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From John Campea... Arrow After Show Season 3 Episode 8 "The Brave and the Bold" Published Dec. 3, 2014, by thestreamtv

I was just wondering how the EPs were going to come up with a believable way for Laurel to use that baton or tonfa this season. We've seen zero weapons training for her so far. If she shows up during the BC trilogy wielding that weapon expertly, that's going to be too much of a handwave. A police baton might be more believable given her cop father, but your points all make sense (careful father, still not expert, no evidence of training in past two seasons). A tonfa might be more accurate but where and how? And if she's not going to wield that weapon with any degree of expertise, why show her holding it in her BC picture?

This is a cute pic, though it looks photoshopped (couldn't get the pic to paste here)... http://instagram.com/p/wPRziWDTKH/

Believe it or not - Felicity beat out Margaery Tyrell (96% to 4%) in Hypable's semi-final round for Character Combat: Fierce Females... Character Combat: ‘Game of Thrones’ VS ‘Arrow’ Tariq Kyle 10:00 am, December 4, 2014 http://www.hypable.com/2014/12/04/character-combat-game-of-thrones-vs-arrow/

In Tumblr's 2014 Year in Review, Olicity is number 18 on their list of "most reblogged ships". http://yearinreview.tumblr.com/post/104214981882/most-reblogged-ships

The use of red and blue colors to symbolize Oliver versus Ray as a romantic partner for Felicity has previously been discussed in various threads here. This article's writer is optimistic... It Was Red by Kay Spauls ⋅ Posted on December 4th, 2014 at 12:56am http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/12/04/it-was-red-2482561?lt_source=external,manual,manual,manual

The jbuffyangel review of "The Brave and the Bold" episode (posted in the Starling City News thread here) includes a really detailed analysis of Oliver's character (in her opinion, of course). It's worth a read.

And yet another reference to Joss Whedon... "ARROW" AND "FLASH" EPS ON CHANNELING COMIC BOOK CROSSOVERS, FUTURE TEAM-UPS Wed, December 3rd, 2014 at 12:00pm PST http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=57499 This reviewer wants more crossovers... ‘Flash vs. Arrow’ Must Happen At Least Twice a Year By Paul on Dec 5, 2014 http://www.tvovermind.com/arrow/flash-vs-arrow-must-happen-least-twice-year-246132 Here's jbuffyangel's in-depth review of "The Brave and the Bold"... What Does It Mean To Be A Hero? The Brave and The Bold Arrow 3×08 Review December 5th,2014 | jbuffyangel | http://www.oliverandfelicity.com/2014/12/05/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-hero-the-brave-and-the-bold-arrow-3x08-review/

Sorry - didn't realize there was a Companion Series thread, so thanks! http://www.tvguide.com/News/Mega-Buzz-Walking-Dead-Forever-Bones-1090227.aspx From the new TV Guide (Fan Favorites print issue) for Dec. 8 - 21, 2014.

When I first saw the spoiler pics of Laurel as the Black Canary holding a black police baton, I wondered when or if they were going to squeeze in any scenes of Laurel training to use that weapon. However, I just realized that they can easily retcon in some expertise by showing a flashback scene of child Laurel practicing with her father's police baton.

SA is certainly doing his part to promote the episodes that he's not even going to be in (except maybe in flashbacks). From the new TV Guide (Fan Favorites issue):

News on the companion series... Cliff Curtis To Star In ‘The Walking Dead’ Companion Series by Nellie Andreeva • December 4, 2014 9:00am http://deadline.com/2014/12/cliff-curtis-cast-the-walking-dead-companion-series-spinoff-1201308108/ 'Walking Dead' spinoff casts male lead By James Hibberd on Dec 4, 2014 at 12:24PM @james_hibberd http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/12/04/walking-dead-casts/ ‘The Walking Dead’ Companion Series Casts Cliff Curtis as Male Lead DECEMBER 4, 2014 | 10:04AM PT Laura Prudom News Editor @lauinla http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/walking-dead-spinoff-cliff-curtis-male-lead-1201371013/

Maybe we should have a topic thread listing all of the conversations that we know took place but didn't get to watch on screen - ... Like the conversation where Team Flash was informed of the BIG SECRET of the Canary's death and her identity as Sara Lance. ... Like the conversation where Sara told Laurel all about the LOA's TOP SECRET old-fashioned communication method of using purple smoke. And maybe we should have another topic thread listing all of the things we're asked to handwave away - ... Like how no one can possibly recognize either Oliver in his Arrow costume or Barry in his Flash costume. ... Like Laurel's carrying Sara's arrow-ridden body from the alley to the basement Arrowcave. ... Like how Oliver manages to transport his enemies to the ARGUS island prison so cheaply and quickly.

Telling Team Flash about Sara/Canary must be yet another one of those conversations that took place off the screen... sigh.

I just hope they don't have Diggle and Lyla's wedding while Oliver is away. It would make no sense, but I could see the rationale being 'we think Oliver's dead, but we have to keep going, life's too short to wait, let's keep everyone's spirits up" BS. The EPs might just do it to try to boost ratings.

