People pronounce it Raz because that's the way it reads in English and that's the way it's pronounced in Arabic, which is the language the name is from. Ra's only sounds like "Raysh" in Hebrew.. which then doesn't make the al Ghul make sense as that's Arabic as well.
The Denny O'Neil pronunciation isn't wrong per say. He can decide whatever he wants about the pronunciation of the name. However, since the actual language pronunciation is is Raz (Raas or Raw-uss), then saying it that way isn't actually wrong.
People pronounce it Raz because that's the way it reads in English and that's the way it's pronounced in Arabic, which is the language the name is from. Ra's only sounds like "Raysh" in Hebrew.. which then doesn't make the al Ghul make sense as that's Arabic as well.
Yeah I really don't mind the "Raz" pronunciation, sounds a lot cooler. Also yeah, in Arabic it would be "Ross," which doesn't sound nearly as intimidating, just add that zzzz and dayum you got a nice smooth sounding english translation.
Also, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD THAT EPISODE WAS AMAZING. This show just completely blows away any other superhero adaptation right now IMO. After Smallville, who would've thought that we'd actually get such a good superhero show, capable of even surpassing some of the films? Shit, DC really needs to throw in Arrow and the new Flash with Man of Steel; I might actually enjoy a Justice League film then.
And who knows? Maybe with the greenlighting of Flash and A-tier batman villains, DC is finally paying some notice/has bigger plans for the show. Hell, they clobbered Smallville with a tougher embargo than Arrow.
Can't wait for Deathstroke to make an appearance though it's really too bad that he seems destined to go 100% darkside (probably something Shado related too, with how hard they are pushing that whole Slade loves Shado, but Shado kinda loves Ollie shizz), and I guess taking the serum without a sedative might have F'd up his brain a tad. From what Ollie says we may never get a Starling Slade, killed and burned all the super soldiers? That pyre with the Deathstroke mask nearby... hmmm. Though I guess Slade's popularity will keep him around for a long time to come.
One thing I'm really loving about this show is their use of the DC rogue galleries (league of assassins and hive name drop). I doubt Raa's will show up himself, though I'm wondering how much they'll flesh out those galleries. I can see them using H.I.V.E as main villains.
As much as I would like to see Ammell star in hollywood blockbuster JLA this is one of the reasons why I hope the TV and movie universes stay separate, because if they are connected you can bet the shows won't be able to take A-list villains like Ra's and actually have them appear on the show.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy God, that episode was so good.
Thoughts:
- Barry Allen: I loved him. Look guys, I admit, I fucking hated the idea of introducing The Flash. You all know this. I whined incessantly. And while I am still apprehensive about his powers will be portrayed, Grant as sold me on this character. I adore this kid. I wanna be his friend. He's like me, but handsomer.
- Loved the musical theme they gave Barry. Whimsical, amusing, but traces of that 'heroic' feel. If that's the atmosphere they wanna take The Flash show, with traces of darkness, I'm in. Barry Allen, the guy who investigates the weird shit no one else will touch. Nice set up for an overarching narrative as well as case of the week episodes. If they nail the tone, it'll be a nice complement for Arrow. Arrow takes on the dark, more serious crime tales, Flash takes on the weirder off-the-wall tales.
- The chemistry between Grant and Emily was great! It crackled. I do wanna see more between Barry and Oliver though.
- Holy fuck, Slade. That shit was brutal. And we got so many hints as to where they go from here. "The last man I met with powers like that... I burned." Jesus Christ, Oliver. Maybe Slade won't show up in Starling after all.
- Holy fuck, Roy. Oliver's idea of slowing him down is to shoot him. I fucking love you, Oliver. That shit was so cray-cray.
- Holy fuck, that was a cringe worthy party where nobody showed up. Argh. Felt bad for Moira.
- But I didn't feel bad for Malcolm when the Ice Queen dropped the R'as Bomb on him. Suck on that, bitch!
- The superpowers. You know what, they've introduced them well. It's just heightened strength and endurance, nothing CGI-budget-breaking or completely unbelievable. The real test comes when The Flash gets his abilities.
