Characters / Blackbird (Arrow)

Starling City

The Queens

General

• Foil: To the Lances. The Queens were always aware of their family issues and never tried to pass off the blame to outside forces, instead either blaming themselves or each other and making genuine efforts to work through them, as much as they tended to backslide. Even so, they clearly love each other and thought of hurting and/or putting one another in harm's way is unbearable and unthinkable to them. The Lances, meanwhile, pretended to be the perfect nuclear family but were actually rife with Dysfunction Junction that they were forced to confront after their first major tragedy. Unlike the Queens, they refuse to acknowledge that the problems were preexisting, would rather blame others for them than try to work through them, and ultimately don't really care for each other as much as they espoused to.

Oliver Queen

Oliver Jonas Queen | The Hood

• The Atoner: One of the reasons he wants to free Laurel is because he views her being forced to join the League as his fault for treating her so badly in the first place by choosing to take Sara with him on the Gambit.
• Birds of a Feather: With Laurel. Tommy and Thea support the idea of them getting back together, not just because they both still love each other, but also because he's the only person who can truly understand what she's gone through. This is proven at the end of the story, where he is the only person she's comfortable talking to when it comes to her time as an assassin.
• The Chessmaster: To almost "freaky" levels, as John puts it. It only takes Oliver one conversation to expertly manipulate Quentin into opening a police investigation into Laurel's disappearance.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Kills Ra's al Ghul in the climactic duel of the story.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted. All Oliver actually did to Laurel was treat her badly during their relationship and cheat on her with her sister. While those are unforgivable sins under normal circumstances, everything else Laurel endured under the League was infinitely worse, and ultimately none of that phase of her Trauma Conga Line was Oliver's fault. Combined with him having obviously suffered as well and proving he has genuinely changed for the better when he fought and almost died against Ra's al Ghul in order to free her, it's not hard to see why Laurel has forgiven him at the end of the story. He's probably the only person who's wronged her that actually deserves it.
• Everyone Has Standards: As angry as he is at Sara for her part in what happened to Laurel, even he can't help but worry when he sees how much she's destroyed herself since they last saw each other, and recognizes that she is just as much a victim as Laurel is.
• Foil: To Quentin. Not only does Oliver fully recognize how much he wronged Laurel, he was also immediately able to tell something was off about her "departure" the moment he heard about it and the full circumstances behind it. Then, when he found out about what actually happened to her, he trained himself to the bone to get her back. Compare this to Quentin, who was so deep in his self-pity that he didn't realize Laurel had been missing for three years.
• Guilt Complex: Blames himself for what happened Laurel. In reality, his role in what happened is so minor that a person could easily argue that none of the fault actually falls on him. Laurel herself flat-out tells him that he's not to blame and her family is.
• It's All My Fault: Zigzagged. While Oliver does blame himself for what happened to Laurel, he openly acknowledges that it wasn't entirely his fault. Most of the blame falls on Dinah for choosing to trade Laurel to the League, and Sara for letting it happen. He takes responsibility for saving Laurel and fixing their mistakes mainly because of his love for her and the fact that he's the only person in any position to help her at all.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He is clearly still in love with Laurel, but understands that she's in no position to even discuss the possibility of renewing their relationship after all she's gone through the past five years. He instead opts to be a better friend to her, figuring that's what she really needs for the time being.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Subverted. Normally, his cheating on Laurel with her sister would be this, but what Dinah and Sara did is so much worse that their actions overshadow his completely. It's almost a Running Gag on how much the narrative implies and emphasizes what happened to Laurel was not his fault. Indeed, by the end of the story, everyone who knows the full truth (except for Dinah, thanks to her Never My Fault tendencies) no longer blames Oliver for the Gambit, least of all Laurel.
• Only Sane Man: Even more so than Laurel. Being the first person outside of the Lance family to learn the truth of Laurel's disappearance, he's able to see a lot of aspects of the situation that the Lances are missing (or, in the case of Dinah, deliberately ignoring). Namely, the fact that Dinah is the one responsible for the terrible state Sara is in upon his return and that she basically used Sara to absolve her own guilt.
• Rebuilt Pedestal:
  • Becomes this to Thea after she learns the real reason he has been hanging around Sara all these weeks.
  • He also becomes this to Laurel after he saves her from the League. While they haven't restarted their relationship at the end of the story, they've at least restored their friendship, and Laurel has no issues working for him or staying at his house until she can get back on her feet.
• The Scapegoat: Dinah and Quentin both blame him for the destruction of their family. Both of their daughters are aware that Oliver is the most blameless person in the entire situation besides Laurel. All Oliver did was make an offer — Sara is the one who chose to accept it, and everything that followed landed squarely on the shoulders of the Lances. Laurel herself openly tells him that she does not blame him at all, only accepting his apology for treating her badly during their relationship because that is the only thing he is truly guilty of.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His decision to invite Sara on the Queen's Gambit ultimately destroyed the Lance family. Downplayed in that they basically destroyed themselves with their preexisting problems, he's just the one that (unknowingly) gave them the opportunity. If anything, Laurel's plight proves just how little the situation is his fault, as Laurel herself came to realize during her three years in the League.

