Let's Fix Laurel Lance
[Season 1]
Laurel (who straightforwardly goes by Dinah from the start) explains to Oliver that before she became a lawyer, her father made her take self-defense classes vigorously.
At the end of the season, Malcolm kidnaps Laurel from CNRI (to distract Oliver from stopping the Undertaking) and waits atop Queen Consolidated. Oliver and Diggle arrive, and Laurel finds out Oliver is the Arrow. A fight ensures; Malcolm fires an arrow at Laurel and Tommy suddenly shows up and takes the arrow for her, and dies in Laurels arms. Oliver stabs Malcolm, presumably killing him and the glades are destroyed by the machine. Laurel knows Oliver is The Hood now, instead of waiting a whole two seasons.
[Season 2]
Sara was studying to be a nurse. While she does get on the boat with Oliver, it isnt to BACKSTAB her sister. She was growing tired of school, her parents treating her like a kid and Star City; she wanted to travel and when she heard Oliver was going to China she chimed in a begged him to let her join. Also, Sara was never The Canary, just a normal league member. Shes called Siu Jerk Jai (Little Bird) in the league and she wears this suit.
Laurels S2 arc stays mostly the same. She becomes a drunk after Tommys death (and she resents Oliver for not telling her hes the Arrow). Lets keep the thematic depth though, which is all about grief, anger and self-destruction (start the season pointing out she has been really hitting the self defense class); make her seek the danger, make her go to bars like Quentin. Theres a scene of her getting apparently drunk in a bar and a guy attempting to take advantage of her in an alley (with Sara looking from afar, ready to save her). Reveal that this is all Laurels plan to get in a fight and just hurt someone else, someone that deserves it. We see the total recklessness that Laurel has, how her anger fuels her.
Around State V. Queen and The Scientist, theres a Laurel episode centered around her cracking down on a huge case. Daniel Brickwell (someone who she put away in S1) has been released from prison and is in talks of overthrowing the city. She gets Intel that his base of operations, for the moment, is in Central City. Shes been struggling with solving the case and how to get Brick behind bars again. At the end of Three Ghosts, she catches the train with Barry to Central City (where the two formally meet). As she visits the city she goes to CC Jitters where she meets Iris West, the two talk a bit (Laurel telling her whats going down, as Iris warns her she doesnt know her but she thinks its not safe for her) before she follows up some lead she wasnt supposed to go to alone because its too dangerous. Laurel gets attacked by Bricks thugs, she fights back; she knocks out some thugs, but is overpowered. Eventually they capture her and take her into some abandoned woods just on the border of Central City (mind you this is the same day of the particle accelerator grand revealing). Shes in the woods, and the thugs reveal Brick, showing up and spewing his master plan to kill the Hood and take control of the Glades first, then all of Star City. (Brick doesnt care about spilling his master plan bc he plans to kill her & leave her body in the woods). Brick is just about to kill her when they hear rustling in the trees. They all pause to watch a flock of Canaries fly by. Theyre moving to pull the trigger, Laurels screaming for help, the flock of canaries cry above, & then the explosion happens. The particle accelerators energy flows through the woods. Laurel gets her cry and is badly injured and the thugs are killed by the explosion. Brick is flown back as well, surviving the explosion (he gains powers from the explosion, enhanced pain immunity; he feels no physical pain). The explosion hurts her enough to send her to the hospital. Her parents go to visit her at the Central City Hospital, and her father ends up driving her back to Star City. After Brick almost kills Laurel she makes a change; starting her AA meetings she gets her crap together, we know she still is going to self defense classes, because even if she can manage her addictions, she still has to deal with her anger. Thats what defines Laurel, her anger.
