Arrow Dinah Laurel Lance/Katie Cassidy Thread - Part 3

[Slade W]

She was one of my very favourite characters since season one. I like all the characters on the show in one way or another, but I likeLaurel, along with Oliver and Diggle much more than the other Team Arrow members. I like Felicity, Thea and Roy, as well as some other characters, but they do not interest anywhere near as much as Laurel, Oliver and Diggle. I loved how Laurel was such a tough character, who suffered through so much, but came out the other side stronger. She was a very loveable character, who just wanted to help other people and would risk a lot in order to do it. Her character development from season 1 to 4 was great to watch IMO. This is so **** and it is a massive loss for the show IMO. I will always think "what could have been?". It is a disgrace when you look at some of the "characters" that they have kept on the show.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Why even bother have Laurel show up on Vixen S2? It's useless, it means nothing, it leaves nothing to be explored.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ It's a chance to expand on her tenure as Black Canary and provide context for her greeting Mari with familiarity and warmth.

 

[Primal Slayer]

It's useless. There was no need to introduce a possible friendship between the two if we can't get anything with the two of them in the future.

 

[SpideyVille]

I feel like the biggest reason why she is on Flash and Vixen is purely contractual, kinda like how Lana appeared in season 8 of Smallville and Lex didn't, since he returned after the writer's strike to finish the season and she didn't.

She probably has to appear in a certain amount of episodes, so they wrote her in as a way of compensating her and her honoring her agreement.

 

[Primal Slayer]

It's like giving me a toy to play with, taking it away then dangling it infront of me while taunting me.

 

[DigificWriter]

I feel like the biggest reason why she is on Flash and Vixen is purely contractual, kinda like how Lana appeared in season 8 of Smallville and Lex didn't, since he returned after the writer's strike to finish the season and she didn't.

She probably has to appear in a certain amount of episodes, so they wrote her in as a way of compensating her and her honoring her agreement.

Given that there's a specific story reason for her to show up on Vixen that was introduced in Arrow 4x16, I doubt that's the case.

 

[Paradox1]

What ****ery

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Given that there's a specific story reason for her to show up on Vixen that was introduced in Arrow 4x16, I doubt that's the case.

Actually, that makes it more likely the case.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ I disagree... especially since I don't buy the notion that they hadn't made the decision to kill off Laurel (for better or worse) at the start of the season.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

^ I disagree... especially since I don't buy the notion that they hadn't made the decision to kill off Laurel (for better or worse) at the start of the season.

They made the decision before writing the 16th episode of this season. Considering the storylines, pretty sure they made the decision before the mid-season break.

 

[DigificWriter]

I don't buy that they hadn't made the decision about who was going to die before they started working on the season.

It runs entirely counter to everything that I understand about how television writing works.

Therefore, I don't buy the idea that Katie's future appearances on The Flash and Vixen are contractually motivated because they suddenly decided that Laurel was going to be the character they killed off and therefore they needed to honor existing contractual obligations with Katie in some fashion.

 

[godisawesome]

It might seem strange that I'm going to defend Marc Guggenheim after the inexplicable decision that was made tonight, but the notion that Laurel's own development was "postponed" in favor of introducing Sara just isn't accurate, because Sara's introduction WAS PART of Laurel's development, and was always intended to be so.

I don't doubt that it was; but that's why I called it a misstep instead of a mistake. Their execution wound up biting them in the butt, and I think you could see them realize that; Sara wasn't originally supposed to be a Canary character, and Sara's plotline took a 180 degree turn at the end of Season Two in part because the writers realized that the combination of a very organic and impressive arc for Sara (who, I won't lie, seemed so much more like the Black Canary than Cassidy ever really got play in my estimation) and a Demon in a Bottle that went to long for Laurel was killing interest in her character. And that death of interest is probably one of the reason why we're looking at a CW DC 'verse where Sara is still active and Laurel isn't.

Laurel actually started Season Two pretty strong; as much as her being angry at Oliver was a clear character flaw, it gave the character initiative, and they showed her getting some more fighting skills at the start. But they dragged the alcoholic arc out too long and seemed to push Laurel off into a gulf of storytelling all by herself. The core concept and performance was still strong, but it's stagnated and didn't move the character forward for quite some time. Cassidy did a good job playing the character, but it's not good when the main method of tying you back into the seasonal plot is to have the villain, who's been lethally efficient in telling people just the right secrets to turn them against Oliver, tells Laurel who Oliver is...and it doesn't have any negative impact at all.

And I think having Sara's story arc have such strong organic grace to it caused a schism in the Canary fan ranks, which only got worse when they reversed Sara's character arc and gave her the axe in Season 3. Cassidy still performed great; there's a reason she won back a lot of people in Season 3. But the execution of the Sara story arc burned some bridges; I for one just didn't see Laurel's progress as well planned.

Laurel was a character who's initial direction wasn't setting any fires among the fandom, then her second direction went on too long for some people, and her third direction, the one that worked, may have arrived too late and in the wrong season to really take root.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Where did you get the idea that Sara "wasn't supposed to be a Canary character"?

In spite of her popularity, Sara never actually had her own character arc(s) prior to her inclusion on Legends of Tomorrow; she existed SOLELY as a "prototype" character to service Laurel's evolution into the Black Canary, just as Yao Fei and Shado served as "prototypes" to service Oliver's evolution into the Green Arrow.

And I say this as a fan of both sisters.

 

[haephestus]

It's a real shame.

