Arrow Dinah Laurel Lance/Katie Cassidy Thread - Part 2

[luis4u]

 

[Nathan]

Not trying to ride the hate train here, let's be honest, you all know where I stand with Laurel, but do you think it's possible that it will be her in the grave? I was agreeing with most that said it would be Detective Lance ending up in the grave, but after reading someone's write up on the latest Episode, I'm not quite so certain anymore.

Just a few paragraphs from that blog.

Thea didn’t mention anything from PRESENT DAY to Oliver that warrants a continued friendship with Laurel. She didn’t even bring up the obvious, TEAM ARROW. The reason? There’s no role Laurel fills on Team Arrow that someone doesn’t already fill or can’t replace. We have two exemplary female heroes in both Thea and Felicity, masked and unmasked. Diggle is Oliver’s confident and best friend. Thea is his sister and Felicity is his love. What is Laurel? Barely his friend.

The inability to name present day impacts Laurel has on Oliver’s life is truly striking. It’s as if her irrelevance is summed up all in that speech. Her impact on Oliver and Thea’s life exists not in the present, but in the past. If Laurel’s impact is not felt in the present, then there’s very little hope for her impact in the future. (cough*character death*cough)

History isn’t enough to keep a friendship alive. Friendships are no different than any other relationships. They need time, attention and reciprocation to thrive. Friendship needs to be as active and vital in the present as it is in the past. Unfortunately, that simply doesn’t apply to Laurel and Oliver. The truth is… they are friends in name only. Not in action.

She is simply not a factor in Oliver’s choices. She’s barely a blip on his radar screen. The counsel he seeks is Diggle’s and Felicity’s. Those are the opinions that matter to him. When Oliver left for Nanda Parbat, he didn’t even say goodbye to Laurel. He was leaving Starling City FOREVER and he didn’t say goodbye. This is the second time Oliver did this. He didn’t say goodbye to Laurel before he faced Ra’s Al Ghul. Why? Because Laurel is a friend in name only. She is not a friend to Oliver in any real way and vice versus.

There's a lot more, but I think this should suffice. It's really just another person's opinion, but it once again makes one thing clear. Laurel was and still is the weakest link on Arrow. And I'm not sure that will ever change, until they decide to kill off Diggle and/or Felicity, to make room for Laurel. You know, just like they did when they killed Sara. And even then Laurel was never really able to fill the void left after Sara's death.

We're already in Season 4. Laurel isn't even close to being the female lead, she has very little impact on anyone's life, unless they need her to bring the drama, she has no real strong friendship with anyone on Team Arrow, except with maybe Thea. She's pretty much the equivalent of a co-worker. She helps fight crime, but she doesn't really have any personal ties to anyone. The only one is Oliver, and that's because they used to roll around together. If she weren't name Laurel Dinah Lance, I think she would have been written off the show long ago.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I don't think she will be the one to die just due to the fact that killing off a Lance sister every season is really repetitive and would make no sense for them to put in the 5 minutes to make her Black Canary only to off her.

Other than that, i do agree with what they wrote, the writers have done a TERRIBLE job of incorporating her into the team and everyone's lives. MG/WM simply have no interest in the charecter and it shows. Her biggest supporters were GB/AK and they have very little influence on the stories anymore. Her biggest role in Oluvers life should've been his closest confidant and they took that away from her.

Even the one role she had in s1 of being the one thing that pushed Oliver to stay alive in the flashbacks been erased.

But Laurels speech to Oliver basically addressed him leaving her out of the loop for the past 3 years so time will only tell if they define Laurels place in Olivers life and on the team, probably not but who knows.

 

[Nathan]

I really would like to know Cassidy's thoughts on this. Does she even enjoy being on the show anymore? When she signed on to do Arrow, she did it with the prospect of being the show's female lead, and to eventually turn into a female heroine on equal footing with the Green Arrow.

After a couple years, she finally managed to don the black jacket, but that was a struggle to even get there. First they made Lotz the Canary, which was already a low blow, then they kill her off, to pass the mantle, only to bring her back and bring up the question, why do we need Laurel again?

As for the female lead, that's now Felicity. There's no way around it. She took the spot, and it's unlikely she's ever gonna give it up, unless the producers on the show go cray, cray in the head. Especially since Ollie and her actually make a good couple, now that Ollie is finally allowed to take it easy and enjoy life. They better not dare to ruin that, unless they can write a clean break up, that involves little to no drama.

So she isn't the female lead, the materials the writers come up with is horrendous, she's basically a side character since she practically has no impact on anything. And from what I've read here and there, there doesn't seem to be any story arc in the work for Laurel. Is she only doing it for the steady paycheck now? Does she still have any lingering hope that the show will put her in the spotlight? The moment I'd been able to find something better, I know I would have been long gone.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I think Katie just stays because she enjoys the people and the paycheck. She is a professional so she tries to act like she isn't phased by what they have done with her character but she has opened up about how disappointed she was with them bringing in Sara Lance making her BC, especially when she found out the same day we did which was dirty as hell.

But every single thing that made her want to do this job has been taken from her which is sad. She suppose to be co-lead to female lead to Black Canary. While BC has still happened, not how she probably expected.

The show seems to hate bring in comic charecters that have an established history in the comics that they have to write towards. They put in a lot more effort with all of their "original" charecters who are tiny characters in the comics or don't exist at all.

