User blog:Eobard95/Arrow Season 6 - How it should be

So yea this is becoming a habit of mine. Either in anticipation of a show season or in response to a show season I either write what it should be more like if I'm skeptical about the upcoming season or do my own version of how it could have been done better, in these cases Arrow Season 5 and Flash Season 3 respectively. Though I admit season 5 of Arrow turned out to be much better than I expected. However I am skeptical about season 6 despite the promising storylines so I decided to write up my own version of how I think season 6 should roughly be, and I was bored lol. Be warned it's about a 6 page long post though this is actually a lot better than my previous "how it should be" posts which are like 20 pages lol.

In the chaos that ensures on Lian Yu Felicity and Samantha are killed by the explosions caused by Adrian’s suicide and those same explosions fatally injure Diggle and Thea, leaving him crippled and her comatose. Rene, Curtis and Nyssa are spared from the explosion by Dinah using her cry to deflect the explosion off of them, while Slade is able to withstand it due to residual Mirakuru. Quentin was spared from the explosion by Laurel impulsively using her cry to deflect the explosion off of him despite feeling a little resentment for him knocking her out. Talia however was able to escape the island in advance. Afterward Lyla sends an A.R.G.U.S. boat to rescue them all and while Oliver lets Slade go as per their agreement Laurel gives them the slip and takes off. Nyssa also parts ways to go find Talia and ensure she won’t keep targeting Oliver in Adrian’s place. Finally William is left to grief for his mother while Oliver is also suffering his own grief but takes the boy into his custody to raise him.

6 months later Oliver continues being mayor of Star City while also leading Team Arrow but has been struggling to cope with his grief for Felicity, especially when he is forced to be a single father and help his son cope with his own grief which has left William quiet and reclusive. Meanwhile Diggle is hospitalized with serious injuries forcing him to retire as Spartan while Thea is still comatose. Quentin is still deputy mayor but his encounter with Earth-2 Laurel still haunts him. Team Arrow is now only consistent of Dinah who has become Oliver’s right-hand woman in Diggle’s absence, Curtis who has filled for Felicity’s duties while improving his fighting skills and Rene who fills in for Thea. Dinah has also been tracking Laurel and is intent on bringing her back to A.R.G.U.S. custody so she doesn’t ruin her doppelganger’s legacy. Laurel herself, now directionless without Zoom or Prometheus, has been drifting but sticking close to Star City and committing several crimes and almost getting exposed to the public.

For the last few months a criminal named Ricardo Diaz / Richard Dragon has filled the vacuum left by Tobias Church as Star City’s criminal kingpin and has been committing several acts of murderer and theft. Dragon is also a highly trained martial artist with skills equal to even Oliver’s and has been Team Arrow’s primary source of anguish since Prometheus. Additionally Vigilante, whose identity is still unknown to Team Arrow, still continues his more extreme vision of justice and has been targeting Dragon also which often results in three-sided conflicts. Things get more complicated when Dragon encounters Laurel and offers her sanctuary in exchange for her aid and she agrees. Quickly sweet-talking her way up the chain of command Laurel soon becomes Dragon’s right-hand woman and having her on his side evens the odds with Dinah.

Diggle soon recovers from his injuries enough to leave the hospital but when he tries to go back into the field as Spartan an encounter with Dragon almost kills him and he is forced to stay retired until his injuries fully heal and starts focusing his efforts elsewhere. He also starts helping Oliver with raising William taking some of the pressure off of him and starts consulting more on A.R.G.U.S. missions with Lyla. Meanwhile Dinah still struggles to fill the shoes of Earth-1 Laurel’s legacy and doesn’t fully believe she deserves it despite Quentin’s reassurances. She has also started displaying signs of affection towards Oliver but keeps these feelings to herself, knowing that he still hasn’t recovered from Felicity’s death. Curtis equally struggles to fill Felicity’s shoes as she was the better hacker but is determined to do right by her memory.

