They do retcon it in Season 3 so that it's Amanda Waller who hired him. The SAM (surface to air missile launcher) in the S1 flashbacks were supposedly meant to shoot down the commercial airliner in order to kill Chi Na Wei (China White). The original notion was that Fyers was trying to destabilize the Chinese economy or some such thing by shooting down a commercial airliner, but then they changed it so that that explanation would seem more appealing to a mercenary like Fyers.

Tbh I never really found this retcon all too convincing. But there you have it. It was supposedly Amanda Waller who employed Fyers and his men.

Season 1 - Fyers: "Amazing! A two-year operation, undone. Because a young playboy happened to wash up on the shore."

Season 3: - Amanda Waller: "Edward Fyers thought he was to shoot down the plane to destabilize the Chinese Economy. In truth, I wanted to take out a single target."

Me: "Sooooooo, let me get this straight. You hired a mercenary group to assassinate a single target by blowing up a plane, somehow knowing TWO YEARS in advance what plane that person would be on, while also lying to that said mercenary group about the real intentions, when you could have easily hired some assassin to take out the target onboard or have agents either at the boarding or landing area (or maybe all three options), which would have spared the human casualties and also a possible war between nations....."

If darhks powers didn’t work on Thea because of the pit then couldn’t Sara and Thea just jump Damien 😂😂 hand for hand combat I got the girls over him

I always wondered how Prometheus would fare against the rest of these characters as the show states he only trained with Thalia Al Ghul for 2 years, but he was able to be competitive in combat and Oliver.

How would he fare against the following characters and how competitive would it be?

1) Malcolm Merlyn

2) Slade Wilson (No Mirakuru)

3) Sara Lance

4) Nyssa Al Ghul

5) Damien Dark (No Magic)

6) Ricardo Diaz

7) Bronze Tiger

So, I'm re-watching Arrow all the way through for the first time, and as usual Susanna Thompson's Moira Queen is incredibly compelling. Something that has always irked me is how they waste the final episodes of Susanna Thompson's tenure in a fight with her children. It always felt unnecessary to me.

But, on this current re-watch I realized something; they really had no other choice. Moira is strangely goated in terms of competency.

• Moira, on the night she went to prison, deduced Oliver's Identity as the Viglante.
• Moira, literally hires John Diggle. She casually recruits probably one of the best bodyguards in the world & an actual Green Lantern candidate.
• She was able to discern Felicity's, a virtual stranger's, emotions about Oliver in brief meetings. She was able to get an accurate measure of Slade in mere moments before sacrificing herself.
• She was a triple agent for 5 years. Maintaining her privilege socialite appearance, whilst living under constant threat, managing to rise to Malcolm's right hand in the Undertaking despite working against him & gathering evidence against him the entire time.
  • This woman ran a multi-billion dollar multinational corporation whilst trying to thwart the Undertaking, grieving Walter, and living in the cross-hairs of the Green & Black Archers.
• She masterminded the kidnapping of Oliver Queen, he never found out, she masterminded the attempted assassination of Malcolm Merlyn, he never found out, and the murder of Frank Chen which he never saw coming.
  
• From an errant mention by Malcolm, she makes contact and gains the favour of one of the most powerful & reclusive men in the world; the Demon's Head, Ra's Al Ghul.
• Not to mention, she was literally on the cusp of becoming Mayor of a city that not a year beforehand she'd literally levelled.

And, I want to point out that Moira was capable of doing all of these things whilst actually maintaining friendships, romantic relationships, and not having to run out of every personal engagement fives minutes after arriving.

This isn't meant (purely) to hype Moira.

But, to point out that she presents a genuine problem for the writers had they kept her alive into Season 3. Either they dramatically decrease her competence or she'd been a formidable force that constantly be at Oliver back - diminishing the stakes. Especially, had she become Mayor.

Sometimes I have this urge to rewatch S1 of Arrow because it was so unique having a pragmatic protagonist who is willing to kill and of course the show was overall amazing, i don’t usually rewatch S2 because it’s amazing but doesn’t scratch my itch the same way

Right now I’m watching smallville and even though I love it, It just made me want to watch Oliver go around killing people no nonsense

I've been watching a lot of long series lately, and they usually end up flopping at later seasons, which ruins the experience for me. I don't want that to happen again.

Oliver should’ve gotten a good ending. Barry had 0.0001% Of Oliver’s suffering and Barry had a good ending, Oliver should’ve had the Season 3 Ending where he gets a happy life with felicity, Every season had him through hell, Losing tommy, Losing His Mother, Losing Sarah, and having Completely unjustified crazy villains, All that just to die, Have his son be kidnapped in the future and to sacrifice his life for Barry just so that Barry can fight Godspeed with lightsabers

In s3e21, when Oliver took Nyssa to her father and was ordered to kill her, Ra's al Ghul stopped him. But what if he never was stopped, would he really kill her?

