I usually don’t want to know what goes on in the writers’ room on a given TV show, but I want to know what the hell happened that made the writers of Arrow decide to go with Olicity rather than Lauriver.
At some point prior to Season 3 (when exactly is unclear) they changed their minds about the relationship for Oliver - Seasons 1 and 2 are quite clearly framed as Lauriver being the ship at the end, with all relationships for them being temporary blockage points for drama (in the same way that all other relationships for say, Castle and Beckett on Castle were clearly meant to be temporary blockers for drama).
Season 3, though, was a clear change in framing, because suddenly, Felicity is the romantic football - and as much as I like Raylicity, it was very clearly, like Westhawne and Merlance, framed as and meant to be that temporary relationship that induces drama.
So at some point they changed their mind, and I’d like to know why. I mean, we can make some guesses, and god knows I have (assumed ideas about what the audience wanted, Marc Guggenheim wanting to do something radically different for an ego stroke, maybe Stephen Amell preferred playing against EBR for romantic dynamic, maybe the loudness of the Oliciters on social media played a role, maybe someone at the network was pissed off at Katie Cassidy for some reason - that’s certainly got to be a factor given the way they treated her after Seaosn 4, IMO, especially in Season 5), but maybe the answer is none of these. Maybe the idea just came to the writers and they decided they really wanted to run with it. As a writer, I certainly understand how that can happen.
But I am curious as to exactly when and how a choice was made to turn from Lauriver to Olicity.
When did Olicity became the endgame? Lauriver stopped being the endgame before season 1 ended. Olicity started happening explicitly after episode 6 of season 2 (see youtube). The EPs did numerous interviews teasing the s1 finale where they - explicitly - said they wanted to wrap up the merlance/lauriver triangle before exploring olicity. Lauriver was clearly not the focus in season 2, as evidenced by Oliver dating once again the sister that was meant to be “the roadblock” except he so clearly told Laurel that he was done chasing after her while taking her sister as his date for a family dinner and offering his alcoholic ex-girlfriend free booze at his club. The writers did everything possible to dismantle any hope of them getting back together way before season 3, and all of it happened while they were building the foundation for romantic!Olicity . The only one who believed lauriver still had a chance romantically was Katie, am I correct?
You can think it’s an ego stroke or you can see Olicity as the show’s saving grace when poor chemistry, at least in contrast with the other option, is matched with a horrendous backstory.
You can think it’s the oliciters who changed the story or you can see Olicity as viewers reacting positively to two actors who obviously get along and a story where boy and girl meet, become friends and fall in love without their relationship being tainted by cheating, insults and “I wish you’d rot a whole lot more than 5 years on the island” and things of that caliber from the very first episode.
You can victimize Katie or you can just accept that what works on paper (comics or fanfiction), doesn’t automatically work on screen (tv show).
Well, a couple things - you’re making a number of assumptions and unsupported assertions about what I’m saying and why I’m saying it.
1.) “Chemistry” is subjective, and I have never seen chemistry with Olicity. I have seen immense chemistry with Laurel and Oliver, even when Katie was playing Earth-2 Laurel. Nor do I think the backstory is ‘horrendous.
2.) I have regularly bitched about how we don’t need to make the TV shows like comics. I don’t like comics. At all. I’m not a fan of them as a medium for storytelling, and I actively avoid both Marvel and DC comics and the Comics fandoms of both. I don’t ship Lauriver because of the comics, I ship Lauriver because I watched episode 1x05, fell in love with their dynamic and never looked back
3.) I did not say that Katie Cassidy *was* victimized, I said it as one theory, because I’ve seen it suggested as a theory before.
4.) Oliver dating Sara again in Season 2 was clearly a roadblock because Sara/Oliver was never meant to be a relationship with staying power from the word go. And given that Felicity basically tossed Oliver’s ring in his face for the stupidest of reasons and then spent much of Season 5 actively rejecting any idea of resuming things with Oliver (while constantly undermining his leadership, among other things), I’m not sure how you can say “I’m done chasing you” is a closed door on the relationship. Countless TV relationships have overcome similar such hurdles or otherwise ‘we’re done and we’re gonna stay done’ drama. Because TV show relationships tend to run on Drama, often manufactured drama designed to stretch out the tension to keep people watching.
5.) I’m not at all sure how one could argue that the end of Season 1 “resolves” the Tommy/Laurel/Oliver love triangle - if Tommy’s death had actually led to Laurel and Oliver being together, that would be one thing, but instead, it just broke them up even though they’d already gotten together, without resolving any of the issues between them.
