#Ras for once wasn’t doing anything evil- though he’s a horrible person

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 195

“Oh. It’s you.” 

The entity that had been summoned practically growled, a cloak like swirling galaxies- or was it swirling galaxies molded into a cloak- shimmering around their form. One pair of arms crossed over a chest where a star pulsed with the heartbeat of universes, alive yet dying as lazarus green eyes glowered down at the league and bats alike. 

“You know you could, fucking call, right?” they whined, aura of terror suddenly broken, unnatural fear torn away and leaving all of them wrong-footed and confused.

Well, apparently all of them except for Ras, who had an honest to fuck grin on his face, one that looks almost carefree, if a little feral. Nope. No thanks. Not this timeline-

“But phones didn’t exist last we spoke, ya ‘amar.” 

[ceoofanticatradora]

We need more anti C//A who are Adora stans (like you seem to be) so that people can understand that C///A is bad for Adora. Heck C//A is bad for Catra too, but the shippers don't seem to realize it. If Catra had been able to let Adora go maybe she could have healed instead of her festering and the abuse may have ended instead of escalated.

Hello Dear, welcome on my Blog and a big thank you for your message! Firstly I wanna apologize that this response is reaching you more than three full days, almost four later. Just real life getting into the way of my online presence (at least I got my A-Levels admission!) but I assure you that replying to you was on my To Do List the entire time. And while I could've typed something quick, I thought you deserved a full length response just as much as the person before you received. That goes for anyone really to ask/write me anything in the future.

Adora is a character that has flaws, her own interests, things she struggles with/is insecure about etc. but she also still works on being better (up to Season 5). This makes her relatable, fleshed out and overall three dimensional. Overall for me that makes Adora very likeable. Which is funny because when I first watched the show I thought of her as too goofy and felt like she as a character was overall just flat. Her character design did not speak to me either, the ponytail with the weird hair poof and these pointy shoulders of her jacket just really were not my taste. Isn't it amazing how perceptions can change?

As you can guess from that description I did not always stan Adora and she's probably still not my favorite character but over the almost two years I've been in this fandom I've grown rather fond of her. Other important characters to me are Kyle (a very relatable comfort character of mine, he learned to stand up for himself and others and I support that, f*ck Season 5 for barely acknowledging his existence), Lonnie (apart from treating Kyle badly (which I really do NOT support or excuse) I really love her, man, some women just do me like that, I mean she really stood up to Catra like that), Entrapta (I'm autistic too! It's great to have some representation, seeing the ableism/treatment she experiences in the show is not so much though), Seahawk (I don't even know why, I have some issues with his behavior towards Mermista at times but overall I love this dork), Scorpia (she reminds me of myself so much and I really wanna give her hugs, I'm so glad she chose to no longer let Catra treat her like that even though I will be forever salty she just immediately forgave her), Peekablue (I can explain this even less than Seahawk, especially since it was not even really him in the end but his existence somehow helped me cope with Season 5, without him I probably would've left this fandom ... and also my favorite color is blue) and Double Trouble (now there's enough people already critcizing how they're not exactly great Non-binary representation but this dramatic lizard will forever be in my heart, that reality check they gave Catra, basically slapping her in the face with facts was satisfying as h*ck, also I like lizards overall).

Now there's plenty of characters I like, dislike (or even hate) or am simply indifferent about but after all this is not a tier list but me talking about Adora, Catra and Catradora. Adora started off as this girl that was so sure what she was doing is right but once she was taught differently she was willing to leave everything she knew (except Catra, because she valued her despite everything) behind. And not only that, she broke out of the abuse cycle that Catra tried so hard to keep upright. And that is exactly what makes Adora such a good role model. She teaches children (or people) that:

Your past doesn't define what/who you are or what/who you can become

-> Adora used to be a Horde soldier and did not know where she came from, but nonetheless she found herself a family and became a hero that saved thousands of people

You can always change your mind and start a new life if you feel disappointed in what you are doing/who you are as a person

-> Basically the exact same point, Adora started a new life as she saw what the Horde really was and changed her mind about who to fight for

You deserve love too, be it platonic or romantic (or se*ual???) (If you're aro and/or ace just ignore the part that does not work for you)

-> While Adora for various reasons thought her only use was to please others and meet their needs and expectations (mostly due to Shadow Weaver and Catra) she learned to accept that she too deserves love and validation (if the love aspect would not have been focused on it being romantic love so she could smooch Catra in the finale this would've been a billion times better because she got love from her friends that showed her her real value)

You can walk away from something/someone, that does not make you egoistic/selfish

-> Adora walked away from the Horde, after Catra stubbornly refused to come with her despite many offers (basically Catra broke the promise, not Adora) from her too and that did not make her a "traitor" or "selfish", h*ck, Adora in the end did this for a bigger purpose too, even if part of it was her not wanting to live with such wrong morals

Your opinions, feelings etc. about a person/something can change and that is perfectly fine and valid, being able to change is part of what makes someone human

-> Adora's views on many things changed throughout the show: The Horde and the Rebellion, the First Ones, Catra, being She-Ra, herself, her priorities and so on ... she actually makes use of her brain, which is why Catra saying "Don't you ge it?" or calling her an idiot and dumb never sat right with me, she's a realistic character for shifting with her thoughts, feelings etc. and sometimes just does not fully think things through

You don't have to let other people treat you like sh*t (just because they have some issues they never worked through does not give them any right to let it out on you)

-> This point is obviously centered mostly around Catra and her abusing Adora almost every chance she gets, which is why Adora standing up for herself and not letting Catra blame her for her own decisions and mistakes is so important, "You made your choice, now live with it" is one of the most powerful lines throughout all the five Seasons

Now I'm sure there is still more to Adora's character than what I just listed and unfortunately almost all the points basically got pushed aside, well, Adora as a character got pushed aside in Season 5. All her growth, the things that made me love her, see her as great role model for so many people robbed of their value for the sake of making everything revolve around Catra. That brings me to her and how you are absolutely right that Catradora is harmful to both characters. Of course Adora is affected most by it in the end but Catra too is obviously suffering under the fandoms obsession and just the overall idea of them being romantically involved.

Just like with Adora the stans make almost everything about Catra over her relationship with Adora. She too can barely exist outside of it and if she wasn't the fan favorite she'd most likely would too be mostly in Fanarts that include Adora and not just her (if you google "Catra Fanart" most content is still Catra and Catra only but here and there Catradora still peaks through). But for whatever reason the fandom still views her more as her own person as the other ones? Catrouble and Scorptra Shippers might actually still get less hate than Glimmadora Shippers (I'm not denying they don't get any, they most certaintly do) which is just plain hypocricy and favorism. Kinda like the: A woman needs to be loyal to her husband and her husband only but if the husband wants to be active with other women that is perfectly fine because "that is just how men are" or how i like to call it ... sexism. Now in this case they are both women so it's not sexism but yo do get my point.

But much more importantly, Catra has an unhealthy obsession with Adora. Signs of that are for example:

Constantly talking about Adora, even when said person is not around (to Shadow Weaver, Scorpia etc.)

Obsessing over having control over Adora like in that one Episode "Are you kidding? I finally got control over Adora, I'm not giving that up!"

Building her entire character and her actions around Adora "We need to take Adora down", "Adora left me", "I'd rather see the whole world end than see you win!", also shown in Season 5 where she states she does save Glimmer only for Adora and not for Glimmer or to do the right thing

Getting aggressive or very emotional over Adora like clawing the wall, having nightmares etc. (destructive behavior towards herself and others)

Having no or barely any characteristics outside of her relationship with Adora like, we don't know her interests or likes and dislikes outside of being evil, obsessed with Adora, being abused by Shadow Weaver ...

Trying to force Adora to meet her needs and expectations regardless of Adora's owns

Sacrificing her oppurtunity to be happy in the Crimson Waste for the sake of her Adora obsession and being better than her at all costs

So yes, you were very right with saying that not putting Catra in a relationship with Adora would've benefited both characters. Catra could've learned to exist on her own, develop interests and a life outside of Adora. Learn to accept herself and eventually come to terms with her childhood abuse. She could've been free and not "the abusive cat girl that ended up with the person she unhealthily obsessed over to the point of no return" she kinda is now. Even if we ignore the whole "dating your long term abuser" part from Adora's side and "being rewarded" for horrible behavior, Catra alone is not giving a good example to people watching. As much as I dislike Catra, disdain her even, an ending where she is dependent on Adora, unable to stand on her own two legs after she led armies in war is not what I would wish for her, even with a decent redemption arc (that she did not get).

