User blog comment:TheDoctor230/Arrow Season 5 Villain/@comment-3221148-20160606220206

How would I do it:

Bring back Peter Stormare as Count Vertigo II.

Bring back Christopher Heyerdahl, who played Fake Damien Darhk.

I) Episode 1 is your typical "Batman on a case" kind of episode, with Werner Zuitle, Vertigo, who escaped from the prison after Damien Darhk released all the villains, is packing his things from Star City, targeting his old controlled drug dealers and taking their cash and goods. Oliver manages to get back all the illegal goods, but Vertigo escapes on a ferry. We see him in the pre-credits scene, experimenting with what appears to be the old Canary Cry of Sara Lance. No "main" villain is seemingly introduced.

II) H.I.V.E. Ghosts start to appear in some of early episodes as random mooks, like Malcolm's assassins did in Season 4. Oliver has Felicity investigate how the H.I.V.E. is still active, to no avail. Frustrated, the Green Arrow goes back to his knowledge of torture methods from Season 3 and forces a little bit of information from a Ghost (or, perhaps Lonnie Machin, also an expert torturer, gives him a hint). Apparently, the Ghosts still answer to "Darhk". The viewers are left pondering whether Damien Darhk is still alive and comes back as the main villain.

III) We see a return of the Church of Blood plot. Hoshaw Tolibao returns as the new Brother Blood, probably with the help of Cyrus Gold, preserved by a corrupt policeman under the control of the Church and re-animated as Solomon Grundy, Gotham-style. Team Arrow clears up the Church, but Brother Blood escapes and is revealed to be recruited by H.I.V.E. for his talents and his remnants of Mirakuru, as we see "Fake Damien Darhk".

IV) We are finally introduced to the man behind H.I.V.E. and to why he is referred to as "Darhk" by the Ghosts. Turns out that "Damien's assistant" is actually Dr. Ebeneezer Darrk, a long-time supporter of Damien back from their League of Assassins days, and a veteran of even earlier times himself, hailing back from the days of a Medieval Ra's al Ghul. Said Ra's has once chosen Darrk as his successor and rewarded him with gifts that would allow eternal life, but Darrk rejected the position, seeking to expand the interests of the League as whole. As he has seen Ra's al Ghuls come and go, he came to sympathize the ideals of Damien Darhk, who stated that the League shouldn't be defined by the whims of one Demon's Head alone, but work as a unified organism, a Hive. Darrk has assisted Darhk with setting up H.I.V.E. and worked as his employer's right hand for many years, trying to shape the organization into something the League could never be. Oliver taunts Dr. Darrk, saying that he's beaten H.I.V.E. and its leader before, but Ebeneezer replies that Damien's defeat was predestined as soon as he has forgotten about the nature of a Hive and tried to make it about his selfish ambitions, his family and his legacy, becoming no better than Ra's al Ghul. "Myself," - Dr. Darrk says, "I'm merely a drone, like many others. A part of a much larger Hive. I was ready to give my life for the sake of Damien's vision. Sadly, it seems it was his fate to lose a life, and mine to continue it." Darrk organizes his return and says that, no matter how long you try to fight the H.I.V.E., it would also "crawl back and survive, like a cockroach". "What can you do to subvert such a great power, Mr. Queen?" - Dr. Darrk asks. "...Survive" - echoes Oliver.

V) Brie Larvan is broken out by her brother, Bertram, using a suit similar to the "Bee Man" modeled by his sister. Turns out, Bertram was supplied by H.I.V.E. as a Bug-Eyed Bandit of their own. Bertram brings Brie to the H.I.V.E., who promise to "cure her", as Ebeneezer Darrk molds her into Hive's own "Queen Bee" able to access the thoughts and abilities of each Ghost thanks to a telepathic apparatus (think something like Cerebro), all the while spying on her foes through the cameras of her Robotic bees. It is revealed that one of Darrk's plans is to use Star City's own freaks and meta-humans to train invulnerable meta-human teams that would infiltrate and allow H.I.V.E. to take control over the world's governments, as a sort of "world government". Maybe have the traditional Hive-Five meta-humans introduced as an example and episodic villains. Maybe have Savage resurface along with Malcolm Merlyn, as they try to influence H.I.V.E.'s schemes.

VI) Meanwhile, start giving us hints on Vlatava, a breakaway country from the ex-Soviet Union, maybe a version of Latvia that became a monarchy? Anyway, Vlatava exports something of great importance to H.I.V.E., something they could use in their schemes in Star City specifically. A monarch of Vlatava visits Star City on a grand tour and is assassinated by Malcolm Merlyn, hired by a yet unknown force, and intending on interfering with H.I.V.E.'s plans, as Vlatava faces a crisis of succession and tensions rise with the US, stopping their imports of goods.

