Felicity Smoak

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Character
Name: Felicity Smoak
Felicity Smoak-Raymond (comics)
Felicity Megan Smoak (Arrow)
Occupation: manager of a computer software firm (comics)
Head of Computer Sciences at QC formerly executive assistant at Queen Consolidated, IT department of Queen Consolidated (Arrow)
Relationships: in comics: married to Edward Raymond; stepson Ronald Raymond (Firestorm); father-in-law Richard Dare (Captain X)
in Arrow: Noah Kuttler (father); Donna Smoak (mother), Oliver Queen (husband), William Clayton (step-son), Mia Smoak (daughter), Thea Queen (sister-in-law), Emiko Queen (sister-in-law)
Fandom: DC Comics, Firestorm, Arrow
Other:
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Felicity Smoak is a DC Comics character that is a supporting character in the Firestorm comics and has recently made her first appearance outside the comics in the live-action show Arrow played by Emily Bett Rickards.

Canon Overview

Comics

First appearance of Felicity is in Fury of Firestorm #23 (May 1984). She often clashed with Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond). Eventually became romantically involved with Ed Raymond, Ronnie's father, and eventually married him.

Felicity Smoak first appeared in the New 52 in Green Arrow #35 (October 2014). This version of Felicity is closer to her Arrow version due to it being written by the showrunner Andrew Kreisberg. However, she is introduced as an assassin out to kill Oliver, but she quickly explains that she's hacker-for-hire. She asks Oliver to join his team in the desire to help the city.

A young Felicity also appears in the DC Bombshells series as one of the Bat Girls.

Arrowverse

Felicity makes her first appearance as an IT tech at Queen Consolidated that Oliver Queen asks for help.[1] She helps Oliver several times (unknowingly) with his Vigilante business, before Oliver finally goes to her for help after he had gotten shot.[2] After learning about his secret identity, Felicity joins Oliver's team.

Season 2 has Felicity joining Oliver at QC in his office as his executive assistant much to her dismay; this is so that no one would suspect why Oliver and Felicity would spend so much time together. She continues her work with Team Arrow. She meets and befriends Barry Allen, and later Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon. She helps Oliver take down Slade Wilson when he captured her for being the one Oliver loves. Season 3 sees Felicity working first for Tech Village as a salesperson (in the wake of QC's bankruptcy and closure) and later, for Ray Palmer as Vice President of Palmer Technologies. Upon Ray's apparent death at the end of Season 3, she inherits Ray's stock and becomes CEO of Palmer Technologies in Season 4. Though she's instrumental in preventing layoffs and thanks to tech wizard Curtis Holt, is able to start pulling the company out of the red, her commitments for Team Arrow and her wish to give free spinal stimulators to paralysis victims lead to her being forced from her position by a hostile board member who wishes to curtail the philanthropic project. No mention is made of employment in Season 5, though it is revealed Curtis Holt left the company when she did and that Felicity, at least, received an "extremely generous" severance package.

Felicity has made several appearances throughout The Flash's seasons, including The Flash Season Zero tie-in comic series as well as the Arrow tie-in comics. She's also made appearances in Legends of Tomorrow and Vixen.

Fandom

Comics

Felicity appears in the comics related fandoms besides the Arrow comics or unless it ties in with a Arrowverse crossover with the Green Arrow comics.

Arrow

The Arrow fandom behind Felicity is quite large, both due to her personality and her quirks as well as her chemistry with Oliver Queen and the role she plays for Team Arrow. Fans also like the unusual inclusion of an intelligent female tech-based character who is neither portrayed as the Hollywood-typical cybergoth or smart-but-ugly stereotypes.

"As Episode Three aired, the showrunners watching the show’s twitter feed saw it explode with “blonde IT girl” tweets, followed by a phone call from the president of Warner Brothers who said, “I love the blonde computer girl.” So Felicity’s one-time-only-appearance minor character became a recurring character who grew in importance until she became one of only two people who know Oliver’s secret identity, which made her one of only two people he can be himself with."[3]

Portrayal in the Fandom

In fanworks and in the show, Felicity is represented as the heart of Team Arrow - reminding the team (but especially Oliver) of their humanity and being a hero [1].

In the show and in the fanworks she's often portrayed as like Barbara Gordon's Oracle persona due to her being on the comms and researching/guiding the team from their Arrowcave on her computers (Arrow: Will Felicity Smoak Become Oracle? Comicbook.com. 12/12/2015.). This also gives her some similarities to Chloe Sullivan who on Smallville portrayed the same type of role (only named Watchtower). Other fans hate the idea that she's portrayed as the team's Oracle or any similarities between them. This is especially seen when she becomes partially paralyzed in Season 4. However, Season 4 also finally canonized her codename as Overwatch, given to her by Oliver. Season 5 revealed her former hacker handle to be Ninja Hacker Goddess.

