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jbuffyangel · 5 years

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Transparency: Arrow 7x11 Review (Past Sins)

Dear Arrow writers,

Please write better episodes for David Ramsey to direct.

Love,

I didn’t love “Past Sins” but that’s not a reflection on David Ramsey’s directing. I’m always happy when Arrow dives back into Robert Queen, but yeesh there was a lot of hokey.

I’d give it a C+ for writing, but a solid A for David’s first time directing.

Warning: my interpretation of Bl*ck S*ren’s arc is either right on the money or wildly and grossly wrong. No middle ground. It’s one or the other.

Let’s dig in…

Olicity

I love my steady ship. They are dealing with separate issues this week. Oliver is facing more Robert Queen fall out and Felicity is busy being Bl&ck S*ren’s Say No to Murder sponsor. And here we thought L*urel & booze was a problem. Oy.

But there are plenty of Olicity goodies as they check in with another. I truly don’t need 100% focus on Olicity every week. I mean, I’ll take it if Arrow is handing it out, but I’ve been watching this show for too long to believe in that pipe dream anymore. As long as they hit me with a few Olicity focused episodes I’ll be good.

Source: olicitygifs

The smaller moments are important to me too. In the immortal word of Joey Potter, “It’s gonna be the details that define us. The moments.”

The details and moments, big and small, define Olicity’s love. I am really enjoying watching our ship happily married. We’ve earned this friends.

Felicity continues to be Oliver’s rock solid support system. She gives him great advice about Emiko, he follows it and TA DA! A bridge to a relationship with his sister is created when before there was none.

Source: olicitygifs

The moral of the story is Felicity is always right and Oliver would avoid 99.999% of his problems if he just ran decisions through the home office first.

Source: oliverxfelicity

Felicity is pushing for transparency from Oliver because she knows the truth we all know. Oliver is an amazing human being, but he has to strip away all the things that prevent people from seeing that - such as masks and lies. The more Oliver shows his true self to Star City the more they will fall in love with him.

Why this city is more ticked off about Oliver hiding his identity rather than being grateful for the three times he’s saved them from total destruction is beyond me. Star City you continue to be an ungrateful twat of the highest order.

It’s really frustrating watching the police, Star City citizens and even Oliver’s own sister fundamentally mischaracterize who he is, but this is why Felicity continues to be so important. She’s our voice.

Felicity is saying all the things we would say to Oliver. Her belief is unwavering, so it’s clear the point of this storyline is to show that the police, Star City and Emiko are in the wrong. They’ve misjudged Oliver and as we continue to push him toward this almost Messiah like evolution it’s really important for hindsight. Everyone has look back and realize Oliver’s goodness was staring them in the face the whole time. This way when he raises from the dead everyone will appreciate him.

Source: oliverxfelicity

Is it weird I still get excited when they hold hands and kiss? Well, I still get excited when they hold hands and kiss.

Source: olicitygifs

We have had a solid kissing run too. I think they’ve smooched at least once for the last five episodes. We are well fed fandom.

I love Oliver’s little head shake whenever bae is being adorable.

Source: oliverxfelicity

He smiles and shakes his head like, “How in the world did a grump like me end up with this adorable rainbow of a human being?” I don’t know Oliver, but you are one lucky bastard.

Oliver Emiko and Robert Queen

Oliver offers his apology to Emiko for all the wrongs their father has done her. It’s juxtaposed against Oliver’s reformed vigilante interview with Bl*ck S*ren. Oliver may be sorry for what his father has done in the past, but in public he is still covering for him.

Oliver: I can prove to you I am nothing like him.

Emiko: You’re a Queen. All you know how to do is leverage your own privilege to help yourself.

I’m having some issues with Emiko’s perspective on Oliver.

She’s lived in Star City her whole life. She’s dressed up like the Green Arrow for the last seven months. If she can grasp the Green Arrow is a mechanism for justice then how can she say Oliver has simply been helping himself the last seven years? Those two don’t equate.

I understand Oliver singing his father’s heroic praises on television has to grate on Emiko because Robert was anything but a hero to her. It’s natural for Emiko to believe Oliver was a total asshole before the Queen’s Gambit, because he was one.

However, it’s difficult to view the Green Arrow as leveraging privilege. The guy saved the city from destruction three times. Oliver admitting he is a vigilante fighting for the citizens of Star City should have cleared up some of Emiko’s issues, but I guess not. I think the writers could have eased up on the anger a little bit.

