/Facepalm....

As promised, here's my quasi-rant about the latest episode of Arrow...[I think it's safe to say that there will probably be spoilers, sooooooo....yeah, if you aren't quite caught up with the series, you may want to wait and read this post later]

It's Felicity!

As I've addressed in several posts, I'm a huge fan of CW's Arrow...and [as can be read here and here], Felicity Smoak is, by far, one of my favorite characters. Ever. And I think at this point I should reiterate the fact that I've watched a ton of shows and movies, and have read a lot of books and comics...so, for me to say that Felicity is among my favorite characters...that's pretty huge. [To me, anyway...]

One of the driving elements of the Arrow story line [over the second half of season 2 and season 3, so far] has been the teasing of a potential romance between Felicity and Oliver...I mean, come on...who doesn't want to see the brilliant, 'nerdy' girl end up with Starling City's prince charming? [Though his reputation is definitely tarnished, thanks to the happenings during seasons 1 and 2...I still think that Oliver is going to come out everything on top!]

And then, there was the first episode of season 3

*** Okay, not kidding about the spoilers...here they are!***

For as long as Felicity has been a relevant character on the show, it's been obvious that she has some sort of attraction to Oliver. [Not that anyone could blame her...he's quite the handsome/charming guy!] Especially in the 1st season, before Felicity learns about Oliver's secret past-time, she adorably fumbles through social interactions with the handsome hero...as a fellow sufferer or social awkwardness, I really felt like I could relate.

And yet, as the episodes went on, it became more and more clear that the attraction wasn't quite as one-sided as it seemed...especially during the last few episodes of season 2, it started to look like Oliver was the only one that was denying his seat on the 'Olicity' ship. [hahaha...see what I did there?] During season 2, Oliver seemed to be confused on how he wanted to handle the reappearance of the long-thought-to-be-dead Sara...at one point, he even suggests to Sara that they live together, but that notion is rather short-lived. Sara decides to return to the League of Assassins [to hopefully ensure the safety of her family], and this also takes Oliver out of her realm of possibility. It seems as though this decision was for the best, and as a Felicity fan, I was thrilled to see Sara go! [Sara..../sigh....I wound up liking her character more than her sister, Laurel...but I wasn't able to reconcile Sara's actions from the beginning of the series...in my mind, she would always be the younger sister who stole her sister's boyfriend. Always.]

So. With Sara out of the way as a competing romantic interest, I thought that surely Oliver would pursue his increasingly obvious interest in Felicity. And in the first episode of season 3, when he asked Felicity out on an official date, I was ecstatic! She got all dressed up, Oliver put on a suit and tie, there were reservations to a very nice restaurant...it was an official date! [At this point in the series, Oliver had lost his family's company and was very, very poor...which, in my opinion, makes it even more touching that Oliver went through the trouble to treat Felicity to a nice dinner] The series of pictures on the left is a scene from said date...

Okay, so at this point, I realize that I've left out a key part of the Felicity/Oliver dynamic...up until the night that Oliver takes Felicity out for a date, Oliver refrained from pursuing his romantic interest because he had decided that he couldn't be with anyone that he truly loved. His rationale was that as long as he is Oliver Queen and the Arrow, he would be putting anyone that he cared about right into the cross hairs of whatever psycho-villain that bent on destroying Starling City/the Arrow/Oliver Queen. Now, I'm not absolutely positive, but I think Oliver even says this to Felicity at some point...

/sob

Back to the date: things seem to go well, there's the expected awkward banter...and then, there's an attack on the restaurant. Oliver scrambles to make sure that Felicity's safe [I can't remember the details...not sure if he pursues the assailants or not]...Oliver takes Felicity to their secret headquarters [Does that place even have a name? It should...] When Felicity comes to, she frantically looks for Oliver...I cried...those two are lying if they say that they don't love each other...

A good while later, Oliver begins to hint to Felicity that he was right in his initial thoughts that he would be putting her in danger if they continued to pursue a romantic relationship. Felicity tells Oliver that she doesn't necessarily think that it's so...and it all seems to culminate with Oliver telling Felicity that he loves her [even though they can't be together].




Now, I can't say that I completely blame Felicity for her response here...I think she was absolutely in the right for calling Oliver out for dangling the 'perpetual maybe' and not outright deciding to pursue a romantic relationship/retain a mostly-platonic working relationship. It would not be fair for Oliver to ask Felicity to stay in that fuzzy gray area between girlfriend and friend...soooo, I kind of have to respect Felicity for having the self-assuredness to demand that Oliver make a clear choice about what he wanted...

But yeah. this situation was rather frustrating...but it gets worse...

A new character comes into play [Ray Palmer. He's yet another millionaire genius. He bests Oliver in a corporate showdown to buy Queen Consolidated, and ends up becoming Felicity's new boss...] who clearly shows interest in Felicity...and though Felicity comes across as resistant to Ray's advances at first, within a few episodes she seems to be warming up to the guy.

To be fair, a good bit of this 'warming' happens while Oliver is out of the picture. [Oliver goes on a quest, of sorts, to clear up a 'blood debt' with the leader of the League of Assassins...he is presumed dead] About halfway through the latest episode, it appears that Felicity has finally found some peace with Oliver's death and started to move on...aaaaaand of course, this is the time when Oliver makes his grand re-appearance in Starling City. [The audience has known for almost an entire episode that Oliver is still alive...but, of course, he has no way of contacting anyone and letting them know...]