[andhereisthetea]

Just finished Season 3

I have been watching She-Ra for the past seven days non-spot and I just finished season 3 and...

god

dammit

I am just....

UGH.

I want to talk about a lot of things after this, but I know I can’t just sandwich them in this post. I watched all three seasons in less time than I should have, I feel so damn conflicted right now about certain things, even if I spoiled myself about it before.

I spoiled myself about the whole Entrapta and Hordak arc, I watched gifsets and I saw your beautiful fan arts both in tumblr and twitter, but watching it, like... really watching it, it’s a whole different thing and now I feel both sad but also relieved I’m watching this after the show ended because 1) I am sad I didn’t experience things at the same time the fandom and most Entrapdak shippers did BUT 2) this would have made a mess of me, I get affected very easily with things like what I watched.

Ok, I have some things to say about the three seasons:

First... Entrapta.

There are some things I find refreshing and others that I don’t, I am not going to point it out in this post, also I can’t expect a lot from a family show.

The thing is... I feel they should have made up a backstory for Entrapta.

I understand the lore and the plot Crew-Ra focused into, but also I knew the Lore before the creation of this show, I feel there should have been a better way to explore more characters from Masters of the Universe.

Think about the complete mystery she is.

We knows most of the characters’ backstories, at least the most complex and important ones, we knows for example that Mermisa got her ruined kingdom from her father who was killed in the first battle against the Horde. We knows basically all the story of Bow’s family, we knows about Glimmer, about Scorpia, about Perfuma’s kingdom, about even Adora, Catra who was an orphaned, and also about Shadow Weaver.

But Entrapta? she is a complete damn mystery.

She is the Princess of Dryl, she designed the Crypto Castle, a literal labyrinth without sense, she is obsessed with First One’s tech since who knows how long, she isn’t an elemental princess but she can move her hair as if it were extra limbs and evn fight with it as a weapon, something that no other specie in the whole planet of Etheria can do, she has an intelligence even bigger than Tony Stark, nobody even talks about what happened to her parents, NOBODY, like they didn’t even existed and she popped up from nowhere and created her robotic parents herself. And even if her seeking for data and more and more progress and tech can be seen as a clear symptom her Autism (like autistic people focusing so much in something they can’t do anything else, I have that) or the fact she is looking for something else but not even her know what the hell is...

She knows or is implicit that she knows about the language of the First Ones, she understand their technology better than anyone else, also, her kingdom is the most advanced, they are considered to be in the industrial era compared to other kingdoms controlled by the elemental princesses. Where did all that technology knowledge, and also First One’s knowledge, came from? I don't think that in 20 years since she had reason and enough skill to be able to learn by herself Dryl has built all that; Dryl's kingdom had been working that way since before she was even born, so who told her? who taught her?

In addition to the fact that she has access to mining in her kingdom where she has been able to find who knows how much of the first one’s technology... right under her feet. The sole fact they put someone so important for the plot as a princess who has no runestone is just mysterious, she used the Black Garnet even better than Shadow Weaver, I can completely see her or someone before her doing the same with her own Runestone (which I picture as an Amethist btw).

I think they chose to put Entrapta’s possibilities of a backstory aside because, after seeing how the character became increasingly important and popular, they realized that once they had started to create her backstory and origins, they wouldn’t have been able to stop, and the central plot wasn’t about her at all, and is very likely that whatever idea of backstory they had about her would have been focused in the central plot. 

For example (and call me crazy, I don't care) if they had said that she was the granddaughter or daughter of Keldor AKA Skeletor, I would have totally believed it.

The thing with that is... even though they chose for her an Etheria region, which in the original Lore was unimportant, everything to do with Entrapta in She-Ra becomes important immediately, but ultimately it would have distracted them from the central plot with Adora as She-Ra, and Horde Prime, who is the main villain they choose for the show.

For now I just want to imagine what could have been if she had more protagonism and wasn’t only the geek princess, she has so much potential and I haven’t seen a character so refreshing like her in long time.

Okay, I want to talk about the seasons I just watched while the information is still fresh inside my head.

One of the main things that frustrated me about the final season is how Crew-Ra COMPLETELY NAILED IT in making me hate Catra. They didn’t make her sympathetic, she is toxic and most of the time she remembered me people who I had to avoid in my personal life, so the natural reaction to all her actions is to dislike her, that is exactly what Crew-Ra wanted for us to feel.

But in some point it got to the point that if you tell me the character was unpredictable, it lost it a bit in the final episodes, she started to become predictable in her actions because as an impulsive person constantly in denial over her emotions and projecting her problems over everyone else, it was obvious she was going to go through a destructive path wanting for everyone to die together with herself because it wouldn’t have seen less like a suicide.

And as a self-centered character with tunnel vision over her purpose and actions, she was going to completely underestimate Entrapta and wasn’t going to understand why Hordak found her interesting, she would attribute everything to power and fight for positions just like SW taught her, instead of something as pure as friendship, in fact she might have know it, but she didn’t want to admit it, because to know that someone as hateful and intimidating as Lord Hordak suddenly has someone who loves him beyond that is just too much for her, who doesn’t understand and is hurt by the fact that Adora doesn’t love her back, but doesn’t want to change one bit for fear to lost the life that ironically she hates so much without Adora in it.

So of course she was gonna electrocute Entrapta and send her to Beast Island, and her impulsive decision was made out of pure fear over what she did not only to Entrapta, but to Hordak himself and what he might do to her when he finds out what she did, and no matter how much she wants to hide behind a curtain of falsehood, is a matter of time he realizes Entrapta is nowhere in Etheria to be seen.

She is a character who does not measure her actions until the consequences are so horrible that she runs away, because reality is too painful for her to even accept what she has done, also she usually thinks that EVERYONE thinks just like her, every one of her speeches about fake friendship, power and winning is just about how she sees the world work from her perspective, she has zero notions over someone’s else vision of the world.

That's one of the biggest reasons why I liked Adora in the last episode of the third season; Catra made a decision, her desire to win basically led her to condemn Entrapta to death, almost destroy the planet and ultimately kill Angella or worse. I have seen posts about people saying that Catra hasn’t killed anyone directly, but I am sorry, she did this season, and she lied about it to everyone and to herself, but Adora knows better.

Now, Hordak

God how I start with this.

Hordak, opposite to the original Lore of Masters of the Universe, is right now basically an alien version of Lucifer from John Milton’s Paradise Lost but with God being fucking evil.

Just like Lucifer, he wants to replicate his creator’s creation on Etheria, choosing to rule in hell rather than heaven, but unlike Lucifer, he stills has a connection with his creator and just like Catra, wants to satify his wished to conquer Etheria all by himself.

But unlike Horde Prime, he is in fact a good leader, and a logical one. He appreciates when his soldiers thinks by themselves and achieves their goals, unlike Prime, and he in fact doesn’t accept empty adulation, if you are good at something, you have to prove it, not to him, but to yourself.

So I just love how with every season they are adding more complexity to his whole being, and now they have added the emotional factor with Entrapta’s friendship and ultimately “betrayal”, I want to watch how this at first glance stoic character loses the shit out of his stoicism, even if I already knows what is going to happen. The fact he already got affected by Catra’s lies over Entrapta betraying him proves how far he has gone since Entrapta came to his life, if he was just impressed by Entrapta or wanted to use her, that wouldn’t have affected him that much, he already feels something for her, but he struggles to know what it is, and even if he denies it due to what just happened, he is still feeling it.

Which makes the anticipation to the discovery of Catra’s lies so much more painful. 

Also, the fact he believed Catra, just like that, made me feel disappointed, but that is based on the complexity of the character and his self-loathing, he feels he doesn’t deserves friendship nor love; he is a defective clone after all, in his own mind he is imperfect and she is the complete opposite of that, so believing it is easy, but that doesn’t make it less painful, and that is what I am sure Hordak will realize ultimately.

