Roy Harper

"You saved my life. Made me realize, it wasn't much of a life"

- Roy Harper

Roy William Harper, Jr., better known as simply Roy Harper, (born 1991) is a street-savvy teenager from the Glades. He is the son of the late Roy Harper, Sr. and an unnamed woman, the boyfriend and love interest of Thea Queen. He is also one of Arrow's supporters.

Season 1
In "Dodger", Roy first encountered Thea Queen when he stole her purse. He was later caught by the cops after being chased, and was taken in for questioning by Detective Quentin Lance. When asked, he admitted to stealing, because his mother was addicted to Vertigo and they needed the money badly. Thea decided to not press charges, possibly feeling sorry for him. She later visited him to get her purse, and the two had a brief chat.

In "The Huntress Returns", Thea again met with Roy outside of a coffee shop in the Glades, She promised him a job at her brother's club, Verdant, assuming he showed up for the job. However, although going through with most of it, Roy decided not to show up. This prompted Thea to come and question him. He admitted that he didn't want any charity from a rich girl, a comment which annoyed Thea greatly. As she walked off, two men approached her. However, before she could be mugged, Roy stepped in and beat the men up, accidentally getting a stab wound from one of them. Thea took Roy to the hospital, where he got stitched up and had a needle injected, the latter scaring him for an unspecified reason. Thea kissed him to distract him from the injection.

At some point, Thea and Roy began an intimate relationship.

In "Salvation", Thea visited Roy at his place in the Glades, which consisted of intimacy. A man visited partway through and gave Roy a gun, much to the shock of Thea, causing her to storm out, despite him trying to justify himself. She later came back to apologize, but Roy was kidnapped by Joseph Falk. He was taken below Starling City, onto a train running on the abandoned subway. While Joseph broadcast him on Glades Betrayed, Oliver, as The Hood, intervened before he could be killed. The Hood distracted Joseph as Roy untied himself, which was just in time considering a bullet was sent at him mere seconds before he'd ducked. Joseph was shot with an arrow through the stomach. Roy later reunited with Thea at her brother's club, where he reached into his pocket and pulled out an arrowhead.

In "Home Invasion", Roy steals a police radio, and waited until the dispatch mentioned the vigilante. But when he arrived at The Hood's supposed location, he instead found squad cars waiting for him. After, Thea bailed him out, Quentin showed him one of the corpses of The Hood's victims, and attempted to convince Roy that he's just a cold blooded killer. Roy later confessed to Thea that he wanted to find The Hood, because he felt he owed him.

In "Darkness on the Edge of Town", Roy and Thea stake out Unidac Industries, where the Dark Archer had massacred the entire staff. Their search soon led them to Merlyn Global Group, where they ran into Thea's brother, Oliver. When told of their search for The Hood, Oliver firmly warned Roy to abandon his search. Later returning to his home, Roy rationalized that his Vertigo contacts may help them. Thea then had second thoughts on the search. Roy stateed that he wants to find The Hood so he can train him, so he can stop other family tragedies from happening. That was the last straw for Thea, who threatened to break up with him if he didn't give his search. Thus, Roy chose to end things between them.

In "Sacrifice", During the evacuation, Thea saves him from being shot. Soon after, a man stops their car to ask them to help get people outside of a bus nearby. Letting Thea escape so he can save them, they kiss, and he goes to help the people stuck in the bus.

Season 2
In "City of Heroes", Shortly after the destruction of the Glades, Roy spent nights patrolling the streets, fighting with street thugs, in order to suppress the absence of the vigilante. He also went to work at the club Verdant, which was now being run by Thea. When Roy tried to prevent a rape one night, he was surprised by the appearance of The Canary, who knocked out all of the bad guys in a few moments.

In "Identity", Roy continues his efforts to patrol the night, however he discovers the medicines that are being delivered to the Glades Memorial Hospital were being stolen, which makes him engage in a car chase, where he has an accident due to the attack from the Chinese Triad. Roy gets arrested and he was threatened with prosecution, which gos away due to Laurel, and after he revealed that the medicines being delivered to glades memorial hospital were being stolen by unknown thieves to Oliver. Roy and Thea got into a fight, and she threatens to break up with him if he continues patrolling. However Oliver (under the guise of The Hood), confronts him and at that moment Roy becomes his informant in the Glades, out instead to continue patrolling.

In "Broken Dolls", Oliver (under the guise of Arrow), asks Roy to track down The Canary, Roy discovers that the vigilante, is always accompanied by a woman named "Sin", Roy manages to find her, however after questioning her on The Canary, she flees causing Roy to run after her to a abandoned site, which he is knocked out. When he wakes up he finds himself tied up and forward with the Canary, who initially questioned him but released him after he received a text from Thea (which mentioned that Laurel had been kidnapped).

In "Crucible", Roy is giving in his guns at the "Guns for Cash" Charity Drive but he does not want the money. Thea questions him about the guns but he tells her that it's an old part of his life. Sin appears and Roy introduces her to Thea. He saves Thea from an attack from The Mayor and then goes to Sin who has been shot. He is at the hospital looking over Sin and when she wakes up she tells him that since he saved her life, she will keep his secret of being involved with Arrow. She calls Roy a moron to which Thea agrees to and Sin begrudging admits that she likes Thea to Roy.

