queerbaiting with coldflash/olivarry
Alright. Let’s begin. So obviously, we all know CW infamously likes to queerbait. If you don’t know what queerbaiting is, it is the practice to hint at, but then to not actually depict, a same-sex romantic relationship between characters in a work of fiction, mainly in film or television. One super famous example of this is Destiel, the pairing between Dean Winchester and Castiel from Supernatural. It’s so bad, from season four till presently, there’s been more queerbaiting than CW can get away with at this point.
In the Arrowverse’s case, they do this a lot with Olivarry (Oliver Queen and Barry Allen) and Coldflash (Leonard Snart and Barry Allen).
Before we get into Olivarry and Coldflash, I wanted to say something about Tommy Merlyn and Oliver Queen. Tommy gets impaled saving Laurel from a collapsing building and Oliver gets there in time to talk to him for a bit before he dies. We have a whole lot of face cradling, crying (which Oliver doesn’t do often, especially so early into the show) and self blaming. Tommy dies in Oliver’s arms, which is a very common romance trope.
Their scenes are very queer-coded. They stand unnecessarily close to one another (and they’re supposed to be enemies! Jeez.) For example:
Yeah. They’re literally set up like potential kiss scenes but that doesn’t happen. They’re so painfully close for no reason. There’s so much tension in their scenes but nothing happens.
Even better example of queerbaiting - Olivarry. This one has a lot to talk about. It may not be the most popular Barry Allen or Oliver Queen ship, but there’s definitely a lot here. If you asked me, Olivarry is to the Arrowverse what Destiel is to Supernatural - CW’s main queerbait.
So this is already pretty established, what with this famous line Barry tells Felicity before he leaves Starling to return to Central City:
He doesn’t deny it. He literally doesn’t. He just smiles shyly and looks away.
[ALSO this is highly irrelevant, but the episode Barry first appears in in Arrow is titled ‘The Scientist’, which is a name shared by a popular song by Coldplay. The lyrics include lines like ‘You don’t know how lovely you are’, ‘It’s such a shame for us to part’, ‘Questions of science, science and progress do not speak as loud as my heart’ and references ‘Running in circles’, where Barry later gets struck by lightning and gains the ability to run fast.]
We also have a lot of unconditional support for each other, even when their actual significant others are not on their sides.
Oliver: I’m always here for you.
Oliver: You can always talk to me.
Oliver: I’m not going without [Barry].
Barry: We’re not leaving each other.
Barry: I’m not leaving you.
Barry: Wherever, whenever.
(Very similar to Destiel quotes, like Dean to Castiel: “I’m not leaving here without you.”)
We also have a lot of scenes with tensions, a sense of underlying hidden meanings and staring (especially on Barry’s part.)
Tension includes (but is not limited to):
And Barry simply can’t keep his eyes off that man.
Barry, honey, I love you, but this is becoming a problem.
They’ve used many similar tropes for Destiel and Olivarry - the longing looks, the eyefucking, unconditional support for one another, the way their scenes are done, their old-married-couple arguing, always putting the other before themselves… There’s a lot more I could cover in depth, but I don’t have the time to. I might write a more comprehensive one on both Destiel and Olivarry when I get the time.
And let’s not forget the iconic moment when Barry said “damn” while checking Oliver out. At his own wedding. Bartholomew Henry Allen.
So yes. The queerbaiting is awful. They’ve been using Olivarry to queerbait since the beginning - just like they did with Destiel and Supernatural - to draw in viewers. It’s horrible.
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