Arrow - Season 3

[Mark_Nguyen]

Agreed - I mean, imagine the train wreck if they'd tried to shoehorn Ollie and Laurel together despite their lack of chemistry (no slight to either actor - you got it or you don't). Sarah likewise worked well with Oliver, but she pretty much HAD to die to advance Laurel in the grand scheme of things; not that this seems to have kept them from bringing her actor back either. I'm actually pleased enough with Laurel's development this season.

As for Ollicity, I'm sure it won't last either. Felicity has already been the damsel / victim plenty of times on this show and it would not help her to be the moll of the main hero from this point onwards. Rather, I'm happy they're addressing this NOW and not Ross-Rachel it for years onwards. Personally, I see them both realizing FOR GOOD that they won't work together, and that she'll gladly take up a C-level position at Queen Con when Ray's done having fun in their offices, and continuing from there.

Mark

 

[DWF]

Laurel started out with Tommy but she pinned away for Ollie and Ollie had a thing for Sara, so it was bit a quadangle for a while. Tommy's death might've made it easy to bring Ollie and Laurel together but that didn't happpen. They're playing a similar card that Smallville played for years. But I do think it's doubtful that Ollie and Felicity will be a couple, this was done to keep her on Arrow rather than going with Ray.

 

[Reverend]

I don't think the Felicity-Oliver relationship is forced. On the contary -- the producers no doubt intended Laurel as Oliver's love interest initially, but then Felicity became this breakout character and the producers discovered how much audiences liked her and how much chemistry Rickards had with Amell.

No question, but IMO that chemistry didn't really lend itself all that well to a romantic entanglement, which it why it feels a bit forced. Plus of course making her Ollie's love interest because she's a more popular character than Laurel makes very little sense in terms of story telling.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Overall this season has felt flat and somewhat disappointing to me. Hopefully the final episodes will change that. There have certainly been great moments and individual episodes. But as a whole storyline as not added up to much.

Most of all the flashbacks seem to serve no real purpose this year. Like they exist because its part of the structure of series and they have to be there. It was a hard act to follow Slade last season. Where everything in the past was setting up events in the present. Plus it gave an added subtext to the main storyline. But beyond that the individual scenes now seem to just pad out the run time of the episodes now.

 

[Gaith]

I don't think the Felicity-Oliver relationship is forced. On the contary -- the producers no doubt intended Laurel as Oliver's love interest initially, but then Felicity became this breakout character and the producers discovered how much audiences liked her and how much chemistry Rickards had with Amell.

I find the Ollie-Felicity romance entirely believable. She grew up without a father figure since her old man left, so she's drawn to Ollie for his vast inner strength and confident leadership. He grew up with a little sister, and especially since his secret identity forced a distance between himself and Thea when he got back, he naturally came to love her as a second sister. Over time, as she grew in confidence and strength and independence, he came to see her as a potential life partner even outside the Cave. She's smarter and livelier than Laurel, and has an innocence that the battle-scarred Sara lost in the League, and he's a lot more mature and in touch with his emotions than Ray, whose impulsive and carefree vigitlantism is childlike in comparison (to say nothing of his smarminess).

Ollie and Laurel were never a good fit post-Island. She's too mature and self-confident to look up to him the way Felicity does, and she's too dull a personality for a fun-loving hotshot like Ollie to really mesh with. (Not that Ollie has actually been having much fun lately, but he couldn't have become The Arrow without a fundamentally daring and swashbuckling inner self.)

In short, Ollie-Felicity all the way... though I doubt they'll ever be together and happy before the show ends. But, who knows? Guess I'll just have to keep watching.

 

[Servo]

Ollie and Laurel were never a good fit post-Island. She's too mature and self-confident...

What? Mature and self-confident? When?

She's been a flake for half the show. And her attitude towards donning the Canary outfit and rushing out to fight criminals without any experience or training is akin to a petulant child striking out. She's been the most immature person on the show for a long time.

 

[Corran Horn]

Agreed - I mean, imagine the train wreck if they'd tried to shoehorn Ollie and Laurel together despite their lack of chemistry (no slight to either actor - you got it or you don't). Sarah likewise worked well with Oliver, but she pretty much HAD to die to advance Laurel in the grand scheme of things; not that this seems to have kept them from bringing her actor back either. I'm actually pleased enough with Laurel's development this season.

I don't think they counted on the Oliver/Felicity chemistry and the Oliver/Sarah chemistry to be so much stronger than the Oliver/Laurel (lack of) same.

 

[Christopher]

I don't think they counted on the Oliver/Felicity chemistry and the Oliver/Sarah chemistry to be so much stronger than the Oliver/Laurel (lack of) same.

Yup. I see people in Gotham threads assuming that the producers will somehow "have to" pair off Jim Gordon with Barbara Kean because she's his destined wife from the comics (which isn't actually true for various reasons I won't get into here), but that's not the way it works. The source material is just the starting point, not a straitjacket. It's like the series bible for an original show -- a source of potential ideas that can be picked up on if they prove useful or changed/ignored if a better idea comes along. A series has to strike its own course based on what best serves its own ratings and storytelling needs, and actor chemistry is unpredictable, so the relationships in a show may end up turning out very differently than they did in the source material.

