[There You'll Be]

RECENT FILMOGRAPHY

True Blood (TV series) :: Andy Bellefleur (2008-2011)
The Conspirator :: Major Smith (2010)
COMPLETE FILMOGRAPHY LIST

MEMORABLE CHRIS/FRED QUOTES

Okay, think I've got this right.

[There You'll Be]

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post) That sounds interesting. The Divide, I mean. If you want, I can lay out some of the basics of Arrow for you... Kinda like I did with POI? I don't keep up with the details who who's plotting what, but I can tell you some stuff about the people you'll want to watch. Up to you.

I think I'll wait and see if they run reruns over the summer, and if not, yeah, I'd definitely like that.

[sunnykerr]

Thanks for the new thread.

Well, then I'll leave you with this bit:

The show operates on two timelines at the same time.

Oliver Queen came back from spending five years on The Island, and that experience transformed him from a privileged brat to a hard-body fighter on a quest to do the right thing.

So, when you watch the show, just know that when Oliver has short hair, that's the present. When he has "long-ish" hair? That's a flashback to his time on The Island.

[There You'll Be]

That will be very helpful. Thank you.

So, was his dad still alive? Or the girl that was on the boat with them?

Heh, okay, a little info at a time would be good.

Hey, you know me. I change my mind. A lot.

And I'm curious.

[sunnykerr]

Okay then.

Oliver was on the boat with his dad, other random people and Sarah Lance. Sarah is Laurel's sister. At the time, Laurel was Oliver's long-time girlfriend. So, already, that tells you about the kind of spoiled brat he was.

The boat was sunk by someone (I'm sparing you the details for now). Sarah was washed up to sea. Oliver's dad, Oliver and one other guy wound up on a raft. Oliver's dad told Oliver that, basically, he (the dad) had been a bad man and that Oliver should really try and redress the wrongs his dad had committed. Then (because the rations on the raft were running quite low), Oliver's dad shot the other guy and then shot himself.

Eventually, the raft touched down on The Island, where Oliver went through a whole lot of crap (again skipping the details) that eventually turned him into the guy we know today.

So the first season of the show was all about how Oliver would go after these people who had done Starling City wrong. He killed them.

In the finale, his one best friend from before (who continued to be his best friend after) was killed and basically he died not long after finding how Oliver's secret identity and thus thinking that Oliver was a murderer.

So the second season has been about Oliver trying to do the same thing, but without killing anyone.

By the way, Sarah survived. She's alive. We've seen her.

[There You'll Be]

Okay, so Sarah's alive. Wow. I wonder how that's going.

Thanks Sunny.

Oliver's stepfather was the one who sunk it, right? Or am I remembering wrong?

[sunnykerr]

On this show, Oliver's stepfather is a freaking saint. The nicest man on the whole show, as far as I can tell.

Malcolm Merlyn is/was a family friend of the Queens. His son, Tommy, is that friend of Oliver's I said was his best friend before and continued to be his friend when he came back. Malcolm was/is an evil bastard.

He had an affair with Oliver's mother which resulted in the birth of Oliver's sister, Thea.

The boat sinking was Malcolm's doing. Malcolm, some other guy who died in season 1 and Oliver's parents were part of an project to rejuvenate the city... Malcolm planned do to that by destroying the poor neighbourhood. Oliver's parents objected, hence the bombing of the boat. That was Malcolm's plan to get rid of Oliver's dad.

When Oliver got off the island and came back home, he came home to his mother being married to Walter. Walter is awesome, although we barely see him on the show.

So there are three families:

The Queens: Dad is dead; Mom (Moira) was alive for two season but has recently been killed; Walter was the stepdad; Oliver and his sister, Thea, who is actually Malcolm's daughter.

The Merlyns: Malcolm is an evil bastard; son Tommy was killed in the season 1 finale; and Thea, sorta.

The Lances: Dad is a detective; Mom left after Sarah "died" in the boat sinking; Sarah didn't actually die, but Oliver thought she did, and turns out she's a kick-ass woman; Laurel, was Oliver quasi-fiancee before the sinking and Tommy's girlfriend when he came back to town.

