Ricardo Diaz

"I was afraid of Jesse for so long that all I had was my fear. So I... I named that fear "The Dragon". I lived with The Dragon for so long that it's all I have. By being a part of The Quadrant, I'll have something else: that type of power I'll never be nothing again."

- Ricardo Diaz to Laurel Lance

Ricardo Diaz, known by the alias Dragon, is a crime lord and drug kingpin who manufactured an illegal drug akin to steroids derived from Vertigo while maneuvering a huge criminal organization. He was a member of Cayden James's criminal cabal and, unknowingly to Cayden James at the time, the one that had his son Owen Post killed in order to manipulate him and letting the hacker "thin the herd" for him. Following the disbandment of the cabal, Diaz murders James and reveals his intentions to take over Star City inglobating on his payroll numerous politicians, judges, and policemen both in the city and in the country, Black Siren and the Bratva led by Anatoly Knyazev, eventually becoming one of the four members of the massive criminal empire known as The Quadrant.

Early life
Ricardo Diaz was born in Starling City and had a tough childhood, spending his early years trying hard to make his father proud of him even if it meant pretending to be someone he wasn't; until the latter died and he was sent to Zandia Orphanage sometime sometime before 1986.

While growing up at the orphanage, Diaz was forced to fight for every scrap of food he could get, also he was bullied and mentally scarred by an older boy named Jesse Federico. Jesse tortured him by burning his forearms and attempting to destroy the last picture that he had of his late father. Diaz reached into the flames of the burning bucket to get the picture back, resulting in extreme burns and blisters. Jesse made Diaz act as his "servant" and treated him like an animal, calling him a "loser", something that stuck by Diaz even into his adult life. In order to contain the anger and fear instilled into him during his childhood, Diaz named it "The Dragon", doing everything possible to "control it, so that it does not control him".

Growing up he joined The Scorpions, an organized crime group operating in the Glades of Starling City, becoming known under the alias "Dragon" and getting an impressive criminal record; however, at some point in his life, he started to operate on his own and became a powerful crime lord heading an illegal drug operation responsible for the production and sale of a steroid derived from Vertigo that increases combat efficiency and concentration, all while remaining off charts and covering up his tracks.

Setting up his plot
In 2013 he began planning his rise to power as a major crime lord. Four years later, in early 2017, Diaz hired Karl Iscove to kill Owen Post - the son of master hacktivist and Helix's leader Cayden James - while wearing an hooded costume in order to influence James and make him start a war with Green Arrow. Then, he killed Iskov to tie up loose ends and doctored a photo of Oliver as Green Arrow; though it is unknown how he knew the Green Arrow's real identity.

Later in the year, Diaz leaked the photo to the FBI of Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow, thus placing the mayor under indictment, arousing controversy and suspicion towards him and limiting his work as a vigilante.

At some point after that Diaz was arrested and sentenced to a life sentence without conditional, but the charges against him are dropped by the Supreme Court because of some unspecified quibbles and he was then freed.

Drug dealing
Less than a month after his release from prison, he sent his men to retrieve the components of a military-grade 3D printer but they were intercepted and defeated by Team Arrow, however Dragon appeared, setting off a smoke bomb and walking away before the heroes caught him. Sometime later, Dragon met John Diggle when he went directly to his steroid manufacturer, hoping to get an extra portion of drugs. Dragon did not give the man what he wanted, saying that he had to be careful because he did not have yet permission from the Food and Drug Administration. Later that night, Diaz assisted his crew with stealing a 3D military printer, this time from the biological department of Palmer Technologies but as he stepped out of his car he was attacked again by vigilantes, managing to shoot the Green Arrow before escaping, much to the latter surprise. Shortly after, Dragon checked the progress in his laboratory when Team Arrow entered the building. Diaz, not wanting the product to fall into their hands, dropped a drum of petrol, lighting it on fire and burning all of his drugs, before escaping from the fire.

Working with Cayden James
He was later contacted by Cayden James to join his criminal cabal. While their're watching via hidden camera the collapse of Team Arrow from their hideout, Dragon declared he was skeptical of how effective the group could be, however James assured him that there was more to come.

Later Diaz, along with James and Black Siren, visited Jerry Bertinelli, asking him to rethink the matter of selling them the port - the last thing in Star City belonging to the Bertinelli crime family - threatening to have his daughter killed if he refused. While James and Laurel were expecting Bertinelli's answer at their lair the Green Arrow attacked them, however after Diaz and the rest of the cabal appeared in front of him, the archer, not expecting that, was forced to escape in order to avoid a fight. A few hours later, at the moment of the transaction with Bertinelli, with whom the criminals met at the port, Green Arrow also appeared, collaborating with the Bertinelli crime family, but the combined efforts of Vigilante, Black Siren, the Bratva and Diaz's army were enough to fend them off. Dragon then executed Bertenelli.

