#and henry mischaracterization too but i understand it more for henry because like

[willryist]

Next fic is either Springtrap/Henry or not a ship and just Henry and Charlie depending on which one I feel like doing first. I also have two x readers and another willry fic planned for the future if I ever feel like writing. Also I lowkey wanna write a Jessica/Charlie fic because I've been thinking about them so much as of recent and I never write w/w ships. Problem is I have literally no ideas for them and ideas for writing have to come naturally for me. I can't just. . . TRY to think of it. I came up with three fic ideas while writing the last fic I did just out of pure coincidence and I don't think I'll ever get that kind of creativity again

[watchingyoufromthestars]

Finally cleaned this up so here’s my DnDads ultimate ship opinions list. I was waiting until after s2 ended to clean this up in case I had any final opinion changes with the last few episodes. Please don’t bash me for any of these. The DnDads fandom is generally very nice but shipping discourse is something that can get heated no matter the fandom.

Dads

Henry Darryl: very neutral. I understand the ship I just never fully got on the boat

Henry Glenn: absolutely fucking feral about them do not get me started on Glennry

Darryl Glenn: feral in a different way that I don’t know how to describe other than toxic yaoi in the way that they’re damaged but refuse to talk about it so they kiss about it instead

Loveeeeeeee polydads but only as Henry/Glenn/Darryl. Not really a Ron shipper I love him and Samantha too much. Ron and Glenn’s friendship is very important to me though

In terms of Jodie, I don’t really ship him with any of the main dads, ESPECIALLY not Glenn. Even if Jimmy didn’t play Jodie I’d still never ship them. Wish Scamster was real and not completely a scam because they’re literally a crackship become real except it was never a crackship before canon. It’s surprising to me that they weren’t really shipped beforehand

Henry Mercedes: THE T4T OF ALL TIME BABEYYYYY. Absolutely iconic couple, fate was in their favor with how they met they were destined for each other

Darryl Carol: After hearing how Darryl talked about his family in Heaven, I was actually really happy they ended up not getting divorced. They clearly had a rough patch as seen in s1, but they genuinely love each other and I love how devoted to her Darryl is. The little finger puppet he made of her in the time out zone… :,)

Glenn Morgan: GLORGAN!!!!!!!!! Oh my god these two tear me apart. I am feral for Glorgan angst there’s too much to work with. More people need to start calling them Glorgan instead of Morglenn please please please please pretty please indulge me in my silly ship name

Ron Samantha: sobbing. They’re so sweet. The distinction that Samantha is also a little silly is very important to me. They love each other so fucking much

Kiddads

Nicky Sparrow: didn’t realize how much I love them for a good while but when I did oh god I love them so so much. T4T it’s so real to me that they’re both trans

Nicky Lark: used to like it but yall mischaracterize Nicky so much in fics. If yall want toxic yaoi just ship Grant and Lark I’m so serious

Nicky Terry: sobs. They were best friends. I don’t personally ship them but the fact that Terry said he was his best friend… that line rattles around in my brain so often

Nicky Grant: recently learned this might get shipped and has THE coolest ship name. Crossfire I love you but for the ship name alone

Sparrow Terry: I think I’ve seen this shipped a few times but only in the context of Terry/Nicky/Sparrow. Not my personal cup of tea though

Sparrow Grant: I don’t see this shipped too often but they have the worst ship name ever /aff. Wtf is a spant lol. Also I’m too much team transfem Sparrow to feel comfortable shipping this

Lark Terry: do not know the appeal of Gun Control but their ship name is fun

Lark Grant: toxic yaoi central. They both need intense therapy but them both being so fucked up is what makes them interesting not that that’s healthy though

Terry Grant: I see them more in a qpr place than anything romantic. I have one fic of them that’s bookmarked on Safari because I think about a part from it from time to time

Don’t have any poly ships for them

In terms of s2 spouses I so desperately wished we could’ve seen more of them. We barely get to see them

Nicky Cassandra: Telling Taylor his dad was a good man and that she misses him every day makes me think they parted on good terms. But then Nicky disappeared because of FBI shit. In another life maybe they could’ve worked.

Sparrow Rebecca: more ugly sobbing. I’m unsure on my sparroace thoughts if they’d end up getting divorced post-finale but I know they’re not fully separating or breaking up. They really are in love but it’s unconventional and messy.

Terry Veronica: I think the reveal that Terry is infertile is a nice touch to their relationship. It sounds weird to say and I feel like I might word this all weirdly. Him being unable to have bio kids but finding love in someone who wants to raise a kid with him anyways. Veronica finding new love again after a supposedly abusive relationship. Both of those combined is something I really love.

Grant Marco: Canon gays ftw. The Titanic episode was so generous in letting us get to see their dynamic. Obviously Grant still has a long way to go in finding self love but I’m so happy he found someone who can support him and loves him back like this.

Teens

Normal Scary: ugly sobbing over them I love them so much. Cradling my madomagi and tma aus with them as madohomu and jmart

Normal Taylor: yearning for the early s2 days like when they went to Sonic and made some devious plan off screen I wish they had more silly interactions together. Was truly fed with the kareoke intro and them bonding over costume making for a minute. Tayloak could be so interesting if there was more material to work with

Normal Link: Childhood BFFs to Lovers; I wish they could’ve hung out more as kids but all that happened

Normal Hermie: I get the hype but I have personal reasons for feeling neutral on them that I wish I could get over. Good soup though /ref

Scary Taylor: see them too much as a sibling dynamic to ever ship them

Scary Link: respect to all y’all shippers but I do not gothcleats and will leave it at that forever. I can only accept the finale with my transfem Link hc

Scary Hermie: I love Scene Partners. These stupid kids and reflecting each other /aff

Taylor Link: one that I can’t believe I didn’t ship sooner they’re so silly

Link Hermie: I think this one is very funny (/pos) but not my personal vibe

Love love LOVEEEEEEEE Marloakworthy AUGH. A giant triangle of everyone paralleling each other

Polywagon I love you; cannot believe you’re real and genuinely canon. This is just Homestuck again when Hussie said all ships are canon (DnDads never beating the Homestuck allegations from me)

Scary Erica: wish there were more interactions I love Erica so much but alas she’s a guest NPC. “You awaken a lightness in me” sapphic ass Scary I know what you are

[thatonecringe]

Alright, most of your points need discussed. Yes, I agree that Henry isn't exactly the "Voice Of Reason" that the encyclopedia states him as, but he's also not as bad as you put it.

