Arrow What arrows just missed their mark?

[godisawesome]

This isn't quite just a complaint thread; those scan get boring and repetitive. Instead, I'd like to see my fellow posters join me in discussing what Arrow plotlines or twists "missed the mark." The idea is that you submit a character appearance, plotline, or other creative detail added to this show that was largely successful and cool, and pitch what would have made it better to you. The challenge is to keep the budget down for the size of the show, and try and stay in the tone and general direction of the show.

So the format should be that different posters state what was underwhelming to them, and then we all come up with different outcomes or twists to what actually happened. So hopefully, this thread has a more creative and collaborative twist than a regular complaint board.

So, one thing that was underwhelming to me:

Brother Blood's downgrade to puppet mayor after Season 2's first act. He made a great Disc One Final Boss, and was an excellent smoke screen to Slade's appearance. However, in the latter half of the season, his "cult" seemed to disappear, as did his efficacy as a villain. This was a guy who was introduced with followers and informants who seemed to have a personal devotion to him, but after Laurel shot his cop "brother," we never really saw his group again.

What might have been more engaging?

Have Slade still order him around throughout Season 2 but also establish that his complaints with Slade's leadership are backed up by his own group. And then establish that he collected Cyrus Gold's dead body, as he was a "true believer," only to have the corpse lurch to life as Soloman Grundy with more strength and regenerative abilities. Then, when the formation of the Deathstroke army and acquisition of Queen Consolidated are completed by Slade, have Blood unleash Soloman Grundy on them to try and secure his own power base. Maybe have Malcolm form an alliance with Blood because of the threat to Thea, and give us a 3-way battle in which Team Arrow finds itself able to play king-maker instead of relying on a deus-ex-serum to carry the day.

 

[yonny616]

Ra's Al Ghul. Yes, and I'm sorry if there's any big fans of this season or this Ra's Al Ghul, but man. I was so hyped, not saying he's bad because he isn't, but just underwhelming. He doesn't exactly have the "this is the biggest threat of your life" presence that they've made him out to have since season two.

 

[Boy Scout]

I think pretty much everything to do with Thea and Malcolm's relationship was handled poorly.

For starters, I believe that their association should have had a profoundly negative effect on Thea. Under his tutelage, she should have become a ruthless, remorseless killing machine that lacked any resemblance to her former self.

Her corruption should've been a slow and deliberate process. We should have been with Thea every step of the way as Malcolm's promises of honesty, strength, and stability became harder and harder to ignore. Everything she had ever held dear - her mother, her boyfriend, her wealth, her club - should have been taken away from her, either through unfortunate circumstances or by Malcolm himself (unbeknownst to her). Her decision to finally, finally give in to her darkest desires and abandon her life in Starling City should've been the culmination of a series of tragic events that would eventually lead to earth shattering consequences.

 

[godisawesome]

I think pretty much everything to do with Thea and Malcolm's relationship was handled poorly.

For starters, I believe that their association should have had a profoundly negative effect on Thea. Under his tutelage, she should have become a ruthless, remorseless killing machine that lacked any resemblance to her former self.

Her corruption should've been a slow and deliberate process. We should have been with Thea every step of the way as Malcolm's promises of honesty, strength, and stability became harder and harder to ignore. Everything she had ever held dear - her mother, her boyfriend, her wealth, her club - should have been taken away from her, either through unfortunate circumstances or by Malcolm himself (unbeknownst to her). Her decision to finally, finally give in to her darkest desires and abandon her life in Starling City should've been the culmination of a series of tragic events that would eventually lead to earth shattering consequences.

It would have been awesome to give her a Roy an adversarial relationship still mixed with romantic care and tension, as well as giving Roy a full-fledged plot development as well.

I also feel you on the Malcolm should have been a more malevolent force; I still think that Ollie and Laurel should be ticked at him for Tommy's death, with that acting as the cause for a personal feud between the two archers. Merlyn should blame Ollie and Laurel for Tommy's death, while they both know he indirectly murdered his own son.

 

[DrCosmic]

I think, as you may know if you've read my posts in the main discussion thread, that Malcolm is what missed the mark, and threw off everything else, from Ra's to Thea.