- The next episode is called 'Three Ghosts' and I'm pretty sure the three ghosts in question will be
Shado, Slade, and Tommy.
Like 100% certain.
- I wonder if the Brother Blood plot line will end in the next episode or what. I'm thinking Oliver figures out Blood is responsible, but isn't able to take him down. Is next week's episode gonna be like Arrow's version of A Christmas Carol? I think Roy's already got an inkling about Blood.
- No Laurel! Yay! Good to see Shado called Ollie out on his shit on the Island.
- THE MIRAKARU LOL. I actually didn't mind. Oh, idea! Chemicals + Lightning alone don't give Barry his abilities. Somehow, they wind up at the particle accelerator and he's dowsed and struck by lightning and is dying, and Ollie injects him with the Mirakaru to save his life, leading to him getting the abilities.
- Shit, at this point, I think the particle accelerator is a red herring and no one winds up there.
- By the way, the Slade-loves-Shado reveal felt incredibly ridiculous. Come. The. Fuck. On.
Instead of just undressing Oliver and taking him to the hospital, or asking Barry to help (or asking him to follow them to the Verdant, then asking him to help), they decide to knock unconscious the person they need to save Ollie's life and abduct him from a train station, making no efforts to conceal their identity after he wakes up (no rush, Oliver isn't dying dying) ...And then ask for help.
Instead of just undressing Oliver and taking him to the hospital, or asking Barry to help (or asking him to follow them to the Verdant, then asking him to help), they decide to knock unconscious the person they need to save Ollie's life and abduct him from a train station, making no efforts to conceal their identity after he wakes up (no rush, Oliver isn't dying dying) ...And then ask for help.
I really hope that time travel isn't involved in Barry's mother's death. She was killed by the time traveling Zoom, right? I'm beginning to be okay with superpowers and the weirder side of the DCU in the Arrowverse, but magic and time travel are not something I want to see incorporated into the show.
Edit: Also, goddammit Barry, you shoulda kissed the girl.
Instead of just undressing Oliver and taking him to the hospital, or asking Barry to help (or asking him to follow them to the Verdant, then asking him to help), they decide to knock unconscious the person they need to save Ollie's life and abduct him from a train station, making no efforts to conceal their identity after he wakes up (no rush, Oliver isn't dying dying) ...And then ask for help.
I really hope that time travel isn't involved in Barry's mother's death. She was killed by the time traveling Zoom, right? I'm beginning to be okay with superpowers and the weirder side of the DCU in the Arrowverse, but magic and time travel are not something I want to see incorporated into the show.
Edit: Also, goddammit Barry, you shoulda kissed the girl.
Niiiice! Really enjoyed this episode. I like the guy playing Barry and loved that they did the Barry always being late thing. And Zoom! This show really is picking up!
- Holy fuck, Slade. That shit was brutal. And we got so many hints as to where they go from here. "The last man I met with powers like that... I burned." Jesus Christ, Oliver. Maybe Slade won't show up in Starling after all.
Diggle: And you think this Ivo's in Starling City?
Oliver: He's dead. And so is everyone that he injected with the serum. The last of which...I burned.
He said that in a way that clearly points that he burned serum, not people.
I don't mind if they make the Flash show a bit more far out than Arrow and keep Starling relatively normal, with occasional grounded superpowered characters.
Now I've never read any comics so I dont know the Arrow story completely...but the way the story is told - I'm guessing Oliver will end up with Laurel at the end which is beyond dumb of him when he has the heavenly blessed beauty Felicity right in front of him who I would white knight every single time. Pls Ollie, be smart about this now
Ollie's not a good judge of character as his mom noted to the woman he banged in Russia.
I found it interesting that they used that line to segue back to the island. For any of the 3 characters any could misjudge it feels wrong. If Sarah was the reference then why is Ollie on good terms with her now? If it's Slade I doubt it will make sense since without Super Slade they probably would've died. Shadoo would be justified to be very distrustful of Ollie when she found out about Sarah.
