Mostly Arrow, but also Community, Doctor Who, Farscape, Game of Thrones, Jane The Virgin, New Girl, Orphan Black, Parks and Recreation, The Vampire Diaries, The X-Files, and whatever else I'm shamefully obsessed with.
That ending was so bleak. I just woke up and was like, whoa. There was no hope for anyone. I never expected that dark and empty of an ending for the show.
I don’t know why JRoth chose to go that way. I didn’t ever think we’d get a happy ending per se, but a meaningful one? An emotional one? A relevant one? Clarke was so...passive. She failed and then just went and gave up. I don’t mind that Raven and Octavia had big heroic moments, but Clarke was the main heroine and she stopped trying. It would have been more fitting if she had to make the choice to sacrifice herself so that everyone else could transcend. That would have made sense for her character.
Maybe.
Except the whole transcendence thing was so stupid and out of nowhere that maybe there was no possible way to have a good ending. Some cracks just can’t be papered over.
Ugh. I’m just gonna try to forget everything about the show except for Memori.
Well that was pretty terrible. I mean, it wasn’t so bad I was raging at the tv, but it was so stupid and rushed (although I really wouldn’t have wanted to watch more of it) that it wasn’t enjoyable. Lexa was there but she wasn’t Lexa. She was the great teacher, I guess? But it was Lexa that urged Clarke to not care and to be tribal/a killer. And her lessons led to Clarke not being able to transcend, so it was a weird figure to be happy to see based on the lesson from the transcended being. But ok, it was nice to see ADC/kind of see Lexa again after so long. At least the episode had that going for it.
The core gang coming back to the beach and never being able to procreate and then having a permanent death was also strange. What was the moral of this story? That the only way these characters could ever live peacefully was if they were in isolation? That they could never learn and neither can mankind?
Is tribalism the aspiration, then? Commit genocide for your people otherwise you might end up alone on a planet as cosmic punishment? But even if your people come back you don’t get to have your greatest love (I guess Madi was like peace out, you were ready to straight up murder me a minute ago. Can’t say I don’t get why she might have been pissed).
I’m not even gonna start on how much the ending made me even more irritated about the way they killed off Bellamy (Clarke’s greatest failure, I assume). It actually seems even worse now.
Were we supposed to be happy that, while Clarke was judged a bad guy by the universe, her friends chose to come back and not abandon her (possibly because they were complicit in her crimes? Or equally guilty? Like how does Octavia ascend and not Clarke? Anyone???)? And were we wrong for rooting for Clarke all this time? If she is bad and not worthy of salvation, so to speak, then what the fuck has the audience been doing following her story for the last 7 seasons? Like her character journey ended up as bad as Bellamy’s. Totally pointless. Guess we’re all fools for loving the lead characters.
I suppose I’m happy that she’s not alone, but it sucks that no one really got a happy ending. Actually, it was pretty dark. We know it’s not easy to survive on the Earth. I’m just saying, someone eventually will be the last survivor. One of them is gonna end up all alone.
In truth it’s not worth putting more thought into the ending than JRoth and the writing team did. This last season was just a complete waste of time and has tarnished the rest of the series. I’ll certainly never watch another JRoth show, but much love to almost all the characters and to the actors. There wasn’t much they could do to save this trash, but man they tried.
I’m not a great media analyst and I’m not a huge bellarker but the contrast of Bellamy’s confrontation with Echo and Raven vs his confrontation with Clarke and Octavia was pretty striking.
If we’re to believe that everyone who went to space became family, then in the first scene you have Bellamy with a version of his sister and his non platonic partner (I still can’t call Echo his love interest. There was never enough given to that relationship to take them seriously and if the writers had really wanted Bellamy to have a relationship that gave the one he has with Clarke a run for its money, they would have paired him up with Raven in space). While Bellamy has spent years with these two, this scene feels like they’re strangers to him (although TT did a great job) and Bellamy questions nothing after facing them. They recoil from who he is. He doesn’t take the time to tell them what he experienced and he doesn’t ask them to believe in him. He knows they won’t. They haven’t sacrificed for each other the way he would need them to in order to take that leap of faith.
That being said, Echo has sacrificed quite a bit for Bellamy. She wants him to believe in her. She pleads with him the way he will shortly plead with Clarke. She is the emotional one in the scene while Bellamy is all logic. She tells him what she did to get him back/avenge him and then he tells her that he is still the man she’s in love with. She doesn’t ask him to explain how that could be true. He does not offer her a description as to who she is to him. They talk at each other but not to each other. When he walks away he doesn’t falter.
Now obviously, any scene with Octavia is going to be more impactful than a scene with him and Raven, it’s not a fair comparison really. But when he walks into that room, Clarke and Octavia are a bonded pair. Here is his real family, more whole than he’s seen them since, well, ever. And while they’ve been apart (for Clarke she only really just got him back, Octavia hasn’t seen him in 10 years) they treat him like family. Clarke immediately gives him room to explain- she’s been trying to figure out what his rationale was. She is bitter, but has faith in him. He pleads with them- the heart comes out, which goes against the very thing he’s succumbed to. He needs them to believe in him, to understand. He puts it all out there- tells them his embarrassing truth and then begs Clarke to do for him what he did for her. He asks her to believe and she doesn’t deny him even after he earnestly tells her he touched a warm light that will save humanity after a final war. She only denies Cadogan. These two have sacrificed for each other over and over again and there’s no breaking that connection. Glowing figures and transcendence are child’s play for them at this point. Clarke is willing to take that journey- what she can’t let him forget is that the humans who’ve accessed the wonders they’ve seen have almost always been corrupted. That’s what she needs him to see before she can help him.
When Clarke says he’s her best friend and she thought he was dead? That was better than an I love you or a kiss or anything else they could have put there. The simplicity and lack of drama to it paired with the unraveling he has when she tells him she doesn’t recognize him. I mean, come on. That’s the whole shebang right there.
Also, we only see them torture Clarke because that’s the most important relationship for him. If the writers thought Echo being tortured would be a believable way of breaking Cadogan’s hold, she’d have been in that chair.
Lol, I like bellarke well enough, but I can’t believe I’m writing words on this right now. That’s how obvious this was. If they were trying to establish that these two are platonic, well, all I can say is that they’ve got me putting clown makeup on at this point.
Anyway. Someone else will surely say this better than I have, but I just thought the writers went out of their way to draw this contrast. I can’t believe we’ve got to wait 3 weeks for the next one.
Oh man. That scene was gutting. I don’t have a clue where all of this is heading, but both Bellamy and Clarke have to be right if this is going to make any kind of sense/have a satisfying conclusion. Bellamy’s vision and journey, while misinterpreted or corrupted by Cadogan, must have validity.