I don’t know how long will took me to watch the season 4, but I know is worth the effort if I want to see Entrapta and Hordak together again, I love them, they are pure brain and incredible refreshing to watch, and the affection they feel for each other is obvious, one of the most bittersweet scenes for me was when Entrapta remembered Hordak due to the trio saying his name, her suddenly quiet behavior and calmed and painful smiled was so unlikely of her that one has to admit something more is going on, also her choice of language, “I had a lab partner”, not “I have”, gives a sense of sadness to the whole scene that broke my damn heart.

I will tag you guys @cruelfeline @ineffablelabpartners @etherian-affairs because I want to know your opinions about this, I never thought Entrapdak was gonna affect me that way, in fact I never expected to ship them at all, but here we are, dying for them and I just can’t escape.

[jbuffyangel]

The North Star: Arrow 7x08 Review (Unmasked)

Well I wasn’t expecting this that’s for sure. I’m not listening to reviewers with screeners anymore. Their descriptions of the episode are almost identical, but inevitably whatever episode they watched is not the one I watched.  I’m starting to wonder if reviewers are paid for writing agreed upon talking points. Then again I might just be moody.

“Unmasked” has a lot of good stuff. It also has a lot of bad stuff. And then there’s the WTF stuff.

Let’s dig in…

Olicity

Before I dive into our faves, I wanted to clarify a few things. I’ve been noticing some push back online about the phrase “dark spiral” in terms of discussing Felicity’s current arc. The general complaint seems to be when Oliver does whatever it takes to protect his family he is called a hero, but when Felicity does the same thing it’s called a dark spiral. Therefore, there are some misogynistic connotations using this term regarding Felicity’s arc. Since I am someone who frequently uses dark and light terminology to describe our characters I thought I should address this.

Dark spiral does not mean evil to me. It means a moral crisis. Every hero, at one point or another, goes through a moral crisis where they reexamine how they look at the world. This is typically brought on by trauma, loss, anger, grief, etc. This means the hero is not in the best emotional place to be making moral judgments. 

Please note I am using the word hero. A character does not stop being a hero simply because they are going through a dark spiral. The hero doesn’t suddenly become a villain because they are crossing some lines to get the job done.

Light and dark are terms to represent the best part of ourselves and the worst. We all have light and dark in us. We all have the ability to make wonderful, righteous, selfless and virtuous choices. This is the light. We all have the ability to make bad, questionable, uncompassionate and immoral choices. This is the dark. 

It doesn’t matter if you are male or female; we all have these opposing sides in us. We all have the space between light and dark, the shadows, or white and black, the grey, where our morality and choices are not clear cut. This is what it means to be human.

I don’t describe what villains do as darkness either. Damien Darhk, Ra’s Al Ghul and Diaz are evil. Can our darkness lead to evil? Yes, this is why we must be vigilant about it. However, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak and John Diggle aren’t going to become the villains in this story. They are the heroes who will sometimes experience a moral crisis and make questionable choices.

Oliver Queen is a character who consistently makes questionable choices and whenever he does I call it darkness. It doesn’t mean Oliver stopped being a hero. More often than not, his intentions are very good and he has a moral justification for his decisions. The problem is we can justify just about anything, which is why it is important to have some kind of moral code. This isn’t a standard I merely hold fictional superheroes to. It is one I hold myself to.

Arrow is being extremely sloppy about the kinds of situations they are putting their characters in, particularly Felicity. They are conflating very different scenarios into the same scenario and then saying it requires same response. This could not be further from the truth.

There is a very big difference between self defense and murder. If Felicity had to kill Diaz after he broke into her apartment, while in witness protection, then it would be self defense. It would be a completely necessary and reasonable decision. Felicity absolutely has the right to protect herself and her child.

However, killing Diaz when he’s unarmed, handcuffed, and in protective custody is not okay with me. That wasn’t about self defense. That was about retribution. Felicity wanted to take Diaz’s life because he took hers. That is murder.

I apply the same morality with Oliver Queen. Oliver had to kill Ra’s Al Ghul when they fought on the mountain. He couldn’t work out an agreement over Sarah’s death over tea with Ra’s Al Ghul. However, I had an issue with Oliver killing a de-magicked Damien Darhk. Yes, I know he killed thousands with a nuke. Yes, I know he was only de-magicked because the city imbued Oliver with hope and he was able to repel Damien’s powers.

However, there’s the rub. There was another way to stop Damien short of killing him. Would Oliver have to think outside the box a bit? Yes, but my frustration with Arrow is they never allow Oliver those types of outs, even though Barry Allen is given multiple options to avoid killing the villain. It’s always about killing or not killing with Oliver.  He couldn’t even use the friggin underground prison he had on Lian Yu. This is one of the reasons I am very excited about Arrow giving Oliver the option of the justice system.

Every Big Bad deserves to die. They are all horrible, evil people, who murder innocents, have unstoppable ninja skills, magic, super strength, armies, a city under their control, and the ability to escape from prison. So why does Slade Wilson get to live? Why does Malcolm Merlyn? Oliver is making emotional decisions when he’s choosing whether or not to end someone’s life. This is why he picks up and sets down his no killing vow as it suits him. That’s not having a moral code. I’m not losing sleep over any of these bad guys dying, but it doesn’t mean I agree with the decisions. Nor does it mean I believe this is the kind of hero Oliver Queen should be.

There have been several times Felicity Smoak is acting in self defense and that is perfectly acceptable. There are other times she is making the same moral judgments I disagreed with Oliver over and I’m going to call her on it even though it is Felicity. Am I saying I don’t like Felicity or believe she’s a bad person who has gone all evil? No, absolutely not. 

This is part of the hero evolution process and Felicity Smoak is as much of a hero as Oliver Queen. This is why exploring a darker arc is vitally important. Is Felicity morally justified in some of these more questionable choices? Yes, but simply because you can morally justify a choice doesn’t automatically make the choice morally right. I also hold Oliver, Felicity and Diggle to a higher standard than I do a regular Joe because they are heroes.

I also recognize killing a villain is not the same as killing an innocent person. Let’s say Felicity killed Diaz while he was in police custody. This is not the same as Bl*ck S*ren murdering a bunch of innocent people. If a hero kills a villain it doesn’t automatically make the hero a villain. If I believed Oliver Queen was a bad person because he killed bad people then I wouldn’t have watched the show. I recognize Oliver’s heroism when he’s making decisions nobody is willing to make and accepting the responsibility for those choices.  

However, I don’t believe killing is right. There are very few circumstances where I believe killing is justified. This is just my personal morality. It doesn’t have to be yours. However, I am applying the same morality to Felicity I apply to Oliver. I am going to keep describing it in the same terminology as well.  So, I hope this clears up any confusion regarding my meaning behind dark, light, dark spiral and my general view on morality in regards to Arrow.

Okay. Enough of this. Let’s talk about the sex.

To be honest, it was a letdown. 

We started out so good. 

We were micro inches away from shower sex y’all! But Oliver goes into full prison PTSD mode. 

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

He pulls the shower curtain back to reveal a startled, but silky robe clad Felicity Smoak. She was about to hop in the shower with him. Nobody can tell me different. I know my truth.

Oliver is available to zip up her dress though. ( I want you to zip it down you big pine tree. We really should be united on this. I am shocked I have to explain it to you.)

Felicity leans into his touch as he slowly zips the dress up. 

She rests her head back against his chest and broad shoulders and feels the warmth of his breath as he whispers in her ear.

This is what she missed. Not simply having someone around to help with her dress, but the physical reassurance she is not alone. 

Felicity can finally lean against the man she loves, take comfort in the strength of his arms, and find reassurance in his soft, gentle voice. The voice meant only for her. 

There’s no more glass separating them. Felicity can touch Oliver again. He’s real. Her husband is home.

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

Oliver tries to wiggle out of going to the fundraiser being held in his honor. 

He’s clearly nervous about seeing his friends and citizens of Star City post prison. Oliver is quieter, softer, reserved and more withdrawn after his violent life at Slabslide. He’s gingerly dipping his toe back into the water, unsure of his next steps, like a child walking into the ocean for the first time. Oliver has returned from yet another island. After seven months, everything that was once familiar is now unrecognizable.

Source: andjustforthismoment 

Everything except Felicity… or so he thinks. She still believes in him, even if Oliver is uncertain. He knows the people of Star City are angry with him. He feels apprehensive because Oliver also understands they have a right to be. 

