As much as I hate the way the writers have Oliver bouncing from girl to girl, it makes sense in a way. He's sort of... crossing off the wrong types of girls in order to put him in a better place when he's finally ready to be with the right one - who I still think is Felicity.
It's like the writers have a checklist for him and each new girl marks off a point on the list. All of them have had significant situational or character traits in common with Oliver. Helena was the poor little rich kid burdened by dark family secrets, Makenna put herself at risk fighting for justice, Laurel... well, let's just go with HISTORY, Shado was an island exile mourning her father, Isabel matched Oliver's business persona and Sara's a fellow vigilante badass. Every one of them has something in common with Oliver, but it's like they only match on one level (with the possible exception of Sara, who is almost like a mirror image of him and they are just too alike to make it work long-term.)
There are a lot of different facets to Oliver's personality - business man, playboy, vigilante, and so on - and whoever he ends up with will have to match him on all those levels, not just one. That's why I like Felicity with him - she has a legitimate role in more than one of his worlds and she belongs there on her own terms. Not to say that she is or ever will be exactly like him, but they do complement each other. For this reason I also appreciated the scene two episodes back where she confronted Moira in the Queen mansion about Thea's paternity; it felt like we were seeing the sort of strength and poise that Felicity could develop in the future (in terms of character, not morality.)
You are way kinder re: Oliver sleeping around than I am. At this point, I just think he's incapable of keeping it in his pants and the writers are doing some one-handed typing and filing their fantasies about getting to fuck every pretty girl that crosses their path.
Ha! No one has ever accused me of being kind before.
The problem with the way Oliver's romantic drama is portrayed is that it feels like the writers are determined to make it part of the plot every single time, and honestly, it's hard to take it seriously because it feels so disingenuous. If it were just some guy you knew, five different girls (Shado was way in the past) over the span of a year and a half isn't really that big of a deal. Oliver's a young, single guy, so he's not doing anything wrong on a moral level - it's not as if he's cheating on his girlfriend or anything in the current storyline, so I can appreaciate that at least. (Psychologically is another story - that boy is messed up.)
But every single time, Oliver's hook-ups have to be part of this huge plot twist and I'm so over it. Still, it's hard to condemn him for it because a) it feels more plot than character driven and b) Oliver still has a lot of growing to do and he's an emotionally traumatised mess. He's on a learning curve, and as boring and repetitive as all the faux-romantic drama can be (seriously, the writers need to find some other stuff to focus on) it highlights Oliver's development and without that potential for growth the show would be dead in the water. You can't have a lead who is fully functional and flawless - they have to be a little bit broken so the audience gets invested in what they could become.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
It's like the writers have a checklist for him and each new girl marks off a point on the list. All of them have had significant situational or character traits in common with Oliver. Helena was the poor little rich kid burdened by dark family secrets, Makenna put herself at risk fighting for justice, Laurel... well, let's just go with HISTORY, Shado was an island exile mourning her father, Isabel matched Oliver's business persona and Sara's a fellow vigilante badass. Every one of them has something in common with Oliver, but it's like they only match on one level (with the possible exception of Sara, who is almost like a mirror image of him and they are just too alike to make it work long-term.)
There are a lot of different facets to Oliver's personality - business man, playboy, vigilante, and so on - and whoever he ends up with will have to match him on all those levels, not just one. That's why I like Felicity with him - she has a legitimate role in more than one of his worlds and she belongs there on her own terms. Not to say that she is or ever will be exactly like him, but they do complement each other. For this reason I also appreciated the scene two episodes back where she confronted Moira in the Queen mansion about Thea's paternity; it felt like we were seeing the sort of strength and poise that Felicity could develop in the future (in terms of character, not morality.)
no subject
no subject
The problem with the way Oliver's romantic drama is portrayed is that it feels like the writers are determined to make it part of the plot every single time, and honestly, it's hard to take it seriously because it feels so disingenuous. If it were just some guy you knew, five different girls (Shado was way in the past) over the span of a year and a half isn't really that big of a deal. Oliver's a young, single guy, so he's not doing anything wrong on a moral level - it's not as if he's cheating on his girlfriend or anything in the current storyline, so I can appreaciate that at least. (Psychologically is another story - that boy is messed up.)
But every single time, Oliver's hook-ups have to be part of this huge plot twist and I'm so over it. Still, it's hard to condemn him for it because a) it feels more plot than character driven and b) Oliver still has a lot of growing to do and he's an emotionally traumatised mess. He's on a learning curve, and as boring and repetitive as all the faux-romantic drama can be (seriously, the writers need to find some other stuff to focus on) it highlights Oliver's development and without that potential for growth the show would be dead in the water. You can't have a lead who is fully functional and flawless - they have to be a little bit broken so the audience gets invested in what they could become.