Ricardo Diaz

For the district attorney of National City from Earth Thirty-Eight, see Diaz. "You want me to fight him fairly? Life ain't fair."

- Diaz to Anatoly Knyazev

Ricardo Diaz, known by the alias Dragon, is a crime lord and drug kingpin who manufactured an illegal drug akin to steroids derived from Vertigo while maneuvering a huge criminal organization. He was a member of Cayden James' criminal cabal and, unknowingly to Cayden James himself at the time, the one that had his son Owen Post killed in order to manipulate him and letting the hacker "thin the herd" for him.

Following the disbandment of the cabal, Diaz murders James and reveals his intentions to take over Star City inglobating on his payroll numerous politicians, judges, and policemen both in the city and in the country, Laurel Lance and the Bratva led by Anatoly Knyazev, eventually becoming one of the four members of the massive criminal empire known as the Quadrant of which he subsequently became the leader after having two members killed.

However, Diaz ultimately made his downfall when Oliver Queen/Green Arrow turned himself over to the FBI in exchange for their help in taking him down (as well as both Laurel and Anatoly betraying him for Team Arrow) Diaz suffered a debilitating loss; his criminal empire sustained severe damage, his influence over Star City was completely destroyed and he was forced into hiding with his new allies; the Longbow Hunters.

Early life
Ricardo Diaz was born in Starling City and had a tough childhood by spending his early years trying hard to make his father proud of him even if it meant pretending to be someone he wasn't, until the latter died and he was sent to Zandia Orphanage sometime before 1986.

While growing up at the orphanage, Diaz was forced to fight for every scrap of food he could get. Also, he was often bullied and mentally scarred by an older boy named Jesse Federico. Jesse tortured him by burning his forearms and attempted to destroy the last picture that he had of his late father. Diaz reached into the flames of the burning bucket to get the picture back, resulting in extreme burns and blisters. Jesse made Diaz act as his "servant" and treated him like an animal, even going as far as to call him a "loser", something that went stuck by Diaz even into his adult life. In order to contain the anger and fear instilled into him during his childhood, Diaz named it the "Dragon", doing everything possible to "control it, so that it does not control him".

Growing up, he joined The Scorpions, an organized crime group operating in the Glades of Starling City, eventually becoming known under the alias "Dragon" and getting an impressive criminal record. However, at some point in his life, he started to operate on his own and became a powerful crime lord heading an illegal drug operation responsible for the production and sale of a steroid derived from Vertigo that increases combat efficiency and concentration, all while remaining off charts and covering up his tracks.

Setting up his plot
In 2013 he began planning his rise to power as a major crime lord. Four years later, in early 2017, Diaz hired Karl Iscove to kill Owen Post - the son of master hacktivist and Helix's leader Cayden James - while wearing an hooded costume in order to influence James and make him start a war with Green Arrow. Then, he killed Iscove to tie up loose ends and doctored a photo of Oliver as Green Arrow; though it is unknown how he knew the Green Arrow's real identity.

Later in the year, Diaz leaked the photo to the FBI of Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow, thus placing the mayor under indictment, arousing controversy and suspicion towards him and limiting his work as a vigilante.

Over time, Diaz took over his former gang, The Scorpions, becoming their leader, however, at some point after that, he was arrested and sentenced to a life sentence without conditional release, but the charges against him were dropped by the Supreme Court because of some unspecified quibbles and he was then freed.

Drug dealing
Less than a month after his release from prison, he sent his men to retrieve the components of a military-grade 3D printer but they were intercepted and defeated by Team Arrow. However Dragon appeared, setting off a smoke bomb and walked away before the heroes caught him. Sometime later, Dragon met John Diggle when he went directly to his steroid manufacturer, hoping to get an extra portion of drugs. Dragon did not give the man what he wanted, saying that he had to be careful because he did not yet have permission from the Food and Drug Administration. Later that night, Diaz assisted his crew with stealing a 3D military printer, this time from the biological department of Palmer Technologies but as he stepped out of his car he was attacked again by vigilantes, but managed to shoot the Green Arrow before escaping, much to the latter's surprise. Shortly after, Dragon checked the progress in his laboratory when Team Arrow entered the building. Diaz, not wanting the product to fall into their hands, dropped a drum of petrol, lighting it on fire and burning all of his drugs, before escaping from the fire.

Working with Cayden James
He was later contacted by Cayden James to join his criminal cabal. While they were watching via hidden camera the collapse of Team Arrow from their hideout, Dragon declared he was skeptical of how effective the group could be; however James assured him that there was more to come.

Later Diaz, along with James and Black Siren, visited Jerry Bertinelli, asking him to rethink the matter of selling them the port - the last thing in Star City belonging to the Bertinelli crime family - threatening to have his daughter killed if he refused. While James and Laurel were expecting Bertinelli's answer at their lair, the Green Arrow attacked them. However, after Diaz and the rest of the cabal appeared in front of him, the archer, not expecting that, was forced to escape in order to avoid a fight. A few hours later, at the moment of the transaction with Bertinelli, with whom the criminals met at the port, Green Arrow also appeared, collaborating with the Bertinelli crime family, but the combined efforts of Vigilante, Black Siren, the Bratva and Diaz's army were enough to fend them off. Dragon then executed Bertenelli.

After Sheck was killed and the cabal started to suspect Vincent Sobel for murdering him, Diaz was present at a meeting to discuss it. James sent Dragon and Anatoly to see that the bomb was moved and, after Sobel is exposed as a traitor of the cabal, he assisted Anatoly in torturing him, but they did not obtain any results and are later forced to flee as both branches of Team Arrow attacked their lair.