Star City citizen’s can clock a 2 on an angry scale of 1-10, due to the inordinate amount of times Oliver Queen/Green Arrow saved them from mass destruction and certain death. Not to be a stickler on the maths, but facts are facts. At least the ungrateful twats are publicly recognizing Oliver as a hero. I’m still waiting on the key to the city though (side eyes B*rry All*n bitterly). 

However, Felicity explains this is finally Oliver’s opportunity to show Star City who he truly is without a mask. Oliver may be apprehensive, but Felicity knows once the city sees Oliver for the hero he is they will fall in love with him just like she did.

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

This is what he missed. Not simply the softness of her skin or the way she looks in that dress, but Felicity’s unwavering unconditional love and belief. 

Oliver could feel it while he was in prison, but it’s very different when she’s kneeling before him and he can stare into her big, blue eyes while holding her hand. There’s no more glass separating them. Oliver can touch Felicity again. She’s real. He is home.

Oliver runs his fingers over her wedding band, the infinite loop reminding him of the promises they made each other one year ago today. Remembering the anniversary is Husband 101, but Felicity is trying to give Oliver time and understanding as he eases his way back into everyday life. So, Felicity is thrilled when Oliver repeats a line from his vows.

Girl, he’s been separated from you for months and you are the literal air he breathes. Anniversary also equals guaranteed sex and it’s been seven months. Oliver ain’t forgettin’ it.

We start out with so much promise. 

Source:  oliverxfelicity

Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards should teach a course on how to kiss on camera. We shall call this course “How to Be Hot 400.” Yes, it’s an upperclassmen course. Sorry freshmen. 

Source:  whoeveryoulovethemost

Oliver takes off his shirt (no invitation needed - thatta boy) and Felicity runs her hands over his chest. 

Source:  oliverxfelicity

Oliver lifts her up into his arms and they fall back onto the bed. Yes, yes… go on.

AND THEN THE CAMERA CUTS AWAY. 

We didn’t even get that great of a shot in the mirror’s reflection. 

Source: oliverxfelicity

I’ll take a lower half shot if Oliver is getting handsy, but there’s no handsy. WHERE’S THE HANDSY? It’s been seven months. He should be migrating to the glorious Felicity Smoak arse in record time. The dress should be off by now. I should see it fly across the room in the mirrored reflection as Oliver moves other… places. I won’t get into too much detail. I’m a lady.

Listen, I’m a nice person. I deserve nice things. We waited a year and a half for a shirtless 15 second make out session??? 

We didn’t get post nuptial sex and now they shorted us on anniversary sex. 

 I demand angry sex as recompense.

At least they had the common sense to include some dirty innuendo. 

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

Hehehe. Oh, we all know your first meal, big fella. Say no more. Wait, isn’t a double double four? WELL DONE SIR. 

Felicity, girl you deserve it.

Every time Oliver returns home from an island there is the inevitable mob of aggressive reporters and cameras. One of the loneliest scenes in Season 1 is watching Oliver fight through it on his own. 

Source:  hollandrooden

Now Oliver has Felicity and she not only holds his hand through it, but is his friggin bodyguard to boot. (Yeah, I said what I said Diggle.) 

Ugh, Max Fuller. This douche bag again. Weirdly has not aged a day, so he may be a vampire. 

Source:  oliverfelicitygifs

At least his asshole comments provide an opportunity for Felicity to mark her territory and that never gets old. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

No, Oliver was not the marrying type until he met this genius, funny, warm, insightful, bullshit detecting, red pen-chewing, blonde sunshine and then all he wanted was to have lots of sex and babies with her. Catch up Fuller.

Bl*ck S*ren swings by to keep up appearances and Lyla asks in a not so hushed tone, “Are we friends with her now?” 

This cracks me up any time any character says it. I’m comfortable with the classification of frenemy. Bl*ck S*ren is the Cordelia Chase of Team Arrow. You know, if Cordelia was a murderer. Scratch that. Bl*ck S*ren is the Spike.

Felicity reminds everyone the only person who actually helped her get Oliver out of prison was BS. 

Oliver for his part tries to be gracious and thank her. 

Bl*ck S*ren’s response is a back handed compliment, but it reveals an uneasiness between Oliver and Felicity not even four orgasms can fix. 

Source: katie-mcgraths

Worth a shot though.

Olicity has the fight we’ve been waiting for after Max Fuller sends one of his goons after Oliver.  First, we need to talk about Felicity’s state of mind. She is clearly traumatized from her experiences with Diaz and as a result is obsessed with security. 

When Curtis asks Felicity what is next she tells everyone she’s building a new security system. It’s her Spidey sense tingling, and not Oliver’s, when she realizes the security system she installed didn’t go off when Oliver entered the apartment. Then, Felicity hides behind her chain linked curtains, which can stop arrows, when the goon breaks into the apartment. And finally, she goes for her gun. 

So, clearly Felicity is experiencing PTSD no different from what we witnessed with Oliver in the shower earlier.

Oliver is handling the situation with the Fuller goon. It’s one guy. Arrow has finally remembered Oliver Queen can take down ten without breaking a sweat. This will not be a problem. Is it taking a minute? Yes, but he’s still Oliver. He dove over counter tops and furniture to throw his body in front of arrows to protect Felicity. He’s got this.

Oliver throws the goon into a wall and he’s essentially down. He begins to question said goon in his big, scary, lower octave, Green Arrow rumble when Felicity joins in with her gun. 

I agree with Oliver’s reaction which is, “What the fuck are you doing?” 

This distracts Oliver for a microsecond and the goon gets up. 

Prosecutable in a court of law? No, the goon broke in. Technically it is self defense, but also whoa babe! Stop shooting suspects!!! 

Let’s holster the happy trigger finger.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs 

Do I feel the use of the gun is necessary in this circumstance? No, Felicity is married to The Terminator. He’s home now and perfectly capable of protecting her from one guy. 

However, this break in is clearly meant to echo the one we saw in the premiere with Diaz. Her security system failed then too. Only she was home alone with a 12 year old boy and Diaz was the one with a gun. All Felicity had to defend herself was a pot of coffee and a poker stick. 

She is literally reliving Diaz’s attack, so Felicity responds to this goon with what she wished she had back then – a gun. It doesn’t matter Oliver is there now because her trauma is triggering this response. 

It’s no different than Oliver with the shower curtain.

Do I think it is madness for Felicity to carry a gun? NO!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Oliver’s response to it drove me nuts. He’s more concerned she has a gun than with how she’s using it. This is missing the forest through the trees.

I don’t have any problem with Felicity carrying a gun. I’ve had a general annoyance with Oliver and Diggle for the past seven years regarding Felicity’s training. They’ve trained her to defend herself somewhat. Is she as physically proficient at self defense as everyone else on Team Arrow? No. Not even close, which I find grossly irresponsible on Oliver’s part. 

While we’re training L*urel, Rene, Dinah and Curtis to be ninjas, Felicity is just sitting at the computer typing. We can’t toss the girl a staff and go a few rounds? Instead, they send her out into the field in high heels and a mini skirt as she uses a stick, laptop, or whatever she can find to defend herself.  Give me a break.

Diggle warned Oliver about this when Felicity joined the team. Oliver’s entire defense strategy for Felicity was HIM.

She didn’t need to know how to fight back the same way other team members did because Oliver always planned on fighting for her. 

He would throw himself in front of any bullet or arrow before he let it touch her. 

It’s romantic, but not very practical. Oliver also never planned on Felicity going into the field as much as she has. As soon as she did he had a responsibility to train her more and he didn’t.

Generally speaking, Oliver has does an extremely good job protecting Felicity. 

He is true to his word.  Oliver always uses his body to shield Felicity from anything coming her way.

Oliver did teach Felicity to defend herself too. 

We’ve seen her defend herself time after time. 

By no means am I saying Felicity Smoak is a damsel in distress.

She was not, however, capable of defeating someone like Ricardo Diaz. Felicity Smoak is the wife of the Green Arrow.  The minute Oliver made that announcement to the world he put a target on her back and then disappeared into his island.

The only defense Felicity has against someone like Diaz, or anyone else with a fighting capability beyond her own, is Oliver. But he was gone. She was alone to defend herself and their son.

