#laurel lance defense squad

[azurecanary]

Okay y'all, I need to rant a bit.

The tenth anniversary of Arrow and the Arrowverse happened recently, and after watching a lot of videos, I started thinking.

And full disclosure, y'all know I love Sara and Legends of Tomorrow, but this is something that really bugs me.

When Arrow was first released, they created this character, who was adapted from one of the most iconic DC names after Batman, Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. Not that iconic that non DC fans would know, but if you did know DC, you knew the Black Canary.

So my question and frustration is, why why wasn't Laurel aka Dinah Lance aka the Black Canary as big of a deal as other heroes like Green Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, etc. Why did everything that was Dinah's and the Black Canary's given to an OC with the same last name?

Like, Laurel (either version) doesn't show up in any of the crossovers, apart from brief appearances in the two part Heroes Join Forces crossover, as well as the less known animated stint with Vixen and the half a second flashback in COIE. She's not mentioned as being one of Earth 1's first heroes, despite putting on the mask before Speedy, Frost, Plastic Man, etc.

Not even the Earth 2 version, who was one of the most cunning and underrated villains before her redemption to becoming one of the most determined and hardworking heroes, even having half a season dedicated to preparing the character for Crisis before having her story handed off to Supergirl.

It's just very frustrating how this character who had so much potential as being one of the greatest heroes in the Arrowverse, only to get the short end of the stick in favour of OCs like Sara or Felicity or terribly mischaracterized versions of other iconic heroes like Oliver or Kara.

[laurelwinchester]

my unpopular opinion on this monday is that the laurel/tommy relationship - in retrospect - was dull, wildly overrated, and far more detrimental to laurel’s character than anyone cares to admit.

a few years ago, i think at a con, katie cassidy actually said that if she could change one thing about laurel's arc it would be the relationship with tommy and everyone just collectively decided to ignore that because she was ''wrong'' but... she wasn’t wrong. she was right and she should have said it.

also ALSO, i know that people like to say that he was her ''true love'' or her ''soulmate'' because he treated her better than oliver did but, uh, not so much no. first of all, that's a low fucking bar and y'all need to raise your standards. second of all, he literally treated her like an object to be won in some dick measuring contest between him and oliver.

and before anyone accuses me of being a ''bitter lauriver'' shipper - no. nope. never. would sincerely rather gnaw my own arm off, thank you. oliver was an abusive prick and he's rotting where he belongs. i'm just saying tommy wasn't her soulmate, he wasn't much better, and it's time to stop pretending he was her prince or her knight in shining armani or whatever because he was not. he was what he was. a passing ship.

the fact is that both of these mediocre dudes did extensive damage to laurel lance, to her as a person, as a character, and to her arc within the show. she deserved better, neither of them were happy endings in any way whatsoever, and it's high time we stop acting like she needs at least one of these duds to somehow make her worthy of existing.

[farishtafyre]

katie cassidy/laurel lance wearing the black canary suit again and being like...

[moonlightperseus]

Katie Cassidy signed onto arrow with the FULL intention of getting to explore ALL of dinah laurel lance’s identity, from her civilian life to her superhero life, the arrow writers robbed her of that by killing off laurel and giving off bits and pieces of what should’ve been her character’s development to other characters.

[macman521]

Laurel becoming Black Canary was NOT a mistake.

[dagenspear]

QUOTE: “Laurel Deserves Better.”

[deathwalksatmidnight]

anon requested; earth-1 laurel w/ the demisexual flag

like/reblog if using!

[kyliafanfiction]

athousandlivestobelived replied to your post: “Laurel is too good for Oliver” And Oliver would...

Laurel Lance defense squad!

Indeed. ^^

Though I do think that 

Dinah

Laurel

Lance

can also defend herself, you know?

[xswestallen]

Top 5 Arrowverse NOTP's

Barry and Eobard Thawne

I mean what the actual fuck? Why would anyone ship Barry with the man who murdered his mom, tried to murder his friends, joined some Nazis, and tries to kill Barry on a regular basis??? This is by far the worst ship in the entire Arrowverse. I automatically block everyone I see who supports this ship. It’s so gross to me.