 

[Nathan]

The show seems to hate bring in comic charecters that have an established history in the comics that they have to write towards. They put in a lot more effort with all of their "original" charecters who are tiny characters in the comics or don't exist at all.

Man, isn't Dhark in the comics just some small HIVE scientist or something like that? Now he's a magic wielding crime lord, who's being played by a great actor. Yet they managed to ruin Count Vertigo twice.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Yeah, they did a total makeover on DD. only thing they have in common is working for HIVE.

It's a shame Melrose Place didn't work out since Katie was getting massive praise by fans/critics for her portrayl of Ella Simms.

 

[Loki882]

Her whining this episode was truly obnoxious, as has been this entire “character arc.”

 

[DigificWriter]

I really would like to know Cassidy's thoughts on this. Does she even enjoy being on the show anymore? When she signed on to do Arrow, she did it with the prospect of being the show's female lead, and to eventually turn into a female heroine on equal footing with the Green Arrow.

After a couple years, she finally managed to don the black jacket, but that was a struggle to even get there. First they made Lotz the Canary, which was already a low blow, then they kill her off, to pass the mantle, only to bring her back and bring up the question, why do we need Laurel again?

As for the female lead, that's now Felicity. There's no way around it. She took the spot, and it's unlikely she's ever gonna give it up, unless the producers on the show go cray, cray in the head. Especially since Ollie and her actually make a good couple, now that Ollie is finally allowed to take it easy and enjoy life. They better not dare to ruin that, unless they can write a clean break up, that involves little to no drama.

So she isn't the female lead, the materials the writers come up with is horrendous, she's basically a side character since she practically has no impact on anything. And from what I've read here and there, there doesn't seem to be any story arc in the work for Laurel. Is she only doing it for the steady paycheck now? Does she still have any lingering hope that the show will put her in the spotlight? The moment I'd been able to find something better, I know I would have been long gone.

You do know that everything that's happened with Laurel so far was meticulously planned, correct?

The only mistake the writers and producers have made with Laurel is to have caved in and tried to 'appease' the whiners by making it sound like they agreed with them.

 

[Syncos]

I didn't like Laurel much in the first couple seasons. I do however feel like she came into her own a lot in the last two, and she's one of my favourite characters now.

She's headstrong, and goes out and does what she believes is right (whether accurate or not) which I appreciate.

 

[Nathan]

Characteristic I might be able to appreciate, if she'd actually be able to own up to her mistakes, and wouldn't constantly blame other people when she screws up. Be headstrong, but don't you dare point your finger at people, when **** blows up in your face.

 

[Paradox1]

Characteristic I might be able to appreciate, if she'd actually be able to own up to her mistakes, and wouldn't constantly blame other people when she screws up. Be headstrong, but don't you dare point your finger at people, when **** blows up in your face.

Wait..... Didn't she own up to her drug addiction?

 

[Nathan]

Too bad she is not consistent and plays the blame game with Oliver, when her actions lead to the death of multiple people.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah, I tend to find her character pretty worthless these days. I liked her when the show started out, but it was obviously midway through season 2 that they were struggling to write material for her. Now she just comes off whiny and incompetent. Whenever I see people post things like "Arrow writerz pls kill Facility and give me moar Laurel as teh Black Cannery" I roll my eyes. What do you want? More scenes where she walks into a room and yells at Oliver?

 

[Emilyfan]

Her whining this episode was truly obnoxious, as has been this entire “character arc.”

Finally someone who calls Oliver ******** and hypocrisy.

 

[Emilyfan]

Too bad she is not consistent and plays the blame game with Oliver, when her actions lead to the death of multiple people.

Yeah because she let to Moira death or handling the keys to one of the most powerful organizations to your worst enemy.

 

[Nathan]

Two wrongs don't make a right. Just because Ollie kept secrets, doesn't make it ok for Laurel to keep secrets. Especially when her little secret keeps endangering random people. Once Oliver realized that Thea wasn't ok, he didn't keep what happened in Nanda Parbat to himself. He came clean. Sara kills muggers and goes after innocent women, and Laurel keeps quiet about it.

 

[luis4u]

just a few more weeks until this baby arrives

 

[luis4u]

 

[luis4u]

 

[Primal Slayer]

 

[Adanu]

Finally someone who calls Oliver ******** and hypocrisy.

Oliver takes responsibility for his secret and has good reasons for every one of them. Laurel is just being a selfish ***** with no regard to the consequences of her own actions, and expects everyone to not call her out of the fact that she is directly responsible for the deaths of four people. Oliver also called Thea out on burning a man alive.

Laurel has about as much right about trying to call Oliver to account over 'secrets' as Diggle did, which is to say, none.

Frankly, I'm about done with this show if they keep this crap up. At least flash doesn't give female leads a 'woman pass'. Felicity is barely tolerable, but they're basically stripping Olivers masculinity away with every episode, and I'm about sick of it.

 

[Primal Slayer]

While Laurel should've been called out on her stuff, at least the writers did 1 thing right by not having Sara kill any innocents. She and Oliver both make plenty of mistakes, with Olivers biggest is leaving Malcolm alive which lead to the death of a lot more then 4 people.

 

[Adanu]

While Laurel should've been called out on her stuff, at least the writers did 1 thing right by not having Sara kill any innocents. She and Oliver both make plenty of mistakes, with Olivers biggest is leaving Malcolm alive which lead to the death of a lot more then 4 people.

Killing is killing, excusing it as 'bad guys' doesn't make it any less of a death.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Oliver spent a whole season killing bad guys.