ARROW FOCUS PROBLEM AND HOW BETH GOT IT RIGHT. (SO FAR)

 We rant about Arrow´s mistakes 24/7 and boy do we have material.

 BUT we barely talk about the little victories. To my humble opinion Beth has cleverly resolved a problem that´s been bugging me ever since Team Arrow expanded beyond OTA. 

The show went from be laser focused on Oliver and his crusade,to be devided into multiple storylines. Some were good and actually moved forward the overall storyline and character developement and other were just plain and simple a waste of screentime. 

 There are shows that have succeded as an ensamble but that was never the case of Arrow. This show is about Oliver and his journey. With time the people that matter the most to him have become a pivotal part of that journey. 

Just because DC Comics have an almost never ending amount characters waiting to be dusted, doesn´t mean the Arrow writers should use them all. 

Tho I´ve enjoyed some of the rotating memebers of the team like Sara or Roy, I believe at some point you wonder why some of these charcaters are even on the show. 

This problem have been more noticeble in the last two seasons when the team got so crowded they got to find a goddamn bunker to fit them all. at first the pitch was "the more people are saving the city the more life Oliver Queen can have" and that is true to certain extent. In order to live his life as Oliver Queen without the city falling apart, The Green Arrow couldn´t be the only hero in town.

 NOW at some point the writers lost sight of the original purpose of these alternative heroes and started to spend too much time on them.

 I´ve been excited about season 7 ever since they announced a change of showrunner and (so far) I haven´t been disappointed.

As a viewer, I personally, can feel the change of pace in the storytellng style. While season 5 and six had a split focus between OTA and NTA, (most of the time more on the new team members than the old ones), season seven has 3 clear focus points: Oliver in Slabside, Felicity outside, and William in the Flash Forwards. I know I know... Where´s Diggle storyline? I think is coming in season 7B. The first half of the season focusing on the Queen Family (even if they are not together atm) is a sign the writers have learned from their mistakes at least in this aspect.

Season 6 was my least favorite season. Arrow spent all the screentime in supporting characters and it was a HUGE mistake. They missed the opportunity to have interesitng arcs for the main characters and destroyed the new characters arcs. All in 23 episodes. I think I have season 6 PTSD. 

 Even if the supporting characters are still around the writers have moved them to the back almost like white noise. Yes, they are still there but they are serving the main character storylines. Dinah, Rene and Laurel are serving Felicity´s arc. it was Felicity who put these character´s storyline in motion this season. Even if the writers tell us what these side characters have been up to, like Rene training street kids, Dinah being police Captain and Laurel being DA. They don´t stop to explore these arcs. Is Felicity who set the rythm for them. They are tools to Felicity´s goal to take down Diaz. Curtis is almost decoration at this point. Yes he is still a skilled hacker but he is just there to serve Diggle (and Lyla) storyline. I think this Diggle arc will peak in 7B. Just you wait. The patron repeats in the Flash Forwards. Even if Roy is a senior character in this show he is serving William´s arc who is the main character in this future storyline same with Dinah and Zoe and whoever shows up next. What about Oliver? Well... all the characters serve Oliver´s storyline. Even if he has no contact with the outside world everything and everyone converge towards Oliver Queen and The Green Arrow like in a funnel. Because this is Arrow after all and Beth got it right. 

ARROW FLASH FORWARDS

am I blogging again?

Ok, fandom, lets put our ducks in line. 

With time I´ve learned that being an active member of a fandom is a little bit like being a detective and this girl has been binging The Mentalist so buckle up. 

 Now we may not have Patrick Jane sensorial powers (or good hair) but we do have some information that the good Lady Beth (don´t cancel the woman just yet) have been leaving for us like bread crumbs. So now lets jump into the situation. The worst has happened. Felicity Smoak is dead. The world is a dark place and we have nothing else to live for because BAE is no longer with us. Or is she? A world without Felicity is dark and horrible and its only natural that Star City has gone to shit. Is definitely a world none of us wanna live in. (so dramatique!) 

So far this is looking a whole lotta like a Mentalist episode. Someone is dead and all we have left to do is to resolve the mistery trail that will lead us to the truth. Except for one big difference. There is no body to analize. there´s only words. Let´s look at this from all the possible angles. The question remains: Could Arrow kill off Felicity Smoak? well... yes. Shows kill fan favorite/lead characters all the time. I´ve watched Grey´s Anatomy, guys. The thing is did they?