Later, Diaz and the rest of the cabal were thanked by James for their contributions to his plan as he intended to activate the bomb late in the evening, so he officially ended cooperation with his allies, promising to transport them away from the city and transfer money to their bank accounts. However, after noticing the promised vehicle did not show up, Dragon departed on his own in order to not to be there when the detonation of the bomb occurred and suggested his former partners to do the same. While leaving, however, Wild Dog and Mister Terrific managed to blind-side him before he could react and Diaz was therefore was swiftly captured and was then brought to James, who obtained new evidence that that either Diaz, Black Siren and Anatoly killed his son. As James demanded the one who ordered the murder to come forward, Laurel confessed and started to insult the hacker in order to upset him. Knowing that she was lying, James slapped her, not realizing that the bomb activator interferes with the action of the collar blocking her powers, so she used her sonic scream in response, thus allowing herself and everyone else to escape. As he was leaving the building, Diaz was pursued by Spartan, but he managed to defeat the vigilante and flee.

Taking over Star City
After Cayden James was arrested and went to the interrogation room at the SCPD headquarters, Diaz appeared to him saying that he'd used James to take over Star City explaining that "it's ripe for the taking" and that James was narrow-minded to think he was controlling him. He also stated James doesn't understand that things should be taken over and not destroyed while revealing he bribed the new police captain. He then murdered James while telling him that he was the one who had his son killed and calmly exited the building.

Afterward, Diaz explained all of his plan to Anatoly, who eagerly decided to cooperate with the gangster, while arranging a meeting with the Black Siren at his command. In the meanwhile, Dragon trained with new fighters who will power the ranks of his team. When he saw Laurel, he was very angry at her for having betrayed him and for trying to run away, but that he understood she was afraid of Dinah Drake, so Diaz reassured Laurel that he would be able to take care of her and started to talk about his plans, stating that she would like them. After the policemen on his payroll abducted Roy Harper, Dragon himself tortured him in order to force him to testify against Oliver in court regarding his identity as Green Arrow; Roy, however, was adamant and lasted until the arrival of Team Arrow, who successfully rescued their former member. Diaz fought Speedy and Green Arrow to a standstill, then reminded them that they're powerless against him and could not hand him over to the police because of the anti-vigilante act, which forced them to escape a moment before the arrival of Dragon's crooked police officers.

After Anatoly was arrested by a bunch of SCPD officers led by Lieutenant Dinah Drake while selling Vertigo for him, Diaz ordered District Attorney Sam Armand to have him released under the quibble that he was arrested without a warrant. Later that night, he waited for Officer Martin Hurst, one of the officers who did the arrest, next to his car and watched as Anatoly shot him out of revenge, stating that it would send a message to all of the officers who refuse to be under his payroll. The following night, Diaz visited Laurel at Quentin Lance's apartment and brought her a take-away dinner. Having seen she was studying her late counterpart's old schoolbooks, Diaz told her that she didn't have to do it as people like them "make the law" and that she don't need to change in order to "impress her old man" like he did when he was younger. Later, after former district attorney Sam Armand and former police captain Kimberly Hill accused mayor Oliver Queen of obstructing justice while he fired them both (actually because he discovered they were on Diaz's payroll), Laurel watched the news in Diaz's hideout alongside him. He complimented her for the idea and then showed the last champion of Vertigo after Team Arrow's raid to the core of his drug operation, which led Laurel to kiss him.

After Oliver was drugged via Vertigo by Kullens, a councilman on Diaz's payroll, a few hours before his meeting with the Council regarding his probable impeachment due to the accusation of Armand and Hill, he briefly hallucinated about Diaz who, after having stabbed Raisa and put a dagger in Oliver's abdomen, asked himself why nobody of his previous enemies ever thought to just kill him straight, then adding there are more things he intended to break in him. That night, at 10:13, Diaz entered the SCPD station as he does every night in order to pay his policemen when the Hood entered the building ready to fight him, but he is stopped by Felicity Smoak, who managed to talk him down. The following morning Black Siren reached Diaz at the station while his men were cleaning, asking him why he didn't just killed Oliver, Diaz replied that he "is more dangerous as a martyr than as Green Arrow" and that their next move would be to spread the word that Star City is now "open for business".

Joining the Quadrant
About a week later Diaz and Black Siren went to Blüdhaven in order to meet Eric Cartier, the son of an influential member of The Quadrant. Diaz proposed to Cartier to use Star City as a place to run the Quadrant's business in exchange of having a seat at the table of the organization. However, Cartier asked him to find Robert Baylor, an agent of his organization who was caught by the FBI, in order to show them if he can able to operate at their level. In less than a day Diaz found the man while discovering that he was working with the federals and, as Laurel had demonstrated to be skeptical about his excessive concessions to the Quadrant, he reminds her that once he has won a place in the organization, he will have an empire. After Diaz gave the information on Baylor to Cartier, however, he asked for both him and Black Siren to get him in order to interrogate him so they could find out what exactly did he tell the Justice Department. Hoping to get a meeting with Cartier, Sr., Diaz does as he was asked but, right after extracting him from the FBI's safehouse, both Diaz and Baylor were shot by one of Cartier's man. Having survived thanks to a bulletproof vest, Diaz went back to Cartier's nightclub and defeated all of his men alongside Black Siren, then, later on, tortured Cartier while telling him of his childhood at the orphanage and asking him why he tried to kill him. After Cartier revealed that he and his father never talked about him to the Quadrant because he was "a nobody" and that they wanted to take Star City from his hands, Diaz beat Cartier to a pulp and ordered Cartier to take him to the place where the Quadrant meetings are held. While they were driving to the place, Laurel asked Diaz if what happened with Jesse still tormented him and he responded that it does, because he was right and he was "a loser"; when she tried to cheer him up by saying he wasn't one anymore, he told her about how he named his fear "The Dragon" and how for years it was everything he had but if he managed to become a member of The Quadrant he would get enough power to ensure it would not be used by anyone against him. Laurel paragoned him to Zoom because of the hate they held inside them. When they arrived at the Quadrant's headquarters, Villa Centanni, Diaz and Laurel broke inside using Cartier as a human bomb and slaughtered dozens of their men with both their bare hands and several gunshots while making their way to the hall where the four leaders of the Quadrant met. Once again Diaz proposed to gave them Star City in exchange for a place in the organization and, as one of the members declared there are no free chairs at their table and Remy Cartier started taunting him, calling him a "street thug" and a "loser", immediately Diaz shot him in the head, thus ensuring him a free chair and getting him welcomed into the Quadrant. That night, Diaz went to Jesse's house and kidnapped him, bringing him on a rooftop over his city and, after having shown him the last fragment of his father's picture he had kept for over thirty-two years while ignoring Laurel's pleas not to do it, cruelly set him on fire while stating that he "is not a loser anymore".