Dragon uses Laurel to lure Oliver into an underground tunnel but abandons her and sets off the explosives intent on killing them both. However they survive this and Laurel is bent on revenge but knowing she cannot do it alone reluctantly allies with Team Arrow and gives them everything on Dragon. While they wait for the means to find Dragon at the Arrowcave Laurel makes everyone uncomfortable considering her aid in Adrian’s agenda, and she tries to annoy them as much as possible and looks at Dinah with contempt while sarcastically calling Quentin “dad” just to annoy him. Eventually they get a lead and Team Arrow takes Dragon by surprise and disrupts his operations as Oliver confronts him in a final fight and Dragon tells him he served in the League of Assassins, but despite their skills being fairly evenly matched Oliver is finally able to emerge victorious with help from Dinah, Rene and Curtis. Laurel wants to kill him but the team holds her back as she then decides to flee before they call A.R.G.U.S. After Dragon’s defeat A.R.G.U.S. is where he’s taken and everybody celebrates their victory but are unable their efforts are being watched on monitors by Cayden James of Helix.

In the mid-season finale everybody celebrates Christmas with happy family reunions but Oliver starts hallucinating Felicity but is pleased when William starts to interact with his friends and family more. Shortly after though Vigilante returns and attacks city hall and kills several members of the city council before a large message broadcasts on live tv, with a man disguised in the shadows accusing Star City of corruption and promising to liberate it. Team Arrow starts investigating who could be working with Vigilante only for the team to be kidnapped one after the other, until Oliver is left alone and Vigilante himself leaves a message for Oliver inviting him to rescue his friends. With little choice Oliver agrees but knowing it’s a trap and will be outnumbered he seeks out Earth-2 Laurel’s aid and while she initially refuses, is persuaded upon learning Quentin is in danger. Oliver then heads to the location where Vigilante has all of Team Arrow captive but his real superior is the Helix leader Cayden James.

Cayden tells them that his vision for Helix is to liberate the world from the shackles of corruption and Star City has always been a primary source of this. However he also admires Team Arrow for their efforts in trying to save an almost broken city and extends an invitation to join him and really save the city but Oliver refuses. As Cayden expresses disappointment and sets Vigilante on him but Laurel sneaks up on him and she and Oliver fight together against the enemy and free their allies. Afterward however Laurel vanishes to avoid capture while the rest of Team Arrow regroup and discus what to do about Cayden, and Curtis promises to find them and try and uncover Vigilante’s identity if possible. Later that night Dinah meets up with Oliver at the apartment and she thanks him for saving them all and the two have a slight intimate moment but Dinah backs off out of consideration because for Felicity's memory but Oliver, starting to put Felicity’s memory to rest, pulls her back and they have an intimate night together. Unbeknownst to them however Laurel is spying on them from a building afar with a look on her face of resentment and sadness.

Later Thea finally wakes up from her coma but is devastated to learn of Felicity’s death and is barely over Malcolm’s but rather than fall into depression yet again, she decides to honor their memories and starts researching into Merlyn Global and discovers she has shares in the company left to her by Malcolm in his will. She then reaches out to Walter Steele, who was equally saddened to learn of Felicity's death, and begins looking into restarting the company under a new name, her name: Queen Inc (like in Barry's 2024 newspaper which means Oliver or Thea has to get their company back at some point in the next 7 years). However she still doesn’t feel like it’s enough to honor Malcolm’s memory and she decides to finally suit up again as Speedy and use the skills he taught her to properly honor his memory. She also puts up with more of Rene’s romantic passes despite her disinterest but she also meets his daughter Zoe and they become fond of each other, and seeing how Rene treats Zoe makes Thea re-evaluate her original view of Rene, and she agrees to give him a chance and they start a relationship.

Meanwhile Diggle is still retired from being Spartan but has started learning more of the ropes at A.R.G.U.S. and has begun to see things more clearly from Lyla’s perspective and the tough calls she has to make, but understands she doesn’t just make Waller-based choices unless she is left with no other option which has allowed them to make more amends over Cayden. However Cayden takes control of the computers at A.R.G.U.S. and appears on them accusing Lyla of corruption and intents to get payback for his wrongful imprisonment. Several A.R.G.U.S. agents then turn out to be Helix spies and kill several other agents and Lyla is fatally shot, but Diggle intervenes and stops them from killing her. Lyla is then taken to a hospital in Central City for extensive surgeries but Diggle is surprised when the next in line for director of A.R.G.U.S. is him, approved by Lyla herself. Though feeling unready to take on a role like this Diggle doesn’t refuse out of respect for his wife’s wishes and reluctantly becomes the man charged with protecting the world.