I'll admit that Laurel / Black Canary was never my favourite character, but that never had anything to do with Katie Cassidy. I really enjoyed her as Ruby on Supernatural and it's pretty clear that behind the scenes she embraced the character (as evidenced by her physical transformation once Laurel became the Black Canary - I'm pretty sure her biceps are bigger than mine).

Instead, for me, the fault lies with the writers and their lack of vision for the character. Heck, they took a lot of the best parts of her character and gave them to Sara Lance / Canary (which is a character I do still enjoy, but one that obviously filled a role that could have been filled, in large part, by the character of Laurel Lance / Black Canary).

So, ultimately, if they were never going to pay the character, and the actor who portrays that character, the appropriate amount of respect, then maybe it's for the best. And who knows whether the scuttlebutt about Black Canary being included in the Justice League movie was also a factor in the small-screen death of Laurel Lance.

I'll live in hope that Black Siren sticks around for appearances on The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and ... fingers crossed ... an eventual Birds of Prey spin-off.

 

[DigificWriter]

It's a real shame.

I'll admit that Laurel / Black Canary was never my favourite character, but that never had anything to do with Katie Cassidy. I really enjoyed her as Ruby on Supernatural and it's pretty clear that behind the scenes she embraced the character (as evidenced by her physical transformation once Laurel became the Black Canary - I'm pretty sure her biceps are bigger than mine).

Instead, for me, the fault lies with the writers and their lack of vision for the character. Heck, they took a lot of the best parts of her character and gave them to Sara Lance / Canary (which is a character I do still enjoy, but one that obviously filled a role that could have been filled, in large part, by the character of Laurel Lance / Black Canary).

So, ultimately, if they were never going to pay the character, and the actor who portrays that character, the appropriate amount of respect, then maybe it's for the best. And who knows whether the scuttlebutt about Black Canary being included in the Justice League movie was also a factor in the small-screen death of Laurel Lance.

I'll live in hope that Black Siren sticks around for appearances on The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and ... fingers crossed ... an eventual Birds of Prey spin-off.

None of this is even remotely what they were doing.

As I've already noted, Sara's character existed SOLELY to service Laurel's evolution into the Black Canary character.

 

[vantheman77]

Now would be a good idea to bring her to Supergirl for a second season.

 

[Herolee10]

You know, the irony of all of this is that I was one of those folks that really wanted Laurel gone during the height of her worst period in Season 2. And I was certainly one of the individuals that didn't want her to become the new Black Canary after Sara had made her debut, let alone tolerate Sara having to potentially die or give up the mantle because of Laurel.

I even remember mentioning on how I might quit the show if they had gone that route.

Obviously, I didn't quit the show back then and learned to tolerate and eventually accept the change.

However, now that it's finally happened and knowing on what the show and its characters have become, wow..... it really makes me look back and appreciate the better days (aka Season 2).

Laurel at her worst was still never enough to get me in quitting this show. It was Olicity and Felicity's crap that made me quit the show and tonight's death was just the icing on the cake.

 

[eplo]

Well. ..she definitely acted her ass off in that last scene. ...ready to see her on flash

 

[Herolee10]

If Earth-2 Laurel became a recurring member on the Flash and wasn't a full straight out villain, I'd love her to become a potential and serious female lead (if not, possible Love Interest) for Barry...especially if she were allowed to be as fun and likable like Laurel was when she was on the Flash and met Cisco for the first time.

 

[kvz5]

Nah. Disco FTW! Assuming she's going with "Dinah" in E2 because why not?

 

[Verick808]

I hated Laurel in season one and most of season 2. First she was a Mary Sue then she was just a crappy person Towards the end of season 2 she was called out on it though and, with the exception of that one stupid time she decided to trick her father into thinking Sara was alive, she continued to get better as a character. Her personality now is actually pretty close to that of the comics. Closer than Sara's character ever was despite her popularity.
At her worst she was a character I would bash at the end of an episode. Or I'd roll my eyes at the stupidity involved with her story. Like the one time she couldn't get out of prosecuting Ollie's mother. She never made me want to quit the show though. There was never a time she ruined the whole show though. And somehow their came a time when she was the high point of this episode or another.
This show has failed Black Canary just as it failed Arsenal. Worse than it failed Arsenal. Honestly this show has been failing Ollie for quite a while as well. Diggle is pretty much all they have been getting right lately.

 

[DCnightwing23]

Everyone is talking about the disrespect to Laurel's character, and I completely get it and agree, they killed off the most important character in the Green Arrow mythos (besides Oliver obviously), but imagine how disrespected Katie must feel. Imagine how she felt while reading it the first time, completely blindsided that she, the female lead from the start, was about to get killed off, without being told prior. Then imagine how she felt after the recent interview where Guggy and the other moron said they didn't want to kill off a character, but felt compelled to do it so they would be keeping their promise that somebody would die, and that they hadn't even planned out who would die when they shot the initial grave shots. She literally changed her life for the role of Black Canary, and now has suddenly lost her job due to the writers' failure to plan the story, and their incompetence to just admit a mistake... I'm incredulous to this whole thing. Unbelievable.

 

[Verick808]

Yeah, they failed Katie as well. I hope she gets a role in a better show with a better written character and a better paycheck.

 

[DigificWriter]

I feel like a lot of my fellow Laurel fans could stand to take the following quote to heart:

Even if you're upset by the decision to kill her off, I don't see how said decision invalidates the character journey she went on.

They did what they said they were going to do, even if there was a bump or two along the way (Marc Guggenheim giving the anti-Laurel crowd fuel for their opinions), and gave the character a journey that paralleled Oliver's far more than any other character on the show (including Sara).