Helena Bertinelli, also known as The Huntress, is the daughter of former crime boss Frank Bertinelli, the former fiancé of the late Michael Staton, and the ex-girlfriend of Oliver Queen. She was set on destroying her father's crime empire. She and Oliver become a couple at the end of her first appearance, "Muse of Fire". In "Vendetta". She breaks up with Oliver after realizing that he is still in love with Laurel. She tries to kill her father but Oliver intervenes, and she is almost killed by her father with her own crossbow. Luckily Oliver manages to save her, and she leaves the city after realizing that Oliver isn't on her side. In "The Huntress Returns". She returned to Starling city to kill her father, because he made a deal with the FBI and the justice department to avoid jail time, in exchange for him to testify against the East Coast Family, and will go into the witness protection program. She tried to kill him a second time, and again Oliver intervenes, however Oliver is forced to let her go after she shoots McKenna. It can be assumed she is still chasing after her father.
Biography
Taking down her father
Before the death of her fiancé Michael, Helena tried to turn her father into the FBI. However, her father mistook the evidence collected by Helena with her fiancé and had him killed. Following this, Helena decided to use her skills to take down her father by killing people close to him as The Huntress.
Season 1
In "Muse of Fire", Helena shoots down Paul Copani, a member of her father's mob, almost shooting Moira Queen, Oliver's mother, in the process. She later met Oliver during a meeting he set up with her father, Frank. Needing to attend to another meeting, Frank asks Helena to go to dinner with Oliver to help him seal a deal with Queen Consolidated. Although both were unwilling, they ended up enjoying the date. After they separate, Nick Salvati goes to Russo's, the restaurant they were just in, to collect protection money. Before her father's crew could hurt anyone, she and Oliver, as the Hood, step in and fight them. When they confront each other, Oliver manages to take off her helmet and sees her face. Later, Helena is at Michael's grave when Oliver drops by. Both are picked up by Nick and Frank's men. Nick found Helena's cross at Russo's and connects her to the Huntress and threatens to kill her the same way he killed Michael. Oliver stops her and, together, they kill Nick and the men with him, snapping all of their necks. Helena realizes that Oliver is the Starling City vigilante and that night, Oliver drops into her room. Both admit that they like being able to tell each other the truth and Oliver sleeps with her.
In "Vendetta", Oliver tells her about him being Arrow and even trains her. seeing that she is bent on revenge, Oliver tries to get Helena down the right path and avoid murdering innocents, but ultimately fails. During their third date, they run into Laurel and Tommy. Things get awkward and the group disperses, with Helena furious at Oliver. Helena, realizing that Oliver is no longer on her side, leaves the city.
In "The Huntress Returns", Helena questions and kills the former lawyer of her father. and She returned to track down her father, who turned state to the F.B.I. She then extorts Oliver in to helping her by threatening to injure Tommy. Attacking the transport carrying her father, Helena gets arrested by Detective Quentin. However, Oliver quickly breaks in and frees her, then orders her to leave the city. Ignoring him, she forces Felicity to track down her father's location. She invaded the safehouse and killed the US Marshals assigned to protect him. Before she can off her father, Oliver interrupts her. After a brief standoff, Oliver tries to shoot Helena and she catches the arrow. Furious that he tried to kill her, she attacks him. She disarms him and temporarily overwhelms him, before Oliver can recover his bow. They were interrupted by McKenna who tried to arrest both of them, but was shot by Helena. Helena promptly fled the scene, not to be seen again.
Personality
It can be assumed Helena was once a good, kind, caring, compassionate, reasonable person, who tried to send her father to jail legally and discreetly, because she knows he is a monster and he thrives on other people's suffering. Her personality changed completely after finding out that her father murdered her fiancé Michael. Swearing to take her father's world apart and see him suffer, she snapped and turned cold, unreasonable, unstable, vengeful, ruthless, volatile, and violent. She has no morals or remorse, and she is more than ready to hurt and even kill people, innocent, or guilty, if they get in her way of her exacting her revenge, shown when she would go so far to plan and incite a war between her father and the Chinese Triad, despite knowing full well that innocent casualties by large numbers are unavoidable if she were to do so. She also readily manipulates and threatens innocent people if it means seeing her goal fulfilled, such as going to break Tommy's arm. Unlike The Arrow who tries to avoid hurting innocent people or killing anyone in his quests, and would seek to hand criminals over to the authorities, she considers no alternatives other than to end the lives of those responsible for her suffering, even her father. Tries to justify her killings, she would even cite that her actions are for the sake of justice, despite them being done out of vengeance alone. However, she has shown she is still capable of love and simply does not want to be hurt again or even alone in her anger, such as when her and Oliver were dating, only getting angry when she realised he still loved Laurel.
Abilities
- Advanced hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Helena is a very proficient and formidable hand-to-hand combatant. She fought and killed Nick Salvati by snapping his neck. Her martial arts skills seem to rival Oliver's, as she was able to fight and disarm him on 2 separate occasions.
- Peak of human physical condition: Helena is physically fit, as she managed to break her father's right hand man's neck, and has demonstrated very good reflexes. She caught an arrow Oliver shot at her (a feat so far only demonstrated by the highly skilled Billy Wintergreen and Malcolm Merlyn).
- Marksmanship: Helena is shown to be proficient with firearms as well as crossbows, though at the beginning only at a rudimentary level as noted by Quentin and Oliver, the former saying that her shots fired at Paul Copani are work of an amateur, and the later giving her a handgun-sized crossbow due to the significantly reduced need of training in using one, unlike a recurve bow. She later became highly proficient to the point that she could take out a team of highly armed US Marshals using a single crossbow.
- Expert manipulator: Helena has shown to go to great lengths to achieve her goals. She even went as far as to threaten Oliver’s family and Tommy, and tries using his feelings for her to help her.
Equipment
- Helena Bertinelli's crossbow: Helena uses a Customized crossbow as The Huntress, to achieve her goals of vengeance against her father, and will kill anyone who gets in her way, it was later taken from her after she was arrested (temporarily). By Quentin and McKenna. It is unknown if it was designed by Oliver.
- Helena Bertinelli's High-Powered crossbow: a High-powered crossbow served as Helena's replacement crossbow after her customized crossbow was taken from her by Quentin and McKenna, she received this crossbow after she broke into a sporting goods store, however she lost this crossbow, after being disarm by Oliver, after attempting to kill another US Marshal. It is unknown if she recovered this crossbow, after Oliver let her go because he had to get McKenna to the hospital.
- Huntress costume: Helena wears a costume as her villainous alter-ego The Huntress, to achieve her goals of vengeance against her father and stay anonymous, despite her identity eventually being uncovered. It is unknown if it was designed by Oliver, and it is also unknown what materials it is made from.
Appearances
Trivia
- Helena Bertinelli is the third person to discover Oliver Queen's secret identity, The Arrow. She discovered this in "Muse of Fire".
Gallery
Concept artwork
