dtissagirl

I think it's a mix of -- 1. It always looks like the writers really don't understand why the majority of the audience rejects Laurel. Maybe they resent the audience on that matter? They write her from the standpoint that she's Good and Warm and Relatable, when almost all of her actions come out looking self-serving and manipulative. And wasn't there a tweet from a journalist saying Kreisberg was surprised when she asked him about the Laurel hate, pretty late in the season? 2. KC plays Laurel without an ounce of vulnerability. Even during her addiction storyline/crucible, she still infused Laurel with a wall of invulnerability and a sense of superiority over the other characters, which made it almost impossible for the audience to feel any empathy for her.

Not much in Sara's last scene made sense. I guess I'm good with Sara trying to be positive in front of her family, and I do believe that she believes it's her choice, but she's sacrificing A LOT to go back to the LoA. Everything else in that scene is a mess. Nyssa's little moment of promising Det. Lance she'll take care of Sara rang untrue because of the trying to kill Dinah to get Sara back thing. And then Laurel's giddiness only makes things worse. It's like they decided to go for a happy tone to fool the audience into being OK with Sara leaving, which obviously didn't work.

I never liked the island scenes much, but I thought the main problem with the island in S2 was that we already knew most of what was gonna happen because either Oliver or Sarah had already mentioned it, in present time, in a previous episode. The Promise was a big disappointment for me because TPTB hyped the episode up to the max, and then the audience didn't learn anything new during the flashbacks... it was all stuff already discussed.

I think she already is the Oracle/Watchtower figure for Team Arrow, all that she's missing is an official code name at this point. Whoa, that's pretty impressive! Even if it wasn't intentional in the writing. Which, considering these writers, probably wasn't? *g*

I sort of love it that she goes by Laurel on the show. Dinah/Black Canary from the comics is one of my all time favorite characters, and the different names help me separate Laurel from my beloved BC completely, since I don't see any link or similarities between them.

Maggie Q is the lead in the new Kevin Williamson show, Stalker. Maybe now that Dracula was canceled, they'll get Jessica De Gouw back as Helena, and put her into Laurel's story arc in some variation of Birds of Prey.

I would love it if Felicity and Lyla became friends. They have their love for Dig in common, and they know about each other's secret activities, so they could skip the lying-to-protect-you BS and dive right into BFFdom.

Exactly. I share this same disconnect while watching the show. I might be irked by the writing of the other characters sometimes, but I legit get a sense of dread whenever Laurel shows up, because she pulls me right off the story. To the point that I stopped watching Arrow live when the Lance Sisters Drama started, so I could have quick access to the fast-forwarding button. I only went back to live-watching in the finale.

I didn't mind her snooping around the Count that much because Oliver was busy with Moira's trial and Dig could barely stand up -- and she needed to find a cure for Dig's sake. The one time I thought she screwed up big time was setting up the trap for the Clock King without telling anyone about it until after she put herself in danger. I get that she was feeling ousted from the team, and insecure about her abilities, but it was as if she had learned nothing from what happened with the Count. If felt like big time character regression to me.

What I love the most about that scene is that we can see clearly how much it cost Felicity to have to lie to Roy. I agree that she made the only tactical decision that made sense at that time, but I remember watching the episode and thinking "Girl, this is so coming back to haunt you." It they manage to link both storylines to give Felicity any kind of character development, then I'm all for it!

I really hope the writers don't forget that Felicity lied to Roy about his Mirakuru'd activities. That moment was so striking to me -- here's Felicity actively trying to protect Roy through boldface lying. Looking forward to seeing how/if that might come back to bite her once Roy learns the truth.

Huh. I was always pretty sure Katie Cassidy lost all that weight because it made complete sense to be a size zero while launching a fashion blog. High end fashion houses really appreciate it when hip fashion bloggers are very very skinny to be able to wear virtually any clothes they throw at them. I thought it was a business decision for KC that had nothing to do with Arrow. And OF COURSE she wouldn't talk about her weight loss to the press because that'd be opening a can of worms with impressionable girls reading her blog. And then I just figured the backlash Laurel got when S2 started -- plus every one online commenting on how much weight she lost -- made the showrunners realize they could exploit the fact that KC had drastically changed her body in the addiction storyline.

I always end up coming back to this. I don't hate Laurel because of her character traits. I wish I did -- I love hating fictional characters that are specifically written to be loathed. Hell, I even enjoy hating characters that I find awful for personal reasons, even if the writing is not geared towards that. My problem here is Laurel is a poorly constructed from the get go terribly written character, that's portrayed by an actress who makes bizarre acting choices in every scene. Not to mention her lack of chemistry with the rest of the cast. She hit the trifecta of bad writing, bad acting, bad chemistry. Audiences tend to forgive one, sometimes even two of those, but all three? You're getting pulled out of the story every scene she's in, it's distracting. And uncomfortable. And annoying. I love the ideas you guys are posting about exploring her unlikeableness. But everything the showrunners and KC have said in the latest interviews/con appearances make me think they'll keep trying to make her likeable over and over again, and the massive disconnect the majority of the audience feels for Laurel will continue on.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of it like that, but that might work for me too. If the writing was telling me I'm *supposed* to hate Laurel, I probably would have a lot less problems with her presence on the show.

One of my biggest fears for S3 is what the writers will make of any and all interactions between Laurel and Felicity. Laurel heard Slade's speech to Oliver about Felicity, right? And since Laurel obviously wasn't in on the ruse, from her POV what happened was Slade thought she [Laurel] was Oliver's ~soulmate~ when he had her kidnapped, except PSYCH!, it's not her, it's the babbling IT girl/secretary who kept interrupting Laurel was having a moment with Oliver. So, you know, it's gotta burn a bit to be the wrongly kidnapped woman in this particular scenario. I really really worry going forth from this how exactly will Laurel react to Felicity.

The only thing that makes me remotely interested in Laurel interacting with Team Arrow is the huge amounts of shade Diggle is gonna throw right in her face. *g*

I have a really hard time trying to come up with something new and unique Laurel could bring to Team Arrow, something that the other characters can't. I could see the Eye in the System thing if Det. Lance didn't do that already... which in turn makes me scared for Quentin when I think about it. I wonder if they're gonna give Laurel his narrative connection to Team Arrow.

Longtime lurker, first time poster here. I have the same problem SilverLake0315 mentioned watching the Laurel scenes -- I'm taken out of the narrative, and start noticing Katie Cassidy's acting choices instead. And sure, the writing for the character has been abysmal, especially in S2, but I blame the actress as much as the writers. It's like KC infused Laurel with an impenetrable force field, and I have a really hard time feeling any empathy towards the character. Even during the pill popping/drunk mess it felt like she didn't show any vulnerability. So while rationally I could see that her going through such trials might deserve my sympathies and my ability to relate to her, in reality, because of the complete lack of emotional resonance, I ended up resenting the show -- and again with the taken out of the narrative thing -- for giving so much story and screen time to a character that is impossible to relate to.