It's the same odd and problematic disregard for Felicity Smoak as an independent character that lies behind the oliciter claim that the season four ratings went down when Oliver and Felicity broke up. Now, to me this has always seemed like an inflated claim, because it's based on the presumption that the audience at large (which is what the Nielsen households are supposed to represent) are Olicity shippers, whose only/main incentive for watching an action/adventure show about Green Arrow is his romance with his hacker partner. Even if we disregard the fact that a sizeable portion of the online fandom considers the Olicity relationship/romance to be the LEAST interesting/engaging aspect of the show, it is very difficult to prove that Felicity's romance with Oliver is SO important to the audience at large that it will make hundreds of thousands of casual viewers drop the show when they're no longer a couple.
IF Felicity Smoak is such a superbly written and acted character as her superfans claim she is, she should be able to stand on her own two legs, rather than being defined by her role as Green Arrow's/Oliver's Beloved and Endgame, shouldn't she? I mean, with the amount glorification of her character that some of her fans indulge in ("Felicity Smoak is a Superhero", "the Team wouldn't exist without Felicity", "Felicity is the "heart and soul of Arrow" etc. etc.), she doesn't need to be Oliver's Love Interest in order to be a significant part of the show.
There is a strange dichotomy in the Olicity fandom, in the sense that her fans put Felicity on such a pedestal as an independent heroine, while still judging the quality and appeal of the show almost solely on the basis of whether Felicity is romantically attached to Oliver or not, or the amount of interaction between the two characters. If this wasn't the case, why were they incessantly complaining about the lack of Olicity on the producers' timelines or on Stephen's FB page in S5? I mean, it's not that Felicity didn't get screen time or storylines in season five....she certainly got more than OTHER supporting female characters, like Thea or Dinah. Furthermore, the writers kept dropping hints about how special Felicity is to Oliver all through the season (lingering glances, Oliver and Felicity being "Mom"&"Dad" to the newbies etc.), a strategy which culminated in the clumsy in-show shipping and the flashback sex (as well as the finale kiss) that we saw in the concluding episodes.
IF Felicity Smoak is such a superbly written and acted character as her superfans claim she is, she should be able to stand on her own two legs, rather than being defined by her role as Green Arrow's/Oliver's Beloved and Endgame, shouldn't she? I mean, with the amount glorification of her character that some of her fans indulge in ("Felicity Smoak is a Superhero", "the Team wouldn't exist without Felicity", "Felicity is the "heart and soul of Arrow" etc. etc.), she doesn't need to be Oliver's Love Interest in order to be a significant part of the show.
There is a strange dichotomy in the Olicity fandom, in the sense that her fans put Felicity on such a pedestal as an independent heroine, while still judging the quality and appeal of the show almost solely on the basis of whether Felicity is romantically attached to Oliver or not, or the amount of interaction between the two characters. If this wasn't the case, why were they incessantly complaining about the lack of Olicity on the producers' timelines or on Stephen's FB page in S5? I mean, it's not that Felicity didn't get screen time or storylines in season five....she certainly got more than OTHER supporting female characters, like Thea or Dinah. Furthermore, the writers kept dropping hints about how special Felicity is to Oliver all through the season (lingering glances, Oliver and Felicity being "Mom"&"Dad" to the newbies etc.), a strategy which culminated in the clumsy in-show shipping and the flashback sex (as well as the finale kiss) that we saw in the concluding episodes.
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