They decided to make the likable and competent characters horrible so Laurel looks better by comparison. (cf. Diggle - the bumbling ex Special Forces soldier who ran out of ammo in the previous episode, stayed behind in this episode while an untrained idiot ran out to deal with the situation, and earlier in the season…

Less debunking and more backpedaling - they outright said in a major publication in November that it was a Laurel Trilogy. After the huge backlash that received, they tried to spin that it was really about Roy, then when that was met with less than stellar enthusiasm, they changed their tune and tried to say to say it…

(rats fleeing a sinking ship? *cough*)

I have no idea what point you're trying to make by referencing Legend of Korra. I've only seen a few of the episodes, even though I've been meaning to watch, so I don't know what I'm supposed to "get" from that reference. Was it because that was a half hour show? Or did they also spend a good third of their time…

(Diggle and Felicity are both canon characters in the current Green Arrow comic, so the people who hide behind comic book canon really need to find new excuses for why they think Diggle shouldn't be regularly getting more story than standing around in the background and being parceled a decent character development…

I feel like she hurts it because if they weren't spending so much time on a character that most people seem to feel neutral about, and a good portion of the audience dislikes (and not in the "Ooh, I hate that Moira, give me more of her!" kind of way), characters like Diggle, Malcolm, and Thea could be given more…

I'm fatigued in the same way. They have characters that have been firmly established in their first two seasons behaving inconsistently because they have shiny new plots and characters they desperately want the audience to like. Can I sit and fanwank their motivations so that it's believable for the characters to act…

The thing with Ray is that hey, it's great they're trying something new and no longer writing him with creepy stalker behaviors, except we have all of these previous episodes where the character had creepy stalker behaviors. You can't just decide one day that the character is something else and expect everyone to…

If a stalker doesn't want to get into someone's pants, their stalking behavior is still stalking.

Yes, he is.

1) She just found out that, no matter how much she'd been hoping, one of the most important people in her life is dead.

"To be honest, I can't see any way that the show could spare the screen-time to flesh out Diggle to the extent the character and actor deserves. "

EBR and David Ramsey were both great, as always. I loved how they were written - good acting allows deep, subtle characterization.

Nyssa didn't know she was dead for a while - Sara's body was probably pretty gamy by the time she showed up. That might affect it some?

Got it in one!

I disagree. The writing for Felicity (and Diggle) has been atrocious this year, and the only thing that has made her scenes tolerable is that EBR is a good enough actress to make the horrible material watchable.

It seemed to me that Oliver was holding back in his fight with Cupid - he didn't want to hurt a mentally unstable woman if he didn't have to.

Amell was already a werewolf on there, so I don't think he can be a vampire, too. I think that was only Klaus? ;-)

I have recently been trying really, really hard (and usually failing) to adopt the Thumper Philosophy ("If you can't say something nice…") regarding Laurel/KC, but yes, this exactly.

I ended up being underwhelmed by the ep after all of the hype the EPs and actors were giving it, claiming it was their best episode and that it was an "excellent hour of television." It seems like the writers/showrunners/etc. think that having a bunch of weak episodes, then one episode where they cram in as much as…