#bad parent malcolm merlyn

[the-feral-gremlin]

[kitkatt0430]

A question! What would Tommy Merlyn be like as a dad? This isn't a prelude to a fic, it's just something I've been wondering for a while without finding an answer (and I like reading your character analyses anyway :D)

I think before becoming a dad, Tommy would be worried about being a bad dad. Even with setting aside Malcolm's more genocidal tendencies, he wasn't exactly a great dad. He wasn't ever there when Tommy needed him and didn't present as a particularly great role modal. And Tommy's other role modal as a kid was Robert Queen who was also not the greatest - how many affairs did that man have that we have confirmed? - and Moira was better than them but still... questionable in her parenting choices. His mom died when he was pretty young, so... I think he'd be very nervous about becoming a parent himself.

What if he screws it up?

And the second his first baby is put in his arms, he'd fall in love.

He'd be wanting to do all the thing for his kid(s) that his dad never did for him. Taking pictures all over the place of everything his kid did and probably posting them for his friends and family to see on an app like Tinybeans (a great way to share photos without making them public, especially a bonus when he's a rich, minor local celebrity in Star City). He'd be trying to keep his kids out of the papers and away from publicity as best he can.

The first time his has to ground his kid over something, he probably cries. "I'm being too harsh, I'm a mean, terrible parent." Oliver probably listening over the phone and trying not to laugh at him.

He probably gets super invested in the plots of children's programming - he watches Paw Patrol and loves it. (My nephew loves that show and it really is cute.)

I think he'd want to be the stay at home parent, though he'd pick up something to work on after all the kids are in school all day. Probably involved in volunteer work for the re-opened clinic his mom started. Something where it would be easy for him to take off from if his kids were sick or had school events that needed a parental volunteers.

I think he'd be better at setting boundaries with his kids than Robert and Moira, but he'd also make sure his kids knew that if they call him after curfew drunk or whatever and ask him to come get them. He'd rather they come home safe than yell at them for screwing up. And I can see him also making that offer to some of his kids friends who perhaps don't have attentive parents and the like.

He probably does get called up too, though by his kids or their friends? Doesn't really matter, Tommy's there when those kids need him to be. And really, that's the kind of dad Tommy'd be in the end; the kind of dad he wished he had as a kid.

(I think he'd be silly too, teasing his kids about shouting out 'that's my baby' at their recitals and sports games. And he wouldn't really embarrass them or actually do anything like that, but he wants them to know how proud of them he is and how much he pays attention to their achievements. And he'd be as enthusiastically proud about them passing a hard class with a C as he is of them passing an 'easy' class with an A.)

[fezwearingjellybananas]

1 [Speedster Siblings], 2 [Milk and Sugar], 5, 6, 9 [Gone in a Flash], 18 for the fic author asks?

I may have got carried away with the AU a little bit:

1. What’s your favourite part of writing [Speedster Siblings]?

Definitely playing with the relationships between the characters and how they can change so much just from Eobard making what he would never admit to be an impulsive decision. And I think Eobard getting more out of touch with the reality of the situation that he created as things go on, he's convinced if he proves he loves Wally, Jesse, and Barry things will go back to how they used to be, but it's not their love he needs to get back, it's their trust he broke, and nothing he does actually shows him as changing and deserving a second chance because he doesn't really change as a person, it's just the feelings behind the same kind of actions are different. His POV is very limited, there is so much in this AU that doesn't get shared because Eobard has no interest if it's not about him, and I think that does include Wally, Jesse, and Barry struggling because they do love him, he was their dad for fifteen years, but they can't trust him, he threw that away for a decades long revenge scheme against a man who essentially no longer exists because Eobard changed the timeline so drastically.

2. What was your favourite scene in [Milk and Sugar]?

I think the scene where Hartley tells Ronnie, Cisco, and Caitlin about why he was fired, and Barry makes his brief appearance? That's the scene where it fell into a canon divergence instead of just a coffee shop AU, and it's why I added the last lines that then meant I went back and the short ficlet became the long series

But close second is Iris asking Caitlin if she can kiss her. Unlike the other pining person in the above scene, Iris does something about it.

5. Who is your favourite character to write?

It's probably different every time, but right now I've been having some fun writing (comics) Eobard Thawne in some little fics for Writer's Month. Got so many more of those to write still, but there's a few done

6. Who is the easiest character to write? (These are often not the same!)

Possibly Barry, he is the character I write most according to my AO3 page so I've had more practise writing him. He's a favourite too though

9. If you had to make an au of [Gone in a Flash], what would the au be, and how would that change things? 

Ooh, the perfect one because I do have some vague thoughts sitting in the back of my mind and it's solely because of those Eowells with Morgan vs Eobard with Barry conversations we had.

(Fic rec here for reaching up to touch the sky again. Eowells does not deserve Morgan, how do I adopt her instead)

So, there is- as with all fics- bits that didn't actually make it into Gone in a Flash but that I did have rough notes for and even a few brief type out the scene and not press save because it's only to figure out backgrounds, it's not something I need to keep. The first I wrote was actually Cisco and Barry meeting again alone without Iris post their first (bad) meeting, which I did like enough to change the plan of all Iris POV to give them some as well, but most of the bits- like Cisco and Barry's actual first meeting- just got pushed aside. A lot of what I had were little bits on Barry's childhood with Eobard (or Harrison as Barry knew him), of which a lot didn't make it in not because there wasn't room exactly, but because it wasn't stuff Barry was ready to share. Eobard is a very bad parent to him, and Barry does recognise that because he has Henry Allen and Joe West to compare him to, but I don't think he fully considers it abuse because he says 'Harrison' never physically hurt him so surely it can't be bad enough to count, and also the rich fathers he has as a point of comparison are Osgood Rathaway and to some degree (because he doesn't know Tommy that well, but he knows him a little through Hartley) Malcolm Merlyn, so not great examples there either. Eobard does repetitively pull Barry back in with the promise things will be different and he does care about Barry, he's not just not good at this, and Barry lets it happen because that's his adoptive father, he wants Harrison to love him.

In Gone in a Flash Barry has been very lonely for a long time, mostly because Eobard has intentionally kept him kind of isolated as a child, and stole his one friend, and he's angry and hurt and alone, and that is what has driven his decisions pre the story starting.

But if you give him a sibling- Morgan or Jesse or maybe even Malcolm- then things immediately start to shift.

The way things happen, and this didn't make it in, is things really start going wrong that night Barry and Hartley sneak off to a college party. There's a lot here that didn't make it in- Hartley's under the impression he was visiting Barry in his dorm, he wasn't, Barry was sixteen, he was still living with Eobard, Eobard just went on a business trip and rather than leave Barry home alone he essentially recruited on of his interns who's also at GCU to be Barry's babysitter for the week, and Barry doesn't tell Hartley that because it's embarrassing, and is more willing to do some drastic acting out because he's frustrated and angry and a teenager. And they argue, and it goes badly, and then he almost dies just over a year later and that is what flips Eobard into full control, that's when he changes his mind about Barry going into forensics because if Barry dies then his plan fails, he can't risk that, though he does let Barry live on his own as a 'reward' for Barry relenting and agreeing to switch to physics and let Eobard transfer him from Gotham U to Sun City. He pays the rent, he pays the bills, he gets Barry a food order rather than giving him money for food, because he wants Barry entirely dependent on him still, but Barry manages to start using some weekends and evenings as a few months doing various odd jobs, tutoring, cleaning, stacking shelves, anything that gives him a small pay check, and he stores it away and the moment he graduates and finding a job is expected, he finds a job on his own in Starling and he has that tiny amount to get himself set up in the Glades on his own without telling Eobard where he is, and he changes his name back to Barry Allen. Running away isn't an impulsive decision on Barry's part, it's something he plans for years to get out from Eobard controlling him and he doesn't tell anyone what he's planning, not even Hartley.

But he does eventually end up back in Central, and in his coma, and post that there is a point where he goes back to wanting to believe things with Harrison can be different.

I don't think he would if he had a sibling. I think Barry would see them both being treated badly and he wouldn't have that same hestiation he has about describing his own situation as abusive as he would if someone else was in his shoes. I think if it's Malcolm maybe it's a little different, Eobard would probably try and drive a wedge between them to push Malcolm to the Cobalt Blue path, but they'd be twins here and I think Barry would be in much more of a rush to drag Malcolm away from Harrison than he was himself, he wouldn't wait and plan and go along with things.

If it's Morgan or Jesse, then they're younger than him and it's his job to protect them. Maybe Barry picks the fights still because if Harrison's anger is focused on him, it's not on her, or he says later the acting out as a child was just to do anything to get some attention from his adoptive father, and maybe he sees Harrison equally neglecting his biological child (as far as Barry knows) and figures there's no point doing that. And suddenly there's a valid reason to need a babysitter for that week, so Hartley and Barry might not sneak off, and later he knows he can't just run away with someone who isn't an adult, Barry doesn't have the same rights to her as Harrison does, they won't let him do that. And he can't leave her alone with him, so Barry just lets Eobard tell him what to do and stays because then he's with her. He might end up at Central Uni so he stays living with Eobard when he moves back there because his little sister does too (and maybe he gets to reconnect with Iris at this point, and Eobard lets him because he's being compliant, or maybe he's still kept so busy by Eobard he doesn't get the chance to do that).

This also means he does start working at S.T.A.R. Labs when he gets told to.

Hartley probably does too. He doesn't really know what's going on between Harrison and Barry at this point, Barry doesn't talk about it, so as far as Hartley knows that's S.T.A.R. Labs, it's building new science, it's exciting and his dream job. And maybe Eobard calls it one of his rewards for Barry doing what he's told, he gets to have his friend working with him.

(And he gets to meet Cisco earlier and get off on a better note)

(I also think there's no Hartley/Eobard this time, Hartley wouldn't do that while Barry's right there, and Eobard probably mostly did it to hurt Barry because Barry wasn't doing what he wanted, and here he is)

But the particle accelerator has to be flawed, because Eobard needs it to be. And this time when Hartley finds that flaw Barry can be his first point of call, which means Barry gets that front row seat to Hartley being fired.

Eobard, of course, has a very easy way to manipulate Barry this time, all he has to do is threaten his access to his little sister.

Which leaves Barry with what ends up being a very difficult decision, but he's Barry, he can't do nothing if people are going to get hurt. It's why Hartley knew he could go to Barry in the first place.

It also means when Barry wakes up from his coma his view on Harrison is different. In Gone in a Flash they were not on good terms but he saw the checks being done, as far as he was aware Harrison actually was trying to do the right thing, and no one else found the flaw. He does go and help Hartley, Hartley found a flaw, that should have been enough, but I think it is a decision he was conflicted about, and he's not as involved with all of Hartley's schemes, he mostly just runs him away before he can get arrested while Hartley still thinks he can prove there's more to this than he's told Barry about.

This time he knows it was a preventable disaster and not everything was done. And I think Barry would be angrier with Eobard, he would be much less willing to give his constantly broken promise another chance, because it's not just Barry he's hurt, it's his little sister too. I don't think he would fully become a villian, he's still Barry Allen, but I think he would go straight to Hartley, he wouldn't have that time where he does stay with Harrison, and I think he would be a lot more involved in what Hartley's doing.

Jesse might get powers later, maybe s2, but Morgan gets hers earlier. She would start being Sentry closer to when Cisco becomes Vibe than Barry becomes the Flash (or The Chemist, he might have a different name for when he's helping Hartley with bank robberies, and that one seems like it would annoy Eobard, he's the one who wanted Barry to be a physicist instead of a chemist or a doctor).

(So maybe Jesse could get powers here, maybe she could be The Flash this time around).

And maybe Eobard kept up with that threat and if Barry's less willing to do what he's told he doesn't get to see his little sister any more, maybe Barry just left and she managed nine months without him and if this works she'll never have to deal with Eobard again, so Barry can stay away for just a little while to keep her away from what he's helping Hartley with.

But if he and Hartley are going to run around committing crimes, they're probably going to end up facing a superhero eventually. Vibe will show up, probably quite quickly, but if The Chemist has to go fight Sentry or The Flash as their first meeting, maybe he's not going to be able to keep his little sister out of this after all

18. If you had to write a crossover, what would you want it to be? Would it be crack or serious? 

I've written crossovers before, though not for a while, so I think the general feeling would be somewhere between crack and serious, where it's an actual story with a plot but I do my best not to take fic completely seriously.

I did, ages ago, have notes for a Legends of Tomorrow/The Librarians crossover because of the Spear of Destiny showing up in both, I keep meaning to go back to it and haven't got around to it yet, but there's always a chance something will happen later.

Thank you!

[Asks]

[avatarskywalker78]

🌩️☔️

🌩️ Share something funny/cracky from your WIP.

Johnny had a twinkle in his eye as he sat down opposite her.

“No.” She said immediately.

“Oh, come on, you don’t even know what I was going to say.”

“I know that look, Johnny Lawrence - something’s been brewing for the past week and it’s probably a bad idea.”

“Hear me out - you know that kid, Miguel?”

“Considering he lives opposite, yeah, I do.”

This is from the first part of the CK era of the Nicky Connors series, in which 36 years of friendship with this doofus means she can sense chaos approaching - this is just before he outlines his plan to re-open Cobra Kai...and promptly asks her if she’ll be his co-Sensei.

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I have a few, but I’m going to talk about my Arrow AU I’ve had for years - a divergant universe in which Rebecca Merlyn lives after she’s saved by 14-year- old Meg Morgan, a street rat from the glades (and yet another OC, I know) who stops to help because which obviously changes...a lot of things. For starters, Malcolm doesn’t go off the deep end - though he’s appalled that it was left to a 14-year-old to help someone with a gunshot wound, and why does a teenager even know how to deal with that anyway? So it kinda forces him to really face the reality of things in the Glades.

The more immedtiate fact is that there’s now a traumatised teenager with a target on her back because turns out it wasn’t a random mugging but a gang initiation - that does get dealt with, but saving Rebecca kinda means she can’t return to the Glades. Neither Malcolm or Rebecca are willing to just let her be dropped into the foster system cos Starling’s foster system isn’t great so they just kinda...take her in. They don’t officially adopt her for a few years (they leave that up to her cos she’d be the one affected) but basically Meg Morgan becomes Teri Merlyn when she’s 16/17, and the cool older sister to Tommy.

Sometimes things are inevitable, though, and the Queen’s Gambit still sinks because turns out, Robert Queen has a lot of enemies. Oliver and Sara are still on board...and so’s Teri, because in this ‘verse Oliver and Sara were never in a relationship, Sara just wanted to get away from her family for a while and Teri suggested this idea as an option. Long story short (cos I haven’t worked out a lot of the details) the boat sinks, Oliver, Teri, and Sara end up on the Island and have their struggles but three, not five, years (and different struggles to the ones they had in the show), and still find out from Robert about the city’s corruption, and when they come back become the Green Arrow, Dark Archer, and Black Canary respectively, and the rest of the story deals with them trying to fit back in with their families while being secret vigilantes (Moira, the Merlyns, and the Lances do eventually find out).