He's very mischaracterized by the fandom, but not as bad as William. He's a distraught father and franchise owner who was betrayed, pushed into dealing with his co-owner's heinous crimes, and forced into a rabbit hole of paranormal activity.

• Yes, he did end up choosing a robot version of his daughter over his son and wife, but grief can do strange things to your brain.

• Yes, he could've enforced the rebuilding of Toy Foxy and had better ways so that they weren't messed with, but that didn't directly lead to the bite. Of what I can recall, if not a popular theory, all of the toys had a glitch or something that caused their criminal detection program to not work, instead going for any adult. That's why they attack us in FNaF 2. Likely, even if not mangled, Toy Foxy possibly still could've caused the bite, if Mangle even was the culprit at all.

• Henry possibly didn't have enough evidence to stop William. He possibly knew by FNaF 2, if not FNaF 1, but William would be smart enough to leave barely any evidence, if any evidence at all. For all the outsiders know, Henry could've and he was framing William.

• If this is referring to FNaF 6, he had Mike there to keep the vengeful spirits contained so that their spirits could be put to rest. Most of the evidence collected could've been after Will already died, so not much could be done by then. If this is about something else, I am unsure and am sorry.

• The capturing part makes sense since I doubt she'd go into the pizzeria willingly. The shocking periodically, I don't fully understand. It may be in the same vein as the controlled shocks keeping the Funtimes from breaking out or being uncompliant, and only using it for keeping Charlie "pacified" because of it being temporarily instead of like the Funtimes going on for possibly decades before they snapped. There's only no exits once the fire starts at the end of FNaF 6, as we see all of the scraps behind possibly closing doors, so he'd still need to find a way to keep her in until then. Yes, he isn't the #1 father who could do no wrong, but he's not as despicable of a person, or even a father, as William.

• The two burnt down building were owned by his franchise? It's not like he randomly committed arson twice in order to try to kill the undying spirit of an utter monster that killed his child and many other children. Fire is the only way we know of that releases remnant. Plus, we don't even know if Henry started the FNaF 3 fire, it easily could've been Mike or whoever we play as in FNaF 3, and Henry started FNaF 6 specifically to burn it to the ground once everything was in place.

• You say this as if Michael was a regular, alive human at this time instead of an undead, rotting, no-internal-organs dude, possibly with no living family, especially after the fire, likely with nobody else to go to. He led his sister, his father, and possibly multiple spirits of children here to be set free from eternal life and torture (Except for his father, he's just going to more torture that he deserves), so it can be assumed that he would want out of eternal life and torture, too. Even if he wanted to keep living for some reason after all of that, a way was Fully Planned, like you quoted with "Although, there was a way out planned for you," so I'm sure it would still be very easily accessible for an average human if he really wanted to go.

He's going through with burning himself alive along with his own daughter and multiple innocent children that got locked into eternal life in a body that isn't their's to set them free. He's burning away a monster and tried to burn away a franchise that held terrible memories for the friends and families of that monster's victims. Yes, he possibly didn't pay enough attention to safety for employees, but didn't deliberately hire them to die. He put one animatronic through pain for likely less than a couple weeks just to make sure she could be set free. He put in multiple safety measures to make sure customers stop getting hurt, some just backfired. He did make sure all of the souls, including Will, were together so that he could help save them. I'm sure you'd want out of a rotten children's entertainment robot ASAP after being locked in there for decades after being brutally murdered. And I'm sure Henry didn't specifically let the animatronics kill at night, because then he wouldn't have given the guards ways to survive, like the mask, the music box, and the flashlight in FNaF 2, and the doors in 1. He's definitely not the voice of reason, because he doesn't have the best solutions to pressing issues, but he's nowhere near a monster.

Henry Emily is not the voice of reason

The character encyclopedia is garbage terrible artwork, no Michael Afton or Jeremy and more exemptions. But one thing that stands out. Henry being “the voice of reason” LOLNO. Scott for the love of god reign these idiots in.

One monologue does not make the man good. Sure, he’s better than the literal child murderer, but the man is trash. Let’s not forget HOW THE FANDOM MISCHARACTERIZED HENRY TO THE POINT THAT EVERYONE THINKS HE WAS THIS CINNAMON ROLE

Chose a robot kid that he brought back with his tears(I wish I were joking) over his wife and ALIVE son

The Toy Animatronics are his design and instead of having his people properly rebuild Toy Foxy and make it explicit the kids are NOT TO TOUCH the animatronics, they instead just build The Mangle and do nothing as Mangle causes the Bite of 87

Could’ve acted on William, but chose to do nothing while William killed 5 children and then 5 more and god knows who else William killed(I still say 16 in total, 16 tapes, COME ON PEOPLE IT ADDS UP)

Henry puts you in a mental asylum for getting data from a data archive that shits them out and putting it in to your computer, causing you to see blueprints and a tape of him describing the murders a lot of people in the games probably know about.. This man’s solution to someone listening to his vent tapes was to lobotomize them.

Builds an animatronic that is designed to capture and pacify his daughter. Said machine shocks her every so often to “pacify” her. We already know animatronics can feel pain from controlled shocks in Sister Location. Basically, Henry tortures his own daughter with controlled shocks so she’ll be pacified, which doesn’t even work, and possibly makes her even more pissed off, all so she can burn to death and not “escape” in a place with no exits in the first place. BUT HENRY IS THE GOOD FATHER WHO COULD DO NO WRONG, RIGHT FNAF FANDOM?

He set two buildings on fire in an attempt to kill William 

He killed Michael. “Although, there was a way out planned for you, I have a feeling that’s not what you want. I have a feeling that you are right where you want to be.” how did you know that? Did Michael say he wanted to die? He just ASSUMES Mike wants to die. He deliberately kept him in the burning Pizzeria. Michael could’ve lived a normal life after finally ending the nightmare, but Henry took that from him.