[Season 3]
After Sara is killed, when Laurel is holding her in her hands, she finally activates her cry and she screams (VFX with the cool visuals, all the street lights shatter + windows shatter all around her). She still brings Sara's body to the base, but she keeps her cry a secret and doesnt use it. Now, skip to Guilty, when Roy tells Laurel he thinks he killed Sara, we get a cool scene where Laurel is fired up at Roy, she's livid and emotional and she angrily states So Roy killed Sara and theres nothing I can do about it? Im so pissed I could scream. and she does. She accidentally uses her cry and sends the whole team flying back, (similar to Black Siren crying at Felicity in Who Are You?) shattering the bases lights and tech. Shes embarrassed and scared and runs out the base in shock. The next episode would be Laurel centric, with the team focusing on trying to found out where Laurel is. Unbeknownst to the team, Laurel has traveled to Central City. Shes with her mother, confessing everything thats happened, since shes kept it all a secret. Her mother tells her a story: We could then get a flashback, with Jacqueline MacInnes Wood playing a young and single Dinah Drake, a rookie vigilante in the 80s called the Canary (her suit) and Chris McNally playing young Quentin Lance, an inexperienced rookie officer. One night, Quentin is chasing after the fugitive Canary, a vigilante who showed up out of nowhere and is beating up on men who attack women in Star City. Her mother explains she was the Canary, she trained for years at the Wildcat gym with Ted Grant Sr. She came face to face with Quentin, who cornered her in an ally. But after the two spoke, she explained she was doing this city good and the SCPD are doing nothing except failing this city. He admires her bravery and heroism and instantly falls in love with her; he lets her go instead of arresting her. After the story, Laurels mother would grab something old from her closet, her old Canary suit. Shed give it to Laurel, and Laurel would gain the mantle from her MOTHER and become Black Canary. After Laurels newly found confidence from her mother, she goes back to Star City. Felicity has already contacted Cisco, and he makes Laurel a special choker device, (the device Tina had in S5 Finale) that can help regulate her Canary Cry while she learns to do it naturally. When she becomes the Black Canary, she wears her moms old suit with Sara's mask.
[Season 4]
Laurel is a full blonde this season.
Laurel gets upgraded batons which can emit a static shock. She trains with Wildcat and Nyssa more, then eventually Oliver, and she becomes a more competent and skilled fighter.
Laurel deals with her DA being suspicious of her constantly leaving and disappearing. She struggles with being a vigilante, while being watched by her boss and dealing with a surge of open cases.
Then, Instead of being killed off, Damien Darhk kills Quentin. Laurel is hellbent on stopping Damien; and eventually Black Canary has the opportunity to kill Damien but she doesn't because she wants to be better than him, she wants him to spend the remainder of his life rotting in prison.
[Season 5]
At the start of the season Laurel is District Attorney and she has a new Black Canary suit. Since Laurel is DA, Adrian Chase is hired as Deputy Mayor.
At the end of 5x09, we see Laurel knocked out by Prometheus. Now in Who Are You, we see Laurel entering the Arrow Base explaining she was hit on the head, though she doesnt remember by who. When a killer escapes the police station and the rest of the team are busy, Thea and 'Laurel suit up. While fighting the criminal, Thea witnesses 'Laurel break his arm in mid-fight. Shes suspicious, but keeps it to herself. Theas suspicion only grows stronger when, at Laurels birthday party, she notices Laurel drinking wine. Confused, she steals the glass Laurel was drinking from. She has Curtis analyse it, and it comes back positive. Just then, Curtis gets a message from Cisco, its the surveillance of Prometheus breaking Black Siren out of the pipeline. Black Siren screams, sending Thea and Curtis back. The rest of the episode plays out mostly the same. After Siren agrees to meet Oliver to discuss where the real Laurel is, Thea attacks and they capture her. Thea confronts her in her cell, asking where the real Laurel is. Black Siren explains she has a A.R.G.U.S. tech bomb collar in her neck, and if she doesnt obey Prometheus, hell kill her. Thea lets Siren escape and they go after her via tracker. Laurel is chained in a warehouse, where Prometheus and Siren are. The team arrive; Artemis, Wild Dog and Stephanie are knocked out by Siren while Spartan is knocked out by Prometheus. Thea releases Laurel and a fight ensues. Oliver fights Prometheus while Laurel and Thea fight Siren. Siren nearly kills Thea, but Curtis appears and saves her with the dampening device. Knowing shes beat, she throws a smoke pellet and escapes.
[Season 6]
After the island explosion, we see that Oliver still doesnt kill, but hes absolutely brutal. Him and Laurel have a talk, with Laurel not happy with the way hes handling the island, but Oliver doesnt care that much, because he has lost too much.
Laurel's enemy is Black Siren this season. While not admitting it, Black Siren is jealous of Laurel because she had the life she wanted.