Quentin continues with his duties as deputy mayor but has been struggling with his grief over Laurel and trying to avoid drinking but has been haunted by his recently meetings with E2-Laurel, seeing how bitter and twisted she is yet seeing how she risked her life to save him. However Quentin is caught off guard when E2-Laurel sneaks into his apartment and asks for a place to lay low, hoping he’s the one person that won’t just turn her into A.R.G.U.S., and he reluctantly agrees. However their time together is very tense and awkward, with her still referring to him as “dad” to annoy him. However out of curiosity asks why she became Black Siren but she only vaguely goes into detail, telling him to imagine every choice E1-Laurel made from Oliver’s presumed death was the opposite to what it was. She also confirms that Earth-2 Quentin is dead as Quentin had suspected and also confirms that she did had a sister named Sara who is also dead. However tensions eventually rise between over their differences but is really the two of them simply butting heads over their own losses. Eventually Quentin feels regretful but Laurel is gone before he can apologise.

Anatoly returns to Star City to exploit it now that Dragon is out of the picture as he now struggling to keep the Bratva together but out of sentiment towards Oliver orders his men not to use lethal force on Team Arrow. However Oliver and his team continually disrupt their operations which forces Anatoly to take more drastic actions and hires Slade as a mercenary. However Slade’s motives are not out of resentment nor does he hold any contempt against Oliver but he is simply trying to earn money the only way a disavowed soldier can, and many of his funds go towards his son Joe. Slade had initially tried to reach out to him but Joe was terrified of Slade and had every right to be because of what he’d done and this is the only way he can help his son. Because of his sentiment Slade also uses restraint against Oliver and is quite capable of taking him and most of Team Arrow on solo. Additionally Anatoly also discovers Laurel and ropes her into his group but she is initially sceptical because of Dragon and Prometheus betraying her, but gives him a chance and aids him against Team Arrow. However Oliver is more hesitant now having seen Laurel’s potential but Dinah is still perfectly willing to fight her though does still feel bad because of Oliver and Quentin’s sentiment towards her.

Curtis continues looking for Cayden through every inch of the dark-web that he can and finds several places in Star City that he Rene and Dinah search but with no luck. However one of their searches leads them to Alena, Felicity’s hacker friend, and they try to get her to tell them where Cayden is but she refuses to give him up. However she is caught off guard when she learns Cayden sent Vigilante after them all to rope into the cause, and almost made an orphan out of John Jr. Before the conversation can go any further Vigilante appears to rescue Alena but she is quite disturbed to learn that Helix has willingly targetted civilians and endangered children.

When Vigilante returns Alena to Cayden he warns not to slip up again or she’ll be out. Cayden then meets up with his partner, Talia al Ghul. Cayden demands to just kill Team Arrow but Talia refuses to as per the terms of their agreement: She aids his crusade against Star City’s corruption by having her assassins carry out his plans while he keeps Team Arrow alive long enough to see the fallout of the “uprising”, long enough for Oliver Queen to see all his work undone. Then when he has lost everything she will finally correct her mistakes and destroy her greatest creation. However she warns Cayden that she’ll kill him if he or any member of Helix harms a single member of Team Arrow before the uprising occurs.

Later Anatoly becomes decidedly more ruthless in his approaches and starts endangering innocent lives trying to force the Team Arrow to start letting the Bratva fulfil its missions. Slade begins to disagree with Anatoly’s methods as he is endangering children too, which Slade disagrees with being a father himself. To this end Slade tells Team Arrow the location of Anatoly’s Star City hideout and they storm the place and take down most of the Bratva gangsters and Anatoly is forced to flee with his remaining men back to Russia, and leaves E2-Laurel behind who slips away to avoid capture and the team celebrates having taken down another enemy. William also starts to grow closer to Oliver and starts growing fonder of Dinah and it truly seems like Oliver is building a family. However Anatoly promises they will keep coming back until the Bratva is back on its feet but berates Oliver as he wanted the Bratva to help people, and believed if he’d stayed 6 years ago he could have help him sort things out.