The security system Felicity had in witness protection was A.R.G.U.S. and they were completely worthless. What does A.R.G.U.S. do besides screw up? Their big plan was to watch Felicity and William, which equated to a failed security system and taking five minutes to respond when she’s under attack. News flash: it doesn’t actually take that long to kill someone.

It is irresponsible for Felicity not to have some kind of weapon to defend herself with. Oliver, Diggle, Dinah, Rene and L*urel all carried guns, but the minute Felicity does it’s, “GASP. OH NO! SHE’S EVIL.” Talk about your Madonna/Whore complex. She has a gun so she’s a whore! Unbelievable.

I have a problem with how Felicity used the gun. I have no problem with Felicity having a gun. It is just smart.  In the immortal words of Frank Castle, “You still got that hand canon?” Start packing baby girl. Go with God.

But we’re not dealing with Frank Castle. Unfortunately, we’re dealing with Oliver Queen. Who has apparently forgotten all the bullets and arrows he’s pumped into suspects the last decade, because he’s super judgey.

Oliver: Where’d you even get a gun? You’re new best friend Laurel?

Felicity: Of course not. I got it from your ex-best friend Anatoly.

Oliver: You what? I’ve barely been gone seven months and you’ve aligned yourself with two of the most immoral people we know?

Listen, pretty boy. I am glad you’ve found moral enlightenment and are now walking the higher plane, but you’ve been there for all of five minutes. 

Let’s not forget you’ve made an entire career of aligning yourself with the most immoral people on the planet. In fact, you worked with Talia and Turner inside of prison!!! Neither one is exactly a Care Bear. Turner may have some good in him, but he’s also a murderer. So, dial down the moral condemnation.

Thank goodness Felicity is not taking any of Oliver’s crap.

Felicity:  Oliver, you don’t get to judge me.

Oliver: You just shot a man in our living room.

Felicity: Something you’ve done a million times.

What’s frustrating is Oliver isn’t asking the right questions. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

He’s not focusing on the clear trauma Felicity has suffered. He’s not asking why she feels unsafe, what her fears are or how he can help her. It’s all about who Felicity has been working with, which is again, missing the forest through the trees.

I have a real beef with Oliver’s remark, “This isn’t you.” Felicity is going through a dark spiral and is reexamining her morality. However, this concept Felicity is this lily white Virgin Mary character is baffling to me. 

Felicity was already breaking the law as a hacker before she even met Oliver. Then, she signed up with a guy who was dropping bodies regularly and fell in love with him. We aren’t dealing with Rainbow Brite! Felicity’s morality was light years ahead of Oliver’s, but she could reconcile murder and breaking the law for the greater good. That’s a darker skew on morality.

And apparently Oliver has just erased all of Season 5 because he clearly has no recollection of Helix. Maybe one of his head wounds is more serious than I thought and he’s experiencing amnesia. 

Felicity showed she would do whatever was necessary to avenge her boyfriend of five minutes. What did Oliver think she was going to do when her husband and child were threatened? She wasn’t going to Pottery Barn to pick out fabric swatches for the new apartment, Oliver.

Arrow is really focused on Oliver putting people in boxes because he has to learn not to. I get it. However, it’s resulting in some sloppy writing because he’s blatantly ignoring Felicity’s history to keep her on this pedestal. Oliver needs to realize his wife is human. I thought he already realized this in Season 5, but I guess we’re repeating it in Season 7. It’s fine. Hopefully they do a deeper dive on it than they did in Season 5.

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs 

“This is me because of you,”  is the line I’ve been waiting seven months to hear Felicity say. We had a little taste of it when she visited Oliver in prison, but she couldn’t unleash her anger full force because he was in prison. 

Oliver is home now though and it’s time to deal with this. 

Felicity reminds Oliver he destroyed their lives. He left his wife and child to the wolves without even discussing it with her Felicity. I mean, sweet mother of Moses, what did he expect?

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Oliver’s response to Felicity’s completely warranted anger pissed me off too. He’s very, “How many more times do I have to apologize for this?” MORE THAN ONCE ASSHOLE.

But Felicity isn’t looking for an apology anymore. What good is an apology at this point? What’s done is done. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Oliver’s actions have consequences. He continually lies and believes an apology will somehow be a magic wand erasing all the damage he’s done. Marriage doesn’t work like that. Life doesn’t work like that.

I just had this fight with my husband, which is why I respond so much to Felicity in “Unmasked.” She is saying very similar things I said to my husband. Believing you are not going to impact each other’s personalities over the years is naive. You can’t continue the same hurtful behavior and expect it not to change who your partner is.

Felicity has told Oliver several times she feels abandoned when he makes decisions without her. This behavior hits Felicity where it hurts. This is her greatest fear. Her pain is raw and exposed. Yet, Oliver continues to make decisions without consulting her. I don’t even think he checked with her before going back out into the field as Green Arrow. I hope to God he did, but if not this is exactly what she’s talking about.

Felicity is required to make changes inside of herself due to the impact of Oliver’s decisions. Oliver abandoned her. He left her alone, with a child and defenseless. As did their “friends.” 

So, Felicity had to learn how to defend herself. She had to learn how to survive.

Oliver Queen wasn’t the only one on an island. Felicity is on one too, but her island was made by her husband. Oliver may be home, but Felicity is not. 

Felicity is still on that island, fighting alone every day to survive, because she can’t trust Oliver won’t make another decision without her. Felicity doesn’t trust Oliver won’t abandon her all over again.

Felicity is making decisions for herself that, yeah Oliver, maybe aren’t typical to the woman you knew seventh months ago. His behavior in this marriage is impacting the decisions Felicity makes and those decisions are changing who she is.  It is cause and effect.

Oliver can say he’s sorry all he wants, but it doesn’t erase the trauma Felicity is dealing with now. Oliver needs to walk through these consequences with his wife and understand the impact he’s made. There’s no magic wand.

I understand Oliver is dealing with trauma too and acclimating himself to life outside of Slabside. He’s missed a lot and needs a moment to catch up. We are dealing with two traumatized people. However, Felicity has always treated a traumatized Oliver with compassion. One of my main frustrations with Oliver in “Unmasked” is he’s coming to this fight with a lot of moral condemnation.

We’ve been down many dark spirals with Oliver Queen. He is constantly reexamining his morality. Oliver is constantly pick up and putting down his “no killing” vow. He expects everyone to get on board with whatever he decides whenever he decides it. Felicity has never approached Oliver’s darkness with moral condemnation. If anything she treated him with kid cloves. 

Felicity harnesses Oliver’s light with cups of coffee, reassurance, forgiveness, belief and unconditional love. 

Oliver’s response to Felicity’s dark spiral in “Unmasked” is, “Who the hell having you been working with?” 

Oliver realizing criminals are human too does not make him morally superior to everyone else. Felicity has been arguing this kind of morality for the last seven years. I’m happy Oliver has finally gotten on board, but he’s not suddenly Jesus.

That said, Oliver’s experience in Slabside, and his new found moral code, will make him into the superhero Felicity Smoak needs right now. He is absolutely capable of harnessing her light, but unfortunately we did not see much of that hero in this fight.

There is a glimpse of that hero though. We get a clear view of the deep hole Felicity is in when she tells Oliver the person she was before was weak. 

Oliver is just completely dumbfounded by this. How can Felicity believe she is anything, but the strongest person Oliver knows?

Source: whoeveryoulovethemost 

I shared Oliver’s shock because I too cannot fathom Felicity ever viewing herself as weak. The line really bothered me, but it’s supposed to. This is another manifestation of Felicity’s trauma. She’s viewing herself as weak both physically and emotionally. The person she was couldn’t physically protect herself.  The gun and new security measures are all coping mechanisms for Felicity’s deep rooted fear.

Felicity can feel her fear inside and she views that as weakness too. She never wants to feel afraid like this again.  So, she’s reviewing her morality. The woman who was not willing to do whatever it takes was weak. 

This is a very Oliver Queen Season 1-3 attitude. Oliver always believed his humanity was a weakness. 

Now Felicity is viewing her humanity as a weakness, which is so heartbreaking.

Oliver is shocked and saddened by Felicity’s remark because her humanity inspired his humanity. 

