TJ72389

No, I just mean, like, Laurel's entire arc this season has been about her being a dark place and now she's coming out of that dark place. But you're saying that's Sara's arc? Like, no, that's been Laurel's arc all season.

Like, Sara was described as "full of life." Laurel was described as the one who drowned and died on the boat. Like, we haven't been given a single reason to think Sara's role is about her coming out of darkness.

iluvtorun

Oh ok, i see what you are saying. Two things though....
League
Of
Assasins

And a year spent experimenting on people.

Laurels arc has been dark, but the writers did A HORRIBLE job of letting us in on that. And an even worse job of bringing her back from it.

I am sorry, no one freshly in aa would be hanging in a bar.

Laurel has been in a dark place for as long as sara has been gone, that was what her thing at the end of tod was about. But Sara killed people on a regular basis. Both of them hav been lost, but in totally different ways. Sara was lost for years, EVERY single piece of her soul stripped away as she killed. Survived. Killed again.

Laurel at least had people...friends, her dad. She lived for her work, found Some happiness with tommy. Lost tommy, lost her grip. Understandably.

The humor (in a sad way) is that she sees sara As being full of life, but like ollie has his masks, sara's full of life is a mask too.

So, a different kind of darkness. Again, poorly expressed by the writers.

vaberella

Both described by Laurel and her perception...because technically speaking Laurel is far more out of touch with Sara, than Sara is with her. Let's be honest here. Additionally...it's a reflection of self pitying that has happened since the start of S2.

While Laurel sees Sara as someone trying to be happy with all the crap she's been dealt. She sees herself as weak and depressed from the things that have happened...without any knowledge of what Sara might have suffered.

Did I like Laurel's apology. Yes. Did I think Sara dropped the ball in a response to that...Yes. But there is nothing but Laurel's self-loathing perception in the above. It's not as though some ultimate force described Sara and Laurel as such.

iluvtorun

Yup.
& yet another example of the writers dropping the ball on character development in favor of cramming a lot in. It would have taken just a minute for them to show sara saying "I dont feel as alive as you think i am"...but maybe she isn't there yet, where she can say that.

TJ72389

Right, so we can look way to much into a face Felicity makes, it must mean more and was there for a reason, but it's not at all possible for the writers to use their characters as a mouthpiece? Maybe the writers had Laurel say what she said because, from their POV, that's how it actually is.

We don't know all that much of Sara's suffering, or if she even considers herself as someone who's suffering at this point. The girl's had, like, five years to move past what happened on the boat and island. She could very well be over it by now.

Or maybe the writers didn't have her say that because she doesn't feel that way...

SuitUp

I haven't really seen this Laurel arc as that coming out the darkness - maybe that's what it was intended to be. But Oliver's speech made it seem like a get over yourself everyone's life's tough! Because both Oliver and Sara have literally been through HELL and back.

Laurel through 2x16 made NO sense IMO. And I actually like Laurel. But it was stupid dialogue - yet it's made her the bigger person in a sense but this whole appeasing everybody doesn't garner her character any clarity. That's why she is constantly the dead weight character which majority of fans find it difficult to relate with..

There was spec of a character death, some saying her (I know she won't die neither would I want her to)

But they have been unable to solidify her character..

Early days...

5 TV Characters That Should Be Gone By 2013

And what's most interesting. Some people argue it's because everyone loves Felicity that they hate Laurel. Even before Felicity was a full on consideration in people's minds fans disliked. I like disliked her from the pilot but warmed up to her in s2.

12 TV Characters that Make Us Want To Punch The TV 2014

Now of course because Felicity is widely popular it becomes a comparison between the two women and it doesn't need to be. It's like what you did here...

People just for some reason naturally compare. And maybe that's why Laurel fans think most Felicity fans are against Laurel because of Felicity. No, I think it's just an unconscious comparison. Laurel just hasn't clicked with majority of Arrow fans. Writers don't help.

But Laurel has been absent from many episodes in s2, I really wonder where they will leave her by the end of s2? She's a very isolated character in some ways. I see her becoming BC if Quentin dies? I really think he might die - it would PUSH Laurel to the forefront - all that grief etc. but I'm sick of cool characters dying

thecatbastet

I do think Sara's arc has been about coming out of darkness, but as a parallel and commentary on Oliver coming out of darkness. She makes the same types of mistakes Oliver has made, but - and I like Sara - there is a core of honesty inside Oliver that I'm not sure Sara has. Or at least, had on the island. Oliver wants to be honest, she keeps talking him out of it. She is, of course, wrong.

