And The Golden Arrow Goes To...: Awards, Nominations, and Recognition

[KenyaJ]

That's a good rule of thumb, including with all the blanket proclamations about what Olicity fans think or do. 

[ban1o]

That's a good rule of thumb, including with all the blanket proclamations about what Olicity fans think or do. 

Did I say anything about Olicity lol? Wow I was just pointing out what people were saying in the posts right above me :) 

Edited September 25, 2014 by ban1o

[KenyaJ]

Did I say anything about Olicity lol? Wow I was just pointing out what people were saying in the posts right above me :) 

 

No, but I think if you review some of your own posts, you'll see that you're prone to stating how [fill in the blank] reaction to Laurel, is because Olicity fans [fill in the blank].  It wasn't my intention to make that personal, but since you asked, I'm just pointing out that generalizing about a group of fans is not a one way street.  We can all afford to be more careful about ascribing feelings and opinions to various fans/fan groups.  And that's my final word on this matter. Moving on...

[Sakura12]

I never get it when people say we should state it's our opinion. if we're posting it, it's obviously our opinion. Why would we be posting someone elses opinion?

[ban1o]

No, but I think if you review some of your own posts, you'll see that you're prone to stating how [fill in the blank] reaction to Laurel, is because Olicity fans [fill in the blank].  It wasn't my intention to make that personal, but since you asked, I'm just pointing out that generalizing about a group of fans is not a one way street.  We can all afford to be more careful about ascribing feelings and opinions to various fans/fan groups.  And that's my final word on this matter. Moving on...

lol wut. I don't think I've ever said anything like that at all. Sorry if I've offended you ever haha :P  The thing is don't even like Laurel I just don't hate on her every chance I get.  But I guess that's a rarity on this site. :) 

Edited September 25, 2014 by ban1o

[JJ928]

I don't know about being able to vote from multiple computers. When I voted for best episode from my computer, my bf voted later that night from his and it said: Thanks for voting,we already counted your vote. Plus, I wonder how many people actually do vote, I know the percentages sound impressive, but how many users, I wonder. I agree with most of the poll except worse episode. I personally love Helena so I'm biased.

 

Edit: Also, I love Stephen/Oliver but David/Diggle would be my pick for favorite male actor. I really hope he gets some good material in season 3.

Edited September 25, 2014 by JJ928

[SonofaBiscuit]

I really question if the EPs know what their actual problems are with this show.  We have Laurel voted Least Favorite Character, managing to beat out a character whose main motivation was that her boyfriend chose his family over her.  Caity Lotz, an actress who came into the role that Laurel was originally meant to inhabit, was voted Best Guest Star.  Felicity, a character who doesn't even exist in the same capacity in the comics but managed to replace Laurel in the role of "love interest to hero" was voted Favorite Female and Favorite Character.  The runners-up in the Worst Episode category were Blast Radius and Blind Spot, two of the episodes that were touted as part of Laurel's four episode arc.  I have to wonder, do the EPs really know what the problems are, because if they are trying to fix their mistakes, they are doing a lousy job of it.

Edited September 25, 2014 by SonofaBiscuit

[Angel12d]

Would people really go to the hassle of working around an IP address just for some random fan site poll? Does this really happen?!

 

I agree with most of those results though. I barely remember the BOP episode to be honest. 

[SonofaBiscuit]

There is actually some sort of ignore feature that you can use so that if you don't want to read posts from certain people, you don't have to.  I've never used it, but I've seen the mods talk about it in other forums.  I don't see the big deal about people hating on characters.  Look, sometimes people (even fictional ones) rub you the wrong way and it reaches the point where every single thing that they say or do just pisses you off.  Yeah, I'm at that point with Laurel, but if I wasn't, I'd probably either chuckle at the posts I don't agree with or just skip over them.  No biggie.  Massive hate for fictional people doesn't really bother me, especially since it seems like the people on here have logical reasons why they hate the characters that they do.

[statsgirl]

My point was that there were ways around one vote per IP is all.

There is, but less so than on other sites where you can just keep refreshing the page and voting over and over again, or put in a bot that will keep voting for you. Wasn't it even at the Tubies that you could vote once a day?

 

 

I don't know about being able to vote from multiple computers. When I voted for best episode from my computer, my bf voted later that night from his and it said: Thanks for voting,we already counted your vote.

Same here. I voted first so the other person was out of luck.

