i'll end up alone like i began
Arrow: The Promise (now I am earwormed, but in a good way; I haven't heard that song in ages.)
I have a couple issues here:
1. I still hate that they fridged Shado for Slade and Ollie's manpain.
1a. I don't think they ever really established Slade as being SO IN LOVE with Shado that his rage and despair really works emotionally for me, no matter how hard Manu Bennett sells it, and he is a damn fine salesman. I can write off a lot of it to the mirakuru messing with his head, but it still feels like a retcon whose edges don't match the bits of stuff it's replacing.
1b. What happened to little Joey Wilson? I thought Slade was eager to get back to his son! (and possibly daughter? COME ON SHOW, GIVE ME ROSE WILSON.) But now he's got no family?
2. IVO KILLED SHADO. SLADE ACKNOWLEDGES THIS. AND YET. Again, he's angry and desperate and having his head messed with by the mirakuru, but ugh, I hate them reframing this as a deliberate choice Ollie made and I'm not sure it's the show or the characters doing it, but had Ivo pointed the gun at Shado, I'm sure Ollie would have jumped in front of her instead, and IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE IVO IS THE ONE WHO PULLED THE TRIGGER. I get how guilt twists things up in Ollie's head, the way anger and despair twist them up for Slade, but I really hate that this is what turns Slade on Oliver. I just want them to be bros! I want Slade to be a professional killer who sometimes sides with the good guys! And maybe leaves messages for Ollie written in the steam on his bathroom mirror. *cough* Is that too much to ask?
3. I feel like the flashback, as cinematic as it was, told us nothing we didn't already know. Well, except for how Ollie saved KGBeast, I mean, Anatoli Knyazev. (also was that Thomas Flynn guy anyone in the comics? Or is he an original character?) And how Slade found out the circumstances of Shado's death. And how Ollie finally put on Yao Fei's hood and became the vigilante. But it felt like a momentum killer given that it interrupted the super intense Slade and the Queen Family's Art Gallery Tour.
4. Otoh, I did LOVE the super intense Slade and the Queen Family's Art Gallery Tour. Also, even though Slade had his hands all over Moira - and Moira should have been able to sense how completely WEIRD Slade and Ollie were about each other - I did have a moment of "Will Thea be a Terra-substitute?" because that would be... something. I don't know yet what I feel about it, but it did pop into my head. I JUST WANT THEA IN ON THE SECRET OKAY. LET HER BE SPEEDY FOR REAL.
4a. I feel like we are either going to get Ollie teaming up with Malcolm to save Thea from Slade, or Slade helping Ollie save Thea from Malcolm (because he wants to kill her himself? idk). I don't know which yet.
5. I mean, I don't like that Felicity and Diggle were sidelined yet again (poor Dig just gets knocked out), but it was nice to see Roy and Sara being integrated into the team and useful as backup.
5a. I really dislike the theory that Ivo is Felicity's absent, deadbeat dad.
6. SUICIDE SQUAD NEXT WEEK. EEEEE!
*
Also, here's a thing I noticed on my Life rewatch that I don't think I picked up on the first couple times: In the Black Friday episode, Crews buys a pair of purple lace ladies panties and offers them to Reese, who doesn't take them. But in "Evil and His Brother Ziggy," we see Reese wearing them - and THEN Tidwell mentions them on the phone call where Crews picks up the phone instead of Reese. So Crews KNOWS she's worn them. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're the same panties. I don't think it's just my shipper goggles here. I might have to write fic about that. While I have to say that aside from the gross and ill-advised Reese/Tidwell relationship, I don't mind Tidwell that much (though he is way too present; I liked Lt. Davis better), but I still need ALL the post-series fic where Reese moves on from him to Crews, because PARTNERS.
I also don't think I realized till this time around that the finale answers the very first question Crews asks Reese. Where he's like, "The dog took a bullet for the kid and then bit off the shooter's finger. Anyone ever love you that much?" and Reese says, "No," iirc, but THEN, in the finale, Crews kills Nevikov - not just for her, obviously, but I think you'd find the percentages hard to parse about how much is for his own peace and how much is because Nevikov kidnapped Reese. Like, clearly the answer is YES, CREWS LOVES YOU THAT MUCH, REESE. HE JUST DOES. And I get that some people like to see that kind of partnership remain platonic, but I am not one of those people, not in this case. But I am not up to the finale yet. I will probably have more to say when I get there.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/644250.html.
people have commented there.
