Dinah Drake: Actually, It's Black Canary

[imusuallysweet]

Character thread for new series regular Dinah Drake.

[johntfs]

I kind of like the fact that despite being the "superest" (she's the only one with actual super-powers) member of Team Arrow, Dinah is the one that comes off most as a regular person.  It's obvious that while she respects Oliver as a leader and tactician, she still thinks whole costume thing is a little goofy (let's recall that her first reaction to encountering Green Arrow, Wild Dog and Mr. Terrific was open mockery of their costumes).  I like that the people she most esteems are Quentin (because he's a fellow cop and she's taking a mantle his daughter once held) and John Diggle, another basically regular person pulled into this crime-fighter weirdness.

[way2interested]

At this point, she's my favorite of the newbies left ("favorite" still being a level of if this person left suddenly, I wouldn't mind), and I at least liked some of the team scenes that she's had (518, 520, and even 512 with Oliver, 513 with Diggle, and that quick scene with Felicity in 514). She plays a pretty good pseudo-straightman and she's fine as background support, and I'd rather see a storyline about her finding out her partner is secretly alive or something over a Curtis or Rene (although I did think he did fine paired with Lance) storyline.

[BkWurm1]

I don't have anything against her, but I am totally puzzled why she's stuck with these yahoos. Maybe she likes hanging with them because Oliver's problems make her feel normal?  Kind of how watching the Jerry Springer show makes people feel better about their lives.  

[Mellowyellow]

If you were a meta with a tragic past wouldn't you hang around and ship Olicity because they're just too cute?    =P

From the acting she does look like she thinks they are a bit of a hot mess at times but she takes it into her stride because she probably thinks they are decent people trying to help the city. Maybe it's comforting to be part of a cause but not have to lead it yourself?

[statsgirl]

31 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

Maybe it's comforting to be part of a cause but not have to lead it yourself?

That and it's good to have a purpose again beyond revenge.  Plus, they're a good crew and good co-workers are always a plus.

[johntfs]

19 hours ago, way2interested said:

I'd rather see a storyline about her finding out her partner is secretly alive or something over a Curtis or Rene (although I did think he did fine paired with Lance) storyline.

Oh, please no.  Let that guy stay dead.  Let it be an actual tragedy that she really did avenge and be done with it.  As for pairing, I'm not completely sure what you mean, but I don't see anything romantic going down between her or any of those three.  I doubt she really respects Rene quite enough yet.  She seems to see Quentin as more of a respected elder, if not quite a father figure and Curtis, well, Curtis just went through a gay divorce after being gay married.  I'd call him out-of-bounds for her, romantically speaking.  As for Oliver, I've seen no indications she looks at him even potentially as a romantic partner.  Plus, Dinah seems like too decent a person to want to shit on Felicity that way.  I will say that if Lila Diggle ever permanently stops a bullet, Dinah would likely be all over some John action.

14 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

If you were a meta with a tragic past wouldn't you hang around and ship Olicity because they're just too cute?

It does occur to me that I could see Dinah maybe working to break them up out of concern for Felicity.  Like, "Look, you're a nice person, but Oliver is kind of a bent screw.  You can't really do or be what he is without being a bent screw.  You and everybody you care about is already in danger just from being around him.  Eventually he's gonna take that last leap into the abyss of crazy and I really hope you're not around when he does."

Edited June 23, 2017 by johntfs

[bijoux]

3 hours ago, johntfs said:

 As for pairing, I'm not completely sure what you mean, but I don't see anything romantic going down between her or any of those three.  I doubt she really respects Rene quite enough yet.  She seems to see Quentin as more of a respected elder, if not quite a father figure and Curtis, well, Curtis just went through a gay divorce after being gay married.  I'd call him out-of-bounds for her, romantically speaking.  As for Oliver, I've seen no indications she looks at him even potentially as a romantic partner.  Plus, Dinah seems like too decent a person to want to shit on Felicity that.  I will say that if Lila Diggle ever permanently stops a bullet, Dinah would likely be all over some John action.

The only pairing that @way2interested mentioned was Rene and Lance, in that they shared a lot of scenes in the second half of the season once Lance came back from rehab and Rene became his assisstant.

[johntfs]

7 hours ago, bijoux said:

The only pairing that @way2interested mentioned was Rene and Lance, in that they shared a lot of scenes in the second half of the season once Lance came back from rehab and Rene became his assisstant.

I was going off of this:

18 hours ago, way2interested said:

I'd rather see a storyline about her finding out her partner is secretly alive or something over a Curtis or Rene (although I did think he did fine paired with Lance) storyline.

To me this indicated a preference to see Dinah paired with hr former partner than with Curtis or Rene.  Granted there was no mention of Quentin as a possible pairing, but I tossed him and Oliver in to cover all the regulars bases.

[bijoux]

I think it was just better this storyline for Dinah than a storyline for Rene or Curtis.

[johntfs]

18 minutes ago, bijoux said:

I think it was just better this storyline for Dinah than a storyline for Rene or Curtis.