 

If you really, really want to vote more than once, you could run from friend to friend asking to use their phones, (I think all computers at one lab would have the same IP address) but how many people would do it?  That matters too in terms of the validity of the poll and while I can see some stans doing it, most people wouldn't.  This seems to be about the most vigorously controlled poll I've seen on the internet.

 

The other question is whether there is a difference between those who vote frequently and those who vote only once e.g. would over-voting come from one group of fans (e.g. those who like Felicity rather than those who like Laurel), or from both groups equally?   If there isn't a difference, the poll is valid.

 

You can't do a randomized poll because most people don't watch the show.

 

 

LOL Felicity was the favorite character and the 4th least favorite character. That doesn't even make sense.

It does because we don't know the percentage she got.   Isabel got second place with 10 % of the vote, then Ivo so at most Felicity got 8% of the votes, and possibly less,   She got 55% of the votes for favorite character, leaving 45% to be spread over the others.

 

I like that best guest went to Caity Lotz over John Barrowman (who won it last year,didn't he?) and Grant Gustin.  Too bad BoP was such a bad episode.

 

I agree with most of those results though. I barely remember the BOP episode to be honest. 

I voted for BOP because by that time, it was no longer the Arrow show that I had fallen in love with.

 

I'm glad the dual fight scenes  got some love. I just with they had got the stunt Emmy.

 

 

Hopefully Season 3 will bring redemption for the Laurel character, who really fell off the deep end for a portion of Season 2. In some cases, such as her initial reaction to Sara being alive, it almost feels like Laurel was purposely made to be unlikable. With no offense meant to Katie Cassidy, Laurel got over 42% of the vote.

I wonder what the EPs will make of that.  And that Oliver/Sara beat Oliver/Laurel in the Best Pairing competition.

Edited September 25, 2014 by statsgirl

[KenyaJ]

I really question if the EPs know what their actual problems are with this show.  We have Laurel voted Least Favorite Character, managing to beat out a character whose main motivation was that her boyfriend chose his family over her.  Caity Lotz, an actress who came into the role that Laurel was originally meant to inhabit, was voted Best Guest Star.  Felicity, a character who doesn't even exist in the same capacity in the comics but managed to replace Laurel in the role of "love interest to hero" was voted Favorite Female and Favorite Character.  The runners-up in the Worst Episode category were Blast Radius and Blind Spot, two of the episodes that were touted as part of Laurel's four episode arc.  I have to wonder, do the EPs really know what the problems are, because if they are trying to fix their mistakes, they are doing a lousy job of it.

 

I thought it was especially interesting that Katie Cassidy won Best Female Actor last year, and this year she got 4% of the vote. Granted, Emily wasn't eligible last year, but it's staggering to realize the extent to which Emily and Felicity have usurped Katie and Laurel.

 

I hope the writers are not only considering how they can keep Laurel involved in this year's storylines, but also evaluating her place on the show. There are plenty of characters I dislike on other shows, but I can still recognize their utility to the show. By contrast, I honestly don't see what purpose Laurel serves on the show anymore. She's just the ex-girlfriend who's still relevant to Oliver's journey because ... what exactly? Unless this turns into "Law and Order: Starling City," and we're going to follow the villains as they make their way through the justice system, her status as "the lawyer" isn't enough to justify her full-time presence on the show. I think I'd be much less annoyed by her and the endless attempts to rehab her if they dropped her down to recurring and she only appeared on the rare occasions when a lawyer's presence is necessary.

 

Anyway, the ArrowWritersRoom Twitter account has been retweeting links to various polls, so I assume they are aware of and paying attention to the results.

[DrSpaceman10]

I think it's cool that Grant Gustin came in a very close second for Favorite Guest Star even though he was only in two episodes. I think that bodes well for The Flash :)

[statsgirl]

Unless this turns into "Law and Order: Starling City," 

Love it!  Except..... don't give them any ideas.

[JayKay]

Yay for Caity Lotz! I'm not surprised that Felicity/EBR won the lion's share of awards as she's very popular. I forgot to vote for everything but Best Fight, but I probably would have voted for someone other than Felicity/EBR in everything if only because I knew she wouldn't need my vote, ha.

[strikera0]

The results for the Green Arrow Awards are in. 

http://www.greenarrowtv.com/2014-greenarrowtv-awards-and-the-winners-are/18887

 

Thanks for the link to the results. None of them were particularly surprising, but I don't agree with all of them. For me, Susanna Thompson was by far the best actress on the show and I'll miss her presence greatly. And I don't think BOP was the worst episode of the season. I thought Time of Death and Blast Radius were worse.

