TV on DVD: s3 Arrow: If I were stronger, I would stop watching Arrow now.
It’s not that I don’t like it. I *do* like Arrow; I’ve liked it from the start. I have issues with all the secret-keeping (issues which paid off in spades this season, actually, especially at the end), but I really like it and normally I’d be happy to watch it through five seasons, which is as far as it should go even if it’s probably going to go a lot farther. I want to see what happens with Diggs, particularly, because this could be the Diggs & Felicity Show for all I care and I’d be super thrilled. But it’s not, and my problem here is that I really, really loved the end of season 3.
I mean, really, truly loved it. And I…I want it to be done, with that ending. And it won’t be. It won’t be for a thousand reasons, not least of which is that they’ve, y’know, been renewed for a fourth season, and because there are now two spin-off shows plus Supergirl happening in the DCTVU, so even if Arrow ended, we’d probably see cameos and what-not in all those other shows, and because–
–well, I can’t say the last because without spoilers, so herein lies the spoiler cut. I’m going to say exactly what happens in the final scene and why it means a lot to me, so if you don’t want to know, don’t click through.
Right now, in this final scene, Felicity and Oliver get their happy ending. They drive off into the sunset together. It’s perfect, and it’s what they deserve, and it is, by God, what I, as the viewer, deserve.
Felicity Smoak is technically a DC property prior to Arrow‘s arrival on the scene, but her character on Arrow is pretty significantly re-imagined for Arrow. She’s a wonderful character. I love her. I *love* her.
But she’s not the girl who’s ever gonna get the guy.
She’s had flirtations/relationships with at least three major heroes: Green Arrow, the Flash, and the Atom. The flirtation with Barry Allen actually really killed me, because she’s obviously never gonna get Ollie, and to have her and Barry share this attraction was just–that was not fucking fair, okay? Because it’s bad enough she’s never gonna get one superhero, but *two*? She’s the girl who isn’t going to end up with Arrow *or* the Flash? That just *sucks*. That *sucks*, man.
Because Felicity is the audience stand-in. Felicity is as close as we ladies (and presumably not just a few men) on the other side of the screen are ever gonna get to adoring–and being adored by–a superhero.
But Ollie ends up with Diana Lance–the Black Canary–for all intents and purposes. Barry Allen ends up with Iris West. This is DC canon and they’re not going to mess with it for the TV shows, not to that level.
Ray Palmer–the Atom–canonically has a girlfriend when he becomes the Atom. Felicity is technically Ray’s girlfriend when he becomes the Atom, in the show. In the canon, his girlfriend when he becomes the Atom GOES ON TO MURDER PEOPLE. That would be an unforgiveable road to take with Felicity, and I can’t see it happening. Also, although Brandon Routh has almost totally won me over as Palmer, I can’t get past the incredibly creepy stalker behaviour he displayed in the first episodes. It just bugs me. I don’t want to let myself forget it, because it was *so* *creepy*. So argh. Yeah, okay, if I let myself forget for half a minute, Felicity and Ray are really kind of great together in their dorktastic way–but I don’t want to let creepy stalker behaviour slide. And even if I do, the odds of Felicity getting that guy, either, seem vanishingly slim.
So I want this ending. I want Felicity to get what Smallville never even pretended Chloe–also the audience stand-in character–might get: the happy ending with the leading man.
I might even want it enough to stop watching Arrow.