After that, Laurel began to avoid meeting Diaz, until he summoned her personally while a tailor was making him a custom suit, in order to announce to her that the new mayor, Quentin, needed to be persuaded in respecting some "ground rules", and that she needed to set a meeting between them. Though reticent, Laurel did as ordered and took Quentin to their favorite Chinese restaurant, confessing that she was sorry as Diaz entered revealing the relationship between them and telling him to sign a few documents to privately sell some municipal property. After returning to his hiding place, it turned out that Anatoly brought Oliver Queen to him. The criminal began to kick the shod vigilante, mocking him, until Anatoly reminded to him that "every drop of blood he draws from a chained-up man is a sign of weakness, his weakness", which drove him to challenge him in a duel setting the rule that if he would win, Oliver would have left the city forever, and vice versa if Oliver would have be the winner. Thus, they went on to fight. Diaz was a serious challenge to Oliver, even overpowering and knocking him down for a while, but Oliver ultimately managed to overpower Diaz and began to hold his opponent in a headlock, ordering him to give up. Unexpectedly, the crime lord pulled out a knife and pierced the side of Oliver's abdomen, winning in a dishonest fight and stating that "life isn't fair". Then Diaz ordered Anatoly to lock Oliver in a cell. A few hours later Laurel came to Diaz, who handed him the signed papers, but it turned out that these were not necessary for him and he took them away as he only wanted to know if he could manipulate Quentin. Immediately after, Diaz ordered his men to brought out the beaten Oliver from his cell and has him arrested by revoking his parole and anticipating his trial at the following week, on May 3.

As Oliver's trial began, Diaz summoned Laurel to him. He was disappointed that during a short interview with Bethany Snow she didn't tell the truth about who was hidden under Green Arrow's mask. Looking at the behavior of the woman for several weeks, Diaz saw that she could play on two fronts so, unexpectedly, he choked Laurel, threatening her and saying that he expected her cooperation and a solid testimony in court. Later, when Rene Ramirez testified, Diaz invaded the court taking his daughter with him and forcing him to prosecute Oliver. The crime lord's plan, however, didn't go as expected since Christopher Chance/Human Target broke into the courtroom disguised as Tommy Merlyn revealing he's the Green Arrow before escaping, while Laurel choose to testify that Tommy is the vigilante, betraying Diaz and leading the trial to acquit the accused. Therefore, that night, at the docks, after Diaz ordered his men to bring him Judge C. McGarvey and killed him for incompetence, Laurel appeared and confronted him at first managing to overpower the crime lord and his men but ultimately being subdued as Diaz used a power-dampening device to suppress her sonic scream, before to taking her captive telling her that his next plan would have been to kill Oliver and everyone he loves.

Open war with Team Arrow
Diaz ordered to kill all of Star City's vigilantes, but his men failed. This caused a quarrel between him and Lydia Cassamento, who did not like Diaz's unplanned action. When the woman left the crime lord's office, Anatoly suggested moving him to a safer place where it would be easier to defend. However, the vigilantes attacked his truck during the transportation and, as his men fought, Diaz tried to escape. However, he was caught up by Mister Terrific, who as a result of the anger associated with Diaz hurting his boyfriend, began to beat him. The crime lord quickly took control and stabbed him in the stomach, but, before he managed to finish him off, seeing Green Arrow approaching him, he gave up the murder, grabbed the portable disk that fell out of his hand and fled to the SCPD station. There, he ordered the computer engineer to check the completeness of the data on the pendrive, then he began to strangle Anatoly, accusing him of betrayal. The Russian, however, turned the suspicion away from him directing it to Cassamento. A moment later, Lyla Michaels, he director of A.R.G.U.S., who had actually stolen data from Dragon, came to the station and, as the crime lord realized it, he tried to kill her. The appearance of the vigilantes, however, prevented him from doing it. In retaliation to this, he murdered Cassamento and decided to attack the Outsider's hideout. Dragon filled the hiding place with gas and he entered the spot himself, wearing a mask, there he had the chance to kill Oliver but, before he could, he was wounded by a bomb hidden in the stairwell. Despite his wounds, Diaz managed to escape and, later, met with Cyrus Broderick and Dragos Ibanescu, killing the latter for not wanting to cooperate and becoming the Quadrant's leader.