Henry doesn’t care about anything as long as he gets what he wants. He’s exactly like William except that fortunately his end goal is something good. Henry doesn’t care how many employees die, how much pain he puts the animatronics in, or how injured customers get, as long as he gets all the souls and William in one place. He probably even let the animatronics kill night guards on the off chance that one of them ended up being William in disguise. Henry is not the voice of reason.

[jbuffyangel]

Transparency: Arrow 7x11 Review (Past Sins)

Dear Arrow writers,

Please write better episodes for David Ramsey to direct.

Love,

Me

I didn’t love “Past Sins” but that’s not a reflection on David Ramsey’s directing. I’m always happy when Arrow dives back into Robert Queen, but yeesh there was a lot of hokey.  

 I’d give it a C+ for writing, but a solid A for David’s first time directing.

Warning: my interpretation of Bl*ck S*ren’s arc is either right on the money or wildly and grossly wrong. No middle ground. It’s one or the other. 

Let’s dig in…

Olicity

I love my steady ship. They are dealing with separate issues this week. Oliver is facing more Robert Queen fall out and Felicity is busy being Bl&ck S*ren’s Say No to Murder sponsor. And here we thought L*urel & booze was a problem. Oy. 

But there are plenty of Olicity goodies as they check in with another. I truly don’t need 100% focus on Olicity every week. I mean, I’ll take it if Arrow is handing it out, but I’ve been watching this show for too long to believe in that pipe dream anymore.  As long as they hit me with a few Olicity focused episodes I’ll be good.

Source: olicitygifs 

The smaller moments are important to me too. In the immortal word of Joey Potter, “It’s gonna be the details that define us. The moments.” 

The details and moments, big and small, define Olicity’s love. I am really enjoying watching our ship happily married. We’ve earned this friends.

Felicity continues to be Oliver’s rock solid support system. She gives him great advice about Emiko, he follows it and TA DA! A bridge to a relationship with his sister is created when before there was none. 

Source: olicitygifs

The moral of the story is Felicity is always right and Oliver would avoid 99.999% of his problems if he just ran decisions through the home office first.

Source: oliverxfelicity

Felicity is pushing for transparency from Oliver because she knows the truth we all know. Oliver is an amazing human being, but he has to strip away all the things that prevent people from seeing that - such as masks and lies. The more Oliver shows his true self to Star City the more they will fall in love with him. 

Why this city is more ticked off about Oliver hiding his identity rather than being grateful for the three times he’s saved them from total destruction is beyond me. Star City you continue to be an ungrateful twat of the highest order.

It’s really frustrating watching the police, Star City citizens and even Oliver’s own sister fundamentally mischaracterize who he is, but this is why Felicity continues to be so important. She’s our voice. 

Felicity is saying all the things we would say to Oliver. Her belief is unwavering, so it’s clear the point of this storyline is to show that the police, Star City and Emiko are in the wrong. They’ve misjudged Oliver and as we continue to push him toward this almost Messiah like evolution it’s really important for hindsight. Everyone has look back and realize Oliver’s goodness was staring them in the face the whole time. This way when he raises from the dead everyone will appreciate him.

Source:  oliverxfelicity

Is it weird I still get excited when they hold hands and kiss? Well, I still get excited when they hold hands and kiss. 

Source:  olicitygifs

We have had a solid kissing run too. I think they’ve smooched at least once for the last five episodes. We are well fed fandom.

I love Oliver’s little head shake whenever bae is being adorable. 

Source:  oliverxfelicity

He smiles and shakes his head like, “How in the world did a grump like me end up with this adorable rainbow of a human being?” I don’t know Oliver, but you are one lucky bastard.

Oliver Emiko and Robert Queen

Oliver offers his apology to Emiko for all the wrongs their father has done her. It’s juxtaposed against Oliver’s reformed vigilante interview with Bl*ck S*ren. Oliver may be sorry for what his father has done in the past, but in public he is still covering for him.

Oliver: I can prove to you I am nothing like him.

Emiko: You’re a Queen. All you know how to do is leverage your own privilege to help yourself.

I’m having some issues with Emiko’s perspective on Oliver.  

She’s lived in Star City her whole life.  She’s dressed up like the Green Arrow for the last seven months. If she can grasp the Green Arrow is a mechanism for justice then how can she say Oliver has simply been helping himself the last seven years? Those two don’t equate.

I understand Oliver singing his father’s heroic praises on television has to grate on Emiko because Robert was anything but a hero to her.  It’s natural for Emiko to believe Oliver was a total asshole before the Queen’s Gambit, because he was one. 

However, it’s difficult to view the Green Arrow as leveraging privilege. The guy saved the city from destruction three times. Oliver admitting he is a vigilante fighting for the citizens of Star City should have cleared up some of Emiko’s issues, but I guess not. I think the writers could have eased up on the anger a little bit.

Obviously, a lot of Emiko’s anger with Robert is being targeted at Oliver. He’s the last man holding the bag. Oliver has the Queen name so he has to answer for all their sins. Thanks a lot parents. 

However, Emiko knows Oliver is more than Robert Queen’s son. He was mayor and saved the city multiple times. The only way I can rationalize Emiko discarding this information is she believes all the good she’s witnessed from Oliver was merely for show. No different than how Robert Queen paraded around town as a “good guy.”

Emiko is right about something – Oliver is still not telling the full story. We know he’s not as we listen to the interview. Oliver is obviously struggling with calling his father a hero now that he knows about Emiko. The truth is, abandoning his daughter is not the end of Robert Queen’s list of sins. Not by a long shot.

It’s always difficult to hear anyone bring up Robert’s suicide to Oliver because it is one of the most painful moments of his life. It is probably the most painful. There is a purpose to revisiting this topic, other than the reporter being a nosey, but it still makes me uncomfortable when anyone outside the inner circle (Felicity and Diggle) brings Robert up.

Hackett was Robert Queen’s bodyguard and he made it to the raft too. Robert shot him just before he turned the gun on himself. 

