so stupid) thought Felicity was going to carry out to level Star City and Zoe was like, "Let's not poke around, we could get killed!" Some vigilante she is, LOL. Obviously heavily influenced by Dinah's uselessness. Same thing for Dinah who was just going to let it go. Stupid assholes. God, I'm so mad she's still bopping around 20 years later.

He's such a terrible friend. And the maddening thing is I know he's going to rat her out to Oliver like he's actually concerned, even though he wasn't concerned enough about her to check up on her, or to ask her if he could help in any other way, or even to try and help on his own. I'm really hoping this is gonna be the thing. I desperately want O/F to be cooking up and executing a plan on their own because everyone sucks. Now and forever.

Unless Beth Schwartz is lying,

I can't remember - the team knows that Diaz stole super serum, right? Or did they not know what the drug he stole did?

I didn't necessarily think she was working with him, just that maybe she wanted to kill him herself so she cooked up a scheme to get him out of SCPD so she could do it - only that goes awry since he breaks into prison for some idiotic reason.

So, did Laurel actually make a deal to exchange Oliver for Diaz, or was she playing Felicity? I was wondering if she used that story as a front to get some good 'ol murder justice on Diaz on her own. I couldn't tell if her weird facial expressions were smug at Diaz because he was going to prison, which surely she knows he'd try to get out of, if she was just satisfied that he was going to prison even though he didn't seem too bothered by it, or if she was communicating to him that something else was going down. I'm guessing it was real because Oliver somehow gets out of prison, but at the same time the FBI didn't give two shits about Diaz so I can't imagine they would care enough to swap out a prisoner for him when Oliver would already be willing to help them with their case from behind bars. I guess it's just Arrow being Arrow?

He better not still be around/alive in the future.