Catching up with Arrow
Oct. 30th, 2013 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkWatched an episode of Arrow's Season 2 (after quitting partway through Season 1) just to see Black Canary, because Black Canary is the best, and I'm thrilled to finally see her in the show.
Kind of.
** SPOILERS BELOW **
Okay, so...Black Canary in Arrow seems to be an ex-League of Assassins, um, assassin, and is now a violent vigilante in Starling City like Oliver Queen. Apparently she's supposed to go back to the League of Assassins, but she doesn't want to. And seriously, I just don't like this direction at all to take Black Canary's character (even though we know this Black Canary isn't permanent because Dinah Laurel Lance has to eventually take the job). It just seems way too grimdark and angsty for a character who, in the comics, is usually pretty well-adjusted.
Let me add that I also really hated how Laurel was Damsel in Distress'ed AGAIN in episode 2x03, in a pretty horrifying way that was clearly intended to give her dad manpain.
I know Arrow is supposed to be a "realistic" take on superheroes in the vein of The Dark Knight, but I've always felt like that "realism" is pretty arbitrary. For example, Oliver Queen can shoot arrows with perfect aim in near-darkness? (I don't care if his vision is perfectly 20/20, there's a reason night vision goggles were invented, and that's because human beings have terrible night vision.) And his disguise is a hood and a line of green paint across his eyes? Uhh...sure...not like hoods ever fall off or anything when you're running. I'll admit that I've always thought the domino masks commonly used by most superheroes seem to be kind of flimsy disguises, but at least they're better than green paint across your eyes. And Black Canary's "Canary Scream" has been changed to a remote device that emits sonic impulses. Okay...but does Black Canary herself have earplugs to prevent her own eardrums from being ruptured? I mean, this was also a question in the comics, but there's a bit more leeway there since she had a superpower; when you try to make things "dark" and "gritty" and "ultrarealistic," you don't have that excuse.
Also, I'm still uncomfortable with the way Oliver Queen is presented as a hero. He views any other vigilante as a threat...despite the fact that they're usually only marginally more violent than he is. I mean, maybe he stopped killing random guards in Season 2 (I think), but he still interrogates people for information in really violent ways.
Kind of.
** SPOILERS BELOW **
Okay, so...Black Canary in Arrow seems to be an ex-League of Assassins, um, assassin, and is now a violent vigilante in Starling City like Oliver Queen. Apparently she's supposed to go back to the League of Assassins, but she doesn't want to. And seriously, I just don't like this direction at all to take Black Canary's character (even though we know this Black Canary isn't permanent because Dinah Laurel Lance has to eventually take the job). It just seems way too grimdark and angsty for a character who, in the comics, is usually pretty well-adjusted.
Let me add that I also really hated how Laurel was Damsel in Distress'ed AGAIN in episode 2x03, in a pretty horrifying way that was clearly intended to give her dad manpain.
I know Arrow is supposed to be a "realistic" take on superheroes in the vein of The Dark Knight, but I've always felt like that "realism" is pretty arbitrary. For example, Oliver Queen can shoot arrows with perfect aim in near-darkness? (I don't care if his vision is perfectly 20/20, there's a reason night vision goggles were invented, and that's because human beings have terrible night vision.) And his disguise is a hood and a line of green paint across his eyes? Uhh...sure...not like hoods ever fall off or anything when you're running. I'll admit that I've always thought the domino masks commonly used by most superheroes seem to be kind of flimsy disguises, but at least they're better than green paint across your eyes. And Black Canary's "Canary Scream" has been changed to a remote device that emits sonic impulses. Okay...but does Black Canary herself have earplugs to prevent her own eardrums from being ruptured? I mean, this was also a question in the comics, but there's a bit more leeway there since she had a superpower; when you try to make things "dark" and "gritty" and "ultrarealistic," you don't have that excuse.
Also, I'm still uncomfortable with the way Oliver Queen is presented as a hero. He views any other vigilante as a threat...despite the fact that they're usually only marginally more violent than he is. I mean, maybe he stopped killing random guards in Season 2 (I think), but he still interrogates people for information in really violent ways.