I remember that Felicity specifically referred to "the Canary"'s death when she asked Caitlin to do the DNA analysis, because I thought at the time 'oh good, she's being careful not to reveal anyone else's secret identity'. But I don't remember anyone mentioning Sara Lance's name in either episode. I could be wrong, so maybe someone can re-watch the two episodes and check.

Congrats to Arrow! TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites Awards: The Walking Dead, Outlander, Arrow and More! Rob Moynihan Dec 1, 2014 12:01 PM ET http://www.tvguide.com/news/tv-guide-magazine-fan-favorites-awards-walking-dead-1089980.aspx https://twitter.com/TVGuideMagazine https://www.facebook.com/TVGuideMagazine/timeline Other winners of TV Guide Magazine Fan Favorites 2014: P.S. The Flash won Favorite New Show.

Another nice review by a reviewer who also coins the term "Caitlicity friendship"... Arrow Season 3 Episode 8 Review: ”The Brave and the Bold” By Andy on Dec 4, 2014 http://www.tvovermind.com/reviews/arrow-season-3-episode-8-review-brave-bold-245985 Also, people may want to pick up the next issue of TV Guide Magazine because of this.

I still think the EPs are going to make more of a relationship between Oliver and the baby mama than just a drunken fling or one-night stand. She seemed too happy to see Oliver, not angry or bitter that she was paid off by Moira to go away. And Oliver seemed surprised but pleased to see her again too. See pic here: http://www.spoilersguide.com/arrow/arrow-season-3-spoilers-that-big-flash-oliver-reveal-when-will-we-find-out-more/

Good point about Diggle dressing up as the Arrow and Roy still being around. But still it would be unbelievably cruel to go that far just to fool the parents into believing Sara was still alive. Dinah isn't in danger of a heart attack, so why not confide in the mother at least and ask her opinion on telling Quentin? Also, people in Starling City have seen the Canary in action, so there could still be some reason for fooling the bad guys. But who knows. The reason will probably be a contrived plot device just to get her into costume. A lot of what the EPs do doesn't make sense. If Laurel is impersonating the Canary for whatever reason, why isn't her costume more similar to Sara's (with the cleavage)? And why go to the trouble of having a fancy leather costume (with buckles!) made just for a one or two time use?

From the spoilers, I got the impression that Laurel doesn't actually suit up in next week's episode and that her new BC costume debuts in the first episode in January. So Laurel can't be impersonating Sara/Canary to fool her parents, unless her mother Dinah is hanging around Starling City over the holidays and into the New Year. So most likely it's Oliver's disappearance that leads to Roy and Laurel both making appearances around the city in costume, in Oliver's absence, to fool some bad guys. Nyssa informs Oliver of Ra's al Ghul's ultimatum to find Sara's killer or have Starling City be destroyed. Oliver's surrendering himself to Ra's to save the city is just so deja vu. Didn't he try to surrender himself to Slade just last season to save the city? Ra's looks less scary than Brother Blood. The spoilers about the Thea and Felicity scenes in the back half of the season sound really intriguing. I'm looking forward to seeing those.

The Laurel character was ill-conceived from the get go, both as the future Black Canary and as Oliver's originally intended love interest. The show started with Laurel as a 27-year-old lawyer, with minimal self-defense training (as evidenced by the past 2-1/2 seasons). The EPs could at least have made her a cop with cop training (like Cupid's SWAT training), plus a back story that had her taking martial arts lessons starting from childhood (like Iris West's boxing lessons) or at least starting during the five years after Oliver & Sara 'died'. Now she's a 30-year-old lawyer just starting to take boxing lessons. A lawyer's job is mostly sedentary. Assuming she's working full-time as an ADA, she should be spending most of her time sitting at a desk, reading, writing and talking on the phone, while squeezing in an hour here and there at the gym in her limited spare time. The love interest set-up was no better. The very first episode showed Oliver cheating on Laurel with her sister, and then their cold, hostile relationship. Then Laurel is dating Oliver's best friend. The casting didn't help either. The actress playing Laurel should have chemistry with the actor playing Oliver, but KC doesn't have on-screen chemistry with SA in my opinion.

