Arrow AU, aka how I would have done this trash show:

If I was doing a Green Arrow show, this is how I would have gone about it. The lack of respect for the source material and characters has pushed so many fans over the edge including me, with writers citing that they had to let it develop ‘naturally’ and there was no way to make it more like the comics. And frankly, bull and shit to that.

I would have started the series along the lines of GA V3, which begins with Oliver Queen coming back from the dead. Because let’s face it, although the Island flashbacks made sense in s1 & 2 with the rise of Deathstroke, as the series’ went on and on they got too unbelievable and boring. So instead of what we had, I would have done something along the lines of:

“My name is Oliver Queen. Two years ago, I was killed in an explosion over the [whatever ocean is on the way to metropolis I can’t remember the name ok]. In that time, my city has faced its own problems and others have stepped up in my absence to defend it, but now I’m back to put things right. I may have died two years ago, but before that, I was the Green Arrow.”

I.e – instead of dull and exponentially implausible Island stories, Oliver’s origin is done in maybe 1 season or even half a season and then the flashbacks turn to him in Star City, as the Green Arrow, establishing his relationship with Roy and Dinah and the city so we have a basic arrowfam and a cast of iconic comic characters that believe it or not Marc Guggenheim, people actually want to see! I wouldn’t have changed the characters from their comic counterparts as much as he did, either. Then it carries on from his resurrection to reclaiming the GA name, how it changed him & how he wants to go on, and how he can use what has happened in the past to grow and change in this future.

So like for example we have:

1.       Oliver ‘Ollie’ Queen, Former Green Arrow; newly returned from the afterlife with shiny new green pants to boot. Although returned in a state of confusion, reverting to a base fight-or-flight instinct and taking to the streets as a ragged, homeless man and fighting street crime in the Glades in this state, he eventually regains his memories of his life as the Green Arrow and begins to make amends for things he had done before he died. Flashback! Ollie is a man torn between two identities, his personality that of billionaire playboy Ollie, but also in the process of becoming something more as the Green Arrow. He masks his trauma with jokes, really playing up the playboy role even in costume and having sobering moments of true humanity which endear him greatly. He is crass, but chivalrous – a real Rogue, Robin Hood proxy. Inspired by heroes, especially one Pretty Bird, he becomes one, but only really grows into that role when he realises that the world is watching the Green Arrow too; that he really can make a difference. Present Ollie is back from a peaceful afterlife to a world falling apart, a family he desperately wants to claw back together, and the burden of a legacy. He is still a mess of a man, but more humble and grounded, someone putting more time into supporting the people he loves and trying to forge relationships with them. Still laughing just as loud, he is also trying to inspire laughter and hope in others, too. This is an Urban Legend trying to consolidate his past with his present, a myth of a hero with a family man. He is trying.

2.       DINAH LANCE, Oliver’s ex-girlfriend, co-vigilante, and before either of those - one of his oldest friends. She is the first person he wants to see when he comes back. In the flashbacks we go back to both of their early days, when he was completely besotted with her – and completely an ass. They would team up to fight crime – Oliver mostly trailing at her heels in complete awe until he actually shows himself to be a human being on a case – she begins to train with him at Grant’s Gym and they become friends, later lovers. Owners of ‘Sherwood Florist’, the flower shop they use to fund their vigilante activities alongside Oliver just being rich af, the Green Arrow and Black Canary were the power couple criminals feared and their friends wanted to be. Before his death however, they had broken up after he cheated on her, leaving Dinah out of the city (BoP Y’ALL) and heartbroken. He comes back knowing that life is precious and does everything he can to make amends – as her friend, first and foremost. She is initially relieved to see him back, but they can’t rush into things in such an unfounded situation, as things with them are never that easy. So they take time to build trust and friendship again instead. [because I know that I’ll get the ‘you’re just jealous of olicity” line but Oliver/Dinah does not have to be romantic. They’re friends too like damn.] If one thing in his life hasn’t changed, it’s that he can count on the Black Canary.

