Oliver Queen

"My name is Oliver Queen. For five years I was stranded on an island with only one goal: survive. Now I will fulfill my father's dying wish. To use the list of names he left me and bring down those who are poisoning my city. To do this, I must become someone else. I must become... something else."

- Oliver Queen Oliver "Ollie" Queen (born May 16, 1985) is the central anti-hero/vigilante protagonist of Arrow. He recently returned to Starling City after being stranded on a remote island for five years, much to the surprise of everyone since he was assumed dead. On the island, Oliver learned to fend for himself, and so upon his return, became the vigilante known by everyone in his city as "The Hood", though known through official sources as Arrow.

Shipwrecked on Lian Yu
In 2007, Oliver was on the Queen's Gambit, his family's yacht, with his father and Sara Lance, the sister of his girlfriend Laurel, whom he had been cheating on with Sara.

A shipwreck occurred, leaving only Oliver, Robert, and one other crew member surviving. There were not enough provisions to keep all of them alive, so, in order to save his son's life,  Robert killed the other survivor then himself but not before telling Oliver that their wealth had been built on the suffering of others, and it was up to him to make things right.

Oliver lands ashore upon the island Lian Yu. There, while burying his father, he finds a book, filled with blank pages, in Robert's pocket. Immediately after, a hooded man, Yao Fei, shoots Oliver with an arrow. Oliver awakes in Yao Fei's camp, where Yao tends to his wound. Later, when Yao falls asleep, Oliver tries to escape but is snared in a trap. Yao later arrives, cuts him down, and walks away, leaving Oliver with no other choice but to follow him. Later, a group of armed men, their faces hidden, examine the sprung trap.

Over the next few days, Oliver spends most of his time gazing at a picture of Laurel until Yao Fei brings him a bird trapped in a cage. He tells Oliver that he must kill the bird if he wants to eat and survive, at first Oliver refuses, but driven by hunger, he breaks the bird's neck. Yao Fei tells him that he would be forced to take more lives and tells him to forget about Laurel. Otherwise, he would not survive.



One day Oliver and Yao Fei went hunting. Oliver tries to shoot Yao Fei's bow but misses his target, a tree. He goes to fetch the rabbit Yao Fei killed but is captured by the armed men. They bring him to their camp and he is interrogated by their leader, Edward Fyers. Fyers shows him a picture of Yao Fei, asking if Oliver had seen him. Oliver denies any knowledge of Yao in order to protect him. Not believing him, Fyers orders Deathstroke, his lackey, to torture Oliver for more information. Yao Fei rescues Oliver and brings him back to the cave. He then goes to lead Fyers' men away but not before telling Oliver to survive and sealing the entrance to prevent Oliver from following him.

Injured and alone in the cave, Oliver begins hallucinating. He sees visions of his father telling him to survive, otherwise his father's sacrifice would have been for nothing. He also dreams about burning his father's book. When he awakens, he tears a page out of the book, but just as he is about to throw it onto the fire, the heat from the flames causes letters to appear on the paper (Note: Most kinds of invisible ink are practically undetectable until the paper they're on is heated). He proceeds to do the same with other pages, and the names of the people corrupting Starling City, whom Oliver must hunt down, appear. He promises the hallucination of his father that he would live up to this responsibility.

Yao Fei returns, bringing with him a captured Fyers. He tells Oliver that Fyers has a plane that can take Oliver (And Yao) off the island. They make their way through the woods until they are ambushed by Deathstroke and Fyers' men, with Fyers saying "Do you not think it convenient you captured me so easily?". Yao Fei tells Oliver to run and begins fighting the men; unfortunately, he is defeated and knocked unconscious by Deathstroke. From a safe distance, Oliver watched them take Yao Fei and runs away.

One of Fyers' men continues to search for Oliver after Yao Fei is captured. Armed with only a knife Oliver is eventually forced to confront him. The skirmish results in them tumbling and falling down to a stream. The soldier lands hard on a rock while Oliver ends up in the water. He manages to get out and dons the uniform of the dead man, where he finds a set of keys and a map of the island in one of the pockets.