Kara and Mon-El

Karolsen ended because the CW took over Supergirl and I guess decided they can’t have two interracial power couples, so they introduced Mon-El the fuckboy as Kara’s new love interest. He has been a douche since day 1, he doesn’t take Kara’s feelings into consideration, he literally called her his “kryptonite”, and his whole reason for liking her is because she makes him better as opposed to him loving her for who she is and supporting her. It’s always about what she does for him.

Oliver and Laurel

Oliver treated Laurel like shit, cheating on her, lying to her, and playing with her emotions. I love Laurel, but I never shipped her with Oliver because she deserved so much better. The fact that Arrow killed off Laurel AND made her say “I’m really glad that you found Felicity, and I hope you find your way back to her, and Ollie, I know that I’m not the love of your life, but you will always the love of mine.” was so disrespectful to her character. I will always be mad about that. Laurel was more than a love interest for Oliver and her death meant so much more than a green light for Olicty.

Cisco and Lisa Snart

Lisa helped kidnap Cisco and forced him to build her a dangerous weapon so she could torture and kill people. The flirting between them pained me. Cisco deserves better. Caitlin, please, we’re all counting on you to keep our boy away from that bitch.

Barry and Caitlin

I’ve talked about this before, but basically, Barry doesn’t care about Caitlin the way he does any of the other team members. He didn’t bother saving her when Zoom kidnapped her (even after he got his powers back and was feeling ultra confident) and he didn’t give a fuck about her turning into Killer Frost once he found out that Iris was going to die. Barry and Caitlin are barely even friends. 

[thisoldgalsaysno]

“Katie Cassidy sucks as black canary and black siren! She doesn’t even look the part!”

DC comics artist Otto Schmidt disagrees.

[abberryyang]

It’s so strange that there are still people who think like:

Yeah, Katie was never able to capture Laurel.

Katie is such a bad actress.

You know what, no one in the world would be able to perform as Laurel because she’s a shitty character with shitty writing.

Katie Cassidy is the only one on the show to win an award for her acting, a PRISM Award, for her portrayal of Laurel Lance, during her addiction storyline.

This is a direct quote, from the site, on what the PRISM Award is:

The PRISM Awards encourage creators to make the most of their rights to free creative expression, while at the same time showing the reality of these health issues. As a part of the industry, EIC never wants to inhibit the creative process; however, we take pride in being the first to applaud creators who use their power and influence over their audiences wisely and responsibly, informing them while at the same time entertaining them. This is what we refer to as “the art of making a difference”.

Katie Cassidy did an amazing job performing the alcohol and drug addiction storyline, and showed the real effects of those issues using her platform, as a way to show others, the world, what drugs and alcohol addiction and depression looks like, responsibly and wisely. 

The acting consists of so many things, they way you speak, look, dress, and the tremors you feel when you’re desperate for that sip, the drug, and the uncontrollable anger you have in your voice - Katie did it all. It was never the writing. Does it help? Yes, of course a good script would be helpful.

But, it requires absolute talent to perform with a script or storyline that the PRISM Awards didn’t think was wise enough, responsible enough, or done properly enough to warrant an award for. They nominated themselves and did not win, whereas Katie did for her performance.

Laurel Lance, thanks to the amazing acting of Katie Cassidy, is an amazing character who shows consistent growth.

All throughout the show, we see Katie Cassidy going above and beyond when it comes to portraying Laurel, a lot of Laurel’s personality is really shown through the way she delivers lines, moves, and reacts to others around her. We notice that in the way her eyes dart around the room, her fingers tremble, and how she pulls people in for hugs - none of those things are said.

Katie even goes the extra mile of talking to her co-stars, about what type of relationship they should exhibit on-screen, when it comes to their characters. There’s is so much attention in the little details that Katie fine-combs her character to speak without words, and builds a lot of the relationship off-screen with her co-stars. It is absolutely amazing how much work she has put into this character.