Malcolm was resurrected in Season 2, but as a background player, he wasn't allowed to change the path of the story, he was there to tie into Thea's subplot and set up her change into Mia Dearden. When we saw him in the shadows in Corto Maletese as a nefarious force who is forced to hide, that was pretty cool.

The Magician was interesting as Malcolms first tie in to the killing, but notice the story: he was discounted as a potential killer, not on account of the fact that the trajectory was wrong for an adult male, but because he wasn't there, even though later information would say he was. What's important to note is that there were no clues for this. In a good mystery, you seed clues and when you find out who it was you say 'oh!' but Arrow left no clues for Malcolm or Thea to be the killer. Does that mean it was badly planned, or that this wasn't the plan when Episode 2.04, The Magician was written?

From there, Malcolm's part in the story grew and grew, while Ra's shrunk and shrunk. And while it's understandable to what John Barrowman to do awesomness, when someone is not the main villain, using them as though they were makes the actual main villain much less interesting, and thus, the entire story weakens. Thor: The Dark World was a great Loki movie. Everyone else? Meh. And it didn't have to be that way except for refocusing the narrative on the fan favorite character.

With Malcolm as a background player, always hidden, staying in Thea's subplot, the mystery picks up speed and it can be revealed to be someone surprising: Thea! Brainwashed by Ra's! Without adding convoluted reasoning that not only doesn't pay off because it isn't tied into the main villain in a meaningful way, but can't even stay consistent from one episode to the next.

 

[Loki882]

For starters, spend most of the entire season with Malcolm and Thea off on their own. Show him slowly corrupting her and making her more ruthless. You could show that he DOES in fact "love" her, albeit in his own twisted way, if you really want to. Ditch the mind-control herbs, that was dumb. Also, NEITHER of them is Sara's killer, people have already pointed out how stupid Maclolm's "plan" was. Then they become a major threat in the last part of S3 going into S4.

If Sara HAD to die (which she didn't btw), then have it be someone who made more sense. You want to set up Oliver vs. Ra's, then instead of this nonsensical Merlyn plot, just have Ra's be behind her death. He had her killed in order to get her away from Nyssa, as he thinks that Sara "clouded" Nyssa's judgment or something. Not only does that give Oliver more of a reason to go after Ra's, but it sets up potentially interesting character/plot development for Nyssa.

OR you could have it turn out that Amanda Waller was behind Sara's death. This could set up Oliver and Team Arrow vs. ARGUS, which also would give Diggle, Lyla, and even the Suicide Squad more to do. And it makes the flashbacks more relevant since it'd show that Oliver has seen Waller's ruthless callousness first-hand, which could feed into his actions in the present.

Laurel becoming BC should have been something that didn't happen until the last quarter or so of this season. More gradually show her training, be it with Wildcat, Nyssa, Oliver, Lady Shiva, or whoever. Then she puts on the suit later on and it becomes at least a bit more believable. Oh and cut the whole "lying to her dad" thing out entirely, that was dumb and went on for far too long.

This season has potential, these plot-lines COULD work. But they're trying to do way too much and the execution has been a mess.

 

[DrCosmic]

Good point. Laurel's training did miss the mark a bit. I love her as The Scrappy, but drawing out her training with multiple people could have been kinda awesome.

 

[kane9321]

Anything that involves Laurel

 

[TheComicbookKid]

It seems to be the problem with all superhero shows that involve people not involved with the heroes journey.

They end up being written in uninteresting plots or get caught up in the heroes story in a forced way.

Ollie's missing years was supposed to put him apart. Then we had Canary and her missing years. Slade and Diggle are career fighters while Felicity is in her tech spot. Now we have everyone from Laurel to Roy becoming vigilantes in a matter of months.

So basically all of season 3 has been messed up cause the newbies are being forced into the realm of Ollie and Canary with very shoddy writing complications.

 

[Kar]

Ray Palmer.

 

[p4poetic]

For starters, spend most of the entire season with Malcolm and Thea off on their own. Show him slowly corrupting her and making her more ruthless. You could show that he DOES in fact "love" her, albeit in his own twisted way, if you really want to. Ditch the mind-control herbs, that was dumb. Also, NEITHER of them is Sara's killer, people have already pointed out how stupid Maclolm's "plan" was. Then they become a major threat in the last part of S3 going into S4.