Downfall
When Oliver, along with the help of the now fully reestablished Team Arrow and the FBI took over the police, Diaz escaped, and later met with Anatoly, whom he suspected of treason. He gave him the false coordinates of an hiding place, realizing that the Russian would give the information to Oliver. Soon after, he called mayor Lance, whom he ordered to remove the federal from Star City, threatening to murder Laurel; the man did not agree, which upset the crime lord. At the same time Team Arrow and the FBI moved on Diaz's supposed new hideout only to fall right into his trap. As part of the team entered the warehouse, they found out that it had been mined. If they tried to move, they would risk a building explosion. Ricardo fired remotely, but Overwatch's intervention helped the heroes avoid death. Immediately after that, Dragon contacted again the mayor, whom agreed to meet him. When Quentin showed up, he revealed that the feds could target Diaz, forcing the man to take him with him to Laurel's hideout. The heroes immediately began tracking Lance's pacemaker in order to find Diaz's new headquarter. Bringing Lance to Laurel, Diaz threatened to shoot her unless Lance ordered the FBI to leave Star City, but still the man did not intend to obey him, this upset Diaz, who fired his gun at Laurel, only for Lance to take the shot in her place. Before the crime lord can give him another shot, the vigilantes burst into his hideout. Diaz escaped to the roof, where he expected transport, there, however, he was cornered by Green Arrow and the two engage in a brutal fight which Diaz like their first fight, briefly dominated but was eventually overpowered and stabbed by Oliver. Diaz was not going down that easily, however, and defiantly tells Oliver to fully stop him, he will have to kill him. Then Laurel unexpectedly appeared, who with a sonic scream threw Dragon out of the building's roof and into the water. However, due to his physical conditioning, Diaz was able to survive and flee, unlike Quentin, who died in the hospital, despite this, he was still severely wounded. However, his criminal organization suffered debilitating damage and any influence he had over Star City was completely destroyed, because Team Arrow during the fight had taken a list of his wages, removing corrupt policemen, judges, politicians and city officials from Star City. However, Diaz's defeat also had considerable consequences on his enemies, as in addition to Quentin's death, Oliver, honoring the deal he made with the FBI, confesses publicly to being Green Arrow and was sentenced to a life in prison. Diaz, still wounded, watched furiously the whole transmission as he was already angrily plotting his revenge against Oliver for proving he is ultimately nothing more than a loser to the entire world, particularly the criminal underworld.

Haunting Oliver
During the 5 months of his life in prison, Oliver has suffered through the same nightmare every night over and over again to where in it, William and Felicity can be seen running through a forest similar to Lian Yu in an attempt to outrun Diaz; it ends with Felicity sacrificing herself to save William by letting Diaz shoot her twice, the latter telling her that since Oliver took everything away from him, he's gonna enjoy taking everything from Oliver.

Return from hiding
After 5 months of hiding with the Longbow Hunters, Diaz hires some prison inmates to keep Oliver occupied and give him the message saying that Diaz had gone to find and kill Felicity and William. Diaz makes it to Felicity's hideout, managing to bypass her door, which Felicity had managed to create an advanced security lock system with, and preparing to attack her before she herself saves William by convincing him to run outside. A fight ensues between the two, and Diaz easily overpowers Felicity and prepares to kill her, but fails when A.R.G.U.S. makes it in time to save her and stop him.

Personality
"Fighting for trophies is a lot different than fighting for your life"

- Ricardo Diaz

Ricardo Diaz has a very shallow and callous, as well as violent and even psychopathic demeanor. Growing up in an abusive orphanage, he took all of his fear and anger and compartmentalized it, creating a boogeyman he dubbed the "Dragon". As an adult and ruthless crime lord, he has taken to calling himself the "Dragon", taking the emotions he shut away and channeling them to effectively take over Star City. He exhibits many, if not all, classic psychopathic traits; a complete lack of conscience, a lack of remorse and empathy, a shallow affect, and even callousness as he displayed no qualms for murdering Cayden James' son, Owen Post and Cayden James himself.

Diaz is an outstandingly intelligent individual, a trait that made him one of Team Arrow's deadliest foes. He is such an incredible liar and manipulator that he was easily able to completely fool, predict and manipulate Cayden James and his criminal cabal for months. Cruel and often silent, Diaz hid behind the mask of a brainless thug so well his allies and enemies never suspected him, only quietly moving machinations to suit his advantage and striking out when was necessary. Despite his (apparently) patient, intelligent attitude, Diaz was also smug and enjoyed to taunt his enemies such as revealing everything to James before killing him. He is also virtually fearless in the face of death and danger. Diaz is distinctly sadistic, as he was willing to torture Vincent Sobel, and asked Anatoly Knyazev why he didn't torture Martin Hurst before killing him. His well-known cruelty is also incredibly feared, as a woman killed her lover because of her loyalty to Diaz.

Diaz has a sort of contorted warrior-like life philosophy, stating that "fighting for trophies is different than fighting for life" and respecting everyone who managed to fight with him, granting them money and places in his organization depending on the skills they demonstrated. Also, Diaz seems to highly regard the concept of "family", as seen by his viewing his organization as such and becoming greatly angered whenever someone goes "against the family". The only possible traits that he acquired from his traumatic childhood was that from having had to struggle so much to get any food at all, Diaz came to genuinely care for good eating habits due to considering food as something that must not be so easily treated, as shown when he scolded Martin Hurst for eating junk food and even brought dinner for both him and Laurel to eat.

While Diaz maintains a façade of always irreproachably calm, level-headed, patient and speaks with seemingly no emotion behind his words, to the point of almost never rising his tone, due to the trauma of being considered a loser in his orphanage, Diaz despises losing and being underestimated to the point that when he is subjected to such treatment, he becomes immensely violent, as he could lash out violently, to the point of going as far as to lashing out in anger by punching the glass of a mirror when Eric Cartier shows him absolutely no respect and talks to him like a superior and slaughtering his enemies so vehemently in the mission Eric sent him, even forcing Laurel Lance to look away. When Eric reveals his proposal to the Quadrant was never learned by the organization due to his father, Remy Cartier, believing him as being nothing, Diaz immediately and brutally beat him. He has a profound ability to feel and act on grudges, having held a grudge to Jesse Federico, his childhood bully, for at least thirty-two years and when the time came, Diaz cruelly killed him.