Black Siren kidnaps Laurel, and in an emotional confession, she tells Laurel what happened to her on her earth; Laurels mother had died giving birth when she had a stillborn Sara, when Laurel was very young. She only had her father and Oliver. In 2007, Laurel was a police officer in Star City like her father. Before going on the Queens Gambit, Oliver proposed to her. The next day Oliver embarked on the Queens Gambit and perished at sea. Laurel was riddled with grief and regret and became reclusive, diving into her work. Over the next few years she tried to move on but could never recover from Olivers death and gave up on finding happiness. Quentin tried to help her but she pushed him away. In 2013 when Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the Glades in the Undertaking, Laurel was trapped in the precinct and Quentin gave his life to save her. After enduring all this loss Laurel became catatonic, and decided to move to Central City hoping for a fresh start while her sanity was on the brink of collapse. There she was partnered with officers Iris West and Helena Bertinelli, and took down several criminals including Hunter Zolomon. She grew close to them both, considering them family. In late-2013 however, a criminal she was following, Roman Sionis, kidnapped and tortured her, Helena and Iris in retribution and executed Helena in front of her. She was next. But as she screamed in response to her partner being shot, Laurel was affected by dark matter from Harrison Wells particle accelerator and gained her sonic cry, or as she calls it, her Sirens Song. Finally Laurel snapped and hunted down and massacred Sionis men before killing him too. With nothing left and horrified by what shed done, Laurel tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. However she was saved by Zoom who sympathized with her position, but told her the darkness is not to be feared but embraced, then shell be free to do anything and offered to teach her. While she was hesitant at first, she realized he was in Hunter Zolomon. He remembers Laurel being one the detectives who arrested him but is glad she did, as it lead to him becoming Zoom and offers to extend the same gift to her. With nothing left and grateful to Hunter for saving her and giving her new purpose Laurel gave into her dark impulses and became Black Siren. Over the next 3 years she went out of her way to impress Hunter by murdering as many people as she could and climbed up the ranks and soon was his right-hand woman. She enjoyed killing every single one of her victims as their pain and suffering allowed her to dull her own and was free from the weakness of family and the burden of heartache.
So anyways, Laurel helps bring back the light in Black Siren and Siren goes on Legends.
So anyways, that's what I would've done differently with Laurel!
Let's Fix Laurel Lance
[Season 1]
Laurel (who straightforwardly goes by Dinah from the start) explains to Oliver that before she became a lawyer, her father made her take self-defense classes vigorously.
At the end of the season, Malcolm kidnaps Laurel from CNRI (to distract Oliver from stopping the Undertaking) and waits atop Queen Consolidated. Oliver and Diggle arrive, and Laurel finds out Oliver is the Arrow. A fight ensures; Malcolm fires an arrow at Laurel and Tommy suddenly shows up and takes the arrow for her, and dies in Laurels arms. Oliver stabs Malcolm, presumably killing him and the glades are destroyed by the machine. Laurel knows Oliver is The Hood now, instead of waiting a whole two seasons.
[Season 2]
Sara was studying to be a nurse. While she does get on the boat with Oliver, it isnt to BACKSTAB her sister. She was growing tired of school, her parents treating her like a kid and Star City; she wanted to travel and when she heard Oliver was going to China she chimed in a begged him to let her join. Also, Sara was never The Canary, just a normal league member. Shes called Siu Jerk Jai (Little Bird) in the league and she wears this suit.
Laurels S2 arc stays mostly the same. She becomes a drunk after Tommys death (and she resents Oliver for not telling her hes the Arrow). Lets keep the thematic depth though, which is all about grief, anger and self-destruction (start the season pointing out she has been really hitting the self defense class); make her seek the danger, make her go to bars like Quentin. Theres a scene of her getting apparently drunk in a bar and a guy attempting to take advantage of her in an alley (with Sara looking from afar, ready to save her). Reveal that this is all Laurels plan to get in a fight and just hurt someone else, someone that deserves it. We see the total recklessness that Laurel has, how her anger fuels her.