Oliver finds his way to the camp where Fyers and his men are based, here, unfortunately accompanied by Fyers (who doesn't seem to recognise him as he is wearing a balaclava) he manages to make his way to where Yao Fei is being held prisoner, but once there, Fyers knocks down Oliver and puts him in one of the cells. He tells him he knew who he was because of his eyes, which tell everything and is also the reason why his men all wear balaclavas. Fyers then rebukes Oliver for putting his trust in the wrong people, particularly Yao Fei. He motions to the soldier next to him, who had been the first to talk to Oliver upon his arrival. The soldier takes off his balaclava and reveals himself to be in fact Yao, who had been working for Fyers the whole time. However, Yao Fei later helps Oliver escape from the camp by using a technique to fake Oliver's death.

Oliver follows the map Yao tucked into one of Oliver's pockets when he faked his death which leads him to a crashed plan where he is met by a man (Slade Wilson). Oliver tell him that Yao Fei sent him there. Slade tells Oliver that there was a air field and he and Yao Fei had been observing it for months and they were going to get of the island together. He then throws a sword to Oliver and tells him that he thinks Yao Fei sent Oliver to him becuse he knew that he could not take the air field alone. Slade then challenges Oliver to a brief sword fight in order to gauge Oliver's fighting skills. He is unimpressed and tells Oliver that "it would be a compliment if someone told you that you fight like a girl". Slade then knocks him out.

Oliver wakes tied to a chair. Slade, in order to keep his location secret, decides to kill Oliver, but Oliver manages to escape his bonds by breaking his hand, he then punches Slade in the face. Amused, Slade thinks that there might be a fighter inside of Oliver after all, and decides to train Oliver. As Oliver goes to choose a weapon, he finds the mask of Deathstroke, the man who had tortured him under Fyers' orders. When questioned about this, Slade explained that he and his partner wear the same mask; they came to the island to rescue Yao Fei as a mission from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.



The two progressively fight over an unspecified amount of time. Oliver almost gives up, though is re-motivated by Wilson. When the time comes, the two of them make their way to Fyers' camp, and ultimately the airstrip to a ride home. They made camp. Oliver tried to start a fire for several hours, before Slade pulled out a lighter and helped, bemused at Oliver's anger. In return, Wilson reminisced about his and his partner, "Billy" Wintergreen's, arrival on the island.

A day or so later, Oliver accidentally steps on a land mine that is left over from what was assumed to be World War 2. Slade runs to hide as a group of Fyers' men approach a now-masked Oliver. Oliver explains his situation, as Slade has deserted him, and they survey the mine. Suddenly, Slade jumps from his hiding spot, slicing through the soldiers with his sword, replacing Oliver with one of them. They continued towards the camp, finally reaching it at dark. Oliver, aided by Slade's sniping, raced stealthily to the communications tower. He attempted to quietly take out the only man in there, but resulted in having a gun pointed at his face. He tried to remove it, but it again failed. Luckily, Slade reached him just in time, stabbing the man through the gut. They were able to contact the plane, allowing it clearance to land. Slade left, leaving Oliver on his own. Seeing his chance, Oliver grabbed a phone and called Laurel, hoping to make up for his wrongdoings. Before he could speak, Slade returned and stopped him, reminding him that it could be monitored. After a short argument, Oliver goes to find Yao Fei and rescue him. Yao Fei explains that he is staying for his daughter, though only mentioned as a "who". Edward Fyers and Billy, Slade's partner, enter the tent, leading Yao to knock out Oliver. When Ollie comes to, he is forced in to the middle of a circle. After questioning Fyers, he discovers that he means for Bill to kill him. Before this can happen, Slade causes a distraction, sniping the soldiers after doing so. Oliver runs to safety. He watches as Slade and Billy face off, and sees as Slade overpowers his former ASIS partner. As they go, Slade is shot. Oliver helps to protect them as they leave, finally knocking out his first soldier. When they reach Slade's plane, Ollie helps remove the bullet in Slade's arm and mocks that his only friend on the island is "Wilson".

Later, Oliver checks Slade's wound and finds that it's infected. He then remembers the herbs Yao Fei gave him in Lone Gunman to prevent infection from his arrow wound. He then offers to go get them. Slade says he won't last an hour out there and Oliver says he'll get them in forty five minutes. He then goes to Yao Fei's cave and discovers a guy tied up there. The guy says that he was the only survivor of a shipwreck, like Oliver, and discovered the men and one (Fyers) ordered him beaten and brought there. Oliver, thinks its a trap, gets the herbs and leaves the guy there and returns the herbs to Slade.