A little while later though Dinah is called to a factory by Curtis to investigate a possible Vigilante hideout but in truth Laurel sends her a fake message to lure her into a trap. When she arrives Laurel viciously tries to kill Dinah and the pair end up in a brutal and heated fight which ends in a draw with both being severely injured and Dinah calls Oliver for help. While waiting, with neither going anywhere, Dinah asks Laurel why she hates her so much and Laurel surprises her by telling Dinah she is envious of her. She is Black Canary, she has friends and family who love her and she even has Oliver and a kid that likes her, which is everything that Laurel wanted in her life. She reflects that while these tragedies opened her eyes to who she really was, she would rather have died after leading a fulfilled life like her doppelganger, rather than live an empty one. As both are taken back to the Arrowcave Dinah begins to feel sympathy for Laurel. Rather than send Laurel back to A.R.G.U.S. Oliver decides to keep her in the Arrowcave cell out of sentiment as he still believes he can get through to her, though she just scoffs at his words when she isn’t busy throwing a flirtatious glance at him.

Eventually Diggle is relieved of his duties as A.R.G.U.S. director once Lyla wakes up though is kept hidden in a disclosed location with John Jr. for their safety and continues her job from there, but Diggle has gained a clearer understanding of how messy the world can get having been forced to make some tough calls that have been weighing on him since. After getting himself checked up his injuries have also fully healed and he decides to return to being Spartan and as soon as he does Vigilante makes another appearance targeting corrupt officials. Diggle pursues him and finally Vigilante is taken down but upon unmasking him Diggle is stunned to learn he is really a still-alive Deadshot.

When Diggle takes Deadshot back to A.R.G.U.S. he reveals how he survived: ''When the building exploded underneath him 2 years ago Deadshot was badly injured but was located by H.I.V.E., who had been keeping tabs on him, and turned him into one of their Ghosts. However his family who were living in Central City but moved to Star City years before were among the victims in Damien Darhk’s killings and only after his death was he freed from his control. Afterward he began hunting down H.I.V.E. remnants and encountered Talia al Ghul who was doing the same and saw potential in Deadshot and trained him in the ways of the League of Assassins, and left him to roam Star City to enforce his own vision of justice which led to Helix recruiting him.''

However this leads Diggle into beating down Deadshot in rage due to Lyla’s near death experience but Deadshot, while remorseful for Lyla, still stands by his views that the world is corrupt and it needs to end and Star City is the first step in bringing that vision to life. He also reveals Talia’s involvement with Cayden’s agenda as she’s the only reason Team Arrow hasn’t been killed yet, but Diggle admits that he is part of Team Arrow. Deadshot is quite surprised to learn this but thinks back to earlier encounters and it clicks but Diggle asks Deadshot to make things right and tell him what Helix is planning. However Deadshot doesn’t actually know he just points and shoots at targets but does know it will involve the entire city, but he still believes in Helix’s vision.

After this Diggle informs Oliver who is then confronted by Talia who tells Oliver that Helix was always part of her plan to ruin him, and Adrian was simply a means to an end just like Cayden is. She also confirms she found Deadshot and turned him into Vigilante to serve as a more effective replacement for Oliver as her plan, unlike Adrian’s, will end with Oliver’s death but only after he watches everything he worked so hard to build crumble. Oliver however accuses Talia of being a delusional hypocrite as her teachings are what led to Prometheus’ existence. While she admits this she berates Oliver for not taking more effective measures in preventing his existence in the first place. She also expresses some remorse but only that she failed to be a more effective teacher whose star pupil should have gone on to succeed her father as Ra’s al Ghul. Instead Oliver killed him and allowed the League of Assassins to fall into Nyssa’s hands who destroyed it. However Oliver reveals he has been stalling for time and soon enough Team Arrow, accompanied by Nyssa, crashes the party where several Helix members are hiding in plain sight and a fight breaks out. Talia is forced to fight back which blows her cover but she is able to escape but promises the uprising is coming and everyone he loves will die.