Clarke acknowledges they’ve seen enough to know anything is possible. She doesn’t say that she doesn’t believe in Bellamy when he asks her to. She says she won’t help Cadogan. That decision also has to be correct. We all know he’s a villain and it can’t be a coincidence that Bellamy also seems to be less enthralled with him this week. Clarke’s refusal due to Cadogan’s involvement must be as valid as Bellamy’s belief in what he experienced.
So, once Cadogan is dead and his war is gone (I’m assuming that’s coming), once achieving transcendence is a test Bellamy believes he has to take, and once it’s Bellamy asking for the flame (if it’s needed), I think Clarke will hand it over. Also that they’ll take the test together. Head and heart and all that.
Or it’s entirely possible I’m full of it and they’ll go down in flames and Jordan and/or Hope will take the test.
Also, Gaia. Is she with Orlando, maybe? I remember not quite believing he was dead, but now I can’t remember if it was actually confirmed. It’s really making me nuts that we don’t have any answers for her.
SPOILERS: Basically an AU ending for season 3. Takes place post 3x20, The Fallen, and then picks and chooses storylines from the remainder of the season.
DISCLAIMER: Arrow belongs to DC Comics. Title from Euripides.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: While doing a little work on another story, I found this drabble I'd written in 2015 sitting on my hard drive. It's kind of a silly alternate ending for Season 3 and I'm not sure it's post-worthy, but realityisoverrated, my incredibly talented sister, read it and said I should, so here we are.
The familiar piece of dialogue towards the end is blatantly stolen from 3x23, My Name Is Oliver Queen.
LINK:
AO3
**
Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.
~Euripides, Hypsipyle
**
Felicity's apartment is empty. Which is a good thing because it should be. Having just come back from Nandar Parbat it would have been bad if someone had been inside when she'd gotten home. Very bad, actually. But still. The silence of her apartment seems loud.
Ray had stayed over the night before their lives had blown up, and his water glass is still sitting on the nightstand in her bedroom, along with his tablet. He'd been struggling with some coding before they'd fallen asleep, but she sees the solution to the problem as soon as her eyes run over it. She picks up the phone to explain what the fix is, but the pang of guilt twisting her heart tells her not to call. He's a smart guy. Surely, he's solved it by now.
She walks through the rooms of her house aimlessly. It's odd to feel the absence of someone who hadn't ever been there before, but flashes of a life she never had keep popping into her head. She can see Oliver there. See him fitting so perfectly into her space. He should be there.
She shakes off the idea because should be doesn't mean he ever will be. They hadn't said goodbye, but it was still what they'd done. The odds of escape had been overwhelming, but it had been his choice to stay in Nandar Parbat. The plane had been less than a mile away- so close and yet so far. It's the story of their relationship in a nutshell.
There's not enough ice cream in the world to process this. But there's a bottle of tequila with a few shots left in it and she drinks it fast, standing over the kitchen sink, letting the burn rush through her and then fade before she finally lets the tears fall.
She'd had everything. For one fleeting moment they'd belonged to each other.
And now she was back to square one.
**
He'd told her to live, so that's what she decides to do, starting with rebuilding the lair. She goes back to the Foundry and heads down the stairs with nervous steps. There's nothing really left to salvage since Captain Lance had seized everything they needed to function as Team Arrow. Her chair rests on its side on the ground so she rights it and then sits, spinning around and around while she thinks. They could always break into the SCPD warehouse and steal everything back. Her feet lift off the floor and she smiles softly, letting the momentum carry her in slow circles. She wonders what Oliver is doing. Maybe, a half a world away, he's dreaming about her.
The chair slows and eventually stops. Sitting directly in her line of sight is the stupid plant she'd bought in a moment of whimsy the previous September. She'd been at a farmer's market picking up the last of the sweet summer corn when she'd seen it. Something had told her to buy it, had told her that Oliver needed a little more life down there in the darkness. She'd been happy that morning, excited about working with him to get back QC. She'd had no idea how thoroughly the rug was about to be ripped out from under them.
She rises from the chair and picks up the fern, a few fronds falling off as it moves through the air. The soil is loose around the base and she pats it down until the roots are covered. It's a miracle it's survived- god only knows the last time someone watered it.
It feels wrong to take it out of the Foundry, but it feels more wrong to leave it. In the end, she thinks Oliver won't mind if it comes to live at her house for a while.
She tucks it under her arm and climbs up the stairs, pausing in the empty doorframe. Her free hand grips the splintered wood. "We're never coming back here," she whispers into the silent air. "Never."
She doesn't look back.
**
Thea is a handful. She doesn't understand why they're not moving heaven and earth to get her brother back. In all honesty, Felicity doesn't either. Diggle had said something about respecting choices and figuring out a long-term plan and Malcolm had been firm about not making a move until they had a strategy in place. She's not sure when he suddenly got a vote in their decision-making process, but somehow he has and it doesn't sit right. Thea doesn't seem to like it either.
It's odd to finally spend time with her. Thea has always been a vague blur in Felicity's mind, an interesting puzzle whose pieces never quite lined up. She owned two Birkin bags, but was in love with Roy. It was all kinds of confusing. Since they'd returned from Nandar Parbat, she and Thea had been talking every day, the two of them forming a tentative bond over how much they missed Oliver. Now that she's starting to see the measure of the girl, Felicity finds that she likes her.
Thea is still feeling her out.
"You want to do what Oliver asked, but what he asked is ridiculous."
"I know."
"My brother is kind of an idiot."
Her first impulse is to defend him, but Thea's not exactly wrong. "Based on what I've seen, that kind of goes hand in hand with being a hero."
The brunette rolls her eyes, dismissing Felicity as she walks to the fridge in the loft. "So, you're what? Some sycophant who does whatever he tells you? Oliver needs a girl with some fight in her."
Felicity tries not to let the words sting. Thea doesn't really know her. Not yet.
Malcolm Merlyn stands at the island in the kitchen humming while he chops up vegetables for their dinner. He looks completely at home and it's the creepiest thing Felicity's ever seen. Oliver wouldn't want him there. She doesn't either, but she can't exactly run him out of town with a pitchfork and an angry mob. At least not yet.
"I think Miss Smoak has more than enough fight in her to keep Oliver on his toes, Thea." He smiles at Felicity and oh man does she need to retract her previous statement. A smile being sent her way by Malcolm Merlyn is absolutely the creepiest thing she's ever seen. She'll be having nightmares for months.
She opens her mouth to argue his point because agreeing with a mass murderer is something she'll be comfortable doing never, but it would be counterproductive to do so in this case. "We can't move until we're ready. There's nowhere to run, Thea. Ra's wants his heir and Oliver's the only one that fits the bill."
Thea slams her hand against the stainless-steel door of the fridge, her eyes flashing hot. "That's not true."
It's possible that Thea's anger is a side effect of being resurrected via the world's worst in-depth spa treatment, but it's also possible that Felicity's reading into these outbursts. Maybe there's nothing more there than a sister missing her brother. "It is true, Thea. I wish that it wasn't. He'll find Oliver, or he'll come after-"
"That's not what I mean."
