artemis crock’s gf

yeah <3

fantastic question anon and lucky for u i have sooo many thoughts on this. but i’ll summarise:

in the nicest way possible, i’m concerned they’ve wasted the “beloved hero returns dramatically after they were presumed dead for a long time and was influenced to work with villains during this time” story on conner. well, ‘wasted’ is the wrong word. but they’ve used it already — quite well, might i add. this is Not me hating on conner or YJ: phantoms at ALL — but if (when) they bring back wally it would feel too repetitive to do the exact same thing with him. they’d have to do something new and they’d have to do it quickly too. that is, if they decide to hold off (if, say, we are potentially renewed for another three or so seasons and wally doesn’t return in season 5), it will likely be too late to bring him back at all.

now, on artemis, zatanna and m’gann…

i maintain that zatanna and m’gann were extremely wrong in that episode with artemis. i’ve always said this. they manipulated her. however, i’ve had this discussion a few times and i’ve come to understand and respect that they really did have the best intentions. they wanted her to heal and to move on, but they absolutely went about it the wrong way. if wally returns, i fully expect artemis to be furious with them. they had NO business interfering with her feelings and her reality. if you (zatanna) can’t reach out to a spirit, just say so. and what was the point of raquel even being there? trust is such a huge thing to artemis - it’s not fair that she should have to doubt not two but THREE of her friends. she will definitely not take their lies lightly if she finds out.

saw a few responses/comments on this and some good points were raised. zatanna does discourage artemis from following through and she does warn her of what limitations exist. it’s clear that she (and m’gann and raquel) care and have their hearts in the right place, but unfortunately they still end up deceiving artemis. i know they genuinely believed they were helping her, and i get that, but would a true friend lie about what she was doing just so the other party could maybe move on? (not to mention grief is different for everyone and it really hasn’t been that long since wally ‘died’ when this episode takes place).

the key issue i have with this entire situation is that artemis genuinely, wholeheartedly believed that she was meeting with wally’s spirit, which she was NOT. zatanna and m’gann straight up lied to her. summoning a spirit, even halfway, is much different than what they did. and i think during their attempt to be helpful, they didn’t really understand that. okay, so the outcome was probably going to be the same even if artemis HAD communicated with wally for real. i’m sure he’d want her to get her life back together. and i know that everything artemis heard and experienced “in limbo” was herself trying to heal and get through the grief. somewhere deep down she knows she should move on and it just took wally telling her that for it to actually happen. i respect that she had the ability to heal within herself already and just needed that little push to get to it. she worked through her pain by herself — through her manifestation of wally and his words.

but that’s not the point.

the point is she thought wally was ACTUALLY telling her these things. the point is she got closure when she shouldn’t have. (this sounds bad. let me explain. of course i don’t want artemis to be stuck in a depressed state forever after losing the love of her life, but in her continued process of grieving and healing — as paula says, two whole years — it’s a huge moment for her to have “spoken to wally” and been guided to move on. now imagine that was anyone else saying it to her. it would be pretty jarring if she was suddenly be okay with everything because someone told her to stop grieving. and the fact that wally did NOT tell her these things means that that closure was not real.) putting this fabricated closure in front of her will ultimately just mess up her entire process of grieving. but grieving takes time and zatanna and m’gann tried to rush it when it didn’t need to be rushed. it really hadn’t been that long since artemis lost wally when she asked zatanna for this.

also, to me it feels like a crazy invasion of privacy from zatanna and m’gann as well. idk how mind playgrounds work but wouldn’t they have to be pulling strings to keep everything running smoothly? were they watching the entire thing? if you can’t bring two spirits together, just say so. tell her directly that even though its not real, she can still experience a little more time with him. idk. maybe i’m being way too dramatic about one single episode of a show with much larger stories to focus on.

all she (and he, too) wanted was that little family and a quiet life and they TOOK IT FROM HER AHHHHH.. and then she throws herself into being a hero and a mentor and separating herself from who she was when wally was still around and nobody even cares. putting on the tigris suit instead of her iconic green. taking on responsibilities for the team that she definitely doesn’t have time or energy for. pushing herself to study more and get higher degrees/certifications to keep herself busy. looking after her niece….