Arrow Arrow General Discussion Thread - - - - - - - - Part 22

[O'Haire]

What's funnier to me is that at the time of that screenshot, 1.5K people liked that comment.

 

[Arrowshieldfan]

so if this is true we get something next week....both Diggle related and arrow trailer

Suzanne Gomez ‏@Chico6 Aug 27
Some good Diggle stuff coming next week #Arrow fans. #DigIt #YearoftheDiggle @david_ramsey

#Arrow and #Supernatural goodies going out next week. And yes,#Arrow peeps, I mean in addition to the #YearoftheDiggle awesomeness.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I disagree, they really need to be made aware they can't be lazy and pander to fans of crappy romance drama.

While I somewhat agree, I still think it was Dickish in this instance, the guy has got fans involved in something not really related to the show and asked for their input on that when he didn't have to. Plus, he doesn't write the show.

Despite all that, it still made me chuckle.

 

[dude stannis]

In Tom's defence, no one from the show has come out and completely adressed the lackluster reception it got.

In Stephen's defence, he's been handling posts like that completely professionally and he could obviously get himself in a lot of trouble if he did agree with fans.

 

[Primal Slayer]

What's funnier to me is that at the time of that screenshot, 1.5K people liked that comment.

Even now, he has like 1.7k that liked it compared to Stephens 2.7k for obvious reasons. Pretty good numbers.

 

[Slade W]

What's funnier to me is that at the time of that screenshot, 1.5K people liked that comment.

I enjoyed season 3 and thought it was good but I also would have liked that comment. It was pretty funny.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The thing people need to remember is that the nerd community that want all action and have issues with other aspects are not the be all and end all when it comes to the shows success.

Stephen and Emily both addressed things at SDCC in their interviews that showed the plan is to rework certain things for season 4, but those wanting popular aspects of the show to be altered to their own personal preferences are ice skating uphill.

 

[Jedi Arrow]

I disagree, they really need to be made aware they can't be lazy and pander to fans of crappy romance drama.

And that is Stephen's fault...how? The guy just plays the role. It's not like he writes the episodes, for goodness' sakes.

 

[Boy Scout]

Bit of a d***ish response since Amell's such a nice guy and doesn't deserve that, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't chuckle as well.

Seconded.

 

[regnak]

And that is Stephen's fault...how? The guy just plays the role. It's not like he writes the episodes, for goodness' sakes.

No but he can say to Guggenheim, "Hey you know lots of viewers think the show sucks now. Maybe you should try to turn things around before our ratings crash and we lose our jobs, just a thought."

 

[HighFivingMF]

Stop pandering to them! Pander to meeee!

A lot of the people who watch the show like the romance stuff as well. They're trying to balance both, maybe they didn't do as good a job as they could have, but they're obviously working on it. But it seems to me, people don't want balance. They want the other half of the fanbase to get completely shut out so "ratings don't decline."

 

[Mike Murdock]

No but he can say to Guggenheim, "Hey you know lots of viewers think the show sucks now. Maybe you should try to turn things around before our ratings crash and we lose our jobs, just a thought."

Suppose he knows it already. Would such shots on twitter serve any purpose? Hell, suppose he and Guggenheim know it. The trick is still the execution. Just saying "it sucks" without any constructive feedback is unhelpful in fixing the problem.

 

[Primal Slayer]

We had a whole season for romance, I think people just want a good inbetween again. Which I am sure we will get but no one is saying DEATH TO ROMANCE!

 

[HighFivingMF]

We had a whole season for romance, I think people just want a good inbetween again. Which I am sure we will get but no one is saying DEATH TO ROMANCE!

They are though. Nobody's asking for a balance. It's almost all "No more Olicity crap."

Which, yeah, I don't care for it either. But it's part of the show now and the reason some like it in the first place, I don't have any place to deny them that.

 

[Primal Slayer]

It's been part of the show since day 1. Just like people came after Laurel with their pitchforks for 2 years and ended up calming down after the writers gave her something different, the same exact thing will happen for Olicity if they are improved and not shoved down our throats constantly which is another reason why people are sour on them.

 

[godisawesome]

My sister is a major Olicity fan, but in the way you'd hope a casual fan of the show would be. She binge watches every few weeks, and appreciates the other parts of the show and the Flash as well. And she's not a hater for characters that "interfere" with her 'ship, which I'm actually kind of proud of. You see, she blames me for getting her into comicbook media, so knowing that I've not unleashed a Tumblr monster is rather relieving.