Quirks, canon habits and backstory include:

  • She is Jewish
  • Computers and anything technological is her forte, especially hacking
  • She babble/rambles (usually when nervous or flustered)
  • She makes inappropriate comments accidentally (usually around Oliver)
  • She's able to count cards
  • Went to MIT and earned a master's degree in Cybersecurity and Computer Sciences from that institution
  • Allergy to nuts
  • genius-level intellect
  • She likes red wine and mint chocolate chip ice cream
  • Dislikes mysteries
  • Fear of heights, needles and kangaroos
  • Dyes her hair blonde and wears glasses
  • Wears PJs

In fanon, along with her affinity with wine, coffee is often included as well [2]. Her liking for coffee has further been proven in canon with frequent trips to CCJitter's on the Flash and coffee dates with Season 5 boyfriend Detective Billy Malone.

At first, fanon also frequently had Felicity living in an apartment, and it was assumed to be true to due to lack of canon against it. However, in Season 2,[4] it was actually revealed that she lives in a type of townhouse. As of Seasons 4 and 5, she lives in a luxury loft which formerly belonged to Thea.

Felicity's family

Prior to middle of Season 2,[5] her family and past (besides going to MIT) was relatively unknown and thus several fanworks work dedicated to writing about it. Sometimes her parents were alive and others one or both were dead leaving her an orphan. In an episode in S2, it's revealed that her father abandoned her (and her mother) when she was young. This led to some speculation[6][7] and fanworks dedicated to having him being an enemy of Oliver Queen - such as Slade Wilson, Malcolm Merlyn (Example: In Truth by shannyfish), and Anthony Ivo.[8][9] The episode also revealed that she and her mother do not have a good relationship. This is later confirmed in Felicity's origins episode;[10] where Donna Smoak visits her daughter. Fandom immediately took to Donna and their relationship. The episode ends with Felicity and Donna making up.

In Season 4,[11] Felicity's father was revealed to be Noah Kuttler, aka the Calculator, a criminal hacker mastermind. Though he claims to be seeking Felicity out to re-establish their relationship, in fact, he attempts to use her to gain access to Palmer Tech's secured areas to steal technology, and Felicity turns him into the police. In Season 4,[12] it is further revealed that Noah abandoned Felicity and Donna at Donna's insistence when Felicity was seven. Despite the fact that Noah's absence left Donna destitute and forced to provide for Felicity alone, Donna was afraid Noah would try to make Felicity into a criminal like him.

In certain AUs fanworks, Quentin Lance and/or Dinah Lance are her parents, with Sara Lance and Laurel Lance her sisters or half-sisters. In some fanworks have Quentin and Felicity have a father-daughter relationship but are not actually related to each other at all (Example: What Makes a Father by sarcastic_fina). In canon, Quentin Lance ends up having a relationship with Donna Smoak in Season 4.

In some works where Felicity is the daughter of Malcolm Merlyn - her last name is changed to Merlyn - since Rebecca Merlyn is changed to be her mother. Depending on the storyline, Tommy Merlyn is either her full or half brother by Malcolm. In the works where she's his full sister, she usually knows Oliver since birth due to Oliver & Tommy being best friends.

Common Tropes and Themes

  • Alternate Universes:
  • Felicity being part of the Arrow's version of a Birds of Prey team - usually with Sara Lance and Helena Bertinelli as partners, sometimes even Laurel Lance.
  • In a lot of fanworks, the characters inside them often create a nickname for Felicity - "Liss" or "Lissy", despite there being no canon supporting a nickname for her. Depending on the story, Felicity either loves or hates the nickname, but usually tolerates it.
  • Crossovers:
    • Felicity works for S.H.I.E.L.D. as an agent (a possible nod to her job offer from A.R.G.U.S. in the New 52), works in some capacity for Tony Stark or Stark Industries, or is Tony Stark's daughter.

Shipping

The pairing of Felicity/Oliver Queen is very popular. There are also other pairings of Tommy/Felicity, Diggle/Felicity that are fairly common. The threesomes Diggle/Felicity/Oliver and Felicity/Tommy/Oliver have also appeared.

