Why I’m Going To Stop Watching Arrow Now

You all know I was a fan of the TV show Arrow, and even though I wasn’t too keen on The Flash or Legends of Tomorrow spinoffs, I watched them too because I wanted to keep up with everything that was happening in the Arrowverse.

BUT ARROW HAS FUCKED UP SO BAD THAT I QUIT.

I got a lot of people hooked on Arrow and got them catching up with old episodes on Netflix or iflix. I grew up reading a box of my dad’s comic books which he bought back in his day, when comics weren’t as expensive as they are now. I don’t read comic books now not because I don’t like them, but because I think they have become an expensive hobby, at least where I live. However, I still try to keep up by reading wikis on my favorite characters and storylines when I can.

Last season’s ending where Oliver and Felicity were riding off into the sunset really rubbed me the wrong way. I was like, what?! Green Arrow’s soulmate is the Black Canary!

I get that the CW’s version of Oliver Queen somehow just has to hook up with every woman on the show he’s not related to, and I was thinking, okay. Let the writers get this Olicity thing out of their system so he can finally be with Laurel (the Black Canary).

Season 4 comes around and I watched, more out of habit now, really. Laurel was coming into her own, and I was so happy to see that she has not only become a good fighter, but a kickass Assistant District Attorney, too. She was connecting with Oliver, understanding him, giving him good advice. And I thought, this is it! All the previous seasons where her character suffered, er, developed, were finally paying off! She is at the place where she is Oliver’s equal. Add: I think she is better than Oliver. This TV Show Oliver lost his company and is now relying on Felicity to bankroll his mayoral campaign and his vigilante activities. I don’t even want to think about how he got the money to buy his girlfriend’s engagement ring. And Laurel never cheated on Oliver.

***SPOILER ALERT!***

 

 

Then they kill Laurel, THE BLACK CANARY, the Green Arrow’s soulmate, just for kicks!

 

 

***END SPOILER***

THE FELICITY DIARIES

I didn’t start out hating Felicity. I thought she was funny and that she brought a light humor to the show. In fact, she was great! UNTIL she started hooking up with Oliver and got more annoying with every episode.

When Felicity started hooking up with Oliver, oh.my.effing.twilight, all she did was cry, whine and complain. All the episodes revolved around their relationship!

It goes:

Oliver did something because of lame reasons.

Felicity is mad at Oliver because of lame reasons, too.

Cry. Whine. Drama. Repeat.

That pretty much sums up Season 4.

And let us not forget how Felicity’s drama distracted Oliver so much that it got everyone killed by Vandal Savage.

If I wanted to watch tweeny drama and abusive relationships, I’d go watch Twilight. This is a superhero show, dammit! Act like it!

But every week, I was still giving it a chance to turn it around.

When people are starting to say that Twilight was a better love story than this Olicity BS, you know you’ve got problems.

When people are calling your show Felicity & Friends, Errow, Error, Broken Arrow and some derivation of it to show their displeasure, you know you’ve got worse problems.

When people have sworn on the grave of their ancestors that they will quit watching this show, you’re kind of doomed.

When even Forbes.com is telling you that you made a big mistake, well… it means you made a big, big, big mistake.

And you know what? Felicity isn’t even in the comics! I mean, she is, as Ronnie Raymond’s stepmom!

There was this one time when they wanted to turn Felicity into Oracle, holymotherofbatgirl, they did. By some divine intervention, they backtracked and ended up not doing it. Thank DC.

Oracle is Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl’s new superhero name after she was paralyzed by The Joker. Oracle still fights crime using her computer skills while her superhero friends do the field work. See Birds of Prey.

But there’s another rumor going around that they will make Felicity the new Black Canary. *gag* I can’t even.

WHY FANS ARE UPSET

1. It was a crappy way for Laurel to die. Oliver survived being stabbed with a sword and pushed off a mountain just by drinking tea. Sara and Thea both died and were resurrected with the Lazarus Pit. Laurel gets stabbed with an arrow, surgery goes well, then dies from seizures??? At first, I hoped that Laurel will get resurrected somehow. Nobody stays dead on this show. HOWEVER, all indications are that this is a permanent death and that OLICITY is end game. Poor Captain Lance didn’t even get to say goodbye.
2. She died shipping Olicity. Yes. No kidding. She died telling her soulmate that he was the love of her life, and then encouraged him to get back with the whiny b**** he’s been dating.

That’s like a Superman show killing off Lois Lane so that Clark could get on with a temp from the mail room. And Lois, with her dying breath, telling Clark to go chase after his new girl.

With Laurel’s dying breath, instead of talking about her sister, her father, or any number of more important things, she talks about Olicity.

I feel so bad for Katie Cassidy, the actress who plays Laurel. I’ve liked her since Gossip Girl. She was supposed to be the main female lead, but they’ve always sidelined her and turned her into a minor character. They didn’t even tell her about her character’s death until they started filming two episodes before this. And all through 4 years, she has been bullied by the rabid Olicity fans, death threats and all. Through it all, she has been a class act, even smiling through this and thanking everyone.

ARROW DISSING FANS

When fans took to social media to complain about Laurel’s death 5 days ago, the show runners just brushed them off.

Marc Guggenheim says this:

In the comics, Dinah Lance and Oliver Queen, depending on which version of the character you like, are in a romance together in various iterations,” Guggenheim says. “That, to some people, is considered canonical and iconic, and we respect that, but at the same time we’ve always made no bones about the fact that we are telling our own version of the Green Arrow mythos.

then,

“the show has never been just about the comic book history” Err, what? So stop calling it Arrow then, and just call it THE FELICITY SOAP OPERA.

They were so smug about it, too, calling fans who were upset “a vocal minority”. I’m not a Lauriver shipper (Laurel + Oliver), nor was I an Olicity hater. As someone who has read the Green Arrow and the Black Canary’s back story, I just always thought that they would eventually be end game. I also started liking Laurel a lot after she overcame all her hardships and eventually became kick ass. Her story was just beginning!

And guess what? They didn’t even know who they were going to kill off at the beginning of the season! No planning. They were just winging it! No wonder we got this soap opera for Season 4.

Then there’s this:

OKAY THEN. I’M GONNA STOP WATCHING.

The only way I am going back to this show is when I hear that they have fixed all this crap:

• somebody goes back in time and saves Laurel, or they use a Lazarus Pit, or something
• somebody goes back in time and lets Felicity die before Olicity starts

Kudos to the Arrow writers! They got me from really liking somebody and wanting them dead in 19 episodes.

Frankly, I don’t know how they can still salvage this show for me. If they pull it off, I would be very surprised.

I’m still going to watch The Flash, but not really all that excited about Legends of Tomorrow because I see another soap opera starting there. For Pete’s sake, Hawk Girl is for Hawk Man, don’t hook her up with The Atom, wtf.

I have a life outside of watching this TV show, and I don’t want to waste any more time on Felicity & Friends after I’ve said my piece here. We’re done.

#ByeByeArrow #NoLaurelNoArrow