Obviously, a lot of Emiko’s anger with Robert is being targeted at Oliver. He’s the last man holding the bag. Oliver has the Queen name so he has to answer for all their sins. Thanks a lot parents.

However, Emiko knows Oliver is more than Robert Queen’s son. He was mayor and saved the city multiple times. The only way I can rationalize Emiko discarding this information is she believes all the good she’s witnessed from Oliver was merely for show. No different than how Robert Queen paraded around town as a “good guy.”

Emiko is right about something – Oliver is still not telling the full story. We know he’s not as we listen to the interview. Oliver is obviously struggling with calling his father a hero now that he knows about Emiko. The truth is, abandoning his daughter is not the end of Robert Queen’s list of sins. Not by a long shot.

It’s always difficult to hear anyone bring up Robert’s suicide to Oliver because it is one of the most painful moments of his life. It is probably the most painful. There is a purpose to revisiting this topic, other than the reporter being a nosey, but it still makes me uncomfortable when anyone outside the inner circle (Felicity and Diggle) brings Robert up.

Hackett was Robert Queen’s bodyguard and he made it to the raft too. Robert shot him just before he turned the gun on himself.

In all of Oliver’s retelling of how his father heroically saved him he’s always omitted this detail. Quite frankly, I breezed past it over the last seven years too.

Hackett was expendable to Robert. A necessary cost to saving Oliver’s life. The choice Robert made in that moment was one most parents’ can understand, but that doesn’t change how Hackett died.

One of the reasons Oliver has not dealt with Hackett’s death, and the manner in which he died, is because he cannot reconcile the two events in his mind. Oliver cannot see his father as a murderer in one moment and a selfless hero in the next. The contrasting images are too stark. It was too much for a traumatized Oliver to sort through.

However, Oliver has learned life is not black and white. And neither are people. He’s come to terms with a lot of the trauma in his past.

Oliver is also in a stable, loving and supportive relationship, so he’s able to sort through the grey areas of Robert Queen.

Source: oliverxfelicity

His experience in Slabside showed Oliver criminals aren’t always entirely bad. So, now it is easier for Oliver to accept heroes aren’t always entirely good either.

Oliver’s ambivalence about Robert isn’t new territory. He told Tommy in Season 1 he had a lot of anger towards his father. There are a lot of decisions Robert made that hurt Oliver and he didn’t understand. He was grappling with the Undertaking at the time and Robert’s cowardly inability to put a stop to it. So, it’s not like Oliver has spent the last decade thinking his father is a swell guy.

The one thing Oliver always holds onto with both Robert and Mora is they did whatever was necessary to protect their children. It’s how Oliver rationalizes their more questionable behavior. However, Emiko is Robert’s child and he abandoned her. Moira turned her back on Emiko. Oliver cannot rationalize this behavior and it casts a much darker light on some of their previous actions. He’s also simply reeling from the shock of discovering he has a sister.

Oliver is on a transparency kick, which is why he’s doing this interview. He’s coming out of the shadows and allowing the people of Star City to see who he truly is. This isn’t new territory for Oliver either. He’s been showing Star City his true self bit by bit.

It started in Season 4 when he became mayor and rehabbed his bad boy lout image. Then, Oliver told the truth about how his father died in a press conference in Season 5.

Keep in mind the story the public knew was Robert drowned when the Gambit sank. Hell, Thea thought that until Season 3. However, Oliver left out a crucial detail in his heroic retelling of Robert’s sacrifice and now he needs to tell the whole truth if he’s really invested in full transparency.

Arrow grapples constantly with responsibility versus legacy in terms of Oliver’s heroic evolution. Oliver is not responsible for Robert Queen’s actions, but he’s trying to be a better man so the sins of the father do not become the sins of the son. He hasn’t always been successful at it, but overall Oliver is a better man than Robert. He’s the man his father asked him to be.

The legacy Oliver inherited from both his parents wasn’t great. He’s been focusing on creating a legacy of his own, one for William, which breaks the cycle of violence that began with Henry Goodwin’s death. However, there are still skeletons in Oliver’s closest. He wants Emiko to give him a chance to prove he’s different than their father.

