[ SECRET POST #3393 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3393 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 052 secrets from Secret Submission Post #485.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I find it fascinating that simply being in a relationship with a male character (or being the love interest of a male character) is what will cause a female character to "regress" in the eyes of fandom. Or "develop" when out of that role, even when the writing for her or the focus on her hasn't changed much at all from the starting point of the story. I mean, I haven't watched the show so my opinion may not mean much, but I've literally seen this reason given in every fandom for a canon het ship I've been in. "Oh she was great until they paired her up with X!" (X generally = main and/or fan favourite male character) "She became awful once they hooked up" "There's nothing more to her character now" "Aw, I like her much better when she's away from X" "She's so much more interesting now that she's not with X"

Baffling.

[dancing_serpent]

I did watch the show, and she started getting on my nerves long before they hooked up. I liked her in season one, liked her a much less in season two, and by the start of season three I was pretty much meh on her. Then they got together and all I could think was urgh, dnw.

[(Anonymous)]

Oliver/Felicity is fan pandering. And that's fine; this is The CW, after all, where the execs are more concerned with social media reaction than ratings. So you have a group of fans who don't like this aspect.

Then you have the writing. Several writers left after the second season (which is pretty universally regarded as the best season) to go to The Flash. Season 3 suffered as a result and that was the season where Oliver and Felicity hooked up. On top of that, the first half of the fourth season devoted a large chunk of time to setting up DC's Legends of Tomorrow which took focus away from the main characters. So you have fans upset about that.

Then you have the purists. Arrow recently killed off a character that many thought was endgame for Oliver, because she's almost always with him in the comics. On her deathbed, she said she was happy that he'd found Felicity. So you have fans upset over her death and how her deathbed speech was all about Oliver/Felicity.

Then (as the anon above noted) you have the fact that Felicity is an Ascended Extra and some people find that having more Felicity screen time is not more of a good thing.

So for Arrow, I think there's many reasons the fans feel that way.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it really "fan-pandering" if it's what the showrunners wanted to do anyway? I mean, the fan-pandering argument seems to assume that the Olicity shippers hijacked the show and forced the showrunners to change their plans from what they really wanted to do (which is usually Lauriver in this argument). And that's just not what I'm seeing. To me, the showrunners realized early on that they had a serious problem with Lauriver and the total lack of chemistry between Cassidy and Amell, and when they ran across Bett Rickards they made the most of it. They've never explicitly come out and said that, but they've made a couple of comments about "writing toward those relationships with more chemistry" and more recently, there was something said about writing toward cast instead of comics.

I mean, I'm not an Olicity shipper. They're not really my particular cup of tea, and I can find the single-minded focus of that fandom irritating. But I can't blame the writers for dumping a pairing that wasn't working in favor of something that did, whether or not I like the typical CW drama associated with it.

[(Anonymous)]

No hijacking needed. Olicity fans were and are a very vocal part of the Arrow fandom and the showrunners wanted to cater to them. I'm not implying anything negative here, just saying that The CW cares about buzz and Olicity gave that to them.

[(Anonymous)]

and the showrunners wanted to cater to them.

That seems to imply that they only did Olicity to please the fans, and wouldn't have done it otherwise. And I don't agree with that. I think they did Olicity because their original love story (Lauriver) failed and they needed a replacement. Olicity does give them buzz, it's true, and I'm sure the CW loves that. But it would never have happened if Lauriver hadn't failed so badly.

[(Anonymous)]

I dont think this is an either/or situation; like I said before, pandering isn't necessarily a negative thing. You basically said it your reply: they needed a love story for Oliver and Olicity became it. So they both filled their story requirement and made a vocal fangroup very happy.

[(Anonymous)]

This happens all the time with love interest characters not just the female ones. Part of it is fans who resent that the main character isn't with the character they want them to be with, part of it is the writing because love interest characters basically really only interact with the main character and most of their interactions revolve around the romance which have a tendency not to be written well.

Felicity still seems very popular and since a lot of people seemed glad Laurel was gone if not glad at the way she went I think her lack of popularity remains in tact.

[(Anonymous)]

I have only seen a handful of people glad that Laurel was killed off and most of them are straight up psychotic Olicity shippers. Most people, fans and critics alike, seem incredibly pissed off at the poor writing and the unnecessary fridging of Laurel. I don't think Laurel is nearly as unpopular as tumblr Olicity fans want people to believe.

[(Anonymous)]

Most people? Where are you looking? Reddit? Yes, the fridging was unnecessary, and I don't see many people defending that. But it's only the Laurel stans that are out there proclaiming that Felicity or Diggle should have been killed off instead. And I've seen plenty of critic reviews that are fine with her being the one to die.