Source: whoeveryoulovethemost

It’s why Oliver believes Felicity is the best part of him. Anything to the contrary is unfathomable. Felicity needs to see herself through Oliver’s eyes, just as Oliver saw himself through Felicity’s eyes. He needs to be a hero to Felicity like she was to him. That’s the love, the light, which will illuminate the path out of the dark.

However, there’s another reason Oliver repeated those vows. “You’re the very best part of me” assigns an ownership and responsibility to Felicity over her husband’s soul that is unfair. It’s something Felicity touched on when she tells Oliver ultimately who she is, and the decisions she makes, aren’t on him. Those decisions are on her.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

The same goes for Oliver. Felicity can’t be responsible for harnessing Oliver’s light all the time. He has to inspire himself. Oliver has to harness his light on his own. He did a good job in Slabside, but now that he’s home he can’t fall back to relying on Diggle and Felicity to be his cheerleading squad. Oliver has to be a good person all by himself without someone holding his hand.

This pushes both Oliver and Felicity in new and important directions. This dark spiral gives Felicity’s character a freedom she’s never had before. Oliver’s enlightenment gives him a new sense of accountability.

Source:  olivergifs

We finally achieve a moment that has been a long time coming in Oliver Queen’s journey toward becoming a fully realized superhero. Oliver lied to the people of Star City and understands the only way to gain their trust is by being honest (*cough*apply this to your marriage Oliver*cough*). He decides to go out into the field as Green Arrow with his hood down and without a mask. 

Source:  olivergifs 

For the first time, Oliver is merging both personas. He realizes part of being a hero is being accountable for his actions.  He doesn’t remain in the shadows, but steps into the light as Green Arrow for the entire world to see. 

Source: whoeveryoulovethemost 

This is a moment I’ve written about for years and it fills me with a lot of joy watching Oliver finally putting the pieces together.

While their argument is necessary, it also feels mishandled by the Arrow writers because Oliver and Felicity are acting so extreme. Oliver’s reaction to the gun is extreme. How Felicity uses the gun is extreme. They cram a discussion we’ve waited seven months for into two little scenes. There’s way too much other nonsense going on. The Olicity scenes don’t get the time and attention they deserve. It feels sloppy as a result.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

The two circle back to one another at the end of the episode to find some way to merge their diverting paths.  This time Oliver tries the softer and gentler coffee approach. See? He’s learning!

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

The last seven months has impacted each of them in permanent ways. Felicity is right. Oliver simply can’t talk her down to the old Felicity chewing the red pen. 

Life changes us, but I don’t believe this is about getting the old Felicity back. Oliver’s journey was never about restoring an old version of him. It was about finding the new person, the new hero, he had become. It was about learning to balance the light and dark.

Oliver may not be able to talk Felicity into her old self, but maybe he can inspire the new hero she wants to be. Someone who has light and dark. Someone who is impacted by their trauma, but not ruled by it. Someone who makes choices not out of anger, fear or pain, but from compassion. This is the hero Felicity inspired Oliver to be. So, now it’s his time to return the favor.

I am not remotely concerned about Olicity. There is no shortage of love between these too. They didn’t spend seven months fighting to be together just to separate.

Source: oliverfelicitygifs

I know they are on different paths right now, but they will find their way back to one another. This happens in marriage. Learning how to repair broken bridges is a large part of being married. My sincerest hope is they continue with Felicity’s moral crisis and keep examining the kind of hero she wants to be.  

She’s going through the same trajectory Oliver went through. It’s a mini trajectory. It won’t take Felicity seven years to get there, primarily because she’s smarter than Oliver, but I do hope the writers give the character the freedom she’s earned. I certainly was patient with Oliver crossing lines, so I have to give her character the same in turn.  

That said, Felicity Smoak is always a person who valued human life. So, the moments she’s not are when I am questioning her moral justifications. She admits to Oliver she would have killed Diaz and I don’t mind Oliver being shocked by her actions. Killing an unarmed man in police custody is A-typical Felicity Smoak behavior and Oliver has a right to be concerned.

What drives me nuts about this final scene is when Felicity says this:

Source: oliverfelicitygifs 

The idea that Felicity’s darkness is incompatible with their relationship makes me want to pull my hair out.  

I realize Felicity is channeling Season 1 – Season 3 Oliver and he always used his darkness as a reason why they couldn’t be together. However, they weren’t married at the time. Yeah, that’s right kids. You signed the paperwork. You are legally required to wake up next to each other.  Felicity doesn’t need to be sunshine and rainbows all the time for their marriage to function. It’s okay if Felicity gets lost. Oliver needs to put on his big boy pants anyways. This gives him a perfect opportunity to do so.

The line doesn’t even really make all that much sense given the context of their conversation. 

To be honest, it feels like the toss away divorce line. NO I AM NOT SAYING THEY ARE NOT GETTING A DIVORCE.  In fact, that’s why I’m annoyed with the line because I know they aren’t getting a divorce. Arrow isn’t even considering divorcing Olicity. It’s just relying on a tired, old television trope to bring viewers back after winter hiatus. “Oh no! I better tune in January to see if Oliver and Felicity get a divorce!” This is spectacularly lazy writing. 

If Arrow is incapable of drumming up drama in Olicity’s marriage without threatening divorce every time there’s a bump in the road then they are just crappy writers. Plain and simple. Dig deeper, Arrow. There’s plenty to mine in Olicity’s relationship without fake threats of legal proceedings.

I’m not ending on cranky though because I found some additional hope, should you need it, in the flash forwards. Yes I found hope in the flash forwards. It’s a friggin miracle.

Dinah shows William a tattoo on her wrist. 

Source:  mei-pellegrino

It’s called the Mark of Four and is something Oliver came up with. It represents the four pillars of heroism: courage, compassion, selflessness, and loyalty. It’s the reason Roy came back to Star City with William.

Dinah: We all got them as a reminder that no matter what happened if one of us was in trouble the other ones would be there.

The tattoo is shaped like a compass. Three of the marks have arrows as end points, but the one at the top faces north with a star end point. Oliver’s legacy, the kind of hero he inspires, is one who embraces courage, compassion, selflessness and loyalty. If they follow the four pillars like the North Star then they’ll never become lost in the dark. Everyone on the team has the tattoo. Everyone decided this was the kind of hero they wanted to be.

We can look at symbolism multiple ways to find more than one meaning, which is the fun. This tattoo also tells us everything we need to know about Felicity’s trajectory. Dinah began at the star when she listed the four pillars. She started with courage. Courage is the North Star and Oliver always says Felicity Smoak is the strongest person he knows.

Her strength has never been physical to Oliver Queen. She may not be able to take down Ra’s Al Ghul in a sword fight, but Oliver believes Felicity is stronger than him. Why? Felicity embraces her humanity even when the world has given her every reason to shut off her heart. For Oliver Queen, this is the most courageous thing a person can do. This is why she has always pointed the way for him.

We know Felicity has the Mark of Four tattoo because she inspired it. Courage, compassion, selflessness and loyalty are the very best parts of Oliver Queen. The Green Arrow encapsulates the four pillars because of the light Felicity harnessed in Oliver. When Oliver became lost in the dark he looked to Felicity for his way out. She was the North Star for Oliver, so he could become the North Star for everyone else.

Felicity is on the same path. She is not only Oliver’s great love, but his equal in every way. They are becoming full realized superheroes together. Oliver will remind Felicity her humanity is the very best part of her.  We all become lost in the dark at some point, but Felicity will find her way again. She simply needs to find the North Star inside herself again.  Felicity inspired the four pillars because she is the four pillars. The Mark of Four is the kind of hero Felicity will become because it’s the hero she’s always been.

Flash Forwards

Maya is Blackstar. (Waves excitedly at Katherine McNamara).

Source:  Source:veronica-lodge

Well done fandom.  

However, William, Dinah and Zoe don't know who Blackstar is. 

Does this mean she is not Olicity’s daughter and William’s sister? No. I still believe she is for reasons I’ll get into in a minute.  I genuinely wasn’t expecting any kind of confirmation from William or even a hint she may be his sister because it blows the lid off Beth’s big surprise. If Felicity is pregnant at the end of the season then it’s Arrow’s big May sweeps shocker.  

So, they aren’t going to confirm anything in the mid season finale. In fact, the smart thing to do is to cast a lot of doubt she has any connection to William.