Oliver: I think I’ve been so obsessed with proving to people I am not like my father that I didn’t stop and look at all the ways that I am exactly like him. I should have come clean with Sam years ago.

Oliver has been drowning in Robert Queen’s ocean of lies for over a decade. The only way to the surface is the truth.

It starts with Hackett’s son Sam who has been terrorizing the SCPD for hiring Oliver. He built some kind of vest that electrocutes police officers. This is the point of the episode where my electrical engineer husband got up and left. The vest pushed him over the edge. The level of ridiculousness on Arrow now matches The Vampire Diaries and he had to peace out.

Oliver admits he’s a liar to Sam because… he is. Oliver has told many lies over the years and simply because his intentions were good doesn’t automatically make the lying okay. If Oliver is really living a transparent life then he has to tell the whole true. Starting with how Sam’s father died. It’s a hell of an apology, but unfortunately too little too late for Sam. He’s gone round the bend.

Arrow takes a hard left directly into a wall when it decides rather than Sam simply electrocuting everyone with his science-that-doesn’t-exist vest, he’s going to make one of the police officers shoot Oliver. The other cops get to live if one of them kills Oliver. I think? I guess the police have to prove they aren’t working with a known criminal. Except Oliver is a criminal and he’s working for the SCPD, so…???!!!

Don’t make me explain this plot guys. It’s just as stupid on paper as it is watching from my living room. I like the Hackett son storyline. I’m always down for some son versus son melodrama, but I can’t with the hokey tech.

The cop can’t shoot Oliver because “he’s one of them.”

*Cue emotional music, preferably a string quartet, to signal the cops’ acceptance of Oliver to the audience.*

Dinah shoots an electrical box, the vest doesn’t work and nobody dies, which is exactly what every viewer across the globe expected to happen. The writers know they built zero suspense in this episode right?

Oliver decides to sit down for another interview, but this time he tells the whole truth when asked about his father’s heroic sacrifice. Yes, Robert Queen was a hero. He was also a murderer. Failing to acknowledge both truths does a disservice to Robert’s memory, his legacy and the people left behind.

Oliver: Transparency is about more than just not wearing a mask

A duality exists in us all. None of us are entirely good or bad. A good man can commit horrible sins. A horrible sinner can accomplish much good. They are often one in the same. The truth is the only proper judge of a person’s soul.

Source: smoakmonster

Ummm…

Generally, I would be extremely excited about this kind of a speech from Oliver Queen. I’d be trumpeting THY NAME IS CHARACTER GROWTH and hire a band to go marching down Main Street, but nope. Not this time. I am no longer the sweet summer child of my youth. This isn’t 2012. It’s fucking 2019 and I’ve been dancing this dance with Oliver Queen for a very long time.

Here is what I know: Oliver Jonas Queen is a liar liar pants on fire whenever he deems necessary. It’s the nature of the biz. He’s gonna hero the way he needs to hero and sometimes it requires selective truth telling behavior. Some would call this lying. I prefer to look at it as a necessary evil in the service of goodly, and Godly, pursuits. I’ve made my peace with it and I think Felicity has too.

He even prefaced this pledge by saying he’s made a lot of mistakes and will continue to make more. That’s literally a get out of jail free card to use whenever necessary!

Me: You said you weren’t going to lie Oliver!

Oliver: I also said I would make mistakes. The lie was a mistake. TA DA!

Me: *seethes*

I think it is wonderful Oliver is trying to live a more transparent life and I give him a lot of credit for airing his father’s dirtiest laundry ON LIVE TELEVISION. Most of us just get really drunk and drop a truth bomb at the wake. Different strokes for different folks.

I do believe Oliver means it. It’s very good for his hero development. He’s learning to merge both personas into one. The hood is down. He’s embracing his humanity and holding on tightly to the people he loves. Everyone knows he’s the Green Arrow. The truth is no longer the price for protecting his family’s name.

Oliver was so afraid everyone would blame him for Robert’s sins that he ended up committing some of those very same sins in an effort to avoid it. Oliver acknowledges he was wrong and shakes some of the last remaining skeletons in his closet free as a result.

The only person holding Oliver accountable for Robert Queen’s actions is Oliver (and Emiko). It’s because of what he witnessed and the trauma that resulted. His father’s last words were, “Right my wrongs,” and then he blew his brains out. It saddled Oliver with an enormous burden and guilt. His mission was born from that burden and guilt.

