User blog:Primus95/Earth-2 Laurel as Black Canary?

I think we can all agree that killing Black Canary was the worst choice Arrow has ever made. It’s a decision which has done no good for the show whatsoever and has only succeeded in driving fans away, myself included. Seriously I’ve been disappointed for almost 2 years now and I’m not sure if I can do another season, and I was feeling that way before Laurel died. Anyway killing Laurel was the worst choice they’ve made but unfortunately they’ve made it and we can’t change it but there is one way to make things right again: Earth-2 Laurel / Black Siren.

The evil doppelganger of Black Canary, Black Siren first appeared in The Flash’s “Invincible” and is a far darker version of the Laurel we loved. However I believe if the producers were to introduce her into Arrow and give her a redemption story it would allow us to have Laurel back again, in a sense. Yes Black Siren is quite sadistic, but Captain Cold was a ruthless thief and Heat Wave was a crazy arsonist. Yet during Legends of Tomorrow Cold died saving time itself and Heat Wave killed Vandal Savage, one version of him, and is apparently a member of the Justice Society of America in the future/past! So if Snart and Mick can find redemption then yea not Earth-2 Laurel?

I think doing this would allow the writers to start fresh with the character and could open the way for numerous potential storylines. Of course Laurel-2 wouldn’t just willingly join the team. There’d have to be some reluctant team up against a common enemy between Oliver and Laurel to allow something like this to happen. How I’d do it is to have a villain seek to pit her against Oliver, forcing her cooperation by threaten to show footage of her to the press, as people would believe Earth-1 Laurel is alive and be looking for Earth-2 Laurel as a result. Though obviously Laurel is powerful she wouldn’t need that kind of media attention and would agree. As planned Oliver would hesitate due to her looking exactly like the woman he loved. However Laurel would end up turning on her extorter and the villain would be out for her too.

With this Oliver, out of stubborn naive pity because she looks like Earth-1 Laurel, would offer her a place in the team for protection. Of course Laurel would immediately decline but Oliver would remind her that the extorter found her once and will do again, has too many followers to take on alone, and trying to find him first with no help will be impossible. However Team Arrow would be able to shelter her and find her extorter first and Laurel would, reluctantly, accept. Of course she’d basically be using the team to protect herself and as such, wouldn’t get along with them to start, but over time would start warming up to them and eventually turn a new leaf.

It would be interesting seeing the team interact with a very different version of Laurel. Most would be seeing Oliver, the man who loved Laurel, interacting with her not so friendly doppelganger. Also Quentin, who would obviously still be upset about Laurel’s death, being forced to interact with Earth-2 Laurel who is, literally, a walking reminder of the daughter he lost. Also if they did this Laurel and Felicity should have a feud whereas Earth-1 Laurel often complemented her on her nerdy quirks, Earth-2 Laurel would be highly irritated by her and they would be at odds with each other. I also don’t think I was naive in assuming that Oliver and Laurel would end up together eventually though it seems they lost sight of even trying this a while ago. However I did seem some hints this last season, just a few interactions that imply it, and Laurel even admitted before dying that she did still love Oliver.

However if they introduce Earth-2 Laurel it would be a chance to try this again and get it right this time. Yea this may sound weird, Oliver falling in love with one Laurel then falling in love with another but as I said they kinda missed their chance beforehand, and it’s not like it would happen right away if it did. Oliver would be hesitant as she does look like the Laurel he loved but Laurel-2 on the other hand may have never met Oliver on Earth-2, so she might feel a more genuine affection for him. Though I think over time Oliver could come to see that Laurel-2 is her own person and fall for who she is rather than for what Earth-1 Laurel was, and we’d finally have the Green Arrow x Black Canary love story we should have gotten.

I do see the downside in bringing in Earth-2 Laurel as Earth-1 Laurel is the character we invested in for 4 years and now suddenly they’d be bringing in another version of her. But I think there is one truth we all need to accept: Laurel wasn’t the best written character. Before I continue I mean no disrespect to Katie Cassidy she was awesome but the writing of her character and story arcs weren’t entirely the best written. Over the course of the show Laurel was a kind and independent lawyer who sought to make a difference in the crime ridden Starling City. Over the course of her career she suffered many losses and she channelled her grief by becoming the superhero Black Canary who made a difference with her team of fellow heroes and became a role model for women, like her sister before her. However we also need to remember the negatives.

Season 1 she more often felt like a plot device for Oliver and Tommy’s struggle. Season 2 she descended n alcoholism and became a very unlikable character. I even read an article a few years back that labelled Laurel as the worst tv show character. Again no disrespect to Katie Cassidy she was only doing her job. Season 3 she became the Black Canary and came into her own but she kept Sara’s, then, death a secret from her father, and even manipulated him to keep up this deception. Season 4 she revived her sister despite knowing what the consequences would be, and then she felt a little underused then she died. Don’t get me wrong I loved Laurel but it took me a while to get to that stage and ultimately the producers failed us by killing her off.

However introducing Earth-2 Laurel would give the producers a clean slate and a chance to do things differently and better. I also think it’s worth noting that Earth-2 Laurel’s costume is more comic accurate that Earth-1 Laurel’s and even her Canary Cry is more accurate as an actual superpower rather than an a electric collar. I know that Earth-2 Laurel is a metahuman who are usually Flash characters and Arrow is more grounded, despite having strength enhancing drugs, resurrection waters, magic and a few metahumans of their own but sure, let’s go with “more grounded”. Anyway Arrow is “more grounded” but what’s the point of having a shared universe of programs if they don’t utilize each other’s resources? Also, perhaps just coincidence but I think worth nothing, the Golden Age Black Canary (Dinah Drake) in the comics made her first appearance in #86 of The Flash and Black Siren first appeared in The Flash. I think to avoid confusion Earth-2 Laurel should also be renamed “Dinah Drake” if she were to be introduced.

Of course the overall better answer is to not have Laurel be dead but I don’t think that’s gonna change. We saw her die, we saw her body in the morgue and we saw her buried. Also Rip Hunter told Sara if she weren’t recruited then she would have died along with Laurel and even Quentin would have died with them, and if Laurel were going to be revived in the future he would have told Sara. Also the 2046 Oliver confirms that Laurel is dead by the time. Furthermore Vandal Savage is also aware of her death and taunts Sara, obviously knowing that she is from 2016, by asking “you spoken to your sister Laurel lately?”

I have suspected that the upcoming Arrowverse version of Flashpoint may change Laurel’s death but even if it does Flashpoint is only temporary, so she’d have to resume being dead after it finishes. Unless they plan to change it around again when Barry corrects his mistakes but wouldn’t that just make the last season of Arrow redundant, not that I’d complain? I am also aware that Laurel made Oliver keep a promise that we didn’t get to hear but I don’t think it’s a promise to fake her death, given all the information above. My vote is a loose end in Laurel’s past she wants Oliver to take care of but what I don’t know.

So tell me what you guys think of this idea. Would it be good or bad to bring in Earth-2 Laurel into Arrow. I honestly don’t think so because they’ve already done the worst idea they can which is having Oliver and Felicity together.