In all of Oliver’s retelling of how his father heroically saved him he’s always omitted this detail. Quite frankly, I breezed past it over the last seven years too. 

Hackett was expendable to Robert. A necessary cost to saving Oliver’s life. The choice Robert made in that moment was one most parents’ can understand, but that doesn’t change how Hackett died. 

One of the reasons Oliver has not dealt with Hackett’s death, and the manner in which he died, is because he cannot reconcile the two events in his mind. Oliver cannot see his father as a murderer in one moment and a selfless hero in the next. The contrasting images are too stark. It was too much for a traumatized Oliver to sort through.

However, Oliver has learned life is not black and white. And neither are people. He’s come to terms with a lot of the trauma in his past. 

Oliver is also in a stable, loving and supportive relationship, so he’s able to sort through the grey areas of Robert Queen. 

Source:  oliverxfelicity

His experience in Slabside showed Oliver criminals aren’t always entirely bad. So, now it is easier for Oliver to accept heroes aren’t always entirely good either.

Oliver’s ambivalence about Robert isn’t new territory. He told Tommy in Season 1 he had a lot of anger towards his father. There are a lot of decisions Robert made that hurt Oliver and he didn’t understand. He was grappling with the Undertaking at the time and Robert’s cowardly inability to put a stop to it. So, it’s not like Oliver has spent the last decade thinking his father is a swell guy.

The one thing Oliver always holds onto with both Robert and Mora is they did whatever was necessary to protect their children. It’s how Oliver rationalizes their more questionable behavior. However, Emiko is Robert’s child and he abandoned her. Moira turned her back on Emiko. Oliver cannot rationalize this behavior and it casts a much darker light on some of their previous actions. He’s also simply reeling from the shock of discovering he has a sister.

Oliver is on a transparency kick, which is why he’s doing this interview. He’s coming out of the shadows and allowing the people of Star City to see who he truly is. This isn’t new territory for Oliver either. He’s been showing Star City his true self bit by bit.

It started in Season 4 when he became mayor and rehabbed his bad boy lout image. Then, Oliver told the truth about how his father died in a press conference in Season 5. 

Keep in mind the story the public knew was Robert drowned when the Gambit sank. Hell, Thea thought that until Season 3.  However, Oliver left out a crucial detail in his heroic retelling of Robert’s sacrifice and now he needs to tell the whole truth if he’s really invested in full transparency.

Arrow grapples constantly with responsibility versus legacy in terms of Oliver’s heroic evolution. Oliver is not responsible for Robert Queen’s actions, but he’s trying to be a better man so the sins of the father do not become the sins of the son. He hasn’t always been successful at it, but overall Oliver is a better man than Robert. He’s the man his father asked him to be.

The legacy Oliver inherited from both his parents wasn’t great. He’s been focusing on creating a legacy of his own, one for William, which breaks the cycle of violence that began with Henry Goodwin’s death. However, there are still skeletons in Oliver’s closest. He wants Emiko to give him a chance to prove he’s different than their father. 

Oliver: I think I’ve been so obsessed with proving to people I am not like my father that I didn’t stop and look at all the ways that I am exactly like him. I should have come clean with Sam years ago.

Oliver has been drowning in Robert Queen’s ocean of lies for over a decade. The only way to the surface is the truth.

It starts with Hackett’s son Sam who has been terrorizing the SCPD for hiring Oliver.  He built some kind of vest that electrocutes police officers. This is the point of the episode where my electrical engineer husband got up and left. The vest pushed him over the edge. The level of ridiculousness on Arrow now matches The Vampire Diaries and he had to peace out.

Oliver admits he’s a liar to Sam because… he is. Oliver has told many lies over the years and simply because his intentions were good doesn’t automatically make the lying okay. If Oliver is really living a transparent life then he has to tell the whole true. Starting with how Sam’s father died. It’s a hell of an apology, but unfortunately too little too late for Sam. He’s gone round the bend.

Arrow takes a hard left directly into a wall when it decides rather than Sam simply electrocuting everyone with his science-that-doesn’t-exist vest, he’s going to make one of the police officers shoot Oliver. The other cops get to live if one of them kills Oliver. I think? I guess the police have to prove they aren’t working with a known criminal. Except Oliver is a criminal and he’s working for the SCPD, so…???!!!

Don’t make me explain this plot guys. It’s just as stupid on paper as it is watching from my living room. I like the Hackett son storyline. I’m always down for some son versus son melodrama, but I can’t with the hokey tech.

The cop can’t shoot Oliver because “he’s one of them.”

*Cue emotional music, preferably a string quartet, to signal the cops’ acceptance of Oliver to the audience.*

Dinah shoots an electrical box, the vest doesn’t work and nobody dies, which is exactly what every viewer across the globe expected to happen. The writers know they built zero suspense in this episode right?

Oliver decides to sit down for another interview, but this time he tells the whole truth when asked about his father’s heroic sacrifice. Yes, Robert Queen was a hero. He was also a murderer. Failing to acknowledge both truths does a disservice to Robert’s memory, his legacy and the people left behind.

Oliver: Transparency is about more than just not wearing a mask

A duality exists in us all. None of us are entirely good or bad. A good man can commit horrible sins.  A horrible sinner can accomplish much good. They are often one in the same. The truth is the only proper judge of a person’s soul.

Source:  smoakmonster

Ummm… 

Generally, I would be extremely excited about this kind of a speech from Oliver Queen. I’d be trumpeting THY NAME IS CHARACTER GROWTH and hire a band to go marching down Main Street, but nope. Not this time. I am no longer the sweet summer child of my youth. This isn’t 2012. It’s fucking 2019 and I’ve been dancing this dance with Oliver Queen for a very long time.

Here is what I know: Oliver Jonas Queen is a liar liar pants on fire whenever he deems necessary. It’s the nature of the biz. He’s gonna hero the way he needs to hero and sometimes it requires selective truth telling behavior. Some would call this lying. I prefer to look at it as a necessary evil in the service of goodly, and Godly, pursuits. I’ve made my peace with it and I think Felicity has too.