I think we all know there's going to be some kind of story-line for all the regular characters, it's just a matter of what story it's going to be.  Figure a likely story for Dinah and Laurel will be their rivalry with each other.  Rene is still trying to win back his daughter.  Maybe Curtis will start dating again.

[way2interested]

For the record, I was referring to wanting a storyline period for Dinah rather than a storyline for Curtis or Rene. The whole finding her old partner thing was just a suggestion because of random spec the board had for him still being alive, and I'd rather watch that than watch Curtis work on his marriage or his T-spheres or watch Rene get his kid back even though I liked Rene's scenes with Lance (because of what it meant for Lance's character, not Rene's).

[johntfs]

1 hour ago, way2interested said:

For the record, I was referring to wanting a storyline period for Dinah rather than a storyline for Curtis or Rene. The whole finding her old partner thing was just a suggestion because of random spec the board had for him still being alive, and I'd rather watch that than watch Curtis work on his marriage or his T-spheres or watch Rene get his kid back even though I liked Rene's scenes with Lance (because of what it meant for Lance's character, not Rene's).

Sure, but it won't be an either/or.  Figure every character is going to get some kind of story, half-assed or dull though it may be (I kind of dread whatever is next for Thea).

[BkWurm1]

4 minutes ago, johntfs said:

Sure, but it won't be an either/or.  Figure every character is going to get some kind of story, half-assed or dull though it may be (I kind of dread whatever is next for Thea).

It might not be an either or, but it very likely will be a case of one having MORE than the other.  Rene got a LOT of attention in season five.  I'd expect him to take more of a backseat to Dinah next year.  It's her turn.  

[johntfs]

27 minutes ago, BkWurm1 said:

It might not be an either or, but it very likely will be a case of one having MORE than the other.  Rene got a LOT of attention in season five.  I'd expect him to take more of a backseat to Dinah next year.  It's her turn.  

Yeah, but that doesn't mean she'll get to take it.  Arrow isn't nearly as bad about this as The Flash has been, but it still tends to give a bit of short shrift to its female characters.  Remember Felicity somehow feeling worse about Oliver feeling bad about killing her boyfriend than about Oliver actually killing her boyfriend?  And us supposedly on Oliver's side when Felicity and Thea use questionable, somewhat ruthless tactics to help him out?  I think over all I'd just as soon have Dinah bitch-slapping Laurel ever so often and otherwise stay a bit back than have her front and center getting lessons in hero-being mansplained to her.

[way2interested]

To me it's not so much as expecting as wanting it, which is all I said originally, that I'd rather see Dinah's plot (whatever it could be) than Curtis' or Rene's and that I found that complimentary to her character so far.

Edited June 23, 2017 by way2interested

[shadow2008]

Well, in terms of acting, Dinah feels a lot more like the Black Canary from the comics than KC's version ever did, but from a writing standpoint, she's really just a more likable version of Hollywood's stereotypical tough girl role at this point. She desperately needs some depth. 

[Starfish35]

I only saw Dinah in three episodes (510-512), and it wasn't enough to really get a feel for her character.   But I really like what I've seen of Juliana Harkavy.  She seems really nice, if a little odd (eating soap?).

[tv echo]

About JH's audition...

-- JH: "They actually didn’t tell me much until I had already booked it. And then, I got this phone call that was like, 'Okay, sit down . . .' When I got the sides, it just described her as a tough vigilante, and it showed her in the field fighting, and then having a vulnerable moment. I was only able to see that she was a very dynamic and strong character. That was really all I knew. It was only after that, that I got the news."
http://collider.com/arrow-juliana-harkavy-interview/

-- JH: "It was crazy how it came to be... My husband and I had been living in Florida for about 9 years and, luckily at the time, there was a tax incentive, so there was some acting work coming in. So I got a little bit of a trajectory going. Um, and then we decided to move to L.A. after almost a decade. Like, we had just enough money and, like, we had everything we needed. Packed our dogs into the back of a truck, moved to L.A. We were there for three months. Arrow was maybe my second audition that I got and I booked it. So I left him in L.A. and I went and moved to Vancouver. And we've been there ever since. So it's been two years now... It was a totally unexpected miracle."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U3kRHEyXaQ

-- JH: "It was very new to me. I didn’t even know I was auditioning for the Black Canary when I auditioned for her. It was all very new and I had to do a lot of research and reading and watching, but it was humbling to say the least because you feel like you’re really coming into something huge and you wanted to it justice. No, I mean in a way it was nice because I had no preconceived notions about who she was, I was able to just create her in that moment. ... The only comic I read is one of Gail Simone’s 'Birds of Prey' comics. I read through that and I just went online and I did a lot of digging. I just saw every version of the Black Canary that I could find. I just went on web spirals. There are also different versions. Obviously, on my show there’s different versions and in the comics there’s Dinah Drake and Dinah Laurel Lance, and I had to learn everything. I just went online and tried to gather as much information, and I processed it, and I used that to put her altogether. And of course watching Arrow, too. There was five seasons of Arrow to watch at that point as well."
http://boundingintocomics.com/2018/04/16/exclusive-interview-learning-the-canary-cry-with-juliana-harkavy/