Hello,
I was going to make a video but I decided that an open letter would be easier.
I am a huge fan of Arrow. I am an even bigger fan of Olicity. Regardless of what people think, I am NOT here to talk up the Olicity fandom and/or make the fandom look like saints, that is not the point of this open letter.
I'm here to talk about the bullying within the Arrow fandom and how it keeps being encouraged.
Today, Stephen Amell responded to a guy who made a video to complain. (This is NOT the first time Stephen has replied to hate). Anyways, Stephen encouraged this guy to keep on sharing his opinions. I would totally be fine with this if the video this guy made was reasonable or respectful, but he wasn't so I'm going to share my opinion. This guy, the one who Stephen encouraged to keep sharing his opinions, is the guy who has made multiple videos saying VERY harsh things about the show and it's writers (there is a difference between being passionate and being an asshole). This is the guy who's made videos saying that Stephen's female co-star got/keeps her job by doing "sexual favors" and has said many terrible things about her. This is the guy who had a legit breakdown on camera over the fact that Olicity won MTV's Ship Of The Year, he got so scary I thought he was going to fire his camera out of his window. Stephen encouraged THAT guy. Whether Stephen has seen his other videos or not is completely irrelevant. It's incredibly sad. This guy had the damn nerve in his videos to say that fans of Olicity weren't real fans of the show. I have a few things to say on that:
1. Which fandom has done NOTHING but shit on Arrow the last year or so?
2. Which fandom made the NoLaurelNoArrow hashtag (which is an insult to the entire cast and the writers who all work so hard)?
3. What fandom constantly harasses the actors on the show?
4. Which fandom sends death threats to the writers and to an actress because of her character this season?
5. Which fandom uses the MakeArrowGreatAgain hashtag?
6. Which fandom constantly harasses other people for sharing what they love, telling them to get cancer, to die and threatening them with rape?
7. Who wants the show to get cancelled?
I can only assume you know that the answer to all of these questions is: NOT THE OLICITY FANDOM. So the guy who's trying to tell us that WE aren't real fans needs to stop being so f*cking dense and is in serious need of a reality check. The Olicity fans are the ones who:
1. Spread positivity.
2. Promote and get people excited for Arrow since the
damn network seems to be incapable of that.
3. Trend for the show and our ship every week
4. Make beautiful edits, videos and fan arts everyday to
show our love and support for the show and Olicity
5. Have a movement where we leave positive comments
under ANYTHING Arrow related because we hate the
negativity.
6. Manage to share our opinions respectfully.
7. Share our love for the show with the cast and writers
And what do we get in return? Bullied. We can't share our opinions on what we love without being aggressively attacked in the comment section. We get BARELY any promo from the CW, the Arrow account and the actors. (I think they're afraid of offending these bullies). We have to do it ourselves. Theses bullies are constantly being encouraged and nowadays it seems like these haters are being given exactly what they want. Romance is just as important as any other aspect of the show and has a huge part to play in character development (Felicity helped Oliver's character alot over the seasons). I just don't want the writers to forget that. I don't want the Olicity fandom to be CONSTANTLY underappreciated when we are the ones who actually do the most for the show.
Alot of people seem to think Olicity fans are living the good life when in fact majority of the fans aren't exactly ecstatic with the direction of the show nowadays. Olicity aren't together, their storyline was handled poorly in the last half of season 4, it seems like they are being put on hold even more, Felicity's storylines were also handled poorly and now she's getting a "boyfriend". So we aren't exactly on cloud 9 either. The difference between us and the haters is that we have the ability to share our opinions and concerns without being complete assholes. Sure, we could make a hashtag for example #NoOlicityNoArrow, and believe me we would trend the shit out of it, but we won't because we aren't toddlers.
These haters always say "damn Olicity fans don't have lives! its only a tv show! they should die! get cancer! they're ruining the show! i cant believe they don't realize this couple isn't real!"..Ok, when you attack and harass real people (the actors, the fans and the writers) over damn fiction I think you are the one with the problem. You are the one who needs to realize that this is all fiction and the people you attack are real people with ACTUAL feelings.
So my point here, is that I just wish people like this aren't encouraged all the time. Something has to be done about it. Replying to hate is only encouraging it more. It doesn't do anyone any good. Instead of replying to hate, why not reply to actual fans who want to share love and have a bit of fun?
I only write all of this because I love the show and the cast so damn much. So when we have to deal with things like this all the time and nothing is done about it, it can be very disheartening. The entire fandom is just tired. We really do deserve better. I don't just mean the Olicity fandom, but the everyone who actually still watches the show and manages to spread positivity but still have respectful complaints and concerns.
