#laurel lance deserves better

[missourielephant]

Hey guggenheim guess what? We’re still pissed about what happened all those years ago today. And we’re still laughing that you were kicked off the DC writing teams.

[lazywolfwiccan]

The Arrow show runners told Katie three days before filming 4.18 that Laurel was gonna be killed off when she was at Comic Con and she was trying so hard not to cry.

If that doesn't say how much they hated her then Idk what will

[laurelwinchester]

Okay but since you started, to continue ar*row posting into 2024, it was blatantly obvious Quentin resented Laurel for being the one that lived when they all thought Sara died, and people still thought he was a good dad??? The whole Lance family was so fucked up and Laurel deserved a better family

oh yeah 100% both quentin and dinah thought the wrong daughter died on that boat. there is no doubt about it. they resented laurel for being alive instead of sara. they did not hide their favoritism well. with dinah, she was open about it. with quentin, it only came out in waves, usually when he was drunk but even when he was sober it still sometimes seeped out of him in these little hissed remarks.

it's one of the reasons thinking about laurel's childhood fascinates me so much. at a glance, the lance family was a normal middle class family. two beautiful, smart girls, a home, two parents with well respected careers and a loving marriage. a happy family.

but i have to wonder if it was really all that happy for laurel.

i mean. she dated oliver for years. devoted herself to him. adored him. she took him back when he made mistakes, she wanted to move in with him, she wanted to marry him, she loved him with everything the whole way through. and he treated her like trash. he cheated on her over and over and over again with her friends and her sister. he had zero respect for her. he was stupid and he was nasty and he was cruel. and it's not like the island changed him when it came to her. i'm sorry but it didn't. he was an arrow in her lung from the day she met him until the day she died. and she just. accepted that. she accepted that was all she would get and lived with it until the end. that was as far as she got in terms of believing in her own worth.

that kind of chronic, damaging low self esteem doesn't come from nowhere. laurel's canonical desperation and pleading and searching for love was one of her most devastating traits (partly because she was never able to find it) and it's something that can only come from the lack of love. and that shit starts at the top. it starts with mom and dad. they poisoned her. bit by bit until she was dead, gone, and replaced, quite literally, by a doppelganger.

no, i'll never understand why people love "papa lance." he was only a loving father to one daughter. he was an abuser to the other.

that's one of the reasons why one of the recurring characters in my laurel fics is her non canon grandmother. she needs at least one family member to love her completely and unconditionally. lord knows no one else did.

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

[swiftsuburbanlegends]

I get that they were going for the whole, ex loves/history stuff with Laurel and Oliver, but if they had actually tried to show more friendship stuff with them, it might not have felt like they were so off all the time

[wasted-women]

ROUND 1D, MATCH 1 OUT OF 8!

Causes of Death & Propaganda Under the Cut:

Laurel Lance

Cause of Death: Stabbed

Propaganda:

Her arc was NOT over— she was about to retire as a superhero and be a kickass lawyer. Also you may want to fact check this but I’ve heard the showrunner (or at least someone near the top making big decisions in that season) hated her as a character

Vanessa Carlysle

Cause of Death: Shot by gangsters hunting for her boyfriend

Propaganda:

The first movie shows that she's so freakin cool and badass and confident and caring and sexy and doesn't take shit from anybody. And she's in the second movie for a Whole Scene before she dies and it's all about them having kids. And after she dies it's like she only existed as Wade's fiancee, like no one else is mourning her, does she have any friends?? Did she have any kind of life outside of Wade???

Despite Deadpool being known for being very aware of medium and genre, the writers of Deadpool 2 showed zero awareness in killing off Vanessa Carlysle solely to motivate her boyfriend, the protagonist. This is played completely unironically - the writers themselves say it! From a Vulture article:

"[...] Then I think at some point somebody just said, ‘Y’know, Deadpool kind of works best when he’s had everything taken away from him, when he suffers.’ So the thought was maybe we can really, really engender great suffering for him by having his line of work be the thing that costs Vanessa her life."