 

[Gaith]

Ollie and Laurel were never a good fit post-Island. She's too mature and self-confident...

What? Mature and self-confident? When?

I was thinking of her first-season self there, when she had her sh*t together, a promising legal career, and a stable relationship with Tommy. She was mature and self-confident then, but too dull to be a serious match for Ollie.

She's been a flake for half the show. And her attitude towards donning the Canary outfit and rushing out to fight criminals without any experience or training is akin to a petulant child striking out. She's been the most immature person on the show for a long time.

These points are entirely valid, but Ollie wouldn't find recklessness inherently attractive, as it'd remind him of his past self he no longer likes.


Either way, the fundamentals of Ollie/Laurel rest pretty much entirely upon their pre-Island relationship, and are pretty much kaput in the present, whereas the fundamentals of Ollie/Felicity are rock-solid.

 

[Avalon]

So...I've missed some episodes, and some of the conversation between Felicity and Ray that took place this episode. Was there an explanation why Felicity asked Ray for his plane, but not for some of the nanobots she injected Ray with when he was about to die? Because it seems like those would have been pretty useful to try on Thea before going all the way to Nanda Parbat and knuckling under to Ra's...

 

[Christopher]

So...I've missed some episodes, and some of the conversation between Felicity and Ray that took place this episode. Was there an explanation why Felicity asked Ray for his plane, but not for some of the nanobots she injected Ray with when he was about to die? Because it seems like those would have been pretty useful to try on Thea before going all the way to Nanda Parbat and knuckling under to Ra's...

Ooh, good point, that's quite a plot hole. They didn't explain it at all. Maybe they used up Ray's supply of nanobots on his own cure?

I was more bothered by the way Ollie just rejected Malcolm's STAR Labs suggestion out of hand. Why not try that first? The only reason Ollie insisted the Pit was the only answer was because the story arc demanded it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Popping a blood clot is different from reversing death.

Oh no. Oh #####ing no.

Thea survived the blade of Ra's Al Gul.

Well.

Most of you probably picked up on that two weeks ago.

 

[Gaith]

^ That occurred to me, but maybe Rha's didn't mean to kill her, but did mean to kill Ollie, so the prophecy wouldn't apply to her. Then again, he did say his prayer-like thing about the dead coming back to get him, so...

 

[Guy Gardener]

"Survived his blade" could even mean that some one borrowed his disposable razor to shave.

Did Thea die? I think she was just hovering on the verge the whole time.

Ollie on the other hand, might have actually died, so he didn't survive, and then came back anyways.

Thea fits better than Oliver.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Thea's heart stopped briefly.

 

[Gaith]

And hey, speaking of Felicity, aren't we going to give her crap for just letting Malcolm take her home? I know that after a traumatic overseas jaunt to a hellish cult of death-defying maniacs, I'd much rather wake up on Felicity's couch.

... Well, sure, obviously, yeah, but I'd rather wake up on Diggle's couch, too. I bet he'd be all friendly and polite towards me, which'd be nifty, because he's awesome and then I'd feel cool by association. But Malcolm? That dude's uncool.

 

[Guy Gardener]

He's terrorist scum now... But Oliver has known Malcolm his entire life.

Ollie probably forgets the present now and then and just remembers wondering if Mr Merlin is going to notice that 14 year old versions of Oliver and Tommy have been stealing his cigars, and watering down his scotch.

An odd thought that I had, that is most probably wrong and will amount to nothing, but this is me sharing without conviction...

When Thea woke up with the wrong memories, I thought that what might have happened, is that the pit had reached over to Earth II, or some other alternate universe and grabbed another Thea Queen's soul from there to drive the meat of her body in this world.

Never mind, it was nothing, I just burped.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I think the problem with using either Ray's nanobots or Star Labs to save Thea would bring up an in-universe problem of having the technology to save anyone's life whenever. Why wouldn't these techniques be used on millions of people every day? Why not use them at least every episode? Of course, Ray's nanobots are going to have an unusual side-effect eventually, which will preclude their general usage...

Re Laurel/Sara, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the logic of killing off Sara, given the way they abandoned a Laurel/Ollie ship.

Laurel and Ollie had no chemistry, so abandon that ship for the series. Check. We don't have to stay with the comics.

Yet, kill Sara, who was relaxed and believable in the Canary costume, so that Laurel can be an awkward, unbelievable Black Canary in a bad wig because she got the name "Laurel" when the series began?

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Wow, great ep.

Main nitpick... that Laurel could keep up with the league's henchmen as long as she did in that final fight, despite showing us early on that a simple mugger could out maneuver her.

Truest line tonight was Nyssa's when she chided Laurel for keeping secrets when Laurel's already seen how that penchant broke up her relationship with her father.

Best moment for me was watching Thea put an arrow through his wrist and Ollie didn't even flinch.

Funniest moment for me... was Nyssa's face when her dad, the demon, betrothed her to the next demon.

 

[Icemizer]

Best ep for Arrow this season. Pretty tight from start to stop. Even Laurel came off as a better character in this one. Of course Det. Lance just seems to have fallen off the Earth. Liked the sonic scream as well.