After Sheck was killed and the cabal started to suspecting Vincent Sobel for murdering him, Diaz was present at a meeting to discuss it. James sent Dragon and Anatoly to see that the bomb was moved and, after Sobel is exposed as a traitor of the cabal, he assisted the russian while he torture him, but they didn't obtain any results and are later forced to flee as both Teams Arrow attack their lair.

Later, Diaz and the rest of the cabal were thanked by James for their contributions to his plan as he intended to activate the bomb late in the evening, so he officially ended cooperation with his allies, promising to transport them away from the city and transfer money to their bank accounts. However after noticing the promised vehicle did not show up, Dragon departed on his own in order not to be there when the detonation of the bomb occurred and suggested his former partners to do the same. While leaving, however he was captured by Wild Dog and Mister Terrific and brought to James, who obtained new evidence that that either Diaz, Black Siren and Anatoly killed his son. As James demanded the one who ordered the murder to come forward, Laurel, confessed and started to insult the hacker in order to upset him. Knowing that a woman is lying, James slapped her, not realizing that the bomb activator interferes with the action of the collar blocking her powers, so she used her sonic scream allowing herself and everyone else to escape. As he was leaving the building, Diaz was pursued by Spartan, but he managed to briefly overpower the vigilante before fleeing.

Taking over Star City
After Cayden James was arrested and went to the interrogation room at the SCPD headquarters, Diaz appeared to him saying that he'd used James to take over Star City explaying that "it's ripe for the taking" and that James was narrow-minded to think he was controlling him. He also stated James doesn't understand that things should be taken over and not destroyed while revealing he bribed the new police captain. He then murdered James telling him he was the who had his son killed and calmly exited the building.

Afterward, all of his plan to Anatoly, who eagerly decided to cooperate with the gangster, arranging a meeting with the Black Siren at his command. In the meanwhile, Dragon trained with new fighters who will power the ranks of his team. When he saw Laurel, he was very angry at her for having betrayed him and for trying to run away, but that he understood she was afraid of Dinah Drake, so Diaz reassured Laurel that he would be able to take care of her and started to talk about his plans, stating that she would like them. After the policeman on his payroll adduced Roy Harper, Dragon himself tortured him in order to force him to testify against Oliver in court regarding his identity as Green Arrow; Roy, however, was adamant and lasted until the arrival of Team Arrow, who successfully rescued their former member. Diaz fought Speedy and Green Arrow to a standstill, then he reminded they're powerless against him and could not hand him over to the police because of the anti-vigilante act, which forced them to escape a moment before the arrival of Dragon's crooked police officers.

After Anatoly was arrested by a bunch of SCPD officers led by Lieutenant Dinah Drake while selling Vertigo for him, Diaz ordered District Attorney Sam Armand to have him released under the quibble that he was arrested without a warrant. Later that night, he waited Officer Hurst one of the officers who did the arrest next to his car and watched as Anatoly shot him out of revenge, stating that it would sent a message to all of the officers who refuse to be under his payroll. The following night, Diaz visited Laurel at Quentin Lance's apartment and brought her a take-away dinner. Having seen she was studying her late counterpart's old schoolbooks, Diaz told her that she didn't have to do it as people like them "make the law" and that she don't need to change in order to "impress her old man" like he did when he was younger. Later, after former district attorney Sam Armand and former police captain Kimberly Hill accused mayor Oliver Queen to obstructing the justice as he fired them both (actually because he discovered they were on Diaz's payroll), Laurel watched the news in Diaz's hideout alongside him, he complimented to her for the idea and then showed the last champion of Vertigo after Team Arrow's raid to the core of his drug operation, which led Laurel to kiss him.

After Oliver was drugged via Vertigo by Kullens, a councilman on Diaz's payroll, few hours before his meeting with the Council regarding his probable impeachment due to the accusation of Armand and Hill, he briefly hallucinated about Diaz who, after having stabbed Raisa and putted a dagger in Oliver's abdomen, asked himself why nobody of his previous enemies ever thought to just kill him straight, then adding there are more things he intended to break in him. That night, at 10:13, Diaz entered the SCPD station as he does every night in order to pay his policemen when the Hood entered the building ready to fight him, but he is stopped by Felicity Smoak, who managed to talk him down. The following morning Black Siren reached Diaz at the station while his men were cleaning, asking him why he didn't just killed Oliver, Diaz replied that he "is more dangerous as a martyr than as Green Arrow" and that their next move would be to spread the word that Star City is now "open for business"