There’s a number of reasons why this story hasn’t got off the ground - mainly that these days I struggle to see Malcolm Merlyn as ever being a good father, even after seeing his good Earth-2 counterpart, so the initial reason for writing this fic (because I do love writing a good parent-child relationship) isn’t really there anymore. Plus this was originally intended to be part of a connected multiverse with my other Arrowverse OCs - Steph Taylor, Brianna Thawne, and lately Eliana Kent, with the original intention this ‘verse being a seperate Earth altogether, except I’m not even sure that’s happening either, so while it’s an interesting concept, and I’d like to explore Rebecca’s character, I just don’t really know how to go about it, and I’m no longer sure what to do with this idea. I tried to pave the way for this idea with my two Arrow AUs for flufftober 2021, but that didn’t go anywhere either so...this fic has really been put to the side.

wip ask game

[ao3feed-westallen]

Skeletons in the Closet

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2yux8g4

by GomeraHatesMath

Oliver rummaged through his mother's drawer, not believing the documents in his hands. His mother would never do this... right? Right?! But this was proof of everything he'd ever feared. He knew without a doubt that his father constantly sneaked off to cheat with his secretaries, but it was different, knowing his own mother was like his father.

But here in his hands was the adoption papers that said she'd gave up her baby to one Henry and Nora Allen.

Words: 1175, Chapters: 1/20, Language: English

Fandoms: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash - All Media Types, The Flash (TV 2014)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, Moira Queen, Robert Queen, Thea Queen, Nora Allen, Henry Allen, Malcolm Merlyn, Tommy Merlyn, Iris West, Joe West, Eobard Thawne

Relationships: Barry Allen & Moira Queen, Barry Allen & Oliver Queen, Barry Allen/Iris West, Barry Allen & Nora Allen, Barry Allen & Malcolm Merlyn, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance/Tommy Merlyn, Barry Allen & Thea Queen

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, barry allen is oliver's brother, Adopted Barry Allen, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angry Oliver Queen, not oliver/felicity friendly, Barry Allen Needs a Hug, Married Barry Allen/Iris West, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Bad Parent Malcolm Merlyn, police officer barry allen, Laurel Lance Deserves Better

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2yux8g4

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Gabriel Agreste: Interesting Villain, Horrible Character (400 Follower Special)

I'm honestly surprised more people didn't want me to talk about Gabriel, especially with how often I rag on how horrible of a person he is. But, three character analysis posts later, and we're going to talk about why the main villain of Miraculous Ladybug is a real letdown.

Gabriel Needs to give the Whining a Rest

The interesting thing is one of the few things I actually liked in Season 3 was Hawkmoth. His plans actually made sense (for the most part), and by playing the long game, he managed to turn Chloe against Ladybug and deprived her of several key allies. Granted, Season 4 immediately undid the latter, but I was still impressed by his strategy.

Generally, one of the better aspects of Gabriel as a character was just how over the top he was as Hawkmoth. Keith Silverstein is clearly giving it his all with his performance, and he is just so enjoyable to watch as a cartoonish supervillain.

And therein lies the first major problem with Gabriel as a character. While he is fun to watch as a simple supervillain, the show tries to give him more depth and unintentionally makes him worse.

In Season 2, when it was revealed that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, many fans speculated on what he needed the Miraculous for, until the Queen Bee Trilogy showed it was to save his possibly dead wife, Emilie. The idea of that is so the show can give more depth to its main villain, and I think it's an interesting idea in concept. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

The problem is just how radically different Gabriel is normally compared to how he is as Hawkmoth. He always goes on about how he's “doing this for Emilie”, but it's hard to really sympathize with him when you consider he constantly gives evil monologues and evil laughs, really getting into the supervillain role. And let's not forget all of the “I'm going to wear Ladybug's skin as a suit” faces he loves to make.

Clearly this man is the picture of mental stability.

Gabriel's motivation for being Hawkmoth when compared to what he actually does as Hawkmoth is shady enough, but the thing is that the writers clearly want the audience to at least feel a little bad for him. They want to make the audience sympathize with him despite the way he acts with or without the mask. Without Miraculous Ladybug, he is routinely putting innocent lives in danger and never once shows regret for his actions. All he talks about is how “he's doing this for Emilie”, or that “he'll get their Miraculous soon”. There's no real reason to feel bad for him other than “because the script says so”.

Let's compare Gabriel to Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow. His big plan in the first season of the show is to create a machine that will cause an earthquake to destroy a crime-infested portion of Starling City, claiming to be trying to help everyone, but it's clear he is only doing it out of revenge for his wife getting killed by a criminal from that part of the city. In addition, throughout that season and future seasons, he always makes sure his plans lead to him benefiting in some way, showing he isn't just some noble man trying to achieve his goals with a less than noble method.

If we got some moments that showed that what Gabriel was doing was selfish, it would make him a more complex villain. But we don't get anything like that. What do we get instead? Well...

I Could Really Care Less About Emilie Agreste

We have known Gabriel's motivation has been to save his wife for a little over two years at this point, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that motivation because of how underdeveloped Emilie is as a character.

There have been a total of two lines in the entirety of the show that explain what happened to Emilie, and they're both vague as hell. One of them was from “Feast” that implied Emilie used the broken Peacock Miraculous.

Adrien: My mom used to have dizzy spells… just like Nathalie.

And the other that outright tells the audience what's happening to her in a clip show that most people will skip.

Nathalie: As I've watched Emilie falling deeper into an endless sleep, my sadness for her has deepened, too

That is literally all we get for an explanation, and nothing else. We have no idea of what she's like as a person or what her relationship with her family was like other than Gabriel and Adrien saying they miss her. Other than the way the narrative says she's important to Gabriel and Adrien, we don't really have a reason to care about her as a character. There have also been some lines that imply she went along with Gabriel's questionable parenting techniques, like how he was apparently only homeschooled as a kid (Origins) and never had a birthday party growing up (The Bubbler), so how do we even know if she's a good person? In fact, why not set up this question as a mystery to make the audience wonder if Gabriel has another reason to bring Emilie back?

It ultimately turns Emilie into a plot device and not a character that Gabriel and Adrien only bring up to make the audience feel bad for them, and meant to justify Gabriel's actions by saying that he's “doing this for his family”.

But hey, if he's doing this all for his family, surely Gabriel's redeeming traits come from his relationship with Adrien, right? Right?

As a Parent, Gabriel is Far From the Best

I've talked about this briefly before, but parenting in Miraculous Ladybug is written in such a black and white way, even by the standards of this show. Parents are portrayed in one of two ways. They're either amazing people who love and support their children unconditionally, or they're awful people who treat their own children like trash. And much like a lot of things in this show, there are times where the latter is treated like the former.

There are so many times where the narrative insists on making you see Gabriel as a troubled, but wellmeaning person who tries his best to be a good parent to Adrien, but it is far from the truth.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Gabriel is a terrible parent. Like, he is awful at being a parent in so many ways, even before you find out he's Hawkmoth. In his first appearance, “The Bubbler”, he delegates getting Adrien a birthday present to Nathalie, his assistant. He literally can't be bothered to take time out of his schedule to get his own son a present for his birthday. And as the show goes on, he becomes more controlling and forbids Adrien from going out with his friends in other episodes (Captain Hardrock, Silencer). While this could be used to show Gabriel getting worse, it's never acknowledged in-universe, with Adrien continually defending his father essentially keeping him on house arrest.

“But IOTA!” You might say. “Gabriel has made efforts to bond with his son in some episodes.” While that might be true, most of those come right after his Akumas have almost gotten Adrien killed. He only hugged Adrien and made an attempt to learn more about him after Simon Says invaded their home, he only decided to watch that movie Emilie was in with Adrien after Gorizilla nearly dropped him off a building, and he only hugged Adrien again in public after he was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen.

In fact, let's talk about how Gabriel acts in the Queen Bee Trilogy. He actually decides to quit being Hawkmoth, but it's not because he realizes all the damage he's caused. Instead, he gave up because his “magnum opus”, a stronger than usual Akuma that only got the advantage on Ladybug ironically because of dumb luck, failed. Sure, he says he can't keep putting his son in danger, but he rarely ever acknowledges that he does so in the first place. When Riposte wanted to fight Adrien, Hawkmoth did nothing to stop her other than giving her a stern warning earlier on and nothing else. Where was this attitude earlier?

Hell, even then, he immediately goes back to being Hawkmoth as soon as he sees an opportunity, not even a day after his “mAgNuM oPuS” blew up in his face (because I guess Scarletmoth was just Plan B). If he made such a big deal about caring for his son, why didn't he try harder to spend time with him? Has he ever had doubts about what he's doing before? If Chloe didn't show up as Queen Bee, was he going to follow through on his promise and try to be a better father to Adrien instead of trying to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous?

And yeah, the whole irony is that Gabriel is doing this for his family when he is unknowingly fighting his own son, which could lead to some interesting drama if done right. The idea of how Gabriel would react to his son being Cat Noir could really lead to some internal struggles for him to go through. But then we got “Cat Blanc”, which shows just how terrible of a character Gabriel is.

In an alternate timeline where he found out his son was Cat Noir, what does Gabriel do? Does he try to steal Adrien's Miraculous while he's sleeping? Does he reconsider his actions or realize he was endangering Adrien's life?

NOPE! He just decides to akumatize him all while emotionally tormenting him, before causing the end of the world.

This is honestly one of the most appalling things I've ever seen in any TV show, because it's basically an abusive father ordering his son to listen to him all while referencing his (kind of) dead mother to back up his point. And rather than use this to show how despicable Gabriel is, the episode decides to blame Marinette for this happening. Yes, according to the show, her present to Adrien caused several events to happen which caused Cat Blanc, but this logic makes no sense. It's like blaming the JFK assassination on the man who sold a gun to Lee Harvey Oswald, instead of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Not only was this episode yet another excuse to blame Marinette for something that wasn't her fault, it leads into the biggest problem I have with Gabriel as a character.

Sympathize with Gabriel? Surely, You Jest

After everything I've gone over regarding Gabriel as a character, after all the awful things I've talked about, are you really surprised that I don't feel bad for him at all?

Gabriel is just an awful character and a despicable human being, but the show just keeps wanting me to feel bad for him. It's just so hard to when you consider everything he's done has made him anything but sympathetic. I'm just saying, it's kind of hard to feel bad for someone who tries to start World War III with the only justification being “i'M dOiNg It FoR mY fAmIlY”, especially when he treats his family like crap.

The writers go out of their way to show how horrible Gabriel is as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth, but they think because they throw in a few moments where he looks conflicted, we'll immediately feel bad for him. What makes so many people interested in seeing Chloe become a better person is that they can tell she's the victim of a troubled upbringing, and know that because she's only a teenager, she still has room to grow as a person, represented by having more honest moments of vulnerability. Gabriel is a grown man who once caused the apocalypse because of how terrible of a parent he is, and has even fewer sympathetic moments than Chloe does. Which one of these two is supposedly irredeemable? The answer may surprise you.

But the frustrating thing is that this kind of villain could have worked. Instead of making him this mustache-twirling psychopath, show how much Gabriel regrets what he has to do, but keeps pushing onward despite all the lives he's risking if it means that he can save his wife. Instead of making Gabriel like Lex Luthor, make him like Mr. Freeze, who is basic a better written version of him.

But as it stands, there's a good reason why Gabriel gets little to no respect as a character in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, as a villain, or as a father.

[ljones41]

Favorite Episodes of "ARROW" Season Five (2016-2017)

Below is a list of my favorite episodes from Season Five of "ARROW", the CW adaptation of the D.C. Comics hero, the Green Arrow. Created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg; the series starred Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen aka the Green Arrow:

FAVORITE EPISODES OF "ARROW" SEASON FIVE (2016-2017)

1. (5.17) "Kapiushon" - The season's big bad, Prometheus, goes to extreme lengths to destroy the psyche of Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow. In flashbacks, Oliver's violent tendencies come to a head in a confrontation with his former Bratva mentor Anatoly Knyazev.

2. (5.09) "What We Leave Behind" - After an attack on fellow teammate Curtis Holt aka Mr. Terrifc, Oliver realizes Prometheus is planning to make a deadly move on all of Team Arrow. Felicity Smoak and her boyfriend police detective Billy Malone find a clue that ties Prometheus to Oliver's past.

3. (5.08) "Invasion!" - After Oliver and a few others are kidnapped by the alien invaders - the Dominators - in Part 2 of the Arrowverse crossover, he wakes up to a life in which his parents are alive and he is about to marry the late Laurel Lance aka Black Canary. Felicity faces a new threat with the help of The Flash and Supergirl.

4. (5.16) "Checkmate" - Oliver gets closer to the truth about Prometheus. The hackvist organization Helix refuses to continue helping Felicity until she does a favor for them.

5. (5.23) "Lian Yu" - Oliver assembles a group of unlikely allies - Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke, Nyssa al Ghul, Malcolm Merlyn aka the Dark Arrow and Digger Harkness - to engage in an epic battle against Prometheus and his army.

[dextervexter]

(steeples fingers) tell me about your boy roy.

ok ok ok ok OK i'm doing specifically Young Justice Roy so CONGRATS!!! You picked one boy but on all technicalities thats three in one LETS GOOOO

Will-

Sexuality Headcanon: extremely bisexual. often forget how bi he is

Gender Headcanon: for Will I kind of always figure a little non-binary but still goes by he/him. he just never really vibed with gender stuff.

A ship I have with said character: BIG sucker for Malcolm Merlyn/Will Harper. no they have never met in canon the ship was born from an inside joke and I got way too into it

A BROTP I have with said character: Kaldur and Will of course. Best friends. Will encouraged Kaldur to be a little more insane. Kaldur is the only one stopping Will from going ape on everyone. Their past adventures were usually either missions or getting kicked out of Panera (will's fault)

A NOTP I have with said character: Artemis/Will. that shit was 12 different flavors of gross and I can't believe the show even attempted it. I'm also not fond of Will/Jade but that's mainly because the show did not develop Jade enough to make me want to see them together.

A random headcanon: LOVE THIS MAN HAVE MANY

1) He struggled a lot with identity after discovering he was a clone. The way he saw it, he was a copy of the original Roy and therefore had no right to call any aspect of who Roy was his. He stopped referring to his parents as his, he stopped thinking of his childhood as his. he even had trouble looking at himself in the mirror because that wasn't truly his face. It was the face of someone he replaced. Roy of all people was the one to force him to accept that the memories and experiences they shared are just that: shared. Will didn't replace Roy knowingly. For such a long time he really thought he was Roy. He does get to call his past his, even if he never truly experienced it. He still has bad days where he physically can't bring himself to say that a memory is his, but he's worked hard and created a new life for himself. Maybe soon he'll be able to think about his past without that hurt attached to it.