[KenyaJ]

Anyway, the ArrowWritersRoom Twitter account has been retweeting links to various polls, so I assume they are aware of and paying attention to the results.

 

And that account just retweeted the link to the awards, so yeah, they're paying attention. Whether it has any influence on the writing remains to be seen.

[wingster55]

I disagree on several and am able to let it go (damn it Frozen), but the fact that Oliver saying "I love you" to Felicity won as most shocking moment angers me a bit...over Moira's death? Nope. 

[manbearpig]

Birds of Prey was one of my favourite episodes last season so I just stopped reading at that point.

[Morrigan2575]

I voted for Time of Death as worst, next would have been Identity or Blind Spot.

[pootlus]

Yeah if you live in the same house as someone else you'll be presenting the same IP as someone else so it's more like one household = one vote (excluding phones etc).

 

I'm sure some double or treble voting went on but given how passionate some fans are I very much doubt there was a higher incidence of it amongst one shipper/character faction than another, so at least in respect to a certain character/ship's popularity over another, I don't doubt the result where it was a clear margin (especially as fans who would go to such levels are in a minority generally).  To me, it's like the recent debate in Australia (and I believe in the US) where certain factions are demanding legislation to force voters show ID before voting (disenfranchising large sections of the population), where the electoral commission has actually said straight up that voter ID fraud is not a big enough problem to influence an election even at the local level, let alone national (and most of it is innocuous i.e. people voting for sick granny, but voting the way she asked them to).

 

My least favourite episode would be Time of Death if I had to pick one, but the whole segment in New Year with the Lance family drama was my least favourite story sequence.  A shame for PB as it represents some of his best work.

 

Edit (again): I think there seems to be some resentment of the Huntress, which surprises me - I didn't think Jessica Du Guow was an amazing actor but her episodes were okay (and her last scene with Oliver in BoP blew me away). That's opinion, I guess - I just find it interesting as I wasn't aware of it.

Edited September 25, 2014 by pootlus

[wingster55]

Whether it has any influence on the writing remains to be seen.

 

Considering that Thea, Diggle or Roy weren't in the top 2, 3 or 4 in any category...no thanks. 

[NumberCruncher]

Yeah, I don't get the hate for Jessica De Gouw or The Huntress either--to me, she's been one of the highlights in terms of guest stars.  She plays psycho!bitch very effectively.

 

I disagree on several and am able to let it go (damn it Frozen), but the fact that Oliver saying "I love you" to Felicity won as most shocking moment angers me a bit...over Moira's death? Nope. 

 

I generally agreed with most of the choices but I have to strongly concur with you here--Moira's death should have won over the "I love you" fake out.  Slade stabbing her like that was one of only two truly "OMG!" moments I've had watching the show (the other one was watching the Glades literally crumble before our eyes at the end of S1).

[pootlus]

I was surprised as a whole, but the episode leading up to it was so ham-fisted (Moira revealing that she knew about Oliver, etc) that I wasn't surprised by the end of the episode.  Moira was clearly being set up for a death by the time that scene arrived.  In addition, some people over on TWoP had said earlier in the year that the cast was too big and needed trimming, and sadly that Moira didn't really serve much of a purpose since the Undertaking.

 

The ILY on the other hand came out of nowhere and made my jaw drop.

 

I agree with you wingster55 - Susanna Thompson is the best actor on the show (followed by Paul Blackthorne) but I guess the poll is going to skew towards 'passionate fans' rather than 'considered critics'.

[willpwr]

I wasn't really shocked by Moira's death, I expected it when Slade initially showed up in the Queen's living room. The "I love you" fake out wasn't shocking either, neither was Malcolm being Thea's dad, at least not to me. I guess I was most surprised, yet not really by Malcolm being alive.

[Orion]

Thanks for the link to the results. None of them were particularly surprising, but I don't agree with all of them. For me, Susanna Thompson was by far the best actress on the show and I'll miss her presence greatly. And I don't think BOP was the worst episode of the season. I thought Time of Death and Blast Radius were worse.