But there’s been a seismic shift inside Oliver. He’s stopped blaming himself for Robert’s death. He’s trying to shift away from violence and has stopped killing. He’s telling the truth about who his father really was and those admissions bring freedom.

Oliver is more concerned with his legacy than he is about Robert’s now. He is more concerned about being a good father than he is about being a good son. Bit by bit Oliver is lifting the weights that have burdened his shoulders for over a decade. Oliver is becoming a man who is nothing like Robert Queen, and by doing so, becomes exactly who his father asked him to be.

Oliver Queen is Robert Queen’s legacy. He was all the good Robert had left to give the world, which is why he sacrificed his life and killed Hackett. The only way Oliver completes Robert’s legacy is if he builds one of his own.

It means no more mask, hood, killing or lies. These are the layers which must be stripped away so Star City can see the man Oliver truly is. It’s like he’s yanking out all the worn out carpet and the beautiful hardwood floor waiting underneath is revealed. If we are preparing Oliver for a Messiah like resurrection then this is another very big step to a sin free hero.

It’s enough for Emiko to see Oliver’s light and goodness too. It’s not enough for her to forgive Robert for what he did, but she realizes Oliver is very different from their father. His transparency makes Emiko think a relationship with her brother may be worth having after all. And that’s a start.

Bl*ck S*ren and Felicity

Source: andremichaux

Felicity and L*urel are wine drinking buddies.

How long have we waited for Felicity to have a female friend to drink wine with? SEVEN YEARS. And the female friend is… S*ren.

Here’s what’s even weirder – I buy Bl*ck Siren and Felicity as drinking buddies more than I buy L*urel and Felicity. That’s how bad it was with her character.

We finally get Bl*ck S*ren’s back story. I was slightly curious about how S*ren ended up as a fishnet wearing, screaming psychopath. The answer is cake.

S*ren’s father forgot her cake for her 13th birthday party. So, L*urel threw a fit and Quentin got back in the car to get it - only to be driven off the road by a drunk driver.

S*ren becoming a super villain because of cake is the most L*urel thing this show has ever done. I cracked up.

The drunk driver, Collins, is supposedly Siren’s first kill so she can’t understand why she sees him alive in an alley. Umm… because he’s the E1 version and not the E2 version. How is S*ren confused by that? You. Are. A. Doppelganger. She’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

S*ren believes Collins is stalking her (re: threatening notes), but he’s not. He’s just a drunk Dinah locks up for disorderly conduct. S*ren didn’t really kill E2 Collins either. She didn’t have a handle on her powers back then. E2 Collins died on his porch of old age, I’m assuming.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

So, the catalyst murder S*ren used to justify her murder-y rampage wasn’t murder after all. The first person S*ren ever killed was someone who didn’t have anything to do with her father’s death. This essentially eliminates any moral justification for Siren’s killing going forward.

Bl*ck S*ren's father's death is not her fault. The many people she killed, however, are her fault. It’s good S*ren didn’t kill Collins, but it also removes any justification she might have thought she had. S*ren’s whole world is a house of cards.

Source: katie-mcgraths

This storyline is really a bonding opportunity for L*urel and Felicity. S*ren blames herself for her father’s death and Felicity is there to tell her it’s not her fault. This is an important step in a redemptive process. We have to get to the root of what caused the bad decisions, so the character can avoid the behavior in the future.

Sort of like how Oliver confessed he enjoyed killing to Felicity in a sewer. She told him that was crazy talk and she does the same thing for L*urel here.

Source: katie-mcgraths

One of the reasons I like this version of LL is because she’s a more interesting character. S*ren is a killer and a villain, so it does give her scenes with Felicity and the other characters a different slant. I know it frustrates people when she shares scenes with Felicity, but I enjoy them. They make a good straight woman/funny woman. Felicity doesn’t ignore S*ren is a murderer and the occasional snarky comment from one of them gives their scenes some honesty, which was sorely lacking with LL.

Felicity: You haven’t had a problem talking about the dozens of other people you’ve killed so why keep this one secret?

Is it ridiculous Felicity is drinking Malbec with a serial killer? Yeah. I’m not sure what else to say about it. It seems everyone has decided since Bl*ck S*ren is living life as straight laced L*urel L*nce, and doing good, they are going to look the other way regarding her multiple homicides.