Joining the Quadrant
About a week later Diaz and Black Siren went to Blüdhaven in order to meet Eric Cartier, Jr., the son of an influential member of The Quadrant. Diaz proposed to Cartier to use Star City as a place to run the Quadrant's business in exchange of having a seat at the table of the organization, however Cartier asked him to found Robert Baylor, an agent of his organization who was caught by the FBI, in order to show them if he can able to operate at their level. In less than a day Diaz found the man discovering he was working with the federals and, as Laurel demonstrated to be skeptical about his excessive concessions to the Quadrant, he reminds her that once he has won a place in the organization he will have an empire. After Diaz gave the information on Baylor to Cartier, however, he required to him and Black Siren to get him in order to interrogate him and founding out what did he tell to the Justice Department. Hoping to get a meeting with Cartier, Sr., Diaz does as he was asked but, right after extracting him from the FBI's safehouse, both Diaz and Baylor were shot by one of Cartier's man. Having survived thanks to a bulletproof vest, Diaz went back to Cartier's nightclub and defeated all of his man alongside Black Siren, later torturing Cartier, telling him of his childhood at the orphanage and asking him why he tried to kill him. After Cartier revealed he and his father never talked about him to the Quadrant because he was "a nobody" an they wanted to take Star City from his hands, Diaz beated Cartier to a pulp and order him to take it to the place where the Quadrant meetings are held. While they were driving to the place, Laurel asked Diaz if what happened with Jesse still tormented him and he responded that it does, because he was right and he was "a loser", when she tried to cheer him up saying he was not it anymore, he told her about how he named his fear "The Dragon" and for years was everything he had but if he managed to become a member of The Quadrant he wuold get the enought power to not having anyone against him. Laurel paragoned him to Zoom because of the hate they held inside them. Arrived to the Quadrant's headquarter, Villa Centanni, Diaz and Laurel broke inside using Cartier as a human bomb and slaughtering dozens of their men with their bare hands and some gunshots making their way to the hall where the four leaders of the Quadrant met. Once again Diaz proposed to gave them Star City in exchange for a place in the organization and, as one of the member declared there are no free chairs at their table and Cartier, Sr. called him a "street suck" and a "loser", Diaz shot him in the head freeing a chair and getting welcomed into the Quadrant. That night, Diaz went to Jesse's house and kidnapped him, bringing him on a rooftop over his city and, after having shown to him the last fragment of his father's picture he had kept for over thirty-two years, ignoring Laurel's pleas not to do it, cruelly setting him on fire stating that he "is not a loser anymore".

Personality
Ricardo Diaz has a very shallow and callous, as well as violent, and even psychopathic personality. He exhibits many, if not all, classic psychopathic traits: a complete lack of conscience, a lack of remorse and empathy, a shallow affect, and callousness as he showed no qualms for kill Cayden James's son, Owen Post and Cayden James himself. Diaz is an incredible liar and manipulator and was able to fool James and his criminal cabal for months. He is also virtually fearless in the face of death and danger. Diaz is distinctly sadistic, as he was willing to torture Vincent Sobel, and asked Anatoly Knyazev why he didn't torture Sobel before killing him. His well-known cruelty is also incredibly feared, as a woman killed her boyfriend/husband because of her loyalty to Diaz.

He has a sort of contorted warrior-like sense of honor and life philosophy, stating that "fighting for trophies is different than fighting for life" and respecting everyone who managed to fight with him, granting them money and places in his organization depending on the skills they demonstrated. Also, Diaz seems to highly regarding the concept of "family", viewing as such his organization and becoming greatly angered whenever someone goes "against the family".