Sometime after Quentin visits E2-Laurel, still in captivity in the Arrowcave, and asks why she become Black Siren and with nothing to lose she finally tells him her story: ''In 2007 Laurel was a police officer in Starling City like her father but her ex-boyfriend Oliver was dating her sister Sara. While Laurel tried to be supportive she secretly resented Sara as she was still in love with Oliver despite breaking up over indifferences, which led to a falling out between Laurel and Sara. The next day Oliver and Sara embarked on the Queen’s Gambit and perished at sea. This made Laurel riddled with grief and regret and she became reclusive and dived into her work and while Quentin tried to help her despite also suffering grief, she pushed him away. Over the next 6 years she tried to move on and had several boyfriends, and girlfriends, but could never recover from Oliver and Sara’s death and gave up on happiness.''

''In 2013 when Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the Glades in the Undertaking Laurel was trapped in the precinct and Quentin gave his life to save her. However this made Laurel further riddled with grief as they were fairly estranged at the time. She also learned that several of her exes Tommy Merlyn and Sebastian Blood, and even her current girlfriend Helena Bertinelli were all killed and even her cop partner McKenna Hall. Furthermore several friends of hers including Roy Harper and Sin were also killed and Laurel became catatonic. The only thing close to family she had left in Star City was Oliver’s father Robert but even interacting with his caused him grief so she decided to move to Central City where her mother Dinah lived, hoping for a fresh start. There she was partnered with Detective Iris West-Allen and took down many criminals including the serial killer Hunter Zolomon. One night however a criminal she was following, Sean Sonus, kidnapped and tortured her in retribution for past disruption of his plans and executed her mother right in front of her. As she screamed in response to her mother being shot Laurel was affected by dark matter from Harrison Wells’ particle accelerator and gained her sonic cry and killed several of Sonus men.''

''Finally Laurel snapped and hunted down and massacred Sonus’ men before killing him too and left several dozen corpses in her wake. With nothing left Laurel tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge but was saved by Zoom who sympathised with her position but told her the darkness is not to be feared by embraced, and then she’ll be free to do anything and offered to teach her. While she was hesitant at first Zoom revealed his identity to her as “Jay Garrick/The Flash”, but elaborated that he was really Hunter. He also remembers Laurel being one the detectives who arrested him but is glad she did, as it lead to him becoming Zoom and offers to extend the same gift to her. With nothing left and grateful to Hunter for saving her and giving her new purpose Laurel gave into her dark impulses and became Black Siren. Over the next 3 years she went out of his way to impress him by murdering as many people as she could and climbed up the ranks until she became his right-hand woman. She also enjoyed killing every single one of her victims as their pain and suffering allowed her to dull her own pain and be free from the weakness of family and the burden of heartache.''

Hearing all of this makes Quentin riddled with emotions to learn just how much suffering this woman endured especially when his own daughter could just as easily have become her. Unbeknownst to any of them the rest of Team Arrow was listening through the monitors and all of them, especially Oliver and Dinah, are quite emotional. Dinah is particularly touched by Laurel’s story as it is not dissimilar to her own while Oliver realizes that Laurel is just like him and what he could have become if he didn’t have a reason to fight. Even Thea feels a little sympathetic as she too fell under the influence of a murderer and even talks to Laurel about this and expresses her sympathies. Laurel then becomes quite fond of Thea and encourages her to take her advice and just give into the darkness so it will hurt much less when she loses everyone she loves, which she believes will happen given how often friends and family seem to die around her.

