[ 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)]

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.