2) Will has never raised his voice to Lian. He's an incredibly patient parent and as a result, Lian is very well behaved and incredibly well spoken, as Will taught her how to talk through her feelings instead of melt-down.

3) (incorporates events from Snowbirds Don't Fly) His relationship with Ollie was never the same. Will knows that Ollie tried very hard to support him after he found out he was a clone, but what it boiled down to was that Ollie reached a point where he decided Will should get over it. Will left after that and being on his own kick started his problems with addiction. Ollie criticized him for that too, going so far as to cut contact completely. They went years without talking. When Will retired and focused on being a father, Ollie tried to get in contact again but his inability to acknowledge he failed Will ultimately left them unable to carry on any relationship beyond civil acquaintances. Will still let's Ollie see Lian, he'd never deny him the role of grandparent, but he doesn't trust him the way he used to.

General Opinion over said character: He is my baby boy, my son, my boyfriend, my sweet cheese, the light of my life, i am like smeego and he is that gay little ring, he is my treasure, my FAV

Jim-

Sexuality Headcanon: he is the straight clone

Gender Headcanon: Cis

A ship I have with said character: None

A BROTP I have with said character: Jim/Will/Roy. Individually people can handle the Harpers, when together however they're barely coherent sibling chaos

A NOTP I have with said character: None but I do have a running gag that he keeps accidentally dating lesbians.

A random headcanon: Jim struggles with mental and emotional issues due to the mind control he lived under for years. Given his role at Cadmus, one of his problems is an intense aversion to authority. He's not aggressive about it, he usually just tries very hard to avoid people he knows are louder and bossier than most. Being told what to do, even if it's a polite and casual request, can trigger a flight response most times, or a sharp tone at worst. More often than not he stays close to Roy and Will because they're both really good at keeping him busy or just providing him much needed company. They've become a bit of a safety net for him.

General Opinion over said character: I like Jim a lot, but out of the three Harpers I think he's probably the one I leave alone the most. The showrunners didn't do a lot with him after the second season and while I liked his appearance in season 3, they need to do more with him this season.

NOW FOR ROY

Sexuality Headcanon: Gay gay gay he is gay

Gender Headcanon: cis, but flexible

A ship I have with said character: LOVE Jason/Roy. my extremely specific love for YJ roy revolves a lot around him being the iconic Angry Small and shipping him with canonic giant brick shit house Jason is my bread and butter. Mean Bisexual dates even Meaner Gay Little Cat

A BROTP I have with said character: Tim and Roy. Often times Tim has upgrade ideas for his arm that make working with it a lot easier. Plus Tim is one of the only people who brushes off Roy's rude, snarkish attitude. Tim is pretty much the only person other than Jason allowed to touch Roy's arm

A NOTP I have with said character: Not fond of Cassie/Roy

A random headcanon: GOD i have so many have like three

1) Roy's time in the cryo-chamber left him with a lingering chill. He gets cold very easily and when he gets cold he gets cranky. The coldness is something that is pretty much always present. He layers up a lot because of it and sleeps under as many blankets as possible. He prefers Jason practically on top of him when they sleep because he can't get warm and Jason is an oven. Everyone is pretty sure its psychological, but it can be dangerous. He overheats easily and doesn't realize it's happening because he still feels cold.

2) Roy doesn't apologize for things verbally. It sucks because some people need to hear it, and most times Roy is the one in the wrong. He tries to make up for things through actions like buying food for people or turning on their favorite movie. He should just learn to apologize, but he's an angry, over-sensitive ass-hat who takes everything too personally and would rather die than be wrong. He is making an effort to get better though.

3) Roy gets phantom pains in his arm. More often than not, they're triggered by stress or anxiety. He doesn't know what to do when this happens and it can make him way crabbier than he usually is. When this happens he usually goes to his brothers because he's ok with being touched by them. Jim has a heating pad he gives him, and and talks him through it. Compression pads help too, and Jim is allowed to touch Roy's arm to put it on for him. Will is usually busy with Lian, but Roy still tries to be around. Lian is adorable enough to keep him distracted. When Will has a spare moment he'll usually come in and make sure Roy is okay and just sit with him a bit because sometimes Roy just really needs to feel someone there with him.

General Opinion over said character: HE'S MY SON. HE'S MY BABY. HE IS ME. HE IS MY SWEET CHEESE. I ALREADY USED THAT ONE TODAY BUT I AM LIKE A LITTLE MOUSE WITH THESE MEN

[afaimsarrowverse]

My 30 Favorite Arrowverse Episodes:

This list reflects my personal opinion and is in no way objective. Everyone has their own taste. Also Love is Love and  can not be measured – except on stupid lists like this one. If an episode is not on it, that does not mean I don’t like it (unless it does). Everyone ist entiteled to their own opinion, so please respect mine and don’t reblog or answer to that just to tell me how wrong mine is.

 30. The Fellowship of the Spear (Legends of Tomorrow Episode 2.15/31, Written by: Keto Shimizu, Matthew Maala, Directed by: Ben Bray)

 This episode is “Legends”-Homage to Tolkien and his works. However the most quotes and nods go to the Peter Jackson Movies, which is no problem, because we love them too. The Legends recruit Tolkien out of the trenches for a treasure hunt, however things go bad and some fans were not to happy with one of the team betraying their own at the end of this episode. But don’t you guys remember Boromir? I really love this one, because it combines two of my favorite things: “Legends of Tomorrow” und Middle Earth.

 29.  Flashback (The Flash Episode 2.17/40, Written By: Aaron Helbing, Todd Helbing, Directed By: Alice Troughton)

In this episode Barry travels backt to the time of Season 1 and therefore changes the outcome of the Season 1 Episode in question and creates a new timline, which no one but him notices. Later on stuff like this would happen all the time, but this was the first instance, and it was very very wild to have Barry knock out Barry and pretend to be Season 1 Barry. Also we got Eobard and Eddie back and given how much I love both of them it no wonder I love this episode.

28.  The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Part 1 (The Flash 6.07/121, Written By: Jonathan Butler, Gabriel Garza, Directed By: Chad Lowe)

 Here Barry is infected by Ramsay who gets in his head and in the Speed Force which tries to help but ends up getting attacked by an paranoid and confused Barry, who finally gets to voice all of his frustration about the Speed Force and the way it interfered in his life. This is a very emotional episode that confronts Barrys immanent death, all the losses he had do bare and his conflicted feelings about everything that is going on in his life at this point of his story.

 27.  The Once and Future Flash (The Flash 3.19/65, Written by: Carina Adly MacKenzie, Directed By: Tom Cavanagh)

 In this episode we get to visit the future in which Iris was killed by Savitar. Barry ends up there while trying to find out more about his foe. It’s a dark and depressing „What If“, where we get to see new sides most of our characters and this episodes dives deep into the immanent darkness of the seemingly so bright „Flash“-TV-Series.

 26.  The Adventures of Supergirl (Supergirl 2.1/21, Written by: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Jessic Queller, Directed by: Glen Winter)

 This essentially is a Crossover Episode, even though it took Superman three more years to get his own show. However the episode acts as if there is an existing Superman-Show that crosses over into „Supergirl“. This version of the character is as adorable as Kara and a very good antidote to the Snyder Version of the character. Oh, and it does help that the episode is good as well.

25.  Nora (The Flash 5.01/93, Written By: Todd Helbing, Sam Chalsen, Directed by: David McWhirter)

 Season 5 opens up extremly strong with this episode where Barry and Iris meet their future daughter, who has some secrets up her sleeve that change everything for next one and a half seasons. Nora is perfectly portrayed in this one as a mixture of both of her parents and manages to screw up the timeline imediatly, while everyone is still reeling from the fallout oft the last season finale.

24.  The Brave and the Bold (Arrow Episode 3.8/54, Written by: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim, Grainne Godfree, Directed by: Jesse Warn)

Crossovers were the moments „Arrow“ had a chance to let ist hair down and just be a little bit different for a while. This one has Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco visiting Starling City and the Flash and the Arrow teaming up against Captain Boomerang. It’s still Arrow, but with a splash of „The Flash“ in it, which makes it funnier and nerdier then „Arrow“ usually is. I always loved it.

23. Haunted ( Arrow Episode 4.5/74, Written by: Brian Ford Sullivan, Oscar Balderrama, Directed by: John Badham)

 John Constantine crosses over in the Arroverse in this episode which reveals Olivers dealings with him in the past and shows him restoring Saras soul. With this episodes the show started to embrace it supernatural arc, which many fans weren’t too fond of in latter part of this season, but this episodes remains a favorite because here „Arrow“ got mystically weird. Also Johnny Constantine tends to make everything better and we got Sara back, so it’a clearly a win.

22. Kapishon (Arrow Episode 5.17/109, Written By: Brian Ford Sullivan, Emilo Ortega Aldrich,Directed By: Kevin Tancharoen)

 This is the episode in which Adrian Chase manages to break Oliver. That sounds painful and yes it is very painful, but it’s really really great at the same time. This episodes asks all the uncomfortable questions the show seemed to shy away from in the previous seasons, builds on Season 5s solid Bratva-Flashback Arc and even presents us Anatoly meeting Malcolm Merlyn. It’s cleary a highlight of the show.

 21. The Bottle Episode (Supergirl Episode 5.10/97, Written by: Derek Simon, Directed by: Tawnia McKiernan)

 The Post Crisis Carzyness lived in this episode. We got a lot of doppelgangers, most of them Brainys, and a lot of chaos, I mean more chaos then most other shows usually have, except for „Legends“. So I guess this episode was „Supergirl“ trying to do an episode of „Legends“. Also Brainy evolves in this one, so it wasn’t just for the laughs. In short: There was nothing not to like in this one.

 20.  Welcome to Earth-2/Escape from Earth-2 (The Flash Episodes 2.13-14/36-37, 36: Written By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Katherine Walczak, Directed By: Millicent Shelton, 37: Written By: Aaron Helbing, Todd Helbing, David Kob, Directed By: J. J. Makaro)

This two parter is the first time we ever visited a parallel earth. We visit Earth-2 in this, where pretty much everything and everyone is different. Adorable Nerd Barry, Cop Iris, Singer Joe and many more ahoy. But Deadshot of Earth-2 is the best thing about this reality. Too bad it pretty much everyone from over there was done away with later, but we will always have these episodes, so that is something.

19.  Out of Time (The Flash Episode 1.15/15, Written By: Aaron Helbing, Todd Helbing, Directed By: Thor Freudenthal)

Time Travel is an important plot element of the Arrowverse, but it wasn’t always so. This is the first episode where Barry discovers that he can time travel, after kissing and losing Iris and witnessing the end of Central City. Which is one of those „everyone dies“ instances that are always cool and I always love. Also it’s Season 1 of „The Flash“, where they really couldn’t go wrong most of the time.

18.  Starling City (Arrow Episode 8.1/ 161, Written by: Beth Schwartz und Marx Guggenheim, Directed by: James Bamford)

In this one we are essentially reliving the „Arrow“- pilot with a few signifcant changes. Turns out we are actually on Earth-2 and Oliver pretends to be his doppelganger in order to do a thing for The Monitor. Until the shocking ending, this on is like everyone favorites „Arrow“ fanfic come to live. Even the flashforwards were not bothering me in this.

17.  Flash VS Arrow (The Flash 1.8/8, Written By: Ben Sokoloswki,m Brooke Eikmeier, Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Directed By: Glen Winter)

 This one was the first real Crossover Episode of the Arrowverse and it blended classic comic book action which Season 1 „Flash“-Style, meaning it was beyond great. We never quite saw Oliver like this before and not very often after, and seeing him and Barry connect is just one of the joys of this superior episode.

16.  Worlds Finest (Supergirl Episode 1.18/18, Written by: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Michael Grassi, Directed by: Nick Gomez)

Speaking of the first seasons and Crossovers. This was the Crossover we always wanted, but never believed we would get, because back then “Supergirl” was on another network. But we got it anyway. Barry gets stranded on Karas Earth, which leads to a lot of chaos, many nice moment and fine jokes. This was one of the clear highlights of Season 1, and it paved the way for the season finale as well as future crossovers.

15.  Myriad/Better Angles (Supergirl 1.19/19-1.20/20, Written By: Yahling Chang, Caitlin Parrish; Ali Adler, Andrew Kreisberg, Robert Rovner, Jessica Queller Directed By: Adam Kane; Larry Teng)

 Season 1 of „Supergirl“ ended with this „all or nothing“ two-parter where everything came head to head. Driven and energatic „Supergirl“ cemented itself as one of the superior superheroe shows of it’s time. I loved the show, I loved Kara, I loved Cat and especially in this one.

 14. Camelot 3000 (Legends of Tomorrow Episode 2.12/28, Written By: Anderson MacKenzie, Directed By: Antionio Negret)

 From the far future to Camelot and King Arthur – this episodes travelled far and mixed those two areas up quite nice. In true Legends fashion Ray became a Knight of the Round Table, Sara got to hit on Guenevere, and Mick got to beat the adversary army with his brain. Yes, you read that one right. Just ask poor Martin about it. Given how much a love both Arthurian lore and the Legends this one remains one of my favorite up to today.

13.  Meet the Legends (Legends of Tomorrow Episode 5.1/69, Written by: Grainne Godfree, James Eagan, Directed by: Kevin Mock)

In this episodes Ava tries to race money for the Time Bureau by making a documentary about the Legends and their work. This episode is the documentary and the making oft he documentary. Think Arrows „Emerald Archer“ only way carzier and funnier. The Legends meet Rasputin who kidnappes the camera team, while Ava writes Sara a very weird condolence note, everyone is acting weird(er) because cameras, and well it’s „Legends“ only even nuttier than normally. I love it.

12.  Invasion! (2) (Arrow 5.8/100, Written by: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Wendy Mericle, Directed by: James Bamford)

In the middle of the big „Invasion“ Crossover „Arrow“ celebrated its 100the episode by looking at a world where the Gambit never sank. While the writers cleary had fun with Barry and Kara in this one, the heart lies in the dream reality, where things are better but sadly not real. Oliver, Thea and the others need to chose the life they want and weg et rewarded with a really great episode while they do so.