3.       MIA DEARDEN, who a confused and dangerous newly resurrected Green Arrow saves when he comes back to the city – merely a ghost, a whisper in the first few episodes as the city cannot believe their hero is back from the dead. Instead of being the literal embodiment of Privilege Thea is, it follows her comic origin more closely; she is an underage sex worker living in the glades who after being saved, follows Oliver to an alley where he collapses. She decides she doesn’t like owing anyone anything so takes him to her apartment to recover, looking after him until he wakes and trying to convince him that he’s the hero she used to hear about on tv. Once Oliver does get his full memories back, he starts to look out for her, giving her a room at his house and re-enrolling her in school– he doesn’t expect her to decide to join him, but she does anyway. Eventually goes on to use her HIV Positive storyline to actually educate the audience about the real affects of teenaged prostitution and economic divide in inner cities, that MG for some reason decided wasn’t interesting enough!!! Like wow. She balances both Oliver’s privileged upbringing and his tendency to try and speak for groups instead of helping them to speak for themselves; she is a people-person, fighter for the Glade’s ‘common man’ and the kid Oliver didn’t quite mean to adopt.

4.       ROY HARPER, Oliver Queen’s adopted ward. He appears strongly in the flashbacks, a tiny 10 – 13 year old kid that Oliver sees at an archery contest and adopts soon afterwards. Roy’s backstory being raised on a Native American Reserve is so interesting to his character so I would include it, and that’s where he is when they meet. Oliver hears soon afterwards about the murder of Roy’s first pseudo father Brave Bow, a Navajo Clan Leader, in a suspected assassination to force the reserve to sell its land for development (using this story about gentrification to parallel the Star City Wall which I’ll get on to). Oliver finds a young man so like himself and on the path of vengeance to kill the man responsible for Brave Bow’s death – he has to convince Roy that there is another way. If the Green Arrow was a darker figure before this, then being there for this kid who needs it is what pushes Oliver to become a hero. Through detective work and vigilante justice, they manage to put Brave Bow’s murderer behind bars – and Oliver gains a ward and sidekick. This relationship in the flashbacks grows and changes over the seasons, deteriorating just before Oliver’s relationship with Dinah does when Roy suffers from a drug addiction, and Oliver turns his back on him instead of helping because of what he considers to be weakness – and because pre-death Ollie was still a bit of an ass.  In the present time, Oliver comes home to find Roy with a new name – and a daughter, LIAN HARPER. Little Lian is only 2 – 3 years old, Roy dotes on her and is such a dad now Ollie can’t quite believe it, but he also tries really hard to be a good granddad to her (it becomes a trend to make ‘Ollie is a grandad’ jokes. He isn’t impressed). Roy is the Family Disappointmenttm turned Group Dad, always Oliver’s sidekick in spirit if the Old man needs his back and is trying, most all all, to be a good dad.

5.       CONNOR HAWKE, the Green Arrow who has been picking up the slack in Oliver’s absence. Also, his illegitimate son that Oliver found out was his son the day before he died. It was a stressful few days for him, really. In the flashbacks, he chose to live in the Ashram Oliver goes to when he wants to brood in peace away from the city, a very spiritual person who knows little of life from the outside world; he knows the Green Arrow is his father, and when he meets Mr. Queen on one of his stays, befriends him and convinces Oliver to let him help out on a mission. It is after a month maybe of this that Connor admits to Oliver that he believes him to be his father, and, well … Ollie is very Ollie in that situation. He has a fit about Connor lying to him and storms off, getting himself killed. In the wake of this, Connor becomes the Green Arrow (with Roy and Dinah’s consent) and has been trying to find his place in the role and in the world for the past two years. When his father comes back to life, Connor immediately offers to step down and walk away, but Oliver realises his mistake with his son and they are both the Green Arrow now – it is a legacy. He does his best to build a bond with Connor, even though they are very opposite in personality and approach, but Connor is so forgiving so easily Oliver will be damned if he doesn’t spend every day for the rest of his life trying to make up for what he did (parallel building this bond with Roy/Ollie in the flashbacks). Connor Hawke is perhaps the most skilled of them all: expert marksman, one of the best hand-to-hand fighters in the world, and the most kind soul any of them know.

