Primal Slayer

Ive been rewatching Batman The Animated Series and Laurel/Barbara share more similarities there. Both daughters of cops, mother gone, take up the hero life after the main hero is gone. Barbara and Bruce even date for a short time in the animated series.

Black Canary as a whole is original but how they went about her storylines could be seen as very Batmanish, just switching out the characters like they did with Arrow being Batman lite. Comic Black Canary is one of the best martial artists there is, she can go toe to toe with Wonder Woman and Batman, she grew up in the superhero buisness, owns a flower shop, and is very snarky/flirty in personality.

Charlone

I'm not sure, don't get me wrong, but I think that Laurel's stuff compared to Barbara Gordon is kind of far-fetched... I'd understand the comparison to Felicity (although she makes me remind me more of Chloe from Smallville). There are things that both of them share, for sure, but I can't think of the writers taking the idea of making Laurel like she is because they wanted her to be similar to Barbara...

Now that you mentioned that, I wonder, when are we going to see some martial arts from Laurel? She practiced boxing but in her training there aren't things that we could relate to a martial art. Or well, if we consider her stick (or Sara's stick), then we can consider she's sort of practicing Okinawan Kobudo. I may be wrong, though.

PhoenixRising

Well, there's certainly some similarities between Laurel and Barbara, but it's also important to remember that Black Canary has easily been around as long as Batgirl has in the comics, so there's a precedent for that. Felicity is the really interesting comparison though, because Barbara became Bruce's hacker tech-girl back in the late 1980's after she was shot and paralyzed by The Joker in Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke' graphic novel, and she began calling herself "Oracle," which is her hacker code-name. I'm glad that Barbara has returned to being Batgirl after going through intensive rehabilitation(mostly funded and facilitated by Bruce) to regain her ability to walk. He really moved heaven and Earth to get her walking again.

Now, the thing about Felicity is that she originally had nothing to do with Oliver Queen's storyline in Green Arrow. As has been mentioned before, Felicity Smoak is actually from Firestorm's storyline, as she was step-mother to Ronnie Raymond's character after marrying his father. After the Arrow show runners had Felicity appear in what was intended to be a guest-starring appearance in season one, they liked Emily Bett Rickards' performance and chemistry with Stephen Amell so much that they bumped her up to recurring status, and eventually made her a regular cast member in season two. And they basically had her become the "Oracle" for Oliver Queen, since she performs basically the same duties that Barbara does for Bruce.

Also, I think that the last few episodes of Arrow season 4 showed Laurel becoming more proficient in martial arts due to her training with Nyssa. Those final two episodes really showed Katie Cassidy doing a lot more sophisticated techniques than the ones she was doing earlier in the season when Laurel was still training in boxing with Ted Grant(Wildcat).

Primal Slayer

I don't think the writers intentionally set out to have Laurel share so many similarities with Barbara but it just ended up happening by accident since they didn't really follow Dinahs original origin/backstory.

I think whenever you bring in a tech girl into a comic show, she will always be compared to Oracle. Chloe was the same for Smallville, and she ended up with Oliver Queen just like Felicity lol.

Charlone

Yes, Felicity is kind of similar to Barbara in that sense. Did the same happen to Chloe in Smallville (I mean, starting as a guest star)?

And I agree, Laurel started fighting in a different way after her training with Nyssa (or after sharing some time with TA). Although I liked her moves from before, I like the new ones, it's sophisticated!

Primal Slayer

Chloe started as a regular, but she was the resident tech geek, a lot of people thought she would take Lois' spot and get with Clark.

Charlone

I don't know too much about her, I only remember that she was one of Clark's closest friends.

Logan

Ok all caught up. out of the three seasons this one was the most emotional . Starting with
Ep 19 to the Ep 23 finale had me in tears laughter and Holy Sh**T type emotions .
Ok they" kill "Thea but before that Roy death is faked but you dont know that and I got very sad . i was like why . Thea death I knew from the prior ep and history of Ra's al Ghul.
I new he would use his power to get oliver to be his air apparnet . Back to back ep of teasing me wirth major deaths is not cool . also ran out of tissues
Laurel trying to be the Canary her sister was but getting her ass kicked, was kinda funny in its own way .Even buy the finale Lauel seemed to be getting a handle on her skills .
Cap/det Lance, he is one hell of actor and this season his emotions ran the gambit big time.

Felicity and Ray i really started to like them as couple . It is still hard for me to get into Brandon as some time goofy comedic genuis billionaire , i still see Superman in him .
Final consummation of oliver and Falicity, how the season ended with the two of them was so nice.
Oliver after his transformaiton understanding there is no more Arrow , he has to move on. Thea Red arrow at least not speedy Thea and Roy to me came full circle . As i have said before most of season 2 I dislked how Thea story was going .

Roy his role has become a major force ,from a street kid to full fledged bad ass,also matured .

Ok I a;lmost got real mad in the flashabck Hong Kong with Tatsu and Maeso ,Oliver running into shadow . I was like does anyone ever stay dead in the show .. yes it turned out to be her 'sister' perhaps we will see her again

pollock

I love this review of Season 3 by Jbuffyangel. Her episode reviews are always a highlight but this one made me feel so pumped and satisfied with season 3. This season has suffered some unfair hate and complaints that aren't constructive criticism imo. So its nice to read a wrap up that takes a slightly more positive constructive look at the season (though with its own biases like most people reviews are). A good read

SOMETHING, Arrow Season 3 Wrap Up Review

ETA: Im with you Logan I thought episode 16-23 really picked up the pace and flow a lot better then the rest of the season and had a tightness about it in terms of the action, drama suspense and emotion of the show

I thought 3x18 3x19 and 3x21 were particuarly brilliant in terms of their pacing and hitting the right beats. 3x22 and 3x23 were probably a little too jam packed and tried to do too much allowing it too feel slightly rushed but were no less satisfying.

sourburst

Generally I don't want spoilers but it's doing my head in so I'm gonna ask. I'm on episode 5 of season 3 and want to know if it's thea who killed Sara?

This show has always been incredibly predictable and it's obvious it's thea as she's in training plus Sara asked what she was doing there. Not only that but last episode I found out that Sara was hunting down Malcolm and Thea is with him. That being said Sara would have said something more like how are you alive rather then what are you doing here... So is it Thea? I'm too impatient to wait and can't visit other threads because I don't want to other spoilers before this. If I'm right I might give this show up because as much as I love felicity and Oliver it's too predictable

Charlone

Honestly, I started to like them/kinda ship them when they broke up. That was the moment when I saw how important was Felicity for Ray. And how cute he was with her in the last episodes! I watched Arrow before watching that movie, but he has that "Superman" face .

Thanks for sharing it!

I don't remember so much about it, what do you mean? Are you asking about Thea being alive? About Malcolm being alive? About Thea training? I'd like to help you but I need something else .

sourburst

What do you mean you need more? I asked if Thea killed Sara

Forwood4Bamon

I watched 3.04. no felicity.

Charlone

that was what I wondered



No but Felicity was in 1x04 of The Flash

Logan

season 3 highlight reel from comic Con

7 min to sum of 23 ep