Back In The Quiver: Arrow Thoughts and Reflections

[scarynikki12]

Now that we've reached the end of Arrow we thought we could use a place where we can just reflect on the experience of the series. Maybe you want to reminisce about the fun we had in the live thread, the jokes made about the Star City window repair industry, the frustrations that came depending on the storyline, or a stop by for a quick "I loved/hated this show" before moving on to other discussions. This is not a general series discussion thread so keep taking extended discussions to the relevant threads (eg, relationships to Relationships, characters to their threads, news to News, etc).

[scarynikki12]

I'll start. I have exactly no investment in comic Green Arrow so the early choice to model the show after Nolan's Batman was a selling point for me. I saw the pilot at Comic Con that summer and liked it enough to make a note to give the series a chance. And I liked the first season a lot. OTA was a delight to be sure and easily my favorite part but it was season 2 and the arrival of Sara Lance that truly hooked me. I do have strong investment in comic Black Canary and it's like Arrow knew and crafted Sara specifically to please me. Arrow gave me Sara and, eventually, LOT, so it will always have a special place in my heart.

Sara's my favorite character but the live thread was my favorite part of Arrow. I legit laughed whenever @quarks would bemoan the re-using of sets and warehouses and the general snark allowed for some of the absurd things the show did to become funny rather than annoying (the window repair guys and their gigantic mansions). I can only lament that we didn't have the thread the entire run.

[GHScorpiosRule]

13 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

I'll start. I have exactly no investment in comic Green Arrow so the early choice to model the show after Nolan's Batman was a selling point for me.

Same. The only Green Arrows I'd seen up until this point were in DCAU Justice League Unlimited and of course, Smallville's Justin Hartley's Ollie/Green Arrow.

When I saw a new show was being presented, I decided to check it out. Good Lord, but the first three episodes were rough. And when I say rough, I mean, BAD. That stilted, wooden voice over was horrible. To the point where I gave up. I didn't know that it was modeled after Nolan's Batman (Bale being the BEST Live Action Bats for me, but Kevin!Fucking!Conroy! is the ONLY Bestest Batman EVAH!), but I do know I resented that Oliver's villains were plucked from Batman's Galley of Rogues. So that was another strike for me not to give it another chance. I mean, Clock King, Royal Flush Gang, Ra's Al Ghoul!

But. I did catch that season three finale with Guggenheim, begging telling the viewers the show would be back. But it would be another season before I decided to give it another chance. And I'm glad I did; warts, my continued bitching, and all. Because Stephen did improve, and since I love me some tortured, angsty heroes in my reading (as @BkWurm1 can attest) as well as shows--Hello, John Reese of Person of Interest(!), I got sucked in after suffering again through the awful voice overs.

I had already been burned watching and suffering through the potential that was Smallville, so I wasn't a shipper in the strictest sense. But I couldn't ignore the amazing chemistry between Emily and Stephen and Stephen and David, and with all three of them.

All that said, the first three seasons were the best for me; season four was a mixed bag; seasons five had Oliver being dumb as a box of rocks; season six was a bit better; season seven was just torture, and the final season just couldn't hold my interest, because there was a big gaping hold with Emily not there.

I wish I had the interest in watching live, because that was the BEST part of this forum! Reading everyone's comments. I think I was able to participate in only one, and it was fun! So all I could do was react to them after the threads were locked! And of course, how everyone welcomed me in this community as a newbie to the show.

[tv echo]

It seems really strange to think about it now, but KC was the reason I initially decided to check out the pilot of Arrow, because she was the only named actor attached to the cast that I was familiar with. I still remember being impressed by the quality of the production of the pilot and its cinematography. 

However, I almost quit after two episodes because I didn't like Oliver, I didn't like Laurel, I didn't like Thea - well, you get the picture. Diggle alone wasn't enough. I didn't really know the superhero comics (other than what I'd watched on TV and in films), so I had no idea Oliver/Green Arrow and Dinah Laurel/Black Canary were a couple in the comics.

