Ra's al Ghul


 * This is the article about the current Ra's al Ghul. For the title, visit Ra's al Ghul (Title)

"You tasted death, and you wanted more, but the truth is everyone and everything must come to an end, even for one such as me."

- Ra's to Oliver Queen

"Ra's al Ghul" (Arabic: رأس الغول‎ Raʾs al-Ġūl; Demon's Head; born before 1854) is the title of an otherwise unnamed man who is the leader of the League of Assassins. He had inherited the title from a predecessor. He is also the husband of an unnamed woman, the father of Nyssa al Ghul, another girl still unnamed, and an unnamed son, and the best friend and former rival of Damien Darhk.

Early life
At the age of 11, Ra's killed a man for the first time because the man intended to harm his family. He felt ashamed that he had taken the life of a person, but also proud because he stood up to someone who threatened his family. He justified what he had done as necessary by claiming he had "replaced evil with death", a sentiment that later became the goal of the League of Assassins. Ra's went on to kill "several thousand more men", and believed the world was better off for it. At some point, Ra's was requested by his predecessor who held the same title to become the next Ra's al Ghul, a request he initially declined.

Ra's went on to live a blissful life, having two children with his wife. One day, his predecessor came to his home and told Ra's to leave his family without a goodbye, or watch them tortured and killed. Ra's chose the latter, a decision he greatly regretted.

In 1854, Ra's happened upon an illusionist in Vienna, becoming mystified with his tricks. Nearly half a century later, he came across the man again, but the man was withered and old.

Around 1947, someone challenged Ra's to a trial by combat, presumably to the death, with Ra's coming out victorious.

Malcolm Merlyn joined the group, but eventually released from his bonds to the League by Ra's, a decision he later regretted.

Retrieval of Sara Lance
Ra's sent a messenger to Sara Lance, ordering her return, though she refused and killed the messenger when he declined to report to Ra's that he had not found her, as she wanted. Around a week later, he sent Al-Owal and a team of assassins to bring Sara back by force, only to lose his team to both Sara and Oliver Queen.

Ra's was later contacted by Moira Queen after Malcolm mentioned that he went to Nanda Parbat. After learning Malcolm was alive, it was revealed that Ra's wanted to kill him for breaking the League's code of honor with The Undertaking.

Ra's sent Nyssa and another League member to once again try to bring Sara Lance back to Nanda Parbat, though Nyssa ultimately released Sara from the League.

Meeting Mesi Natifah
Sometime later, however, Sara Lance returned to the League, to keep her family out of danger.

After he'd heard of Khem-Adam and his extremist sect Onslaught, Ra's wished to speak with Khem-Adam. He sent Nyssa and Sara Lance to retrieve him from his base in the Amon-Shu Caves of Kahndaq. They arrived back, with Khem-Adam and a girl named Mesi Natifah. Wishing to give Mesi vengeance, he gave her his sword to use on Khem-Adam.

The hunt for an heir
When Nyssa arrived back at Nanda Parbat from a visit to Starling City, she confirmed Malcolm Merlyn was still alive. Ra's informed his daughter that Malcolm would face consequences for crimes against the League's code. Ra's asked about Oliver Queen, to which he learned of Oliver's oath to protect Malcolm at any cost. Due to this, Ra's took it to mean Oliver was courting war with the League.

Following Sara Lance's death, Ra's sent a squad of assassins, led by Nyssa and Sarab, to capture Oliver. They informed Oliver that he would be given 48 hours to find Sara's killer, or the League would begin killing innocent civilians until the killer was caught. After the time was up, Ra's and various League members travelled to Starling City in preparation. However, Oliver met with them, falsely claiming to have killed Sara upon her request. By League law he was entitled to a trial by combat, and so Ra's accepted the duel, allowing Sarab to tell him of the neutral meeting place.



The two met atop a mountain some time later. They both removed their shirts, going with tradition, and Oliver picked up two swords against Ra's who was bare-handed. The latter discussed his first kill at age 11, feeling proud that he had replaced evil with death, which was what the League strived to do. They began fighting, Ra's dodging each attack with his hands behind his back, and soon disarming Oliver and fighting with the blades. Ra's easily parried Oliver's strikes and promptly cut him. He led him back to the edge of the mountain. Impressed that he had lasted longer than most, Oliver was given a chance to steal back the blade, however Ra's quickly caught the blade as Oliver stabbed at him, disarming him once again. He promptly stabbed Oliver in the chest, saying a quick prayer before pushing the dying Oliver over the edge, and tossing the sword into the ground as a grave for Oliver.