Malcolm Merlyn stops chopping. "Thea," he warns.
Felicity stands, feeling like something is about to change and hope blooms in her chest. "Tell me."
"Oliver isn't the only one that can fulfill the prophecy. I survived Ra's' blade too."
A joke about a souvenir t-shirt being the only thing they'd gotten for their troubles flits through Felicity's mind and she almost laughs. Not from the joke- that was terrible, it's just that this revelation is the opposite of helpful. Thea being the heir would be an even bigger nightmare. Oliver would burn down the world to stop it from happening.
Felicity shakes her head. "But you're not a man. If Ra's won't accept his own daughter as the heir, I'm pretty sure he won't accept you."
Malcolm changes his grip on the knife and for a moment Felicity feels threatened as if he's deciding whether or not he needs to kill her because of what she's just said. It's weird because it's not like Felicity is about to go telling anyone that Thea also fulfills the prophecy. "And technically, you did die from his blade. Totally flatlined. It was modern science that saved you. That really doesn't mesh with ancient prophecies."
"Yeah, well ancient prophecies are bullshit," Thea says.
"Ain't that the truth," Felicity says softly. Merlyn eyes her for a long moment and Felicity fights the urge to shiver. He finally goes back to chopping, but goosebumps continue to break out over her skin as she rises and slides on her coat.
Thea crosses to her quickly. "Please stay." There's desperation in her eyes, as if she knows that Malcolm is more devil than dad. "There's enough for all three of us and you said you'd tell me about your trips to Lian Yu."
Thea tilts her head and the movement is so like Oliver that Felicity's breath catches. "Sure."
Thea hugs her tightly. "Thank you," she whispers and that isn't like Oliver at all.
**
The new lair Felicity sets them up in is an abandoned subway tunnel that's blocked off on one side by rubble. Something feels right about starting over in the location that was central to the mission that had brought them all together in the first place. It's dark and damp and dirty as hell, but it also has high enough ceilings for a salmon ladder. She's not embarrassed to admit it's the first thing she thought of.
She redirects power from the buildings above them, and then builds a new system with computers generously provided by Palmer Technologies. And by generously provided she means stolen, but it's not like Ray would have said no if she'd asked him. It's nowhere near as flashy as the basement of Verdant, but it makes getting around the city easier and the first night Laurel and Thea start sparring on the mats behind her, Felicity smiles. If she closes her eyes, it almost feels like home.
**
Oliver returns on a Tuesday and whatever joyful reunion she'd imagined in her own mind is wiped away by the cold, calculating look in his eyes as he shoots a second arrow into Nyssa. He's definitely been brainwashed. Felicity should have learned by now not to get her hopes up.
She's never been afraid of him, though. Not once. Not back in the beginning when he was a killer and not ten minutes ago when he'd used her as a shield to escape the threat of Digg's weapon. She won't be afraid now. As soon as she fears him it's over.
He lifts his bow at Laurel and Felicity doesn't hesitate as she steps between them, her arms stretched out as if she can create a safe space on each side. "Oliver. Stop!"
Nyssa is badly wounded, the arrows through her thigh and shoulder dripping with blood. The metallic smell of it hangs in the air and good god, when had the scent become more familiar than alarming?
Laurel picks up on Felicity's cue and decides to ignore Oliver as she kneels down beside Nyssa. Her hands fumble a little as she unzips her jacket but her voice is strong as she orders the other woman to stay still. She peels away the leather and then whips off her shirt as Diggle cautiously makes his way to them, his gun in his hand but not aimed at anyone. Laurel uses her top to make a tourniquet around Nyssa's upper thigh and Diggle rests the gun on the ground before cutting off the tip of the arrow.
Nyssa curses at Oliver as Diggle lifts her. At least Felicity assumes that's what she's doing. It's in Arabic, but the sentiment seems clear enough.
When Felicity turns to fully face him she finds that Oliver hasn't moved. His bow is still taut, the arrow ready to loose and she knows the muscles in his arm must be burning. "Oliver. Put down your bow."
She can hear the crunch of gravel behind her as Diggle starts walking away and then she hears the zip of Laurel's jacket. She doesn't look back at either of them. Laurel walks towards her and Felicity shakes her head at the sound of the approaching footsteps. "Laurel, go with Digg."
"I'm not leaving you with him."
Oliver raises the bow a fraction of an inch, and Felicity knows he's calculating a way to shoot around her. It's comforting in a very strange way. He's still in there.
She turns away from him and looks at Laurel. "I'm fine. You should go."
Laurel's eyes dart back and forth between them before she nods. "Come back to us, Ollie. We need you." She spins on her heel, running off before he can respond.
They're alone on the street now, just the two of them. And it should feel scary, but it mostly feels amazing. He's alive and he's there and she can still feel the ghost of his hands on her body.
He lowers the bow. "You shouldn't have interfered."
"Surprisingly, all evidence points to the contrary. What are you doing?"
Oliver's head drops and the contrast between the defeated pose and the menacing uniform is a little bit funny. His head comes back up and she can see the coldness sliding back into place. "She still calls herself the heir. I have to kill her."
"There are a lot of things you might think you have to do, but I can tell you right now that is not one of them."
He shakes his head and it's unnerving not to be able to see the lower half of his face. At least with the mask, she could read him. Now it's all darkness.
His hand flexes tightly around the bow, the leather of his glove creaking loudly. "Next time I won't hesitate. Not even for you."
"I don't believe that for one second."
Instead of arguing he stalks off. She can't physically stop him or fight him or get him to do what she wants, but she does have a hold on him. It's the same hold he has on her and she's not afraid to use it. "I love you, Oliver."
He stops in his tracks and then turns back to face her. "Oliver Queen is dead. My name is Al Sah-him."
"You can call yourself Barney the Dinosaur for all I care. I love you. And I'm not giving up."
Oliver's head cocks to the side and somehow she knows that he's fighting a smile behind that mask. At that moment she decides- she's going to win. "You'll have to live with your actions, so don't kill anyone else if you can help it. I'll see you soon. I promise."
He walks away without comment. The moon is large and bright in the sky above and a few pigeons fly off the ledge of a building as he goes. Felicity waits until the night is still before heading in the opposite direction.
**
"Sara lives."
Felicity's head snaps up from her computer as a recently healed Nyssa seems to magically appear in the lair. It would be super cool if it also weren't super annoying. She needs Cisco to make them some sort of perimet- "Wait. What?"
"Ta-er al-Safar is alive."
"That's what I thought you said, but then I thought you couldn't have said that because Sara is dead."
"No."
It's too much to hope for. "Nyssa," she says gently. "This wasn't like the other times when Oliver just thought she was dead. I saw her. I washed the blood out of her hair with my own hands."
Nyssa stares at her for a long moment, taking in this information. Her eyes soften before she speaks. "My father has gifted me her life."