And I'd argue that the romance section of the season was the least mismanaged part of the year, and that's why it's so aggravating; it's arguably the centerpiece for the season's fans, and even its not as good as it could have been. Let's be honest here, the current DCCW shows clearly have a major flaw in their approach to the main romantic leads, still chaining themselves to certain conventions that didn't do Laurel or Iris any favors. The reason the Olicity pairing took off was because it relied heavily on chemistry and initially avoided angst like the plague. Season Three still kept a lot of that, but some of the spark was gone just because the creators seem to think that humor and smiling are signs a relationship needs to be twisted and punched in the stomach a few times. Thus, Felicity stops telling nearly as many jokes around Ollie, and some of the chemistry goes down.

This season's biggest issue was that it lost momentum from Season Two in all areas except maybe the Olicity one. And if the rest of the season had handled everything as well as the romance arc, we'd probably have been great. Instead, we got a meandering and at times frustrating first third of the season, a pretty good middle part for everyone except Oliver, and then a rather feeble and very derivative ending. Their central conflict never matched the execution or originality of their mini-arcs:

Sara's death was so clearly a fridging for Laurel's development that no matter what, the season was going to be off to a rough start. Then they waste a lot of time and energy on what should be a small series of investigations, completely dismissing Komodo as anything besides a stunt sequence and insulting the viewers with an unsatisfactory investigation into Merlyn that oops, was actually a false red herring, and an appearance by Cupid. When they do reveal that Merlyn is behind the killing, they pull a manipulation out of their butts to have him get Oliver to take the heat against Ra's. We then get the only really good scene of the main plot, and that's the fight in The Climb. We've got a great and thrilling cliffhanger.

And they fail to exploit it for anything except the B-plot of the Team coming together and facing down Brick. Oliver comes back completely fine. We could have had either Merlyn or Ra's be behind his resurrection, maybe have the former do so out of spite towards Oliver in a manner that ties into Season One, or the latter as an example of how much more dangerous he is than any other villain. Nope. All he needs is a bandaid, and he's good to go. We also don't do anything that makes sense with Merlyn, now that Ollie knows he's the real instigator. Instead they're allies because the producers couldn't bring themselves to let Barrowmen go full evil again, no matter how much better that would have been. We then waste an appearance by Slade and immediately try and imitate Batman's usual Ra's story but with extra stupid, before capping everything off with a lackluster and B-movie version of the fight from the Climb.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Stop pandering to them! Pander to meeee!

A lot of the people who watch the show like the romance stuff as well. They're trying to balance both, maybe they didn't do as good a job as they could have, but they're obviously working on it. But it seems to me, people don't want balance. They want the other half of the fanbase to get completely shut out so "ratings don't decline."

Spot on, the term "Pandering" is a popular one thrown at those that like "Olicity" and I admit I like them together but think they misjudged aspects of them last season that took the fun elements out that made people like the pairing to begin with. Clearly with season 4 they will look for balance as both actors acknowledged this at SDCC.

However those with the issues that like the term pander want the show to pander to their taste as opposed to a middle ground.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I feel like MG answering questions on his tumblr is such a double edged sword, on one hand it is great that he interacts with fans, but the other I think that is where a lot of fans thought about the pandering since that is who he gears majority of his questions towards.

 

[voyzovrezon]

I'm now watching the series on Netflix and finished season 1 and am now on season 2 episode 10.

Is there a separate thread for GIFs? Couldn't find one but here's one I made from episode 9 where Oliver gets a new mask.

 

[regnak]

Suppose he knows it already. Would such shots on twitter serve any purpose? Hell, suppose he and Guggenheim know it. The trick is still the execution. Just saying "it sucks" without any constructive feedback is unhelpful in fixing the problem.

I don't suppose anything. I won't believe Guggenheim gets it until I see it reflected on the screen.

 

[kguillou]

Stop pandering to them! Pander to meeee!

A lot of the people who watch the show like the romance stuff as well. They're trying to balance both, maybe they didn't do as good a job as they could have, but they're obviously working on it. But it seems to me, people don't want balance. They want the other half of the fanbase to get completely shut out so "ratings don't decline."

I'm suprised to see such a post. I think I speak for a ton of fans when I say the problem is not romance period, its just that Ollie and Felciity just didn't work! It didn't. It came out of nowhere and a few episodes in to season 3 they tried to force us into believing that Felciity was Oliver's true love. What? Really? After what he went through with Laurel in season one (which the fans liked) and Sara in season 2 (which the fans loved) we're supposed to believe they were mere diversions for Felicity? I do not buy it.