 

Favorite actress was one of the categories that was the hardest for me to pick one person but I ended up voting for EBR over Susanna for a few reasons. Susanna is imo the best actress on the show but she really only needed to carry one scene on her own merit this season and that was her death scene in Seeing Red. In the other Moira scenes she was fantastic but it wasn't up to her to do the heavy lifting. EBR on the other hand has consistently been asked to do the yeoman's work in her scenes. She was asked to be the comic relief, the springboard for new characters (Barry and Sara to an extent), the exposition character, and the love interest.  A lot of Felicity scenes were on her shoulders and very easily could have moved into the category of corny if she didn't deliver them well (the clock tower scene for example). Everyone's MMV of course but I had to give her my vote because I thought she deserved the recognition for how much of the story she carried this year and how well she held up under pressure.

 

I voted for Time of Death also but I think Birds of Prey got it because at that point people were sick of the Lances (both Sara and Laurel) and the Huntress actress wasn't well received in previous episodes.  It was in the middle of the Lance Family Drama marathon and it was advertised using Sara and Laurel. From what I've read online on different review sites it seems that people didn't like how psycho they made the Huntress. That it was to different from her comic book character in that regard.  It also didn't have a great plot (Huntress is still after her father, the weird cop that came out of nowhere and wanted nothing more than to kill the vigilantes, Donner using Laurel as bait).   I didn't watch this episode until over the summer after I taken a break from Arrow because I couldn't face an entire episode of the Lances so I can certainly see how this episode won? it just wasn't my worst.  

 

I voted for the "I love you" over Moira just because most spoiler sites had figured out that she was going to die. At least from the beginning of the episode it was clear that those spoilers were right when she told Oliver she knew he was the Arrow. It just wasn't as shocking as it could have been. 

 

I don't know if any of that played into other people's reason for voting the way they did but that was my take on those answers.

[dtissagirl]

No idea if they were a factor, but there were spoilers about Moira dying. First someone posted about watching the filming of the funeral, and then a few days before the episode aired someone leaked a detailed description about how she was gonna die.

Edited September 25, 2014 by dancingnancy

[Morrigan2575]

No idea if they were a factor, but there were spoilers about Moira dying. First someone posted about watching the filming of the funeral, and then a few days before the episode aired someone leaked a detailed description about how she was gonna die.

Reddit had them, then it went everywhere. That's why I didn't vote for Moira's death I wasn't shocked.

IIRC it went, extra says she filmed a funeral scene with Katie Cassidy (que Sara gonna die comments), then Colin Salmon tweeted to SA & EBR that he was coming back to Van (something about playing a game). Finally the Reddit spoilers came out, it was a very detailed post about the Moira death scene.

It was on Reddit, Spoiler.tv, TWOP, IMDb and Fan Forum, that I know of. I'm sure it hit blogs and tumblr as well.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Morrigan2575

[DrSpaceman10]

I think the spoiler about Moira dying came from 4chan originally. That spoiler leaked at least a few weeks before the episode, so I don't think that many people were shocked as compared to the "I love you".

[Angel12d]

I was surprised by Moira's death because I didn't read spoilers when that episode aired. I thought something was going to happen simply because Slade was hanging around but the way she died did make me gasp out loud when it happened. I still thought the "I love you" was pretty shocking though. Didn't expect that AT ALL. For me that category was a tie. 

 

Also agree that Susanna Thompson is the best actress. I'm gonna miss her. EBR is my close second though. 

[wonderwall]

I kind of find it funny that certain people who are disappointed with the poll blame the shippers for the results (saw a few comments about it on various sites). Literally any part of the fandom can rally up support for certain characters or relationships, it's not that hard. It's actually a testament to how passionate people are about those characters which is always nice to see (I say passionate and not crazy to the point of bashing other people). Just because other parts of the fandom don't do this doesn't mean the shippers are solely to blame. In the end, people are going to vote for their favorites, which is why I think having a category for 'best actress' and 'favorite character' is a bit redundant. 

 

For BoP being the worst episode, I voted for that one because it literally was just the most unnecessary episode which did nothing for the characters. I like Helena, but I didn't like what happened to her. But that's just my opinion I suppose. 

 

Moira's death wasn't really shocking for me either because you just knew she was going to die the second she told Oliver she knew about him being the Arrow. It wasn't a shocking moment, but it was a really emotional one (I legit cried). The "I love you" really took me by surprise,I was so speechless (which rarely happens), as I'm sure it did a lot of people because the internet essentially exploded (with either joy/shock/groans) when it happened. 

