Okay, so I've narrowed it down to 13. If that's too many, let me know and I'll narrow it down further. Bullet holes 1x03, syringe 1x12, family jewels 1x15, stares 1x18, inside 1x21, brain 1x22, 3..2..1 2x02, Smoakin', Violently 2x02, One 2x03, borrowed 2x04, shave 2x04, better 2x06, needles 2x07. I plan to purchase the one you uploaded as well. :-)
Posting for my own reference. I will tag you again when I’ve uploaded them all ^^
btw, if you don’t mind waiting a while, I’ll be doing a mini store discount for the whole month of September because birthday. Haha
I absolutely love your Smoakisms series. i was wondering if you'd ever offer these as postcards? I can't decide which one I like best for an individual product, but I'd love to purchase a collection of postcards. I'm sure you're very busy and uploading several of them is time consuming, but if you were willing, I'd definitely buy a bunch. :-)
Hey there. Thank you so much for the ask.
Redbubble does sell postcards actually. I just enabled them for the Season 1 roundup. As for individual ones, are there any in particular you are interested in getting? Currently in my shop, I only have the very first one uploaded (because I wanted to try getting the pillow)
I didn’t want to upload all because there are many individual artworks and definitely not all of them would be bought so I didn’t want to flood my store.
But feel free to tell me which ones you would be interested to get and I’ll definitely upload them to my store. It’s no hassle at all. Thank you so much for the ask. I glad you like my art ^^
Season 1 Felicitys as postcard: http://www.redbubble.com/people/cherchersketch/works/15413189-felicity-smoak-season-1?p=greeting-card&card_size=postcard
Love your Olicity meta! And something I really needed in the wake of Nanda Parbat. It’s so frustrating to see Felicity reduced to superhero cheerleader and it’s even worse to see her and Oliver not communicating. I get why she turned to Ray, but I also can’t help but feel that their relationship - friends or otherwise - would be better if they’d just TALK TO EACH OTHER. Ugh.
I do disagree on one point, though: I don’t believe that Oliver is “rescuing” Felicity from loving him. I don’t believe that Oliver made Felicity’s choice for her when he ended things. I believe he made a choice for himself that unfortunately affected Felicity. He was all kinds of wrong, but Oliver believed he couldn’t be both the Arrow and Oliver Queen and still fulfill his mission. He didn’t believe he could have a personal life and save the city. It wasn’t about denying Felicity the right to make a choice about her own life, it was about Oliver not believing in himself enough to see that the reason he’s a hero is due as much to the man as it is to the Arrow.
Anyway, sorry for the word vomit, but I’ve seen this around fandom a lot and I’ve never really understood the claim that Oliver was making a decision about Felicity’s safety for her, when it’s been demonstrated that Oliver doesn’t have an issue with Felicity’s choice to risk herself. Oliver’s identity crisis is leading him to make some boneheaded decisions, but I don’t believe that making Felicity’s choice for her was one of them.
Oh, and HI from a fellow Jeff/Annie shipper! It’s always nice to find other J/Aers around these parts. :-)
Another J/A shipper - yay!! Long may we live and prosper. #sixseasonsandamovie
And yes, fadedscene, if only Olicity would talk to one another, properly, then so much of this season could be avoided… but they’ve decided that they’re telling the Olicity love story this season, so, of course, like any romance, there has to be miscommunications, missteps and just general frustration all around. See any Jane Austen book for the basics on how to string out a romance until the final chapter. ;) I get that, which is why I get why they’re not getting to talk properly right now, as you obviously do too. It’s just frustrating for our poor fandom when they know Olicity are such good communicators to have that taken away. But, to their credit, the writers have set it up in a plausible way… doesn’t make it any less annoying, but it is justifiable.
As for the rescuing POV, your response made me really think about the concept (which I love, thinking, although it probably looks like I just am mainly consumed with thoughts of hedgehogs and ferrets doing this
which I’m not going to lie about… that does take up a considerable amount of brain space). However, I do like squeezing in a little character/plot analysis when I can pull myself away from ferret tubing mishaps.
