tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post5955658396638931025..comments2024-03-14T02:13:34.702-04:00Comments on Just About Write: Arrow 3x04 "The Magician" (Keeping Your Vows)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-86835726952757116592014-11-04T12:39:52.775-05:002014-11-04T12:39:52.775-05:00Thank you for your reply! - I post as "anon.&...Thank you for your reply! - I post as "anon." because I don't know how to sign in any other way. Looking forward to your next review! JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-50727280617817403672014-11-04T10:59:17.821-05:002014-11-04T10:59:17.821-05:00Also, I realized you signed your name at the end. ...Also, I realized you signed your name at the end. So thank you, John!Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11696902354009598893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-4829276367978251812014-11-04T10:58:58.418-05:002014-11-04T10:58:58.418-05:00Hello Anon! Thank you so much for your well-worded...Hello Anon! Thank you so much for your well-worded and thoughtful comment. Here is how I see the relationship between Oliver and Malcolm and Oliver's decision not just to spare his life but to protect him:<br /><br />Oliver knows -- clearly from Thea being abducted right outside Verdant -- that he cannot protect the people he loves the way he wants to. That's partially why he's pushing Felicity away from the foundry, into another life (and why Felicity told him she's not going to wait around while he hides in the foundry forever). After the bomb in that restaurant, he realized that he can always try to protect Felicity, he can always try to protect Thea, but he will probably fail. And if he fails, he could lose them both. So he puts them both -- arguably the two most important people left in his life -- under an additional form of protection. He pushes Felicity away so she will be distanced from The Arrow and therefore less likely to fall into harm.<br /><br />He protects Thea by letting Malcolm not just live but by trying to protect HIM. In this warped sort of way, Oliver knows how much Malcolm loves Thea and will do anything to keep a hedge of protection around her. If Oliver brings Malcolm to justice, then, what would that do to Thea? It would expose her, right? Oliver knows how ruthless Malcolm is and now ruthlessly he will protect his own daughter.<br /><br />So while Oliver's decision is -- perhaps -- not the best decision for the "greater good" as a hero, it is the best decision for him as OLIVER and, specifically, as Thea's brother. That's where this whole dichotomy of Oliver/The Arrow comes in with his choice to be a hero or his choice to be Oliver. And it is interesting, right, because the choices Oliver makes as The Arrow affect him as Oliver Queen and vice versa. That's the whole point of this season, really: this concept of identity and whether or not Oliver can ever separate the choices he makes as a person from the choices he makes as a hero.<br /><br />Thanks again so much for your review and I hope I was able to explain why I felt Oliver's choice made sense. :)Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11696902354009598893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-65798788042950318152014-11-04T10:48:36.125-05:002014-11-04T10:48:36.125-05:00Dear Jennifer, thank you for your thoughtful revie...Dear Jennifer, thank you for your thoughtful review. I enjoyed reading it. I appreciate how you explain the relation between Tommy's death and Oliver's decision not to kill anymore and what the line from the S2 intro "... to honor my friend's memory..." exactly means. - Nevertheless, I have to admit that I'm still somewhat struggling with Oliver's decision regarding Malcolm, because he didn't just decide not to kill him. He decided TO PUT HIM UNDER HIS PROTECTION! And this is the point I don't understand. Why doesn't he bring him to justice like he did with other villains at the beginning of S3 - by handing him over to the Police (more specifically, to Lance)? Because "no prison can hold" Malcolm? Well, then Oliver could turn him over to Waller and A.R.G.U.S. like he did with Slade/ Deathstroke. She would definitely take care of him, right? (However - given that Oliver knows how evil Waller is - this would be a morally questionable decision, too, for sure. But I'm puzzled anyway why Oliver still sort of collaborates with Waller and so far hasn't told Diggle anything about her.) What is Oliver going to do with Malcolm? Will he finally let him go? This doesn't seem to be a real hero's choice, does it? My point is: Although I am sort of proud that Oliver didn't give in to what others demanded from him (i.e. killing Malcolm), I think there is a good reason to quarrel with Oliver's decision regarding his old enemy. - Once more thank you for your review! With best wishes, JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-21144512378252924752014-10-30T09:30:00.481-04:002014-10-30T09:30:00.481-04:00CONNIE. Your comments are always my favorites. Shh...CONNIE. Your comments are always my favorites. Shhh, don't tell anyone else. ;)<br /><br />I really really love what you said about Oliver and the importance of Felicity's absence. Felicity definitely would have told him to find another way, to not kill Malcolm, and we knew that -- HE knew that -- but he also knew that since she wasn't there, she couldn't tell him what to do. It had to be his decision and he had to live with the consequences, good or bad, of it. And I totally understand why Oliver saved Malcolm. And I totally understand why everyone else didn't want him to. So it's important that this decision was made by him and him alone. It shows that Oliver needs to take that step by himself in order to determine what kind of person and hero he really is.