He even prefaced this pledge by saying he’s made a lot of mistakes and will continue to make more. That’s literally a get out of jail free card to use whenever necessary!

Me: You said you weren’t going to lie Oliver!

Oliver: I also said I would make mistakes. The lie was a mistake. TA DA!

Me: *seethes*

I think it is wonderful Oliver is trying to live a more transparent life and I give him a lot of credit for airing his father’s dirtiest laundry ON LIVE TELEVISION. Most of us just get really drunk and drop a truth bomb at the wake. Different strokes for different folks.

I do believe Oliver means it. It’s very good for his hero development. He’s learning to merge both personas into one. The hood is down. He’s embracing his humanity and holding on tightly to the people he loves. Everyone knows he’s the Green Arrow. The truth is no longer the price for protecting his family’s name.

Oliver was so afraid everyone would blame him for Robert’s sins that he ended up committing some of those very same sins in an effort to avoid it. Oliver acknowledges he was wrong and shakes some of the last remaining skeletons in his closet free as a result.

The only person holding Oliver accountable for Robert Queen’s actions is Oliver (and Emiko). It’s because of what he witnessed and the trauma that resulted. His father’s last words were, “Right my wrongs,” and then he blew his brains out. It saddled Oliver with an enormous burden and guilt. His mission was born from that burden and guilt.

But there’s been a seismic shift inside Oliver.  He’s stopped blaming himself for Robert’s death. He’s trying to shift away from violence and has stopped killing. He’s telling the truth about who his father really was and those admissions bring freedom.

Oliver is more concerned with his legacy than he is about Robert’s now. He is more concerned about being a good father than he is about being a good son. Bit by bit Oliver is lifting the weights that have burdened his shoulders for over a decade. Oliver is becoming a man who is nothing like Robert Queen, and by doing so, becomes exactly who his father asked him to be.  

Oliver Queen is Robert Queen’s legacy. He was all the good Robert had left to give the world, which is why he sacrificed his life and killed Hackett. The only way Oliver completes Robert’s legacy is if he builds one of his own. 

It means no more mask, hood, killing or lies. These are the layers which must be stripped away so Star City can see the man Oliver truly is. It’s like he’s yanking out all the worn out carpet and the beautiful hardwood floor waiting underneath is revealed. If we are preparing Oliver for a Messiah like resurrection then this is another very big step to a sin free hero.

It’s enough for Emiko to see Oliver’s light and goodness too. It’s not enough for her to forgive Robert for what he did, but she realizes Oliver is very different from their father. His transparency makes Emiko think a relationship with her brother may be worth having after all.  And that’s a start.

Bl*ck S*ren and Felicity

Source: andremichaux 

Felicity and L*urel are wine drinking buddies. 

How long have we waited for Felicity to have a female friend to drink wine with? SEVEN YEARS. And the female friend is… S*ren.  

Here’s what’s even weirder – I buy Bl*ck Siren and Felicity as drinking buddies more than I buy L*urel and Felicity. That’s how bad it was with her character.

We finally get Bl*ck S*ren’s back story. I was slightly curious about how S*ren ended up as a fishnet wearing, screaming psychopath. The answer is cake. 

S*ren’s father forgot her cake for her 13th birthday party. So, L*urel threw a fit and Quentin got back in the car to get it - only to be driven off the road by a drunk driver. 

S*ren becoming a super villain because of cake is the most L*urel thing this show has ever done. I cracked up.

The drunk driver, Collins, is supposedly Siren’s first kill so she can’t understand why she sees him alive in an alley. Umm… because he’s the E1 version and not the E2 version. How is S*ren confused by that? You. Are. A. Doppelganger. She’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

S*ren believes Collins is stalking her (re: threatening notes), but he’s not. He’s just a drunk Dinah locks up for disorderly conduct. S*ren didn’t really kill E2 Collins either. She didn’t have a handle on her powers back then. E2 Collins died on his porch of old age, I’m assuming. 

Source: felicitysmoakgifs 

So, the catalyst murder S*ren used to justify her murder-y rampage wasn’t murder after all.  The first person S*ren ever killed was someone who didn’t have anything to do with her father’s death. This essentially eliminates any moral justification for Siren’s killing going forward.

Bl*ck S*ren's father's death is not her fault. The many people she killed, however, are her fault. It’s good S*ren didn’t kill Collins, but it also removes any justification she might have thought she had. S*ren’s whole world is a house of cards.

Source: katie-mcgraths 

This storyline is really a bonding opportunity for L*urel and Felicity. S*ren blames herself for her father’s death and Felicity is there to tell her it’s not her fault. This is an important step in a redemptive process. We have to get to the root of what caused the bad decisions, so the character can avoid the behavior in the future. 

Sort of like how Oliver confessed he enjoyed killing to Felicity in a sewer. She told him that was crazy talk and she does the same thing for L*urel here.

Source: katie-mcgraths

One of the reasons I like this version of LL is because she’s a more interesting character. S*ren is a killer and a villain, so it does give her scenes with Felicity and the other characters a different slant. I know it frustrates people when she shares scenes with Felicity, but I enjoy them. They make a good straight woman/funny woman. Felicity doesn’t ignore S*ren is a murderer and the occasional snarky comment from one of them gives their scenes some honesty, which was sorely lacking with LL.

Felicity: You haven’t had a problem talking about the dozens of other people you’ve killed so why keep this one secret?

Is it ridiculous Felicity is drinking Malbec with a serial killer? Yeah. I’m not sure what else to say about it. It seems everyone has decided since Bl*ck S*ren is living life as straight laced L*urel L*nce, and doing good, they are going to look the other way regarding her multiple homicides. 

The fact Felicity believes she can reform a killer isn’t exactly out of character. She’s done it before and look how good he turned out! This guy used to drop bodies on the regular and now he’s a puppy dog.

Of course, I am not equating Bl*ck S*ren’s murders and Oliver’s murders. They are very different things. S*ren killed good people for a bad reason. Oliver killed bad people for a good reason. But it’s still murder. So, yes I am leaving room for Bl*ck Siren’s redemption if she actually does what I think her redemption arc requires. And that’s a big if.