 11. Raiders of the Lost Art (Legends of Tomorrow Episode 2.9/25, Written by: Keto Shimizu, Chris Fedak, Directed by: Dermott Downs)

 This is officially the episode where „Legends“ went nuts. Oh and it’s a delicous one. George Lucas never became a filmmaker after being scared of by Malcolms and Damiens attempts to kill amnesiac Rip Hunter who thinks he is an American filmstudent, whose script is basically the plot of the shows first season. Too bad he can’t find a decent Vandal Savage. And that everyone thinks he is this Rip Hunter guy. Also Mick gets a brain surgey, Ray and Nate change occupations, and Amayas babysits their attempt to get George Lucas back to film school, and thanks god she does otherwise … well otherwise there would be no „Star Wars“ or „Indiana Jones“, would there?

10. Beebo the God of War (Legends of Tomorrrow 3.9/42, Written by: Grainne Goodfree und James Eagan, Directed by: Kevin Mock)

 This was supposed to be the sad goodbye to Martin Stein and it still is that as well, but mostly it’s the episode about Beebo Day. You know, the blue god, who hungers for war and conquest? Whose birthday we celebrate once a year in december and … wait? What was I talking about? Oh, yeah Leo tries to make Mick quit drinking and Beebo get’s squeezed a lot. Well you have to see that one to know why it’s a great one, but believe me it is great.

9.      Elseworlds 1-3 (Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, Part 1: The Flash Episode 5.9/101, Written By: Eric Wallace und Sam Chalsen, Directed By: Kevin Tancharoen und Tom Cavanagh, Part 2: Arrow Episode 7.9/147,  Written by: Marc Guggenheim und Caroline Dries, Directed by: James Bamford, Part 3: Supergirl Episode 4.9/74, Written by: Mac Guggenheim, Derek Simon und Rob Rovner, Directed by: Jesse Warn)

In this Crossover Oliver und Barry switch identities which no one on Earth-1 believes, but Kara’s help leads to an evil not-quite Superman and a brand new reality. Also we are introduced to Batwoman and Gotham. And Lois Lane. Well, there is a lot going in there - even Gary guest stars on „Supergirl“ – but mainly Oliver is Barry and Barry is Oliver and that if fun and Kara makes a connection with the Elseworld version of Earth-1 Alex Danvers which is also great.

8. Legends of To-Meow-Meow (Legends of Tomorrow Episode 4.8/59, Written by: James Eagan und Ray Utarnachitt, Directed by: Ben Bray)

 Sulky about missing out on the Crossover the Legends crossovered with themselves in Season 4. John and Charlie destroyed the timeline for selfish reasons, and now everything is wrong and everything they do makes things worse instead of better. Zari gets to spend most of the episode as a cat, the rest of the Legends get turned into puppets, we meet the Sirens of Spacetime and the Custodians of the Chronology, and a gay kiss saves all of spacetime. Why can’t all shows be more like „Legends“?

7.      The Scientist/Three Ghosts (Arrow Episode: 2.8/31-2.9/32, 32: Written by: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns, Ben Sokolowski, Directed by: Michael Schultz, John Behring)

 This two parter introduces us to Barry Allen and culuminates in the „Arrow“-Version of a „Christmas Carol“ Oliver gets visited by three ghosts and Barry gets hit by lightning. Among other things. All very good stuff – I watch „Three Ghosts“ every Christmas, if I manage to get around to it. But this also is very the Arrowverse was born. And back then it was the best of „Arrow“ they ever did. And it still stands out today, combindes strong Flashbacks with a strong Main Story, which is all we ever wanted from „Arrow.“

6.      Resist/Nevertheless, She Persisted (Supergirl 2.21/41-2.22/42, Written by: Derek Simon, Jessica Queller, Andrew Kreisberg, Robert Rovner, Caitlin Parrish, Directed by: Milicent Shelton, Glen Winter)

 Season 2 of „Supergirl“ ends with a very strong two-parter that features the Daxamits Invasion of earth. Superman is in it, but these are all about Kara who get’s inspired by Cat Grant again, goes on to inspire everyone else in turn, faces of against the truly evil mother of the love of her life, and has to make a big sacrifice. The two parter was especially well written and  no season finale of the show later ever measured up to it afterwards.

5.      Reset (Arrow Episode 8.6/166, Written by: Onalee Hunter Hughes und Maya Houston, Directed by: David Ramsey)

Yes it’s a time loop episode in „Arrow“! Yes, it’s still „Arrow“, it will still break your heart. But it’s probably the moment the show embraced it’s funny pages origin the most wholehearted. It will make you cry in all the right ways. We get to say goodbye to Quentin in a prober way in this finally and that is beautiful. And Oliver gets around to accept his destiny which is heart breaking, but still this is my favorite episode of „Arrow“ if you get right down to it.

4.      Fast Enough (The Flash 1.23/23, Written By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Gabrielle Stanton, Directed By: Dermott Downs)

 Season 1 of „The Flash“ has the strongest Season Finale in the history of the Arrowverse. In a very real way it could only get downhill from here. This one will break your heart in so many ways, but it’s the good sort of pain, that makes an impact, may even destroy a part of you, but makes you come out stronger in the end. The whole season comes together in this one and never falls apart (that will only happen later, if you think about it, but it’s explained away by later reveals). Sadly neither this show nor the others could ever measure up to this one, but on the other hand that is exactly what made it special.

3.      The Faithful (Supergirl 3.4/46, Written By: Paula Yoo, Katie Rose Rogers, Directed by: Jesse Warn)

 This one is my favorite episode of „Supergirl“. Mainly because this is what a certain director tried to do nut failed at in three movies: An exploration of the idea that Kryptonians are essentially Gods compared to humans. This episode is always respectful and has much to say, it touches on Karas own faith, shows us a new and intriguing side of James, and creates a villain that should have ruled the show and the season, but who sady stumbled later. In this one though Coville is just perfect. Like the whole episode.

2. Duet (The Flash Episode 3.17/63, Written By: Aaron Helbing, Todd Helbing, Greg Berlani, Andrew Kreisberg, Directed By: Dermott Daniels Downs)

 It’s the Musical Episode! This „Flash“/„Supergirl“-Crossover has all the jazz – singing, dancing, kissing, opening up about feelings – and also a mini „Glee“-Reunion. Kara and Barry are trapped in a Musical Dream World and doomed to follow the plot, while Wally has to confront Darren Crisses Musis Meister. For vocals sakes the episode also includes John Barrowman and Victor Gaber of course, because there was no excuse to make this episode without them. I love this one just as much as it was to be expected and I will never forgive them for never making another Musical episode in any of the shows.

1.      The One Where We are trapped on TV (Legends of Tomorrow Episode 5.13/81, Written by: Grainne Godfree, James Eagan, Directed by: Marc Guggenheim)

And the award for the Craziest TV Episode of all time goes to this one, where the Legends are trapped on TV. Charlie put them there to protect them, and so we get very familiar but strange versions of „Friends“, „Downtown Abbey,“ and „Star Trek“ with the Legends as the main characters instead. We also meet a murderous Mister Parker, get another musical number lead by the Tarazi siblings, and are as amazed as Mona about everything that is going on here. Can „Legends“ ever top what they did here? Or anything else in the Arrowverse? Let’s not challenge them, I am sure they can. But until then, we have this one, which of course is not only my favorite episode of „Legends“ but also the whole Arrowverse.

[mcrmadness]

I don’t know if it’s migraine or what but I woke up from a dream that was so confusing and I’ve never had such a multifandom dream - especially when almost all of the fandoms were something I don’t even have anything to do myself??? I counted about 9 different fandoms.

It started with my being on some kind of a trip and I saw lots of people, including my siblings but also online friends and it was all so weird. I was wearing blue jeans and they were so wet, it was like I had pissed my pants but I knew I hadn’t so I thought I must have been sweating that much instead then.

We were staying in some quite small room where you had access to from a hatch on the rood and it had these half-round metal bars as the ladder. It was quite long but still small room with orange walls, and there was a window at the opposite wall. It looked a bit like the room I was saying in when I was studying in a vocational school about 10 years ago for a while.

Then I’m not exactly sure what happened here but it jumped forward and changed a bit. I was meant to leave from there with my siblings and the check out was at 5pm and I was afraid we would not be able to make it in that time as it was already almost 5pm, so I was just collecting my stuff and trying to make my way out of there.

Then it jumped again and I was outside, there was snow and where the hatch was, it looked like a sewer cover or something and I had to fold it open several times to reveal the hole with the ladder. As I was going, I saw people from Supernatural standing about couple of meters from the hatch and they were discussing what it is like to be in hell, because apparently it was hell where I was climbing to. (Thanks, Tumblr, I don’t even watch the series and have filtered the tag because of that, still I know more than I’d want to know.)

When I reached the room, it had changed. Now it was this black room that looked like it was underground and like someone had digged that in soil, there were roots of plants and everything. In the middle of that was an altar, but on the walls there was other kinds of stuff and it looked more like a tack room of a horse stable. This part of the dream was about the Good Omens, yet again a series I have never watched and have filtered on Tumblr. There was someone laying on the altar and a bad guy standing behind it and I think it was some sort of a boss fight that was about to happen. I was in no hurry, just looked at the wall, trying to find something I could use as a weapon, I think I also threw something against the bad guy. On the wall there was also a saddle and some woman, who looked like she was either from the SAW movies or from Viva La Bam, all I knowher name was Jenny or something like that. And she was sitting on that saddle, bound onto that and she was like my ally but she was telling me how she’s not an ally and if I let her go, she will fight me instead of for me, but I didn’t believe her and took the risk.

Then I think this is when it happened but suddenly I just got so angry that I just attacked and jumped on that bad guy. I had a plastic bag with a phone manual in Finnish and Swedish in it. The bad guy actually now looked like Malcolm Merlyn from the tv series Arrow... so I was basically sitting on him and shouting at his face but all I actually saw was this mobile phone manual, and I was just shouting at him how this bullshit ends NOW and you need to what I tell you to do and return back some people, and that worked.

He returned some family as a whole. I think it was supposed to be a Twilight family but I don’t know, it just was maybe 5-6 kids and maybe parents that had been removed from the world and only their one sibling was still here. Here was a glimpse from a flashback or something, some sort of a big summer home where they all were and I’m pretty sure I also saw Nick Fury from Marvel movies there... discussing the situation. Anyway, then we were outside and the whole family was there and music was playing, then I noticed it was an MCR song and soon I saw the Revenge era MCR playing at the yard, it was like a music video, and in the end Gerard walked towards the camera with the oldest girl of the family and they both had vampire-like makeup on.

I also saw some scene where the kids were returned and went home to meet the sibling, they lived in some weird looking apartment building complex. Here’s also when it was apparently Bela whose siblings those were and Farin was the one to find out how to return them because he knew how important they were for Bela.

Eventually I was in my parents’ kitchen with my siblings and we were discussing about the checkout from the hotel and I said it’s probably already way past 5pm but turns out it wasn’t even 2pm yet.

I woke up with a headache so I’d say it’s either tea headache or some sort of a mild migraine, I’m not sure yet.

[the-feral-gremlin]

[smkkbert]

Time for a story - When you know

As soon as Felicity had gotten out of her car, she saw Laurel standing in front of the large shop windows of the bridal boutique. She was sitting on the hood of her own car, looking at the five wedding dresses that were exhibited in the shop windows. Except of a fond smile, a deep frown was visible on her face though. She didn’t look like the happy bride-to-be she should be.

Locking her car, Felicity strolled over to Laurel. Her friend and stepsister – at least almost – flashed her a brief glance before she turned back to look at the show windows. A long sigh fell from her lips, making Felicity frown as she sat down next to her on the hood of the car.

Felicity gave Laurel the time she probably needed. Hence, instead of saying anything, she just followed Laurel’s gaze towards the shop windows and looked at the wedding dresses.

Pursing her lips, Felicity realized that they were quite different from all the three wedding dresses she had gotten married in so far. Admittedly, two of her dresses had been maternity dresses as her second wedding had taken place while she had been pregnant with Tommy and she had gotten married to Oliver a third time while being pregnant with Addie. Even her first wedding dress, the one she had worn long before she had become a mother of five, had been quite different from the wedding dresses she was seeing now.

For the break of a second, Felicity wondered which of these dresses she would pick for her next wedding. She did owe Oliver one after all as he had proposed to her during their last anniversary. Quickly, she pushed that thought away though because wasn’t about her.

Today was all about Laurel.

“Afraid?”

Laurel took in a deep breath and, without looking at Felicity, she asked, “Why would I be?”

“Getting married is a big thing,” Felicity told her and smiled amusedly. “I have to know. I got married thrice.”

“Always to the same man.”

Felicity couldn’t help but smile at those words, feeling her chest warm with the bare thought at Oliver.

All her life, watching her mother work at several casinos after Noah had just left her overnight, Felicity had thought that she would never get married. At the young age of seven years, she had given up on love because she had been sure that love just destroyed her. She had never really looked for it.

When she had met Cooper, she had thought that he was her one great love. She hadn’t been able to fight him off of fight off the feelings she had had for him. She had given love a first try because she had thought that she and Cooper would do everything different from her parents. She had thought that they were it for each other.

After Cooper’s apparent death, Felicity had thought she had given up on love once and for all. She had been through the same thing that Donna had gone through with her father, just that it had felt a thousand times worse.

It had taken years, up until the moment that Oliver had been lying in the back of her car with a dangerous bullet wound, until she had finally been able to see that Cooper had never been her great love. What she had felt for him during the months they had been together had been barely a fraction of what she had felt for Oliver during the few weeks that he had come to her for tech advise. That moment, it had all become so very clear.

She had never felt for anyone the way she had felt for Oliver. While it might have taken them a lot of time as well as some detours to realize what they were feeling for each other, they were as happy with each other as they could never be with anyone else. You only found that kind of love with one person, and Felicity had found it with Oliver.

Just like Laurel had found it with Tommy.

“So, what’s going on?” Felicity asked, pushing her elbow into Laurel’s rips. “Did you finally realize that it was a terrible idea to ask my mom and Thea to come with you for wedding dress shopping?”

Laurel frowned at her. “They came with you when you were shopping your wedding dress.”

“My first wedding dress,” Felicity reminded her. “Thea chose my second wedding dress alone, and I ordered my third wedding dress online with the help of William.”

“I know I have been there when you bought your first wedding dress, but I barely remember.”

“Oh, I remember,” Felicity mumbled, but she smiled at Laurel comfortingly. “Don’t worry about it thought.”

If Laurel wasn’t worrying about the fact that Thea and Donna would take over this appointment to show her wedding dress, she wouldn’t remind her of the terrifying memory she had about choosing her first wedding dress. Laurel didn’t have to be told how terrible it could be to have two fashionistas with her as she was choosing her dress. She would barely have any say in what wedding dress she would choose.

“Now,” Felicity asked, cocking her head, “why don’t you go in to find your perfect dress for what media says is the most important day of your life? Are you sad because your mother couldn’t come?”

“No.” Laurel frowned briefly. “I mean I would have loved to have my mother here, but I think she knew what my wedding dress was supposed to look like before I was even born, so maybe the dress will match my taste more if she is not there.”