Sara is rather inscrutable. With Amell, his inscrutability seems almost active. Like he is shutting down emotion entirely, blanking his features, actively giving away nothing. Sara doesn't feel that way, she responds to emotion like normal people do. Emotionally.

Ultimately I think those basic choices about honesty will be the things that differentiate Oliver and Sara. These days it really is Oliver who makes less honest choices. Sara doesn't go around advertising her vigilante work, she is masked, but she'd only been in town a few days before revealing herself to the single most important person who needed to know her again. I mean Quentin, not Oliver. And she'll probably be revealing herself to Laurel next week. Even when she isn't displaying honesty, she doesn't go around berating other people for their similar lack and snarking on their casual relationship with the truth when he and truth are at best friends with benefits.

Not that his dishonesty is necessarily wrong. It's not. But his hypocrisy is.

But ultimately I think Sara will fail to assimilate and will go back with Nyssa and pop up again at a later date. Oliver will continue to manage his own failure to assimilate by running around in leather pants every night.

iluvtorun

See that is the OTHER problem with them being in a public relationship. Laurel ain't a fool, if she finds out Sara is the canary, will it REALLY take her that long to figure out Oliver is the Arrow????

thecatbastet

I have reconciled myself to the idea that she's going to find out about him too.

EliseManny

@TJ72389 I agree with everything you are saying It's nice to come in here and read a refreshingly different and awesome interpretion of the episodes and certain character arcs.

vaberella

Why do you need to compare Felicity to Laurel? I am in no way comparing Felicity to anything you are saying about Laurel and Sara. I am simply going by what you are saying about Laurel and Sara. That is first. FELICITY NEVER entered my discussion.

And for that reason...I am not going to entertain your comparison of Felicity since we are ONLY speaking of what is going on between Laurel and Sara. Like you suggested Sara had no compassion, but she is written as having compassion. Sara doesn't have the range of darkness...but that is a good portion of who she is. That Sara happy and healthy...but everything about her suggests otherwise...considering what has been going on. That the story arc is not about her but Laurel...and that is fine to believe. However based on what I see, I don't see it that way.

So in this discussion there is NO Felicity and I will NOT bring her into it. Moving on... we are looking at how Laurel sees Sara. One that she has not seen in SIX YEARS. For SIX YEARS Laurel has been under the impression Sara is dead. But when she does see Sara; she sees Sara as very beautiful, very alive, and smiling and seemingly happy. Laurel has no idea or even realizes that Sara risked her life, for not only her but for her family and she did so by combating an assassin group. Therefore, her perception of Sara is wholly superficial. She is ONLY going by what she sees, but not by what she knows.

So to tell me that the writers are using Laurel as a mouthpiece on a character that she doesn't know or has seen for 6 years sounds ridiculous for me. I don't see how Laurel had come to KNOW Sara within a 20 minute dinner, if that.

We don't known much about Sara's suffering? She has scars, she went through pain. She was near death and starved...that is what Nyssa said, when she found her. It was similar to how Ivo found her. I am a bit perplexed by your statements, because we DO KNOW how much she has suffered. There is also the flipped side that she went along with a lot of bad things, but there is denying she went through pain.

She has had five year's to move past what has happened to her? Wow...simply wow. Wow. Oliver has not two years to get past what has happened to him; and he's still not over it. But Sara has had 5 years, when we know for 6 of her years she has found herself embroiled in various situations that are not positive.

If you say the above about Sara, then I can say the same about Laurel. And Laurel has no physical scars, I have seen her go through emotional pain...but none that would leave the crippling scars that Oliver/Sara face every second of the day.

Okay...this conversation has reached the absurd to me. You go from comparing Laurel to Felicity, which was not part of the discussion at all. You then claim various things about Sara that the writers clearly and blatantly give evidence as counter. I don't know where to go here. I'll just drop it. All I know for sure, is that for me, Sara is the real BC.

Ugh, I just succumbed to an inane 3 minute typing fest.

BeautifulContradiction

^ All of this!

Vikram Phalange

The fact that people can't seem to discuss laurel & sara in general without bringing up felicity says it all

eragon194

I hope they do write Laurel out of the show. I can't stand the character or KC as an actress. lol!

Katiesocks

Yup! My reasons for disliking Laurel have nothing to do with me being a Felicity fan. Laurel doesn't take scenes away from her, she doesn't get in the way of Oliver/Felicity or Diggle/Felicity or TA scenes, she doesn't affect Felicity in any way. I dislike her because we are allowed to dislike characters believe it or not. She's not someone I enjoy and I say that whilst saying I do like Katie Cassidy so

As for Sara, apart from being very annoying, she DOES take screen time away from my favourite people. She's everywhere. I want more Felicity, Thea, Moira....