According to Laurel, Diaz terrifies her more than Hunter Zolomon ever did, for he doesn't feel anger inside as he "is not even human inside", unlike Hunter who was capable of loving someone. While he and Laurel were in a relationship, with Diaz showing her affection, apologizing for keeping her waiting as he knew how much she hates it when he brought Jesse to be killed, Diaz was ruthless towards her when she betrayed him, with him clearly showing rage on how Laurel had betrayed him. His patience also has limits and he would eventually became frustrated should his plans continue to fail, as he can impatient to the point of being reckless; as proven by the fact that after his plan to put Oliver in prison failed, he began open warfare on Oliver and his loved ones, as it not only revealed how much control he has on Star City, but it also indirectly led to Oliver turning himself over to the FBI in exchange for their help in taking down Diaz; leading to his downfall. Even when wounded, Diaz is proven to be greatly angered enough to look terrifying when Oliver publicly announces on how he has defeated Diaz.

Diaz has absolutely no guilt or remorse for any of his actions; for example, he killed Owen Post and then framed Oliver Queen for the latter's death, knowing full well that it would lead to a war between Oliver and Cayden James; which caused countless amounts of death in Star City, he also burned his childhood bully Jesse Federico alive (who was now a reformed and a decent individual) for no apparent reason, simply because of what the latter did to him in their childhood.

Due to his traumatic childhood, Diaz, having experienced just how unfair life is, lacks a personal sense of honor; as he pointlessly hurt Oliver Queen while chained up, proving to his men what a coward he truly is, when Anatoly told him that every drop of blood he draws from a chained-up man is a sign of weakness, Diaz's weakness. Due to his strong hatred at the mere idea of losing, Diaz is fully willing to fight dishonorably without any shame despite his own incredible fighting prowess, as seen when he had no qualms using a knive to best Oliver. Diaz profoundly despises Oliver due to him believing he is so strong due to his hellish experiences as he considers his own pain to be superior to Oliver, as seen when he took time to lash out to Oliver by saying that while the latter only spent 5 years in hell, he was born in it. This resentment towards Oliver has grew greatly ever since Oliver forced him to go into hiding, as he was visibly enraged at the fact that although Oliver was put in prison; Diaz's defeat has proven to the entire world, particularly the criminal underworld, that he is nothing more than a loser.

Since childhood, Diaz has always been a dramatically failing pretender; for example, he tried very hard to make his father proud of him even if it meant pretending to be someone he wasn't, which never worked. After becoming a crime lord, the life he had, which was filled with nothing but bitterness and rage, made him so determined to finally win that he tried to take over Star City, to prove to the entire criminal underworld that he is a winner, only to once again suffer a far more debilitating failure, as his downfall at the hands of Oliver has instead proven to them that he is nothing more than a loser.

After his plan to put Oliver in prison failed, Diaz became increasingly more unstable, erratic, cruel and paranoid as well as also more hungry for power, as he ruthlessly killed Lydia Cassamento, a leading member of the Quadrant under the suspicion that she was a spy for Team Arrow even though he had no proof and in order to gain complete leadership over the Quadrant, Diaz had no qualms killing another leader to prove he was serious in his desire to fully take over the massive organization, although he showed mercy towards the last member when he subjected to Diaz's rule. He became utterly ruthless towards failures, as he killed judge C. McGarvey, who presided over the trial of Oliver, even though he tried to convince Diaz that it was another man who freed Oliver, and even very sadistic for any treachery, as seen when after figuring out that Anatoly was the spy, Diaz cruelly told Anatoly that unlike the swift death he planted, he is going to mercilessly torture him and make his death a slow and painful one, even going as far as to speak Russian to further intimidate Anatoly, which ultimately failed, as the latter is now fully aware of Diaz's true nature; that he is nothing more then a cowardly psychopath who lacks honor.

Due to his violent and unstable traits, Diaz lacks any form of empathy, as he is unable to connect or anticipate the emotions of other individuals, particularly their morals, as he completely believes that fear is enough to control most of his enemies and his reluctant allies; for example, he threatened Laurel Lance to testify against Oliver Queen in court (regarding his identity as Green Arrow) he believed that it would be sufficient to keep her from siding with Oliver in court, only to find out the hard way he was wrong, as Laurel's growing attachment to Oliver eventually made her instead state to the entire court that Tommy Merlyn is Green Arrow, not Oliver, completely ruining Diaz's months prepared plan, much to his rage.

Later when he threatened Quentin Lance, stating that he will shoot Laurel if he doesn't tell the FBI to leave Star City, he didn't expect that Quentin would not abide to his wishes and instead he (literally) took a bullet for his surrogate daughter, hence causing his plans to completely backfire, as with Quentin dead, he no longer could remove the FBI from Star City, which led to his downfall as the FBI had arrived and he was no longer able to resort to having the mayor force the FBI to leave the city. As Diaz believes that fear is enough to control his enemies, unable to anticipate their morality; Diaz's lack of empathy is proven to be one of his greatest weaknesses

Despite his intelligent and calculating traits, Diaz is extremely arrogant to the point of being delusional, which is his greatest weakness as it causes him to underestimate his enemies, like he did with Oliver, as he believed he defeated the latter (regarding his takeover of Star City) and his arrogance also caused him to be unable to truly learn from his mistakes, as seen by how Remy Cartier said that Diaz was just someone who couldn't prevent himself from going to prison the first time. Indeed, ultimately, his arrogance and ego led to his downfall; as it clouded his intelligence and caused him to believe that Oliver had no means left to save Star City, only to find out the hard way that he was wrong, as Oliver unexpectedly turned himself over to the FBI in exchange for their help in taking down Diaz, which caused Diaz to panic and desperately resort to any means to get the FBI out of the city but in the end, he was too late to do anything to prevent his inevitable defeat and his criminal empire began falling, his entire influence over Star City was completely destroyed, as he was forced into hiding and to add even greater damage, he had humiliated himself in the process; to the entire world, particularly to the entire criminal underworld.