 

So while I disagree with some of the winners, I understand why the results were like that. It didn't really shock me or disappoint me because I honestly expected the results to end up like that. 

 

Just a quick thought :p

Edited September 26, 2014 by wonderwall

[wingster55]

For best actress, I agree Susana is the best but I had no expectations for her winning it (and IMO Willa is a second behind her)

[statsgirl]

Agree that Susanna Thompson is the best actress. But the character of Moira was difficult to like and this isn't the Emmys,  (On the other hand, I've given up on the Emmys because the awards go to the popular actresses and not necessarily the best ones. ::cough, cough, Tatiana Maslany.)

 

Moira's death I think was the most dramatic moment of the season but since we'd seen Tommy die last season and Slade was running around town threatening to kill those Oliver loved and we were taking bets on who it would be, I don't think it was as shocking as the ILU scene which literally came out of nowhere for everyone, shippers and non-shippers alike.

 

BoP was like an episode from a different show, and maybe it was a try-out for a spin-off,  so if you liked Helena/Sara/Laurel as a combination, it would have been a better episode for you than if you didn't.

[wingster55]

Well it's easy to say Moira's death was telegraphed after the fact I think..but when it happened it was pretty damn shocking. The car crashing into the limo, Oliver reliving the Choice again, her sacrifice...all shocking. 

[statsgirl]

What I was trying to say is that I think how Moira's death happened was shocking.  That it happened, not so much (unlike the other scene which no one expected).

[TanyaKay]

Agree that Susanna Thompson is the best actress. But the character of Moira was difficult to like and this isn't the Emmys,  (On the other hand, I've given up on the Emmys because the awards go to the popular actresses and not necessarily the best ones. ::cough, cough, Tatiana Maslany.)

 

Moira's death I think was the most dramatic moment of the season but since we'd seen Tommy die last season and Slade was running around town threatening to kill those Oliver loved and we were taking bets on who it would be, I don't think it was as shocking as the ILU scene which literally came out of nowhere for everyone, shippers and non-shippers alike.

 

BoP was like an episode from a different show, and maybe it was a try-out for a spin-off,  so if you liked Helena/Sara/Laurel as a combination, it would have been a better episode for you than if you didn't.

 

I am still wondering over multiple Emmy wins for Alicia Florrick of The good wife, it is a very well written character but there was no great acting involved. Tatiana, on the other hand, has changed the way people do multiple roles forever! Truly fantastic.

 

There were far too many leaks and spoilers and hints, we all knew that Moira's gonna die so I was bracing for it, and was not shocked at all. The I Love You fake out was shocking for me because I was so not expecting that!

[JayKay]

They should have had a "Most heart-rending scene" category. Though... I do wonder how that would have gone if a Felicity scene were also nominated alongside it. Whatever, fan polls aren't ultimately about merit, but enthusiasm. I can't down anybody for being enthusiastic. I get enthusiastic about characters too, and though there's less of me it still counts! (Or it would if I had voted.)

[wingster55]

Emmys are rarely credible 

[Ceylon5]

I notice no-one is debating whether or not Stephen Amell is really the best actor on the show, or whether he was unreasonably voted for by fans simply because he has so much screen-time or whatever.  I don't think these polls were intended to ask voters to vote based on an objective analysis of which actor is the most competent and experienced, but rather which was their favourite.  I like Susanna Thompson very much - she was the only one of the actors I already knew when the show started (from Once & Again), and I think she's excellent.  I wish they hadn't killed her character off.  However, I would never have voted for her in a poll like this, because I didn't think that was the point of the poll.  There are characters you watch a show for and characters who, however well acted, aren't as crucial, either to your enjoyment or to the plot (which is why the show will survive Moira's death, however much we regret it).  I think people voted for the characters (and their associated actors) that they most tune into the show for, and it would appear (unsurprisingly) that for the majority that would be Oliver in the actor category and Felicity in the actress category (of the choices that were offered).  Which, given that those 2 characters have the most screen-time & lines of all the characters, is just as well.

 

ETA:  The categories on the poll seemed to interchangeably use the headings "Favourite" and "Best" - they should have simply stuck with "Favourite" throughout, as that's less ambiguous than "Best".

Edited September 26, 2014 by Ceylon5

[dtissagirl]

I notice no-one is debating whether or not Stephen Amell is the really best actor on the show, or whether he was unreasonably voted for by fans simply because he has so much screen-time or whatever.  I don't think these polls were intended to ask voters to vote based on an objective analysis of which actor is the most competent and experienced, but rather which was their favourite. 