Moreover, Diaz is always irreproachably calm and speaks with seemingly no emotion behind his words, almost never rising his tone. However in stark contrast with all of this he is an immensely violent individual, as much as to lashing out his anger by punching the glass of a mirror and slaughtering his enemies so vehemently to force even Black Siren to look away. He knows no mercy, having brought a grudge to Jesse Federico, his childhood bully, for at least thirty-two years before killing him.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: Diaz is in top physical condition which he maintains through extensive training. He has fast reflexes, a remarkable durability and is strong enough to swiftly incapacitate a much larger foe with ease as well as push grown men through a door. His conditioning also lets him recover from most injuries very quickly, though not super-humanly.
 * Honed senses: Diaz has sharp hearing and sight, as well as keen skills of perception. He is able to pick up an incoming danger and react extremely quickly.
 * High-level intellect/Master tactician/Leader: As a crime lord, Diaz is able to manufacture drugs all while remaining off charts and covering up his tracks. Diaz also created a highly sophisticated plan to take over Star City starting by having a doctored video of Karl Iscove to make it seem like Green Arrow was the one that killed Owen Post as well as leak a doctored picture of Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow to the public and the FBI. Although he was a part of Cayden James's criminal cabal, Diaz was only there to use Cayden James as a means for him to take over Star City, by letting James "thin the herd" for him, making it easier for him to take over. Diaz was able to manipulate Cayden James, predict every move he made and use it to his advantage. Diaz was able to find out Team Arrow's identities and manipulate them against Cayden James. He was even able to find out Roy Harper's death was faked and managed to track him down.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Diaz is shown to be a master hand-to-hand combatant displaying a huge amount of skill as he effortlessly outmatched Thea Queen and was able to briefly overpower John Diggle who is a master hand-to-hand combatant himself. He was however swiftly subdued by Wild Dog and Mister Terrific though this could either be due to them having the element of surprise, overpowering him quickly before he could react, or because he intended to be captured to stop Cayden James from blowing up Star City as he wanted to take it over. He is also the one responsible to personally train his own men in close combat.
 * Intimidation: Diaz is feared by some of the people that help him because of what he is capable of and they would rather die than betray him.
 * Expert interrogator/Torturer: Diaz is an effective interrogator and torturer. He is capable of inflict much physical pain into a target without killing them and is even capable of using mind games to worsen the discomfort.
 * Expert marksman/Firearms: As a crime lord, Diaz is an expert in the use of many types of firearms.
 * Expert knife-wielder/Knife-thrower: Diaz is skilled in the use of knives as he carries one with him and has used it to kill Cayden James. He threw one at Thea Queen with pin-point accuracy.
 * Indomitable will/High tolerance for pain: Diaz is a very driven and determined individual, as well as virtually fearless in the face of death and danger and has a considerable tolerance for pain, being able to pull an arrow out of his leg and keep fighting Thea Queen.
 * Master of deception: Diaz is an exceptional liar; he was able to fool Cayden James for months, as well as the other members of the cabal, including Anatoly Knyazev and Black Siren, who is a master of deception in her own right.
 * Multilingualism: Being of Spanish descendant, Diaz speaks that language fluently, in addition to English and a little of Russian.
 * Explosives expert: Diaz is highly skilled in planting and detonating explosives.
 * Network: As the leader of a huge criminal organization, Diaz has established many connections who provides him aid for various natures, having on his payroll numerous politicians, judges, and policemen both in the city and in the country, making him one of if not the most dangerous crime lord Team Arrow and New Team Arrow have ever faced.

Equipment

 * Guns/Firearms: Diaz primarily makes use of a pistol, wielding it quite effectively. He also is proficient in using assault rifles, sniper rifles, explosives and grenade launchers. He kept a Glock holstered under his jacket to use it in case of emergencies.
 * Knife: Diaz carries a knife with him and plays with it in a manner to calm his nerves. He also used it to kill Cayden James.
 * Metal link chain: Diaz has used a metal link chain to battle John Diggle.

Arrow
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Season 6
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Trivia

 * Diaz sports tattoos of dragons around both sides his neck, his left shoulder and his back a reference to the look of his comic book counterpart, Richard Dragon, after The New 52.
 * The first time Team Arrow encounters him his face is hidden in the shadow and he throws a smoke bomb. This seems to symbolize his current place hidden in the background and creating confusion while manipulating the event.
 * Diaz seem to genuinely care for good eating habits and alimentation in general, scolding Officer Hurst for eating junk food and bringing dinner to Black Siren.
 * As Diaz himself subsequently revealed, he suffered hunger as a kid and was often forced to fight for getting a meal.
 * Diaz choosing the name "Dragon" for his internal hatred and fear, and later for himself, as well as his tendency to set things and people on fire, coul have been caused by the tortures inflicted to him by Jesse Federico, who burned his forearms and attempted to destroy the only picture he had of his late father forcing him to reach into the flames of the burning bucket to get it back, resulting in extreme burns and blisters that made his arm scaled (like a dragon's skin) for weeks.

Behind the scenes

 * In the comics, Ricardo Diaz is a crime lord and martial artist based out of Seattle, as well as a founder of the Longbow Hunters. The shared multiverse's iteration's nickname is a reference to the pre-The New 52 version of the character, Richard Dragon.
 * Dragon is the first main antagonist in the shared multiverse to be presented as a secondary villain as he appears in as a drug dealer and enemy of the week for Team Arrow, later being revealed to be a member of Cayden James's criminal cabal in  and the real puppet master behind everything happening in Star City since the beginning of the season in.
 * Ricardo Diaz is also the second main antagonist to not appear or be referenced in any season prior to his own, the first being Adrian Chase. Slade Wilson appeared multiple times in Season 1, Ra's al Ghul was mentioned a few times in Season 2, and Damien Darhk was mentioned by Ra's al Ghul near the end of Season 3.