I have a couple issues here:
1. I still hate that they fridged Shado for Slade and Ollie's manpain.
1a. I don't think they ever really established Slade as being SO IN LOVE with Shado that his rage and despair really works emotionally for me, no matter how hard Manu Bennett sells it, and he is a damn fine salesman. I can write off a lot of it to the mirakuru messing with his head, but it still feels like a retcon whose edges don't match the bits of stuff it's replacing.
1b. What happened to little Joey Wilson? I thought Slade was eager to get back to his son! (and possibly daughter? COME ON SHOW, GIVE ME ROSE WILSON.) But now he's got no family?
2. IVO KILLED SHADO. SLADE ACKNOWLEDGES THIS. AND YET. Again, he's angry and desperate and having his head messed with by the mirakuru, but ugh, I hate them reframing this as a deliberate choice Ollie made and I'm not sure it's the show or the characters doing it, but had Ivo pointed the gun at Shado, I'm sure Ollie would have jumped in front of her instead, and IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE IVO IS THE ONE WHO PULLED THE TRIGGER. I get how guilt twists things up in Ollie's head, the way anger and despair twist them up for Slade, but I really hate that this is what turns Slade on Oliver. I just want them to be bros! I want Slade to be a professional killer who sometimes sides with the good guys! And maybe leaves messages for Ollie written in the steam on his bathroom mirror. *cough* Is that too much to ask?
3. I feel like the flashback, as cinematic as it was, told us nothing we didn't already know. Well, except for how Ollie saved KGBeast, I mean, Anatoli Knyazev. (also was that Thomas Flynn guy anyone in the comics? Or is he an original character?) And how Slade found out the circumstances of Shado's death. And how Ollie finally put on Yao Fei's hood and became the vigilante. But it felt like a momentum killer given that it interrupted the super intense Slade and the Queen Family's Art Gallery Tour.
4. Otoh, I did LOVE the super intense Slade and the Queen Family's Art Gallery Tour. Also, even though Slade had his hands all over Moira - and Moira should have been able to sense how completely WEIRD Slade and Ollie were about each other - I did have a moment of "Will Thea be a Terra-substitute?" because that would be... something. I don't know yet what I feel about it, but it did pop into my head. I JUST WANT THEA IN ON THE SECRET OKAY. LET HER BE SPEEDY FOR REAL.
4a. I feel like we are either going to get Ollie teaming up with Malcolm to save Thea from Slade, or Slade helping Ollie save Thea from Malcolm (because he wants to kill her himself? idk). I don't know which yet.
5. I mean, I don't like that Felicity and Diggle were sidelined yet again (poor Dig just gets knocked out), but it was nice to see Roy and Sara being integrated into the team and useful as backup.
5a. I really dislike the theory that Ivo is Felicity's absent, deadbeat dad.
6. SUICIDE SQUAD NEXT WEEK. EEEEE!
*
Also, here's a thing I noticed on my Life rewatch that I don't think I picked up on the first couple times: In the Black Friday episode, Crews buys a pair of purple lace ladies panties and offers them to Reese, who doesn't take them. But in "Evil and His Brother Ziggy," we see Reese wearing them - and THEN Tidwell mentions them on the phone call where Crews picks up the phone instead of Reese. So Crews KNOWS she's worn them. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're the same panties. I don't think it's just my shipper goggles here. I might have to write fic about that. While I have to say that aside from the gross and ill-advised Reese/Tidwell relationship, I don't mind Tidwell that much (though he is way too present; I liked Lt. Davis better), but I still need ALL the post-series fic where Reese moves on from him to Crews, because PARTNERS.
I also don't think I realized till this time around that the finale answers the very first question Crews asks Reese. Where he's like, "The dog took a bullet for the kid and then bit off the shooter's finger. Anyone ever love you that much?" and Reese says, "No," iirc, but THEN, in the finale, Crews kills Nevikov - not just for her, obviously, but I think you'd find the percentages hard to parse about how much is for his own peace and how much is because Nevikov kidnapped Reese. Like, clearly the answer is YES, CREWS LOVES YOU THAT MUCH, REESE. HE JUST DOES. And I get that some people like to see that kind of partnership remain platonic, but I am not one of those people, not in this case. But I am not up to the finale yet. I will probably have more to say when I get there.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/644250.html.
people have commented there.