Oliver Queen/Green Arrow: Taking His Fun Where He Can Find It.

[BkWurm1]

Oliver Queen.  Green Arrow.  The guy brought in to get Clark Kent off his butt.  The superhero  Lois Lane let get away.  The man that 

killed Lex Luthor.

  (Well, kind of).  The hero pushed to his breaking point so Chloe could save him.  The man who found more than just fun when he went looking.

 

He's at times a complicated character and at times more of a cartoon.  He brought a lightness to the show and at the same time, an urgency.  I still haven't completely forgiven him for season 8, but boy oh boy did he and Chloe have chemistry. 

 

Let's talk some more about Oliver.  What the show did right; what it did wrong?  What it could have done soooooo much better if only...

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So I was talking in the season six thread about how the rumor mill told us that originally when they pitched Oliver for Smallville, they were going to bring him in as a love interest for Chloe rather than Lois but then DC gave them a go for Jimmy and the only place they thought he fit was with Chloe at the DP.  Personally I think they would have been better off making him Lois's bumbling lackey but it made me stop and imagine what the show would have looked like if instead of Jimmy "James" Olsen being the interruption of Clark return in season six, it would have been Oliver. 

 

The scenario that immediately popped into my mind:

 

After Lionel's limo is attacked, Oliver comes to the rescue.  He ends up escorting Chloe back to the DP and flirting ensues.  Then at the end when Jimmy would have interrupted and offered her vending machine food, it would have been Oliver Queen there to bring her a fancy pre packed dinner basket (or a trip to a restaurant if they could find any place open for business).  Replace the weird times we had Oliver and Clark and Lois hanging around like BFF's with Clark, Chloe and Oliver.  It just makes more sense.  The conflict would come from either Clark feeling left out or maybe Clark knowing Oliver's secret but keeping it from Chloe and then Chloe's reaction when she finds out who her new boy friend really is. 

 

Sigh.  Oh what could have been. 

Edited July 26, 2014 by BkWurm1

[GHScorpiosRule]

Oliver grew on me. Mkiind you, it didn't take long, because one, Hartley was HAWT, and two, he could act.

 

What irked me was how the show made him a fucking bully who went to the same boarding school with Lex, to make Lex look "better" and Ollie, as a douche. Did.Not.Like.  Because I actually like the character of Oliver Queen.  That aspect was just not Ollie or what I knew of the character.  And yeah, so glad that he kicked Clark's butt metaphorically to get off his mopey ass and do something. Which, when you look back, Ollie was more of a leader in his words and actions.  Like I said in other threads, Clark had to be nagged and guilted into stepping up and when he did step and join, it was like Ooooh, look how great a leader Clark is to our group of heroes! Whatthefuckever.

[BkWurm1]

Without Oliver, I don't see Clark ever teaming up with other heroes.  He's more the type to assume he should do it all on his own.  Oliver had the idea and the money and the initial leadership skills to get the league going.  Once they existed, then Clark would SOMETIMES make use of them.  I still give Chloe the real credit in taking the rag tag group that had given up and turning them into a fully functional and organized team that pretty much anyone could monitor on day to day stuff after all the protocols. 

 

Honestly,the only reason Clark gets to be a leader is because if he's not on board, he could squash any of their plans.  

 

What irked me was how the show made him a fucking bully who went to the same boarding school with Lex, to make Lex look "better" and Ollie, as a douche. Did.Not.Like.  Because I actually like the character of Oliver Queen.  That aspect was just not Ollie or what I knew of the character

 

After watching Arrow for a couple years now, I have less issue with Ollie being an asshat in his youth.  On the other hand his "island" experience is even more laughable than before. 

 

His character suffered like all Smallville characters did with the writing.  The writers had real trouble with good motivation.  Lionel Luthor killed his parents so he wants to kill Lex when Lex is the one that killed Lionel.  What ever happened to the enemy of my enemy is my friend?  If they wanted him to go after Lex, come up with a good reason. 

