Spoilers Arrow - Season 4

[Guy Gardener]

Nerds watch nerd TV?

That's what that means.

In Theory if Flash was superb it would cater to and attract multiple demographics or all demographics.

The CW in a tiny Boutique station where the indulgence in fantacrap is fiscally permissible, since they can make a profit on serieses that score a Nielsen humiliatingly close to zero.

Although, congratulations, never the less.

 

[dahj]

That was a fun episode, one of the better ones this season, even though it was mostly setup for stuff coming later.

It was good seeing Roy again(love that he flips the first time we see him), and Nyssa, and Tatsu, and Shado and I'm surprised they didn't throw anyone else in. They did throw another one of "Oliver taking responsibility for something he wasn't entirely responsible for" moments which would have been a bit more tedious if Diggle's "Guilt Arrow" comment didn't save it a bit.

Oliver running after Roy out of costume before he knew it was Roy seemed kinda out of place. What if it was some random criminal? He could have put on a balaclava, or at least a hoodie to partially cover his mayoral candidate face. It was good seeing Oliver on his own doing a bit of parkouring though.

The tech in the episode was just plain silly. A web-nuke that can kill the internet?
Also, I'm pretty sure with an invention like that the company wouldn't have gone under even if Felicity did knock over the table during the official presentation.

 

[cylkoth]

Oliver running after Roy out of costume before he knew it was Roy seemed kinda out of place. What if it was some random criminal? He could have put on a balaclava, or at least a hoodie to partially cover his mayoral candidate face. It was good seeing Oliver on his own doing a bit of parkouring though.

And Ollie never gave a thought after learning the eye lens was transmitting video back to shadowy puppetmaster, that his identity was comprimised after seeing it was Roy under the hoodie? Sure, he wasn't 'Arrowed' up, but whoever was monitoring Roy (thinking Roy was really GA), heard Oliver say Roy's name, and would have to assume Oliver (a man once accused of being the Vigilante) was involved with the Arrow's crusade.

 

[Christopher]

I like the idea of the episode -- Oliver doing all he could to find a better way than killing and avoid a war of assassin cults in his city. And it was nice to see the team working to protect civilians, always my favorite superhero beat and a reminder of what it is they're fighting for. But I had a couple of issues with the execution -- or maybe I should say the lack of execution. Okay, Oliver finding a way to beat Malcolm without killing him is fine, but why do movies and TV believe that cutting off someone's hand is a minor injury? You could bleed out in minutes from that without prompt treatment. But they just left Malcolm lying there on the ground as if he'd be fine.

And speaking of uncontrolled bleeding, is it really a good idea to disband the League of Assassins just like that? To unleash hundreds of fanatical trained killers on the world without any oversight or regulation? Wouldn't that be incredibly dangerous? I'm all for disbanding the League on principle, but it's something that should be done gradually, with some kind of retraining program to deprogram the fanatical, murderous cultists and prepare them for re-entry into normal society.

 

[sojourner]

Ugh, when did Arrow get replaced with this daytime soap opera? What happened to crime fighting? I almost turned this episode off half way through I was so bored.

 

[Commander Richard]

When Merlin got on his knees, surrendered and held his arms out, I knew Oliver would cut off his hand and take the ring. And yeah, the not bleeding out part was a bit of a distraction.

Now that the League is disbanded, Merlin can rejoin the cast again.

They never did deal with the Lazarus pit being neutralized did they. No point now I guess.

As for the crazed assassins on the loose, I figured that they have enough of a code so that they won't just run amok. For those who don't, I can see them getting work as hired goons or something.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Goons, sure but what about the master planner lieutenants?

Ras Al Rhul controlled the liveliness of every political and economic power in the world.

Now, what we have is 200 Damien Darkhs trying to save the world.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Overall, I thought it was one of the better episodes this season.

I'm a little disappointed Amandes made such a quick exit.

 

[Christopher]

As for the crazed assassins on the loose, I figured that they have enough of a code so that they won't just run amok. For those who don't, I can see them getting work as hired goons or something.

Which is still a big problem. It just means the other evil organizations of the world are going to get an influx of manpower. Heck, H.I.V.E. is probably already recruiting the cream of the League. Nyssa's decision may have just made Damien Darhk that much stronger.

Anyway, given what Malcolm said about what a huge, influential juggernaut the League is, I have a hard time believing it could be disbanded as the first act of a new leader without a lot of its members rejecting that decision. You'd probably get some influential loyalist going "No, that female pretender had no authority, the League will go on, and I will be the new Ra's," and a lot of the assassins would rally behind him, and the League would go on, making Nyssa's assassination its first official goal (with Team Arrow as their next targets, probably, given their role in her ascension). It just couldn't be as simple to end the League as the episode suggested.