 

This is a great point. Both Manu and Paul B are obviously way more technical and nuanced actors than Amell, and they're both oftentimes given super shitty lines that they make work because they're so expressive. Ramsey is also a ton more expressive than Amell, and is a massively better scene partner when the *other* actors are saying their lines. Yet nobody questions that SA won the poll, because his not winning would have been simply ridiculous. 

 

I agree they should have stuck with "Favorite" actor and actress rather than "Best", but yeah. I get that not everybody loves Felicity, and that some people actively hate or resent her for replacing Laurel's narrative functions, but I sure do smell the double standard of only ever calling into question the Felicity/EBR winnings in the acting category. I mean, Caity Lotz won Best Guest over Grant Gustin and Barrowman. Let's do some analytical thinking about performance right there then. [PS, let's totally not because people are voting for their FAVORITES.]

[tv echo]

As others have said, Moira's death was very dramatic and heart-wrenching, but not shocking in the surprise sense to me.  You could see it coming in the episodes leading up to that episode.  Someone major was going to die in Season 2 (just like Tommy died in Season 1).  A lot of TV shows have gone the "shocking" death of major character route.  I think the options were Moira, Thea, Laurel and Sara (Felicity is too popular).  Sara would be too obvious and the least surprising death.  The EPs seem too committed to Dinah Laurel Lance to kill her off.  They weren't going to kill off Thea because she's young and has story potential.  So the older actor gets killed off because in the CW universe. young people run around without parents, which forces them to stand on their own while still looking young and pretty.  Watch out, Paul Blackthorne - now that Laurel's in the know, does the Arrow really need you anymore?    

 

Here's a new poll at SpoilerTV...

USD POLL : Which Arrow storyline are you most excited to see?
Posted by DarkUFO at Friday, September 26, 2014
http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/09/usd-poll-which-arrow-storyline-are-you.html

Edited September 26, 2014 by tv echo

[wingster55]

I still maintain we can it wasn't shocking after the fact. The way it happened was really shocking. The fact that it happened before the finale was also shocking. I wasn't shocked with the "I love you" as that was something I was waiting for  ever since one of the EPs teased it (I won't say I called it between Oliver and Felicity but I did think "what if...")

 

Thanks for the link tv echo.

 

As for debating Stephen's "best" actor win...was anyone debating EBR's win? I wasn't and didn't even mention the category until someone else did. 

I only debate the shocking moment one.

Edited September 26, 2014 by wingster55

[dtissagirl]

I was spoiled about HOW Moira was gonna die, so it wasn't shocking at all to me. The spoilers said she was gonna offer herself up to Slade so he would kill her instead of Oliver and Thea. I assume everyone who was reading spoilers back then went into the episode waiting to see that one scene. I knew I was waiting for her to die. So 1. I knew she was gonna die in that particular episode and 2. I knew HOW she was gonna die and 3. I the sword impaling bit took me out of the scene because I could see where the visual FX started and ended [sorry]. So yeah. It was basically the opposite of shocking to me.

[strikera0]

I think the reaction to Moira's death scene comes down to what kind of viewer you are. If you are part of the spoiler-reading online fandom, you probably weren't shocked because her death was spoiled in detail months in advance. However, if you were to ask the casual viewer, who doesn't read spoilers, what the most shocking moments of Arrow's second season were, they would probably mention Moira's death or Merlyn's return.

[Vera]

I am still wondering over multiple Emmy wins for Alicia Florrick of The good wife, it is a very well written character but there was no great acting involved. Tatiana, on the other hand, has changed the way people do multiple roles forever! Truly fantastic.

Including this year, Julianna Margulies has 2 wins for the role. I'll have to disagree with there being no great acting involved, especially in the episode she submitted. There was plenty of great acting involved from all those nominated really, but I'd have given Tatiana Michelle Dockery's spot. I love MD but the role and the show have since long passed awards excellence, IMO.

