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Ugh. Sara's death was so crappy. I don't think there's a single aspect of it that wasn't atrociously-executed. I knew it was gonna happen eventually, and I even saw it coming in the episode. But once it actually happened I just couldn't stop rolling my eyes. And I'm sure it's gonna lead to some great stories in the future, just like many other fridgings do, and be incredibly moving for the remaining characters, particularly Laurel. And just like many other fridgings we'll all go "Ah, see, it led to good stories so it's totes good! All is forgiven!" And on and on the fridge cycle goes. Other downside of the episode: the Hong Kong flashback was silly from beginning to end, and not in a good silly way, more like in a "this is really dumb" silly way. Upsides: Arrow continues to salvage lame unsalvagable DC characters, 'cuz Ray Palmer was brilliant. Well...he was pretty much Ray in name only and Ted Kord completely in spirit, so that explains a lot of it.
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Oct 9, 2014 21:46
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:10 |
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MrFlibble posted:The term fridging as I understand it means a female character killed solely for the drama of a male character (usually a girlfriend of the hero). Moira and Shado both qualify for this but we can't count Sara yet because we have no idea why she was killed. It was just a stinger for a mystery at the end of the episode. We can see the trend playing out throughout Arrow itself. Of all the important main characters killed off through the series, we got Tommy and possibly Yao Fei on one end, and Shado, Moira, and now Sara on the other. Tommy and Yao Fei was were fridged, that's true, but Tommy in particular got fridged like a champ, performing self-sacrificing feats of heroism to save the woman he loves; the guy who was physically unimpressive, who never showed any particularly heroic attributes, goes out in a spectacular feat of masculinity, showing that even the weakest men are prone to great strength. Moira, Shado, and Sara got no grand virtuous finales; they got victimized and tied up and tossed off a building. Three of the deadliest women on the show, two of them stalwart heroes, are helpless to stop the bad guys from killing them, showing that even the strongest women (and Yao Fei, I suppose) are ultimately powerless when all is said and done. It's a trend that pops up over and over again through media.
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Oct 9, 2014 23:12
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Wait a sec... Didn't Sara give her jacket to Laurel five months ago? She went out and bought a new, identical one?
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Oct 10, 2014 00:10
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Gaz-L posted:You've never bought the same kind of shirt more than once?
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Oct 10, 2014 00:26
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It can be a very pro-feminist show and still have problematic sexist trends. It can do a whole lot of things right and still not do everything right. It can show how far we've come and still show how far we've yet to go. These are not complicated, mutually-exclusive concepts. And it applies to every show, not just Arrow.
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Oct 10, 2014 00:35
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DFu4ever posted:Honestly, I'm so tired of this term. It's watered down to the point of uselessness. Every time a female character dies in a show with a male main character, they've now been fridged. Why doesn't this apply to male characters that die solely to motivate or move the main male character's story forward? As I've said, fridging has never completely just been about characters dying to motivate other characters. The original source of the term doesn't even mention that aspect at all. As far as I can tell, that narrow "dying to motivate others" definition has been constructed and utilized mostly by people trying to downplay the trend. And as I've also said, Tommy did get fridged, but the context and depiction of his death is completely different from Sara's. Tommy's death makes him look better. Sara's death makes her look powerless. Would Sara's death have been better if she had gone out in a blaze of heroic glory instead of being disempowered and punk'd for shock value? Who knows, because it didn't happen...as it rarely ever does when it comes to female character deaths, which have a habit of being ignominious and violently gratuitous.
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Oct 10, 2014 02:54
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Wouldn't Sara know Merlyn because Oliver, Tommy, and Laurel were all friends so she'd probably know Tommy's dad? Heck, didn't she mention Malcolm Merlyn by name at some points? I'm sure she'd recognize him. (Not that it's going to end up being him)
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Oct 10, 2014 05:24
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I think
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Oct 10, 2014 07:06
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The Laurel/Tommy/Oliver death-triangle of CW doom does get pretty grating after a while too. Whenever I recommend this show to people, that specific love triangle tends to be the thing they complain about most. "Does this crap ever end??" they demand of me. "Oh does it ever," I reply.
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Oct 11, 2014 09:57
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Skinny legs are faithful depictions of real life canaries.
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Oct 11, 2014 22:59
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Pretty sure Sara would've been like "Yeah, do it, kill his rear end. Avenge meeee"
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Oct 16, 2014 01:50
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Reading some reviews of the episode, it's bizarre how a lot of reviewers just didn't seem to cognitively grasp that the reason Laurel didn't tell her dad about Sara was because his medication beeper went off and it reminded Laurel that his heart could explode in her face like an overripe grapefruit if she told him. I mean, we complain about so many TV shows lacking subtlety, but apparently it really does just fly over a lot of viewers' heads when shows do try to do something nuanced with characters.
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Oct 16, 2014 21:55
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Cirofren posted:Could you link a review or two? It is truly bizarre if reviewers missed it because it wasn't subtle at all and is practically a trope.