Felicity doesn't need to ask how. The world seems to spin and she slumps back heavily in her chair, which actually does start to spin. Not that the world isn't spinning too, because it is, all the time, but she can't feel that. The movement of the chair, however, is too much. She grabs the edge of her desk because if she doesn't she's going to vomit and she can't embarrass herself like that in front of Nyssa. "Why?"
"I will give him the thing he wants most in the world."
Felicity had thought that was Oliver. What more could Ra's want? "And what exactly is that?"
"The price does not matter."
Felicity nods, because what else can she do? Sara is alive. Their Sara. She picks up her phone and calls Laurel.
**
It takes almost a day to travel to Nandar Parbat, but this time when Nyssa, Diggle, Laurel, and Felicity walk up to the fortress, there isn't a throng of people waiting for them to arrive. The place feels eerily empty.
Malcolm and Thea are back on the plane, waiting to hear if they can be useful and it's odd to feel comforted by the fact that they're there. Thea hadn't wanted to stay behind and so she had come as a way to ensure Malcolm wouldn't betray them at the first opportunity. Felicity just hopes the idea won't come back to bite her in the ass. While they're apart, Malcolm could always steal Thea away to somewhere they can't find her and Felicity's pretty sure Oliver won't love her all the more if this plan goes awry.
Nyssa blends in with the dark of the landscape and Felicity takes a deep breath, the air cold in her lungs as the four of them approach the imposing doors of the fortress. She hasn't seen Oliver in weeks and she can't help the nervous excitement that fills her at the idea of him being close by. She'd shaved her legs before leaving Starling City. It was a ridiculous thing to have done, but she had to have hope. Last time she'd been there she'd been sad not to have on cuter underwear. You never knew what could happen.
Dig seems calm enough when they come to a stop, but Laurel is bristling with anxiety, her hands clenching and unclenching as she waits for something to happen. The moment Nyssa steps forward the doors creak open. It feels to Felicity as if she willed them to.
When they pass through the threshold Oliver is waiting and it takes all her strength not to run to him. His hood is pulled back and, with his now close-cropped hair and minimal stubble, he looks thinner. His eyes scan over her without emotion but he almost blanches when he sees Laurel. He turns to face Nyssa. "You shouldn't have brought them. I told you to wait."
"I am no servant awaiting your orders."
"But you will be my wife."
"I fail to understand what one has to do with the other," Nyssa snaps.
"I'm sorry, what?" Laurel asks and Felicity couldn't be more grateful to have her there because her lungs have stopped working and that is an excellent question.
Nyssa turns and faces them, her lips twisting into a smirk. "In exchange for Ta-er al-Safar's life, I have agreed to marry Al Sah-Him."
Diggle coughs lightly and Felicity almost smacks him. "Oliver?" she asks, too shaken to be ashamed of the way her voice cracks over his name.
Nyssa steps towards her, placing her hand on Felicity's shoulder. "There is no need to mourn for the loss of your love, Felicity. I will name you his consort."
Digg does more than cough this time and Oliver takes a menacing step towards him, which is ridiculous. But not more ridiculous than what Nyssa is saying.
"It is a great honor. You will help raise our children," Nyssa continues.
Laurel slaps a hand to her own forehead and turns in a circle, clearly wondering what terrible thing she'd done in her life to end up there. "Sorry to intrude on your little soap opera over there, but where exactly is my sister?"
Oliver hesitantly steps towards her and it's then that Felicity knows something is very, very wrong. "Laurel," he says, his hand wrapping around her elbow. "You shouldn't be here."
"Take me to her," Laurel says, yanking her arm from his grasp. "Now, Oliver."
**
Feral is the only word to describe her. Their Sara is now a monster trapped in a sunken pit at the center of a room that must have been some sort of amphitheater. Sara's hands are covered in blood, her fingernails ripped out by her attempts to claw away at the door and there is a chain around her neck. When she sees them watching, she howls.
Laurel goes very still, but Nyssa collapses down hard onto one of the curved stone benches. Felicity is stunned by the show of emotion. In all honesty, her first instinct is to fall apart too, but she slides her hand into Laurel's and squeezes instead. "Thea had some trouble at first," she tells her softly. "Not this much trouble, but she jumped out of the Lazarus Pit like a flying squirrel and attacked Oliver. It passed in a few days. Sara was dead a lot longer than her. She probably just needs more time."
Laurel nods and takes a deep breath, her eyes never leaving her sister. "How do I get down there?"
Oliver leads the way.
**
"I want to take her to Star Labs," Laurel announces later, when they're sitting in Nyssa's room.
"It's a good idea," Felicity says. "But we can't right now." Laurel's eyes narrow at her, but she waits for Felicity to explain. "There's some stuff going on there involving some truly bad people. We don't want Sara to fall into the wrong hands. Not again."
Laurel's eyes fill with tears. "She can't stay here, Felicity. She can't stay in that hole."
"I know."
Oliver stands guard in one corner without offering any words of comfort and it's this silence that starts really pissing Felicity off. "I can't believe you let them put her in there," she lashes out, not even attempting to hide her disappointment. He hasn't apologized once, hasn't offered up any explanation for how or why Sara had been left in the dirt and the dark. For three days she'd been in there, terrified and alone. The idea that Oliver allowed it scares the hell out of her.
He doesn't explain himself. He just turns and walks out.
Digg stops her from rising with a hand to her shoulder. "Let him go, Felicity."
She's afraid that he doesn't just mean for right now. "Keep an eye on Laurel," she tells him and Digg's hand falls away. She's out in the hallway chasing after Oliver in the blink of an eye.
"Oliver!"
He doesn't slow down.
"Oliver!" She runs, her legs shaking with anger and adrenaline as she races to his side and grabs at his arm.
He wrenches it away. "Not here."
"Fine." She falls in line beside him, refusing to shorten her strides or to let him take the lead. He's not the heir to anything in her mind and she'll be damned if she's going to scamper after him.
He pushes open the door to his room and walks in and when she shuts it behind them her anger falters. She'd come to him with wildly different intentions the last time she'd been there.
Oliver yanks off the outer leather coat of his League uniform, tossing it onto the small red sofa, and she swallows hard, refusing to take any enjoyment from the way his shirt skims over his body. "You'd better start explaining."
"The Heir to the Demon doesn't explain himself to anyone."
"Well Oliver Queen does, so start talking."
He stalks towards her, which is all hot and manly, but she's not going to focus on that. No she's going to focus on the fact that he's being a jackass. And not even a regular jackass- a huge jackass. A super huge jackass who is also slowly backing her up against the door they'd just walked through. "What are you doing?"
Her back bumps the wood and he rests a hand on either side of her, trapping her in place. He stares at her with dark eyes and she waits for them to soften, for him to show her some sort of sign that it's Oliver she's dealing with and not Al Sa-him. The coldness doesn't dissipate, though, even when he glances down at her mouth.