If Sara HAD to die (which she didn't btw), then have it be someone who made more sense. You want to set up Oliver vs. Ra's, then instead of this nonsensical Merlyn plot, just have Ra's be behind her death. He had her killed in order to get her away from Nyssa, as he thinks that Sara "clouded" Nyssa's judgment or something. Not only does that give Oliver more of a reason to go after Ra's, but it sets up potentially interesting character/plot development for Nyssa.

OR you could have it turn out that Amanda Waller was behind Sara's death. This could set up Oliver and Team Arrow vs. ARGUS, which also would give Diggle, Lyla, and even the Suicide Squad more to do. And it makes the flashbacks more relevant since it'd show that Oliver has seen Waller's ruthless callousness first-hand, which could feed into his actions in the present.

Laurel becoming BC should have been something that didn't happen until the last quarter or so of this season. More gradually show her training, be it with Wildcat, Nyssa, Oliver, Lady Shiva, or whoever. Then she puts on the suit later on and it becomes at least a bit more believable. Oh and cut the whole "lying to her dad" thing out entirely, that was dumb and went on for far too long.

This season has potential, these plot-lines COULD work. But they're trying to do way too much and the execution has been a mess.

Why would Waller want Sara killed? And I don't want Arrow to have Waller do something that would make her irredeemable. They've already made her flashback appearances evil as it is.

 

[ThePreface]

Oliver, Shado, and Slade. Slade and Shado should have been romantically involved instead of Oliver and Shado. When Ivo plays God and Oliver indirectly chooses Sarah Slade's motivations suddenly make sense. Something as simple as that would have elevated all three characters.

Malcolm's redemption arc. Either commit or keep him as an evil bastard. As it is it seems like his characterization has been on a see-saw this season. One episode he's repenting at a Buddhist Temple and the next he's brainwashing his own daughter into killing her brother's ex-girlfriend. Which is it guys?

Why would Waller want Sara killed?

To draw out the League. They're competition.

 

[Unnamed]

Someone mentioned this before, I believe, but a better way to build Laurel up to becoming Black Canary was to start her training way back at the start of season 2.

At that point in time, she was both angry and upset over Tommy's death. So have her stumble onto Ted Grant's Wildcat Gym and start training there as a way to work off the anger. She could be shown training there every night, using her anger as fuel and pushing herself to her limit each time. Ted Grant then notices her drive and tenacity and sees in her the potential to be a really great fighter. Thus, he ends up training her not just in boxing, but in other fighting styles as well. This could have gone on for the entire season, so by the time Laurel does become Black Canary, the audience would have seen her undergo at least a season's worth of training. It would have made her transition into BC far more believable, and there wouldn't have been so many people complaining about her lack of fighting skills. Plus, we wouldn't have had to endure that horrible storyline of her becoming a drunk and a drug addict, which was one of the worst things about S2 and did nothing to help the character's popularity.

On a more recent note, I do like the fact that the writers brought Slade back this season. It was great to see my favourite villain of Arrow come back, even if it was only for one episode. And Manu Bennett's performance was great as usual. Still, I felt that the writers made a mistake when they showed Slade still being angry at Oliver over Shado's death. The character should have been allowed to move on. He should still hold a grudge against Oliver for stabbing him in the eye and locking him up in the ARGUS prison on Lian Yu, but he should also have slowly come to the realisation that the Mirakuru had clouded his judgement with regards to Shado. At the end of Ep 14 this season, after the conversation between Slade and Oliver, we should have seen Slade requesting a meeting with Amanda Waller. When she finally agrees to meet him, Slade tells her that he wants a way to work off his sentence. He reminds her that he's an exceptional fighter and solider and is willing to kill for her if it means that he will eventually be allowed to walk free from his prison. Waller considers this for a moment, then says that she may have something in mind. The episode then ends, teasing Slade's future involvement in the Suicide Squad. Way better than having Slade still being hung up over Shado, imo.

 

[Destructus86]

How they brought Ollie back to life...it's barely even mentioned and treated as not even that big of a deal by the character. He was DEAD...then he drinks some hippie juice and he's alive again. Really? Why isn't everyone drinking this stuff??

 

[Boy Scout]

He never actually died.