After discussing it at great lengths Oliver and Dinah decide to let Laurel out of the cell and convince her to stay and let them help her. Still kept depowered under a sonic-dampener they allow her to roam free but she asks to be taken to E1-Laurel’s apartment, now Thea’s, and they comply with her curiosity. While there she notes the similarities between her and her doppelganger, mainly their shared inability to cook anything. However she also asks many questions Oliver can't answer such as where will she live and how she'll support herself when everybody in Star City will recognise her. She also asks how they will be able to work with her when she’s killed so many people and has served Oliver and Barry’s greatest enemies. She also disbelieves the team will be able to tolerate her as she is a constant reminder of what the lost. She’s a reminder of Quentin’s daughter, Thea’s best friend, Diggle’s failure and Oliver’s first love. She especially doesn’t believe that Oliver, despite his intentions, will ever be able to work with her because she recognises the pain he secretly feels every time he looks into the eyes of the woman he loved and lost, the same feeling she feels every time she looks at him. Before Oliver can reply Laurel starts having a panic attack and in a fit of impulse lashes out and escapes and flees to a remote location outside the city where she lets out her anger in a screaming fit.

After this Cayden informs Talia that the plan is ready to execute and she has her assassins infiltrate A.R.G.U.S. and free Richard Dragon and Vigilante while she also has Black Siren and Deathstroke kidnapped. After bringing the four of them before her she makes them all an offer to be part of the revulotion and while Vigilante is onboard and Dragon agrees out of respect to Ra’s, Laurel is sceptical given her recent history of being used and betrayed/abandoned and Slade will only help for the right price and if their goals aren’t straight up murder. However Talia promises to send Laurel back to Earth-2 if she helps out where she can continue her criminal pursuits away from her family’s doppelgangers and she agrees. However Talia forces Slade’s co-operation by revealing she has his son kidnapped and he reluctantly agrees.

With the plan ready to execute Cayden appears on every television in Star City telling the people to take back freedom from the corruption of their leaders, the ones who oppress them for their own gain and fills people’s computers with sensitive information on government activates which sparks a full blown revolution. Additionally the power to the city goes out disabling the response cabilities of the S.C.P.D. and A.R.G.U.S. In the space of an hour people quickly succumb to killing each other to take back what’s theirs. When shots are fired in panic the uprising really begins and Team Arrow is helpless to do anything but watch the city fall, to watch their 6 years of efforts be undone in a matter of hours. What Oliver is most hurt by is the fact that Cayden hasn’t actually killed anyone to achieve his plans either he’s just exposed the truth, and showed the true face of Star City. Worst of all they have no way to find Talia or Cayden.

While searching Oliver resorts to Anatoly and promises to give him whatever he needs to keep the Bratva active if he helps him find Cayden and Talia. As they search they remise about old times and make amends over their last year’s indifference and hope to start mending their friendship once Helix is gone. When they find a lead however Oliver and Anatoly find Talia waiting for them reflecting on the chaos that has ensured, and is enjoying watching Oliver’s suffering. She is also quite angered to see Anatoly as his friendship with Oliver is what brought him into her path. However as Oliver and Talia fight while Anatoly holds off some of Helix’ mercenaries he notices their wildcard: William. Seeing them trying to take the boy Anatoly fights like hell to get him back but when he does Talia gains a momentary advantage over Oliver and fires an arrow at William. However Anatoly instinctively pushes him away but it struck by the arrow himself as Talia vanishes to complete her plan. Oliver then rushes to Anatoly’s side but it’s too late to save him so Anatoly apologies for his recklessness and reflects that despite his loyalty to the Bratva, he was glad to choose his brother instead and passes away in Oliver’s arms.

Later while Anatoly’s body is retrieved by the Bratva Oliver is vengeful and takes William into A.R.G.U.S. custody and ensures he’s safely away while they locate Talia amidst all the chaos. However Alena who has become regretful of what Helix has done provides them with Cayden’s location. However Talia anticipates this and has her team ready themselves as Team Arrow storms their hideout. As the teams confront each other Oliver surprises them when Nyssa and several former league agents appear as well as a large number of Bratva vengeful for Anatoly’s death. Both sides clash with each other in a brutal battle to the death. As Oliver fights Slade he discreetly tells Oliver why he’s helping Talia, and that there is a bomb her assassins have spent the last several months building underground set to explode in a few minutes. Talia only wanted to use Helix as a means to show Oliver the "true face" of the city he protects, but her endgame was to always destroy the city itself. Oliver tells Curtis this and he goes to disable it but Cayden goes after him.