 Lets analize what we know about the flashforwards and the life 20  years from now. The first we know is that William is dragged to Lian Yu (it lives!) by a device in the Hozen Felicity gave him when he was a kid. why now? what made the goddamn thing to start beeping? if she is dead, who activated it? someone else? or did Felicity knew she was going to die and prepared accordingly? Grown up and handsome and rich William gets to the island to find a suited up Roy Harper who lets say it... looks like he needs a month in a spa.

 This create a whole new wave of questions. What the hell happened to Roy? why did he gave up on civilization and hid in the worst place on earth? Yeah I know my mind went to poor Thea too. But lets cross that bridge when we get to it. what else we know? 

a) William and Roy havent been in much contact cause Roy didn´t recognized William. Red flag number 1.

 b)we find out Oliver and Felicity "abandoned" William or at least that´s what he believes. Red flag number 2. 

Immediately we know something is not right. Oliver and Felicity would NEVER willingly leave William behind. 

The writers made sure Oliver and Felicity say they are fighting for their family every episode. And everything we see in present time resonates in the future. God, this show loves parallels so much and they are taking them to a whole new level. So something doesn´t add up. Roy is as surprised as we are. cause who would believe that? 

 Gotta give the writers that they keep finding use for the island. as always its full of mistery and secrecy. and we never fully get what the hell is happening there. so of COURSE there´s a new grave. they dig and find Oliver´s bow and some Green Arrow elements (cant rememebr if the suit was also in the box). If the suit and bow is in the island... does it means Oliver is no longer Green Arrow? Where is Oliver?

 In the bow there was a message. a message that makes Roy want come back to Star City immediately and important enough to made him burn it after reading it without even showing it to William. Lets not forget about that little piece of paper. oh look at that MORE QUESTIONS. what did the message said? who wrote it? Oliver? Felicity? Diggle? someone elese entirely? the thing is that whatever it said was triggering to Roy. What makes a man who gave up on everything return to Star City so urgently? MY KINGDOM FOR THAT PAPER!

 *side note: I remember Emily posting a picture from what it looked Lian Yu. and we all assumed Roy was sharing scenes with Felicity. remember? so... I´m wondering if we are gonna get a flashback inside a flashforward showing Felicity leaving the box with the bow in Lian Yu. alone? with Oliver? was she even filming? that remains to be seen.  So there´s that on that.* 

Now we are in Star City and boy it can´t catch a BREAK.  Imma be honest here. The petty side of me was kinda glad the city got what they deserve after turning their back on Oliver. 

There I said it. But this almost apocaliptic world seem a bit too much even for Arrow. 

The Hozen comes to life again and William and Roy gets new directions that leads them to SMOAK TECHNOLOGIES (pause to freak out). I dream with the day we can see Felicity being actually INSIDE her own company and running it. MY BABY CEO. Good things to those who wait. So BAE´s company (damn I´m so proud!)

 is no exception to the reigning chaos and is abandoned and in bad shape. William makes a display of his tech skills (I´m so proud of him too!) and we get a... rubik´s cube. so from this scene we get some bits of information. 

William got in the STEM field bc of Felicity´s influence.

 I think is interesting how the writers put so much effort connecting William comments and little memories to Felicity. Much more than to Oliver (so far). Felicity´s prescenece in the flashforwards is absolute thanks to William and all these clues that totally seem the work of Overwatch. 

Now, is really difficult to establish a timeline here. It remains unclear when was the last time William saw Oliver and Felicity. The last scene we saw of William and Felicity is not necessarily the last time they saw eachother. His comments about the tech tricks he learned from Felicity makes it all more confusing. When did Felicity passed her skills to young William? was it at their time in protected custody? was it after? in my opinion it SEEMS like Felicity was part of his life for a longer period than we´ve seen in the present time storyline. But yet it looked like that was the first time he was inside Smoak Tech. So yeah. Big mess.

 Back to smoak Tech. William and Roy are surprised by a bunch of... cops? I honestly don´t know. Yelling, Punches, more yelling and a mistery woman who turns out to be Dinah who doesn´t seem to happy of seeing Roy´s in town. She´s not the only vigilante running around and they reveal Zoe has taken the mantle of Black Canary paralleling with the present storyline where we´ve seen Zoe training with her dad and if the boxing lessons werent hint enough Dinah gave he the Canary symbol. see? PARALLELS. 

We find out Star City is pretty much in war with The Glades and that they have built a wall to separate from the rest of the city. yikes. 