Edited July 27, 2014 by BkWurm1

[GHScorpiosRule]

Without Oliver, I don't see Clark ever teaming up with other heroes.  He's more the type to assume he should do it all on his own.  Oliver had the idea and the money and the initial leadership skills to get the league going.  Once they existed, then Clark would SOMETIMES make use of them.  I still give Chloe the real credit in taking the rag tag group that had given up and turning them into a fully functional and organized team that pretty much anyone could monitor on day to day stuff after all the protocols. 

 

Honestly,the only reason Clark gets to be a leader is because if he's not on board, he could squash any of their plans.  

 

After watching Arrow for a couple years now, I have less issue with Ollie being an asshat in his youth.  On the other hand his "island" experience is even more laughable than before. 

 

His character suffered like all Smallville characters did with the writing.  The writers had real trouble with good motivation.  Lionel Luthor killed his parents so he wants to kill Lex when Lex is the one that killed Lionel.  What ever happened to the enemy of my enemy is my friend?  If they wanted him to go after Lex, come up with a good reason. 

 

Eh. I lasted only 3 episodes with that show, because the lead actor can't act his way out of a paper bag, or rather so wooden, I started getting hives. Makes Tom Welling look Shakespearian in comparison. BUT, Arrow wasn't around when Ollie was introduced, so just based on his appearance and how his history is depicted in the comics, the ONLY reason, I think, they did this was to make Lex look more of a woobie and victim, because, you know, he's with LANA now. Let's just forget all the shit Lex did in seasons 1-5, okay?

[BkWurm1]

It was such a mixed bag of woobie though.  By the end of the episode Lex is the monster, betraying his true friend.  It wasn't really worth dragging Oliver down just so they could temporarily prop up Lex, ah, but what did I expect?

 

Eh. I lasted only 3 episodes with that show, because the lead actor can't act his way out of a paper bag, or rather so wooden, I started getting hives. Makes Tom Welling look Shakespearian in comparison.

 

I almost bailed after the second episode, the show was just so cold and dreary, but they kept piling up in my DVR and I'd promised to tell a friend if it was worth his time or not so I started up again.    I'm glad I did. 

 

It's funny, what I originally saw as wooden, I've now rewatched and realized he was TRYING to play wooden, like he was seriously PTSD and just holding it together.  The good news is shortly into the series they let a couple people in on his secret and it opened up the show in a whole new way.  There is even a character very much in a Chloe kind of vein (different personality but similar use and vibe).  And yes, there is currently a great divide in the fandom over the comic book love interest versus the new character brought in for this story.  The new character is winning.  :D

[Bitterswete]

What irked me was how the show made him a fucking bully who went to the same boarding school with Lex, to make Lex look "better" and Ollie, as a douche. Did.Not.Like.  Because I actually like the character of Oliver Queen.

 

It was such a mixed bag of woobie though.  By the end of the episode Lex is the monster, betraying his true friend.  It wasn't really worth dragging Oliver down just so they could temporarily prop up Lex, ah, but what did I expect?

 

I didn't think showing that Oliver had bullied Lex was done to make Lex look good. By this point of the show, the writers seemed to be pushing the "Lex always had darkness in him" idea, usually in the most ridiculous ways. In this case, the message seemed to be, "Yes, Lex was mercilessly bullied. And the fact that he eventually snapped shows he had inner darkness. Because why else would a victim of constant bullying lose it?" Which was crap, but that seemed to be what they were going for.

 

As for Oliver, I have no problem with an adaptation adding new things to an existing character. I'm also okay with a character changing drastically (and positively) between childhood and adulthood, because I've seen it happen in real life. Plus, some of my favorite characters were once terrible people who did awful things before changing for the better. Which Oliver had done.

 

Of course, SV could've handled the whole thing better. But I can say that about a lot of the stuff they did.

[BkWurm1]

I have a lot of issues with season eight Oliver but I enjoyed him a lot in the back half of season nine. I got very frustrated with him in the first half of season ten with some of his choices and I'll thought out reasoning but still enjoyed him. I thought his chemistry with Chloe was incredible but at the same time, I still bought into he and Lois as the better couple. Oliver and Chloe were more romantic but I bought into the friendship between Oliver and Lois more. Mostly because I think Chloe didn't let herself feel much of anything deep after how she'd been burned in season eight.