Hence as of now, having already been disrespected, either openly or secretly by many criminal organizations, due to them (correctly) believing that Diaz is nothing more than a loser who tried to be something he can never be, but still feared by them, due to his violent and unstable traits, currently it seems that the entire criminal underworld (except for his minions) have lost any fear they had for Diaz; due to how their theory on him proved to be decisively correct.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: Diaz is in incredible physical form which he maintains through extensive training, with his physical power ranking as among the deadliest among the many foes Oliver Queen has ever faced. He has extremely fast reflexes and great strength, able to swiftly incapacitate a much larger foe with ease and push grown men through a door, as well as immense resilience and durability. His physical capacities allowed him to instantly pin down Laurel Lance and Anatoly Knyazev despite their own physical condition with ease, overpower the extremely strong John Diggle and quickly defeat Thea Queen even with an arrow in his leg, sustaining no injuries from any of their blows. Diaz has even been able to match and nearly overwhelm Oliver in combat twice, managing to knock him down, toss him to a wall with enough force to crack it, cause him to bleed with each of his attacks and dislocate his shoulder, only barely losing in the end and remaining mostly unfazed by the beatings Oliver put on him. He is durable and resilient enough to withstand being shot by a machine gun to the chest unfazed when wearing a bulletproof vest, sustain only minor injuries from being blown back by a nearby explosive and even survive being blasted of a building by Laurel Lance's sonic scream and into a body of water despite having already been subjected to an extensive beating from Oliver, with Oliver finding the possibility of Diaz dying by the fall to be very little. His conditioning also lets him recover from most injuries very quickly, though not super-humanly.
 * Acrobatics/Free-running: Diaz has great free-running skills and could drop from a height of several feet without injuring himself. He is capable of scaling buildings, and running from rooftop to rooftop with ease as well to fluidly dodge and attack from different directions without losing balance.
 * Honed senses: Diaz has sharp hearing and sight, as well as keen skills of perception. He is able to pick up an incoming danger and react extremely quickly. Diaz was able to hear several guards sneaking up behind him and could determine exactly where they were standing and how many of them there were.
 * High-level intellect/Master tactician/Leader: Diaz is an extraordinarily intelligent man, which is perhaps his most formidable trait. He was capable of completely outsmarting not only Laurel Lance and Anatoly Knyazev, despite their own great intellects, but he even managed to entirely outsmart the extremely intelligent Cayden James into believing he was a true ally while in actuality he had only joined his cabal to use James as a means for him to take over Star City, by letting James "thin the herd" for him, making it easier for him to take over. Extremely adept at many fields of science, particularly chemistry and biochemistry, Diaz proved capable of manufacturing drugs of formidable amounts of complexity and power, such as the one used to stabilize the tremors of John Diggle's hand. Diaz is also an exceptional strategist, as during the time he worked alone, he was able to spread his drugs effectively while remaining off-charts and covering his tracks completely. The most prominent display of Diaz's outstanding strategical mastery was how he was able to devise a highly sophisticated and effective plan to take over Star City starting by having a doctored video of Karl Iscove to make it seem like Green Arrow was the one that killed Owen Post as well as leak a doctored picture of Oliver Queen as Green Arrow to the public and the FBI in order to make the public suspect Oliver and James to try to get revenge for his son, entirely fooling James and giving Oliver great trouble in finding out the truth. Diaz is also an extremely competent and experienced leader, managing to take over the Scorpions and effectively lead it in secret, and later upon taking full control over the massive criminal organization the Quadrant, effectively lead it single-handedly to the point of overwhelming the efforts of Team Arrow and A.R.G.U.S. respectively, backing Oliver so much into the corner that he was forced to resort to call upon the FBI in order to fight against Diaz's army. While Diaz did not go down without a fight, he was too late to do anything to prevent his inevitable defeat. Diaz is also always fully prepared for most situations that would put him in a disadvantage like when he wore a bulletproof vest in case Eric Cartier tried to have him killed which he almost did.
 * Master deceiver/Manipulator: Diaz is an exceptional liar; he was able to fool Cayden James for months, as well as the other members of the cabal, including Anatoly Knyazev and Laurel Lance, however, it should be noted that Cayden, Anatoly and Laurel's suspicions were directed at Vincent Sobel; due to the latter's history as an undercover cop. Diaz is also an exceptional manipulator, as he was able to manipulate Cayden, predict every move he made and use it to his advantage such as being able to find out Team Arrow's identities and use them against Cayden. When he found out Anatoly had betrayed him, he was able to fool Anatoly into believing he did not know and used it to his advantage in order to lead Team Arrow and the FBI into a trap.
 * Master investigator: Diaz is an extremely skilled investigator. He is among the very few who has managed to somehow deduce that Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, he was also able to find out that Roy Harper's death was faked and managed to track him down.
 * Expert interrogator/Torturer: Diaz is an effective interrogator and torturer. He is capable of inflicting a lot of physical pain into a target without killing them and is even capable of using mind games to worsen the discomfort. However, Diaz was unable to break Roy Harper (due his incredible indomitable will) as he tried to get him to testify against Oliver Queen in court (regarding the latter's identity as Green Arrow) even when Diaz threatened to torture Thea right in front of him, Roy still refused to betray Oliver.
 * Explosives expert: Diaz is highly skilled in planting and detonating explosives, planting great amounts of explosives in the false location he gave Anatoly and rigging them to explode and destroy the whole building if anyone even moved a bit. Even Felicity Smoak was not able to effectively stop it, despite this, she was still able to delay the explosions from going off long enough for Rene Ramirez and the FBI to escape the blast.
 * Multilingual: Being of Spanish descendant, Diaz speaks that language fluently, in addition to English and Russian.
 * Master combatant/Martial artist: Diaz is a martial artist of terrifyingly tremendous, almost unrivaled skill. He swiftly defeated Thea Queen even though he had already been shot by an arrow and she was wielding her bow while he was unarmed, instantly disarmed John Diggle of his gun and gain the upper hand, eventually managing to flee, swiftly broke out of Curtis Holt's hold and quickly overpower and stab him, in which he would have killed him had the rest of Team Arrow not interfered,, with Curtis and Rene Ramirez's ability to defeat and capture him only being most likely because he wanted to be captured to stop James from blowing up Star City and even being one of the few to ever be able to take on Oliver on equal footing and come close to defeating him as Diaz was capable of blocking much of Oliver's strikes and landing his own; he was able to push the vigilante back and either knock him down or restrain him in both their altercations before Oliver finally turns the tides.  He is one of the most deadliest fighters in the multiverse.
 * Expert marksman: As a crime lord, Diaz is an expert in the use of many types of firearms. He was able to systematically take out a team of FBI agents in a firefight.
 * Expert knife wielder: Diaz is very skilled in the use of knives as he carries one with him and has used one to kill Cayden James. He threw one at Thea Queen with pin-point accuracy, and despite being restrained by Oliver, was able to stab Oliver's stomach with a knife.
 * Intimidation: Diaz is deeply feared by most people because of what he is capable of and his associates would rather die than betray him. Even a meta-human as powerful as Laurel Lance was (initially) afraid of him, but she later overcame her fear of Diaz. However, despite all of his fearsome aura, should someone with sufficient bravery know what he truly is, a loser who wants to prove that he is a winner instead, then Diaz will be unable to intimidate them, as seen by how Anatoly Knyazev, having known what a coward he truly is, did not display any signs of fear for Diaz's threat of a slow and painful death. After Oliver's victory over him, with the fact that Diaz is nothing more than a loser being revealed to the whole world, it seems that while still feared enough by his subordinates to make sure they are still loyal, but the majority, if not the entire criminal underworld has lost all fear of him.
 * Indomitable will/High pain tolerance: Diaz is a very driven and determined individual, as well as virtually fearless in the face of death and danger and has a considerable tolerance for pain, being able to easily pull an arrow out of his leg and still overpower Thea Queen. . He was stabbed with an arrow in the shoulder by Green Arrow during their second fight, but pulled it out like it was nothing.
 * Stealth/Infiltration: Diaz is very elusive. He can sneak in and out of most guarded buildings without being detected and quickly disappear from sight even in broad daylight. He was also able to sneak out of Anatoly's van without the latter hearing or noticing or hearing him.
 * Network: As the leader of a huge criminal organization, Diaz has established many connections who provides him aid for various natures, having on his payroll numerous politicians, judges, and policemen both in the city and in the country, making him one of, if not the most dangerous crime lord Team Arrow has ever faced. His power and influence grew when he became the leader of the Quadrant. Even after his entire influence over Star City was destroyed, he still had a few resources and allies such as the Longbow Hunters to help him go into hiding.