I think our point of difference isn’t that much difference when I look at it… just coming at it from an Oliver vs Felicity POV. Yes, you’re spot on regarding Oliver - he doesn’t think Oliver can exist in conjunction with the Arrow. The Arrow doesn’t have a love life, he doesn’t get to have a wife and babies. He’s a crusader and all he’s allowed to do is crusade. It’s Oliver he sees as the one who can be with Felicity… but he can’t see how there can be an Oliver and an Arrow, so, what did he do in episode 1 of season 3? He chose the Arrow over Oliver, which meant there couldn’t be a Felicity and him in that way.
Now, to my way of thinking, this is where it gets very interesting. There is no real reason why Oliver couldn’t have chosen Oliver Queen over the Arrow in that moment. But he didn’t. He chose the Arrow. Interesting. If I could play doctor with Mr. Queen (please God, just one time, me and Oliver alone in the dark with a sofa and a stethoscope…
Ahem, back on point. If I could play doctor with Oliver Queen (pure thoughts, pure thoughts), I’d have to ask him why he was so quick to choose the Arrow over Oliver? Of course, the practical answer is that the season would have been over in one episode if the writers had gone down that route and Olicity’s love story would have been greatly truncated and had its epicness removed… so I guess we should all be thankful to the writers for choosing the Arrow over Oliver… even though we’ve had some of Felicity’s awesomeness reduced in the process…
Yeah, okay, couldn’t quite get the thank you out as I’m all about the girl power and Felicity being reduced to sidekick I sleep with before going off and doing my thing is a tough pill to swallow. I know this just makes her human, but damn it, I was comfortable with Felicity up on that pedestal I placed her on. Couldn’t they have showcased her humanity in another way?? But, I’m building a bridge, and getting over it… slowly. I just go back to my mantra… BIG PICTURE… BIG PICTURE… BIG PICTURE… PIG PICTURE… PIG NIPPLES…
I sense I should stop there and circle the wagons back round. Let me just take a second to reread where I was up to… okay, right, yes, my point, I was making one.
The question I would ask Oliver, is why choose the Arrow and not Oliver? My guess is that Oliver felt like the Arrow has something to offer, while Oliver doesn’t. Let’s think about that for a moment. Oliver is willing to fight for so many people, to the death, to give his all to protect them, to keep them safe, people he doesn’t even know, people he’ll never know… but he won’t fight for Oliver Queen.
I’m sorry, but I have to break out my Jim being shot down by Pam gif for this one…
No one does sad, puppy dog eyes better than Jim Krasinski… sob.
Oliver doesn’t think Oliver Queen is worth him fighting for… and even worse than that, he doesn’t want others fighting for Oliver either… and top of that list is his greatest champion, Felicity.
Oliver thinks more of a no name vigilante mirage who hides in the shadow then he does of the flesh and blood man. He thinks the Arrow has more to offer than Oliver Queen the brother, the son, the captain of industry, the friend, the lover… the man. He sees Oliver Queen as having failed miserably and catastrophically at all of those things. His parents died because of him, he’s had to keep himself back from his sister to keep his secrets, his company failed, he’s an unreliable friend and if he doesn’t get his lovers killed, he turns them crazy, into murderers, or addicts. Oliver does not see Oliver Queens worth… so he chose to pursue the Arrow in that moment on the steps with Felicity. That’s his POV. He’s triaging - he can’t see how both Oliver and the Arrow can survive, so he chooses to ‘save’ the Arrow and let Oliver Queen die.
Isn’t that just the saddest thing you’ve ever heard…
Don’t cry, hold it in, big girl panties…
Oliver rejected Oliver Queen… which had the knock on effect of him rejecting Felicity. So now, to follow through on his decision, it’s important to Oliver that he has to stop listening to Felicity’s advice, stop giving her a say in his life because she is going to fight for Oliver Queen and he can’t have that. Oliver Queen isn’t worth his time and energy, and he certainly isn’t worth Felicity’s. And this is where I think the concept of Oliver ‘rescuing’ Felicity comes in.
Oliver isn’t attempting to rescue Felicity from the life of a crusader, a fighter for the innocent. Like you said, fadedscene, he’s very comfortable with her being in that role, relies on her heavily, is confident of her abilities and acknowledges he couldn’t be the Arrow without her… but that’s not what he’s trying to rescue Felicity from by choosing the Arrow and shutting her out… he’s rescuing her from Oliver Queen - the screw up, the one who gets his loved ones killed, the one who breaks hearts, the murderer, the man who brings death and horror to all that he holds dear… that’s who Oliver is rescuing Felicity from, loving a man like that.