Since the beginning of the show, Oliver and Felicity had a very platonic relationship and their material worked best when Felicity was Oliver's support for missions and the occasional pep talk. But there was never any indication that Oliver was falling for this chick. Besides some occasional light hearted oogling on felicity's end, there was no romantic chemistry budding there. Again, I reiterate, the same fans complaining about Olicity now LOVED Ollie's relationship with Sara in season 2. It just worked. They had a natural chemistry and seemed to fit, much like Felicity fit VERY well with Ray Palmer in season 3.

So, I get a little irked when people make blanket statements like "oh, fanboys just want a show with 100% action and no romantic subplot." That is not even close to being true. Romance and love interests are a staple of the superhero genre, no one has a problem with that. Ollicy is being criticised because Oliver and Felicity do not match as a couple and apparently many people feel that way. i think the actors are trying very hard to make it work but the writing is not supporting it. For the record, I GET what the writers are trying to do. They're trying to pair Oliver with someone who's the complete opposite of him, cause "opposites attract" and all that. But sometimes, the characters are just mismatched. Oliver and Laurel worked, Oliver and Sara REALLY worked, even Oliver and Helena Bertinelli made sense, but Oliver and Felicity are completely mismatched and I think this is the source of a lot of season 3 chagrin.

Just my opinion.

 

[luis4u]

I'm suprised to see such a post. I think I speak for a ton of fans when I say the problem is not romance period, its just that Ollie and Felciity just didn't work! It didn't. It came out of nowhere and a few episodes in to season 3 they tried to force us into believing that Felciity was Oliver's true love. What? Really? After what he went through with Laurel in season one (which the fans liked) and Sara in season 2 (which the fans loved) we're supposed to believe they were mere diversions for Felicity? I do not buy it.

Since the beginning of the show, Oliver and Felicity had a very platonic relationship and their material worked best when Felicity was Oliver's support for missions and the occasional pep talk. But there was never any indication that Oliver was falling for this chick. Besides some occasional light hearted oogling on felicity's end, there was no romantic chemistry budding there. Again, I reiterate, the same fans complaining about Olicity now LOVED Ollie's relationship with Sara in season 2. It just worked. They had a natural chemistry and seemed to fit, much like Felicity fit VERY well with Ray Palmer in season 3.

So, I get a little irked when people make blanket statements like "oh, fanboys just want a show with 100% action and no romantic subplot." That is not even close to being true. Romance and love interests are a staple of the superhero genre, no one has a problem with that. Ollicy is being criticised because Oliver and Felicity do not match as a couple and apparently many people feel that way. i think the actors are trying very hard to make it work but the writing is not supporting it. For the record, I GET what the writers are trying to do. They're trying to pair Oliver with someone who's the complete opposite of him, cause "opposites attract" and all that. But sometimes, the characters are just mismatched. Oliver and Laurel worked, Oliver and Sara REALLY worked, even Oliver and Helena Bertinelli made sense, but Oliver and Felicity are completely mismatched and I think this is the source of a lot of season 3 chagrin.

Just my opinion.

That just lazy they killed bronze tiger in 2.5 and the romance was develop in a tie in comic.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Personally I'd say you speak for a few loud fans that like to get their rant on, on the net as opposed to the overall fanbase.

I don't think there was any chemistry between Ollie and Laurel from the start which is why the show moved away from it, and the Ollie/Sara stuff was always more friends with benefits, two very damaged people using each other for comfort and sex because they knew they were no risk to hurting the other one. From the start Ollie and Felicity had chemistry and the show has slowly built it up over the 3 seasons IMO. As for Felicity and Ray, that was like a brother and sister dating.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The writers set up L/O to fail from the first episode, I would have liked to see them actually happy before moving on. I can only imagine how things would go if they had Oliver/Felicity angry/secretive from each other from the start. But now they need to introduce a new guy that can be long term for Laurel.

 

[dude stannis]

Stop pandering to them! Pander to meeee!

A lot of the people who watch the show like the romance stuff as well. They're trying to balance both, maybe they didn't do as good a job as they could have, but they're obviously working on it. But it seems to me, people don't want balance. They want the other half of the fanbase to get completely shut out so "ratings don't decline."

Yes pander to me! The person who thinks you can do romantic drama without having to make it overbearing, ruin one of the show's best characters by making them a petulant child who starts crying everytime they don't get their way.

You know, like the Oliver/Laurel/Tommy triangle in Season 1 that made sense since. Or Oliver and Sara in Season 2. Or Diggle and Lyla. Or like Iris and Barry, since for all their faults, they're people fresh out of college and are genuinely acting their age.

This mentality that, just because something isn't meant for a certain section of a fanbase, it's above criticism is f***ing awful logic.