One reason I’m not particularly bothered by this sudden besties arc with Felicity is because something feels off. Really off. Does this feel a little fast to anyone else? 

Arrow made a really big show of S*ren living L*urel’s life better than L*urel did in “Past Sins.” She’s the most popular DA in the last ten years, which really says something about our L*urel’s ability to lawyer. Someone who studied for three months, never went to law school or took the bar is navigating the Star City penal system better than L*urel ever did. I gotta say this show never misses an opportunity to shade whatever version of L*urel L*nce they can.

My point is Bl*ck S*ren, by Arrow’s standard of measurement, is redeemed. Felicity is singing her praises about how proud Quentin would be. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Even Oliver coughed up a 60% compliment in the interview, which I think is a personal best when it comes to those two. 

Source: smoakmonster 

Oliver, Felicity and Dinah have all signed off on Siren’s redemption. And we’re on episode 11.

If S*ren is ending this season as redeemed than she’s already there. Beth talked about how some characters will find redemption while others will not. If they are focused on S*ren achieving redemption then they shouldn’t have her land there in 7x11. She has nowhere to go other than maintain the status quo, which puts us back to the original problem the writers had with L*urel. It’s also kind of a dull storyline and we have a lot of season left.

I think everyone was “Ra Ra Ra Siren! Go Team!” because they aren’t done exploring her darker side. S*ren was uncomfortable about Felicity wanting to have drinks like friends. She also had difficulty accepting Felicity’s compliment regarding honoring Quentin. Eventually, she allowed the sentiment to sink in and could appreciate the acceptance and forgiveness being shown her. But something lingered in her eyes a little.

Source:  nyssaalghl

But what does she do next? When S*ren is threatened she chooses to kill Collins, whatever version of him. There’s no reason S*ren couldn’t have reached out to Dinah or asked Felicity to help her resolve the problem legally. SHE IS THE FREAKING DA. But no – S*ren opts for murder.  

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

The only reason she didn’t do it is because Felicity interrupted and yanked her off the playground like a three year old. That doesn’t signal a redeemed person at all.

One of the problems with S*ren’s character is she had no connection to Oliver or Felicity, which automatically separates a character into a different show. They had the same problem with our L*urel. They had to give Quentin some ridiculous arc about S*ren being his daughter to justify her staying put in Season 6. 

But now, she’s Felicity’s drinking buddy! S*ren helped save Oliver and Felicity held Siren’s hand through her emotional cake confession. FRIENDS. Hell, even Oliver is starting to like her.

I know this makes everyone bang their heads against the wall. Seriously, that’s all it took for Oliver and Felicity to get on S*ren’s bandwagon? 

We have to remember this is Arrow and their history with LL and KC is… complicated. They aren’t going to devote a ton of time developing a relationship with Felicity. I think they’ve done a pretty good job selling it, but sure episode 11 feels a little too soon for Felicity to be completely invested in S*ren’s redemption.

I think they are moving quickly because they aren’t fully invested in S*ren’s redemption. If everyone is redeemed at the end of the season then it automatically lessens the impact. You get redemption and you get redemption!

Redemption should be difficult to earn. It certainly has been for Oliver. Someone has to fail at achieving it to show it’s difficult to earn. Someone has to reject it to show the value of those who desire it.

They’ve been comparing and contrasting Oliver and Bl*ck S*ren all season. “Past Sins” is the most obvious thus far. Both Oliver and L*urel are dealing with  father issues. Both characters had guilt to contend with and each landed in a fairly peaceful place about it by the end of the episode.

S*ren is getting all the same support from Felicity that Oliver found. At at the end of the day, having good people around us isn’t enough. We have to choose to be a good person. Redemption can only occur when a person wants to be redeemed. The fact S*ren slips so easily back into murder makes me question if she really does. Perhaps, the shoe won’t fit in the end.

It would be an amazing contrast to Oliver’s arc. We know he’ll end the season redeemed. If Felicity shows S*ren the same love and support, but she chooses to remain evil then it casts a very bright light on Oliver.  

Free will must be introduced. The writers have to level the playing field. S*ren has to be given all the same opportunities and support Oliver was given. Then, if she rejects redemption it’s truly on her. She has no one to blame than herself. Oliver’s redemption and goodness is not just a result of Felicity’s belief and influence. It’s also who Oliver chooses to be.

BS and Felicity have developed a friendship, so if she goes back to her villain ways then there are stakes now. Felicity is invested whereas a year ago she wouldn’t give BS a second thought. It gives the two characters drama to play with in the fallout.

Of course, I could be completely wrong. It’s entirely possible the writers will keep BS at the status quo. If that’s what happens then character’s snide snark still makes her a more interesting character to watch than milk toast LL. Or perhaps the writers are pursuing a more in depth redemptive arc. S*ren will own up to her crimes and do a stint in the pokey. That would be a great contrast to Oliver as well. No matter which way they go I am curious to find out, which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for my apathetic state regarding LL years ago.

Curtis and Diggle

My live tweets track my emotional Curtis Holt roller coaster.  

Look, I am a nice person and I deserve nice things. The writers teasing Curtis’ death like this proves to me they know he’s the absolute worst and we want him gone. They’re just being obstinate about it. 

I still think Curtis is going to die. 

They’re just going to mess with us before they off him for real. All the evidence is still there. There’s no mention of him in the future, there’s no Holt in Smoak Tech, Felicity is developing the tech for the Archer program without him (AS SHE SHOULD), and he’s not part of the Mark of Four.

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Curtis has been almost nonexistent for the last four or five episodes. It’s clear the writers aren’t using him as much and that’s typically a sign of their lack of investment in the character. Tell me what was going on with L*urel before she bit the dust. Nothing, that’s what.

My cratering disappointment aside, Curtis did get one over on Diaz. It’s a bad ass moment for the character, which probably means we have another coming with his alter ego Mr. Terrific and then he’ll be toast.

He’s also the voice of morality the entire episode. Curtis Holt is acting more Yoda than John Diggle. Just when I think we can’t go any lower the writers reset the whole scale. 