So they made them decide to starting a family only to kill her off in the same scene 👍.

Vanessa was originally not even supposed to die, but they changed that without a thought so the male protagonist would suffer more! And of course, the WAY she dies is made to be all about him, too!

The writers were apparently surprised with all the criticism they received for this scene! Because they were not aware of the concept of fridging at all. 😐

Just because you are aware what fridging is it doesn't mean you have a carte blanche to do it??? Being self aware doesn't make it less stupid.

Deadpool is literally about subverting overused comic tropes and the writers did not know about this overused trope and executed it to a T.

Eudora Patch

Cause of Death: Shot saving her love interest's brother

Propaganda:

Her and Diego have an interesting dynamic. Exes who clearly still like each other. They had a nice mutual trust and respect which would have been nice to see grow over time

In some of the short time we see her as her own character, we see her as a mature, level headed but ultimately kind.

Not only is her death purely to motivate Diego with a revenge motive, it only motivates him for the rest of season 1. Come season 2, He has a new love interest and Eudora doesn't even get mentioned.

I don't think Klaus ever even acknowledges her sacrifice saving him and yes he now has his own dead lover to grieve because god forbid character think about more than one person at once.

[raywritesthings]

Laurel Lance (E1)

Sure thing, anon!

First impression: honestly I would be lying if I say I remember my first impression of Laurel, which sounds bad, but it's because I came to Arrow via way of Flash so my first exposure to her was that barely-thirty-seconds scene in the first Flash and Arrow crossover. I truthfully probably didn't even realize she was supposed to be Dinah Laurel Lance aka Black Canary until her appearance opposite Cisco in a later episode of Flash that season, at which point I was like "oh cool, they're bringing in Black Canary". Then I was really confused to discover when starting Arrow that she'd been there since episode 1 but seemed to have so miniscule a role in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, that really should've been a sign to run far away from this show while I still had the chance...

Impression now: I love her. Truthfully, I both do see her as Black Canary, but I also see her as a sort of separate entity from the comics itself, with her own unique merits struggles than what Dinah typically has. So while I love her because she's Black Canary and I love Black Canary, I also love her because she's Laurel, specifically.

Favorite moment: Ah man, this is hard to choose. Her fight scenes from the early seasons and some in s4, basically any scene with her and Thea or Nyssa, a lot of her deleted scenes with Oliver (gee, I wonder why those were all cut), so on and so forth.

Idea for a story: You don't wanna know how many WIPs I've got waiting in the wings, anon. But as far as a story strictly about just Laurel goes, I'm kind of tempted to do an AU post s1 where Oliver's spiel about how he's just holding Laurel back is actually super true and she just gets things together for the city and makes it much better without him. Like if he's gonna go sulk and not be the support she needs during a seriously hard time then I'd rather watch her be the hero of this story, thanks.

Unpopular opinion: I have no idea what's popular or unpopular regarding opinions on Laurel these days, but to cover the basics -- She was completely right to call SWAT on the Hood/Arrow that one time given he was an armed and dangerous stranger who violated the boundary she had already verbally set, she should not have had to apologize to her sister for being rightfully upset that she slept with her boyfriend (does this require further explanation??), and people hating on her for bringing Sara back to life is hypocritical bs since those same people were upset about Sara being killed off in s3 to begin with so she literally gave them what they wanted by bringing Sara back.

Favorite relationship: Overall favorite has gotta be the Laurel-Thea BroTP. Nothing tops it, not any of her romantic relationships (canon or fanon) or any of her blood family.

Favorite headcanon: idk that she's still alive? Haha, all my thoughts about Laurel have to exist in headcanons where she's not been fridged and where the people in her life treat her better than they did in canon, anon. In my headcanon instead of her constantly deserving better and being let down, she just gets the love and respect she deserved.

Thanks for sending in!

[nightsonfire]

1, 5, 12, 31 for the asks

1. who is/are your comfort character(s)?

Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Daisy Johnson (Agents of Shield), Laurel Lance (Arrow) (you deserved better), Kory Anders/Koriand'r (Titans), David Fisher (Six Feet Under). I could list characters for days, but these are some that come to mind!

5. what color are your eyes?

Green :)

12. what kind of day is it?

It was a relatively warm (by Irish standards) day, about 20°C/68F, sunny, not much cloud. Quite nice.

31. what type of music keeps you grounded?

Music that makes me feel something, I love Glass Animals, Hayley Williams/Paramore, Niall Horan, Stromae, to name a few.

[fearlessmuses]

🐦 ───── to say she had been worried was an understatement, she had been utterly terrified in those moments. as her father held her back and tears coated cheeks she thought he was gone, she had honestly thought she lost him. he had been this light, this beautiful thing that she wasn’t even sure she deserved and it was crumbling literally trying to take him away. right when everything seemed to be turning around. finally. “tommy!” his name flew from her mouth as she fought to try to contain herself but she couldn’t. she was crumbling and if not for the arm of her father around her, she’d be on the ground.. he was the only thing holding her up right then. 

everything after that moment happened unexpectedly, and extremely fast. it was like a whirlwind of near grief, concern and worry into the relief that crashed down like a damn tsunami upon her but she could not be more grateful for it. she’d take it every time. as she looked him over she reached out and touched his cheek with a soft exhale of breath she could not help. she’d nearly lost him. as she brushed her fingers over his cheek and held his hand, her thumb moving in gentle strokes she sucked in a breath.

“doctors say you’ll be out of here tonight.” she confessed as she leaned back finally. he looked a million times better but it had been a long long amount of days worrying, stressing, maybe even a little praying on her part. all worth it now as far as she was concerned. “i think you should stay at my place, or …” she didn’t want to invite herself over but he was still recovering and she didn’t want him alone while he did that.

@trustafarian ♥ for a starter from laurel lance

[snowyjay]

OG Laurel Lance deserved better.

[steely-eyedmissileman]

Supernatural, Ep. 3x16

so this is it. the season finale. luckily for season three, it's my favorite finale so far. unluckily for season three, it was still not that good.

lilith is a genuinely terrifying villain as the little girl. as katie cassidy, she's mostly scary in that she is reminiscent of the little girl. like, the little girl was bone chilling. the fact that she took this family hostage is scary enough, but the fact that literally everyone else in the neighborhood is a demon is a better layer on an already terrifying cake.

bobby is in this episode, but doesn't get to participate in the action, which is fairly typical for bobby. his trick with the sprinklers was genuinely inspired, and one of the moments i love about supernatural. every so often they manage to do something spectacularly clever. unfortunately, those clever things are usually quite minor, and overshadowed by incredibly unclear decisions.

ruby is back at it again. unfortunately, i don't find ruby particularly compelling as she is on the screen. on paper, there's a lot to ruby that interests me, it's just that i never see it. i'm sure part of this is the writing and directing, but i think a large part of it is katie cassidy herself. every decision she makes is so hit you over the head that it erases any potential subtlety to the character. i think there's a lot to be done with ruby, but i don't know that katie cassidy can do it. also i just can. not. get past the laurel lance of it all.

sam is, once again, just kind of sitting on his ass plot wise. he is incredibly willing to let other people make his decisions for him. dean tells him not to follow ruby's plan, and he doesn't fight that hard for it. it's only when the chips are down, when he's absolutely sure that dean is going to die, that he tries to actually do it. the longer i spend with sam, the more passive he seems, which is a bizarre choice for the main character of a show, especially after three seasons. i want him to fucking do something, anything, instead of just doing whatever dean does. and his storyline has been completely dropped. did he come back wrong? did he not come back wrong? they haven't resolved this plot line, but they also haven't talked about it for ages. am i just supposed to forget about this? on the one hand, i want to because he is doing a Bad Job of coming back wrong. on the other hand, it has potential to be a compelling storyline, and it shouldn't just be abandoned even if it didn't.