"I hate your hair," she whispers defiantly.
Oliver's mouth is on hers in an instant, fierce and strong as he kisses her deeply. Felicity is still pissed, but that's no reason to not kiss him back. His hands slide through her hair roughly, getting caught in some tangles as they travel but she welcomes the tugs- at least she knows she's not dreaming. She steps towards him, wrapping her own arms around his shoulders, her hands skimming his head and then roaming wherever they can reach. He's alive. He's alive and he's there and she loves him. It's enough somehow, even though there's no way it actually can be.
The need for air eventually causes Oliver's lips to still and they both breathe deeply as he tips his head forward. He rests his forehead against hers and closes his eyes. "It's good to see you," he murmurs.
Felicity couldn't agree more. It's good to see him, too.
**
Felicity wasn't joking with Ra's when she said she'd go to war to get Oliver back, but now that she really knows what she's giving up if he stays, her focus seems sharper. Her mind races with ways to take the man down. She's already got feelers out for the League's bank accounts because there's nothing she'd like more than to wipe that balance to zero. She imagines stranding the League in Nandar Parbat and smiles at how satisfying it's going to feel. She won't even leave enough cash to keep them in candles.
Right now though, she needs to bide her time and lay low. Somehow Ra's Al Guhl doesn't know he has visitors and Nyssa and Oliver both want to keep it that way.
She sits on Oliver's bed and watches him dress, fascinated by the shift in his personality once the uniform goes back on. Oliver has always been fluid, but this is crazy. It's like he has a Pavlovian response when the coat zips closed. A minute ago he was nuzzling her neck, but the warmth is gone now. He's still him. But he's not. She doesn't get it at all, but then she's never been good at compartmentalizing.
"Don't leave the room," he says gruffly.
She nods, even though she has no intention of obeying him. She needs to talk to Diggle and Laurel and she wants to check on Sara at some point.
Oliver pauses at the door, turning to look back at her and she smiles at him softly. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
He nods his head but she knows it's not a promise he intends to keep either.
Ten minutes later Nyssa knocks on the door. "Oliver is to be titled today. As his future bride, I am expected to be there."
"Sounds like a hoot."
"The entire League will be in attendance. It is an optimal time for me to remove Sara."
Felicity nods, a bubble of nervous excitement starting to rise. "What can I do?"
The other woman smiles.
**
Nyssa has some serious explaining to do.
That's all Felicity can think as she and Oliver stand together at the head of a room full of assassins. Ra's Al Guhl sits on a throne a few feet in front of them watching whatever is going on with interest. Felicity is wearing the bulky leather garb of Nyssa's uniform and her face is covered, her hood pulled down low and her mask pulled up high. This is not what she'd signed up for.
The priestess lady she'd stolen the knock out powder from on their last trip is chanting something and wafting a bunch of smoke over them and Felicity is pretty sure that Nyssa has lied. This doesn't really seem like an official Heir To the Demon naming ceremony. If she didn't know better, she'd say this was a wedding.
She is not going to panic.
The chanting cuts off and the lady steps in front of her. After a few seconds, Oliver shifts beside her in the silence, the leather of his own uniform creaking with the movement. They're clearly waiting for her to do something.
The lady repeats herself, which isn't helpful at all because Felicity has no idea what she's saying. She catches Ra's al Guhl's ringed hand sliding to the hilt of his sword and she swallows hard. Nyssa had told her to say something if prompted. She hopes she gets the pronunciation right.
"أنا افعل" She says quietly.
Oliver's posture shifts instantly, going from at ease to attention at the sound of her voice. He turns his body slightly towards her as the priestess addresses him, but, with the hood pulled so low, Felicity can't see anything more than his leather-clad chest.
When the priestess stops talking again, Oliver reaches over and takes Felicity's hand. "أنا افعل," he says.
The moment feels huge.
One of the priestess' minions pulls out a leather cord and starts binding her wrist together with Oliver's and oh god, this is a wedding. She totally just got married. Her mother is going to kill her.
She gulps in some air, sweating a little under all the leather as the enormity of what's going on sinks in. Her heart races in her chest as Oliver squeezes her hand gently.
She needs to calm down. It's not so bad, really. There are millions of women who'd agree to marry Oliver Queen no matter what the circumstances. Besides, it's not like the marriage is legal or anything. They hadn't had a blood test for one thing, which was kind of ridiculous on Ra's part. Surely, he wanted Oliver to start popping out some mini heirs to the demon and what if it turned out they were related or something?
Oh god. There's no way they're related, is there?
She runs down her family tree in her mind as the minion ties off the binding and decides that even though her dad's side is a bit hazy, it's safe to assume that they're not. Ra's doesn't know that, though. He's leaving an awful lot up to chance. Except, it suddenly dawns on her, he isn't, because Nyssa is the one supposed to be marrying Oliver. Ra's thinks she's Nyssa. Oh, god.
The minion pulls her and Oliver forward and when he places their clasped hands on a giant slab, Felicity's heart leaps into her throat. It all seems very ominous.
The priestess whips out a small blade and every instinct in Felicity's body starts telling her to run. Oliver must know what she's thinking because his hand slides to her wrist and tightens around it like a vice as he holds her in place. She can feel his panic over her reaction and she screws her eyes shut, thinking she'll handle it better if she can't see.
The cut, when it comes, is exactly as painful as she thinks it will be and Felicity bites her lip hard, knowing she absolutely can't scream. Her eyes open in time for her to see the knife slashing down onto Oliver's palm and then their hands are being pressed together, their blood mixing.
The priestess pulls their hands apart before sprinkling some sort of powder onto their gashes. The burn of it makes Felicity's knees buckle. The wound on her hand seems to seal in an instant, leaving a deep red scar permanently seared along her lifeline.
She's panting behind the mask now, the leather making it difficult to breathe, and she stands in a daze as Oliver reaches over to undo the cord around their wrists. The priestess takes it from him and then throws it in the air. Felicity looks up and watches as it bursts into flames.
Her hood falls back and the hall erupts into chaos.
**
Oliver grabs her hand and they run, but they don't get far.
Ra's is behind them, and then suddenly in front of them, his sword whirling as Oliver dodges and parries with his own. It's weird to see him without the bow, but it's not like he's bad with the sword.
He's just not as good.
She takes the first opportunity that presents itself to run for backup, ignoring the guilt of abandoning Oliver as she shouts for Diggle. She weaves through the maze-like halls and her relief when Dig comes flying around a corner is palpable. He has his gun out already and she reminds herself that a gun trumps a sword. At least she hopes it does.
Laurel is behind him and the three of them race back towards the sound of the fighting.
When they get back to Oliver, he's no longer fighting alone. Malcolm Merlyn and Thea are beside him, the three of them fending off attackers as they pour into the space like a swarm of bees.