Return Home
After 5 years in absolute danger, Oliver was trained intensely having acquired high level of combat ability, and acquiring a skill and accuracy with unparalleled arch, later he managed to spot a small fishing boat, and using improvised explosive devices, can draw attention of fishermen, who ultimately rescues him and takes him to Starling City. Oliver is given several medical exams that reveals that he has multiple scars and damaged tissue. He returns home and meets up with the rest of his family. Together with his friend Tommy, Oliver is given a brief tour of the city, where much of the city in a damaged state, with high poverty and high crime. After a difficult meeting with Laurel, his former girlfriend, Oliver and Tommy is kidnapped by three masked criminals, sent by his mother Moira. They are taken to a hangar for interrogation. While Tommy remained unconscious, Oliver freed himself and easily took out two of the criminals, and after a quick chase took out the third. Giving the alibi that was saved by a man in a green hood to Detective Lance. Oliver decides to start his fight against crime, but his mother hires John Diggle, a former soldier who now works in private security. Oliver easily escapes him, and turns the basement of the family's old factory into the Arrow Cave Using his bow and a green costume, he begins to fulfill his promise. He targets Adam Hunt, a corrupt man who tops The List Robert Queen gave him. As a hooded vigilante, Oliver eliminates Hunt's men, and forces him to transfer 40 million dollars to the city, or he would steal all of it in an unfriendly way. Hunt refuses and contacts the police to help defend himself. Oliver positions his welcome party across the street from Hunt's building in order to carry out his mission without anyone noticing. While waiting for the deadline he catches Thea buying drugs at his party, and explains to her some of the regrets of his former life. Once the deadline passes he attempts to sneak away to be caught by Diggle, who he knocks unconscious in order to continue his plan. Oliver storms the building and dispatches Hunt's security but is wounded by stray gunfire. The police arrive and attempt to subdue him, but Oliver jumps through the window and uses his bow to zip line to safety and use his party as a cover. The next day Oliver able to transfer the money Adam Hunt, due to capacity with an arrow hacker which stuck to Hunt's computer. At the end of the night, Laurel has a conversation with Tommy about their relationship while Oliver as the Hood watches. Arrow goes after another person on the List, after overthrowing his men, he forces him to transfer 40 million dollars for retirees of the court to Starling. Oliver vai exclarecer circumstances of his death, he also conflicts with Diggle, due to his constant escapes.

Walter and Moira ask for him to take a position within Queen Consolidated, but he rejects the offer. Later,he receives an explanation of his sister Thea for his rebelliousness, justifying the alleged death of Oliver and Robert, and also is encouraged to try to get closer to your loved ones. Following this advice, he goes to the apartment of Laurel ice cream, however they are interrupted by China White and his men who invade the apartment to kill Laurel, but with the help of Diggle who was prowling the place, he eliminated the goons, but China White escaped.Oliver has another conversation with Diggle who begins to suspect Oliver, due to his accuracy with the knife during the invasion of the apartment. Arrow goes behind Martin Sommers, it generates a pursuit to Starling docks, but the Arrow grabs and forces him to confess to being the mastermind of a man who would testify against him. However, he ends up fighting with China White. The fight is interfered with by the police that invades the place, forcing both to flee, however during the struggle Detective Lance Arrow intercepts who quickly disarms and flees, leaving a device with the recorded testimony of Sommers. The next day during the public memorial to Robert Queen, Oliver appears pretending to be selfish and irresponsible, to foil their identity, and in front of the tomb of Robert, Oliver vows to fulfill your desire even if it means hurting those close to him.



When his bodyguard John Diggle is injured by Deadshot, Oliver takes him back to his lair to recuperate and reveals his identity to him. Oliver offers a job to John supposedly as a sidekick. He declines, calling him a criminal and a murderer. Oliver later tries to have Laurel defend an innocent man from receiving the death penalty and catch the real killer. After he saves the man, Quentin figures out that Oliver is the vigilante and arrests him at his home.