6.       STAR CITY, where we lay our scene. In the flashbacks, we start with a city corrupt in so many ways and our Robin Hood hero doing his best to set it straight. Its slow, but with Dinah, and then with Speedy, we see them start to make a difference. Queen Corp Youth Centres open; drug rings are taken down and stay down, the crime is falling. There are problems, and he has villains, but by the time Oliver dies he is okay spending months on foreign missions outside the city (and goes to the Ashram a lot when he needs to think). He returns to a city LITERALLY divided: the Star City Wall is up – with the Glades a hive of scum and villainy, run by gangs and financed by crime, abandoned by everyone but the scrappiest of police officers, left in a ‘no man’s land’ Gotham state of emergency. On the other side of the wall is the shining city he remembers, a blue collar capitol that has conveniently forgotten its poorest citizens by erecting the wall; so there is literal poor/rich, safe/unsafe divide throughout the city – think Berlin style. It started with a crime wave no one could stop after the Death of the Green Arrow and a corrupt Mayor who let it happen – although Dinah & Connor tried, they could stop the wall from going up, but try their best to help the poor side. The rich side is run by wealthy, corrupt people desperate to keep the wall up, to oppress the other side into being so desperate they will be paid less and have less in return from the state. Oliver returns and fights this new city on two sides – as the Green Arrow at night, and as Mayoral Candidate (and future Mayor who tears the wall tf down) in the day. The unification of Star City becomes a metaphor for him repairing the mess of his life and his family post-resurrection.

7.       VILLAINS; begins with the gangs of both eras and the corruption of both, a rhyme of history repeating itself. Past AND present Oliver has to stop the gang boss’ of the times – COUNT VERTIGO in the past who controls the city through mind altering drugs, leading on to Roy’s addiction storyline, and DANIEL BRICKWELL in the present who offers ‘protection’ for those on the wrong side of the wall – but is more of a grey anti-villain. He is a racketeer, but is fair and keeps his word, occasionally helping the Green Arrow in times of city-wide crisis because after all, if there’s no city left standing there’s nowhere left for him to rule. Then comes two CORRUPT POLITIAN’S (OC’s or re-reading of GA political stories needed), one in the past who lets police brutality and gang control of the city happen because they’re getting paid off, one in the present in the form of the current mayor, who let the wall be built to profit off people’s suffering. Oliver does NOT like these people. There is also EDDIE FYERS, a bounty hunter who was an old frenemy of Oliver and worked with Connor in his early GA days but betrays them at some point in the first season (PERHAPS TO ARGUS/THE GOVERNMENT). And of course, it wouldn’t be Green Arrow without DEATHSTROKE and MERLYN, two of Oliver’s oldest enemies in the flashbacks, who make their presences known once Oliver returns in present time. Oliver also has a series of SMALL-TIME ROGUES in his gallery, as does BLACK CANARY and RED ARROW, including CHESHIRE, Roy’s mercenary ex and Lian’s Mother, who appears as both a villain and reformed anti-hero. Connor Hawke, however, has a serious rival in the form of assassin the BAMBOO MONKEY, who Connor had bested in a martial arts competition during his run as the Green Arrow and holds a grudge against him. This also puts Connor in the sights of the world fighting community, both good guys and bad guys; he is known to be second only to SHIVA and CASSANDRA CAIN in hand-to-hand combat – this makes him a target for anyone wanted to raise themselves in the ranks.  In the present, Oliver’s biggest costumed threat alongside the ever-present Deathstroke and Merlyn is assassin CONSTANTINE DRAKON.

AKA, I just passive aggressively wrote this after deciding to quit Arrow for good last week and couldn’t stop thinking about how badly they fucked us over. I just wanted arrowfam. So badly. Now I might just have to go and actually just rewrite the entire show.