He takes a big stand with John and decides he’ll be making his own calls. Let’s just ignore that’s not how a military operation works, Diggle outranks him and Lyla can just fire his ass. 

When characters suddenly become angels with wings it means Arrow is getting ready to ship them off to the great, big superhero haven in the sky.

I don’t really care about Ghost Protocol. Sure, it’s inhumane putting bombs in people’s heads. Curtis is right. Diggle is wrong, but whatever. Put a bomb in Diaz’s head, John. Have at it.

Stray Thoughts

Felicity looked adorable in her white and red polka dot shirt. It’s affordably priced, but it’s one of those shirts I know looks amazing on Emily and horrible on me. We have very different bodies.

This bottle remark is a big mood. I’m gonna abuse this gif. Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

No meeting between Felicity and Emiko. I think the writers will focus on Oliver’s relationship with Emiko and once that is solid we’ll get Felicity and William interactions with her. They can’t do two things at once friends. Don’t make it too hard on them.

They can’t say Suicide Squad. Hahaha

Why is Bl*ck S*ren dressed like a Girl Scout on E2? Source:  nyssaalghl

“You should be behind bars.” I like this guy. Collins can stay. Next round is on me buddy.

"I almost do." Bl*ck S*ren kind of grows on you, Oliver. Like a chia pet.

Reason 34,097 why Felicity Smoak is our spirit animal: never leave the wine.  Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

We need to ease off the shoulder pads with KC, wardrobe department. I'm having eighties flashbacks. Reel it back in.

My understanding of Oliver working with the SCPD is he does all the work while Dinah & co follow him around in single file.  How is this any different than what he did before? Oh it's legal. This is dumb. I’m over it. Time for Team Arrow to get back together.

Great nod to Felicity not taking Oliver's last name.   �� 

David loves the slow close up. A signature is born.               

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 7x11 gifs credited.

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[douxreviews]

Death Comes to Pemberley - Series Review

“It is my sad duty to inform you all that death came to Pemberley last night.”

Warning: this is going to be a very negative review. If you’re not in a mood to read what basically amounts to 1000 words of bitching about how awful this miniseries is, please don’t bother reading it. (Largely but not entirely spoiler free.)

Why am I reviewing this even after I claimed I would never? Part of me wanted to rewatch Death Comes to Pemberly to see if it truly was as awful as I remember, and part of me just wanted to delight in Jenna Coleman’s Lydia Wickham (née Bennet) before Victoria premiered in the US.

Like the other Pride and Prejudice take off I detest, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (the movie, I quite enjoyed the book), Death Comes to Pemberley features a phenomenal cast include the aforementioned Ms. Coleman, The Americans’ Matthew Rhys, Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson, and James Norton before he was in absolutely everything produced by the BBC. And, let’s be honest here, the idea of a murder mystery combined with Pride and Prejudice sounds fun. It just does. So where did Death Comes to Pemberley go so terribly, terribly wrong?

Basically, it rolls back a huge amount of character development from Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is just as much of a miserable git (can I still use that word if I’m American?) as in the beginning of Pride and Prejudice. The central idea of Austen’s concept of love is that the two people who make up a good couple make each other better, that they improve each other in subtle ways. Elizabeth softened Darcy while Darcy forced Elizabeth to confront her tendency to make snap judgements of people and stick with them. What’s more, Darcy seems to have removed all of Elizabeth’s light and happiness making her just as serious and broody as her husband. There’s an argument to be made that these personality shifts are understandable reactions to the news of a murder on their property ostensibly committed by a family member but…I don’t know. Something about that explanation feels like too much of an excuse for mischaracterization. And if that’s so it’s a truly dire statement about everyone’s ability to cope with a crisis. Elizabeth and Darcy are supposed to be happily married and, in this, they feel like a miserable couple whose affection for each other died long ago. There is a brief scene at the beginning of the miniseries that shows them more relaxed and happy and a bit at the end, but it’s just not enough, sorry.

Hands down my biggest complaint of the series is the absolute butchering of Colonel Fitzwilliam who, in Austen’s prose is nothing but a good man who is, without exception, shown to be kind to all he meets. His one fault is that he’s a bit of a gossip (his loose lips are how Lizzy finds out Darcy broke up Bingley and Jane). Here, Lizzy calls him an “arrogant and secretive man” and is totally right. He’s horrible. He doesn’t have a single redeeming characteristic. This character never would have worked in Austen’s original narrative because getting to know Colonel Fitzwilliam, Darcy’s close friend and confidante, is one of the things that initially softens Lizzy’s opinion of Darcy. If he was this terrible I’m not convinced she would have given Darcy a second glance.

The hallmark of good fan fiction (there definitely is such a thing) is that it takes characters we know and love and puts them in new situations. It doesn’t take a preexisting narrative and try to squeeze characters we already know into place. I just…the whole concept of a murder mystery set in Jane Austen’s world sounded like so much fun but this is just an excuse for all my favorite characters to go completely out of character and angst and brood.

Points for realism go to Wickham’s situation. As much as I like imagining Darcy and Lizzy’s happily ever after happily, the idea that Wickham would continue to ask for money and favors from his wealthy relatives is almost inescapable. Combined with the seduction of poor Louisa Bidwell, it paints a pretty picture of the Wickhams’ married life.

I also have to give the miniseries credit for their presentations of Lydia and Mrs. Bennet which, to me, were spot on. Lydia continues to be a ditzy flirt, and Mrs. Bennet continues to be…Mrs. Bennet. Their high pitched theatricality is a delightful respite in the sea of broodiness that is the rest of the show. I just wish there had been more of them. Although, historically, both characters have been better in smaller doses.