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Oct 17, 2014 04:00
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"Not here." [walks ten feet away and explains]
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Oct 23, 2014 01:22
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Hahaha this Felicity scene is amazing.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:32
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Oh Laurel. You tried.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:34
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He knows how to do exactly one single thing but he does it well.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:43
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I love this fat baby.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:56
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The OMAC Project could tie into the ongoing ARGUS plotline pretty easily. And if they go with the "nanotech" version of OMAC (Ray Palmer hurr hurrr), it wouldn't be too hard to depict onscreen either. This episode was honestly kind of jumpy and disconnected (one scene went from Oliver talking to Thea to Oliver on a stakeout with Diggle with no preamble whatsoever) but I liked all the things that happened in all those disconnected scenes, so that's great.
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Oct 23, 2014 02:25
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One possible reason the overall plot seems to be moving faster is that we've removed Slade, Shado, and Moira's character arcs from the list of boxes to check off. With a couple less balls to juggle every week, other balls can be...uh, juggled more. edit: Oh man, I can't believe I missed the Tom Bronson name drop. Well, he'll probably end up being just be a name drop and not Ted Grant's bastard child, unless Laurel was trying to prosecute a toddler. BrianWilly fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 11:07
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I kind of hope they make Roy more and more oblivious about things as we go along. It'd give him more of a purpose in the show than to make angsty eyebrow expressions at everything.
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Oct 23, 2014 21:07
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And so the cycle is renewed.
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Oct 23, 2014 22:16
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Y'know, I used to just sigh and shake my head whenever people brought up the possibility of Diggle eventually becoming the Green Lantern of this TV universe. But the more we roll along, the less utterly batshit impossible that sounds. Because if they want to establish an iconic GL + GA + Flash teamup, they literally already have all the potential pieces on the board.
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Oct 27, 2014 08:53
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I imagine that her tank top says "poo poo poo poo poo poo," encompassing her current mood.
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Oct 28, 2014 03:35
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Well it's starting right now on my livestream soooo v v
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Oct 30, 2014 01:00
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Oliver, if the trail has gone cold then you can't also have leads at the same time, that's not how...oh, never mind.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:08
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C'mon Dig, you need a costume too.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:17
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NINJA VANISH
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Oct 30, 2014 01:18
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On the one hand it's kinda unfair for Laurel to be all on Oliver's jock about putting down Merlyn considering that's exactly what he did two years ago. On the other hand he really needs to stop pulling the "What would Sara do" card because it's hellsa dumb. Sara would kill Merlyn in an instant and take selfies on his corpse.
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Oct 30, 2014 01:30
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I think it's safe to assume that Ra's really did kill Sara and try to pin in on Merlyn, just because he thought she was beneath Nyssa, and I actually like that idea. It hearkens to some of comic Ra's's relationship with Talia.Boogaleeboo posted:What exactly did you think all Arabian people look like? 'cuuuuuuuuuse some of them look a lot like Matt Nable.  They had the opportunity to cast a person of color for this incredibly important role, and they just went with the same ol' safe ol' Englishy-sounding white dude. It's fine if you don't think them doing that is a big stinking deal, but don't be like "No but see, they were just being more tolerant!!" about it, 'cuz they weren't.
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Oct 30, 2014 06:59
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It has loads of negative connotations that, strangely-enough, TV shows like Arrow don't seem to have any problems braving when we're talking about villainous henchmen and two-bit redshirts, like the guys who appeared to capture Sara last season, from the same exact league as Ra's. How much are we willing to bet that most of Ra's' attendants and minions will be something other than white? Even Katrina Law herself is biracial. But you see, now that we're talking about an important, iconic, fan-favorite villain with greater repercussions for the story, oh dear, that's when casting magically becomes sensitive to racial stigma. *shrug* Heard it all before.
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Oct 30, 2014 08:37
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The first member of the League we actually saw, who Sara killed, was Asian. Just to be clear. I assume you're as against Amanda Waller being black as you are against Ra's being depicted as Middle-Eastern. BrianWilly fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 09:11
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Boogaleeboo posted:I'm against her being thin and young, but it's the CW. It's nice to know you have problems with black people too though. And I decided to let that be response enough.
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Oct 30, 2014 09:29
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But superheroes absolutely should turn criminals in to the authorities. Malcolm is all "Teehee I'm a ninja, I'll just escape any prison they throw me in" um not if they strap you into the electric chair, you won't. Didn't Moira face the death penalty for being merely complicit in Malcolm's undertaking? And if we don't trust Starling prisons to hold him, I'm sure Waller's not going to shed rivers of tears over legally executing someone if she got her hands on them. I like that Malcolm's around, but I really hope they won't resort to nonsensical Comic Book Recurring Villain Logic to keep him around. That's one of the main drawbacks of having a recurring villain in comic books.
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Oct 30, 2014 12:15
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By the by, the extended preview for the next episode lends a great deal of credence to Brother Eye/OMAC virus speculation. 
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Oct 30, 2014 20:14
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Nothing teaches better than 1) dead family members and 2) experience. Just keep tossing Laurel into fights she can't win through the rest of the season, that'll work out.
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Oct 30, 2014 21:43
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Not a fan of Neil Gaiman I see.
BrianWilly fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Nov 1, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 05:43
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It's called an in-joke. The only point is that literally every comic reader will look at her outfit and think "Lol, she's dressed as Death." That's it. That's the entire point.
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Nov 1, 2014 05:54
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It is a little unclear who or what exactly Oliver has been fighting against ever since he beat Slade. What even is the Arrow's goal anymore? To just arrest two-bit hoodlums forever?
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Nov 2, 2014 14:00
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Impossible.
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Nov 5, 2014 23:36
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