The fact Felicity believes she can reform a killer isn’t exactly out of character. She’s done it before and look how good he turned out! This guy used to drop bodies on the regular and now he’s a puppy dog.

Of course, I am not equating Bl*ck S*ren’s murders and Oliver’s murders. They are very different things. S*ren killed good people for a bad reason. Oliver killed bad people for a good reason. But it’s still murder. So, yes I am leaving room for Bl*ck Siren’s redemption if she actually does what I think her redemption arc requires. And that’s a big if.

One reason I’m not particularly bothered by this sudden besties arc with Felicity is because something feels off. Really off. Does this feel a little fast to anyone else?

Arrow made a really big show of S*ren living L*urel’s life better than L*urel did in “Past Sins.” She’s the most popular DA in the last ten years, which really says something about our L*urel’s ability to lawyer. Someone who studied for three months, never went to law school or took the bar is navigating the Star City penal system better than L*urel ever did. I gotta say this show never misses an opportunity to shade whatever version of L*urel L*nce they can.

My point is Bl*ck S*ren, by Arrow’s standard of measurement, is redeemed. Felicity is singing her praises about how proud Quentin would be.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Even Oliver coughed up a 60% compliment in the interview, which I think is a personal best when it comes to those two.

Source: smoakmonster

Oliver, Felicity and Dinah have all signed off on Siren’s redemption. And we’re on episode 11.

If S*ren is ending this season as redeemed than she’s already there. Beth talked about how some characters will find redemption while others will not. If they are focused on S*ren achieving redemption then they shouldn’t have her land there in 7x11. She has nowhere to go other than maintain the status quo, which puts us back to the original problem the writers had with L*urel. It’s also kind of a dull storyline and we have a lot of season left.

I think everyone was “Ra Ra Ra Siren! Go Team!” because they aren’t done exploring her darker side. S*ren was uncomfortable about Felicity wanting to have drinks like friends. She also had difficulty accepting Felicity’s compliment regarding honoring Quentin. Eventually, she allowed the sentiment to sink in and could appreciate the acceptance and forgiveness being shown her. But something lingered in her eyes a little.

Source: nyssaalghl

But what does she do next? When S*ren is threatened she chooses to kill Collins, whatever version of him. There’s no reason S*ren couldn’t have reached out to Dinah or asked Felicity to help her resolve the problem legally. SHE IS THE FREAKING DA. But no – S*ren opts for murder.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

The only reason she didn’t do it is because Felicity interrupted and yanked her off the playground like a three year old. That doesn’t signal a redeemed person at all.

One of the problems with S*ren’s character is she had no connection to Oliver or Felicity, which automatically separates a character into a different show. They had the same problem with our L*urel. They had to give Quentin some ridiculous arc about S*ren being his daughter to justify her staying put in Season 6.

But now, she’s Felicity’s drinking buddy! S*ren helped save Oliver and Felicity held Siren’s hand through her emotional cake confession. FRIENDS. Hell, even Oliver is starting to like her.

I know this makes everyone bang their heads against the wall. Seriously, that’s all it took for Oliver and Felicity to get on S*ren’s bandwagon?

We have to remember this is Arrow and their history with LL and KC is… complicated. They aren’t going to devote a ton of time developing a relationship with Felicity. I think they’ve done a pretty good job selling it, but sure episode 11 feels a little too soon for Felicity to be completely invested in S*ren’s redemption.

I think they are moving quickly because they aren’t fully invested in S*ren’s redemption. If everyone is redeemed at the end of the season then it automatically lessens the impact. You get redemption and you get redemption!

Redemption should be difficult to earn. It certainly has been for Oliver. Someone has to fail at achieving it to show it’s difficult to earn. Someone has to reject it to show the value of those who desire it.

They’ve been comparing and contrasting Oliver and Bl*ck S*ren all season. “Past Sins” is the most obvious thus far. Both Oliver and L*urel are dealing with father issues. Both characters had guilt to contend with and each landed in a fairly peaceful place about it by the end of the episode.

S*ren is getting all the same support from Felicity that Oliver found. At at the end of the day, having good people around us isn’t enough. We have to choose to be a good person. Redemption can only occur when a person wants to be redeemed. The fact S*ren slips so easily back into murder makes me question if she really does. Perhaps, the shoe won’t fit in the end.