6.) You say Season 2 was the groundwork for Olicity, I say Oliver’s sudden interest in Felicity as nonsensical and certainly utterly out of left field. (and his weird ‘you were the first person I trusted’ or whatever it was line to her in Episode 3x01 was just as sudden and nonsensical) These things are subjective, and you can’t go around asserting that your interpretation is truth.
Now, maybe you’re right and that’s what they were doing, and they just did it as badly as they did everything with Olicity (which I personally still hold as a textbook example of how Not to Write a TV Relationship), and/or I just look at things differently enough from the writers that we don’t look at the same wavelength. That certainly happens. But that still doesn’t actually answer the question of why and when and for what reason they decided to change course, when at the start, Laurel and Oliver had all the hallmarks of the standard ‘will they or won’t they’ TV relationship ala shows like Castle and Bones.
1.) Chemistry is subjective. An absolute fact is that the people in charge, including EPs and cast, saw chemistry in olicity where they didn’t in lauriver. This is backed up by 7 years of interviews and comments. You rarely fall in love with a fictional relationship before seeing the chemistry. And since it is subjective, just because you don’t see it or understand, doesn’t mean others didn’t see it... It’s a two-way street. Your narrative that the story change is motivated by other factors than lack of chemistry between the only two romantic dctv leads (the first and last time it happened) who never took a chemistry test before being cast is based on both your inability to see it and my ability to see it.
4.) Sara may have been the traditional roadblock in season 1 but she was used in season 2 to bury the lauriver corpse, figuratively. Tommy was the literal corpse that buried it in 2x01. You can believe otherwise, it’s your right. But remember that season 2 also introduced a scene where Laurel and Sara were discussing all the girls they knew who slept with Oliver (frankly, I’m amazed you believe that Felicity walking away from her relationship with Oliver was non-sense considering she demanded respect and honesty from him when Laurel couldn’t, but hey to each their own). We were introduced to Samantha and featus William. Flashbacks were used to give lauriver an even worse and toxic backstory. We were introduced to that lovely hallway scene where Oliver used Laurel’s alcoholism against her and THAT was the part that buried it, not Oliver “closing the door” on the relationship, platonic or romantic (again, surprised that you found olicity to be more abusive in the past five years when this happened? not to mention all of the season 1 mess) we were introduced to Sara and Oliver talking about moving in together. And while you might have thought their break-up would lead to lauriver getting back together, like the other lauriver fans, I could pull out the 2x23 script that says how Sara mentioning the “light” in Oliver during 2x20 was in reference of Felicity. This, at least, debunks your theory that they somehow did a 180 in 3x01. Just in case, 206 and 207 were not the GIANT writing on the wall
5.) “if Tommy’s death had actually led to Laurel and Oliver being together, that would be one thing, but instead, it just broke them up even though they’d already gotten together, without resolving any of the issues between them. “
You said it yourself. “Breaking up” was the resolution. They were at a crossroad between starting a relationship and not starting a relationship. Considering Laurel was in love with Tommy, I’m guessing she spent her summer grieving him until she turned to the pills and drugs and blaming the arrow for his death. (see Arrow 1.5). They tried to give you another resolution in season 4, retconning their own comics, by having Laurel discuss of starting a life and moving in with Oliver a week after Tommy’s death only for him to fly away to his own personal hell, again. IMO, this made her look heartless and I’d rather stick to 1.5/post-s1 Laurel. But you’re basically saying that the only resolution possible was them getting back together.
I told you when they decided to change the endgame: during s1 and before s2. I explained why and how. And I hope you don’t take it the wrong way, but you seem stuck on the idea that season 1 or 2 lauriver was the perfect groundwork for a relationship everyone would root for because you did. One thing that never happened on Bones, or Castle, is the two romantic leads cheating on each other, or seriously dating siblings or best friends. This may be a standard on the CW for teen drama (meant for irresponsible teenagers and not grown ass adults)... but the main pattern on both Bones and Castle, was that the two leads started by becoming work partners, then friends, then romantically involved after years of build-up. Does this seem more like Olicity or Lauriver to you?
You came in the tag looking for another POV and you got it. I backed up my arguments with the only tool I have which is the show and everything around the show. I’m not trying to change your mind but my POV is probably the same POV that pushed the people in charge to go forward with Olicity. Wasn’t that your question? Anyway. Go forth and ship.
