haephestus
Sidekick
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2004
- Messages
- 1,942
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
- 58
Personally, I'm done watching Arrow. Of course, to be fair, my partner still wants to watch Arrow so it will be "on" in our home and I'll likely hear it in the background as I busy myself doing other things.
Also, to be fair, I've been losing interest in Arrow for a long time. I mostly enjoyed season 1 and I really enjoyed season 2. But, I had a lot of trouble enjoying season 3 with Sara's death, Oliver's "death" and a whole bunch of other nonsense. I had hoped that they could turn things around in season 4, but they haven't.
I'm not one to quit watching a show when they kill off my favourite character. And Laurel Lance / Black Canary has never been my favourite character. But, I feel that TPTB treated both the character and the actor dismissively and their "reasons" for killing off Black Canary which seemed to amount to not knowing what to do with the character and because they *had* to put someone in the grave are poor. I have no interest in watching a show when it appears clear that the writers either have no idea what they're doing or, if they do, then their ideas of "good" writing, interesting character motivations and development and strong story-lines are far removed from my own.
They could have easily written off Laurel Lance as taking a job in another city, perhaps hinting that she would go on to form the Birds of Prey. It would be no worse than the clumsy manner in which they wrote off Roy Harper / Red Arrow. Or Black Canary could have died taking down Malcolm Merlyn or Damian Darkh, thus saving the other members of the team and Star City.
Heck, they could have brought back Deathstroke to be finished by Laurel, although thematically I think it would have been stronger for her to die stopping Malcolm since he was responsible for Tommy's death, Sara's death and, from memory, hurt Papa Lance on more than one occasion. It could have also been somewhat ... justified by the fact that with only one hand, Malcolm is no longer the super-best-invincible fighter that he once was. Or I would have even accepted Laurel fighting "dirty" to gain the upper hand.
Basically, if Laurel had to die, then it should have been as a hero. I also have major issues with the writers retrospectively implying that at least part of Laurel's motivation for becoming the Black Canary is that she was, the entire time, in love with Oliver and wanted to understand his world and to be closer to him. That was just ... completely out of left field and a huge disservice to the character and her motivations. It was bad enough when they seemed to repeatedly suggest that Laurel was essentially just filling in for Sara (instead of Sara inspiring Laurel to greatness). Laurel carrying around that photo in her costume / armour was a nauseating concept.
I wouldn't have minded Laurel encouraging Oliver to pursue Felicity as part of a larger speech about being a hero / beacon of hope for Star City, as Laurel notes that Felicity provides Oliver with a good counter-balance. But, unfortunately that wasn't the case.
I guess, for me, Laurel's death is simply symptomatic of everything that has gone wrong with Arrow, which makes it the final straw.
Also, to be fair, I've been losing interest in Arrow for a long time. I mostly enjoyed season 1 and I really enjoyed season 2. But, I had a lot of trouble enjoying season 3 with Sara's death, Oliver's "death" and a whole bunch of other nonsense. I had hoped that they could turn things around in season 4, but they haven't.
I'm not one to quit watching a show when they kill off my favourite character. And Laurel Lance / Black Canary has never been my favourite character. But, I feel that TPTB treated both the character and the actor dismissively and their "reasons" for killing off Black Canary which seemed to amount to not knowing what to do with the character and because they *had* to put someone in the grave are poor. I have no interest in watching a show when it appears clear that the writers either have no idea what they're doing or, if they do, then their ideas of "good" writing, interesting character motivations and development and strong story-lines are far removed from my own.
They could have easily written off Laurel Lance as taking a job in another city, perhaps hinting that she would go on to form the Birds of Prey. It would be no worse than the clumsy manner in which they wrote off Roy Harper / Red Arrow. Or Black Canary could have died taking down Malcolm Merlyn or Damian Darkh, thus saving the other members of the team and Star City.
Heck, they could have brought back Deathstroke to be finished by Laurel, although thematically I think it would have been stronger for her to die stopping Malcolm since he was responsible for Tommy's death, Sara's death and, from memory, hurt Papa Lance on more than one occasion. It could have also been somewhat ... justified by the fact that with only one hand, Malcolm is no longer the super-best-invincible fighter that he once was. Or I would have even accepted Laurel fighting "dirty" to gain the upper hand.
Basically, if Laurel had to die, then it should have been as a hero. I also have major issues with the writers retrospectively implying that at least part of Laurel's motivation for becoming the Black Canary is that she was, the entire time, in love with Oliver and wanted to understand his world and to be closer to him. That was just ... completely out of left field and a huge disservice to the character and her motivations. It was bad enough when they seemed to repeatedly suggest that Laurel was essentially just filling in for Sara (instead of Sara inspiring Laurel to greatness). Laurel carrying around that photo in her costume / armour was a nauseating concept.
I wouldn't have minded Laurel encouraging Oliver to pursue Felicity as part of a larger speech about being a hero / beacon of hope for Star City, as Laurel notes that Felicity provides Oliver with a good counter-balance. But, unfortunately that wasn't the case.
I guess, for me, Laurel's death is simply symptomatic of everything that has gone wrong with Arrow, which makes it the final straw.
