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To be honest, I was deciding whether or not I should actually write this post. I’ve gone back and forwards over it for the last few days. In the end (obviously) I decided that I need to get these ideas out of my head; which is primarily what this site is for.

To anyone that knows me, they might be surprised at this post. I am a HUGE fan of Arrow. I’ve loved this show since the first promo came out. I, like probably most of you reading this, brought the blurays upon release. So writing stuff like the below is pretty hard. Part of the reason that necessitated this post is the “in fighting” I see between fans. The worst of it when the cast gets drawn into tweets, or messages, where they get hate and death threats at them. Why people think that is necessary, in any frame of logic, staggers the imagination. But anyway.

Let’s start off with Felicity; seeing as she seems to be the one that gets the most flak around the internet. I love this character. Emily Bett Rickards plays her fantastically. The character is smart, well rounded, and works… Or should I say “worked”. Past tense. The dynamic for the character has changed, and pretty dramatically at that. That disappoints me immensely. Starting in season 3 really was when she started to lose the dynamic that made Felicity, Felicity. As the show has moved on, the writers have taken the character into some fairly bland, and cliche’d storylines. She’s gone away from being the role model character type that she used to be. One that teaches girls to be strong. That they don’t need someone like Oliver to hold them up.

I would like, in season 5, that they return her to the original arcs. I firmly believe that the reason for most of this was the decision to bring Oliver and Felicity together as a couple. As much as I believe that, this comes from someone who liked all the interactions between the two. But now it’s gone too far. It’s not actually just Arrow that falls into this trap. It ends up being a staple in most shows with romantic leads. Bones fell the same way when Temperance and Booth got together, Castle too when Rick and Beckett got married. I could go on. There seems to be an issue with tv drama shows, that when they get the couples together, the strong independant nature of each individual suffers. Sure they can be strong together, but they were strong, and capable, before that too.

Bring Felicity back to the character that she was before. Even if that means separating her and Oliver. This part is more of a plea to the writers; follow your storylines. You probably don’t use what’s around the internet (for legal reasons) but I guarantee that some of it is getting into your writing, and it’s affecting the show. Sure obviously with the DCEU you can’t always get to do a storyline that you want; which is most recently evident with the Sucide Squad storyline, but have faith in where you do go with out bringing in stuff seen online.

I doubt anyone would read this from the writers\producers area, but on the off chance, Can you fight for characters that may appear in movies? Can you bring them in as a multi-verse option?  I understand the Flash is a different thing because the show was so strong when they announced the Flash movie, but use that comparison. It doesn’t have to the same. Audiences are smart and can deal with two different people playing characters. They’ll make their own head canon if they need to.

I guess brings me to another major point in the season, something I have touched on briefly in another post, the death of Dinah Laurel Lance, aka the Black Canary. I understand story, and character motivations, and plot lines. I understand that this was point A to get to point B, etc. But I believe that this was a mistake. Quite strongly.

For one, even all the way back in early seasons you didn’t give the character of Laurel (and by inference Katie Cassidy) enough to do. She was always, and I mean completely, always relegated to a background character. Even when she officially gained the title of Black Canary after Sara’s death–something that wasn’t really even dealt with well either, regardless of her coming back.

The character arc for Katie Cassidy’s Black Canary was never handled well. There, I said it. There was not enough to ground the point where you killed her off; with one exception. The episode “Canaries” all the way back in season 3, so almost a season gap before she died. That episode was actually handled really well. She had character build up, and motivation as she worked through whether she could actually do Sara justice. It was blocked slightly by the addition of Caity Lotz return, but the two played off each other better in this episode than either of them have had a chance to do before, or since really.

That’s my point here. At the time she dies in season 4, that is the biggest character development that she was given. A season length away from the point where she dies, and leaves. The worst part to that death, was that you as writers didn’t even have the sense to ground it with just her and Oliver. It had to be an opportunity to throw in a last reference to Oliver\Felicity arc. Why? Was it necessary? No. Did it help the story? No. Leave it with Oliver and Laurel. Let Quentin Lance actually have time with his daughter, because really, the ‘just dying’ thing was kind of a cop out.

Before I drone on longer, I will end it with the season storyline of Damian Dahrk. A character who was way to powerful to be used as an enemy. I mean, to extend the storyline for the season you had to have the Arrow crew take the idol and hide it from him in the middle. First of all, he was the leader of Hive; an organisation that popped up that even Amanda Waller didn’t know to begin with. How did they not have the resources to just find the idol? Second, the magic that Darhk had was so powerful how did they defeat him? It ended completely flat in that last episode with no real payoff at all. Oliver just ‘found’ the light magic to stop his.

At least with the Flash finale, it was big, with repurcussions to the world and his future. It ended on a high bang. Arrow, the primary show of the set, ended with a whimper. Arrow’s endgame should have been huge. If you hadn’t killed Laurel, she could have been involved in the big fight. Darhk kills her there, before Oliver can stop him; which leads to rage, and fear, and strength at the loss of one of his closest (and oldest) friends that he is able to summon the magic that can kill Damian. Then you also end on the hurt of Quentin losing another daughter, and where that takes him. It would still be a similar ending, but more powerful emotionally than what you actually ended with. It also would have done the Canary storyline more justice.

The direct ending itself also felt like there was uncertainty with whether you would get a season 5 or not as well. Particularly, as it ended with such a proper ending.

Ok, so if anyone’s still reading this; what turned out to be more of a ranting posting. I thank you. This is pretty much the base level of issues I had with the Arrow season for season 4. I’m still looking forward to season 5 next year, and I really hope that they can turn it around.

But for this fan I’m sorry, but Arrow. You have failed this season.

What did you think? Thanks again for reading.