The romance between Henry Alveston and Georgiana is a nice counterpoint to all the sturm und drang going on elsewhere. At least for the first episode and a half. Then Darcy decides to put his thumb on the scale in favor of Colonel Fitzwilliam pressuring Georgiana to marry her cousin over a man she has true feelings for. Darcy was supposed to have learned the lesson that true love is worth risk but clearly this incarnation of Darcy hasn’t taken that to heart. The show tries to sell this as Darcy’s reaction to the scandal created by Denny’s murder but the whole thing leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. If Henry Alveston were poor that would be one thing but he is wealthy enough to see the Darcy family socially which means he must at the very least be richer than the Bennet family was and, without the entail of their fortune, they would have been quite comfortable. I’m more easily convinced of Georgiana’s willingness to sacrifice her shot at true love by marrying the Colonel. Given her previous romantic entanglement with Wickham, it makes sense that she would, with some urging, choose safety over passion.

Bits and Pieces

Mrs. Reynolds (the housekeeper) mentions knowing the proprietor of a boarding school near Highbury. Highbury is the name of the town in Emma and it does feature a boarding school which ends up furnishing Emma with her friend Harriet Smith.

one and a half deux ex machinas

sunbunny

[chipotle]

Cotton, hay, and rags: giving bias the veneer of rationality

As you’ve surely heard by now, a mid-level engineer at Google—he’s anonymous, so I’ll call him Mr. Rationalface—wrote a memo called “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” in which he argued that “differences in distributions of traits between men and women may in part explain why we don’t have 50% representation of women in tech and leadership. Discrimination to reach equal representation is unfair, divisive, and bad for business.” (His words, not mine.) In response, recently former Google engineer Yonatan Zunger wrote the simply-titled “About this Googler’s manifesto,” in which he argues it’s manifest bullshit. (My words, not Zunger’s).

Between the time I started writing this and now, news has come out that Mr. Rationalface has been fired. I’ll come back to that.

I’ve been thinking about responses I saw on Hacker News to Zunger’s piece. The most common defense of Mr. Rationalface’s thesis was to restate its core premise: This whole drive for diversity rests on the premise that there’s no difference between men and women, but the falsehood of that is apparent to even the most casual of observers.

This is a common rhetorical trick I see in this particular corner of the internet (i.e., rationalists who want to rationally prove that PC SJW WTFery is irrational): restate the opposing premise incorrectly, then commence a full frontal assault on the restatement. Of course there are biological differences between men and women; who claimed otherwise? Mr. Rationalface proceeds from here to assert the following totally objective, non-sexist truths:

Women are more open toward feelings and aesthetics, while men are more open to ideas.

Women have more empathy than men, while men have more interest in systematizing.

Women are gregarious and agreeable; men are assertive!

Women are more neurotic, with higher anxiety and lower stress tolerance.

Women are irrational, that’s all there is to that! Their heads are full of cotton, hay, and rags!

Whoops! While the first four are from Mr. Rationalface, that last bullet point was from noted academic rationalist Henry Higgins.

A fairer way to state the “pro-diversity” case is more like, some perceived differences between men and women used to justify associating higher-paying professions with men are rooted in dubious stereotypes. And we can test whether there’s prima facie evidence for that by looking at the actual history of software engineering. In the early days, it was women’s work: it was seen as more like filing and typing than math and logic—the hard stuff was the hardware. But by the mid-1970s, it was men’s work. But the work hadn’t changed. What changed was the perception of the work: society started to consider it high-status white collar work rather than low.

I know that—irony of ironies—I’m trying to rationally analyze an argument that is, at its heart, not about rationality at all. It’s about reclaiming ground in the Great Culture War. If the gender disparity in the engineering workforce at Google reflects something broken in their culture, it demands a solution that involves taking action one might call “affirmative.” PC! SJW! Cthluhu fhtagn! So don’t even allow the possibility that the problem is in the culture. If the problem isn’t in the culture, it must be in women. The solutions offered must involve working with and around Essential Feminine Nature.

But it’s the argument style that leaves me fascinated, the same style employed by many of his defenders, and a style that echoes through GamerGate, the Sad Puppies and other geeky outposts in the Great Culture War. If I may engage in some stereotyping myself, it’s an argument style beloved of folks who are mostly white, mostly male, mostly under 30, and mostly a little too sure of their razor-sharp logic. I don’t think this kind of guy gets redpilled because of deep-rooted anxiety over losing white male privilege—I think they get redpilled because it’s just effin’ cool to be told you’re one of the few people smart enough to see reality as it is, rather than buying into the conventional wisdom that traps all the other sheeple. This is why so many fringers, from anti-vaxxers to white supremacists, construct elaborate, nearly-logical theories built on a stack of unexamined premises. This is obvious to the most casual of observers, so let’s move on, they say, while the rest of us sheeple are making the time-out signal and saying wait, what?

Isn’t it obvious when premises are false? Isn’t this willful—and malicious—ignorance? Sometimes. If we’re honest with ourselves, more often than not. But the more boxes you tick on the cis-het-white-male line, the more advantages you get for no actual work on your part. You have, if I might be so bold, a rational self-interest in supporting arguments that those advantages are immutable nature, and attacking arguments that they’re uncomfortably squishy social constructs. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his social status depends on his not understanding it.”

So about Mr. Rationalface’s firing. If I were his manager, would I have canned him? I admit I’m not comfortable with hey, it’ll only chill the speech we don’t want; you can’t know that only the “right” group of people will take away exactly the message you intend to send. (Exhibit A: Hacker News.) But as Yonatan Zunger noted, a substantial number of Mr. R’s (former) coworkers were likely furious; he might as well have scrawled Does Not Work Well With Others, Especially Wimmen across his face with a Sharpie. From a—dare I say it—coldly rational standpoint, Google HR gets a firestorm no matter what, but keeping him risks a second, bigger firestorm when he shoots his mouth (or text editor) off to a coworker again.

I looked back at Hacker News briefly on the day of his firing and saw, well, what I expected. This is an outrage! This proves all the author’s points! This was not the anti-diversity manifesto the SJWs are claiming it is, it’s a well-written, polite, logical argument! It definitely had the appearance of logic, and it was debatably civil. But from its mischaracterization of the “pro-diversity” arguments through its “you’d agree with me if bias wasn’t blinding you to my truth” conclusion, it was precisely what its critics claimed it was. It’s easy to say Mr. Rationalface lost his job for not kowtowing to liberal groupthink, but sometimes a burning bridge is just a burning bridge.