Oliver insists on having Laurel as his attorney, and she eventually accepts to be his legal counsel. He is accepted as not being the vigilante when he convinces Diggle to put on the hood and make a gang bust. Oliver was released and continues to act as the vigilante.

Later Oliver is diverted from the list when a gang of bank robbers start to hit more often. Diggle convinces Oliver to stop the thieves, but it becomes complicated when he learns that the leader was laid off by Oliver's father, and Oliver feels bad for that injustice. After a third hit, King (Derek Reston) was killed, and Ace (Kyle Reston) was incarcerated.

Oliver goes to Queen Consolidated to pick his mother up for a lunch date they are having. Moira is speaking to man representing Bertinelli Construction Company. Suddenly, a biker appears and shoots the man. Moira falls and hits her head. Oliver chases after the biker but after he looses track of the biker he heads back to his mother. His sister criticizes him for going after the biker when he should have stayed with his mother. Oliver discovers that the man who tried to close the deal with his mother works for Frank Bertinelli and decides to go undercover. He intends to have a chat over dinner with Frank but instead goes with his daughter. Although reluctant at first, he finds himself enjoying the evening. He heads to an Italian restaurant run by Russo, a man who pays protection money to the Bertinellis. The dinner is interrupted when Diggle comes and informs Oliver that Nick Salvati, Bertinelli's right hand, was coming around to collect protection money and injuring anyone who refused. Oliver leaves to Hood up and returns to the restaurant where Nick has showed up with his crew. Just as they are about to break Russo's fingers, Oliver arrives as the Hood and protects him. He is joined by the Huntress. After taking out the men, Oliver and the Huntress fight it out. She is revealed to be Helena. Oliver meets with Helena at the grave of her former fiancee, Michael. Salvati and his men jump the two and kidnap them. The two awake in a warehouse. Salvati plans on killing the two but Oliver and Helena free themselves and kill all the men. Oliver and Helena then sleep together.

Oliver takes Helena under his wing and trains her to be a vigilante alongside himself. He gives her a crossbow because guns are too noisy and clumsy. The two bust a drug operation that is run by the Bertinellis. Diggle warns him about taking these actions, saying that she may be to far gone, but Oliver ignores him, saying that he help her get through the pain. This warning ends up proving true, as, against Oliver's hopes, Helena becomes too vengeful, and she ends up instigating a war between the Chinese Triad and the Bertinellis, by killing the Triad's leader, and saying it was a hit by the Bertinellis. Oliver and Detective Lance are able to stop the war, and he takes Helena back to the Arrow Cave. Helena leaves Starling City and Oliver comments, saying he will see her soon enough.

Oliver heads to the Bertenilli mansion where Triad agents are storming the mansion. China White is about to kill Frank Bertenilli when she is stopped by Oliver. During the fight, Frank escapes only to be shot with a bolt by his own daughter. Oliver arrives just as she is about to kill him. This causes enough time for Frank to shoot her with her crossbow. Oliver knocks him out and brings Helena back to the Arrow Cave. He tends to her wounds but she remains ungrateful. She leaves the city and orders Oliver to stop bothering her if he wants his secret to remain a secret. Oliver tells her that he cares for her and lets her go.

When another archer takes to the streets of Starling City, Oliver is determined to figure out who this copycat is. Oliver requests Detective Lance's help in getting one of the arrows of the Dark Archer. Although he refuses, Oliver still tries to find the Archer. At the same time, Oliver tries to reignite the Christmas spirit in the Queen family, he does this by restarting the Queen family Christmas party. As the party starts he learns that the other archer has taken hostages and plans on killing them if he does not get a visit from Arrow. He runs off to save the hostages, ditching the party, he gets into a hand to hand battle with the other archer. The fight ends in a draw, and Oliver wakes in the hospital, as Diggle explains that he was hit by a car while on his motorcycle. He regrets his actions because he did not win the fight, but Diggle tells him that he saved the hostages and that is enough to be proud of.