However, there are signs she does. Arrow made a really big show of Oliver drinking scotch this week.  Max Fuller breaks out an expensive bottle and Oliver sits down for a drink.

Source:  whoeveryoulovethemost

Oliver ordered scotch on his first date with Felicity. 

It was his drink of choice while drowning his sorrows in the Arrow bunker in 5x19

Scotch is Oliver’s drink. 

He only switches to vodka when he’s drinking with Diggle.

William asks for Blackstars’ help at the bar while she’s drinking, you got it, scotch. 

Source: veronica-lodge

She’s cage fighting in Max Fuller’s old club. It doesn’t hurt Katherine McNamara tweeted about the booze. 

What’s the reason for making such a big deal out of such a small detail?

The second big hint Blackstar is Oliver Queen’s daughter is her fighting style. 

Source: veronica-lodge

The cage fight is very similar to the Oliver’s fights we’ve seen this season. She’s obviously been trained by Oliver Queen or at least by someone who knows Oliver Queen. Not to mention her whole attitude and vibe felt very Oliver Queen.

Source: veronica-lodge

Why does it matter if she is similar to Oliver Queen? Well, Arrow has spent a lot of time showing how similar William is to Felicity. Their connection may not be biological, but it is familial. 

I think they are doing the same thing with Blackstar only she is her father’s daughter.

There are still more clues:

She has a Queen Bee tattoo on her back shoulder – the same place Oliver once had his tattoo.

Her code name Blackstar could be a reference to the Mark of Four. As I explained earlier, the first pillar has a black star as an endpoint and it faces north. Blackstar seems to be a particularly on the nose code name for someone who doesn’t have any relationship to Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak, the people who inspired the Mark of Four.  

The camera transitioned from the Olicity love scene directly to William looking for Blackstar during her cage fight. These transitions are extremely important to pay attention to because they connect the dots.

Blackstar is protective of Felicity Smoak as well. At first, she pretends not to know her, but when William informs Blackstar Felicity is dead she immediately looks upset. 

Source: veronica-lodge

Blackstar confirms she worked as a broker for Felicity to obtain trigger mechanisms for a bomb. But her warnings sound more like a threat. 

Source:  dctvladies 

Sort of like, “I’ll slit your throat if you mess with my Mama.”

Did you notice how quickly Blackstar changed the subject when William said she has a lot in common with Felicity? Maybe they are not only working together, but are mother and daughter.

Finally, the characters went to great pains to avoid calling Blackstar by her real name or even asking what it is. She didn’t even use the name Maya, which I still maintain is an Arrow code name to avoid spoiling the surprise. There’s something about Blackstar’s name which gives away her identity. Could her name be Moira? Methinks yes.

Could Blackstar be Arrow’s version of Mia Dearden, Oliver Queen’s ward? No, I don’t think so. Marc Guggenheim said many times in early interviews Thea Queen was Arrow’s version of Mia Dearden. Thea’s middle name is Dearden and she used the code name Mia Dearden while living in Corto Maltese with Malcolm Merlyn.  

Technically, Roy was Oliver’s ward. Roy was essentially homeless and Oliver took him in. It is Roy who ultimately inspired Thea’s superhero identity – Speedy. Mia Dearden is Speedy in the comics. There are too many Mia Dearden threads in Thea’s character. They’ve already been there and done that.

Is it possible they are repeating the character because Thea is off the show? No, because they already have replacement sister waiting in the wings with Emiko Queen. If there’s a character who is trying to fill Thea’s role on the show then it’s Emiko, not Blackstar.

Source:  arrowdaily

Stephen welcomed Katherine McNamara to the show by tweeting, “Welcome to the family.” This is also what he tweeted to Sea Shimooka and Ben Lewis when they joined the show and they are playing Oliver’s blood relatives.

“But Jen these are such minuscule details! They don’t meaning anything!” We’ll have to agree to disagree these subtle not so subtle hints don’t mean anything. I think they do. This is how it starts. We often have very little evidence of the direction Arrow is going in the beginning of these mysteries/surprises. 

The bouquet was the first hint for the wedding.

In the beginning of Season 4, we had very little hints as to who was in the grave. K*tie C*ssidy’s lack of storyline discussion at SDCC was honestly the biggest clue.  

These minuscule clues Arrow offers via symbolism or imagery are often all we have to go on.  

As the season progresses there will be more clues. Once the big surprise is revealed everyone will look back at the earlier scenes and realize the signs were there all along. So, yeah I’m going all in on scotch.

If Blackstar is William’s sister then it’s heartbreaking to realize he doesn’t know or recognize her. This means William has been separated from his family for much longer than we thought. 

If Olicity gets pregnant this year, then William will be at least 12 years older than his sibling. He’ll be leaving for college in about six years. Maybe whatever happens to break the family apart happens after William leaves home. It is possible he wouldn’t recognize his sister if the last time he saw her was around age 5 or 6. Or maybe William doesn’t recognize his sister because he believes she’s dead.  

There are tons of plot holes right now because we don’t have all the information. However, there are many plausible explanations for William and Blackstars’ separation. It echoes Oliver and Thea’s separation in the beginning of the series only on a much larger scale. If Arrow’s goal is to expand the show, and William and Blackstar are brother and sister, then this gives the writers tons of story potential to build the relationship going forward.

So, either Felicity or Oliver don’t have any more children other than William, which makes me sad or William has been separated from his family even longer than we anticipated. This also makes me sad. Neither option is great. Fingers crossed William is just pretending not to know Blackstar to keep her cover (but I doubt it).

The essential problem with the flash forwards is there’s  just bad news on top of bad new week after week. I know Arrow is a dark show and I like that it is because it means there are consequences. However, Arrow isn’t only dark. There’s a lot of hope too.

Unfortunately, we aren’t getting a lot of hope in the flash forwards and it’s casting a shadow over any happiness in present day.  This is why we’re not supposed to know the future. Not that there’s much happiness in present day because the writers are trying so hard to sell Felicity is becoming evil. I know the flash backs were dark too, but the present day scenes countered it because we knew Oliver was moving towards a happier place, even when things weren’t going well. Unfortunately, we don’t have that balance this season.  

It’s making me very concerned about a tone shift. I know I said the minute the flash backs were introduced the writers expanded the story and they needed a Lian Yu level event to kick it off.  However, I understand the frustration and sadness. Oliver either never saves the city or his happy life with Felicity is destroyed in a relatively short amount of time. It’s difficult to get hammered with despair on top of despair every week. Oliver needs a win at some point.

Stray Thoughts

Emiko Queen is the new Green Arrow. Oliver has another sister. We been knew.

Oliver is now a Green Arrow consultant for the Star City police department. He’s a legal vigilante. Uhhh... okay? 

Dinah has her own Canary network and Blackstar hates vigilantes. So who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?

Diggle and Lyla are the stupidest to ever stupid by going to Diaz for help. They could have talked to Oliver and Felicity about it beforehand, but noooo. Can the whole “Diggle only gives a crap about himself” storyline end now?

I’m extremely irritated Diaz is back on my television screen, but if Arrow kills Curtis that’ll make it up to me.

I wrote a scene in The Gift where Oliver helps Felicity by zipping her dress down, so dreams come true.

Seriously Oliver you’ve been in prison. We couldn’t break William out of boarding school for a long weekend?

I love crab cakes.

Isn’t Max Fuller a character on Fuller House? Hahaha. That’s funny to me.

I like WASP-y sweater Oliver. Feels very S1. We could throw in a leather jacket again though.

“We didn’t get this treatment when we put Diaz behind bars.” Rene, you’ve been released from time out on account of good behavior, but if you keep saying narcissistic and arrogant crap like this I’m going to throw you back with Dinah, Curtis and Diggle.

“If anyone in here actually gave a crap they’d use that money to help people in hard up neighborhoods who end up in the system because they don’t have anything else.” This sounds very similar to the anger rumbling around The Glades in the city hall meeting. It also sounds very similar to the “Defend the Glades ” attitude in the flash forwards. Calling it now. Given Dinah’s remark about running for office, Rene is the mayor of Star City in the future. Yeesh.

I looooved Bl*ck S*ren’s sparkly jacket and wanted to purchase it for myself, but it was $1700 on sale. I think not.