I really wanted to root for Oliver and Laurel as a couple, but I saw no chemistry, no spark - not even that kind of 'I hate you but I love you' spark - between SA and KC. 

Then I saw the third episode and... enter Felicity. I loved her immediately, and I loved her chemistry with Oliver. From then on, I continued to watch to see if she would reappear. Once OTA was formed, I was hooked. I loved Oliver, Diggle and Felicity as a trio. Suddenly I loved Oliver as well.

By the end of the second season, I had a lot of opinions and nowhere to share them (I don't think anyone I knew in real life back then was into Arrow that much). So I joined TWOP and just lurked for awhile, then started posting. Then when the forums moved to PTV (now Primetimer), I started posting more - and the rest is history.

Arrow has been one of the aggravating shows I've ever watched, but also one of the most fulfilling. Getting through every season has been helped immeasurably by you all - coming here and engaging in online discussion, hearing your thoughts, posting my own, sharing outrage, sharing joy, etc. It's going to be hard to let go of this community, so I'll probably do it in stages.

Edited January 30, 2020 by tv echo

[quarks]

22 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

Sara's my favorite character but the live thread was my favorite part of Arrow. I legit laughed whenever @quarks would bemoan the re-using of sets and warehouses and the general snark allowed for some of the absurd things the show did to become funny rather than annoying (the window repair guys and their gigantic mansions). I can only lament that we didn't have the thread the entire run.

At least someone benefited from my pain!

[Mellowyellow]

I'll never forget watching the Flash and my husband calling out: There's a pretty blonde. Where did she come from?

Me: There are no blondes on Flash

Him: See! Pretty blonde!

He started googling and worked out her name was Felicity and she came from Arrow.

I'll admit back then I thought she was super cute with Barry and was disappointed she came from Arrow.

Husband (still googling): says here she's engaged to Oliver Queen

Me: I thought he was with the really sour looking woman

Him: No she's engaged to Oliver Queen. That's the main guy on Arrow

Me: OMG that must mean she's the female lead I'm totally watching Arrow now. She's so cute. I can't believe their lead is so adorable.

Husband a few days later: They're very popular as a couple. There's a tonne of videos of them on YouTube.

And so my shipping journey was born.

I have watched and shipped couples my entire childhood via Chinese series and NO ONE has ever matched their chemistry. And I've seen some epic love stories acted out by very good actors.

***

Then there was the fanfic. Omg the fanfic for this fandom was amazing. Too many stories. I will never forget the thrill of reading some of those stories for the very first time, discovering certain authors. That warm, fuzzy and slightly invincible feeling you get when you've got 20 fics by an amazing author that you've just discovered. We were ridiculously spoilt when it came to fanfic.

Arrow was also how I discovered writing. I have long deleted that awful, cringy first story now but boy did I think it was a work of art when I first wrote it 😂😬

@statsgirl you freaked the crap out of me when you read my second fic and left comments. I whined to hubby about it constantly and told him I wished you would go away and stop reading it because it was stressing me out. Now you're one of my beloved "regulars" 🥰🥰🥰

***

I'm going to miss the snark, jokes and yes even the disagreements.

I'll miss being lazy and begging @tv echo to look up info.

[BkWurm1]

Arrow came on the air a year after Smallville went off of it and SV, as I have bemoaned many a time in my posts, was for me a very traumatic ten years of viewing.  For the first seven, even eight years, it played up so many troupes and moments that on any other show foreshadowed a heck of a lot of  stuff that was totally dropped for comic canon when new show runners took over which basically messed with my head and translated to me not trusting my tv watching skills to know what was supposed to be happening specifically when it came to shipping.  So the LAST thing I was ready to do was watch ANOTHER superhero show on the CW.  

But I had a friend that had cut the tv cord and, assuming I'd watch, asked me to tell him if it was worth him catching up once it was on Netflix.  (Or wherever it was the first year).  He'd put up with my Smallville rants so I figured I owed him, lol.

