You yourself brought up mirakuru. Between that and the gradual introduction of other powers, there's all sort of possible ways for her to eventually become super within the confines of the show's comic-book logic. This is a show that has brought a character back from the freaking dead... and you're arguing that a drunk shaping up and eventually becoming a badass is a bridge too far?
You, yourself, didn't bring up the mirakuru. You, yourself, without the benefit of mirakuru, equated Sarah with Laurel. You, yourself, argued that it was reasonable to believe that Laurel could reach a par with Sarah within a reasonable timeframe, and that "Laurel haters" would regret their words. So here is the thing: If Laurel gets zapped with a particle accelerator and is exposed to various chemicals, and gets experimented upon with 75 year old serums, and spends years enduring depravation to hone her will to survive, and manages to purge herself of her addictions, and then receives years of constant, dedicated training in stealth and hand to hand combat, then I will admit that her character development was believable. At the moment I don't agree that you have made a case that Laurel as Black Canary is reasonable. Is it possible that Thea will be accepted into the Olympic teams for Judo, Archery, Gymnastics, and Track and Field within the next five years of the series? Do you argue that this is somehow not just possible, but believable? If you want to argue that, then you still have to argue that Laurel is in equal shape as Thea right now, and doesn't have extra hurdles to jump. Not just with her physical abilities, but with her personality and emotional problems. The writers have already set the bar with other characters. I've mentioned Diggle. Let's also look at Roy.... Roy was initially depicted as tough, street wise, athletic, and motivated. He didn't have anything to recover from. He was already BETTER than Ollie was, first year on the island. Even so, the writers understood that to make Roy believable as a superhero, they had bump him up. If they didn't then he was about half of what Ollie was, if that. How do you make Laurel believable?
Give her a gun. I still don't understand how Ollie convinced Huntress that crossbows were better than guns.
Uh... no, I didn't. And I'm posting in an Arrow thread, so established fictional cheats like mirakuru are fair game without my needing to explicitly invoke them. Mirakuru, plus an infusion of Sara's katra, including all her years of training. Boom, there's Laurel as Black Canary in two simple, fast, and steps. Easy when you know how, really. I'm not saying the writers should indeed make it that fast and easy. I'm just saying it can be done.
It all comes down to her name. People want her to become the Black Canary because her name is Dinah Lance. I don't really get this since the name still doesn't agree with any version of the comic book version Black Canary (I think). The name Lance was originally her husband's name and later, when it was her father's name, her mother was the original Black Canary. So the argument about being true to the comics only holds if we discover that Laurel and Sarah's mother had once been the Black Canary herself. Feel free to poke holes in that because my memory could be wrong and I didn't feel like looking it up.
Well, we haven't seen "katra" used in this franchise. So even according to this recipe, Laurel as BC would be unprecedented.
Of course their mother was never the first Black Canary. So really who is going to be Black Canary is up in the air. It could be her or the sister. The sister's distance to becoming Black Canary is closer. She just has to get rid of the mask, add fishnets and add Black in front of her codename.
(Bad guy to Jerry..) "What happened to you on that island?" (Jerry to Bad Guy...) "Funny you ask that. This guy was on an island and he says to this other guy..."
1. Alex Kingston is super hot, and could totally pull Oliver. 2. Unlike all the other contenders, her name is Dinah Lance.
New Arrow tonight: Well, Laurel is being a b*tch and will have to grow up. Looking forward to Clock King, this should be a great villain. Poor Felicity, but really, if she wants it that bad, she needs to put it out there.
Is Felicity in love with Oliver? It doesn't seem that she is, except for all the people telling her that she is, or telling Ollie that she is.