And that’s where I say Oliver’s dumbassery comes in. He’s trying to take control and push Felicity away from Oliver Queen because Oliver Queen is beneath her, she can do better, she has to do better than him… because he loves her. It’s a freakin’ tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions… which is kinda cool, in a ‘rip your heart out and stomp it into the ground’ sorta way. He’s trying to prove to her that loving Oliver Queen is a mistake. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing, but by shutting her out of his life, not letting her even have a say in the Arrow side of things, Oliver is subconsciously trying to force Felicity into confirming his worst fear… and then it happens.
In the alleyway, Felicity says the words that he’s been dreading all along…
"I don’t want to be a woman you love."
There it was, official confirmation of Oliver’s deepest fears from his spirit guide, from the one who always saw him clearly and never shied away from what she saw. It was confirmation of what he’d been trying to tell her from episode one and the only thing which could have been going on inside of Oliver Queen right then was this…
Oliver Queen wasn’t worth saving, the woman he loves, the woman who always fought for him just told him exactly that.
You know that perverse bent of human nature where we push and push until we have our own self-loathings confirmed? We ask if our butt looks big in this over and over again, just waiting for our nearest and dearest to hesitate in saying that’s ridiculous, or use the wrong tone, or just admit that yes, bright red and orange tartan hot pants does no ones ass any favours. It’s almost like a relief when our fears are confirmed. I’ve heard abuse victims talk about the relief when they got hit, because the waiting for the other shoe to drop, that was the unbearable part, the physical pain they could handle, the psychological horror of the waiting, that was the real torture.
And that’s how I see Oliver - he’s a victim of abuse on so many levels, in so many ways he’s been abused. Now that a lot of those abusers are dead or no longer in his life, Oliver has taken up their role and become the abuser of Oliver Queen himself… because Oliver Queen deserves it, he’s nothing, he’s trash, he’s nothing but pain and destruction to everything he touches… and Felicity has just confirmed that to him, the one person whose opinion he trusts more than anyone…
But here’s the kicker, and what I’m hoping and praying comes out in the back half of the season (and will be very surprised if it doesn’t, considering the set up)… Felicity is rejecting the Oliver Queen Oliver is presenting to the world… she is not rejecting the real one.
The REAL Oliver, the one she sees so clearly and truly, she is still completely and utterly in love with him, and wants nothing more than to be loved freely in return by that man. She’s dabbled in tofurkey Ray, but that is just so that she can have it confirmed that turkey Oliver, no how big of an idiot he’s being, well, he’s the one for her. The issue isn’t with Felicity loving and accepting turkey Oliver, it’s with Oliver loving turkey Oliver.
Oliver has made the decision to cast Oliver Queen out of his life because the guy doesn’t deserve a life, he hates him… and until Oliver starts to love Oliver Queen again, no one else will be able to. I think calling it a decision when Oliver chose the Arrow over Oliver Queen was kind of overstating the situation somewhat. In his mind, there was no decision to make. Oliver Queen wasn’t worth fighting for, so it had to be the Arrow. That wasn’t so much a decision as an extension of a truth he’d accepted about how he views Oliver Queen. His instinct was to ‘rescue’ Felicity from loving that guy, because deep down, Oliver knows that guy is unlovable and he didn’t want Felicity ever finding that out. With not giving Felicity a real chance to love Oliver Queen, she couldn’t really find out that horrible truth that he believes about himself. It’s pain management - don’t try so you can’t fail. But by pushing her away, he’s had his worst fears confirmed… or so it seems… at the moment… with quite a few more episodes to go… oh yeah, pendulum, baby, feel it swing.
And that is my extremely long winded way of saying I think we’re both right, fadedscene. lol
From Oliver’s POV, he can’t do anything but choose the Arrow, from Felicity’s POV, she knows he’s not choosing Oliver and why, she knows he’s attempting to rescue her from himself. And that’s why that scene in the alleyway is so important. It’s Felicity giving up and saying ‘fine, you’re right, that guy, he isn’t someone I want to be loved by, you win’. Felicity gave up because even death didn’t give Oliver an insight into the fact that Oliver Queen, NOT the Arrow, is worth fighting for. You can’t love someone who won’t even love themselves. That was the guy she rejected, not the real Oliver Queen.