 

[dahj]

So... is DCEU doing a film that involves the League

 

[Marc]

Anyway, given what Malcolm said about what a huge, influential juggernaut the League is, I have a hard time believing it could be disbanded as the first act of a new leader without a lot of its members rejecting that decision.

given their conditioning and training results in absolute obediance the Demon's head I doubt there would have been any dissent or objection. Nyssa wore the ring, her word was law.

If there wasn't blind obedience to the top dog, the league would have torn it's self apart everytime there was a change of leadership.

After all they didn't go off at each other when Ra's Al Gul made Oliver his successor who then turned the whole show over to Malcom Merlyn - who was a disgraced former member of the league and who had plotted to kill and succeed Ra's.

 

[Reverend]

So... is DCEU doing a film that involves the League

^With both Savage & Darhk in play I think they just exceeded their quota for fanatical shadow organisations run by immortal megalomaniacs.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Lazarus pit only adds 200 years.

Oh.

Y'know, the Pit is probably Vandal Savages septic tank connected to a toilet in a master bathroom in a house further up the mountain.

 

[CorporalClegg]

The Lazarus pit only adds 200 years.

Oh.

Y'know, the Pit is probably Vandal Savages septic tank connected to a toilet in a master bathroom in a house further up the mountain.

Or it use to be a regular ol' hot spring bath and Savage's favorite vacation spot. He totally seems like that guy.

 

[Christopher]

given their conditioning and training results in absolute obediance the Demon's head I doubt there would have been any dissent or objection. Nyssa wore the ring, her word was law.

But she destroyed the ring, so by that rationale, her word meant nothing. No large group of human beings is ever going to be absolutely uniform in its thinking, no matter how hard you try to condition its members. The human mind has an endless capacity for rationalization.

If there wasn't blind obedience to the top dog, the league would have torn it's self apart everytime there was a change of leadership.

Except there's never been a female leader before. I guarantee you, in any group that's traditionally been as hostile to the idea of female power as the League was shown to be, there are many who would refuse to accept the authority of a female leader as legitimate, no matter how legal or valid her claim. And when she herself dissolves her own authority as her first act, that just plays into their hands. How are they supposed to follow her when she's explicitly told them not to follow her any more? They'll probably just form their own league now. Or they'll find the nearest evil male authority figure who'll give them the structure they're accustomed to -- probably Damien Darhk.

After all they didn't go off at each other when Ra's Al Gul made Oliver his successor who then turned the whole show over to Malcom Merlyn - who was a disgraced former member of the league and who had plotted to kill and succeed Ra's.

I'm sure lots of past Ra's al Ghuls have plotted to kill their forebears. In a League of Assassins, that's basically just proving your qualifications. At least Malcolm preserved the institution itself and its traditions and goals. It's paradoxical to say that someone who's been trained all their lives to be fanatically dedicated to a cause would therefore easily accept being told that their entire purpose in life was null and void, just like that. Such rigid minds can't easily accept things that don't fit their programming.

 

[dahj]

Here's what the Malcolm/Nyssa fight would look like if Oliver hadn't stepped in:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBokFAmBswk

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Here's what the Malcolm/Nyssa fight would look like if Oliver hadn't stepped in:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBokFAmBswk

No wonder Malcom was so pissed at Oliver!

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Here's what the Malcolm/Nyssa fight would look like if Oliver hadn't stepped in:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBokFAmBswk

 

[Gaith]

So... Laurel totally used an orbiting starship's transporter to get to Nanda Parbat and back, right? Because she totally went over there to chat with Nyssa, then was back in the Arrow Cave practically the next scene. The writers have done this several times before, but this time it was particularly blatant, especially when they could easily and simply have established that Nyssa was temporarily chilling in a Canadian mountains League temple, not the Asia/global HQ itself.

And the League is gone now, is it? That might be mildly interesting to us audience members if we'd been given any indication of what they actually do up until now. They Assassin people? For money, or on principle? It's all been so damn vague.

Anyone else remember when characters had real-world issues on this show? Like alcoholism, or jobs? I remember that Laurel used to be a lawyer, and she recently claimed to still be a DA, yeah? How has she not been fired yet for skimping on her job while doing Team Arrow stuff?

I hate to say it, but I'm really starting to actively dislike the show. Everything's just variations on what we've seen before (what was the point of ghost-Shado telling flashback Ollie to let go of the darkness when we know damn well he'll do no such thing?!), The Flash is lots more fun and still fresh (I haven't even had time for Legends of Tomorrow), ARGUS was a whole lotta nuthin' even before Waller was killed and the League of Assassins was never much better, and the thought of Ollie's illegitimate son being endangered by Lt. Hawk just bores me to tears. (Also, Paul Blackthorne's been seriously underused.) Meanwhile, the Island flashbacks are even more pointless than last year's, which at least had the urban change of scenery to recommend them.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No one has made A League Of Their Own joke?

Amateurs.