Weaknesses

 * Mental instability: Although Diaz's savagery has made him feared by both his allies and most of his enemies, it has also proven to be his greatest weakness; as he has become increasingly arrogant, erratic, cruel, unstable, paranoid and delusional, openly displaying his psychopathy and true cowardice, evidenced by the fact he beat up on Oliver pointlessly while he was chained and later unhesitantly cheated to win even though it revealed to his men that he is truly just a self-serving coward. He also openly tried to eliminate Team Arrow and the Outsiders respectively (after his plan to put Oliver Queen in prison failed) but he also underestimated their capabilities. Even Anatoly Knyazev and Laurel Lance respectively turned against Diaz for different reasons; Anatoly turned against Diaz after realizing that he is nothing more than a cowardly psychopath who lacks any form of honor and will destroy Star City if he gains full control over it, well Laurel turned against him after realizing that the latter is nothing more than an irredeemable monster who has no humanity left in him. In the end, his arrogance and ego led to his downfall; as he had believed that Oliver had no means left to save Star City and was not able to anticipate that Oliver Queen/Green Arrow would willingly turn himself over to the FBI in exchange for their help in taking down Diaz. Although Diaz tried desperately to stop it, he was too late to do anything significant to prevent his defeat and his criminal empire sustained considerable damage, his influence over Star City was completely destroyed, as he was forced into hiding and to add even greater damage, he had humiliated himself in the process.
 * Lack of empathy: Due to being a profound psychopath, despite all of his intellect, Diaz is unable to understand or calculate the possibility of other individuals' emotions, particularly their morals, causing them to refuse to do his bidding, as he completely believes that even if they wanted to stop working for him, their fear towards Diaz would be more than enough to cause them to still follow his orders, which has proven to not always be the case. This was seen after he threatened Laurel Lance to testify against Oliver Queen in court (regarding his identity as Green Arrow) he believed that it would be sufficient to keep her from siding with Oliver in court, only to find out the hard way he was wrong, as Laurel's growing attachment to Oliver eventually made her instead state to the entire court that Tommy Merlyn is Green Arrow, not Oliver, completely ruining Diaz's months prepared plan, much to his rage. Later when he threatened Quentin Lance, stating that he will shoot Laurel if he doesn't tell the FBI to leave Star City, he didn't expect that Quentin would not abide to his wishes and instead he (literally) took a bullet for his surrogate daughter, hence causing his plans to completely backfire, as with Quentin dead, he no longer could remove the FBI from Star City, which led to his downfall as the FBI had arrived and he was no longer able to resort to having the mayor force the FBI to leave the city. As Diaz believes that fear is enough to control his enemies, unable to anticipate their morality; Diaz's lack of empathy is proven to be one of his greatest weaknesses, much like Clifford DeVoe's.