Felicity circles around, feeling useless without a weapon and is just about to yank a torch from the wall when a pair of arms wrap around her.
She knows it's Ra's, because of course it is, and in her mind she travels back to the way it felt when Slade held her like that. Back then she hadn't panicked. Of course, back then she'd also had a plan.
Ra's shoves her against a wall, and she stumbles as she turns, watching in horror as his sword flies up. She's going to die. She's going to die thousands of miles from home in Nandar Parbat. Hopefully her mother will take some comfort in the fact that she'd died a married woman.
Felicity shuts her eyes, but the sound of metal hitting metal clangs loudly in front of her and her eyes fly open again.
It's possible she's dead because what she's seeing can't be real. Sara stands between her and Ra's, her escrima stick knocking the sword from his hand.
Felicity had dreamed of this type of moment more than once in her life, but it had always seemed ridiculous. She'd lost a lot of people and none of them had ever come back.
Well, Cooper. But she didn't really count him. The guy running around in her first love's skin was a totally different person than the one she had mourned. A lesser person, actually. And it wasn't like he'd come back for her.
Sara cracks her staff across Ra's' face and he whirls with the movement, completely off balance. Nyssa is behind him and she raises her sword to strike, but he uses his momentum to dodge the blow. Still, he can't get away from them.
Sara is a whirl, with long blonde hair and toned arms that haven't lost their muscle definition in death. She looks pale and wild, but it's clearly their friend. None of them had ever thought they'd see her again. Felicity is beyond glad to be wrong.
The three of them fight, and there is something so strong about Sara, so powerful that it strikes a note of fear in Felicity's chest. This is Sara, their Sara, but the Pit has also made its mark.
Oliver is beside the younger Lance sister in an instant and Felicity knows that he must be fighting a wave of emotion, pushing it down so he can focus on the fight at hand. Later, things will hit him. Later he'll let himself feel.
He attacks mercilessly, the two of them driving Ra's backward towards Nyssa, who suddenly lunges towards her father and drives her sword through his chest. Blood starts pouring out of his mouth.
It takes Felicity a moment to realize she doesn't want to see this. She turns away, only to find Diggle standing beside her. He wraps an arm around her shoulder and it's the safest she's felt in months.
The din of the fighting dies off as everyone focuses on the history being made in front of them. Diggle whispers her name and Felicity looks up. Ra's is dead on the ground, Nyssa standing over him with a smile.
Another attacker charges towards them but then falls to his knees in front of Nyssa. All around them members of the league are dropping their swords and falling down in supposition. Nyssa turns to Oliver, who lays his sword at her feet and kneels like a knight from a storybook.
Malcolm Merlyn snarls.
**
"Who knew he'd be so easy to get rid of?" Felicity asks later, stepping beside Sara and Oliver as they watch Malcolm exit the heavy doors of the fortress.
"I doubt it's the last that we'll see of him," Sara says.
Oliver nods. "He was supposed to be Ra's. We'd made a deal. He's not going to accept this."
Nyssa approaches them slowly, a bag slung over her shoulder. "I do not fear Malcolm Merlyn."
Felicity doesn't share her confidence. Malcolm scares her to the depths of her bones. Ra's, for all his brutality, never came close to inspiring the same level of fear in her. He'll be back someday and she's not looking forward to it.
Nyssa stops in front of Oliver and drops the bag at his feet. "Your time here is over, Oliver Queen. Do not return."
Oliver smiles sharply, his eyes glinting steel in the dim light. "Don't give me a reason to."
They gather up Digg, Thea, Sara, and Laurel and the six of them head to the jet. The entire walk there, Felicity fears that Malcolm will have stolen it, but when they make their way around the final bend, the plane is still sitting there waiting.
Sara hesitates as Digg and Thea make their way on board, looking back in the darkness and searching for something. Laurel takes her hand and leads her up the steps. "You'll see her again, Sara. Just come home for now." They follow Thea into the plane.
Felicity and Oliver stand in the moonlight of the desert, the wind lightly sliding around them. She smiles at him. "You ready to go home?"
Oliver tenses and looks out at the horizon. "Felicity, I need to tell you something."
She raises her newly scarred hand and shows him her palm. "We got married, right? That's what this means?"
Oliver takes a deep breath, his eyes wary as he nods. "Yes."
There's an odd rush of excitement in her, a flutter of joy, but she tamps it down quickly. They'd been given no choice- it was a marriage forced onto both of them. She wants to be with Oliver, maybe someday she'll want to be with him forever, but not like this. "Should we fix that before we go? I'm not sure we can get a quickie divorce in Vegas for a marriage made in Nandar Parbat. We didn't even get any paperwork."
Oliver shifts on his feet. "It can't be undone."
It makes sense, she supposes, except that it really doesn't. "That priestess lady can't just say a few words and dissolve it?"
Oliver crosses his arms over his chest. "No."
Felicity nods, trying to wrap her mind around it. She's married to Oliver. Once upon a time, it would have been her wildest fantasy, but now it's the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to her. "Guess we're stuck with each other then."
Oliver grimaces as he gives her a curt nod, which only serves to make anger flare in her belly. It wasn't her fault they were married. Nyssa had tricked her. "Nyssa didn't tell me what was going on, Oliver. She told me it was like your coronation or something. I'm sure none of it is legal. It doesn't have to mean anything."
Oliver reaches for her hand. "What if I want it to?"
Felicity's heart stutters in her chest as the blood rushes to her head. For a second the world doesn't make sense, but then she remembers. Oliver loves her. "Oh."
Oliver takes a step towards her, crowding in closer. "I know I have a lot to explain and that this isn't the way either of us would have wanted it to happen, but…"
Felicity nods waiting for him to continue. When he stays silent her anger surges. Oliver loves her and she loves him, but they can't stay in the same limbo they'd been living in. Things could be good, but only if he'd try.
Oliver takes a deep breath, his free hand coming up to cup her face. "Every night since the mountain, I've had the same dream. You are pleading with me not to go face Ra's and I listen to you. Sometimes the dream still ends badly; I still end up with that sword in my chest, but most of the time we escape and we're just driving. And all this seems…it seems so far away because it's just…it's the two of us."
It's a nice thought and his sincerity is clear, but it's just a dream. A fantasy. "That's not the real world though, Oliver."
Oliver's thumb strokes over her cheek. "But what if it could be?"
It would be so easy to indulge him, so easy to say yes to leaving everything behind and just driving off into the sunset. But it's not him. And it's not her, either. "Oliver, I would go anywhere with you, you have to know that, but we can't just walk away. The bad guys don't stop just because we need a break. Malcolm will-"
"Why does it have to be us? There's Laurel, and Digg, and Sara now too. There are other people who can do what we do." He leans in to brush his lips against hers. "Come away with me."
This is the moment. The moment she'd imagined for months now. Oliver deciding that he wanted her more than the mission. But what would they be without a city to save? Would they even work?
