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Arrow liveblogging, 3.23

-Hey, a thematic-type previously-on! (”this season on”!) along with a practical one. (’Two names is had. Here, just replace them both with this one!’)

-And, now we get to see the plane. Are they going to explain how they handle plane officialness, too? (No, they aren’t).

-Do people in fiction/philosophy and stuff just never get completely random dreams? (Speaking of timing...)

-...Why is Ra’s bringing Nyssa along? (Also, have Oliver and Nyssa been, um, alone yet? I’m assuming not)

-I still don’t understand how Ra’s has not realized Oliver is pretending (or at least that something’s up). How doesn’t *act* like someone who’s been psychologically subverted, he acts like someone who is holding himself. (I’m just continuing to go with my ‘wanting-it-to-be-true’ explanation, but that’s the ‘OK, I can think of an explanation, but actually it just doesn’t make sense’ kind. Though it does match how Ra’s is acting - he’s just really *into* this)

-Do they have a special word for ex-Ra’s’s?

-Oliver clearly did not try to kill you. You cannot ‘try’ to kill a chained room full of people with a deadly bioweapon. Either you kill them, or you weren’t trying.

-So, *trying to remember* - if Malcolm hadn’t started screaming about it, would the team have found out about his part in this?

-Points for how they’re doing Malcolm’s voice

-So what would you have done if he’d decided to kill you all some other way? Because I’m not sure how ‘Ra’s will kill us with the bioweapon’ is a thing you could even have foreseen, let alone been that sure of.

-Oh, shut up Malcolm.

-OK, so when did Oliver go to Central City? It clearly has to be before this, since Barry is here now. The only place I can figure it working at all is the middle of 3.21, when he comes to Starling City for Nyssa. But like, how did that work? How did he excuse himself from the League people? (Argle, timelines, I knew this was going to happen). (Also, how did Oliver arrange this with Barry, then? Through Malcolm? How?)

-OK, so Tatsu knew he was coming(?)

-Malcolm, you deserve offense

-”Conversation with Harrison Wells” - OK, then it *can’t* have been 3.21 because then he’d have had the conversation already. Um/Argle.

-How did Barry get here then? Just nearest airport?

-:( Tatsu

-Go past!Oliver

-...why did Oliver decide that this was the best place/time to reveal himself? Like I guess pros, best chance against Ra’s just overcoming him and going off and doing awful things, since they’re on a plane. But, he’s still outnumbered, especially since we know Ra’s curb stomps him just one on one. Or was the plan just to bring the whole plane down, and he only revealed himself because Ra’s turned on Nyssa? But that means he was willing to kill Nyssa by it to, and also in that case why didn’t he sabotage the plane to *explode* or something, or at least also sabotage the parachutes? (The Nyssa thing actually brings up an older thing - so, getting info from Malcolm and all, he should have been expecting getting sent after Nyssa. He could not have been expecting the marriage thing. Was he prepared to go through with killing her? And this is why this, because the original plan didn’t account for her being her and he has already been prepared to kill her?)

-Ra’s: ‘you know what’s a good idea? Jumping out of a plane without wearing the parachute yet and with one hand occupied’

-Have you considered throwing either yourself or a weapon at him while you and he are both just standing there?

-Ah, is this where the trailer bit came from (I’d thought it was a car)

-So he sabotaged the plane in a *survivable* way, too. Seriously, what was the plan here?

-”3052 killed in ___ chemical leak” I believe that says. Eep.

-So did they kill the General?

-Ah, I see

-OK, trying to work through sequence of plans:

Original plan, this all takes longer and he can ‘dismantle the League from within’ {added later: - have enough time to find out what the means of destruction of Starling will be and be in a good place to prevent it when it comes}

When it turned out that the bioweapon thing was happening, and so soon, new plan is to have Team Arrow come in and bring it down. (I have to assume that was actually intended to succeed, otherwise, it makes no sense to be bringing Team Arrow to Nanda Parbat.) But, also came with backup plan to have Barry rescue them (since that would have to have been arranged ahead of time, it must have already been in place).

Either since that failed or already as a backup, plan of sabotaging the plane {added later - and dying on it, it seemed}, with rescued!team as backup for *that*.

-OK, I need to gif that bit with Oliver picking himself up from the floor, pain-taking (is there a word for this thing? Why is there not argle) from Diggle’s punch, and simultaneously having to :manage focus/present: re Nyssa so she doesn’t shoot any of them, or something, because *likes*

-OK, so from the team’s perspective, Oliver came into Starling seeming in every way turned, including taking Lyla. Then Malcolm said he was pretending, but when they followed him on that they were captured, found out he was marrying Nyssa, he tried to give excuses to Diggle but then tried to kill them, and they have only Malcolm’s word (well, I guess Barry could be evidence too) that this was part of the plan. That probably is sufficient evidence (like, that they didn’t die, and Barry) that they’re not mostly thinking he’s with the League, but he’s been doing all this in secret from them, apparently talking to Malcolm but not them, so they’re not ready to accept either the calls he made (like Lyla) or the things pretending!him had no choice in (like Nyssa) - even if they would have accepted the no-choice thing, the upsetness that he went off without them like this is coming out through that.

