Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Arrow, new CW Green Arrow series

In retrospect (having had a day to let the episode perk in my mind), I'm beginning to like the 'brat sister,' Thea. Her character arc is moving *fast,* compared to other shows (where she'd be stuck in the same characterization for multiple seasons). She's gone from bratty high-society wastoid, to flat-out telling Ollie that she felt more able to connect with and condide *in his gravestone* than she ever did his living self, to trying to help him work things through with Laurel, and even gently ribbing him at the end of the episode when she catches him smiling.

"What is that on your face!"

Her heart to heart with her mother, last episode, culminating in her attending a company / family function, rather than ditching to go party with her friends, was also a neat bit of development.

I'm also liking how Ollie's step-dad is playing against assumptions as well.

Laurel is still a bit hit and miss for me. I liked her begrudgingly deciding to play outside of the rules, and the judge kind of hammering it home with 'this isn't a court of justice, it's a court of law', although I didn't like how quickly she changed her mind during the prison fight.

Thea's arc does seem to be moving fast, and as you I like it so far, but it being a tv show, there a huge danger that it's not so much progress as simply the first swing in an eternal pendulum. Much like JR Ewing going from villain to human being and back endlessly.

It was particularly irksome when they did it with Sylar on Heroes. I liked very much that they reformed him, but dammit people at least stick with it for two seasons!

So anyway, cautiously optimistic here.

Very true. I hate when a character slingshots back and forth between character growth and being exactly like they were when we first met them. (Which, IMO, is usually a problem with multiple writers, some of whom are still working from the character baseline and failing to account for change that's occured since then, or 'ascended fanboys' getting into the writing and rebooting the character back to the way they liked it best when they became a fan...)

Ah, but much as in comics where I would blame the editor who does have the longer view, on tv I blame the producer. And there's much more money in tv so less excuse for nobody to be paying attention.

Finally caught the first coupla eps as they suddenly appeared in the On Demand menu of my cable provider. Gotta say: so far, so good!

I like the take they have here on Ollie and his mythos. This is MUCH better than Green Arrow has been in the comics for several years and a much more entertaining and deeper "young Ollie" than what DC launched with the New 52.

Yes, you gotta kind of gloss over some of the stereotypical "Batman" elements and some of the illogical leaps (such as how can a recorded confession from a crook obviously done under violent coersion be used in a court of law?!?!), but the cast is really appealing and all the ongoing plots/subplots engaging.

So how many episodes have aired? On Demand has the first three (will watch the third tonight). Will the fourth air tonight, or is the service missing an ep or two?

I think tonight's is the fifth.

TOTES into ARROW!!! I LOVE the fast pacing, which reminds me of another CW show THE VAMPIRE DIARIES... stuff there moves along at a nice pace also.

Yes, we are at 5 episodes. HULU has them all now, but I think 5 is the max they carry at a time (episode 6 will knock off the pilot episode) so catch up quick!

My sole complaint is I'm not seeing Laurel as Black Canary... if that even IS the plan for her. "Horrible fishnets"? *GLARE* Although the Laurel/Ollie kiss scene was TRES HAWT.

And how cool did Deathstroke look?? And next, the Royal Flush Gang!

I'm quite convinced that even if they have a plan for Laurel as Black Canary, they aren't married to it at this point.

Smallville clearly didn't know they were going to do half the cool stuff of later seasons when they were doing the first couple, or they would have foreshadowed much of it. And they had a "Kara" with superpowers early on too.

The old X-Men cartoon thought they were starting after Phoenix Saga (early on Jean said "I had my own dark times" with much gravitas) but couple seasons later, they went ahead and did the saga.

So, kinda doesn't even matter what their plan is at the moment. If the show lasts 6 seasons, Laurel WILL be Black Canary at some point. Assuming they don't kill her off before then.

What am I saying? If they kill her off, she'll DEFINTELY be back as Black Canary.

In fact I wonder if Laurel's mom will show up as Black Canary first.

Another possibility: Laurel's sister showing up as BC or someone else.

I doubt they'll undo her sister's death anytime so, it being roughly akin to Spidey's Uncle Ben. (Not to say never, but not soon.)

But Laurel's mom, also called Dinah (which would explain why everyone uses Laurel's middle name), could in fact be already on the trail of the people who sabotaged the yacht.

I now officially subscribe to this theory.

I dunno... seems to me they intentionally left wide open the possibility that she's alive. To quote one website :

I also now officially subscribe to this theory.

I really like Laurel, personally. Besides being simply drop-dead gorgeous, I think her complex feelings toward Ollie make perfect sense given their history. So I can understand her being sympathetic one moment and bitchy the next. Love also the relationship between Laurel and her dad. Can't help, though, but think he will end up being Arrow's Captain Stacy when all is said and done, probably sooner than later.

All I'm saying is Sarah's not likely to come back soon. They're milking the guilt-for-Ollie angle too much to give it up this season.

Though as the season cliffhanger, maybe.

I *love* Sonny's theory that Sarah and Laurel's missing mom is going to be Black Canary. That's some good theory!!

I thought he looked ridiculous.

Of course your opinion is as valid as anyone's, and-- as is well-documented-- I will be the FIRST to rip on Marv Wolfman's ludicrous creations (like Terry Long, Pariah and Azrael) BUT...

I *do* submit that TV-Deathstroke looked... TOTES TITS.

I present Exhibit A:

Dude, that pic makes his head look like a Red Skull cake gone wrong.

I bothered me that Slade had two eyes showing....or I guess the eye-loss is still to come?!? It didn't show him suffering the eye injury this past episode did it? And haven't flashbacks to Slade's career pre-eye loss shown him wearing a full orange mask and a half-and-half afterwards?

Otherwise, he looked fine, but the two staring eyes grated on me a little.

I hadn't thought about Sarah Lance being alive! Maybe someone will appear and look like her, but no memory - or maybe she'll be an imposter. I'd just as soon she stay dead, though; one came-back-from-the-dead is enough.

Well you know, if the series goes on too long, even Ollie's dad will come back.

Nope!

Five eps in, and I'm still loving it. I like that, with Diggle's criticism, he's being a bit less lethal than in his first appearance. (Since these episodes were probably filmed long before fans reacted with alarm about all the deaths in the first appearance, it seems to have been part of the plan, and not just a hasty response to fan outrage, which is kind of neat, suggesting that the show-writer(s) *intended* for us to see the killing as a flaw to be corrected in Ollie's methods, and sort of 'played' the audience a bit, by letting them think that the writers were deliberately trying to shove a killer Green Arrow down their throats.)