#arrow 4.01

{argle, tumblr lost my writing at 13:43. Trying to recreate...

-Called it!

-OK, I am kind of curious about how their financials work. (Well, worked. I guess Felicity being CEO would help, but they didn’t have that going in).

-Hee trashcan shot

-If you have trouble cooking, maybe you should try on something that *won’t* make you sick if you get it wrong!

-Well, points to the people who called them going to bed after that kiss!

-Wait removed what? (The dragon tattoo I think, so points to the people who called that too, but honestly I think they needed to either spend more on it or just leave it to use seeing it because one line does not work).

-So how did Felicity getting that news work. Also news re Ray. Like, was there a funeral? Did they go? Are there feelings about it? Argle, shows.

-”I don’t think I’m ever/I’m never going to get tired of making plans that don’t involve people shooting at me” aw

-Also, they are doing this so well with Oliver. Like, how clear it is how this feels/is to him, like that thing where every color, every sense, is more vivid more intense more concentrated, that kind of feeling in everything, because he *got away from it*, it’s *life*, it’s - I’m not good at phrasing it (and did so a bit differently originally) but it’s really well done.

-And, nice transition!

-Thea! {this one’s new}

-So do they /not have no killing rules, then? (Later: well I guess if the guys kill themselves anyway...)

-Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy

-OK, seriously, this is the kind of thing where you /call the National Guard. (Or whoever’s job this kind of thing would be, I don’t actually know).

-Hey, new lair has real exercise equipment, and a desk with a lamp, and table chairs.

-Seriously, one more person *is not going to help*. This is not that kind of problem!

-’3 mayors and one candidate for mayor’ I need to work through this at some point.  Also, mm Walter mention. 

-”rebranded” ah that’s how they’re explaining it.

-”tourism” ...

-”Flash day” hee

-’Well at least we didn’t have a huge singularity opening in the sky!’

-OK, now I’m imagining, like, Felicity and Oliver off together, and in some hotel they stop at it’s the news like ‘singularity over Central City, stopped by Flash’ and Oliver is just like ‘mm yeah Barry has things in hand’.

-No, other way around, you need cash which means needing people. You don’t get cash not from people. (I guess it could be meant that way itself, it is /kind of parseable that way)

-What does ‘let it die’ mean, in this case...?

-{argle, I thought I had something here but no idea what...}

-”Cities are like puppies. You see them writhing in agony in the streets you put them down; you don’t let them suffer.” Seriously *what does he mean*. Like, ‘city dying’ doesn’t usually mean ‘empty to bury’, it usually means ‘poor people who don’t have the means to leave stuck in worsening and worsening conditions’. Is that what he means, or is he planning to like, mass murder them{/start an internal refugee crisis}.

-”I suggest you say goodbye” as in ‘tell them to get out of the city’ or as in ‘you’re going to die’?

-A recommendation letter for a school waiting list before kids exist. Oh, America.

-Oh gracious, Oliver *talked about proposing to the neighbors* (er, I think it’s clear how that sentence should be parsed).

-Nice reflexes indeed! {added: I wonder how that feels, psych wise. Like, sense-tone-memory and such}

-OK, good, we *are* getting flashbacks. I was worried!

-Hee Green Lantern reference (the billboard)

-OK that is certainly interesting backstory information (that he’d vigilanteed before. Possibly somewhere else? That’s a bit unclear...)

-{added: Amanda Waller: ‘awesome. Perfect moment for my entrance!’}

-Dammit. I was worried she’d be killed at the conference table, and then that didn’t happen, and then here - argle. *Stop killing women*!

-”I thought that tasted funny” Ok she is awesome and I am pissed

-Maybe don’t just talk about that in public?

-alright, it was the ‘you’re going to die’ kind!

-{ah, OK, that was the head of emergency services. Hadn’t quite gotten that the first time}

-OK, seriously, this is where you call... Homeland Security/the CIA/the National Guard/the army, I still don’t actually know but like armed combatants {troops} are literally murdering members of city government.

-So why don’t they kill him right off? The others don’t seem to have gotten a chance.

-{Quick they may not have gotten the chance to cyanide yet!}

-”It sort of depends on how dessert goes” aw. And his facial expressions there.

-”diet” >:(

-{marking the right one, hee}

-{where are they stealing munitions and heavy arms /from?}

-{Since I have seen the gif where Oliver says she’s been helping secretly earlier, noticing this foreshadowing it!}

-”where are the police”/”overwhelmed” no shit, the police’s job is, well, policing (well, ideally...), not literally fighting a war.

-”we’re hoping that you can’t change who you are in your bones” eep that has to hurt/be terrifying/hopeless.

{well, never let it be said that I am not a dedicated recreator!}

}

-OK, indeed not in Starling. 

-”but you can’t change who you are in your bones” oh eep

-Yeah you very need a therapist. Which Amanda Waller is like the /opposite of.

-The weird thing is, he clearly actually made progress after this point. Like, I can’t imagine this Oliver doing the [interpersonal] things that s1 Oliver did indeed do.

-”Let it run it’s course. Often times, the only way out is through” ... interesting. (That was not what I was expecting her to say).

-I was trying to figure why they’re rename the city after him, but actually I guess he did play a major role in saving it from a plague.

-”Now that I’m back they might actually expect me to do stuff” ah that them. (Had seen this as a gif w/o context).

-”We’re not going to stay long” ...does he seriously thinking adding him can solve this problem?(/someone’s optimistic(/coping-mechanisming)).