Dinah fights Laurel and despite their skills being fairly even Dinah barely comes out on top but Laurel begs Dinah to kill her and end her suffering but she refuses, and tells Laurel to wake up and realize what’s right in front of her. Meanwhile Diggle fights Deadshot and tries to get through to him and after an emotional fight Deadshot finally realizes how far he’s fallen, while Dragon fights and corners Thea and Rene but before he can finish them Diggle and Deadshot gun down Dragon together. Oliver and Slade continue to fight but upon seeing the tables turn defects back to Oliver's side knowing he's now the best chance to save Joe. Curtis tries to disable the bomb but is badly shot in the knee by Cayden who expresses remorse for Felicity and what’s about to happen, but promises that this isn’t the only purpose to Helix and offers Curtis a place at his side.

However Curtis respectfully refuses and cripples Cayden’s knee caps and hacks into the bomb’s detonation sequence, hidden behind numerous layers of coding, but hacks it in as fast an effort as Felicity would have and disables it. While the rest of Team Arrow is busy with Helix Oliver pursues Talia to the roof where she has been fighting Nyssa for some time and eventually wounds her but before she can kill her, Oliver intervenes. The two of them battle but Talia gains a slight advantage over him empowered by sheer rage for her father but as she is about to deliver the killing blow, she is knocked over by a sonic cry from Laurel which gives Oliver enough time to disarm her and kneecaps her as Team Arrow, Slade and Deadshot arrive in time to see.

Beaten and crppled Talia tempts him into killing her. However Oliver refuses and remains steadfast in his resolve and she tells him that no matter how much he may fool himself he’ll always be the monster deep down, but he belittles her pessimistic view and wishes he never met her and the only reason he’s glad he did is because he never would have returned home if not for her. He also reminds her that while he won’t kill her she did play a part in Felicity’s death he doesn’t have to save her and as Team Arrow leaves to get Cayden and clean up the mess, Vigilante, Black Siren and Deathstroke are left to take revenge on Talia for kidnapping, torturing or brainwashing either them or their loved ones and take their time in killing her slowly and painfully while Nyssa happily watches.

In the aftermath the city is restored to order and Oliver as mayor promises to make Star City free of the corruption and make it a place people are glad to call home. Cayden is tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment while Alena takes control of Helix and steers it towards being what it should be like Felicity would have wanted. Slade parts ways with Oliver and returns to what he does best and thanks Oliver for saving his son. Laurel leaves a message for Oliver admitting that while she is happy to have somebody who believes in her she doesn’t know what she believes anymore and needs time to figure out what she is. Deadshot also parts ways to find a new life. Nyssa parts ways with the intention of reforming the league and its original membership seeing as how it’s members either joined Talia or resorted to crime.

Dinah however decides to leave too to find Laurel and bring her back home as she too believes she can be redeemed but needs to face her demons rather than run. While she admits she does love Oliver she tells him they won't work out because his feelings spawned from his grief for Felicity's death which he's recovered from. Oliver admits it to be true and respects Dinah's wishes to call things off and they respectfully end things. Before leaving she also reveals she's been curious about the Legends and would also love the opperunity to travel through time when she settles loose ends, and Oliver promises to put in a good word with Sara. William has finally recovered from Samantha’s death and starts treating Oliver more like a father, and expresses an interest in archery though Oliver tells him not to get any ideas...

Meanwhile in a remote location in a hospital bed with several pieces of medical equipment attached to him a still-allive Malcolm Merlyn, who survived Lian Yu by forcing Captain Boomerang to take his place and killing him instead though still sustained fatal injuries from the explosion itself, is revealed to have been watching everything and while he is happy for Thea, his resentment towards Oliver only continues to grow. Furthermore learning of Nyssa's new plan to rebuild her own version of the League of Assassins makes him espeically angry and he is equally outraged to see Cayden's work undone, believing it to be the most effective plan to fix Star City yet. While he is in no position to walk Malcolm is onthe verge of snapping towards Oliver...

So yea this is basically what I think the overall direction of season 6 should be like, in as compressed and simplified form as I knew how to make without getting distracted with too many sub-plots like I have in my other "how it should be posts". Tell me what you think. Do you think season 6 will be, or at least want it to be, like this or am I way off course?