Six weeks have passed, and Oliver is still recovering from his experience with the Dark Archer, emotionally and physically. As firefighters are being killed, Oliver is reluctant to take up the Hood again. Diggle convinces him otherwise and although Oliver fails to stop the man, he learns the murderer is a firefighter. Oliver deduces that the murderer is Garfield Lynns. He confronts the man's former fire chief but is ordered to leave. At a charity gala at his nightclub for the Fire Department, Lynns shows up and almost kills the fire chief. The Hood stops him and saves the lives of both of them. Lynns commits suicide by walking into the flames after being saved.

Abilities

 * Outstanding Marksmanship and Archer: Oliver is an expert sharpshooting marksman, attaining outstanding precision with a variety of ranged weaponry. He has highly experience and outstanding archery skills. Examples include skilled proficient accuracy with the bow and arrow, a single arrow, a knife and even a rusty pole. His marksmanship skills are at near superhuman levels.
 * Peak of Human Physical Condition: Oliver as shown to be top physical condition from his intense exercises both in the factory and his time on the island. He has shown that he can keep up with a motorcycle, perform acrobatics with some ease as well as other feats.
 * Skilled Detective and Learned Intellect Oliver has shown to have some great detective skills when searching for information about the people on his list. He has also demonstrated keen eyesight, such as when he deduced that his mother was in a relationship with Walter Steele.
 * Master Hand to Hand Combatant: Oliver excels in advanced hand to hand combat, being a master martial artist. He is proficient in various types of fighting, and can more than hold his own against his opponents, whether with his signature bow and arrow or completely unarmed. He styled his fighting styles of self defense, offense, grappling, and takedown after his mentor, Slade Wilson. The fighting form seems to be Eskrima, as Oliver has been seen regularly training with sticks, knives and using his bow as an improvised weapon.
 * Free Running: Oliver has shown himself to be capable of scaling buildings and running from rooftop to rooftop easily. On one occasion, he scaled a building using the window ledges of the building to retrieve a bullet, while on another occasion, he leapt over a rooftop to land on a lower one.
 * Multilingualism: Oliver, based on current knowledge, is capable of speaking English, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian fluently.
 * Medicine and First Aid: It has been displayed that Oliver is educated in various types of medicine and first aid. He was able to provide medical attention to himself and Diggle, as well as deduce the type of poison (Curare) that the bullet contained from his blood, compliments of Deadshot. He has also shown to be able to give first aid on himself or others.
 * Intimidation, and Interrogation: As Arrow, Oliver commands a very intimidating presence, which strikes fear into the hearts of the criminals he confronts, and extracting information.
 * Indomitable Will,: Oliver has shown to be very resistant and to never give up and overcoming his fears.

Equipment

 * Customized Recurve Bow and Hunting Arrows: Oliver, as Arrow, uses as his signature weapon of choice a customized recurved bow and numerous types of arrows, which he creates and designs himself, to fulfill his promise and mission he made to his father before his death. He carries arrows and flechettes (miniature projectiles stored on gauntlets, the equivalent of throwing knives) that add up to 24 in number.
 * Trick Arrow: Oliver has used custom-designed arrows such as incendiary arrows that explode on contact;  on occasion he has also been known to use arrows embedded with recording devices.
 * Quiver: An arrow container strapped to Oliver's back. He uses it to carry his arrows as his vigilante alter-ego, Arrow.

Trivia

 * During his 5 year stay on the island he learned Russian and became captain of one of the Russian mafia's most powerful criminal organization Solntsevskaya Bratva. He also has a star tattooed on his left chest signifying that he is one the highest members in the Russian underworld. The Bratva leader in Starling City mentioned that Oliver was spoken very highly of by the Bratva leader in Russia, which Oliver replies by admitting that he did save his life.
 * Throughout his lifetime, Oliver has dropped out of four schools.
 * In "Lone Gunman", Oliver mentions opening a club called Queens to conceal his base and give himself an alibi for where he disappears to in the evenings.
 * Oliver has been arrested four times according to Tommy Merlyn, prior to his latest arrest by Quentin Lance. These incidents include assaulting a paparazzi, driving while intoxicated, stealing a taxi, and urinating on a police officer.
 * Oliver possesses a tattoo on his left shoulder blade similar to one that Shado has.

Quotes

 * "I can't be the person everybody wants me to be."
 * "Believe me, lying to my family doesn't hurt anybody more than me." -Oliver to Diggle