The remaining vigilantes have formed a resistance. (I´m a Star Wars fan too, writers). William rembebers Felicity tought him some tricks with rubick cubes, he does his thing and the cube displays an hologram a la Star Wars. (wouldn´t have been cool if it was a mini holographic Felicity saying "you are our only hope"? they had ONE JOB). 

The hologram is a map of the Glades. Interesting. William believes these clues will eventually lead him to Felicity but Dinah tells him Felicity is DEAD.

 NOW. all of these are the FACTS we know so far.

 a) We know someone (Everything points to Felicity) put in motion this scavenger hunt  for William. 

 b) whoever this is wanted Roy (protecting?) William.

 c) we don´t know if Dinah, Zoe and the resistance is part of this plan. 

d) We know Dinah and the resistence believe Felicity is dead. 

 d)whoever this is wants William and Roy in The Glades.

 I´d like to point out that we are in episode 4. So we have a long way to go and a lot of time to let this storyline unfold. Its also a little bit premature to know anything for sure. we have these little pieces waiting to take their place in this puzzle. So far we have this cliffhanger. From a strategic point of view is kinda brilliant. 

This is Arrow´s seventh season and that means the writers know their audience as much as we know these characters. I know I know. The fact that they know Arrow fans doesn´t mean they are always right or smart. BUT I believe the fact they made this first part of the Flashforwards revolve around Felicity and her looming prescence to "end" with the bomb that is this reveal shows they know what can really get to us. And you bet your sweet little asses they will use it. Felicity is loved by many and hated by some. But nobody has ever been indiferent towards Felicity Smoak. 

She is the perfect subject for a cliffhanger like this. I know, they used our baby girl for shock value and we want revenge.

 But I wouldn´t rush to burn Social Media (JUST YET). 

There are a lot of reasons why I think Felicity is not dead.

 a) the way and the episode they chose to reveal her fate. what could cause more impact than Dinah saying "Felicity Smoak is dead" in the forth episode of the season? a lot of things actually, but mainly WATCHING Felicity die. This is Arrow. Felicity is a big fish. The show killing her female lead even in a flashforward is Season Finale material. Or at LEAST midseason. AN LEAST... they are doing it backwards and the big reveal is she is alive will be in the midseason/ season finale. 

b)The character deliverying the news. I find interetsting they chose Dinah to say the line. Someone who is not close to Felicity. another would have been my reaction if it was Oliver or Diggle saying it. Now this doesn´t mean Dinah is lying. I think she truly believes Felicity is dead. We´ll have to wait and she if there´s irrefutable evidence of her death in upcoming episodes. 

 THEORY TIME. 

If you ask me I believe Felicity had to get the hell out of Star City. The reason remains unclear of course. like I said before everything that happens in the present resonates in the future. That´s why I think it wasn´t random the little comment about Felicity being ruthless in Earth 2. We are seeing Felicity in a new light. She has lost everything and she will go to hell and back to get her family back. Does that make her ruthless? hell yeah. So I believe whataver she´s doing is to make sure she won´t lose them again. I believe she is very capable to fake her own death if that means her family is safe.

 I´m also not sure if Oliver is with her or if he stayed. It would be a nice change of pace if Olicity is away together. The box in Lyan Yu makes me believe this is a plan of both of them. 

I believe  they are guiding William towards something or SOMEONE inside the Glades, hence the map in the rubik´s cube. 

William is clearly not a fighter (I think) so they wanted Roy to protect him. 

 Enters Kat McNamara aka Maya. Now this is a character who hasnt been introduced yet. According to what we know from BTS, she will be introduced in episode 7. Her character description says she´s a street fighter who pretty much slays vigilantes. Also that she is a PIVOTAL character. YES. I think she is the treasure of the map. YES. I think she is the one Felicity wants William to find. YES. I think Maya is Olicity´s daughter. ain´t she cute?

 Now if this is accurate a new bigger crazier wave of questions is raised. 

Why would the child of Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen aka vigilante roylaty, would be running around The Glades and beyond hunting vigilantes? 

why William doesn´t know about her? (if that´s the case). and if both Oliver and Felicity are alive why would they left their children? why would they let them believe they abandoned them? well there´s obviously a lot to learn from this flashforwards. and the good thing is that we have time. I think this is shaping up to be a GREAT and entertaining storyline. Could I be wrong? 100%. But I, for now, have so much hope.

and boy, are they fighting back. 

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