Felicity pressed her lips together and rolled them into her mouth. It took a lot of her to bite back the comment of how her mother would not be any different. For Donna, Laurel was her daughter. It was the same way for Felicity with William. Although he wasn’t her child biologically or legally, he was her son to her.

“If it’s not your mother’s absence or Thea’s and my mother’s presence,” Felicity asked and cleared her throat slightly, “what makes you worry so much?”

Laurel took in a deep breath, and her the muscles in her shoulders tightened. She seemed visibly uncomfortable to talk about this, and it told Felicity everything that she needed to know. The person that Laurel needed right now was Sara and not her mother. In Sara, Laurel would trust even with her darkest thoughts. It was what sisters did.

Felicity had never really had a sister. With the way she and Laurel had met, Felicity working as part of Oliver’s crusade while his ex-girlfriend had been in the dark about all of it, it had been hard to build the kind of relationships sisters had even after their parents had started dating. That Laurel, just like everyone else on the team, had turned against Felicity when she, unlike everyone else, had believed that Oliver was still alive had just added to it.

Felicity knew, without any doubt, that she and Laurel would never have what Laurel and Sara had had. Their bond had allowed them to work through the fact that Sara had been screwing Laurel’s boyfriend behind her back.

Whenever Felicity remembered that the guy, who did this to these sisters was her husband, she felt a cold shiver running down her back. She knew that, though it had technically been the same person, Oliver was not that guy anymore. Oliver, the Oliver Felicity had gotten to know and had fallen in love with, would never do something like that.

“I am not exactly worried,” Laurel whispered eventually, her voice so low that Felicity could barely hear her though she was standing right beside her. “I am just thinking.”

“About what?”

After years of being married to a brooding, trauma-burdened man and after months of being in therapy, Felicity knew exactly how to worm something out of someone. Asking question after question rather than commenting on anything would eventually prompt people to say what you wanted them to say or what they needed to say.

“About all the bad choices I have made,” Laurel whispered, her voice still so very quiet like she was afraid of letting them out. “There have been so many.”

Without saying a word, Felicity just took Laurel’s hand and held it, giving her the time that she might need to open up or decide to keep those thoughts for herself. She could only hope that Laurel made the choice that was right for herself at the end. She shouldn’t feel urged to share something with Felicity that she wasn’t ready to share or would eventually regret sharing with her. She shouldn’t be burdened with the heaviness of bearing her thoughts all alone either.

Felicity knew how much Laurel regretted a lot of the choices she had made. Back when Oliver had just returned from the island, she had been torn between what she had felt for Tommy and what she had once upon a time had thought she and Oliver had. While it had been Tommy, who had eventually ended things between them, Felicity knew that Laurel had struggled with her choice to try things with Oliver again instead of fighting for Tommy.

Years after Tommy’s death, Laurel hadn’t been ready to open up her heart for love again. She had felt like the way things between her and Tommy had gone down made her undeserving for love. It had taken her so very long to finally realize that making a one decision didn’t mean that you lost all right to love and be loved.

For someone with Laurel’s intelligence, it was almost funny that it had taken her so long. After all, she was friends with a man who had cheated on her several times. His cheating had actually included screwing her sister and fathering a child. Still, Oliver had found his great love and built a family. If he deserved love, why wouldn’t she deserve it too?

“Why didn’t I see how much I loved him and how good he was for me all those years ago?” Laurel asked. “We lost so much time because of-“

“Malcolm Merlyn,” Felicity interrupted her. “You lost time because of Malcolm Merlyn and the Undertaking.”

“And because of my uncertainty of whether or not I should try figuring out if there is still something between me and Ollie,” Laurel insisted. “You can’t say that that didn’t have an effect on the time we have lost.”

“Okay, you lost a week,” Felicity replied, rolling her eyes slightly, “and you might have lost a month if Tommy hadn’t died. That doesn’t change that you would have realized that Oliver was in no way ready to be in a relationship back then and that you and him could never be what you hoped you could be one day. At the end of the day, rather sooner than later, you would have realized what was right for you and you would have asked Tommy to give it another try.”

Laurel nodded slowly. Felicity could almost see the story Felicity had just told her unfolding in front of her eyes. The smallest of a smile played on her lips.

When she turned her head to look at Felicity, she looked slightly more relaxed than she had been before. Maybe she didn’t yet believe what Felicity had told her, but she did have some doubts about her own opinion now.

“Why didn’t I know sooner?” Laurel asked her. “Why didn’t I know that he was the one back then? Why did it take me so long when Tommy knew it from the first moment on?”

Felicity smiled. She kind of knew what it was like to know that you had found the one, while the other was still dangling I-don’t-knows and maybes. Maybe it wasn’t the exact same because Oliver had known that she was the one for him. He just hadn’t felt ready for a relationship after everything he had been through.

“I think that the easiest and truest answer to that is that the heart is not as predictable as the head, and it easily gives in when the head tells it to do so. You thought that you had to give Oliver a try first because you have been given another chance. Your head told you what was rational, and your heart just kept quiet and decided to follow your brain’s suggestion.”

Again, Laurel nodded slowly.

“When you know, you know,” Felicity continued, shrugging her shoulders. “For some, it’s sooner. For some, it’s later. You needed a little more time, but that doesn’t mean that your feelings for Tommy aren’t real. They are just as real as his feeling for you are.”

Laurel took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Felicity could almost hear her thinking about this. She would probably need some more time to really understand it, but she did believe Felicity that she was right. For now, that was all Felicity knew she could do.

With a soft smile on her lips, Laurel squeezed Felicity’s fingers. She turned towards her.

“Thank you, Felicity.”

“You’re welcome,” Felicity replied and winked at her before she nodded towards the boutique. “Should we go in now?”

Laurel took in a deep breath and nodded her head. “I think I am ready now.”

Felicity bit down on her tongue, biting back the comment that she certainly wasn’t ready for choosing a wedding dress with the help of Thea and Donna. Nobody was ever ready for that.

* * *

@fannaz @promiseyoullbepatientwithme @bytemegeekette @felicity-said-just-in-case @phanseptiic @orangeisorange @mspotatohead14 @whentheheavenfades @emmaamelia95 @smoakingskye @seaolicity @ourwritinginvein @1022bridgetp @felicityqueenforever @leagueofolicity17 @yryssss @myhauntedblacksoul @sherlock44 @sinceriouslybea @arrowsalways @olivyflavescentdeer @olicitys-castle @ofnothingcharming @vaelisamaza @smoakedandcharmed @alexisa1206 @mysaudadespt2 @florence-bubbles @addictiontelly @queens-of-arrows @memcjo @hysterical-for-joshifer @oswinelevenforever @olicitylovemaking @bandanab310 @mymusiclove101 @lynslogic @scarletqueen23 @olicityshipper19 @alex-wesley @arrows-4ever @unabashedlynerdypatrol @louehmysoul @ligiapimenta @chattyyana @charlie-leau @coal000 @samcrowleys @ishippolivia @julianegomesqueen @malafle @miriam1779 @charlinert @melaux @ontheolicityship @myshipperlife @wrightainsley @lexi9515 @ladygreenwood @multi-fandom-crazy-fangirl @morinamel @mje-thomas @kebarry @canadianheartgirl @nannett2307 @almondblossomme @paarti12 @kathrynelizabeth89 @imdfabulous @cutearrowgirl @mrt2501 @mecha1330 @arsipaci14 @mzminx @salasvia @brandis91 @cainc3 @morganmiguess @pr0fessi0nal-fangurl @iamisalima @nessafrancis-blog @jonhdiggle @niki-is-amazing @universed-posts @hopeful-warrior @senoritaswiftie @bellemmie @green-arrows-of-karamel @iheartarrow @olicityovereverything @oliverfel4 @pleasantfanandstudent @fandoms-breathe-life @simone4mcswarek @olicity-in-the-heart @fullychippedcreation @geemarie @everything-but-normal-cat @myarroworld @tjmartinez @pleasantfanandstudent @itsmagnoliagirl @j69confessional2 @scentedcolorpirate @icanica74 @javinancupil @tjmartinez98 @certainmentalityface @tatianadamaceno @ryelew @wildwillowzepplin @missafairy @letsplaymurde-r @lipizette @positivepiper @nuttymilkshakehologram @laksagirl @turnupthemusicandscream @pumpernickle93 @onceuponanolicity @1106angel @jaspertown @fadinglands @morganashimi83 @mochababychristy @omglovechrissie @mariejr88-blog @thetaufactor @onceuponanolicity @speakandseethetruth @bri206 @aglasgo @thats0klaroline @geemarie @pineprincess @nerdgirljen @peterpanslostgirl666 @eternal-olicity14 @allyouhadtodowas-stay-stay-stay @lovelycssefan @tsseract @flowerandsunshine @dcnmarvelgamergeek @blondeeoneexox @monetsmark @soaring-cities @bb-olicity @mashamarty @rulerofsilence @erika-amber @felicity087 @i-claim-only-emily @pattid1 @westallenandolicityshipper @babyolicityandwestallen @nothingmorethanmyotps @kayleenyc @tonto16 @olicityfluv @olicitea1990 @olicity5ever @haahaaa2408 @pattid1 @faegal04 @24karatgem @wrldtravler @readerkas @valery6488 @lemmyeatspeaches @olicity-beliver @greencoffeecups

(If you want to be tagged or untagged, just let me know. :))

[jbuffyangel]

Stolen Identity: Arrow 7x10 Review (My Name Is Emiko Queen)

Arrow kicks off their mid season with a slumpy snoozer of an episode, but there are a few golden nuggets to chat about.

Let’s dig in…

Olicity

Oliver is beginning his new career as a legal vigilante by working with SCPD as a consultant. I wonder how much that pays. Hmmm. 

Anyway, Dinah is a little know-it-all about the crime scene when she tells Oliver, “Try not to screw it up.” 

Source:  smoakmonster

By screw it up do you mean solve all the cases the SCPD can’t? Because that’s what Oliver has been doing the last six years. He was casing crime scenes while you were in cleaning toilets in the police academy, Dinah. Actually, I don’t know if that’s true. Oliver and Dinah are pretty close in age, but I’m feeling punchy today so I’m standing by my analogy.

The forensics officer is feeling punchy about Oliver too. Apparently, not everyone is thrilled the Green Arrow is working with the police now. God only knows why. It’s not like he hasn’t saved the city from annihilation several times. OH WAIT HE HAS. Ungrateful twats.  Respect your elders!

Can we have a side bar about the SCPD? 

They are throwing shade at Oliver and instructing him to not screw up a crime scene, but if they did their jobs in the first place the city wouldn’t need the Green Arrow. Are we really blown away by the SCPD’s accomplishments over the last seven years? They can’t arrest anyone unless Oliver delivers them with a bow. We are given the token “good” cop every season:

Quentin Lance: great detective, but ended up working with the Green Arrow because crimes actually were solved then

McKenna Hall: shot and left the city

Billy Malone: shot and killed

Dinah Drake: became a vigilante

Curtis’ boyfriend: also shot and I can’t even remember his name

They were incapable of handling Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson and Ra’s Al Ghul’s attacks. The citizens of Star City fought back with Oliver against Damien Darhk. Oh and the entire police department was corrupted by Diaz. Not to mention crime is back on the rise and the citizens are bemoaning the lack of Green Arrow assistance. Not exactly a stunning endorsement of the SCPD, so cool it with the uppity comments. You’d be dead ten times over if it weren’t for Oliver Queen.

Oliver offers to speed things up by using his “resources” do analyze the blood on a piece of broken window. 

Source:  smoakmonster

Meet Oliver’s resources:

Felicity has a new security system which can read DNA. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Uhhh that’s amazing. I want one. 

Source:  feilcityqueen

My babies are all made up and back to being a united team with adorable they’re-so-married banter punctuated by smush face smooches. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE FANDOM! 

These two fell in love over a bullet ridden computer, so analyzing DNA is their idea of Netflix and chill. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Look how happy Felicity is! Has a cuter cupcake ever existed? The correct answer is, “No except for your daughter Jen.” Why thank you. I quite agree.

We all know Felicity has Oliver’s DNA sequencing memorized. 

Source:  olicitygifs

Yes, I know the memories of the Season 4 crossover are still traumatic. If you are triggered watch the Olicity wedding to ward off the flashes and nightmares. 

Oliver is a little too surprised the archer is a woman. 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Hey! We have hands and eyes too big fella. Men aren’t the only ones who can point an arrow. Hang on. That sounded dirty. 

My point (HA!) is GIRL POWER.

I love how Felicity asks Oliver to sit down and he does his patented side eye thing and asks why. Hilarious. I never tire of that reaction from Oliver. 

Felicity is remarkably calm which, let’s be honest, is probably because she’s relieved Emiko is just Oliver’s sister and not another spawn from a one night stand. No offense William. Mama Jen loves you pumpkin.

Oliver, however, is shocked. Is it really a big surprise your father was a little slutty back in the day, Oliver? Apple meet tree. 

Robert keeps enormous secrets and expects Oliver to fix all his “wrongs” post mortem. That’s it. That’s the show. 

And yet I still love Robert Queen and so does Oliver. If Robert was alive right now Oliver would probably punch his dad, then hug him, and ask all the questions he wants. Scratch that. Oliver would hug his dad first and then punch him. Unfortunately, Robert is dead and there’s no one to really answer why. There’s no where Oliver can channel his hurt, anger and confusion. The same goes for Emiko. Or is there? Hunting bad guys with a bow and arrow is therapy in this family.

Source: olicitygifs 

Felicity continues to win the award for Supportive Wife of the Year. Oliver is floundering in unknown yet familiar waters and Felicity is his life raft. She handles all of this like a pro. She’s probably used to Queen family shenanigans by now. Noah’s criminal record and Donna’s penchant for five inch heels really pales in comparison to the crap Oliver’s parents pulled.

Oliver wants whatever answers he can find before he introduces himself to new little sister. As Felicity said, Robert Queen did love a good paper trail. It seems he handed those books out as stocking stuffers. Is it the same book? Or maybe Emiko made her own book and this is some truly bizarre Queen genetic characteristic.

Oliver doesn’t have it all together and he’s spiraling a bit. Oh how far we’ve come my friends. A few years ago Oliver would have shut down and buried his head inside that hood.

And now he’s allowing himself to feel. Oliver is hurt, angry, confused, ashamed and deeply sad. He’s grieving the relationship he was cheated of having with Emiko for all these years. Yet again, Robert and Moira have acted in their family’s self interests and without much concern who they destroyed in the process. 

The reason why Oliver is falling to pieces is because he knows Felicity will be there to pick them up. Oliver doesn’t need to be on top of things because Felicity is, and even better, he is letting her take care of him. Oliver no longer chooses to go it alone. We’ve come light years with Oliver Queen.

