User blog comment:Kir the Wizard/Laurel is the New Felicity - a Posthumous Glorification/@comment-25224899-20170215192030/@comment-27700324-20170215220535

Personally it is better when they left of their own free will. That makes it part of their own character arcs instead of just Oliver's arc. For example Diggle left and he started his whole rivalry against the general. Thea left and is... just part of Quentin's arc to be honest. Maybe Thea could have been banished from Team Arrow by Oliver since they didn't give her a real story.