Arrow AU, aka how I would have done this trash show:

If I was doing a Green Arrow show, this is how I would have gone about it. The lack of respect for the source material and characters has pushed so many fans over the edge including me, with writers citing that they had to let it develop ‘naturally’ and there was no way to make it more like the comics. And frankly, bull and shit to that.

I would have started the series along the lines of GA V3, which begins with Oliver Queen coming back from the dead. Because let’s face it, although the Island flashbacks made sense in s1 & 2 with the rise of Deathstroke, as the series’ went on and on they got too unbelievable and boring. So instead of what we had, I would have done something along the lines of:

“My name is Oliver Queen. Two years ago, I was killed in an explosion over the [whatever ocean is on the way to metropolis I can’t remember the name ok]. In that time, my city has faced its own problems and others have stepped up in my absence to defend it, but now I’m back to put things right. I may have died two years ago, but before that, I was the Green Arrow.”

I.e – instead of dull and exponentially implausible Island stories, Oliver’s origin is done in maybe 1 season or even half a season and then the flashbacks turn to him in Star City, as the Green Arrow, establishing his relationship with Roy and Dinah and the city so we have a basic arrowfam and a cast of iconic comic characters that believe it or not Marc Guggenheim, people actually want to see! I wouldn’t have changed the characters from their comic counterparts as much as he did, either. Then it carries on from his resurrection to reclaiming the GA name, how it changed him & how he wants to go on, and how he can use what has happened in the past to grow and change in this future.

So like for example we have:

1.       Oliver ‘Ollie’ Queen, Former Green Arrow; newly returned from the afterlife with shiny new green pants to boot. Although returned in a state of confusion, reverting to a base fight-or-flight instinct and taking to the streets as a ragged, homeless man and fighting street crime in the Glades in this state, he eventually regains his memories of his life as the Green Arrow and begins to make amends for things he had done before he died. Flashback! Ollie is a man torn between two identities, his personality that of billionaire playboy Ollie, but also in the process of becoming something more as the Green Arrow. He masks his trauma with jokes, really playing up the playboy role even in costume and having sobering moments of true humanity which endear him greatly. He is crass, but chivalrous – a real Rogue, Robin Hood proxy. Inspired by heroes, especially one Pretty Bird, he becomes one, but only really grows into that role when he realises that the world is watching the Green Arrow too; that he really can make a difference. Present Ollie is back from a peaceful afterlife to a world falling apart, a family he desperately wants to claw back together, and the burden of a legacy. He is still a mess of a man, but more humble and grounded, someone putting more time into supporting the people he loves and trying to forge relationships with them. Still laughing just as loud, he is also trying to inspire laughter and hope in others, too. This is an Urban Legend trying to consolidate his past with his present, a myth of a hero with a family man. He is trying.

2.       DINAH LANCE, Oliver’s ex-girlfriend, co-vigilante, and before either of those - one of his oldest friends. She is the first person he wants to see when he comes back. In the flashbacks we go back to both of their early days, when he was completely besotted with her – and completely an ass. They would team up to fight crime – Oliver mostly trailing at her heels in complete awe until he actually shows himself to be a human being on a case – she begins to train with him at Grant’s Gym and they become friends, later lovers. Owners of ‘Sherwood Florist’, the flower shop they use to fund their vigilante activities alongside Oliver just being rich af, the Green Arrow and Black Canary were the power couple criminals feared and their friends wanted to be. Before his death however, they had broken up after he cheated on her, leaving Dinah out of the city (BoP Y’ALL) and heartbroken. He comes back knowing that life is precious and does everything he can to make amends – as her friend, first and foremost. She is initially relieved to see him back, but they can’t rush into things in such an unfounded situation, as things with them are never that easy. So they take time to build trust and friendship again instead. [because I know that I’ll get the ‘you’re just jealous of olicity” line but Oliver/Dinah does not have to be romantic. They’re friends too like damn.] If one thing in his life hasn’t changed, it’s that he can count on the Black Canary.