It would be an amazing contrast to Oliver’s arc. We know he’ll end the season redeemed. If Felicity shows S*ren the same love and support, but she chooses to remain evil then it casts a very bright light on Oliver.

Free will must be introduced. The writers have to level the playing field. S*ren has to be given all the same opportunities and support Oliver was given. Then, if she rejects redemption it’s truly on her. She has no one to blame than herself. Oliver’s redemption and goodness is not just a result of Felicity’s belief and influence. It’s also who Oliver chooses to be.

BS and Felicity have developed a friendship, so if she goes back to her villain ways then there are stakes now. Felicity is invested whereas a year ago she wouldn’t give BS a second thought. It gives the two characters drama to play with in the fallout.

Of course, I could be completely wrong. It’s entirely possible the writers will keep BS at the status quo. If that’s what happens then character’s snide snark still makes her a more interesting character to watch than milk toast LL. Or perhaps the writers are pursuing a more in depth redemptive arc. S*ren will own up to her crimes and do a stint in the pokey. That would be a great contrast to Oliver as well. No matter which way they go I am curious to find out, which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for my apathetic state regarding LL years ago.

Curtis and Diggle

My live tweets track my emotional Curtis Holt roller coaster.

Look, I am a nice person and I deserve nice things. The writers teasing Curtis’ death like this proves to me they know he’s the absolute worst and we want him gone. They’re just being obstinate about it.

I still think Curtis is going to die.

They’re just going to mess with us before they off him for real. All the evidence is still there. There’s no mention of him in the future, there’s no Holt in Smoak Tech, Felicity is developing the tech for the Archer program without him (AS SHE SHOULD), and he’s not part of the Mark of Four.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Curtis has been almost nonexistent for the last four or five episodes. It’s clear the writers aren’t using him as much and that’s typically a sign of their lack of investment in the character. Tell me what was going on with L*urel before she bit the dust. Nothing, that’s what.

My cratering disappointment aside, Curtis did get one over on Diaz. It’s a bad ass moment for the character, which probably means we have another coming with his alter ego Mr. Terrific and then he’ll be toast.

He’s also the voice of morality the entire episode. Curtis Holt is acting more Yoda than John Diggle. Just when I think we can’t go any lower the writers reset the whole scale.

He takes a big stand with John and decides he’ll be making his own calls. Let’s just ignore that’s not how a military operation works, Diggle outranks him and Lyla can just fire his ass.

When characters suddenly become angels with wings it means Arrow is getting ready to ship them off to the great, big superhero haven in the sky.

I don’t really care about Ghost Protocol. Sure, it’s inhumane putting bombs in people’s heads. Curtis is right. Diggle is wrong, but whatever. Put a bomb in Diaz’s head, John. Have at it.

Stray Thoughts

Felicity looked adorable in her white and red polka dot shirt. It’s affordably priced, but it’s one of those shirts I know looks amazing on Emily and horrible on me. We have very different bodies.

This bottle remark is a big mood. I’m gonna abuse this gif. Source: felicitysmoakgifs

No meeting between Felicity and Emiko. I think the writers will focus on Oliver’s relationship with Emiko and once that is solid we’ll get Felicity and William interactions with her. They can’t do two things at once friends. Don’t make it too hard on them.

They can’t say Suicide Squad. Hahaha

Why is Bl*ck S*ren dressed like a Girl Scout on E2? Source: nyssaalghl

“You should be behind bars.” I like this guy. Collins can stay. Next round is on me buddy.

"I almost do." Bl*ck S*ren kind of grows on you, Oliver. Like a chia pet.

Reason 34,097 why Felicity Smoak is our spirit animal: never leave the wine. Source: felicitysmoakgifs

We need to ease off the shoulder pads with KC, wardrobe department. I'm having eighties flashbacks. Reel it back in.

My understanding of Oliver working with the SCPD is he does all the work while Dinah & co follow him around in single file. How is this any different than what he did before? Oh it's legal. This is dumb. I’m over it. Time for Team Arrow to get back together.

Great nod to Felicity not taking Oliver's last name.

David loves the slow close up. A signature is born.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 7x11 gifs credited.