Really, the only people you want to remember in there are Oliver, Malcolm, Laurel/Sarah and Detective Lance.

Atfer that, the only other characters you ever need to know about are allies of Oliver: Felicity, Diggle and Roy Harper.

[There You'll Be]

Okay, I'll stick with the ones you said.

That's a lot of information.

I could have sworn that at the beginning Oliver's mom was talking to a man who she had secrets with about the accident.

[sunnykerr]

Well, Malcolm blackmailed Moira Queen into doing all kinds of deeds, like covering up the fact that the boat was sunk and wasn't just lost at sea. Her hands were dirty, but it was definitely Malcolm who was the master mind.

Seriously, all you need to focus on is this: Oliver is a do-gooder who went through hell to come out on the other side this way. Felicity and Diggle are his most trusted allies. Roy Harper is an ally, but probably more reluctant.

Detective Lance is the Inspector Gordon to Oliver's Batman. He's the local lawman. He's got two daughters who have been romantically entangled with Oliver since day one. Only one of those daughters, Laurel, is still in town. Both daughters know Oliver's "secret" identity. Detective Lance does not.

Malcolm Merlyn is a bad guy. Bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD.

That's seriously all you need to know.

[There You'll Be]

Thanks Sunny.

Now I'll know what's what and who's who.

I remember the cop, I saw him at some point, and he definitely seemed to dislike Oliver.

I already like this version of Oliver better than Smallvilles. Though on there, he was one of many heroes.

It's going to be very cool for Oliver and his friends to be the focus.

[sunnykerr]

And, just in case you wanted a face to put to the names:



Left to right: Laurel Lance, some guy, Feclity, Oliver, Diggle, Thea and Roy Harper.

And then it's Detective Lance.

So, "sorta" love interest, guy, ally, Oliver, ally, sister and maybe-ally. Law man.

The main reason I posted the picture is so you could have a look at both Laurel and Thea. Because I doubt you could confuse the other characters, but the show does have two brunettes with similar haircuts.

Anyway, this Oliver is very broody. He takes on the weight of the world on his shoulders. Felicity and Diggle try to help him, but they've both got their own problems. (Well, Diggle mostly, he's former military.)

They're a pretty kick-ass team, when Oliver isn't spiralling so hard he forgets to share with the class.

[There You'll Be]

Hm, Oliver sounds a little "Angel-ish". Or the word Broody, and forgetting to share, made me think of Angel.

I love the guy they have playing Oliver. He's very much into the role when he's playing it, from the parts I've seen.

Thanks so much for the pictures and names, so I know who's who, and I have a reference.

I'm excited to see it. It's the sunshine out of the cloud of Revolution being cancelled.

I couldn't record it at the same time, cause Kev tapes Survivor, and something else.

[sunnykerr]

Oliver is SO Angel-ish.

I hadn't thought of it before, but that's the perfect comparison.

He's a former frat boy who maintains a playboy persona to hide his inner self.

He fights for hopeless, inasmuch as his city is the hopeless and he takes down bad guys who come and prey on the week.

There is no victim of the week on Arrow. There's a bad guy of the week and usually a season-arc villain, but no one victim per week.

And Oliver always tries to control everything and, when it inevitably blows up in his face, he always beats himself up over it.

[There You'll Be]

Definitely Angel-esque.

I like that there is a bad guy a week, but not a constant victim.

I don't think I'd enjoy that any more.

I can't be sure though.

And an arc through the season of a bad guy. Like Buffy more.

[sunnykerr]

I'd never realized before how similar to the general "Buffy-verse" Arrow actually is.

I'm starting to realize all kinds of similarities.

I mean, there's no Giles.

No parental figure... well, except for Detective Lance, I guess, but he's not really Oliver's parental figure, so it doesn't really count.

But aside from that, it's a similar mix of wacky humor and great melodrama, you know?

Less full-on supernatural elements, though.