I also liked that Roy said he had his own friends who could help him. It would be hilarious to see him try to make Thea and Sin be his Felicity and Diggle. I just want a whole episode appreciate just how comedic this is.
Another aspect I liked is that this Ras isn't a Nolan Ras beant on punishing the wicked as we assumed earlier. Otherwise he would approve of Merlin's actions. We'll just see what type of Ras we are going to get in this show.
Overall I didn't like the pacing of this episode. I liked what the individual moments that made it up were going for but I felt with the way the Barry scenes played out and the shift into less realistic Arrow universe had thrown off the tone and timing of everything I expect in an Arrow episode.
Barry's story: Is that a reference to flashpoint? By that I mean he goes back in time to save his mother, but (after the events of flashpoint) he stops himself from altering events.
I think it could be... or what's more likely: probably not.
P.S. Felicity's boob window gets a thumbs up (...) from me.
Barry's story: Is that a reference to flashpoint? By that I mean he goes back in time to save his mother, but (after the events of flashpoint) he stops himself from altering events.
I think it could be... or what's more likely: probably not.
P.S. Felicity's boob window gets a thumbs up (...) from me.
- Holy fuck, Slade. That shit was brutal. And we got so many hints as to where they go from here. "The last man I met with powers like that... I burned." Jesus Christ, Oliver. Maybe Slade won't show up in Starling after all.
I'm going to just say right here that I'm guessing the plan is Deathstroke as the big bad for Season 6, at the very least. That'll be the first non-Island season, and at that point they can stop trying to hide their hand about what happens there.
Guessing he's being groomed to be Ollie's arch-nemesis.
Probably not. I thought it was just the sedative at first, but when Diggle and Felicity find him, they say they don't know what he's been injected/poisoned with (I would assume they would know at least if it was the serum or not, since Felicity analyzed Cyrus's blood from the arrow), which is why they needed Barry's help.
I stand by my exasperation. Just because he was there 5 years doesn't mean that we need 5 seasons of flashbacks. I can't see it being fresh and entertaining that long. It's only S2 of it and I already care less about the Island than the current timeline, with my interest waning more as the season goes on.
I'm going to just say right here that I'm guessing the plan is Deathstroke as the big bad for Season 6, at the very least. That'll be the first non-Island season, and at that point they can stop trying to hide their hand about what happens there.
Guessing he's being groomed to be Ollie's arch-nemesis.
Deathstroke is almost certain to return, I don't think they would wait til season 6 to bring him back, he could show up this season again in the present. They'll probably end up burning him in a flashback this season, which would end his involvement in the past (for the most part), but remember that Laurel's sister just appeared in flashbacks and she already appeared in Starling.
Deathstroke is almost certain to return, I don't think they would wait til season 6 to bring him back, he could show up this season again in the present. They'll probably end up burning him in a flashback this season, which would end his involvement in the past (for the most part), but remember that Laurel's sister just appeared in flashbacks and she already appeared in Starling.
I think he's being groomed to be the major Island antagonist. Until that is fully resolved (and we know it resolves in a big way, recall that one of the first iconic images of the show was his mask impaled on an arrow on the beach), he's not going to pop up in the present, and I'm not expecting them to resolve that whole thing until the very end of the Island stories. To do otherwise would require writing around a lot of stuff (and I'm fairly certain while the writers may have some loose ideas of the arc of the remaining years of the Island, they don't know the particulars) and eliminating some suspense for those fans who don't know about Deathstroke as a character.
That's why I'm really not expecting him to show up in the present until Season 6.
I think he's being groomed to be the major Island antagonist. Until that is fully resolved (and we know it resolves in a big way, recall that one of the first iconic images of the show was his mask impaled on an arrow on the beach), he's not going to pop up in the present, and I'm not expecting them to resolve that whole thing until the very end of the Island stories. To do otherwise would require writing around a lot of stuff (and I'm fairly certain while the writers may have some loose ideas of the arc of the remaining years of the Island, they don't know the particulars) and eliminating some suspense for those fans who don't know about Deathstroke as a character.
That's why I'm really not expecting him to show up in the present until Season 6.