3.       MIA DEARDEN, who a confused and dangerous newly resurrected Green Arrow saves when he comes back to the city – merely a ghost, a whisper in the first few episodes as the city cannot believe their hero is back from the dead. Instead of being the literal embodiment of Privilege Thea is, it follows her comic origin more closely; she is an underage sex worker living in the glades who after being saved, follows Oliver to an alley where he collapses. She decides she doesn’t like owing anyone anything so takes him to her apartment to recover, looking after him until he wakes and trying to convince him that he’s the hero she used to hear about on tv. Once Oliver does get his full memories back, he starts to look out for her, giving her a room at his house and re-enrolling her in school– he doesn’t expect her to decide to join him, but she does anyway. Eventually goes on to use her HIV Positive storyline to actually educate the audience about the real affects of teenaged prostitution and economic divide in inner cities, that MG for some reason decided wasn’t interesting enough!!! Like wow. She balances both Oliver’s privileged upbringing and his tendency to try and speak for groups instead of helping them to speak for themselves; she is a people-person, fighter for the Glade’s ‘common man’ and the kid Oliver didn’t quite mean to adopt.

4.       ROY HARPER, Oliver Queen’s adopted ward. He appears strongly in the flashbacks, a tiny 10 – 13 year old kid that Oliver sees at an archery contest and adopts soon afterwards. Roy’s backstory being raised on a Native American Reserve is so interesting to his character so I would include it, and that’s where he is when they meet. Oliver hears soon afterwards about the murder of Roy’s first pseudo father Brave Bow, a Navajo Clan Leader, in a suspected assassination to force the reserve to sell its land for development (using this story about gentrification to parallel the Star City Wall which I’ll get on to). Oliver finds a young man so like himself and on the path of vengeance to kill the man responsible for Brave Bow’s death – he has to convince Roy that there is another way. If the Green Arrow was a darker figure before this, then being there for this kid who needs it is what pushes Oliver to become a hero. Through detective work and vigilante justice, they manage to put Brave Bow’s murderer behind bars – and Oliver gains a ward and sidekick. This relationship in the flashbacks grows and changes over the seasons, deteriorating just before Oliver’s relationship with Dinah does when Roy suffers from a drug addiction, and Oliver turns his back on him instead of helping because of what he considers to be weakness – and because pre-death Ollie was still a bit of an ass.  In the present time, Oliver comes home to find Roy with a new name – and a daughter, LIAN HARPER. Little Lian is only 2 – 3 years old, Roy dotes on her and is such a dad now Ollie can’t quite believe it, but he also tries really hard to be a good granddad to her (it becomes a trend to make ‘Ollie is a grandad’ jokes. He isn’t impressed). Roy is the Family Disappointmenttm turned Group Dad, always Oliver’s sidekick in spirit if the Old man needs his back and is trying, most all all, to be a good dad.

5.       CONNOR HAWKE, the Green Arrow who has been picking up the slack in Oliver’s absence. Also, his illegitimate son that Oliver found out was his son the day before he died. It was a stressful few days for him, really. In the flashbacks, he chose to live in the Ashram Oliver goes to when he wants to brood in peace away from the city, a very spiritual person who knows little of life from the outside world; he knows the Green Arrow is his father, and when he meets Mr. Queen on one of his stays, befriends him and convinces Oliver to let him help out on a mission. It is after a month maybe of this that Connor admits to Oliver that he believes him to be his father, and, well … Ollie is very Ollie in that situation. He has a fit about Connor lying to him and storms off, getting himself killed. In the wake of this, Connor becomes the Green Arrow (with Roy and Dinah’s consent) and has been trying to find his place in the role and in the world for the past two years. When his father comes back to life, Connor immediately offers to step down and walk away, but Oliver realises his mistake with his son and they are both the Green Arrow now – it is a legacy. He does his best to build a bond with Connor, even though they are very opposite in personality and approach, but Connor is so forgiving so easily Oliver will be damned if he doesn’t spend every day for the rest of his life trying to make up for what he did (parallel building this bond with Roy/Ollie in the flashbacks). Connor Hawke is perhaps the most skilled of them all: expert marksman, one of the best hand-to-hand fighters in the world, and the most kind soul any of them know.