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#arrow #arrow 7x11 #arrow reviews #felicity smoak #oliver queen #olicity #oliver and felicity #anti black siren #anti laurel lance #emiko queen #anti curtis holt #john diggle #david ramsey #arrow spoilers #arrow season 7 #arrow season 7 reviews #season 7 episode review #season 7 episode reviews

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fivestarglam · 3 years

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Occasionally, my nine-year-old son and I indulge in something we call the “Misunderstanding Game”.

Thomas: “Mom, I want another round of Among Us.”

Me: “Of course, darling, you are absolutely welcome to be among us, you know you don’t have to ask.”

Thomas, giggling and rolling his eyes, patiently explains yet again that there is a computer game called Among Us. In other words, he wants more screen time. I carry on pretending not to understand what he wants. Games, I say, what a good idea. Which one would you like to play? On and on it goes, as I keep on deliberately misunderstanding him.

I do, of course, have a hidden agenda: all this time that he is fooling around with me means less screen time. He also enjoys the maternal attention. I think of it at times as a useful activity, at times as amusing and entirely harmless.

When I listen to people discuss today’s encounters between Islam and the West, I am reminded of this game. The only problem is that these conversations are rarely useful and not in the least amusing. Quite often they lead to more harm than good.

The best illustration of this Misunderstanding Game relates to the issue of immigration from Muslim countries and how European societies should absorb Muslim immigrants.

The first deliberate misunderstanding is the pretence that unskilled immigrants with little formal education are absolutely necessary for advanced economies. With Europe’s shrinking populations and falling fertility rates, the woke and Leftist enablers say, surely no one can argue that enticing young and vibrant people to immigrate is a bad thing. Those terrible xenophobes who fixate on cost/benefit exercises — how much, in monetary terms, immigrants cost society versus how much they contribute — simply don’t get it. Those who point out the large-scale welfare dependency of those immigrants and even of their children a generation later, let alone the emergence of an underclass of ethnic and religious enclaves, are met with cheerful accounts of benefits that cannot be quantified in material terms: the cuisine, attire, sights and sounds of new exotic cultures that locals can now sample at leisure.

Related to this wilful misunderstanding is the argument of compassion. Let’s reject the economic immigrants, say some, and only allow in those who qualify for asylum. In any case, it is just a temporary measure until their countries return to normal. But this approach raises myriad questions. How on earth do we design a vetting process that can distinguish those in search of economic opportunity from those who are true victims of civil strife? When will their countries return to normal? What will they do in the meantime? And who will pay for it all?

Those adept at playing the Misunderstanding Game, however, have some very compelling distractions. Empathy is required, they say. Imagine if it were you or your family who had to endure the ravages of war and upheaval. It wasn’t that long ago that Europe was going through such turmoil. Would you have turned away Jews fleeing what would become the Holocaust?

In any case, we’re told, it is our own fault that these societies are falling apart because we colonised them in the first place. Worse, we even profited from the slave trade before and during the colonial years. Here the conclusion of the Misunderstanding Game is made clear: the moral atonement for historical wrongs is more compelling than any rational attempt to analyse the issues on the table.

A third version of the Misunderstanding Game is the assertion that immigrants are all the same. This approach is partly a response to those such as Dutch sociologist Professor Ruud Koopmans, who has questioned why is it so much harder for immigrants from Muslim societies to integrate into Western countries. Why, for instance, are Lebanese Christians Lebanese more likely to become fully assimilated in Australia than Lebanese Muslims when their circumstances of arrival and departure are practically the same? Or why do Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants struggle to integrate in the UK, while their Hindu and Sikh counterparts flourish and, in some cases, even do better than the natives?

Koopmans has compelling data to explain these trends. But who is interested in such questions, let alone such tedious things as data? The game is to misunderstand, to mix up and muddle. So Mr Koopmans, they say, let’s talk about your intent. Your work may be empirical but it is your underbelly that matters: for even though you claim to be a Social Democrat, you are in fact a racist. Busted. You can’t hide behind that pro-labour façade when you defame the true workers of the world with your anti-social science.

Finally, when played at its most mischievous, the Misunderstanding Game simply insists that we all want the same things. We all want to be free and equal; we all want to abide by the law; we all share the same basic values and we all want to respect the dignity of others. For those of us who are men and women of faith, in the end we all pray to the same God. For those of us who are secular, we are all led by our reason. Save for a subset of misfits — and every society has those — we are all just human beings.