Ra's was confronted by his daughter, Nyssa who had just discovered Oliver survived and demanded Oliver be killed. After the League captured, Malcolm, Ra's watched as Malcolm beg for mercy, before sending Malcolm off to be tortured. When Oliver made an attempt to rescue Malcolm, Ra's locked Oliver in, along with Diggle. Later, Ra's asked if Oliver was willing to be his successor as Ra's al Ghul.

As Ra's continued to explain why Oliver should take his place, Oliver denied the request, and Ra's allowed Oliver to leave with Diggle and Malcolm. Sometime after their departure, Nyssa returned to the palace only to berate on why Malcolm was still alive. Ra's explained that Nyssa had only wanted Malcolm dead in revenge of Sara's death and that he had let them go as a sign of good faith to Oliver who will become his heir. Nyssa got enraged by his decision to make Oliver his heir and tried to kill him after which he easily disarmed her. Ra's puts Nyssa off, saying that Oliver surviving a fair duel with him merits the vigilante the right to take her father's place; and he never did approve and will never approve of the feelings of his daughter.

Sometime after Murmur's arrest, Ra's arrives in Starling City dressed as the Arrow, and quickly killed Murmur's remaining men leaving only one alive to spread the word. To force Oliver to take his offer he made Maseo and other assassins dress up as The Arrow and kill criminals.

After Maseo killed Celia Castle and failed to kill Felicity Smoak, he met with Oliver and told him to accept the title of heir to the demon or he would spend the rest of his life in a cage, claiming he wasn't going to capture Oliver when he challenged it but a police helicopter soon arrived. He later sent Maseo to intercept and capture Captain Lance and brought him to Ra's where he revealed The Arrow's identity as Oliver Queen.

Oliver Queen got arrested but got free when Roy turned himself in as The Arrow to set Oliver free. After Roy faked his death, Ra's targeted Thea. He appeared in her apartment and asked her if she knew who he was. After she said Oliver would kill him, he said Oliver would beg him to become the next Demon's Head. He caught the knife Thea threw at him and the two got into a fight. Ra's effortlessly dodged her strikes after which he slammed her through a table. Drawing his sword, he then impaled her, and said a quick prayer, after which he left the apartment. Ra's greeted Oliver with his entire league as a desperate Oliver arrived at Nanda Parbat holding a deceased Thea. After Thea's resurrection, Ra's expected Oliver to hold his end of the deal. Later, an upset Felicity approached Ra's and told him she doesn't care about the prophecy. Felicity told Ra's he didn't know what love was, though Ra's told Felicity about his past life. Ra's told Felicity he is offering a chance for Oliver to have a proper goodbye, one that he never had a chance to do. After a failed escape attempt by Felicity, Malcolm, and Diggle, Ra's asked Oliver who assisted them, though Sarab quickly came clean and revealed he killed three of the league members. Ra's told Sarab he won't punish him for Maseo's actions and spared him for his loyalty. Ra's went on to cleanse Oliver of his personality so all that remained was Al Sah-him.

Personality
Ra's has a cold demeanor. According to Malcolm Merlyn, Ra's is ruthless, as he will not hesitate to kill his enemies, though despite this, he has a personal sense of honor. He is also shown to be capable of respecting his opponents and even holding them in honor, as shown in his commending Oliver's fighting skills and praying for him after stabbing him. After Nyssa told Ra's that Sara was apparently killed by Malcolm, he paid no heed and only focused on punishing him for his role in the Undertaking, saying he never saw Sara as a true member of the League of Assassins. Despite this, he seems to care for Sara because of Nyssa's feeling for her as he carried out the League's tradition of killing 50 people a day until Oliver reveals the one who killed Sara, although it is very likely that he knew as long as Sara's death was unavenged, it would distract his daughter from her duties to the League. Ra's stated his reason for not seeing Sara as a true member of the League was because he knew she wasn't suited to kill people with her life and did not approved her relationship with Nyssa because he believed it would end in Nyssa's heart break.

He is also known for being impatient, refusing to impose his will after he speaks once. Despite having a somewhat calm and stoic demeanor, Ra's is capable of being surprised; as when he first looked upon Oliver's youthfulness, the only thing he could say at the moment was "You're just a boy". He said that he feels pride for the thousands of people he had killed as genuinely believes the world is better off with these men dead and in that way he created a better world. He said that this is the purpose of the League of Assassins.