6.       STAR CITY, where we lay our scene. In the flashbacks, we start with a city corrupt in so many ways and our Robin Hood hero doing his best to set it straight. Its slow, but with Dinah, and then with Speedy, we see them start to make a difference. Queen Corp Youth Centres open; drug rings are taken down and stay down, the crime is falling. There are problems, and he has villains, but by the time Oliver dies he is okay spending months on foreign missions outside the city (and goes to the Ashram a lot when he needs to think). He returns to a city LITERALLY divided: the Star City Wall is up – with the Glades a hive of scum and villainy, run by gangs and financed by crime, abandoned by everyone but the scrappiest of police officers, left in a ‘no man’s land’ Gotham state of emergency. On the other side of the wall is the shining city he remembers, a blue collar capitol that has conveniently forgotten its poorest citizens by erecting the wall; so there is literal poor/rich, safe/unsafe divide throughout the city – think Berlin style. It started with a crime wave no one could stop after the Death of the Green Arrow and a corrupt Mayor who let it happen – although Dinah & Connor tried, they could stop the wall from going up, but try their best to help the poor side. The rich side is run by wealthy, corrupt people desperate to keep the wall up, to oppress the other side into being so desperate they will be paid less and have less in return from the state. Oliver returns and fights this new city on two sides – as the Green Arrow at night, and as Mayoral Candidate (and future Mayor who tears the wall tf down) in the day. The unification of Star City becomes a metaphor for him repairing the mess of his life and his family post-resurrection.

7.       VILLAINS; begins with the gangs of both eras and the corruption of both, a rhyme of history repeating itself. Past AND present Oliver has to stop the gang boss’ of the times – COUNT VERTIGO in the past who controls the city through mind altering drugs, leading on to Roy’s addiction storyline, and DANIEL BRICKWELL in the present who offers ‘protection’ for those on the wrong side of the wall – but is more of a grey anti-villain. He is a racketeer, but is fair and keeps his word, occasionally helping the Green Arrow in times of city-wide crisis because after all, if there’s no city left standing there’s nowhere left for him to rule. Then comes two CORRUPT POLITIAN’S (OC’s or re-reading of GA political stories needed), one in the past who lets police brutality and gang control of the city happen because they’re getting paid off, one in the present in the form of the current mayor, who let the wall be built to profit off people’s suffering. Oliver does NOT like these people. There is also EDDIE FYERS, a bounty hunter who was an old frenemy of Oliver and worked with Connor in his early GA days but betrays them at some point in the first season (PERHAPS TO ARGUS/THE GOVERNMENT). And of course, it wouldn’t be Green Arrow without DEATHSTROKE and MERLYN, two of Oliver’s oldest enemies in the flashbacks, who make their presences known once Oliver returns in present time. Oliver also has a series of SMALL-TIME ROGUES in his gallery, as does BLACK CANARY and RED ARROW, including CHESHIRE, Roy’s mercenary ex and Lian’s Mother, who appears as both a villain and reformed anti-hero. Connor Hawke, however, has a serious rival in the form of assassin the BAMBOO MONKEY, who Connor had bested in a martial arts competition during his run as the Green Arrow and holds a grudge against him. This also puts Connor in the sights of the world fighting community, both good guys and bad guys; he is known to be second only to SHIVA and CASSANDRA CAIN in hand-to-hand combat – this makes him a target for anyone wanted to raise themselves in the ranks.  In the present, Oliver’s biggest costumed threat alongside the ever-present Deathstroke and Merlyn is assassin CONSTANTINE DRAKON.

AKA, I just passive aggressively wrote this after deciding to quit Arrow for good last week and couldn’t stop thinking about how badly they fucked us over. I just wanted arrowfam. So badly. Now I might just have to go and actually just rewrite the entire show.