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Oliver’s love and pride in his wife bubbles to the surface even when grappling with another earth shattering secret being exposed. This soft smile is pure you-are-my-genius-and-I’m-so-thankful-I-wife’d-you-so-hard. You can feel the relief Oliver feels over being home with Felicity, out of prison and in his own damn body. He can face anything as long as she’s by his side. Slabside didn’t cause any kind of regression. In fact, Oliver came home ready to double down on everything he’s learned over the last six years. He is holding onto his wife even tighter now. It’s beautiful to see.

Does anyone else find it hard to believe it took seven years for Oliver to discover a secret storage unit given how shady both his parents were?

At least it gives us more adorable Olicity. Felicity looking at Baby Oliver’s drawings is everything I didn’t know I needed.

Source: oliverxfelicity

This Thea mention isn’t accidental. It took time for Oliver to love Thea. I am fairly certain my sisters are still adjusting to my arrival and I’m 37. Oliver was just a little boy reacting like how many older children react to the news a sibling is on the way. However, it’s slightly applicable to what is happening with Emiko and Oliver. They will grow on each other. It will just take time.  

Of course, there’s a letter from Robert Queen to Walter Steele in like the third box, sitting right on top, which explains exactly who Emiko is. This is major plot contrivance even by Arrow standards, but whatever.

Robert admits he loved Kazumi Hadachi and the daughter they had together, but abandoned them both. They were supposed to be cared for in the event of Robert’s death (translation: write a check Walter), but that never happened because of Moira. 

Who didn’t see that one coming? 

This has Moira “I Hide Babies And Lie About DNA” Queen’s sticky fingers all over it. If you are losing track allow me to refresh your memory: 

Moira paid Samantha off and let Oliver believe she miscarried

She lied about Thea’s biological father

Kept Robert Queen’s love child hidden and in abject poverty for her entire life. (allegedly)

I love Moira and she has her good points, but man she was a piece of work sometimes. 

The question of course is why? Moira knew Robert had affairs. It’s the reason she had an affair with Malcolm – a little tit for tat. Emiko is older than Thea though, so one of two things happened: 

1) Walter showed Moira the letter and she found out about Emiko after Robert’s death. She refused to follow his wishes and locked up the secret in a never-to-be-found storage unit. 

2) Moira knew about Emiko and Kazumi, but forced Robert to give them up. He left the letter to Walter in hopes he would circumvent Moira. It seems Walter did not do as Robert asked or he tried and Moira stopped him.

Oliver: How can I believe that he ever loved anybody but himself? How could he abandon them in the first place?

Felicity: I don’t’ think Moira gave him much of a choice.

Felicity has danced this paternity dance before with Moira Queen. So, she’s leaning towards Option 2 and I agree.

Oliver already answered the why. Kazumi and Emiko were Robert’s second family. There was another woman and child Robert deeply loved. We can multiply whatever hurt Oliver is feeling by this betrayal ten times over for Moira. Cheating is one of the worst things you can do to your partner.

I sympathize with the pain Moira must have felt after discovering Emiko and Kazumi, but it doesn't excuse what she did. Robert should have acknowledged his child and cared for both, but that would be unacceptable to Moira for a few reasons. 

She would never allow Robert to make a public mockery of her. Moira would be humiliated if Starling City knew Robert cheated on her and had a second family. Furthermore, the scandal would be enormous and could damage the Queen family name – i.e. their company, which means the bottom dollar.

Moira always did whatever she believed necessary to protect her children. Thea wasn’t born yet, but I’m sure Moira viewed Oliver as the rightful heir to the kingdom. She wouldn’t want a child not of her blood threatening to take it all away or force Oliver to share it.

It’s not just that Robert cheated either. It’s about who he cheated with. The Queen family was like royalty to Starling City. Robert cheating on Moira Queen with a poor woman from the Glades. This would be another level of humiliation to Moira. Nope. She ain’t having that. 

Moira was absolutely classest enough about the Glades to look down on someone like Kazumi. Hell, she was working with Merlyn to blow up the Glades at one point. Moira looking down on someone like Kazumi isn’t a stretch. 

There could be a level of revenge to this. Robert hurt Moira deeply and chances are she wanted to punish Robert. He had to make a choice and he better damn well choose Oliver and her.  

Not that I’m putting this all at Moira’s feet. These are Robert’s choices too. Moira can demand all she wants, but it was Robert who ultimately made the call. He walked away from Kazumi and Emiko. He abandoned them.

Obviously, it’s wonderful Robert raised Thea as his own. However, Emiko does bring another layer to the decision. Robert was denied a relationship with his biological daughter, so of course Thea gave him an avenue to a father/daughter relationship again. Perhaps, Robert’s forgiveness and acceptance was atonement too. He acknowledged his actions were no better than Moira’s.  

However, if Moira refused to let Emiko be part of their lives then Robert refused to do the same to Thea. It is forgiveness Moira did not show him. She could have welcomed Emiko into her life just like Felicity welcomed William. Robert loving Thea was a constant reminder to Moira that she did not give Emiko the same love. That could be viewed as extremely passive aggressive behavior. Their marriage was so fucked up. Yikes.

Oliver: I worked so long and hard to redeem my family’s name after the terrible things they’ve done, but abandoning someone and a little girl? It’s unforgivable.

Yeah that line is no accident either. I’m quietly whistling and taking a long hard look at the flash forwards and Blackstar.  If William and Roy do not know her, and she is Oliver and Felicity’s daughter, then they must have been forced to separate from or hide her. It won’t be anywhere near the same situation as Robert and Emiko, but there could be some kind of parallel drawn.

The first five years of Oliver’s story was about a son righting his father’s wrongs. Oliver is still dealing with the consequences of Robert Queen’s sins, but they’ve added another layer to his character. Now Oliver is the father. He’s had to sacrifice his family to do noble things, but that doesn’t make the pain of those sacrifices any easier.  

I’m sure Oliver and Felicity will have a good reason for all of their decisions in the future, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for their children. It’s not an apples to apples comparison by any means, but Oliver may come to understand or even sympathize more with the choices his father made.

That said, it’s hard to imagine Oliver and Felicity “abandoning” their children for any reason given how strongly Oliver has reacted to what Robert did and how hard they both fought to bring their family back together. Also, this is Oliver and Felicity we’er talking about here. Oliver would loathe himself to repeat the same behavior. So, if this isn’t all a ruse, I’m expecting some seriously major extenuating circumstances.

I also want to add we may be dealing with a very broad definition of abandonment at least when it comes to William. Based on Beth Schwartz’s remarks from her latest interviews, the abandonment William is referencing in the future may very well be Oliver and Felicity sending him to board school.

Uhh... that’s not abandonment kiddo. But it’s also entirely possible another separation is coming too.

However, Oliver is exactly who Robert Queen asked him to be – a better man. Whatever mistakes Robert made with his life and children, Oliver will either avoid or fix it. Oliver is the hero and father Robert never could be. The only real  certainty we have is Oliver’s love, honor, selflessness and constant striving to be better can heal whatever pain is caused. That’s just who Oliver is. It’s why we love him.

Source:  olicitygifs

This is exactly what Felicity tells Oliver on their balcony, complete with shoulder nuzzle. 

Source:  olicitygifs

Robert committed a great wrong by abandoning his own child. Oliver can’t fix everything for Emiko, but he can offer to be something no Queen ever has- her family.

Emiko and Rene

It’s very important to the Arrow writers that we understand Emiko is just like Oliver. She chases bad guys in dark alleys, hangs them upside down and puts the fear of God into them until they talk. She has her very own book with names to cross off. (Seriously how many copies did Robert Queen hand out?) Emiko works in a super secret dilapidated lair with perfectly lit soft glow lights.

Not green though! Emiko is back lit in purple because she’s a girl.  Honestly, at times it looks a little red too. Do what you will with that information, but no green lights should be your immediate tip off that Emiko won’t become the new Green Arrow. Is Arrow really that obvious? Yes, my sweet summer children. They are.

Emiko even has her own voice over talking about injustice, the broken system and how someone must stand up to stop it. The similarities to Oliver don’t end there! Emiko is also a stubborn, extreme loner with severe anger issues. I may have wiki’d Bereavement Disorder too. But darn it, Emiko has a good heart and is a hero too!

If you’ve sensed some sarcasm coming from me you’d be right. I know the Arrow writers love a good parallel. It’s their crack cocaine, but pulling major beats from Oliver’s storyline and making Emiko Oliver 2.0 felt like lazy writing to me. It’s a quick way to imbed Emiko in the story without doing seven years of character building. Oliver did all the heavy lifting and Emiko is cashing in.

She even gets shot and has to turn to her beautiful, genius, funny and IT – wait. No. Emiko goes to Rene. Not Felicity. I suppose it’s nice our couple is so iconic the writers are stealing storylines from them, but get your own damn shipper moments! I draw the line at Rene being the Felicity in any situation. Nope. No sir. Unacceptable.

I’m hopeful we’ll get more individualism from her character as she develops. I know I am typically a fan of the super obvious parallel, but it felt like a short cut this time around. The great thing about all these similarities to Oliver is they will be like two cats fighting. They’ll drive each other nuts. Or at least Oliver will drive Emiko nuts. Oliver will be more focused on apologizing for their douche bag dad and begging for a chance to get to know her.

After Rene blows one of Emiko’s ambushes she warns the next time it happens she’ll put an arrow in him. There. We found a difference! Oliver would have shot Rene now. 

But Emiko wants to know why Rene is helping her.

“You said your mission is personal. So is mine. I watched as my wife got shot to death by a drug dealer from these streets. And for a long time, all I saw was red. Then I met Oliver Queen and the team and they helped me channel my anger into a fight for a better life. I just want to pay that forward.”

It’s a good speech except Rene leaves out how he turned states evidence on Oliver, but that’s just details. There’s another nod to red. Someone on Twitter told me Emiko will become Red Arrow, so maybe that’s going to happen. Or it could mean nothing. Time will tell. Rene does get Emiko to trust him and she finally fills us all in on her back story.

A fire began in Emiko and Kazumi’s apartment building, but the fire department never came because it was in the Glades. The building burned down and her mother died. However, Kazumi wasn’t killed by the fire. Emiko believes she was shot in the head by Glen Morgan. Emiko is hell bent on getting justice for her mother’s death.

Unfortunately, Glen Morgan swears he didn’t kill Emiko’s mother. He was out of the country for the last two years. He’s being set up. This means Emiko is no closer to finding her mother’s killer. I have a feeling Kazumi’s murder will lead back to A.R.G.U.S. and Deputy Director Bell. 

Emiko needs Oliver’s help, but they’ll have plenty of issues to work through. No shortage of drama there! 

Source:  felicitysmoakgifs

Felicity: I mean I’m no therapist but I’m pretty sure the technical term for that is cry for help.

Felicity is right. Becoming Green Arrow 2.0 isn’t exactly a subtle way of signaling a connection to Oliver. 

Emiko put on the hood after Oliver admitted who he was and went to prison. She had to know either Oliver or Team Arrow would be curious about her identity. Perhaps Emiko thought it would be impossible to discover her identity because Oliver was in prison, she’s not in the system, and there are no birth records. Emiko Queen doesn’t exist according to the world.

Source: @smoaktechs

Hence her anger. She was abandoned by her father and then again by the Queen family after he died. Robert’s reasons don’t really matter to me. The bottom line is he chose Oliver and Thea over Emiko. At least that’s how it looks, regardless of Robert’s intentions, and I’m fairly certain this is how Emiko feels about it too.

So, it’s not all that surprising she chose to put on the hood after Oliver’s incarceration. The hood serves as a great vehicle for Emiko to find justice and she knows her identity will be fairly well protected. It signals a connection to Oliver, but also frustratingly denies him the answer to what the connection is. It is Emiko’s way of saying, “I know who you are, but you don’t know who I am,” while giving Oliver the middle finger.

However, the real reason Emiko became the Green Arrow was to steal a part of Oliver’s identity. She wanted to take something precious from Oliver’s life just like he took something precious from hers. Emiko wanted Oliver to see someone else living the identity that was rightfully his. She wants Oliver to sit in jail and watch, absolutely powerless to stop it. Just like Emiko was powerless to stop being denied a Queen.

@callistawolf mentioned this in our 7x10 podcast but it is so bang on I have to mention it here. Emiko is like Will Scarlet from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 

Robin lost his mother at a young age and his father found comfort in the arms of another woman for a time. Robin felt Lord Locksley was betraying his mother’s memory, so his father gave the woman up. Will Scarlet was the product of their affair. Instead of living in comfort, with a father who loved him, Will and his mother were forced to live in poverty. Will was denied the name and life that was rightfully his because their father chose Robin.

Will: It’s not a lie! You ruined my life! I have more reason to hate you than anyone, but I found myself daring to believe in you. What I want to know brother is will you stay with us and finish what you started?

Robin: I have a brother? I have a brother. I will make my stand with you. Side by side.  Until the end.

It’s a great scene. I get choked up every time I watch it. No it doesn’t matter Kevin Costner could never master an English accent. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is the shit. Don’t @ me.

To be fair, Robin didn’t know about Will Scarlet so directing all the blame at him isn’t entirely fair. The same goes for Oliver. He didn’t know about Emiko so whatever anger is being directed at him isn’t entirely fair either. However, Will could only direct his anger at Robin because their father was dead. Sound familiar? We’ve even got the damn bow and arrows kids.

It’s not about what Oliver did for Emiko. It’s about what he represents. But as Emiko embraces a darker path with Rene, it is clear her big brother is exactly who she needs right now.

Flash Forwards

We finally see the inside of the Glades in the flash forwards and it looks exactly like the Capitol from The Hunger Games. 

Everything is bright, shiny and everyone feels evil. As we predicted, Rene is a mayor. 

He has spectacularly awful hair and needs to lay off the spray tan. 

It’s bad friends. It’s real bad.

A man who looks exactly like Seneca Crane hails Rene as the person who single handedly cleaned up the Glades. Uhhhh okay? 

Zoe is Chief of Staff, but she doesn’t seem to really care. She tries to tell Rene about the plan to blow up Star City, but Rene doesn’t  seem to really care. Well, great. Good talk guys.

Rene: When the Glades needed help no one came to our rescue.

Listen up, Mr. Mayor. Oliver Queen’s mission was never about saving part of the city. The mission was to save ALL of Star City. What’s happening to the citizens outside the Glades in the flash forwards is not any better than what’s happening to the citizens inside the Glades during present day. The location of the problem is just flipped, but it’s still the same problem. Rene is no savior and he’s definitely no Oliver Queen.

Zoe wants access to something called the Archer program. It’s the security system that wiped out crime and keeps the citizens of the Glades safe. It also sounds exactly like something Felicity Smoak would invent and then name after her husband. I STAN ONE COUPLE. 