<br /><br />UGH, Laurel really rubbed me the wrong way this episode and I'm usually at least playing devil's advocate when it comes to her. Her abrupt 360 at the end was what downright baffled me. I understand that she's angry, but the anger is coming off as calloused and abrasive, which is probably why I -- and a lot of others -- are keeping her at arm's length for the time being.<br /><br />Thea is a wildcard this season for me. I don't know exactly what to expect from her and I kind of hope that we get to see more of the darkness and pain that brought her to Malcolm in "Unthinkable." I really love that the Queen siblings are now kind of flipped -- Oliver is trying to be open and honest for once and Thea is the one lying and putting up defenses. It'll definitely make for an interesting season in terms of her arc and development. Also, I'm glad she's reopening Verdant. She was really quite good at being a businesswoman. :)<br /><br />I'm so excited for the Felicity Smoak-centered episode next week. I presume there will probably be a week off to come for Arrow (though we already had a week's break, didn't we? Or am I making that up?) so that the episode coincide. After seeing EBR on The Flash, I'm even MORE stoked for the crossover to happen and I didn't think that was possible.<br /><br />As always, Connie, thank you for your comments!Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11696902354009598893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-24708366334170519052014-10-29T22:52:13.122-04:002014-10-29T22:52:13.122-04:00"He's trying to keep his vows not just be..."He's trying to keep his vows not just because he wants to lower the number of bodies he drops in Starling City but because he wants to find another way to identify himself." Hmm yes, this. If Oliver kills someone, even Malcolm--especially Malcolm since he thought he did it before--then he's going backwards, he's going back to being he vigilante, the Hood. And he doesn't want that. He wants to move forward and some something else. And here he's realized that the people around him (Felicity's absence noted) don't see him as the person he's trying to be yet. They get it, I think Dig gets it, but he's still willing to let Oliver suffer the consequences of that decision. I love Dig, but he didn't offer to kill Merlyn or get ARGUS involved. It's Oliver's decision and that blood would be on Oliver's hands. This was an important episode for Felicity to "miss" and I think it was very purposeful that her trip to Central was during this moment, because it would have been so easy for her to step in and say no, no killing and it wouldn't have been a choice for Oliver, he would have listened. But then the decision is based on Felicity and not himself. This time he made the decision for himself--due to Felicity's past influence of course, but made in the heat of the moment on his own. Definitely important for the development of his identity. So much of his choices in life have been the influence of other people--his mother, those he met on the island, Waller, etc. And when he came home, he made a decision on his own of who to be, but now he doesn't want to be that person, so he's got to be something else--but it can't come from other people. He's done with that. It's got to be himself. And he made that no kill decision himself here. <br /><br />"It's difficult to watch Laurel -- a woman who has known Oliver longer than anyone on the team -- demand that he kill Malcolm Merlyn and berate him, spit insults at him, because he made a vow to not take a life. " It's also difficult because she spent so much of season 2 pissed at the Arrow for being a killer, for not saving Tommy. She's reversed all of that anger into WANTING him to kill. <br /><br />As for Thea, she's keeping her own secrets from Oliver and Roy but has yet to come to understand that this is exactly why she was mad at them to begin with. There is so much tension to be had because she still doesn't know Oliver is the Arrow (and while she said she was mad about the lies about HER that they kept, it's still a big thing to not tell her) and who knows how she will react when she finds out. I think there must be some incident to come where, in addition to her secret about hanging with Papa Merlyn, she will have to keep something about Oliver to herself, aka the same type of lie she was so mad at. And she will have to learn to understand and accept the burden of those lies, putting her in the same boat as Oliver and Moira all those years. Because the Queens can't help but keep secrets, and the Merlyns seem to be even worse. <br /><br />Oh I am SO glad there's a new Arrow this week! I thought it'd be off since the Flash isn't back for two weeks, but I guess that means that somewhere before 8, there will be a week off for Arrow? Or two Flashes in a week, in order for the 8s to match up in the same week. But I'm glad we get Felicity next week, I'M SO EXCITED!Connie [@ConStar24]https://www.blogger.com/profile/11662778725868412944noreply@blogger.com