Board Thread:Arrow discussions/@comment-807326-20181127020807/@comment-5536445-20181127035243

'''WARNING: THIS THREAD POST HAS MANY CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS SURROUNDING THE CW'S HIT TV SERIES "ARROW", WHICH AS I AM TOLD, MANY OF YOU ARE FANS OF. THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS ARE OF MY OWN OPINION, AND COME FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF A LONGTIME GREEN ARROW FAN. PLEASE TAKE MY POST WITHOUT ANY OFFENSE TO YOUR OWN LIKES/INTERESTS. THANK YOU.'''

This season has been an absolute thrill ride for me, adapting a movie arc that was thought to never see the light of day, and constantly testing Oliver's pyschology and personal views. It's also been the most transformative for me in a very great way.

See, in order to share this deep dark secret that I have, I must become someone else...I must become something else...something else that this wiki has never seen or heard from a fan before...

I. Really. HATE. Arrow.

Season 1 was great, don't get me wrong, but following on from that, they've just been making Oliver Queen a Bruce Wayne ripoff through and through; from the surrounding characters to the roles those characters play (Not a fan of the Dick Grayson-Roy Harper, I miss junkie Roy Harper...the reference using Mirakuru was nice, though) Oliver hasn't just copied Bruce, he's become Bruce, right down to stealing his wife (seriously Talia, wth). Now, this all may sound elitist and unreasonable...but honestly, I can't see Green Arrow as a Batman copycat. I grew up with the version of GA from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a cartoon which was a love letter to the Golden and Silver Age of DC Comics, and brought back several Golden Age characterizations for various DC Superheroes, Green Arrow being one of them (ironically, the Golden Age version of GA was a Batman ripoff...which honestly shows how well the show was able to highlight the differences between Batman and Green Arrow). I instantly was intrigued and excited by just his jovial and witty attitude, an attitude that doesn't always stay jovial, but an attitude that is really politically charged with Robin-Hood-esque ideals applied to a modern economy that looks to help and support all people, regardless of profession or class. So far, what I've seen in Arrow is nothing but Oliver eliminating the scourge that corrupts Star City...and barely any care for the poor. Yeah, it happened in S1 with the Glades story-arc, but I wanted to see more of that and I didn't! Then came the death of the true Black Canary, the showrunners giving into angry "fans" (I use quotation marks because I don't think they've read the comics), and Oliver taking up the "Green Arrow" moniker without any of the righteous traits of that moniker. I've already expressed my discontent with the show's portrayal of Oliver in some of my sketches over at the improv threads, and I've been true about all of them.

Has Oliver been funny sometimes? Yes. Has Green Arrow been funny sometimes? Not in public he has. Have Oliver and Green Arrow ever been treated as one and the same? No.

Which is what brings me to this season...and the episodes so far...including this one.

Allow me to bring forth Episode 4 of Season 7, specifically the scene where Oliver resists Jarrett Parker's "rehabilitation".

As much as I hate Arrow for what this show had done to its title character...I really love this scene. Remember the opening narration from Season 1? The same one I referenced in my opening? It went something like being someone or something else. The Arrow being different from Ollie? How? In the comics, Green Arrow wasn't considered as someone or something else from Oliver, because to him, the hood and the man were one and the same. The choices he's made, the things he has fought for (i.e. charity and affinity for the poor), nothing can change what his status as a hero means to Star City. It just reminded me of a quote I read from the comic character...it's actually my favorite quote from GA overall:

“This. This is what I am. This is who I am. Come hell or high water. If I deny it, I deny everything I’ve ever done, everything I’ve ever fought for.”

From what I've seen in that clip, Oliver may have begun to realize this finally. He's becoming a much more sophisticated, educated, and understanding of what his mission actually means. Way back in Season 1, Dig was expositing about things he would want the Hood to do, such as helping others in need, rather than focus solely on that goddamn List. It seems that after seven seasons of adaptation hell, the true Emerald Archer may be calling back to these ideals more and more, and now that I'm thinking about it, this may have been building up from the very beginning. Season 1 saw him indirectly fighting for something larger than himself, setting up for a character that fought for social justice after the social injustice committed by his mother and the Dark Archer. Season 2 found Oliver fighting his past back, rejecting the mistakes that he had made before. Season 3 felt like a redirection that opened a bright future for the character, assuring us that if Ollie was to come back, we'd be seeing a much more lighthearted and "happy" Oliver (regardless of who he's dating...). Season 4 felt like a giant setback when the name Green Arrow felt like a cheap ripoff, an unintentional parody of what we were hoping to see from this season and Oliver as he grows closer and closer to his comic counterpart, but ultimately fails at that by sticking to tropes already covered in the show. Season 5 began to ramp things up, questioning the morality of Oliver's methods, and Season 6 was just...a mess. But here, in Season 7, we're seeing something click, and we know we're seeing something click when Oliver decides to protect people that beat him senselessly, and former enemies that he would've once shot in the heart without a thought. The character of Stanley, meak and defenseless, is almost like a wake-up call to Oliver, showing him both sides of the coin (of justice) that he has yet to find a balance or conflict to. The connundrums that Dragon places to make Ollie suffer, a recognization that it is the role, the soul of the Emerald Archer to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and maintain a fair and just method when it comes to crimefighting. It was also a little gem that Oliver didn't threaten Diaz with death, like he is very well known for, but with imprisonment, taking mercy and saving the prisoners from Diaz for good.

This, THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR FOR 7 GODDAMN YEARS. While I'm not expecting to see the witty reparte soon, as I've now learned the value of patience when it comes to character buildup, it's definitely a sign to me that next episode will focus on Oliver returning to Green Arrow and approaching his identity "with a different perspective." Based on my hopes and my analysis of Oliver's time in Supermax, it seems that prison has truly changed Oliver for the better, and while the witty reparte may come soon, I do hope that whatever "different perspective" Oliver has adopted is the path of the righteous.

'''“This. This is what I am. This is who I am. Come hell or high water. If I deny it, I deny everything I’ve ever done, everything I’ve ever fought for.” - Oliver Queen/Green Arrow'''