VII) Mid-season finale: H.I.V.E. vs Merlyn's Assassins remnant in the streets of Star City. Both sides use not just your standard mooks, but meta-humans, with H.I.V.E. assisted by Mirakuru soldiers and their mind-controled metas (and... GIANT BEE ROBOTS!), while the Assassins have sorcerers among their ranks, able to throw fireballs and the like. To stop this threat, Oliver gathers an all-team ensemble of all his friends and former allies (maybe not the Flash, you know HE's gonna have a busy season): from Team Arrow veterans like Diggle, Thea and Roy, to the old stars like Sara and Ray, to the weird-sort-of-allies like Evelyn Crawford or Helena Bertinelli or, heck, SLADE and the Suicide Squad. Make it a big ensemble event, so big that it seemingly wouldn't be enough if not for a secret weapon of Oliver's. In the very end, the villains are finally stopped by a sonic wave, emitted by none other than Laurel Lance, in some new version of her Canary Identity.

VIII) After the break, with some new villainy from Lonnie Machin to give our returning stars like Thea a plot of their own, we are getting closer to Vlatava, with hints from Merlyn on its importance, and Dr. Darrk moving H.I.V.E. forces to that location. Oliver is conflicted whether he should stay and protect his city, or travel the world to fight H.I.V.E., as being a hero is a transnational duty. He eventually chooses to travel to Vlatava.

IX) The fight for Vlatava's important resources is fought on both a "superhero" front and a much more important political one. H.I.V.E. is seemingly targeting royalist leaders and feeding discontent in its desire to impose a revolution that would dissolve the monarchy and allow their controlled politicians to get elected into office, giving the organization access to Vlatava's secret resources. Oliver ponders whether he should be fighting what is essentially a popular revolution, even if it is sponsored by the secret organization, as H.I.V.E. affiliated revolutionaries appear to him as hopeful people of liberal values, much like himself. Oliver questions if the decrepit monarchy that has arisen on the ruins of a Soviet Socialist regime is even worth preserving.

X) His choice is, ultimately, to reveal H.I.V.E. involvement in the assassinations, trying to turn people against them. However, it works detrimental to both H.I.V.E.'s and Oliver's, as the movement gets hijacked by Werner Zuitle, who unites both the republicans and the royalists by unmasking and publicly "executing" H.I.V.E. agents in the Vlatava parliament, gives a lot of populist promises to the people and is "elected" as their representative. With this new power, he negotiates a political marriage to the only surviving member of the ruling dynasty and is crowned as Count Werner of Vlatava. "Behind the closed doors" it is revealed that he was behind many events in the season from the beginning: he sent Team Arrow info on H.I.V.E. leader's movements, he hired Merlyn's Assassins to kill the previous Count of Vlatava, he also hired Lonnie Machin for some sort of operation in the early second half. Now protected by the law, he is still faced by those who would try to stay above it: Ebeneezer Darrk's meta-human "Hive-Five" team and Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, angry for being fooled by the despicable crimelord that is Werner Zuitle. Werner, however, has been preparing to be hunted by powerful foes for a long time, as he's not just assisted by Assassins, but is equipped well enough to possess the full extent of powers wielded by Count Vertigo of the comics. Count Vertigo unleashes sonic waves and warps his foes' senses one by one, turning the Hive-Five, whose minds were already fractured by Queen Bee's telepathy and the Mirakuru drug, onto each other. Oliver barely escapes thanks to the timely arrival of his friends, and Vertigo is left heavily wounded, the wounds he would blame on H.I.V.E. on the international TV. As Mayor Oliver Queen watches the news while being nursed to health, he ponders on what is justice and truth, whether an intervention is needed to help someone topple down a tyrant, whether an outsider can judge what's better for the others. Disgruntled, he decides that he's not fit to be a politician, and decides to resign, only for a shocking revelation to stay his hand.

This way, a main villain both exists and doesn't. The viewer is left to ponder whether Ebeneezer Darrk or Count Vertigo is in the right. H.I.V.E.'s portrayal gets the justice it deserves, instead of being a Dark Family Club, and Vertigo is reinstated to his rightful place as Green Arrow's nemesis along with the Dark Archer.

BONUS: Since the flashbacks are supposed to mirror the main story, the flashbacks deal with the Government Strongman Leonid Kovar and his awful reign over Krasnoyarsk. Without any legal means to topple him down and avenge Taiana's family, Oliver turns to the Bratva under Anatoly Knyazev, becoming an honorary captain. Oliver is forced to act as a criminal in the name of what he perceives as justice, and said justice ends up clashing with both the law and Oliver's own morals. Oliver is eventually thrown back to Lian Yu by his "benefactors", as he thinks on how he'll have to become a criminal to wage justice his father wanted him to wage with the List in hand.