-OK, so Oliver was thinking of Malcolm as an *info* source

-Yeah I’m entirely on Diggle’s side here

-If you bring down the plane, that will not destroy the virus! It might stay there for anyone to find in the wreckage, or worse it could get *out*, if it turns out that the case was not equipped to survive *plane crashes*. (Usually with a bioweapon I’d expect it would be, but given this one’s story, it’s perfectly possible that not).

-Oh, wow, so coming from the crash to here must have psychologically *sucked*. Like, maybe they’re not back yet, but if they are, then now he will have to face them, which is something he *wasn’t* prepared for. And of course that means putting up the walls and doing it that way, but underneath it must be quite a turmoil.

-So a thing I want to draw [my, I guess] attention to is that this is scrambling. Like, the plan was to have more time. Just the first next plan with Team Arrow was scrambling. When that failed, and failed so badly, it was all last moment and faced-with-very-bad-problem, and we didn’t get to really *see* that, because we were seeing pretending!Oliver who couldn’t let it show (as now we’re seeing walls!Oliver, especially since the danger is still out there), but that was still what this came out of. (So, I understand why it’s not the first thing on Team Arrow’s mind, but is anyone going to bring up the what-about-Nyssa?)

-Oh damn, so when he left them in that cell, screaming at him, he was expecting that to be the last time they saw each other

-Yeah, sorry really won’t cut it. (Though its good that even in walls mode, he says that) (It’s good that his walls mode at least has not-complete-jerk features).

-Oh that’s what that hammer gif was of. Cheerful.

-He didn’t really fail the city - this wasn’t a responsibility thing, it was an outside attack thing

-Well, it seems Oliver had a point *below* ‘kill and made demands’, too, that being ‘torture for hours’. That, he did not bring to Starling.

-Sidenote, why do they *have* redoubts in the city, is (was) it *that* important a city?

-*Thinking-through* - OK, so Ra’s, knowing, I guess, that Damien was going to be in Starling, timed the plan with Oliver for then.

-And this is where that Diggle gif was from! :)

-...how did he learn of Ra’s intention?

-Yeah, general useful note, when you go to target someone, you want to know what they look like

-...where did he get people? I guess he called in League-ers who were nearby?

-...why are you telling him this?

-Why is CW showing me a trailer for *the episode I am watching right now*

-”Keyhole hexagon satellite” (OK, it seems that might be a real thing, which is good, because it’s that or picking names out of a hat).

-’Strong enough’ has *literally* nothing to do with this. {Later - you know, it’s particularly, well, __ , to see this part after we have seen him die}. (This season should :give benefit: on rewatch).

-Though, if you were looking at not being strong enough to torture someone for hours as a shortcoming, I can see why the League appealed. (Btw, meanwhile we know he’s actually *carrying around the bioweapon*).

-Does it end badly with Ra’s coming after Thea or the League killing 50 people a day in Starling? Because there was a *reason* you did what you did, Oliver. (But, :feels: and well done).

-So usually when you think dreams after trauma, you think nightmares, flashbacks. But he’s having dreams of *happiness*. (That-is-not). *Ow*. :feels:

-So this helps my story for when he went to Nanda Parbat after Malcolm. Like - he comes back from being dead, with this dream, with fear that Ra’s will come after Thea, with memories of failing, of dying. He comes back and he does what he thinks he needs to do, but then there’s no place for him with Felicity, and it all just keeps being here, and so when he sees a chance to go, to play it again, to succeed or die - that is what he does.

-Which one was Oliver trying and which the Arrow? (I’m thinking probably meant in that order? Oliver for Thea, the Arrow as al-Sahim).

-That other someone, the integrated someone - that’s who he’s been with *them*. That’s what that comes out of. Not ‘Oliver Queen’ (which he was using as a mask as much as he was using the hood as one) (and which was destroyed last season, really), not the Arrow who’s a terror of the night (and was destroyed this season, we could say). But the person who puts on both those masks. Even as he doesn’t permit himself much else. (That’s an interesting thought to the beginning of the season. He’d lost the *other* outlet. Both were masks, but ‘Oliver Queen’ was the the mask that was at least a person.) But, so it’s that person who feels, it’s that person who loves Felicity. It’s that person who she’s telling him he can fight as. (Which I think he actually was, at the mountain. But he was still not-permitting, then. He told her he loved her only before going to die. He thought of her as he died but he hadn't had it in life.) (Note, I’m getting a lot out of them together, but I’m not a shipper like that, quite. But this is how they are doing this, so that is what I think of).