Around State V. Queen and The Scientist, theres a Laurel episode centered around her cracking down on a huge case. Daniel Brickwell (someone who she put away in S1) has been released from prison and is in talks of overthrowing the city. She gets Intel that his base of operations, for the moment, is in Central City. Shes been struggling with solving the case and how to get Brick behind bars again. At the end of Three Ghosts, she catches the train with Barry to Central City (where the two formally meet). As she visits the city she goes to CC Jitters where she meets Iris West, the two talk a bit (Laurel telling her whats going down, as Iris warns her she doesnt know her but she thinks its not safe for her) before she follows up some lead she wasnt supposed to go to alone because its too dangerous. Laurel gets attacked by Bricks thugs, she fights back; she knocks out some thugs, but is overpowered. Eventually they capture her and take her into some abandoned woods just on the border of Central City (mind you this is the same day of the particle accelerator grand revealing). Shes in the woods, and the thugs reveal Brick, showing up and spewing his master plan to kill the Hood and take control of the Glades first, then all of Star City. (Brick doesnt care about spilling his master plan bc he plans to kill her & leave her body in the woods). Brick is just about to kill her when they hear rustling in the trees. They all pause to watch a flock of Canaries fly by. Theyre moving to pull the trigger, Laurels screaming for help, the flock of canaries cry above, & then the explosion happens. The particle accelerators energy flows through the woods. Laurel gets her cry and is badly injured and the thugs are killed by the explosion. Brick is flown back as well, surviving the explosion (he gains powers from the explosion, enhanced pain immunity; he feels no physical pain). The explosion hurts her enough to send her to the hospital. Her parents go to visit her at the Central City Hospital, and her father ends up driving her back to Star City. After Brick almost kills Laurel she makes a change; starting her AA meetings she gets her crap together, we know she still is going to self defense classes, because even if she can manage her addictions, she still has to deal with her anger. Thats what defines Laurel, her anger.
[Season 3]
After Sara is killed, when Laurel is holding her in her hands, she finally activates her cry and she screams (VFX with the cool visuals, all the street lights shatter + windows shatter all around her). She still brings Sara's body to the base, but she keeps her cry a secret and doesnt use it. Now, skip to Guilty, when Roy tells Laurel he thinks he killed Sara, we get a cool scene where Laurel is fired up at Roy, she's livid and emotional and she angrily states So Roy killed Sara and theres nothing I can do about it? Im so pissed I could scream. and she does. She accidentally uses her cry and sends the whole team flying back, (similar to Black Siren crying at Felicity in Who Are You?) shattering the bases lights and tech. Shes embarrassed and scared and runs out the base in shock. The next episode would be Laurel centric, with the team focusing on trying to found out where Laurel is. Unbeknownst to the team, Laurel has traveled to Central City. Shes with her mother, confessing everything thats happened, since shes kept it all a secret. Her mother tells her a story: We could then get a flashback, with Jacqueline MacInnes Wood playing a young and single Dinah Drake, a rookie vigilante in the 80s called the Canary (her suit) and Chris McNally playing young Quentin Lance, an inexperienced rookie officer. One night, Quentin is chasing after the fugitive Canary, a vigilante who showed up out of nowhere and is beating up on men who attack women in Star City. Her mother explains she was the Canary, she trained for years at the Wildcat gym with Ted Grant Sr. She came face to face with Quentin, who cornered her in an ally. But after the two spoke, she explained she was doing this city good and the SCPD are doing nothing except failing this city. He admires her bravery and heroism and instantly falls in love with her; he lets her go instead of arresting her. After the story, Laurels mother would grab something old from her closet, her old Canary suit. Shed give it to Laurel, and Laurel would gain the mantle from her MOTHER and become Black Canary. After Laurels newly found confidence from her mother, she goes back to Star City. Felicity has already contacted Cisco, and he makes Laurel a special choker device, (the device Tina had in S5 Finale) that can help regulate her Canary Cry while she learns to do it naturally. When she becomes the Black Canary, she wears her moms old suit with Sara's mask.
[Season 4]
Laurel is a full blonde this season.
Laurel gets upgraded batons which can emit a static shock. She trains with Wildcat and Nyssa more, then eventually Oliver, and she becomes a more competent and skilled fighter.
Laurel deals with her DA being suspicious of her constantly leaving and disappearing. She struggles with being a vigilante, while being watched by her boss and dealing with a surge of open cases.
Then, Instead of being killed off, Damien Darhk kills Quentin. Laurel is hellbent on stopping Damien; and eventually Black Canary has the opportunity to kill Damien but she doesn't because she wants to be better than him, she wants him to spend the remainder of his life rotting in prison.