I really loved the symmetry of the Flash and Arrow crossover episodes. Oliver and Barry each had a positive, though opposite, effect on each other. -- Oliver convinced Barry to think, plan and prepare before zooming into action. He called Barry out on not taking his hero role seriously enough, in essence, for treating it like a fun game. This advice could save Barry's life in the future. -- Barry convinced Oliver that he has not lost all of his humanity and that it is Oliver Queen, not the Arrow, who can inspire. He called Oliver out on taking himself too seriously, in essence, being a douche and wallowing in self-pity. This advice could save Oliver's soul in the future. Both heroes can be a bit of a jerk. Granted that Barry was whammied when he was being his jerkiest, but his using his superspeed to do the salmon ladder was a jerk move and when he acts so smug about his superspeed, I just want to slap him down. Oliver can be a jerk about a lot of things, as discussed previously. Another nice bit of symmetry. On The Flash, the Arrow first entered the episode by his unannounced entry into the opening fight sequence, saving the Flash's life. On Arrow, the Flash first entered the episode by his unannounced entry into the opening fight sequence, saving the Arrow's life. Agreeing with Lord Kira - even though both their moms were murdered, Barry didn't spend five years in life-threatening situations, under constant stress, being tortured, and then learning to fight, kill and torture others in order to survive in foreign environments, surrounded by bad guys. Barry also didn't lose both his parents - his dad is in prison, but alive. Barry also didn't lose his best friend and a woman he loved. But the biggest difference is that Barry's trauma was due to things happening to people he loves (his parents) while Oliver's trauma was due not just to things happening to people he loves but also to himself personally (he was tortured and forced to fight, he had to torture and kill other people, his life was in constant danger, he was cut off and alone). It's like if you had two people who both lost loved ones, but one went to war while the other stayed home. Both men had trauma, but Oliver's was worse (in my opinion). So Barry was wrong to dismiss Oliver's pain so lightly. However, Barry was totally right that Oliver has to move past his pain and concentrate on the present. Oliver referred to Sara as "a woman I loved" to Barry. So he loved Sara. I assume he still loves Laurel as a friend at least. He loves Thea as a sibling. He probably loves Diggle and cares for Roy. And we know he's in love with Felicity (at least for this season). For someone who thought he had lost his humanity, he sure loves a lot of people - which makes his self-sacrificing, martyr complex even more BS. Barry in costume as the Flash is just as recognizable as Oliver in costume as the Arrow - but I guess that's just one of the things you have to handwave on a superhero show. I noticed Diggle is still not in costume out in the field. Even though Roy, Oliver and Barry all wear masks, Diggle had no mask when they confronted those Bratva bad guys. But at least Diggle got more than two lines of dialogue in this episode. As Bkwurm1 noted, the Hong Kong flashbacks seemed unnecessary and could easily have been omitted. I guess the point of them was to show how Oliver learned his brutal interrogation techniques, but these flashbacks likely just confused Flash viewers who were watching Arrow for the first time. The brief Quentin and Laurel scene was also pointless and just seemed like an obligatory appearance by these two characters, so that the EPs could say that, yes, they did appear in the crossover episode. Although the brief shot of Thea being startled by the Flash zooming by was also unnecessary, at least it was a fun shot. And Thea's appearance in Verdant made sense. It was interesting that, on the issue of how ruthless can you be to get results, Oliver and Lyla are one one side, while Barry and Diggle are on the other side. It's an understandable divide, but what's interesting is that I still don't know which side I agree with. (It's the 24/Jack Bauer conundrum.) I wish we got a better look at the new Arrow suit. I liked that Felicity knew that Oliver had a sentimental attachment to the hood. I also like the look and "what"(?) that Oliver gave Felicity after she made her comment about how the island prison had minefields. Oliver smiled more and seemed much happier in these two crossover episodes than he has all season (except for the first half of the "The Calm" episode). Questions: -- If the Arrowcave can so easily be penetrated by their enemies like Deathstroke and Boomerang, then why can't Thea get past the locked door to the basement of a building that she now owns? Surely she can get someone to bypass that computer-coded lock. -- If ARGUS now knows about the Flash, wouldn't Waller want to try to commandeer Barry for her own purposes? If she's ruthless enough to destroy Starling City and kill millions of people, then she should be ruthless enough to kidnap Barry. -- Now that Diggle and Lyla are engaged, does that mean Lyla is doomed and that Diggle will end up a single father by season's end? The preview for next week's episode was totally shades of Batman Begins...

I really enjoyed the Flash-Arrow crossover for a lot of the reasons that have been mentioned by others above. The original Team Arrow being back in action and working with Team Flash was great. Oliver was likeable again as the 'elder statesman' superhero. His scenes and fights with Barry were both believable and enjoyable. His 'coffee dates' with Felicity were heartwarming. The Wells-Felicity scene was interestingly ambiguous. Etc. A few nitpicks. All the love triangle scenes involving Barry, Iris and Eddie just felt so deja vu... so, boring. We didn't get to see Arrow and Flash actually capture the Rainbow Raider. Anyone else think the EPs are going to do more retconning and make it so pre-island Oliver had actual feelings for his baby mama, which is why he cheated on Laurel with her? Nice review of "Flash v. Arrow"... ‘The Flash’ Recap: ‘Flash vs. Arrow’ Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014 at 3:51am PST - by Marc Buxton http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/12/03/the-flash-recap-flash-vs-arrow P.S. I'm 'meh' on that Suicide Squad movie casting. Nobody on that cast inspires me to see that movie.

I watch Sleepy Hollow and my fave characters are Ichabod and Abbie - the show needs to go back to focusing on these two as a team. I don't like Katrina and think she's the weak link on that show, but I don't hate her as much as many posters on the SH forum. I'm actually thinking of quitting the SH forum because there's so much OTT hatred for the Cranes there.