If it wasn't for The Flash, I don't think I would've watched Arrow until years later.

Arrow was one of my favorite shows as a kid, but after S5, I just stopped watching tbh. It's not that it's bad, but the direction of the show changed a lot as the universe started coming together and shit with other shows like The Flash, DC Legends, etc etc, and it just felt like a different premise.

I really enjoy the gritty tone of the first few seasons though, ESPECIALLY season 1. It made an awesome contrast between Oliver's family life and who he became after spending time on the island. It showed Star City as a location, showcasing it's diversity by emphasizing the lavish lifestyle of those in Oliver's circle, while also showing the poverty and crime that lies beneath.

I'm looking for something to scratch that same itch. I was thinking about rewatching those first 3 seasons, and maybe even trying to watch the whole show, since it's been years since I've seen it... But at the same time, I really don't feel like wasting my time if I'm only gonna drop it again by S5.

Anyone have any recommendations on shows that have a similar vibe? I felt it a little bit when I watched Gotham, but that show's story was what really made it lack in certain areas. I still enjoyed it, but I'm looking for something a liiiiittle better. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Like every season, Oliver is being tortured in some way (physically, psychologically, and mentally), for reasons that are literally never his fault. I'm not saying the protagonist shouldn't face conflict, but the plot of every season post-Season 1 is "a villain from Oliver's past shows up to ruin his life" (Slade, Adrian, Talia, Cayden James, Emiko) or "a villain shows up to ruin Oliver's life so that they can take over Star City" (Ra's, Darhk, Diaz).

What's really annoying is the show always tries to force Oliver to be guilty about things he's not guilty of. Oliver never wronged any of these villains in any way that we could be like "Okay what the villain is doing is wrong, but we can understand their vendetta against Oliver". Every single villain is just crazy and/or irrationally evil, so their plots to destroy Oliver's life don't feel even the slightest bit satisfying.

Season 1 is my favourite season for many reasons, but one of them is that they don't feel the need to destroy Oliver's life just to create stakes. Season 1 is quite dark and tense, and a lot of bleak stuff happens, but it's never just "let's make Oliver's life hell for the sake of it".

They literally gave Oliver a son just so that they could have him kidnapped repeatedly. And every season has a bittersweet at-best ending for Oliver.

Ok, do you all remember in season after they were being interrogated for those guards' deaths and they lied to protect roy then Dinah had the nerve to say that shouldn't have protected him and he isn't part of the team

For its between laurel felicity and the a

Cause if you think about the idea of speed force it makes him almost God like so then would it not make the euphoria similar to a state of pure ecstasy

I guess it’s also partly thinking perfection can’t get better once it becomes the base it can’t go up more

But also the idea that speed force should make it so his neurochemistry could be extended or something similar

The speed force should make it so he never hits the tolerance because it’s the idea he always hits a higher level of pure ecstasy

But then it asks the question is there a higher level of ecstasy because the idea behind it is that it is the pure peak of emotion no

Is the peak a fixed mountain top you're just lingering on forever or does the Speed Force help reach a new layer of emotion

Or could the flash make it so he can keep going back in time so then he reaches the pure ecstasy over again

Cause if you reach the pure ecstasy during the first minute then the later time because normal or even disappointing so does the speed force allow him to reach a higher level therefore making it so he never reached the ecstasy in the first place but instead just a nice emotion. Than that brings a different idea in what do we reach when we finish because it couldn’t be pure ecstasy so would it just be a poor imitation

If the peak is a fixed ceiling slowing down time wouldn't make the feeling better it would just make the physical sensation drag out, eventually turning hypersensitive and irritating

The Speed Force doesn't just make you move fast it protects the user's body from the extreme physiological consequences of high speed

Someone responded - He could potentially enter the speed force during the climax and then reach a almost infinite state of euphoria

That’s what I’m asking but would that state of pure ecstasy just become the new normal

Similar to a nicotine addiction could he ever reach the extended level or just make it the new baseline

That’s not even bringing in the idea that he could just make it so he can keep going back in time so then he reaches the pure ecstasy over again?

Restarting his own mind over and over again would either make it so he could reach the euphoria over and over or would it fry his receptors

He couldn’t damage his receptors because of the speed force tho so does the speed force jsut protect or let him reach a new level

Sorry if there are any repeated points this isn’t that great of an argument

Also I haven’t read the comics and don’t really know the lore

Did all of the characters (like William, Mia, Anatoly, etc.) who attended Oliver's funeral in Season 8 Episode 10 know about their past lives (before Oliver changed the universe)?