-This must feel like the being-given-something-you-never-expected-to-have, for Oliver. He had the dream, but he didn’t think it could be reality. He betrayed them even as they had their night. He left their last time seeing each other to be that cell. He planned to die. He went to face them, and they did not accept his excuses. And yet, now, here she is. No wonder tears.

-”Felicity-” and much too many things to want to say. “Thank you”. They come to that one then.

-If she found the locations by tracing the virus, it has to be already *there*. (Which includes Oliver’s location. So if he’s going, he’d better call a replacement)

-!!!!! Thea yesyesyesyesyes (...how did *she* find them?)

-...So actually that person who came to Oliver probably was *also* infected

-’Either you become Ra’s, or you do not survive my sword’

-No, when people might have been exposed to a bioweapon you *don’t* want them to run, then they *infect other people*

-OK, so I guess either Malcolm inoculated her before and somehow just now she found out about this, or he did it just now, which is also how she learned they were here and she could help

-So, has he been carrying that sword this whole time or had they brought it to Ray’s?

-Why are you choosing swords? You knew where he was, how about a sniper rifle?

-See, /they brought a sniper rifle

-”the chief says they’re responsible for what happening” -???

-How do you not have a clean shot?

-He could have killed him, right then.

-(Btw, this fight is really difficult to watch because the fighters are *really hard to tell apart*)

-And again.

-This time, Oliver grabs the sword!

-No, don’t protect him from the punishment of the grave, I think he plenty deserves it.

-I was trying to think, before, what could account for this (I remembered later that Oliver was training with Ra’s, so that accounts for some sword skill, but still). I was thinking maybe injured in getting from the plane. Well, maybe still that, and being actually shaken by Oliver going back on him, but I think it has to be that he *wanted* to lose this fight. Like he’s wanted to believe this whole time, he wants to believe that Oliver will take his place after all, and the only way he can have that image now is if he dies here.

-I guess the League must have bullet protection in their outfits?

-(He fell again but this time she caught him)

-I think he doesn’t realize right away it was her, pain-taking from the bullets and all - and then it is

-So what was the casually count? (and how many of them were deaths?)

-I want her to have been the one.

-Her outfit isn’t quite like Roy’s, is it?

-Took it, literally (with the city hunting him), and took it, the other way (because al-Sahim)

-Yeah, that Oliver wronged Diggle the most and is acting like that’s dealt with because *Felicity* seems to be OK with things (while apparently ignoring him in his speech, too) is clearly not OK

-Maybe he would prefer to ‘retire’ and spend time with his love too, Oliver. Maybe get his vote on this, instead of drafting him.

-Also, he needs to apologize to *Lyla*

-I wasn’t expecting the torture thing to be an arc-type, back at the beginning with it. That was well done.

-This kind of works as an instance of how you need to own your reasons, and not put them on other people. I’m sure his mother and sister would rather know he’s alive than not (though I’ll admit there are paths where they might have regretted it, later, on some level. And blamed themselves for that level, likely. As that goes). But it makes sense that *he’s* not up for that right now.

-Even as I am pissed about everything else, I continue to be glad they’re having Thea very clear against Malcolm

-”I know my actions {always haven’t} shown that” yeah just a bit

-I am really, really glad Oliver is saying not one thing against Thea going out there

-So was Malcolm going to be picking through the plane wreckage for it, in the previous plan?

-[This is the worst idea and what the hell even]

-Always? Really? Because there was that time you stranded him on an island. And then chained him to a ceiling. And then tried to kill him. And then drugged his sister to murder a love of his. And then sent him to a fight to the death.

-And your father, and your mother, and *the city*... And actually literally everything in this arc was your fault...

-’But I will put you in charge of a League of Assassins where you can live several hundred years’ Great unforgiveness there, Oliver.

-Well, I guess we can look forward to finding out about this other side

-Eep! (I was going to say, I hope no one was up there, then it occurred to me, wait, *he* was)

-Well, nice prophesy piece, I suppose

-So I did aim the reblogs at it already but since here we are - *hatehatehatehatehate* and I would forgive them it if I thought they would go forward with having her kill him but at this point I rather really doubt it so uch I don’t have the words uch *very* unpleased

-OK, so come to think of it, Malcolm killing Sara was also a really *stupid* way to do what he did. Because if he’d gotten what he wanted and Oliver had killed Ra’s - well at that point, Nyssa would be Ra’s, and there’s plenty of paths where she would then promptly come after him. (...ooh, I should use this in my fic!)

-Well at least they haven’t *forgotten* about the marriage

-Aw (that he thinks it’s strange. And that he is)

-OK, so it is Porsches. (From the tag search, I wasn’t clear if it was porches (as I thought at first) or Porsches).

-Mm, opening here after all, at the end! (So can I just say how much this feels like a series finale? Even more with this, but before too. And like, we know it isn’t, but *seriously*).

#arrow #arrow 3.23 #liveblogging #I write