In fact, Felicity is working on a new security system in present day which registers DNA (thanks to Delaney @Lane1812 for pointing that out!). That is probably the first genesis of the Archer program.

At some point this security program falls into the wrong hands - Deputy Director Bell perhaps or maybe the Ghost Protocol goes terribly wrong. According to Rene, they “barely recovered.” I’m assuming he’s talking about the Glades. It’s been a couple years since the Glades were attacked and it would make a great parallel to Star City being under attack in the flash forwards.

Rene refuses to give Zoe the codes to the Archer program and she pretty much gives him my speech (re: see above) about the days he used to give a crap about the entire city. You’re doing great, sweetie.

Dinah arranges a clandestine meeting by night with Rene and by that I mean she sneaks up on him. He refuses to hand over the codes until Dinah threatens to beat the crap out of him. Dinah would totally win. The accuracy is real.

She did try to appeal to Rene’s conscience first. Dinah tells him Felicity is dead and he seems genuinely shocked by the news. Dinah reminds Rene he is part of the Mark of Four and they owe it to Felicity to stop whatever is going to happen to Star City.

Dinah: We made a promise to always keep fighting, to be there for each other no matter what – all of us. You, me, Roy, Diggle, Oliver and Felicity.

Now we officially know the Mark of Four members. You know what name I didn’t hear? CURTIS HOLT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

We have a shot in hell now of Curtis being kicked off this show at some point. 

I expressed my joy about this on Twitter and I got a couple “this person isn’t on it either” as if it is meaningless Curtis isn’t included.  So I’m going to head these names off at the pass.

1) Barry – there is no way the writers would include a main character from another DC show (the lead no less) to be part of a major Arrow storyline, which the Mark of Four is. Thank you. Next.

2) Bl*ck Siren/L*urel – these characters are all Team Arrow members and BS has never been part of Team Arrow. I don’t think she ever will be. At best, she’ll fill a consultant like role. The Spike to Arrow’s Scooby Gang. For whatever reason she’s not part of the Mark of Four, which isn’t surprising, but in no way compares to Curtis. He is the only Team Arrow member left off the list.

3) Thea – Willa Holland is not on the show anymore. They would not include a character that is no longer on the show.

If you are wondering why Roy is part of the Mark of Four I would buckle up and prepare for some bad Thea news. Either Roy and Thea broke up or she’s dead. Personally, I prefer dead. I don’t want the reason Theroy not getting their happy ending is because they couldn’t make it work. Upside is we’ll get to see Roy in present day and hopefully soon.

Anyway, Curtis being left of the list is significant and nobody can tell me otherwise. I KNOW MY TRUTH. I shall celebrate with glee and keep a watchful eye for a potential exit storyline. 

If Diaz kills Curtis I might have to like him and that scares me.

Rene meets with Flash Forward Seneca Crane to tell him Dinah has “the plans.” So, Flash Forward Seneca Crane is the one planning to blow up Star City. Rene agreed to build up the Glades, but never planned to wipe out the city. Flash Forward Seneca Crane explains Star City is a “cancer which must be cut out.”

Finally, Rene asks about Felicity’s murder. Seneca Crane explains she was becoming a “liability.” It would seem we’ve met Felicity’s “murderer” or at least the person behind her murder. Where’s a bow and arrow when you need one?

If you’re wondering who the hell is Seneca Crane allow me to explain.

Seneca Crane is the head game maker in The Hunger Games, but Katniss Everdeen outsmarts him in the end. There is no way this half baked version of Seneca Crane outsmarted Felicity Smoak. She’s our Katniss Everdeen. Hell, she’s better than Katniss Everdeen. Felicity is alive and working undercover to stop the destruction of Star City. 

I don’t believe Rene is evil either, despite acting like he has zero problem with killing Felicity Smoak. It’s either one of two things. A) He’s been working undercover with Felicity the whole time or B) Rene was unaware of what was truly going on, but now that he does he will work with William & team to stop it.

I’m going with B for now.

Dyla

Back on the other show called “The Stupid Thing Diggle Did This Week,” John offers Diaz his freedom if he hands over the terrorist financier Dante. WHAAAAAAAT?

When Deputy Director Bell asks WTF is going on (dude same) Diggle explains he and Lyla are reinstating the Ghost Protocol, which is basically a poor man’s version of Suicide Squad. Lyla is pissed because Diggle cooked up this plan without discussing it with her and then, by telling Bell, made it impossible not to back it. Lyla shut down the Ghost Initiative and swore never to reopen it. Diggle knew that. He insists it’s the perfect cover for their operation and everything will be fine, which automatically means this will be a disaster.

Lyla: And here I thought I was the one in danger of becoming Amanda Waller.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN. You want some ice on that burn Diggle?

Diggle needs to go back to Oliver and Felicity. He’s a mess without them.

Stray Thoughts

Hey! Who gave Emiko her mask? *side eyeing Barry Allen*

At some point they will need to tell us who makes the suits. This is like waiting for the identity of Gossip Girl.

Sara gave Emiko a leather jacket too. Uh oh. Don’t tell L*urel. ;)

I’d also like to know where Emiko learned to fight and shoot. Just details. No biggie.

I wish Emiko had money. I miss billionaire Oliver. 

Well I said Emiko’s mother is either China White or a random character. They went with rando.

The aging makeup is extremely bad in high definition. Has anyone Arrow actually met a 50 year old? They don’t look like Rene and Dinah. Moira Queen was 50 when she died. Robert Queen was almost 50 when he died. Did they look like they’ve been left out baking in the sun for twenty years? No. Do they not have hair dye in the future? This is ridiculous. People are living until their eighties and nineties. Fifty is not that old. Get a grip makeup department.

“One of the canaries.” OMG are there more in the future? Canary, LL Bl*ck Canary, White Canary, Bl*ck Siren, DD  Bl*ck Canary, ZR Bl*ck Canary. That’s at least six, but sure Jan she’s an original character.

Rene saying, “We need a person in the chair" proves my exact point about Curtis. The writers are constantly making the genius of Felicity Smoak sound replaceable and it fucking bugs the shit out of me.

Smeh. No matter how much they say they aren't doing a replacement Thea storyline that's exactly what it looks like. There was nothing in this episode that dissuaded my opinion on that matter. It sounds disingenuous to say otherwise.

Arrow is getting into a bad habit of killing mothers. This isn’t a Disney movie. Find a new theme.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 7x10 gifs credited.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

[cruzrogue]

Enter My World

previous Chapter 2

Enter My World

Giving Felicity a nickname wasn’t an easy feat. I asked eighteen random people for a nickname that could suitably be attached to Felicity. Any nickname that stood out as one that would be commonly used I got rid of. This nickname was only to be used between Oliver and Felicity. Just like Vern/Vernnie was something she called him because well I wanted to create an endearment that a seven-year-old to current date would have a pet name. In the show I can’t see her give Oliver a pet name but that is because the point of their lives it would be silly. Endearments like honey/babe and so forth well that comes with being in love over time. Anyways I landed up using Filla because of this young lady named Nadia. She is so sweet and well how could I not?

 This chapter is Oliver centric. Robert Queen is worried about his son.

  Chapter 3 

Three weeks later…

Oliver can hear the echo of his footsteps bounce off the walls when the house is tremendously quiet. The night staff is basically the estate’s security team that really do more external sweeps which usually ranges on how many men actually are seasonally required. Until his parents retire for the night to their room there is a caretaker that handles the small nightly duties. Raisa sometimes sleeps onsite but she mostly leaves after her shift is over. There aren’t many others that his parents leave their children to unsupervised. Hence why the halls are so quiet.

He’s supposed to dine with his father tonight as his mother and two sisters are out at ballet dance class. They’ll have dinner with a few other participates and enjoy a girls’ night out. He is happy to not be included so being home he is entertaining his thoughts. He is finding he hates the quiet moments and how being alone only adds to his depression.

Finishing his homework hours ago and then finding himself drawing faces of a certain girl he misses dearly. He didn’t think it would be so hard to move on. It’s not like he doesn’t have other friends which also have sisters he’s spent time with. So, what makes Felicity so special? It can’t just be countless moments they were just excited to do things together. The rare inside jokes that only they’ve shared. Being she’s the only person to ever call him Vern or Vernnie which stuck long after the reason she gave him that nickname.

Writing down their nicknames across a pad of paper he feels a certain dread after she made sure to express that she doesn’t want any more direct communication with him. He looks at the perfect cursive calligraphic penmanship that his sister spent half an afternoon teaching him even when he could care less about its visual beauty but Emilia was so happy to teach him something so he spent the time doodling words as she smiled broodily at him. The life of a big brother. Especially when trying to be a supportive brother he now wonders how many times Tommy has had to deal with his own sister’s piqued interests? He looks at the pad as the names Vernnie and Filla stare back at him before tearing the sheet from the pad and balling it up throwing it across the room.

He couldn’t stand being here any longer and needs to get out of this funk maybe get some fresh air. He just wishes their lives weren’t so interwoven because he wishes he had someone to talk about this with and Tommy is out of the question.

He needs to pass his father’s office on his way through and his father calls out to him.

“Oliver! Walter, hold on a minute I need to say a few words to my son.” He covers the phone with his hand over the receiver as his son enters the home office. His son has been very quiet lately and that has raised some concern especially with his mother who has noted a few changes.

Oliver always takes in the room when he enters. It’s large with dark leather and a deep masculine décor. Its screams old money. It’s actually quite overwhelming to him. Sometimes he forgets he comes from wealth and takes everything he has for granted but lately he has wallowed in what he’s lost.

“Yes, dad?” Oliver sits in the furthest chair close to the exit he doesn’t think he’ll be here long. His dad has been working on a business expansion that’s taken a lot of his time lately. With his mother and two sisters out it just leaves father and son to mingle about and Oliver would rather sit by the pool and let the buoyancy of the wind and the oncoming sunset reflect off its grand scale.

“I won’t be joining you for dinner. Unfortunately, a deal I need to tend to with Walter before I leave for a late business meeting. I have informed Raisa to make your favorites, just want to make sure you’ll actually eat.”

“Okay.” Oliver shrugs his shoulders. He isn’t hungry anyways he’ll just ask for a sandwich but he’ll get mac & cheese or with some grilled chicken he doesn’t care what vegetable will be served he usually eats any of the options given.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yea, I mean yes. Dad everything is fine. I’ll eat something. Don’t worry about me.”

Robert looks at his son for a few more seconds before he makes a decision. Placing the phone back on against his ear. “Walter, let me call you back.” After Walter gives a response Robert agrees and hangs up.

Robert gets up from his chair as he keeps his gaze on his son. Moira is right his son looks lanker than usual. “Have you been feeling well?”

“I’m fine dad.”

“Yes, you have stated that already.” Robert looks at the grandfather clock before resuming looking at his sullen boy. “You’ve been at home more lately. You’re usually at the Merlyns or Tommy would be here. Especially when your sisters aren’t. Hmm did something happen between you and Tommy?”

Oliver sighs but shakes his head no.

He asks his son again, “Nothing has happened?” and gets a sway of the head indicating a no.

“Oliver, I’m going to need you to be more vocal.”

“Everything is fine between me and Tommy.” Robert can sense that this is all he will pry out of his son. Nodding at the sixteen-year-old.

“Just make sure to eat enough. Your mother and sisters should be home by seven thirty. If you’re alright, I suppose you can go get yourself washed up for dinner. I’m going to make a few calls before I leave.” He looks at Oliver stand and start to head out. “You would tell me if something was bothering you?”

Oliver turns to his dad and makes sure to nod to keep his dad from meddling. “I’m fine dad.”

Robert enters the establishment ready to do business on one of the dining room tables that is off to the side from the main restaurant. He runs into seeing Malcolm on his way out with his family. The men shake hands and Robert gives Rebecca an acceptable partial hug of familiarity, and both kids get a full hug. Rebecca and the kids excuse themselves to head to the carrousel that is calling their names.

“Family night?”

“It has been awhile but Felicity has been talking about an exhibit at the science museum so it being premier night we thought it’ll be fun.”

“Oh yes, Moira mentioned this but my younger kids aren’t interested. They don’t consider added educational trips as fun.”

“Well as much fun as it can be as I had to encourage Tommy to not sulk about the torture of more science in his life. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if Oliver agreed to come along but I understand his new interest is a more enlightening matter.”

“Oliver is home alone. Strange. This time with Tommy is probably what he’d need.”

“Moira and the girls aren’t home?”

“No. The usual dance classes and all.”

Malcolm gives off a weird vibe as if he wants to tell Robert that maybe Oliver is not home alone as he thinks. Otherwise it would be strange for the boy not to hang out with his own family.

Robert catches on. Maybe his son is entertaining and that does not sit well with him. He has always had an open communication line with his kids. They can come to him for anything and he feels a slight twinge of hurt that his son would omit something and go behind his parent’s backs.

“I think I need to reschedule this meeting. I may be needed elsewhere.” He’ll have to make some apologizes to the men waiting but his boy comes first.

“Robert. Hey I’m sorry. I doubt Oliver is doing anything crazy. He is a bright boy.”

“Thanks Malcolm. I better be off. We should get together for a round a golf when the weather clears.” Malcolm nods and they say their goodbyes as Robert is on a mission.

Robert knocks once, twice, and as he knocks the third time he opens the door to his son’s room and enters looking around for more than his son’s appearance in what is supposed to be a solitary room.

“Dad! You’re home early.”

Robert notices his son who is now standing to the side off the couch. A book that hazily is by the edge falls making a thud sound as it hits the wooden floor. Oliver automatically collects it and places it on the side table. Looking like he might be guarding the closet door.

“Have you eaten?”

“I’ve had a bite.”

“Just a bite? Raisa said you came by and grabbed a few bottles of water before disappearing. Now what is going on?” As Robert says this he walks past his son to the large closet and pulls the door open and surprisingly there is no one in there.

“Dad? What are you doing?”

“Is there someone here?”

“No. Why would there be? I don’t understand.”

“I had an interesting chat with Tommy’s dad. Who assumed you were entertaining.”

“Oh.”

“Yes oh. He asked his son to invite you for a fun night. Did he?”

“Yes, Tommy asked I declined telling him I would be busy.”

Robert looks around the boy’s room and thinks about checking the bathroom that is before Oliver states something that stops him.

“I’ve been lying to Tommy about some girl.”

Robert is shocked. Why would his son need to lie to a boy who knows him inside-and-out? This is not good. “Why?”

“Because he doesn’t want me near his sister.”

“What?” Robert shakes his head, “Have you done something to Felicity?”

“No. Gosh no. She kissed me a few weeks ago.”

“Kissed you?”