There are even more times where Katie stands up for her character, and forces the writers to change lines or add lines to reflect her character. Of course, Stephen Amell does the same as well, at least he used to, when it came to his own character and storylines. It’s these changes that allows Laurel to grow as a character, not depend on a love interest, and to remain true to her core values, as a character.

And even now, we’ve come to a strange cross-road of who is our Laurel.

Our hearts broke the moment we lost her, our Laurel, to fan-service for a ship - her death was used to prop up a ship that called for her unfair death. But, thankfully, due to popular demand, Katie Cassidy has returned to some-what reprise her role. The Flash Writers and Producers had Katie come onto their show to guest star as Laurel Lance’s E2 doppelgänger, Black Siren, who we still have yet to see her backstory or proper interactions with anyone outside of Quentin.

Despite this, Katie Cassidy has delivered to us six different, amazing versions of Laurel, that we can differentiate: 

Flashback Laurel: A young, chipper, and naïve Laurel who is completely lovestruck by Oliver Queen.

Addiction and Depression Laurel: An older Laurel, who’s hurting from everything the world has thrown at her.

Black Canary Laurel: A wiser Laurel, who’s learned to embrace all the bad things that come her way as a hero, with the belief that it’s a chance to be better and stronger, to protect all those she loves.

Black Siren Laurel: A Laurel from another Earth, who’s learned to embrace all the bad things that come her way as a villain, with the belief that she has to watch out for herself.

Alien Stasis Laurel: A Laurel that fits into the scheme of the Aliens, wanting Oliver to stay, she is timid and full of love and forgiveness.

Hallucination Laurel: A Laurel that keeps Oliver sane (omfg, I’m getting FitsSimmons feels) and reaches out to him, keeping him alive and heroic.

And currently, she is doing an amazing job at showing us just how much of our Laurel is in Siren. By watching Katie meticulously, her eyes opening, her lips parting, and the way her eyes linger - when her shoulders tense and when they drop. There are so many ways that Katie is telling us, Siren isn’t our Laurel but she is Laurel, and I can’t wait to have our Laurel back.

TLDR: Shut up, Katie Cassidy is amazing and so is Laurel, Hater.

[canary-cries]

me? over the appalling treatment Laurel received on arrow and her useless death? not yet.

[laurelwinchester]

if i ever die and my evil doppelganger (whose only defining characteristic is sarcasm and surliness and has literally no depth or motivation or backstory or anything to make her a fully realized character) shows up, please don't let her walk around wearing my clothes and my face, living my life, ruining my reputation and everything i have ever built. seriously, no matter how much she looks like me, please don't let her replace me and erase me from my own life. because that is crazy disrespectful.

[blackcanarysource]

Funko just launched a poll to decide which Arrow/Flash characters they make pops of next, and Laurel as Black Canary AND Black Siren are both options! You can vote (only once per email) by clicking the link above or here: https://funko.com/blog/article/351174659/which-character-from-the-flash-and-arrow-should-we-make-next

[keeloves]

Ways to bring Laurel Back

1 Pull her body right before the time she dies. 2 Pull her freshly dead body from the hospital and let the wave rider revive her 3 Find her dead body and take her to another Lazarus pit or the one Nyssa destroyed before it was destroyed 4 draw out Laurel’s soul spirit and conscience and put it in Black Siren 5 Flash Point Paradox 6 She Should never have been killed off 7 these writers are inconsistent dumb shits who contradict themselves. If Stien can keep his time aberration of a daughter and other characters be brought back over and over then there is no reason Laurel can’t be brought back.

[macman521]

ARROW STAR KATIE CASSIDY KICK BOXING TRAINING ON AN ISLAND

Katie Cassidy is pretty tough. She works her ass off and really is dedicated to playing her characters on Arrow. She really wants to make her stunts are real as possible but sometimes she isn't allowed to for insurance reasons. She should not be faulted for that. She really is a professional.