So I set my DVR and even watched the Pilot live. I knew going in that the show had a comic canon love interest so I told myself it would be safe to watch and I tried to be positive about her but her first scene grated and it only got worse between her and Oliver in the first episode.  The only moment I actually liked the character was when the actress had a flirty moment with Tommy.  I felt the pilot was well shot but not sure the brutal downer feel was for me even if I did love the actress that played Thea and also Paul Blackthorne from other stuff they'd done, I did not watch live the next week.  I liked Diggle but all the problems of the pilot were amplified in the second episode.  I might have quit if not for that promise to the friend to give it a fair review.  Still, I let the shows backlog on my DVR for months.  

Finally many weeks later, I forced myself to watch that third episode and the very first Olicity scene hadn't ended before I paused the DVR and looked up who that IT girl was, crossing my fingers that she would be back and by then they'd already made her a REGULAR for the next season! 

Suddenly, I was eagerly watching, binging what i had recorded and the show just kept getting better.  Diggle was joined Oliver, Felicity was brought deeper into the mystery and soon joined the team.  And that spark that I saw between Oliver and Felicity in their very first scene only grew. 

I hated myself for doing again. Falling for the impossible ship on a comic based show.  I knew what what I was seeing would mean on any other show but I was sure I was setting myself up for heartbreak again but I couldn't stay away.  By the time the first couple episodes of season two aired, I started to hope that maybe this time they would do right by what I was seeing on the screen.

I mean first Oliver (shirtless) swinging on vine to save Felicity from a landmine!  And then in the next episode that stunt out the window?  OMG!  It was impossible to not have hope my ship actually would sail!  

It was a massive roller coaster ride after that and I would not have remained sane without the forums and the posters to help us all through it.  Arrow feels like my do over superhero show, one that honored the chemistry and potential beyond comic canon to create something unexpected and incredibly special.   

It restored my TV viewing sanity and restored my faith in shipping.  Oh boy did it restore my faith in shipping, lol.  

Arrow is an imperfect show that still managed to somehow do better by their love story than perhaps any other show I've ever seen.  

It is still mind blowing to look back from where we started and how far we came.  Amazing.  

 

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by BkWurm1

[way2interested]

So I've finally got some free time from work to write down some of my own thoughts and memories.

While there are a bunch of laughs and highs and lows and moments to go over, I think my fondest memories are just the sleuthing and deductive reasoning that we've (and parts of fandom outside the board) been able to do throughout the years. Yeah, being on the CW some plot twist just become obvious from the soap opera drama handbook, but the amount of surprises we've been able to guess and figure out and connecting the spoilers and reacting to them have been just as entertaining as seeing them on screen (or in some cases, more entertaining).

• Finding out that Olicity will ride off into the sunset in 323, meaning that everything will wrap up
• Roy leaving in s3 (though thankfully not dying)
• Seeing the proposal being filmed for 409 and EK spoiling that they were engaged through 413 at least
• Figuring out almost every "surprise" guest star that ever shows up
• Finding out Laurel was in the grave
• Figuring out that "Tina" was the new Black Canary
• Finding out about 520 and figuring out how/when Olicity would get back together
• All of the guest stars in 523
• Guessing the family plot in s6
• That Diaz would become the big bad after ME's film count ran out
• RG spoiling that Olicity definitely got married during the crossover
• Figuring out that WH was leaving
• Figuring out that Oliver would go to prison in 623
• Figuring out that KM was playing Olicity's kid from the future
• Figuring out that Felicity and Laurel were teaming up
• Figuring out that Curtis and Diaz were leaving
• Knowing that Felicity was neither evil nor dead in 2040
• Figuring that Mia was coming to the present in s8 (although being genuinely surprised at all 3 kids going to the present)
• Figuring out the paradise dimension ending

And much more, but those are a few that come to mind XD. It's been great to have a spot where people are on the same page about the spoilers and the logistics of production to figure out the narrative of the show and what was likely to happen. It's been hard to try to replicate the dedication and insight to other fandoms so far, but I hope that going into the future that I can find a similar groove that's at least half as fun as Arrow's was.