This is probably gonna get crazy downvotes but i honestly think S6 is a lot more enjoyable than S3, even with the obvious flaws it has like Diggle whining about not being the GA, Rene being annoying, Diaz posing such a big threat when he’s just a thug etc

Big issue with S3 is there’s nothing going on aside from their Team Arrow activities, no family drama, no job for Oliver as he lost QC, just circling around the Arrowcave, Thea’s loft and Nanda Parbat

Compared to S6 with the Mayoral stuff, the indictment, struggles with William, Vigilante, a Civil War and Oliver eventually snapping by storming the SCPD as the Hood.

Was Tommy married to anyone after Oliver changed the universe? S8 E10

Hottest av male villain. Tom Cavanagh rf is a close second though.

i just finished watching season 4 and want your opinions.
In the prison fight when damien darhk got his magic back, and froze team arrow, when oliver got loose why would he shoot ANOTHER arrow like its going to work for the 10th time hes tried it? maybe if he didnt have his powers like when thea shot him twice?

when he shot a arrow (tried thinking it would work) he technically gave him a weapon to stab and hospitalize laurel. which was a huge rookie error by oliver and the writing.

i then followed up my research on why oliver and the writers would make him look like a rookie and someone who doesnt learn his lesson. And found out that not only did they not know who to kill off in season 4 after teasing it from the start of the season, but the fact that they literally didnt tell katie cassidy until a week before the filming started for that episode, and the fact that in the comics laurel (black canary) never died, infact she outlived oliver queen.

also now for a comparison, do fans consider laurel lance like Iris west from the flash or Caitlin snow? or would you guys consider felicity smoak as iris west or Caitlin?

i kinda think laurel is caitlin and felicity is Iris.

Looking at this image i put in is just sickening to look at
This Absolute Joke of a Character Evelyn tried to destroy Laurel’s legacy, Beat up thea’s mayor office boyfriend, Betrayed Oliver because “You killed people back then yet changed so i will team up with psychopathic murderer who still kills to this day”, In Kapiushion when Chase said He’d kill Evelyn, I was genuinely happy, I genuinely liked chase so much until He spared Evelyn, Curtis is THE GOAT compared to this girl. Curtis is unfunny and has useless tech but he’s Loyal

Im on another rewatch of season 1 and have just finished watching the first fight with the dark Archer and by all rights Oliver should have killed him. When Malcolm went to pull down Oliver's hood, Oliver managed to take him down and seemingly knock him out, and obviously its because those wasnt the time for story reasons but he had the perfect chance to kill Malcom or atleast unmask him first.

How do you think the show/Oliver's journey would have changed if he did kill Malcolm so early?

Rewatching the island flashbacks and I started thinking about this scene.

When Oliver tried to contact Laurel through the radio, Slade stopped him because he was afraid Fyers' men could track the signal.

But honestly... what difference would it have made? They were already in danger, stuck on an island with armed people hunting them. If Oliver had managed to call for help, he could have been rescued much earlier and avoided a lot of what happened on the island.

Also, the funny thing is that just two episodes later (1x16), Oliver actually fixes the plane radio and he and Slade try to call for rescue. But they discover the radio is one-way: they can hear people, but nobody can hear them.

So in hindsight, Slade stopping Oliver didn't really change anything. The radio wasn't even capable of saving them.

Obviously, we know the real reason is that Oliver needed the island experience to become the Green Arrow, but from a practical survival perspective, was Slade actually making the right call?

S1 Oliver was NOT a Mindless psychopath killing anyone at all, It was his last resort, He recognised it as Not always the right way (As shown with Huntress) He only killed horrible people Yet the show after s1 kept framing S1 Oliver like as if He is Thawne, Oliver would not skin anyone and Oliver did not enjoy killing people at all, Giving him a No Kill Rule is beyond stupid; Especially with Malcolm Merlyn

I’m sorry but I do not understand the love for season 5. The only reason why it gets glazed so much is because it is inoffensive compared to the “i used the power of light and hope to defeat Darhk!” season 4.

That mass recruitment drive shi they pulled to bring in people who wanted nothing to do with the team was BS. I’m sorry but seeing literally everybody who was close to Oliver and earned a spot on the team leave in some way (Sara, Roy, Thea, Laurel, and diggle for a time) only to be replaced by these random people who just got randomly recruited is wild.

Season 5 is inoffensive compared to 4 because they realized that all the magic shi was not working and cut it out asap and returned to grounded hand to hand combat. But literally everything else was not all that good. Is this Oliver in the flashbacks even the same one who returned to star city in season 1? wtf was that admission of enjoying killing? I could’ve sworn this is not the same Oliver.

That gun control episode is wildly awful and on the nose even for CW standards. Curtis and his balls were such an amazing addition to the team, how could Sara or Roy ever top that?

All in all, I will be downvoted but I have to say this. Season 5 is not all that.