Oliver catching the arrow with his bare hand was sweet. And hot.

Curtis had one line. This is the way it should always be.

Stop wasting my time with all the Newbie crap. I swear, this show is tone deaf to what an audience is interested in. I also need about 50% less Dinah.

Arrow took 2 ½ minutes to replay the same crossover set up scene they showed on Supergirl the night before. There could have easily included this scene once at the beginning of the crossover during the, “Previously on Arrow/Supergirl and The Flash.” There’s no reason to cut into my show and steal minutes which could have been used for sex.

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[cloudybookash-blog]

Just finished the first season of She-Ra and I only have a small amount of complaints that I think fall more into my personal opinion on characterizations and story lines than anything else. 

Love that the princesses that are there from the beginning are cute, gay and happy. Love that for them.

Love the diversity. Glimmer is body divergent but it never addressed as something inherently bad, or as a flaw - homegirl just look like that. Beau (Bo?) being part of the princesses because he is, and all his little background mannerisms where he’s seen cleaning and keeping things neat. 

Scorpia’s entire personality is the greatest, she’s such a realistic character who belongs to a family that gave their allegiance and power source to the horde willingly and she prides herself in her role by taking care of her troops and running a tight ship whilst also being one of the bad guys because well, she was never welcome with any of the other princesses. Her story is so believable and truly underrated. Plus, she’s just very nice. 

The other princesses having such a wide array of personalities (albeit without many complexities, I’ll admit) is refreshing. 

I’m a fan of the art-style, love all the pretty colors (and kind of reminds me of Steven Universe, ngl). Each setting has its own beautiful color palette, which is always helpful in identifying new places and remembering them when there are about 10.

My only problems really came in three (maybe four) people.

1. Adora. If anything I would’ve thought she’d make the perfect villain. First in everything, the favorite, constantly better than her peers with the emotional range of a teaspoon. Yes, yes, she’s fantastic with her new friends but we’ve seen better characters. She’s given multiple occasions to coerce her old crew into joining the rebellion but she never takes them, and when she does it’s done without heart, like I questioned her integrity a couple of times she just didn’t seem all that willing to help her old friends.

Yes, with Bow (apparently that’s how his name is spelled) and Glimmer she’s loyal and caring, thoughtful even. But none of that loyalty and thoughtfulness is present in her previous relationships. Upon finding out that the Horde is evil and that she more than likely was kidnapped as a young child (insinuating that almost EVERY horde soldier was stolen from their families) she doesn’t, not once, speak to her entire old crew and show them what she knows in a way that isn’t overtly condescending.

There’s a moment where I think Catra is going to join Adora, but even then, Adora is only bargaining, and asking Catra to join her because Catra is literally about to kill her. And EVEN THEN she barely tried, rather than apologising for not being aware enough when they were kids to stand up for Catra in a way that would’ve mattered to her, she just goes on about how Catra doesn’t have to do this. This forces Catra to give up her grounds has someone who’s been wronged because the wrong-does refuses to admit fault.

Like I said, my problems are probably all to do with personal preferences of characters. People probably view this as a unique flaw never really had in an MC before. Except, it’s pretty common in male MC’s in high fantasy’s. And I not only read a lot of those, but also hate them specifically because the characters have minimal self awareness and almost 0% integrity anytime they’re genuinely confronted with their flaws.

2. Catra. Listen, she would’ve been a GREAT She-Ra. You can’t deny it. She’s always coming in second best, she can never get ahead, she’s not only hated but has been actively tortured because of her ties to Adora. She’s been told the only reason she’s kept around is because Adora seems to like her. She’s literally alive because some six year old wanted a pet. She would be the first one to have zero (0) reasons to stay with the horde.

Her entire life has been spent in the shadow and to be able to be She-Ra, with enough support could bring her the confidence in her person she so sorely needs. We’ve seen she’s a great leader, although as a villain in a serial she’s obviously going to be beaten time and time again but she does actually have good plans and she has a flare for the dramatic. 

This isn’t Loki-style fanning over a ‘morally-grey’ character this is sadness at the fact people may interpret her character as, ‘people who are ambitious are evil, people who don’t conform to society, or aren’t very charming socially are evil’. Rather than we (the audience) should try being a little more aware of the people around us and how our actions can deeply effect them.

Catra’s personality and in the end her resolve is formed by the actions of Shadow Weaver, Adora, and her team. They bully, ostracize and abuse her (some, unknowingly of course) but that’ s the point. Her ‘evilness’ is brought on by years of people not being self-aware enough to understand the damage they were causing. She’s a great sympathetic villain, I don’t think I’ve ever even felt sympathy for a fictional ‘bad guy’ before so don’t get me wrong she’s fine in her role. I just, personally, would’ve enjoyed seeing her at the forefront of the rebellion rather than Adora.

With a personality that would’ve been open to an underdog scenario, and her persistent attitude (especially if this was fueled by people supporting and relying on her) she could’ve been a great She-Ra.

3. Entrapta. Again this is solely the whole how she’s going to perceived thing, ‘geeks and freaks are weird and societal outcasts are evil.’ It keeps up this narrative of only certain types of people are allowed to be good, there’s a check list of traits you have to have that are unrelated to your ideologies that decide which side you fight for.

Entrapta, like Catra, is treated like an outcast and always (in sinisterly subtle ways that are usually used as comedic relief) made to feel bad for who she is. She’s curious on top of everything else but the lesson we get about her story ark is curiosity killed the rebellion. It’s like saying ‘don’t be too curious’, otherwise you’ll end up with no morals and will be easily manipulated into joining the ‘evil people’.

When, again, the meaning should be that we REALLY need to put more effort into making those in our society who are different know and understand that they’re important. No, this doesn’t mean baby school shooter, incel type people or people who legitimately go out of their way to hurt others for no reason. But, we shouldn’t treat neuro-divergent people with such hostilities (subtle or otherwise) because then WE create the monster. Just as with Catra, Entrapta was created through the actions of her peers towards her person.

I can’t blame either of these villains for choosing the dark side, who wasn't to be good when the people on the good side don’t want you to be, well, YOU.

4. Decidedly, four things that bug me. Bow and Glimmers (already mentioned Adora’s part in this) and extendedly the other Princesses’ treatment of those in the horde they meet. One specific scene got me MAD. Bow is imprisoned and one of Adora’s ex-crew mates begins betraying his own just because Bow is the first person to actual listen and all this kid wants is to have friends, real friends that would do anything for one another and this poor kid is TRYING. Bow’s reaction was abysmal to say the least. At first, he cracks a joke that he doesn’t really have a choice as he’s imprisoned, we get it, funny ha-ha. But, he genuinely appears to believe that the only reason he’s listening is because he’s imprisoned, that he (who gave Adora her chance before even really getting to know her) wouldn’t give the exact same to this kid actively risking his life to relay information about Glimmer. 

Bow’s the puppy-love character whose flaw is (supposed to be) that he loves/trusts too easy. So why is he suddenly not listening to this kid just trying to have a friend who is actively helping Bow and is (possibly) the sole reason they find Glimmer in the end. Without his help there wouldn’t have been enough time to hack into the horde’s tech again to search for her. But, Bow doesn’t say anything when his rescue arrives AND THROWS THIS KID OFF A CLIFF MID-SENTENCE. I don’t know, that felt so wildly out of character.

Glimmer I understand more, she’s hotheaded and originally was VERY against Adora. It took a lot of life threatening situations for her to finally begin trusting Adora. Still, upon getting to know Adora, learning how horribly she was raised, the trauma it’s left her with, Glimmer (not for one seconds) questions whether they should MAYBE check on other horde members, no one should be kidnapped and raised in such an environment only to die for a regime that’s been lying to them. Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

Don’t get me wrong, these are four things that I pretty much understand have more to do with my preferences with characters and story-lines than anything else and like I said, the list (though detailed because I love being negative) is small in comparison to list of things that I like so far about the show. 

Just wanted to get that out there.

Also, does the Voltron fandom follow She-Ra because this ECHOES Voltron vibes and I honestly don’t see a reason why they shouldn’t also vehemently back this show (other than the straights that watch Voltron are too busy getting off on gay men to care or give any ground to a just as diverse, funny, cast that just so happens to have gender flipped the story.)