In fanfiction, she usually becomes fast friends with Thea Queen, Oliver's sister. Later after Sara Lance's first meeting with the Arrow gang and later actually joining the team, Sara Lance/Felicity Smoak (and the threesome of Sara/Felicity/Oliver) has started to gain popularity. Other femslash pairings also exist: Felicity/Shado and Felicity/Laurel Lance. An extremely rare femslash pairing of Felicity/Helena Bertinelli also exists. Since Felicity appeared on The Flash and her scenes with Caitlin Snow, the gen pairing of Felicity & Caitlin started appearing mainly appearing on Tumblr in forms of gifs and picspams but also some fanfiction.

When Barry Allen comes to town,[13] he shows interest in Felicity and she also returns the interest. The pairing is later canonized in The Flash series.[14] Barry/Felicity has become a pretty common pairing. In Season 3, Ray Palmer joins the series as a new love interest for Felicity which eventually becomes canon,[15] thus the Felicity/Ray pairing started appearing in various fanworks. Season 5 introduced Detective Billy Malone as a love interest of Felicity, but the relationship ended with his mid-season death. An unpopular canon pairing, it has not taken off in fanfiction.

Crossover pairings for Felicity also exist. She is mainly paired up with Bruce Wayne, Steve Rogers and Dick Grayson. These frequently also portray a jealous!Oliver which is based upon his canon jealousy towards Barry Allen and Ray Palmer.

Roy Harper & Felicity gen fanwork has started to take off after Roy joined the team. The actual pairing Roy/Felicity is still fairly rare.

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Felicity Families AU:

No Island AUs

Crossovers:

  • With Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • With Captain America:
    • Felicity and the First Avenger by NocturnalRites, Felicity Smoak wants a life outside the Arrowcave. Steve Rogers wants more from life besides being S.H.I.E.L.D.'s super soldier. But Captain America's in Starling City to end a dangerous project, and the Arrow's worried for the safety of the city and Felicity. Can Felicity keep both the First Avenger and Team Arrow in her life? (Steve Rogers/Felicity Smoak)
    • Soldier's Heart by Miko and NocturnalRites, After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve Rogers has one mission: rescue his friend Bucky Barnes before HYDRA recaptures him. When his one lead proves to be an encrypted computer file, Steve reaches out to Felicity Smoak for help. Neither of them expected that simple favor would put Felicity squarely in HYDRA's crosshairs. Neither of them expected that going on the run would lead to falling in love. And neither of them expected HYDRA's mastermind would rise from his virtual grave to try to destroy Steve and all Steve holds dear -- especially Felicity. (Steve Rogers/Felicity Smoak)
  • With Batman:

Still Waters and Quiet Men; A Starling Mystery by Lademonessa, Felicity is the step-daughter of Lucious Fox and had a life before Team Arrow, that involved another vigilante in the form of Batman/Bruce Wayne

    • Spark by B Cardoso, Batman reaches out to Felicity to help with decrypting some files, and their relationship continues from there.

Fanart

Fanvids

Meta

Archives and Fannish Links

Further Reading/Meta

Resources

References

  1. ^ Arrow Season 1 Episode 3, "Lone Gunmen"
  2. ^ Arrow Season 1 Episode 14 "The Odyssey"
  3. ^ The Problem of Felicity Smoak by Jennifer Crusie Posted July 19, 2013. Accessed November 17, 2013.
  4. ^ Arrow Season 2 Episode 16 "Suicide Squad"
  5. ^ Arrow Season 2 Episode 13 "Heir to the Demon"
  6. ^ Arrow S & S # 22:"I just love when people come back from the dead. It juices my zombie fetish." - Sin, Time of Death. Fan Forum thread. Posted March 4, 2014 (accessed 30 August 2014)
  7. ^ Who is Felicity Smoak’s Father? theapplefour on Tumblr. (Accessed 30 August 2014)
  8. ^ "You might have noticed that I don't talk a lot about my family." by tenmytruelove on Tumblr, a gif-spam. Showing the belief that Anthony Ivo is Felicity's father. (Accessed 26 March 2014)
  9. ^ From The “I totally don’t think it’ll happen BUT….” files. smoakandarrow at Tumblr. Posted April 2, 2014. (Accessed 30 August 2014)
  10. ^ Arrow Season 3 Episode 5, "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak"
  11. ^ Arrow Season 4 Episode 13 "Sins of the Father"
  12. ^ Arrow Season 4 Episode 22 "Lost in the Flood"
  13. ^ Arrow Season 2 Episode 8 "The Scientist"
  14. ^ The Flash Season 1 Episode 4 "Going Rogue"
  15. ^ Arrow Season 3 Episode 7 "Draw Back Your Bow"
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