In "Keep Your Enemies Closer", Roy informs Arrow that the funny money guys, are getting ready to make a, he stops one of the thugs attempting to escape, but gets arrested by Officer Quentin well doing so, Roy tells Quentin he is Working for Arrow, and he is on his team so Quentin lets him go,

In "State v. Queen", Roy, Thea, and Oliver were present at Moria's opening trial. Later at the club Roy notices that Thea is in distress and tries to bring out Thea's anger by giving her boxing gloves and told her to punch him to get of the anger.

In "The Scientist",  Sin asks Roy for help (because of his contact with Arrow) when Sin's friend Max goes missing. Roy is determined to help her and searches for Sin's friend alongside with Thea, who joins in on the investigation which takes Roy by surprise. However while investgating, Roy discovers a blood drive that was hosted by Sebatian Blood, that occurred on the last day Max was seen and Max is later found dead. Roy takes a picture of Max's body specifically that Max's eyes bled out, he meets Arrow and informs about what he had found but Arrow tells him not to look into it. Roy angered by this, tells Arrow that he wouldn't be his eyes and ears anymore and that he and his friends are going to look into it. Arrow shoots Roy in the leg to slow him down as he is following the same trail albeit from a different perspective and knows that Roy can't fight the robber associated with the drug (and probably also that "his friends" likely included Thea.)

In "Three Ghosts", he is captured and injected with The Miracle he is declared a failure.

Personality
Roy does not like to steal and only does it because he is in a bad situation. He resents rich people because he believes most of them are greedy, arrogant and selfish, and he is not above taking things for free, particularly from rich people. Despite his initial dislike of Thea at the time, he saved her from two thugs before they can steal from her, showing that he tries to do the right thing. He has a fear of needles (but it is mentioned that this fear may stem from past experiences and a fear of becoming a drug addict). He has stated he will never beg for his life because his enemies do not deserve the satisfaction.

He is shown to be grateful, as after Arrow saved his life, he seeks to find out his identity. Roy states that he owes him everything, and possibly worships Arrow, because he believes him to be a hero. Roy later says the reason he wants to find Arrow is because he lost someone and wants Arrow to mentor him, so he doesn't lose anyone else ever again.

He is impulsive, shown when he steals a police radio, in order to help himself find Arrow, and gets arrested for it. He later broke up with Thea, because he would not give up on his search for Arrow, but he regretted it. He is also shown to be a selfless person, rescuing and helping people.

Physical appearance
Roy is a tall, physically fit, male with brunette hair, green eyes. Standing at 5"9 in height with a toned and muscular physique .He has a solid jaw line with strong bone structure and cheekbones.

Since his arrival, Roy often shown wearing a red hooded jumper which symbolises his comic alter ego, Red Arrow.

Abilities

 * Free running/Acrobatics: In "Dodger", when attempting to flee from Thea and Laurel, Roy showed he could easily scale a fence multiple meters high in one fluid movement, making use of a nearby wall to provide leverage. In "Broken Dolls", Roy is shown to be fast enough to catch up with Sin.
 * Skilled street fighter/Advanced hand-to-hand combatant: Having grown up in the Glades all his life, Roy had taught himself to fight back. In "The Huntress Returns", Roy was able to hold out on his own while fighting two thugs, even using the wall to build up centrifugal force, jumping over one the thugs and strike him down. In "Sacrifice", he took out two thugs without taking a hit from them, by flipping the second thug onto the then down first thug. In "City of Heroes", he has shown an ability to fight more than three opponents simultaneously, including when they wield weapons.
 * Skilled marksman: In "Identity", Roy is shown to be skilled enough to throw a flechette, straight at Oliver's face (under the guise of Arrow), which Oliver managed to catch, Roy has good accuracy despite the fact that he was not trained in archery.

Equipment

 * Roy Harper's Flechette: Roy received this Flechette after Arrow, saved his life from the psychotic Joseph Falk aka The Savior, Roy keeps it as a reminder that Arrow saved his life, and he owes him everything, he later painted it red, so he would not get this Flechette confused, with one of Arrow's flechettes which are green, Roy now uses it as a way to contact Arrow.

Trivia

 * In the original Green Arrow comics, Roy Harper is Green Arrow's sidekick, and is the first to take on the codename Speedy, which happens to be Thea Queen's nickname in Arrow. He later left Green Arrow due to drug abuse, but returned to take on the monikers Arsenal, and Red Arrow. This is foreshadowed when Roy keeps the flechette Oliver threw to him to cut himself free.
 * As shown in, Roy has a fear of needles. This is likely a reference to his comics alter ego's struggle with heroin addiction.
 * In a deleted scene for, Roy's first appearance, Thea calls him Speedy.
 * In, Roy claimed he had lost someone and they were not coming back. It is possible this someone was his mother or father.
 * In, Roy finally comes face to face with Arrow, since he saved his life. He also becomes Arrow's second protégé, and fourth partner.
 * He is often shown wearing a red hoodie, a nod to his comic alter ego, Red Arrow.