Oliver is looking at her softly, his eyes full of hope and it stuns her to see the truth. What he wants more than anything, is her.
"Where would we go?"
Oliver shakes his head. "Anywhere. I don't care, so long as you're with me."
whenever i’m talking to someone and they tell me about something that happened to them i always tell them about something that happened to me that’s similar to what happened to them. i do it as kind of a “oh hey yeah this happened to me so i can relate to what you’re going through” but i’m always afraid it comes out as “oh yeah well this happened to me so clearly i have it tougher than you” or “i’m done talking about you let’s talk about me”
I run into this a lot with my job - so instead of telling the whole story I say something like, “Oh my gosh, I had something REALLY similar happen. What did you do after that??” And I’ve found that works. Usually they explain and then ask, “So what happened to you?” And then you’re invited to share, and the formula for conversing continues on. :)
Thanks to both the OP for posting a thing that so many of us do, and the responder who gave us a better way to do it. You’re doing the lord’s work, my friend!
Fun fact: there isn’t anything wrong with you if you do what OP is describing.
Deborah Tannen’s work focuses on different conversational styles — the sets of behavioral norms and expectations that we bring with us to conversations. In one of her earlier articles, she describes two conflicting conversational styles that exist in the US.
One, which she (perhaps inaccurately) dubs “New York Jewish conversational style,” is based on the principle of building camaraderie with one’s interlocutor. The other, which she doesn’t really name but which we could call “mainstream American conversational style,” is based on the principle of not imposing on one’s interlocutor.
Each conversational style has its own behavioral norms. Mainstream American conversational style involves things like asking your interlocutor questions about him/herself and waiting until your interlocutor is clearly finished speaking until you say something. These demonstrate a focus on one’s interlocutor and a clear resistance to imposing. NYJ conversational style involves things like conversational overlaps — speaking at the same time as one’s interlocutor — and “swapping stories.” These demonstrate a high level of engagement with one’s interlocutor. Conversationalists using the mainstream American style make space for each other; conversationalists using the New York Jewish style carve out their own space.
Each of these conversational styles works well when the two people conversing have the same style. Imagine two friends meeting for drinks after work:
“Oh, hello! How was your trip here?”
“Oh, it was awful. There was so much traffic on the turnpike.”
“That’s terrible.”
“I know. How was your trip?”
“Well, there was an accident on the bridge.”
“Oh no! Was there a big backup?”
“Yeah, pretty big.”
“Oh, hi!”
“Hey! Ugh, sorry I’m late, there was so much traffic on the turnpike—”
“Oh my god, I know, there was an accident on the bridge and the cars were backed up a MILE—”
“That is the worst, I remember one time I sat in traffic for an HOUR waiting to get through that toll, they really should—”
“Add more EZ-pass lanes, right?”
“Add more lanes, yeah, exactly.”
Both of these conversations worked: the participants feel that they’ve had their say and that they’ve been understood. They feel connected to their interlocutor.
But when people with conflicting conversational styles converse, that’s where things go wrong. Because we interpret other people’s contributions according to our own conversational style. So the person with mainstream American conversational style comes away thinking “Why did they keep interrupting me? Why didn’t they ask me any questions about me? Why were they so loud and emotional?” And the person with the New York Jewish conversational style comes away thinking “Why were they so disengaged? They didn’t seem involved in the conversation at all. They didn’t even offer any personal information.”
Rather, they would come away thinking that, except that we’re taught growing up that the first example conversation up there is what conversations should look like. So the person with the New York Jewish conversational style actually comes away from the conversation thinking “oh my god, what was I doing? I kept talking about myself. I think I kept interrupting them. I am so rude, god, I’m the worst.” When in fact: a) it’s about cultural difference, not individual moral qualities; and b) one conversational style isn’t inherently “better” than another.
Which isn’t to say that we shouldn’t attempt to bridge the gap between conversational styles, as suggested above. But we should be aware that:
TL;DR: Cultural difference is often mistaken for individual moral failings.
My wife and I used to have so many issues until we figured out that we had conflicting conversational styles. My style is the West Indian version of New York Jewish. The more interested, engaged and comfortable I am with the speaker, the louder, more emotional and more just jump in and talk while she was talking.
Her style is the Jacksonville Florida version of mainstream American. Slow, measured, waiting for the other person to tell their story.
Until we figured that out, I felt like she wasn’t engaged and she felt like I was bulldozing right over her.
We’ve met in the middle. I give her more room to talk and she’s slowly learning to get excited and jump in.
This is actually really interesting for me in particular– I and a lot of people sort of “get by” on scripts because of autism or other reasons. So the idea that your scripts could be from an “incompatible” style and need tweaking depending on who you’re talking to adds another layer of complexity.
Also the fact that someone who can’t navigate social situations as well as others might never develop the “style” typical of the area of the world they live in, resulting in feelings of being an ‘outsider.’
Furthermore, there is the phenomenon that everybody seems to think everybody else from other regions (or countries!) is some shade of rude– it probably has less to do with character, and more to do with our communication styles. Whether we speak the same language as a primary language, or if someone’s transplanted a conversational style from a different, native language.
After Arrow 5x01, my distrust in the Arrow writers when it comes to romantic relationships is at an all-time low.
And it has to do with how they are writing Felicity Smoak. More specifically, Felicity Smoak as The Main Love Interest.
She´s been written as a hacker ninja goddess, as a paragon of Girl Power not Needing to be Just about Physical Strength and Fighting Prowess, as a refreshing presence in a superhero show. And they´ve been really great at it. Definitely much better than how they wrote the former main love interest as Convenient Kick-Ass Lady and Damsel in Distress in the first season.
Where they fail with Felicity – and with the former main love interest – is her moments of depth and vulnerability. When she is being written as the main love interest. When she is being written as merely reactionary to whatever it is Oliver has done (both positive and negative).
[Hiding the rest of this under the cut. Warning: I am not kind to the Arrow writers in this one.]
I agree with this so much! As a fellow Olicity fan, I think another problem the writers have writing Felicity as The Main Love Interest, is that they’ve never taken the time to write stories for the couple they have instead of the couple they planned on having. For the past two years, it’s felt like they’ve been shoehorning Oliver/Felicity into the storylines and plots they had planned on using for Oliver/Laurel. The William story, for example, doesn’t make a lot of sense for Felicity, because she does not have a long, painful history of Oliver cheating on her and treating her like crap. It makes total sense if it’s about Oliver and Laurel, though. If Laurel had remained TMLI, I can see how William appearing would have had emotional depth and resonance. It would have brought up the worst aspects of their relationship and made them have to confront all their shit again. Finding out about William and that Oliver was hiding a relationship with his son and Samantha from her would have been a nightmare for Laurel. For Oliver and Felicity though, William landed like a dead fish because (Felicity’s abandonment issues aside) it didn’t make sense for them to react the way they did.