-Someone needs to tell Oliver the ‘it mattered to that one’ story

-And breath and he puts it on. That part. Intensity-register. (Not the right word). It’s not the same skill as, well, killing people thing, but it’s another one of his. (huh. That one, I don’t think flashback Oliver has so much...)

-Call the freaking army! Seriously, *high yield bombs* have to be a controlled substance so to speak to begin with you shouldn’t even have to call them but like - (Like, this would all actually make more sense if the US didn’t exist in this verse, at least not like it does, and instead we have a more ‘libertarian’ type universe with ‘city state’ type places. That explains why cities are talked about quite like they are, and why Starling/Star City is on its so much, and why ARGUS (who would be an organization of that-type-of-government) responds to things like it does. Also come to think of it enables the League of Assassins to keep flying in like they do. And puts a somewhat different spin on the focus on corporations. The major problem with this is that we’ve *had* the army,  including in Afganistan, but maybe it can be gotten to work...)

-”oh, sorry, sorry old habits” (that was really well done!) he’s juggling so many of himself here... (like, he slipped into ‘in-charge Arrow’ so to speak, and then realizing this that’s being-a-person-with-team, and this is all with hoping to get back to suburbs-life, and Felcity is still here, and also the intensity-register hard-emotional-thing I mentioned...)

-This also makes it occur to me that Arrow and suburbs are actually kind of... similar, as compartmentalization type things to throw oneself into. Like, opposite, but also rather parallel.

-Eep, she hasn’t been computering? (Oh, wait, covering, we’re about to learn she has)

-Aw! (Have seen gif and also this makes me think of that quote from whichever creator person about them this season, and aw)

-”Starling General”

-”Only the dead have seen the end of a war” eep

-So actually even though it was her that was kidnapped, it actually makes sense for Lyla to be OK with it first. Like, she wasn’t close to Oliver, and she worked for the army and then ARGUS. Being an underinformed pawn for the greater good would be something she has ways to be fine with. But for Diggle it’s the thing with *Oliver breaking trust*.

-”But if Oliver Queen always made the right choice he wouldn’t need you” now this /is a weird part for her to play and is that thing the show does where they want something said so they just give it to characters even when it doesn’t fit.

-Wow they’ve done a lot of traveling. After the first few months, too, it seems they’re saying. *Trying to timeline this with knowing the neighbors so well*.

-*likes this a lot*. Like, it’s *different* for them, it *means different things for them*, and this is coming up.

-Um if you wanted someone to kill Team Arrow, you might have sent them to do *that*. If you in fact sent them to steal bombs, it in fact is entirely operationally correct for them to concentrate on *getting the bombs*.

-When you’re spying on someone (and aren’t even well hidden!), you don’t exclaim out loud!

-Brilliant! Let’s attack outnumber-us armed soldiers and a guy with superpowers, just like that!

-Why would he tell him?!

-So what drew the police?

-Indeed, Thea

-Yes and so have they and that thing is metahumans. Like, seriously, how are you telling the difference here.

-Hee, that scanner has the CW arrow colors.

-”Who used to use criminals as target practice” ?

-Seriously, these references they’re making to past!Oliver are not refraining accurately.

-Can we not ridiculously overuse the ‘not angry at you, angry at myself’ thing where it doesn’t make much sense?

-”you couldn’t [trust me]. It’s not who you are”. eep.

-”you don’t trust. You don’t love. You were able to fool Ra’s an join the League because inside you are every bit as dark as they are”. ..wt*f*?

-Apparently it is verbally beat down Oliver day/hour. 

-Also, seriously. At the point when Oliver put on the hood, people had been being so corrupt for years that there’d been a secret society devoted to blackmailing them, and Malcolm Merlyn was planning to destroy the Glades with an earthquake machine. Would anyone please remember that?(!)

-”I wasn’t napping I was drugged”

-Seriously, does Waller *not have employees*

-Chute, not shoot, subtitles.

-eep. So like, is this how he ends up staying there? Or are we going to get more on-again off-again?

-mm, talking!

-”You didn’t bring the darkness /here” I get that this line is supposed to be a connection, but I’m confused as to how

-Well, they did manage to get Damien Darkh to in fact fall for their ‘arrow is dead play’. There’s quite an achievement!

-”No that would be ridiculous” I do love his particular way of talking

-That totally doesn’t explain how you’re getting off the train!

-’Do the same unsuccessful thing repeatedly!’ what a great fighting plan!

-*ow*

-um were they running an empty train from Central City for some reason, or did Damien Darkh’s crew decide to like, evacuate people before loading bombs, or what? Because like, I’m fairly sure Team Arrow wouldn’t blow up a train with people, but *why* aren’t there people

-Also, at the strength they mentioned, this is way too close.

-Ivy Town

-aw the wordless exchange and then the saying it-!

-great. secret keeping. just what we needed.

-OK if people don’t recognize you from this, that’s just straining belief beyond.

-Amused at the ‘Green Arrow’ and then ‘who are you’

-...he’s literally summoning demons?

-Also, oh my bless, can we stop doing Badly Represented Evil Mystical Foreign Things

-...what did you think you signed up for? Like, what part of ‘this city should die’ and ‘say goodbye to your loved ones’ sounds encouraging to you?

-eep, Thea.

-...why did he put the ring there?

-Well, the people who figured the suits were for a funeral were also right!