To this kind of argument, I always have the same response: not everyone’s concept of God is identical. How else would you explain the existence of Islamist sermons of hatred? Or the harassment of women, gays, Jews and others? What would you say to the victims of the Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs or the Muslim girls who are forced into marriage? If we all pray to the “same” God, then what about the knife attacks, the beheadings and the use of trucks as weapons of murder by perpetrators screaming Allahu-Akbar? What about ISIS and Al-Qaeda? Radical views exist and we urgently need to grapple with them.

Hold it right there, the misunderstanders reply. Didn’t we already make it clear? There are misfits in every society, including ours. Sexual violence against women is universal. And look at the latest report from the UK Home Office. It concludes clearly — after an allegedly long and rigorous research process — that the whole gory business of grooming gangs had nothing to do with Pakistanis and absolutely nothing to do with Islam.

So who is playing this Misunderstanding Game? A class of undergraduates doing a workshop on Public Policy? No. It is in fact our elected political leaders, as well as senior editors from highly regarded news outlets, professors from reputable universities and think tanks, senior civil servants and, at times, EU leaders. These conversations on the thorniest issues facing Europe are taking place in parliamentary committees, debating chambers, international seminars and on national television.

Scrutinise the transcripts of these talks, replay the recordings, read the numerous reports, books and articles generated over the last three decades on immigration, Islam and integration, and the picture that emerges is the same: it is an endless version of the Misunderstanding Game.

Meanwhile, the numbers of immigrants in Europe from Muslim-majority countries has swelled to… who knows? In 2017, the Pew Research Center projected that the Muslim share of Europe’s population could rise from 4.9% to between 7.4% (if there is no more immigration) and 14% (if there is a lot) by 2050. Even if there is less blitheness today about the wonderful ways immigrants from Muslim countries will enrich Europe — especially in France — an end to immigration is not in sight. Europe’s borders continue to be porous, the reasons that compel people to leave their countries get increasingly compelling.

It is, perhaps, a disappointment to those who have always insisted that we humans are all the same to see so many Muslim groups form organisations and movements with the objective of isolating their communities from the rest of society. In some countries, like France, they have succeeded enough to alarm the president to introduce new legislation that signals he has had enough of the Misunderstanding Game. And yet President Macron can hardly be said to be leading a Europe-wide change of sentiment. In most countries, the Misunderstanding Game goes on. Why?

One theory is that there is a genuine desire within the European political elite to atone for the past; today’s leaders don’t want to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors. Another possibility is that Western leaders have simply lost confidence in Western Civilisation. It has all been one long tale of horrors: slavery, oppression, colonialism, genocides, misogyny and massacres. Hence there are no values to protect from large numbers of outsiders and certainly nothing worthwhile to ask immigrants to integrate into. A third explanation is that some European leaders genuinely wish to do away with borders. For them it is a matter of principle and they couldn’t care less who pays the price for the pursuit of a borderless planet.

But I believe there is one more reason: incompetence. Quite simply, none of the leaders whose job it is to resolve the issues of Muslim immigration and integration has a clue as to how to go about it. These politicians around the table who do have the right sort of principles but lack the ability to persuade the others. Some grasp the fine details of the issue but are incapable of seeing the big picture. And as with all policy areas of this magnitude and complexity, there are also those leaders who parrot the interests of organised groups who benefit from the status quo. It is they, I assume, who enjoy the Misunderstanding Game the most.

The incompetence of each set of leaders is often masked by an eye-catching political photo-op expressing a grand gesture or a soundbite along the lines of “history will be our judge”. But, as they know all too well, history does not vote; it does not promote or appoint a politician to a senior level. So let it judge away.

In the meantime, the flow of migrants has abated somewhat in the past few years, but large numbers of people still attempt to reach Europe, even during the pandemic. Last year Europe saw more than 336,000 first-time asylum applications and, from January to November, 114,300 illegal entries.

Looking forward, it seems inevitable that as European countries emerge out of Covid lockdowns and their economies reopen, some countries in Africa will face food shortages and other economic problems arising from pandemic-induced disruption. You don’t have to be a sage to foresee masses of young men heading towards Europe. As they attempt to cross the Eastern and Southern points of entry into the EU, be ready for European politicians to speak of a sudden surge and an unforeseeable crisis.

Then watch them play the Misunderstanding Game once again.

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