Noooooooo!!!!!

When Oliver and Felicity finally have a chance to talk, face-to-face, she kind of just let's Oliver have it...

I'm guessing that she was sort of venting the pain of having mourned Oliver for a month, and she was angry that it took so long for him to let anyone know that he was alive...but /sigh...come on!!!

I think she really should have cut the guy some slack!

I mean, he practically died. He went and faced down with a master assassin. He did this to save his sister's life!! Felicity has been one of the few characters that's been able to see Oliver's true-self...but I'm guessing that she's fed up with even that facet of Oliver...which, I don't get...

Sooooo....yeah.

This whole, very long post, all boils down to my dislike of this one scene [the one where she says she doesn't want to be a woman that Oliver loves].

It just doesn't make any sense!! [Okay...maybe it kind of does, but that doesn't mean that I like it!]

Thoughts? Comments?

Anybody have any additional insight to the falling apart of 'Olicity'? Because I'm rather at a loss on this one [and I'm tired of typing out this post...]

Help Me Pick, Please!

Sooooo....

I think I may be in need of an intervention...[well, sort of...]

As I'm prone to do, I've gotten bored.

I've been toying with the idea of changing my appearance somehow. I've got about 3 ways to do so...feel free to drop me a line letting me know which you think would be best, or telling me that I've lost my mind and shouldn't consider any of them right now!

First, and least permanent, would be colored contacts.

Let me start off by saying that I don't need contacts. I'm fortunate to not need glasses to read or drive, and many people look at me funny when I tell them that I want colored contacts even though I don't require contacts of any kind. But because I'm a silly girl, I love wearing colored contacts. I've had a few pairs of them before. I typically stick with some variation of gray, green, or bright blue...the problem is finding a color that will actually show up on my dark brown eyes.

Both of these were taken about two years ago...pretty sure that in the picture on the right I'm wearing green lenses and I'm wearing gray ones on the left...

What do you think? Contacts, yay or nay?



Another option would be coloring my hair [I think I might have mentioned it in a previous post...]. As you can see in the pictures above, I don't have any issues with coloring my hair. The toughie here would be whether I wanted to drop the kind of money that it takes to get my hair done at a decent salon or if I wanted to be cheap and get a box of dye to color it myself.

Another detail: with my hair being so dark, it's really pointless to try and use any shade of brown and any 'box blonde' turns out orange. That leaves me with reds and blacks.

My hair is very, very dark brown...so I don't ever see myself going with black dye [what would be the point?]...sooo, yep! I always go back to my first hair love, red.

The more subtle shades of red don't really change my hair color much, so the last few times I dyed it myself I went with comic-book shades of red. To the right is a picture from the last time I went red...

I'm a huge fan of the color, but it takes a lot to maintain it. Last time, I wound up putting a box of brown over if before my friend's wedding...but /shrug I probably would have left it red if it weren't for me seeing people that I've known for a decade but haven't seen in 5+ years. Whether it's fair or not, there's a sort of social judgement that comes with having a hair color that isn't found in nature...

Another option: good old haircut.

I got a pretty significant cut a couple of months ago, but I get bored with my hair very quickly. Here's a picture from about a year and a half ago when I went really short with my hair.

Now, I loved the cut. I know I don't have the 'typical' physique to pull off this sassy haircut, but I loved it anyway. It was easy to manage [well...maybe not. I've got naturally curly hair that can get a bit unruly. When it was short, I did have to straighten it everyday I didn't want to wear a hat...but there was much less hair to straighten!]

I know that some people liked the cut on me, and some people hated it...but I'm the one that has to live with the hair, so...yeah.

[I should also note that this is the event that caused me to realize that the guy I was engaged to at the time definitely wasn't the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. This haircut had a purpose. I cut my hair as a show of support for a family member who was having a tough time medically. Knowing the reason why I cut my hair, he told me that I was hideous. I learned that, with him, looks mattered over everything  else...and this was after we'd been together for a good while and I thought maybe he loved me for who I was...I mean, hair grows back, duh. Turns out, damaged relationships don't fix nearly as easily as hair growing back. I'm sorry, but if you are malicious enough to tell the woman that you 'love' that she's hideous and 'it's not like you were a trophy girl to begin with,' you're asking for a break up with a complimentary slap in the face. Just saying.]

Rambling asides aside...I'm not absolutely sure that I want to go quite that short again. But my hair is still above my shoulders, so there's not much else I could do if I went the haircut route.

Lastly, I might get another ear piercing.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is my ear from earlier this year. Since that picture was taken, I've taken out the two upper cartilage piercings. [One by accident, one out of stupidity]

I love ear piercings. They're relatively inexpensive, they're not very painful, and, well, I like the way they look. However, there's always the risk of something not healing properly and all the nastiness that would entail...and the uber-conservative populace [my lovely parents included] frown upon having more than an ear piercing or two.

If I were to get another piercing, it would probably be similar to the picture to the left. [Cartilage, not lobe]

I think it's cute...

Anyway...it appears that I'm nowhere near deciding what I want to do. [not that that's a new thing for me...] So, what do you think?