#otp: bae and the parkour bunny

[igotnothingclever]

This could be in my top 10 repeat olicity vids. Lovely infinitecanvas! I know this has come around a few times but it always hits the right notes. 

[igotnothingclever]

Arrow 7x17: calling all slush pile rejects

So that was a snooze fest. The arrow writers reached into a pile of rejected, hackneyed scripts, pulled out a few, blindly spliced them together and threw it on the screen. Bringing the careening momentum of the last few episodes to a standstill. What a waste. I almost missed the ffs. No, that’s a lie. I didn’t. 🤪

Unfortunately the big “surprise” that Emiko was the Big Bad wasn’t a surprise at all. Called it. As did many many others.

While it’s nice to disrupt the patriarchy and have a female Big Bad, Emiko is underwhelming. I’ve thought this before, maybe even said it (?), but our man Oliver has shit luck when it comes to family. Could we have covered this in the  earlier Emiko-centric episode? I think so, yes. But that would have required significantly more nuanced plot development and who has time for that? I’m ambivalent about Emiko’s role in the destruction of the Queen’s Gambit. Retroactively changing the story and forcibly tying season 7 to the beginning of Arrow seems unnecessary and forced. Not everything has to connect with everything else. It doesn’t all have to be the circle of life or in this case -- the circle of vengeance, destruction and death. We know Merlyn did it. Why change the narrative now? Or should we just blame Larry again?

On an aesthetic note: her new outfit and eyeliner game is on 🔥🔥. Still, it doesn’t make up for my complete lack of surprise that she’s out for revenge.

The unfortunate thing about Emiko’s banal reveal is that there is so much in her history that makes her a sympathetic villain. She’s proof that Robert Queen was a weak, weaselly, douchenozzle wanker. She’s further proof that Moira Queen was a cold narcissist, whose worldview was predicated on maintaining power and bending the world to suit her needs and wants. Between the two of them, they completely destroyed Emiko, nearly destroyed Thea, and would have destroyed Oliver if not for Lian Yu and everything that followed. I didn’t realise how angry I was with both Robert and Moira until I started writing this review. The havoc their choices have wreaked on an entire city and on the people they purportedly loved is staggering. Oliver is caught in the wreckage of their choices. Every single time he finds his footing, he recovers from the debilitating shame of being their son, they find another way to screw him up. Well done. Parents of the century. Applause. Applause.

But to get back to my earlier point, I don’t have a problem with Emiko as a villain. I just found the exposition surrounding the reveal tedious. Oliver’s willingness to assume the burden of his parents’ sins is a defining characteristic as is his fervent desire for family. But at some point, he has to learn the lesson that his parents (while they may have loved him) were terrible people and he cannot spend his life expiating for their sins. That is a long, lonely journey with no happy ending. I want the writers to let him learn this lesson and to be at peace. Let’s not bang out this desultory tune any more.

Smoak Tech is here! And I welcome our robot overlords! 😁😁 No, but in all seriousness, it was brilliant to see Felicity shine with Archer. The nod to Oliver and their relationship is lovely. Her trademark sass was in full flow. It bugged me to see that Archer was felled by a silly electronic disruptor placed by Emiko (because when has a big bad not been welcomed in the bunker?!) The choice to undermine Felicity’s intellect in service of advancing Emiko’s agenda wasn’t a great moment. I have a real problem with television shows pitting women against each other; undermining one to advance another because they can’t be bothered with coming up with a clever less rote writing tweak.

Oliver versus the drones was brilliant. Hello, Mr Queen so nice to see you in action!

I enjoyed the olicity moments. Oliver’s begrudging help to Black Siren was hilarious. Although, I can’t be the only one who was grossed out by the fact that she cleaned an open wound at the kitchen island where he was cooking? 🤢 Kind of unhygienic! Dina and BS’ tortuous conversations were uninteresting. I find the double standard tedious. And repetitive. The narrative push towards BS becoming (or seeming to become) a villain and the schisms between NTA, BS and Emiko will probably play a role in what becomes of Star City in the future. Not a story thread I’m following with any great urgency but since it takes up valuable screen time - I’ll follow along.

5 episodes left -- let’s not waste momentum or screen time. Shock and Awe, people. Say it with me, Shock and Awe.

[igotnothingclever]

It has been a rough few days Arrow famdom. Signs are it won't be getting better anytime soon. All I want to say is: thank you to all the gifted, talented and generous content makers. Sinking into fics, vids, GIFs, metas is like a balm to me. Thank you.