Despite his ruthlessness he seems to have somewhat of a soft side. This was shown when he granted Oliver a trial by combat and let Oliver pretend to be the one who killed Sara despite knowing full well he did not kill her and that Oliver was simply trying to keep the people in his city from dying. This made Ra's take a liking to Oliver. He also told Oliver in a soft manner that he shouldn't be afraid to die as death claims everyone sooner or later rather than just killing him in a ruthless manner. Ra's does seem to not entirely be ruthless in general. His ruthless punishment of Malcolm Merlyn is only out of obligation to the League's code, claiming he'd take no pleasure in making Merlyn suffer. He also released Malcolm from his obligations from the League under unknown circumstances on the condition Malcolm would honor the League's code of honor.

As noted by Malcolm Merlyn, Ra's' custom after killing an opponent in a death duel is to leave his weapon in the arena of combat, as a marker to honor the opponent.

He is also intelligent and calculating, Ra's knew the moment after he had captured Malcolm, that Oliver would come and try to rescue the latter, actually planning to use this to request Oliver to succeed him. He let Oliver, Malcolm and Diggle go while predicting coming events for Oliver to make him overthink his offer. Ra's apparently doesn't request people to do things but he orders them. This was shown when he started killing people in Starling City with The Arrow's tools to frame him to make the "request" to be Ra's al Ghul more appealing.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: As a highly skilled fighter and assassin, Ra's is shown to be in top physical condition. Ra's is shown to be very quick, able to catch a sudden sword strike Nyssa used in an attempt to kill him.
 * League of Assassins training: Being the leader of the League, Ra's would have the highest level of training any assassin could.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: As the leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's is highly proficient and experienced in unarmed combat. During his death match against Oliver Queen, Ra's calmly faced his opponent unarmed, he dodged sword strikes with his hands behind his back and overwhelmed Oliver with multiple precise strikes before he disarmed him. He also mentioned, despite Oliver having fought him for a couple minutes, he survived longer than most of his opponents.
 * Master swordsman: As the leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's is a master swordsman. During a fight against eight men, he easily defeated them in just ten seconds killing them. Against Oliver in their death match, Ra's was able to repeatedly catch Oliver off guard and slash him.
 * Master archer: Ra's is shown to be a master archer, he is very proficient in archery, when he posed as The Arrow.
 * Master tactician/Leader: Ra's was able to predict the stealth attack on Nanda Parbat, and trapped Oliver and Diggle when they came for Malcolm. Ra's is also a great leader, as he has led the organization for an unknown number of years with success since he accepted the offer of becoming the next leader of the League of Assassins, from the organization's previous leader. He is able to recognize the internal conflicts in people and can use that to his advantage. He was able to predict the adversity of Oliver and used this while attempting to convince him to take his offer. Ra's later performed killings dressed as The Arrow to frame Oliver and make the city turn against him.
 * High tolerance for pain: Ra's was able to catch a sword strike by Oliver during their duel, an act which shocked the latter, with his bare hands.
 * Multilingual: Ra's is capable of fluently speaking English and Arabic.
 * Stealth: Ra's was able to appear in Thea's loft without her being aware of it.

Equipment

 * Sword: Ra's carries a decorated, double edged sword as his side arm.

Arrow
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Season 3
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Arrow: Season 2.5

 * Blood part 12 (mentioned)
 * "Assurances" Suicide Squad: Crisis in Kahndaq

Behind the scenes

 * Ra's al Ghul, along with his daughter, Nyssa, are normally portrayed as enemies of Batman and his associates. However, his organization, the League of Assassins, has a history with Green Arrow and Black Canary. In the DC comics Ra's' other daughter, Talia, generally has a higher profile, having been (briefly) married to Bruce Wayne and borne him a son, Damian.
 * Matt Nable's casting as Ra's was met with notable controversy from fans. In light of Liam Neeson suggesting he would be happy to reprise the role (and the follow up reveal that Neeson was offered the role but had to turn it down being given little attention) many criticized the actions of the casting department when Stephen Amell announced it. Nable's debut in went largely unnoticed by critics due to only a very small amount of screentime, though fans were critical. Despite all of that, following the airing of, Nable was heavily praised by fans and critics alike, many suggesting he held up to Neeson's portrayal of the character.
 * Unlike his DC comic version, Ra's al Ghul is not his actual name, it is actually a title given to whoever is the current leader of the League of Assassins. Also, unlike his DC comic version, there is more than one Ra's al Ghul.