It’s the same for Felicity fearing that she might lose herself in a relationship with Oliver. It works in the way that everyone sometimes fears that, but it doesn’t make all that much sense since she actually found herself when she started working with him. Oliver has always supported her being exactly who she is and has never tried to change or diminish her . If Laurel had been concerned about losing herself, it would have made sense because she was blind to how toxic their relationship had been.
Hopefully this season will be different, but I’m not overly optimistic.
Oh wow. I never thought of it that way. What you said totally makes sense, @thelaughingduchess! That´s why the the Baby Mama Drama felt so contrived. It was because they writers were forcing what they wanted for the Original Pair that had no Chemistry and a Sucky Backstory (OPCSB) into Olicity.
They tried to fit that story in without really knowing what to do with Felicity. Because they could have really done an exploration of her abandonment issues through that story line – both her as someone who empathised with William, and her feeling ¨abandoned¨ by Oliver making decisions about her. But that´s all conjecture on my part. That never happened in canon. The writers didn´t think that Felicity was worth the time for that kind of exploration. The writers didn´t think their main cash cow, Olicity, was worth the effort of going beyond what they planned for OPCSB. *sigh*
I loved Felicity fearing losing herself in Oliver though. Because she did drop everything to be with him, so I was happy to see that explored. I was happy to see her making the connection about that fear, and her being abandoned by her father. I thought it made sense given how their relationship started.
@outoftheclosetshipper I went back and thought about it and maybe I’m being unfair to 4x06. There’s a haze of disappointment over season 4 for me, so I have a hard time thinking positively about any of it. I can see how the episode works for Felicity’s character in some ways. For me it’s not a blatant- oh, that’s a Laurel storyline, but there was still something about it that did not ring true for me. She’s always been a character that accepts circumstances presented to her and finds a way forward instead of looking back and self flagellating (that’s more Oliver’s thing, imo). So her guilt over missing Ray’s cries for help, while believable, still didn’t seem like it would send her into such a downward spiral or crisis of faith. It would have been more believable for me for her crisis to have been a moment where she thought about not giving Oliver case information or steered him away from danger because she was more afraid to lose him now that they were together. I’d have totally accepted that sort of situation sending her on a spiral of self doubt. It would have highlighted the abandonment and trust issues that were so prominent in their break up and it would have had her considering how much the mission and being on the team matters to her. I won’t say that’s a bad episode for Felicity- it does have some lovely moments, but overall, I think it wasn’t exactly perfect for Felicity’s character.
I actually think the worst OPCSB identity crisis storyline they shoehorned Olicity into was the one Oliver had in season 3 though. His fear of not being able to be both the Arrow and Oliver Queen works if the woman he’s with is Laurel, but it was never a problem for him with Felicity. I mean, I assume that if the OPCSB had somehow worked, the story they’d have told in season 2 would have been Laurel falling in love with The Arrow and then finding out he was Oliver. Oliver’s fear in season 3 that he couldn’t be both men/that he couldn’t risk becoming Oliver Queen again makes sense in that context. Laurel also probably would have seen the risk as too high and not pushed back when he said he had decided he couldn’t do it. I never believed that Felicity would have initially accepted Oliver’s decision- I think she’d have fought him on it tooth and nail, to be honest. But if they had done that storyline with Oliver and Laurel you’d have had the two of them pining longingly without it being ridiculous. It also would have been more in character for Laurel to try to move on with a Ray type character (not saying I didn’t support Felicity trying things with Ray, btw).
Anyway, I don’t want to keep babbling on. I’ve just thought about it a lot and it’s my leading theory as to how the writers bungled this relationship up so thoroughly.
After Arrow 5x01, my distrust in the Arrow writers when it comes to romantic relationships is at an all-time low.
And it has to do with how they are writing Felicity Smoak. More specifically, Felicity Smoak as The Main Love Interest.
She´s been written as a hacker ninja goddess, as a paragon of Girl Power not Needing to be Just about Physical Strength and Fighting Prowess, as a refreshing presence in a superhero show. And they´ve been really great at it. Definitely much better than how they wrote the former main love interest as Convenient Kick-Ass Lady and Damsel in Distress in the first season.
Where they fail with Felicity – and with the former main love interest – is her moments of depth and vulnerability. When she is being written as the main love interest. When she is being written as merely reactionary to whatever it is Oliver has done (both positive and negative).
[Hiding the rest of this under the cut. Warning: I am not kind to the Arrow writers in this one.]
I agree with this so much! As a fellow Olicity fan, I think another problem the writers have writing Felicity as The Main Love Interest, is that they’ve never taken the time to write stories for the couple they have instead of the couple they planned on having. For the past two years, it’s felt like they’ve been shoehorning Oliver/Felicity into the storylines and plots they had planned on using for Oliver/Laurel. The William story, for example, doesn’t make a lot of sense for Felicity, because she does not have a long, painful history of Oliver cheating on her and treating her like crap. It makes total sense if it’s about Oliver and Laurel, though. If Laurel had remained TMLI, I can see how William appearing would have had emotional depth and resonance. It would have brought up the worst aspects of their relationship and made them have to confront all their shit again. Finding out about William and that Oliver was hiding a relationship with his son and Samantha from her would have been a nightmare for Laurel. For Oliver and Felicity though, William landed like a dead fish because (Felicity’s abandonment issues aside) it didn’t make sense for them to react the way they did.
It’s the same for Felicity fearing that she might lose herself in a relationship with Oliver. It works in the way that everyone sometimes fears that, but it doesn’t make all that much sense since she actually found herself when she started working with him. Oliver has always supported her being exactly who she is and has never tried to change or diminish her . If Laurel had been concerned about losing herself, it would have made sense because she was blind to how toxic their relationship had been.
Hopefully this season will be different, but I’m not overly optimistic.
1. So now here comes a real freak idea. The bible’s kinda good. I mean, for a sci-fi tale. There’s some mad vengeance God takes out on people. Dude doesn’t like to get betrayed, and I’m down with that. The plagues and locust shit and that heathen woman Lot’s wife turning to salt - pretty fucking funny. Can’t deny he’s got a sense of humor. And a real flare for the drama. Gonna go to sleep now.
[Mr. Robot writes] Sleep tight while you get your lesson of the day from yours truly: How to draw a cat!
2. Obama is really hot
3. I’ve never had latkes before but decided to go out on a limb. Leon was impressed at my adventurous side. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again. I’m a dude who likes a potato - serve it up any way.
4. I just have to say one thing - I’m [happy?] to have Leon [with a box drawn around his name]. Wherever he comes from, he’s helping me keep sane.
5. [section about Leon telling Elliot about the show Mad About You]
My sister finished her incredible, three part, epic Olicity saga, The Ties That Bind, this past week. If you’ve been holding off reading it because you don’t do WIPs, you should absolutely run to read it now.