and dean... my sweet baby dean. he has a genuinely brilliant moment capturing ruby and stealing her knife. like this is a really smart guy. and he's great at reading people, particularly sam. he knows what sam will do and he twists that to his own ends. point for dean.

but, the climax of this episode, and of the season, is dean's death. it is disappointing. he does not get ripped apart by hellhounds, just mildly injured. and he still dies. i like the fact that hellhounds are invisible, but other than that, this death is just kinda meh. and he deserved better, you know. also, hell is just kinda meh. like this is actual literal hell. this is the thing. and it just looks like terrible cgi.

i know that there was a writer's strike when this season was being made (echoes of today, i suppose). but i feel like this season would've been fine at best without that pressure. the bones of this season are okay, but the muscles are bad. the fact that the skin is also bad is more an accident of temporality than anything else. but that doesn't change the musculature.

my final thoughts on season three: i liked it better than season two. that's not a compliment by the way, it's an acknowledgment that it's pretty easy to step over a bar lying on the ground.

[ao3feed-westallen]

Skeletons in the Closet

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2yux8g4

by GomeraHatesMath

Oliver rummaged through his mother's drawer, not believing the documents in his hands. His mother would never do this... right? Right?! But this was proof of everything he'd ever feared. He knew without a doubt that his father constantly sneaked off to cheat with his secretaries, but it was different, knowing his own mother was like his father.

But here in his hands was the adoption papers that said she'd gave up her baby to one Henry and Nora Allen.

Words: 1175, Chapters: 1/20, Language: English

Fandoms: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash - All Media Types, The Flash (TV 2014)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, Moira Queen, Robert Queen, Thea Queen, Nora Allen, Henry Allen, Malcolm Merlyn, Tommy Merlyn, Iris West, Joe West, Eobard Thawne

Relationships: Barry Allen & Moira Queen, Barry Allen & Oliver Queen, Barry Allen/Iris West, Barry Allen & Nora Allen, Barry Allen & Malcolm Merlyn, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance/Tommy Merlyn, Barry Allen & Thea Queen

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, barry allen is oliver's brother, Adopted Barry Allen, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angry Oliver Queen, not oliver/felicity friendly, Barry Allen Needs a Hug, Married Barry Allen/Iris West, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Bad Parent Malcolm Merlyn, police officer barry allen, Laurel Lance Deserves Better

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2yux8g4

[lazywolfwiccan]

Katie and Stephen also were under the impression Lauriver would get back together but Olicity shippers literally got Laurel killed off.

I've been saying for years that the Lauriver reunion seemed to stop in the middle of nowhere and Oliver just fell for Felicity one day

[laurelwinchester]

In “Everything I Have Is Yours”, will someone say to Oliver “Do you realize this is all your fault? If you had killed Malcolm years ago, Quentin Lance would still be alive, Darhk wouldn’t have nuked a city (assuming that happened i your fic), Tommy wouldn’t have been resurrected as a soulless monster, Laurel wouldn’t have been raped. So much misery and death Oliver, all because you were too stupid, weak, and selfish to put him down.” ? Cause he deserves that, it’d be even better if that came from Malcolm himself.

it's not said exactly like that but yes someone does confront oliver about malcolm and everything that has happened since the choice was made to protect him.

i can't believe i'm saying this but i kind of feel bad for oliver here because he's going to get shit on a lot specifically for the things he said and did to laurel during the Miracle Merlyn fakeout era and i'm not sure he deserves all of it because he...wasn't exactly himself during that time. but when it comes to the malcolm issue, yeah he's going to be called out for that one and he's going to deserve it.

[missourielephant]

This is the day where we remember our pretty bird, and say 'FUCK YOU GUGGENHEIM!'

[ashleyinwondrland]

The last scene made me remember the bullshit Olicity fan service moment in the flashback when Oliver came back home during the time away.

Oliver making heart eyes at Felicity, someone he didn’t know while he was still in love with Laurel. Whom he barely glanced at in that episode.

Utter bullshit and such a slap in the face to Laurel to frame it as “it was love at first sight” now. They really had to dig the knife deeper in her I guess one last time.