spoiler: arrow is in the grave
Dear Arrow people...
How DARE you block me and so many others from your page without warning, merely for the occasional criticism of your show’s writing? I was never insulting to anyone, not even yourselves, and all my criticism was polite and came from a good place. Do you not think it better to listen to this parade of genuine grievances rather than whitewash them all away in order to create a ‘safe space’ for your shipper fans? The favouritism you’ve shown is horrible. You are deliberately giving the finger to at least half your fanbase while shepherding in the shippers with blankets and hot cocoa.
I never knew before what it was like to be so invested in a show and then be so utterly disappointed by it. I see no reason after your blocking and censorship tactics to be tactful anymore. Frankly, as writers, you are hacks and should be ashamed of yourselves. You are not only running this once great show into the ground, but by extension you are ruining much-loved comicbook characters, whose source material you have shown zero respect for, merely hijacking the name. Even the Barbara Gordon/Oracle subplot of Felicity shows you struggle to think of any original arcs of your own.
Yes as pointed out constantly, the show and comicbooks are different things entirely, but Jesus you have to take more than the damn name! It’s supposed to be an adaptation not an entirely new property! You’d have never gotten off the ground if not for the comics and its fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t even read any of them.
Newsflash, being a good showwriter doesn’t mean pandering to your audience. Shippers want one thing – wish fulfilment – and that’s not what a good writer does. You should be confident in your OWN ideas. You think these most ardent of shippers would know a strong plot, structure and characterisation if it hit them in the face? They’re your bread and butter now, but they’ll be fickle and if they don’t turn on you one day then they’ll get bored and leave you. As judged by many of their comments, a great deal of them are only watching for one thing only and couldn’t care less about the bigger picture, the villains, the fight scenes. Black Canary…
Some of them are like drug addicts, wanting their fix regardless of the quality they’re getting, and so you lazily put the bare minimum of effort in and cater to the lowest common denominator. You don’t realise you could roughly appease both sections of fans if only you remembered how to write characters, how to write a bold, innovative show that appealed to everyone while still respecting the source material.
You see, you could have even kept your Felicity/Oliver romance (I refuse to use that ridiculous celeb-culture shipper word) if you at least knew how to write it, and the rest of the show, better. You have made every. Single. Character. Unlikeable in some way. I see no reason to care about any of them after the hatchet job you’ve done (not least on the Mary Sue Felicity, who used to be liked by almost everyone and now is pure marmite to the fanbase). You have completely given up on arcs for the most important characters – like Black Canary – because of your lazy desire to pander to shippers and tack on even more, often pointless, characters. Your flashbacks are cheap, pitiful, boring and meaningless. I have never seen a more inconsequential and unknowable Big Bad then Darkh – what is his plan? Does anyone know?! Or care? Maybe if you’d put as much care into writing villain arcs as forced soap drama…
Your choreography has deteriorated noticeably, you overstuff your screen with characters and sidekicks who you won’t admit are sidekicks, relegating Oliver – the titular character, in case you forgot - to a supporting part in his own show, and made him significantly weaker in order to justify the other characters. Then there was that boss fight with Malcolm, which was the weakest, most confusing and most disappointing boss battle I’ve ever seen in my film, to the point many people thought it was set up. I’ve never seen a fight so poorly handled and cut.
And yes I’ve stopped watching, and so have many others. You may still have the numbers of shippers, but you’ve lost a lot of respect, and will continue to do so despite your efforts at damage control. Let’s not even get started on that death, which is really gonna bite you in the ass. Shows like The Flash and even moreso Daredevil have really shown you up. Damn, I wish people like me would be given a chance at writing the show instead of pandering hacks.
TL;DR: chief S3-4 Arrow writers, you have failed this show.