Tatiana does one hell of a job and would get all the awards if it was in my hands, but does everyone remember Battlestar Galactica? I think the only recognition it received was for special effects. The Emmy's are notorious for snubbing anything that doesn't fit into neat little box.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Vera

[Ceylon5]

I wasn't following Arrow on-line at all, so was totally unspoiled, but Moira's death, while upsetting, wasn't especially surprising to me (unlike the major character death on The Good Wife - that was a huge shock!).  Tommy's death didn't surprise or especially interest me last year either (I didn't have strong feelings about him one way or the other).  The "I love you", though, came completely out of left field, and would have surprised my socks off if I'd been wearing any at the time.  I don't find a lot surprising on TV anymore, so that one really caught my attention.  It surprised me enough to bring me on-line to see whether I'd been dozing during something important, and I was amused to discover the whole "Olicity" thing (though I detest mashed together names) and relieved to discover that I wasn't the only one caught off guard.  So, yeah, I think what they did with the unexpected 'I love you' was extremely clever and really got people's attention in a way that it isn't easy to do in our over-stimulated world.  I certainly got sucked in - I hadn't consciously been a shipper before, so I eventually went back and re-watched both seasons in the light of the new information, and binge viewing made me a lot more invested in the show than I had been before (both in general and in Oliver & Felicity as a potential couple).

Edited September 26, 2014 by Ceylon5

[wonderwall]

I think the reaction to Moira's death scene comes down to what kind of viewer you are. If you are part of the spoiler-reading online fandom, you probably weren't shocked because her death was spoiled in detail months in advance. However, if you were to ask the casual viewer, who doesn't read spoilers, what the most shocking moments of Arrow's second season were, they would probably mention Moira's death or Merlyn's return.

Eh, I don't necessarily agree with this. I didn't know anything about a death coming up much less Moira's death. The episode itself was a spoiler. Every single one of my friends (who are casual viewers) were all "Yep, she's gonna die), when Moira told Oliver she knew or when Oliver, Thea, and Moira were in the car. Good things just don't happen to people in cars and with Moira's resolution with Oliver, it was quite obvious. 

 

Moira's death was something that either people got, or didn't just by watching the episode alone. I don't think it has anything to do with spoilers because there were barely any regarding that scene. 

[wingster55]

Expecting a death is one thing, seeing it play out so suddenly is another. Obviously everyone was expecting a death..doesn't make the scene less shocking. Did anyone expect a rehash of the choice? Thea being there?

 

The mansion scene didn't shock me one iota. 

[DrSpaceman10]

I definitely thought it was highly likely that they were going to do another "choice" scenario even before I read the spoiler (I think a bunch of people were speculating this online too). I don't think most people predicted Moira vs. Thea though.

[wonderwall]

Expecting a death is one thing, seeing it play out so suddenly is another. Obviously everyone was expecting a death..doesn't make the scene less shocking. Did anyone expect a rehash of the choice? Thea being there?

 

The mansion scene didn't shock me one iota. 

I guess we'll agree to disagree. I think it's different for everyone. If I expect a death, I don't find watching said death shocking, I find it heartbreaking, emotional, unacceptable (unless said death is Laurel's), but not at all surprising. 

 

I did expect a 'choose' situation. It was poetic justice and I just knew it was coming along with almost everyone else on sites like tumblr who were already speculating who Slade would make Oliver choose between. 

 

The mansion scene probably didn't shock you, but it shocked a hell of a lot of people and that shows in the poll. All the recaps, and a lot of the comments were about how completely unexpected that was (some were disappointed, some were happy, some literally fell asleep (but stayed awake) because the moment triggered their cataplexy lol). Again, people will be shocked by different things, the poll just shows that the majority thought that the "I love you" scene was most shocking. 

 

Also the article states that Moira's death wasn't far behind from the "I love you" scene, so obviously some people found that shocking as well. 

Edited September 26, 2014 by wonderwall

[Angel12d]

I notice no-one is debating whether or not Stephen Amell is really the best actor on the show, or whether he was unreasonably voted for by fans simply because he has so much screen-time or whatever. 

 

I actually think SA deserves more credit than he gets. I wouldn't say he's the best actor on the show but he has some really understated nuances in the way he plays flashback 'Ollie' and present day Oliver. I particularly like how he alters the timbre of his voice in flashback that really makes him sound younger and immature. And I think he's really great at really emotional scenes too. Overall I've definitely noticed an improvement since early s1. 

 

 

Here's a new poll at SpoilerTV...

USD POLL : Which Arrow storyline are you most excited to see?

Posted by DarkUFO at Friday, September 26, 2014

http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/09/usd-poll-which-arrow-storyline-are-you.html

 

 

All the Olicity haters have come out to play in those comments. It's pretty sad when something becomes popular that hate automatically follows. I don't understand some people.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Angel12d