“Okay it was a peck on the lips but I realized I really like her. I mean like her and I told her we couldn’t be friends anymore.” He slumps against the couch. “Now Felicity hates me.”

“So, there is no girl in this room with you. Okay, one problem down.” Robert breathes out relieved. He hears his son moan but at least he doesn’t have to deal with getting rid of a visitor. “I came home expecting the unexpected you’d be relieved to and believe me when you become a father you’ll understand.”

Oliver just looks at his dad like he has two heads.

“All this sulking around the house I presume is about Felicity?”

“Dad! She hates me.”

“Tell me exactly what you told her. Maybe you’re being harder on yourself than you should be.”

“I don’t remember it piece by piece. I just remember I called her a kid. That I value Tommy’s friendship over hers and I ended the friendship because I knew best.”

Robert looks at his son astonished. “When did you realize you liked Felicity?”

“Why does that matter?”

It really doesn’t matter but both the Merlyn elders alongside him and his wife have seen it coming as these two have a special blossoming relationship. Robert bites his lip and against better judgement tells his son, “I thought you’d realize this much later on and now I owe your mother a backrub.”

“What? You and mom knew I liked, liked her?” Oliver looks at his dad and is stunned, “No! No way. Uncle Max and Auntie Reba knows too?”

With a nod Robert knows he is in a jam. “Oliver?”

Oliver is up and pacing. “Everybody knows? Oh my… No! This can’t be happening.”

“Calm down. Young love is beautiful.”

Oliver just wants the floor in his room to open up and swallow him whole he is so mortified. He really thought that what he felt was just so new and to know his family could see it. He feels like a total fool. Now he can’t even talk to the girl that has him brooding around thinking of ways to get her to even look at him. Though no matter what it doesn’t solve his problem. He still feels that her being younger is just a curse. “Dad she’s twelve.”

“Hmm. Hmm.” Robert then says, “I can’t assume what your male friends talk about but as a male myself I understand certain things. Let me tell you, don’t let them pressure you into doing anything you’re not ready for. It seems that maybe we need to have a certain conversation.”

“Dad I don’t need that talk again I still remember it very well.”

“No wise guy. Though as uncomfortable as getting that conversation started it needed to be done. I don’t want the information you get be from some older buddies telling you falsehoods.”

Robert makes himself as comfortable as he can because this talk is going to have with Oliver is going to be intense but his son needs this. He wants his boy to not lack in knowing that no matter what life throws at him that there are people on his side. He watches as his son readies himself. Oliver looks at his dad and nods hoping that somewhere in this conversation he can figure a way because right now he feels so lost.

tagging: @1106angel @memcjo @keabbs @lovelifelovebooks

[ao3feed-oliverfelicity]

Phoenix Ascending

read it on the AO3

by milesrunner777

After Bruce nearly beats him to death on a Gotham rooftop, Jason considers all ties to the Batfamily to be officially severed. Too bad most of his siblings don't see it that way. And if only he could stop running into other members of the Justice League...

Words: 3960, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014), Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Jason Todd, Talia al Ghul, Roy Harper, Tim Drake, Alfred Pennyworth, Damian Wayne, Jon Lane Kent, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Bruce Wayne, Bizarro (DCU), Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, Koriand'r (DCU), Jade Nguyen, Clark Kent, Ubu (DCU), Nyssa al Ghul, Sandra Woosan, Diana (Wonder Woman), Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Laurel Lance, Felicity Smoak, Malcolm Merlyn, Damien Darhk

Relationships: Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Cheshire & Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Jason Todd, Diana (Wonder Woman) & Jason Todd, Nyssa al Ghul & Talia al Ghul, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall & Bizarro (DCU) & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Kara Zor-El, Roy Harper & Koriand'r & Jason Todd, Pamela Isley & Selina Kyle & Harleen Quinzel, Lian Harper & Jason Todd

Additional Tags: Talia is a good mom, Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, BAMF Jason Todd

read it on the AO3

[hope-for-olicity]

Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - September 28th, 2018

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them.

A Novel Beginning multi-chapter WIP by @vaelisamaza - Olicity AU, Felicity runs her own Tech shop and writes romance novel reviews for her sister's website, Oliver comes in for computer help and it's all getting very exciting!! SQUEE!!!!  https://archiveofourown.org/works/15800145/chapters/36771384

Angel multi-chapter WIP by @it-was-a-red-heeler - Oliver encounters a stripper by the name of Angel and is blown away. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15961898/chapters/37227686#workskin

The Paths We Take multi-chapter Complete by griever11 - Rival CEOs AU. Felicity Smoak, CEO and founder of her own company, is trying to prove herself in the cutthroat world of the technology industry among the other bigwigs in the game. Oliver Queen, recently back from the dead is trying to prove to the world that he's no longer the same man-child who went down on the Queen's Gambit and is finally worthy of his family's legacy. Both equally formidable names in the corporate world. And both with a long, complicated history with each other that no one but themselves are privy to. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15314133/chapters/35530296

From Somewhere Within multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - Their connection has always felt natural to them, safe and secure. But others tend to fear what they don’t understand, and as far as their enemies are concerned, the world isn’t ready to accept two people who can know each other the way that Oliver and Felicity do. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16009244/chapters/37356257

I Have a Right by who_seeks_shall_find - William's friends defend William when a group of older kids harass him in a cafe. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16011746

The Hardest Target multi-chapter by @laurabelle2930 - When Felicity was a child her father developed an AI program that eventually brought their family fame and fortune. As she grew her father faded away his business grew and their bond shattered. After a car accident almost got her best friend Sara Lance killed Felicity's father made a choice...this choice would radically alter the course of her life. Now 5 years after the plane crash that killed her father and left her stranded she's come home to defeat the enemies her father's work created. The target is H.I.V.E's gun for hire, his name is unknown but his skills are deadly. He works for Damian Darkh who's allied with the one and only Quentin Lance Starlings chief of police. The only problem with her brand new life is Oliver Queen. He feels foreign yet familiar at the same time. She's drawn to him as he is to her but the question is why? What brings them together and what could potentially tear them apart? AMAZING!! http://archiveofourown.org/works/5745787/chapters/13240654

The Proposal multi-chapter WIP by @sunshineolicity - When Felicity is threatened with deportation, she lies about being engaged to her boss, Oliver Queen. She doesn't expect him to agree to marry her but they're caught up in family parties and wedding plans before she knows it. https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301480/chapters/25287291

P.S. Hong Kong: Was it Real?!? multi-chapter WIP by @cruzrogue for Olicity trope-tastic award: Fake Marriage - This is off season 3 Flashbacks. When Tommy goes to Hong Kong he doesn’t go alone he takes his friend Felicity as the best information system being to help him locate Oliver Queen. Tommy may leave empty handed but Felicity gets to be a bride… https://archiveofourown.org/works/15025697/chapters/34832747

Rebels Connected multi-chapter WIP by @mindramblingsfics - Felicity Smoak is an escaped mutant on the run. Oliver Queen, leader of an underground safe house for mutants to call home comes to her rescue. Everything changes once he brings her into the organization and his life. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16014089/chapters/37369784

If I Tremble multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - A collection of prompts and ficlets, with all the smut! Olicity sexy times are the best times. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409122/chapters/35762643

Life's All About Changes multi-chapter WIP by Crazyreader2468 - After agreeing to plead guilty to being the Green Arrow in order to get FBI assistance in capturing Diaz, Oliver finds himself in a supermax, a maximum security federal prison, serving a life sentence. As he struggles to become accustomed to life in prison, his family, friends, and teammates struggle to live without him, as well as continually attempting to find a way to get him pardoned. Will they succeed in obtaining a pardon and will Oliver survive until they do? Mostly AU from right before the ending of episode 6 x 22 and after most of 6 x 23. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936172

Pieces of Always multi-chapter WIP by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows. Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8220479/chapters/18840356

The Reason multi-chapter WIP by flipflops - Oliver is an Alpha and Felicity is an Omega....circumstances lead Oliver to find this out and a very bad time or maybe very good time... https://archiveofourown.org/works/15012431

Re-Airrow Episode 2x04 by @lostolicityscenes - Three fill in the blank scenes for the episode. The first one takes place before the episode events basically deepening the bond between Oliver and Felicity and setting up the flirty flirt at the end of the episode. The second scene is a Delicity scene that takes place after the revelation that Sara is alive, expanding on Felicity’s feelings of hurt and confusion. The last scene takes place before the flirty Olicity scene in the episode. I wanted to show they talked before that scene to explain her change in attitude as well as an excuse to show Oliver’s increasing reliance on her advice. https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/178194053416/re-airrow-episode-2x04

10 Rules of Rebounding multi-chapter WIP by @smkkbert - Oliver and Felicity start a sex relationship as rebounds for each other. What’s supposed to be just fun, soon gets complicated when it turns out that their work lives collide, Robert Queen fears their sexual relationship could threaten his company and an ex comes back into the play. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15403404/chapters/35749620

Home To You multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Oliver Queen has never done what his family expected of him. He took a gap year after high school instead of going to college right away. He quit his fraternity sophomore year to join the student newspaper, switching his major from business to journalism. He became a photojournalist for a wire service instead of taking a place at Queen Consolidated. He went missing after six months instead of coming home for his sister’s twenty-first birthday. He survived five years of captivity in a war zone when everyone thought he was dead. He came home. But home didn’t have a place for him in it anymore. His parents were both dead, casualties of their own mistakes and a city they had turned against them. His sister was all grown up, the CEO of Queen Consolidated with a fiancé and a dog and a life of her own. Oliver didn’t belong in his old life, but there was nowhere else for him to go. He was a man without a home, without any way of finding one, until he stopped by the IT department of his sister’s company to get files off an old, battered memory card, and found a woman with curly blonde hair and bright, intelligent eyes chewing on a bright red pen and swearing at a computer screen. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12613188/chapters/28734552

Arrow Out of Context: "You can call me nothing" Buried Alive Part 1 multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - "John" and "My friends call me Dig, you should call me nothing."https://archiveofourown.org/works/14957309/chapters/37421213

Arrow Out of Context multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - "I've already seen you shirtless. Multiple times. Shirtless all the time" https://archiveofourown.org/works/14957309/chapters/37541849#workskin

Queen vs Queen multi-chapter WIP by @muslimsmoak - Felicity Mignonette Renaldi Smoak has been handling being a princess pretty well so far. After all, she did only find out at the ripe young age of 15. Now, she is 21 and ready to take the throne of Genovia after being under the tutelage of her aunt. But there’s only one thing in her way, wait, actually two. Two things in her way: Oliver Queen, the hot young bachelor she danced with the night of her homecoming ball, who neglected to mention that he’s after her crown alongside his uncle Malcolm Merlyn, and the fact that she has to marry within 30 days if she wants to be Queen. Ray Palmer, Duke of Keystone is sweet, sensitive, intelligent and kind and seems like the perfect choice. But marrying and falling in love are two different things. A Princess Diaries AU  https://archiveofourown.org/works/15808065/chapters/36794172

Back to Start multi-chapter WIP by @laurabelle2930 - Felicity left home almost ten years ago. She missed her family, the land that she'd always felt bonded to and, the boy who was not only her best friend but, also her true love. Now with the help of her family she's about to see if the boy she left behind is still just as in love with as she still is with him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043321/chapters/37451873

Fragments multi-chapter WIP by @alexiablackbriar13 - A collection of various arrow and olicity ficlets from my drafts folder, partially completed. some AU, some canon related. many related to established verses I've created, although do not need to read those verses to read these fics. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15906561/chapters/37075926

Unexpected Meeting or Fate? multi-chapter WIP by CaptainSammyAngel - Since she was a little girl, Felicity Smoak has been apart of the League of Assassins. While Oliver Queen for the past six months has been the CEO of Queen Consolidated and trying to keep it afloat. When the League decides to start the hunt of Malcolm Merlyn in the last place he was located, two people will meet but circumstances and pasts will make it difficult for them to be together. Will they find a way or will they be torn apart? https://archiveofourown.org/works/15007139/chapters/34783916

The Queen's Mage multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Words have power, and mages, those with the aptitude to draw on that power, are few in number. Thus, their services are highly sought after by anyone who has exhausted all mundane means of solving whatever problem is plaguing them. Felicity is reminded of this fact the hard way when she is hired by Moira Queen, the Lady Starling, to find and return to her son Oliver, who fled his family home five years ago following the death of his father. With a threat hanging over her should she return without Robert Queen's heir, Felicity begins her search. When she finds Oliver, and ends up joining his vigilante crusade while she waits for him to decide whether to return home, the last thing she expects to do is fall in love with him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14617068/chapters/33781269

Re-airrow: Episode 2x05 by @lostolicityscenes - This scene takes place right before the above scene at the top of the episode. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, dialogue that appears side by side takes place at the same time. Rest is below the cut. https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/178325265428/re-airrow-episode-2x05 

Fear Wakes You Up multi-chapter WIP by @smoakmonster - In a world divided into factions, being Divergent means certain death. For years, Oliver has hidden his terrible secrets–masking his own Divergence within the chaos of Dauntless, covering up the sins of his father’s past that mark his body beneath tattoos, and pushing himself to overcome his nightmares through endless simulations. He’s biding his time until he can somehow save his sister back in Abnegation. But everything changes the day a new batch of transfers arrive. The day he meets her. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16058117/chapters/37490819

Deep Water multi-chapter WIP by @it-was-a-red-heeler - A Season 7 Speculation fic. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15081917/chapters/34968092

Hard To Find Love multi-chapter WIP by Mellowyellowdiamonds - Through a tragic twist of fate Felicity finds herself left with an orphaned young William Clayton. Keeping her promise to her friend, Felicity raises William diligently, loving him as if he were her own child, only to have Moira Queen storm into their lives several years later demanding custody of her grandson. Locked in a war with Moira Queen, things get complicated when Felicity finds herself developing unwanted feelings for William's biological father, Oliver Queen. At the same time she must try to manage her meddling 13 year old son, who has it in his head that if Felicity would just cooperate and fall for his father, everything would be right in the world. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941786/chapters/37173917

A Series of Dates multi-chapter Complete by @alexiablackbriar13 - Oliver Queen is in love with Felicity Smoak. Felicity Smoak is in love with Oliver Queen. It takes four dates, and the help of Oliver's loyal service dog, Hunter, for them to realise that they're forever destined to be something more than just friends. https://archiveofourown.org/works/13130304/chapters/30036912

Time for a Story multi-chapter WIP by @smkkbert - This fic shows Olicity and their life as a (married) couple with family. Although Olicity (and their kids) are the protagonists, other characters of Arrow and Flash make appearances. YOU NEED THIS STORY IN YOUR LIFE. http://archiveofourown.org/works/3912157/chapters/8757172

// @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo// @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1// @quiveringbunny // @wrongshipper // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 //