We all know how maddening it is to try and love someone who is refusing to love themselves. The endless reassurances that go nowhere because they can’t believe you could ever think they were beautiful or smart or lovable. It’s exhausting and at some point you have to draw a line because it becomes like spitting into the ocean and you become as much as part of the problem as they are. Enabling, it’s a slippery slope and Felicity chose to get off that slope.
Which leaves us knee deep in tofurkey, but trust me peeps, tofurkey doesn’t keep well, it’s already starting to go an odd brown colour even as we speak. At some point, Oliver is going to want to fight for Oliver Queen, he’s going to have that ‘aha!’ moment when he realises that guy is worth it, and when he does… well, brace yourself for the Olicity showdown where we get our pay off, whenever that might be… because it’s gonna be…
fadedscene replied to your post: stilettoroyalty: I’m not one for lend...
I’m ready for the angst, but I want to see some joy, too. I don’t want their relationship to be all misery, all the time. I don’t want this pain to overshadow their deep friendship, if that makes sense. Let’s see more of why they love each other.
I do see joy at the end of this season and into S4. Since this is the first year we really had the chance to realize these two would be together, I expected all this angst to get to where we need to be, even pain. And that's okay with me but I do want to get to the honeymoon stage, believe me. I want flirting and joking at work like they did in S3-E1 once they become a couple.
fadedscene submitted: Love your latest essay. It’s so true that neither of them are ready to take that next step. And I’m okay with waiting and enjoying the slow burn, BUT…
It’s time to man up fandom. This is the hard part. This is the part where loving a couple gets tough. When their happiness is just beyond their fingertips and they just can’t get there. And the pain is going to get worse. Oliver will hurt Felicity more. Felicity will hurt Oliver more. We will get to a point where we cannot fathom the two of them every finding their way back to each other.
And that’s exactly when they will.
I don’t want to see angst for the sake of angst. That’s not good storytelling. I don’t want to see Oliver and Felicity on a seemingly endless carousel of hurting one another until some distant point in the future when they’re suddenly ready to be together. Because that’s not really love to me, either.
I want to see why they fell in love with one another in the first place, even if they aren’t together. I want to see their friendship and partnership. I want to see them be a source of strength and comfort and love for one another, even if they’re both aching to be more to one another.
And I get pain. I’m a Whedon survivor. I lived through Buffy and Angel. I get why Oliver felt that he couldn’t be with Felicity. I didn’t see him as the bad guy in that equation, just one who couldn’t see any other way. And I’ll understand why Felicity will feel too emotionally spent to even think about a relationship with Oliver, but I don’t need to hear her say “I don’t want to be a woman you love”, because that’s unnecessarily cruel. And I know that’s sans context, so it might not come across as bad as I’m thinking it will, but I still hate it. And I don’t understand why Felicity has to be horrible to Oliver when he’s just come back from the dead. That feels like they’re doing it for shock value, not good drama. And this show is better than that.
That's not what they are doing. This isn't angst for the sake of angst. Each of them, both Oliver & Felicity, have their own pain they are working through. Equally warranted & understandable.
Let's let 3x12 air before we condemn Felicity. One line a conversation does not make. Context is incredibly important.
I believe we will see them being friends & partners - we've seen it all season despite the angst. Oliver & Felicity have a way of cutting through the drama and focusing on what matters. It's what makes them partners first and foremost.
And can I say that...sometimes love is cruel. Sometimes we say the harshest and cruelest things to the people we love the most because they have either hurt us or frightened to our core. It's a reality of love. To ignore that piece of it is to ignore the complete picture. Love isn't perfect. The point is...you forgive and you find a way to keep loving.
fadedscene replied to your post “Devil's Backbone-Part 7-Flash vs. Arrow”
I love this series so much and I think this part is my favorite. It was sweet, sexy, and sad. I'm both looking forward to and dreading the last two chapters. I just don't want this amazing series to end.
Awesome! So glad you liked this one!
But I don't think it's going to end in two chapters, it'll just need to go on hiatus a bit until Oliver returns. And then I might need a few eps to get the feel of how that all works out, but my intention is to follow this until the end of the season. We'll have to see how it all goes down.