[Season 5]
At the start of the season Laurel is District Attorney and she has a new Black Canary suit. Since Laurel is DA, Adrian Chase is hired as Deputy Mayor.
At the end of 5x09, we see Laurel knocked out by Prometheus. Now in Who Are You, we see Laurel entering the Arrow Base explaining she was hit on the head, though she doesnt remember by who. When a killer escapes the police station and the rest of the team are busy, Thea and 'Laurel suit up. While fighting the criminal, Thea witnesses 'Laurel break his arm in mid-fight. Shes suspicious, but keeps it to herself. Theas suspicion only grows stronger when, at Laurels birthday party, she notices Laurel drinking wine. Confused, she steals the glass Laurel was drinking from. She has Curtis analyse it, and it comes back positive. Just then, Curtis gets a message from Cisco, its the surveillance of Prometheus breaking Black Siren out of the pipeline. Black Siren screams, sending Thea and Curtis back. The rest of the episode plays out mostly the same. After Siren agrees to meet Oliver to discuss where the real Laurel is, Thea attacks and they capture her. Thea confronts her in her cell, asking where the real Laurel is. Black Siren explains she has a A.R.G.U.S. tech bomb collar in her neck, and if she doesnt obey Prometheus, hell kill her. Thea lets Siren escape and they go after her via tracker. Laurel is chained in a warehouse, where Prometheus and Siren are. The team arrive; Artemis, Wild Dog and Stephanie are knocked out by Siren while Spartan is knocked out by Prometheus. Thea releases Laurel and a fight ensues. Oliver fights Prometheus while Laurel and Thea fight Siren. Siren nearly kills Thea, but Curtis appears and saves her with the dampening device. Knowing shes beat, she throws a smoke pellet and escapes.
[Season 6]
After the island explosion, we see that Oliver still doesnt kill, but hes absolutely brutal. Him and Laurel have a talk, with Laurel not happy with the way hes handling the island, but Oliver doesnt care that much, because he has lost too much.
Laurel's enemy is Black Siren this season. While not admitting it, Black Siren is jealous of Laurel because she had the life she wanted.
Black Siren kidnaps Laurel, and in an emotional confession, she tells Laurel what happened to her on her earth; Laurels mother had died giving birth when she had a stillborn Sara, when Laurel was very young. She only had her father and Oliver. In 2007, Laurel was a police officer in Star City like her father. Before going on the Queens Gambit, Oliver proposed to her. The next day Oliver embarked on the Queens Gambit and perished at sea. Laurel was riddled with grief and regret and became reclusive, diving into her work. Over the next few years she tried to move on but could never recover from Olivers death and gave up on finding happiness. Quentin tried to help her but she pushed him away. In 2013 when Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the Glades in the Undertaking, Laurel was trapped in the precinct and Quentin gave his life to save her. After enduring all this loss Laurel became catatonic, and decided to move to Central City hoping for a fresh start while her sanity was on the brink of collapse. There she was partnered with officers Iris West and Helena Bertinelli, and took down several criminals including Hunter Zolomon. She grew close to them both, considering them family. In late-2013 however, a criminal she was following, Roman Sionis, kidnapped and tortured her, Helena and Iris in retribution and executed Helena in front of her. She was next. But as she screamed in response to her partner being shot, Laurel was affected by dark matter from Harrison Wells particle accelerator and gained her sonic cry, or as she calls it, her Sirens Song. Finally Laurel snapped and hunted down and massacred Sionis men before killing him too. With nothing left and horrified by what shed done, Laurel tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. However she was saved by Zoom who sympathized with her position, but told her the darkness is not to be feared but embraced, then shell be free to do anything and offered to teach her. While she was hesitant at first, she realized he was in Hunter Zolomon. He remembers Laurel being one the detectives who arrested him but is glad she did, as it lead to him becoming Zoom and offers to extend the same gift to her. With nothing left and grateful to Hunter for saving her and giving her new purpose Laurel gave into her dark impulses and became Black Siren. Over the next 3 years she went out of her way to impress Hunter by murdering as many people as she could and climbed up the ranks and soon was his right-hand woman. She enjoyed killing every single one of her victims as their pain and suffering allowed her to dull her own and was free from the weakness of family and the burden of heartache.
So anyways, Laurel helps bring back the light in Black Siren and Siren goes on Legends.
So anyways, that's what I would've done differently with Laurel!