Equipment

 * Guns/Firearms: Diaz primarily makes use of a pistol, wielding it quite effectively. He also is proficient in using a sub-machine gun.
 * Knives: Diaz carries knives with him and plays with them in a manner to calm his nerves. He has been known to carry combat knives, throwing knives, and switchblades. He also used one to kill Cayden James.
 * Metal link chain: Diaz has used a metal link chain to battle John Diggle.
 * Smoke grenade: Diaz used a smoke grenade to escape Team Arrow when stealing a military grade 3D printer.
 * Bulletproof vest: Diaz wore a bulletproof vest during an assassination attempt on his life by Eric Cartier.
 * Sonic dampening device: Diaz used this device to neutralize Laurel Lance's sonic scream, when she tried to kill him.
 * Gas mask: Diaz wore a gas mask when attacking the Helix bunker.
 * The Quadrant ring: Each of the the Quadrant's leaders wear a squared ring with four dots at the corners in order to identify themselves.
 * Hand-Held Flamethrower: Diaz attacked John Diggle with a hand-held flamethrower similar to Mick Rory´s on the Longbow Hunters´ train.

Arrow
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Season 7
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Trivia

 * Diaz sports tattoos of dragons around both sides his neck, his left shoulder and his back a reference to the look of his comic book counterpart, Richard Dragon, after The New 52.
 * The first time Team Arrow encounters him his face is hidden in the shadow and he throws a smoke bomb. This seems to symbolize his current place hidden in the background and creating confusion while manipulating events.
 * Diaz seem to genuinely care for good eating habits and alimentation in general, scolding officer Martin Hurst for eating junk food and bringing dinner to Earth Two Laurel Lance.
 * As Diaz himself subsequently revealed, he suffered hunger as a kid and was often forced to fight for getting a meal. This likely made him to grow to consider food as something that must not be so easily treated due to how difficult it was for him to get it in his orphanage.
 * Diaz choosing the name "Dragon" for his internal hatred and fear, and later for himself, as well as his tendency to set things and people on fire, could have been caused by the tortures inflicted to him by Jesse Federico, who burned his forearms and attempted to destroy the only picture he had of his late father forcing him to reach into the flames of the burning bucket to get it back, resulting in extreme burns and blisters that made his arm scaled (like a dragon's skin) for weeks.
 * Ricardo Diaz has similarities to the late villains Malcolm Merlyn, Ra's al Ghul, Damien Darhk, Adrian Chase, and the still living former villain Slade Wilson (who was under the influence of the Mirakuru at the time);
 * Like Malcolm, he is intelligent and calculating.
 * Like Ra's, he commands an army of people who are absolutely loyal to him, who would die before betraying him. He also has allied with the Longbow Hunters, a group of the world's deadliest warriors that the League of Assassins feared. This trait is the same as Ra's being the leader of the League of Assassins, who are also a group of the world's deadliest warriors feared everywhere.
 * Like Damien, he controls a large criminal empire (such as Damien's H.I.V.E.) with reaches beyond a city through taking control of the Quadrant.
 * Like Adrian, Diaz is mentally unstable and considered a psychopath by even other criminals such as Anatoly Knyazev.
 * Like Slade (who was under the influence of the Mirakuru at the time) he is extremely arrogant and overconfident to the point of underestimating his opponents, like he did with Oliver; as he believed that he had defeated the latter.
 * Ricardo Diaz is the first main antagonist in the Arrowverse not to have been defeated in the season that he appeared, returning as the antagonist for Season 7 along with the Longbow Hunters.
 * Diaz is the first character in the Arrowverse; to be the main antagonist of two consecutive seasons that he has appeared in.
 * Diaz thought for his entire life that he was a loser due to Jesse Federico's bullying.
 * Ironically enough, Diaz is perhaps the most formidable and successful main antagonist of Arrow thus far, as he proved too much for Oliver alone and forced him to resort to sacrificing his freedom to defeat him. Even then, Diaz was the only main antagonist in the whole Arrowverse that wasn't truly defeated at the end of the season and will reassume his role in Season 7, as stated above. However, Oliver's spectacular defeat of him has made Diaz extremely vengeful for the same reason as his vendetta towards Jesse but to a much greater degree, as while Jesse only made him a loser to the orphanage he was raised in, Diaz's spectacular defeat at the hands of Oliver has proven to the entire world, particularly the criminal underworld, that he is nothing more than a loser.
 * Despite losing his empire and power over Star City, Diaz's original goal of incarcerate Oliver was accomplished, though it wasn't achieved by him and it wasn't his goal anymore since he decided to kill Oliver and Team Arrow.
 * Ricardo Diaz is one of the main antagonists of the Arrowverse to be still alive after the season, in which he was the main antagonist. The others are Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson, and Hunter Zolomon.
 * As of and, Hunter Zolomon is killed by Killer Frost and Malcolm Merlyn is killed by a landmine on Lian Yu.

Behind the scenes

 * In the comics, Ricardo Diaz is a crime lord and martial artist based out of Seattle, as well as a founder of the Longbow Hunters. The shared multiverse's iteration's nickname is a reference to the pre-New 52 version of the character, Richard Dragon.
 * Diaz is the first main antagonist in the shared multiverse to be presented as a secondary antagonist as he appears in as a drug dealer and enemy of the week for Team Arrow, later being revealed to be a member of Cayden James' criminal cabal in  and the real puppet master behind everything happening in Star City since the beginning of the season in ​​.
 * Diaz is the second main antagonist in the shared multiverse to avoid capture or death after his respective season ended, the first being Malcolm Merlyn. However, unlike Malcolm, who was presumed deceased by the characters and audience, Diaz was known to be alive at the end of his respected season.
 * Diaz is the third main antagonist to be directly responsible for the death of a main character; following Slade Wilson and Damien Darhk.
 * He is the fourth main antagonist to be credited as a main character followed by Slade Wilson, Malcolm Merlyn, and Adrian Chase.