Thea Queen

Thea Dearden Queen

• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: She repairs her relationship with Oliver a lot sooner due to a combination of finding out Laurel's true fate (and by extension the real reason why Oliver has been hanging around Sara) and Oliver's vigilante secret much earlier than she did in canon.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Thea sees that Oliver and Sara are hanging out again, she automatically assumes they're trying to hook up. At this point, Sara is the last person Oliver wants a relationship with.
• Jerkass Realization: Comes to realize how insignificant her problems are after seeing her brother nearly die and learning about Laurel's true fate.
• Shipping Torpedo: Subverted. She thinks she is this to Oliver and Sara, but the two have since completely lost interest in each other.
• Shipper on Deck: She much prefers Oliver/Laurel to Oliver/Sara. After Oliver saves Laurel from the League, Thea's support for them getting back together only increases as Oliver's actions make it a viable possibility again.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • When Sara first returned and tried to pass on the news of Oliver's death to the Queens, Thea confronted her over whether or not she had apologized to Laurel yet.
  • Thea tries to do this with Oliver after she mistakes him for trying to get back together with Sara. It doesn't take, mainly because Oliver isn't trying to get back together with Sara and therefore has nothing to be ashamed about.

Moira Queen

Moira Queen

• Everyone Has Standards: She is horrified when she finds out Dinah traded Laurel to a cult for Sara's return. Moira will do anything to protect her children, but not to the extent that she'd betray and sell out one to save the other.
• Parents as People: Just like Quentin, she's far from a perfect parent, but she only keeps her secrets because she thinks that's the only way to keep her family safe.
• Pet the Dog: After reuniting with Laurel and learning the truth of her abduction, Moira happily offers to let her stay in the Queen Mansion as long as she needs to.
• Shipper on Deck: For Oliver/Laurel. Moira admits she always hoped Laurel would one day join the family, and expresses genuine pride in Oliver for managing to save her from the League.
• So Proud of You: As unhappy as she is that Oliver has been risking his life day and night, Moira can't help but also be proud of him for saving Laurel and stopping the Undertaking.

Walter Steele

Walter Steele

• Everyone Has Standards: He's every bit as horrified as Moira when he learns Dinah traded Laurel to the League in exchange for Sara.
• I Have Your Wife: He's being held hostage by Malcolm for most of the story. Oliver gets him released by trading the position of Ra's al Ghul to Malcolm in exchange for Walter's freedom.

The Lances

General

• Big, Screwed-Up Family: What they actually are and always have been, no matter what Quentin and Dinah believe. Only Laurel was aware of it initially; Sara realized it after their mother sold Laurel out to the League.
• Dysfunction Junction: Quentin is an emotionally abusive alcoholic and Dinah is a Narcissist who refuses to take the blame for any of her actions and ended up betraying one of her daughters to save the other just to absolve herself of any guilt. Both of them favor Sara, who was originally a Spoiled Brat Hard-Drinking Party Girl, until two years of horrific trauma and being forced to betray her sister a second time left her a guilt-ridden shell of herself who can barely function at all. It's telling that Laurel, a traumatized and emotionally repressed assassin who who has a better relationship with her cheating ex-boyfriend than she does with her own family, is considered the Only Sane Man.
• Foil: To the Queens. The Queens were always aware of their family issues and never tried to pass off the blame to outside forces, instead either blaming themselves or each other and making genuine efforts to work through them, as much as they tended to backslide. Even so, they clearly love each other and thought of hurting and/or putting one another in harm's way is unbearable to them. The Lances, meanwhile, pretended to be the perfect nuclear family but were actually rife with Dysfunction Junction that they were forced to confront after their first major tragedy. Unlike the Queens, they refuse to acknowledge that the problems were preexisting, would rather blame others for them than try to work through them, and ultimately don't really care for each other as much as they espoused to.

Laurel Lance

Dinah Laurel Lance | Tayer Al-Aswad

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Canon Laurel had issues, but not to the extent of this Laurel, who's practically shattered after her mother betrayed her and sold her to Ra's al Ghul in exchange for her younger sister.
• Adaptational Badass: Took Sara's place in the League, and thus has her sister's canon skillset.
• Badass in Distress: For all of Laurel's newly-acquired combat skills, she is still ultimately a captive member of the League. The only way she can free herself is by challenging Ra's and killing him, but he is a far more experienced combatant who outstrips her in capability, and the risk of losing (the destruction of Starling City) is too great to make it worth it. That's why it's left to Oliver to free her, since the risks of him losing the duel to free her are far less severe.
• Big Sister Instinct: Dinah tried to use this as her excuse to trade Laurel for Sara (it was really Insane Troll Logic to justify herself). That being said, Laurel still can't help but care for Sara, especially after seeing how much her younger sister has suffered both before and after the trade. Laurel ultimately does hope Sara gets the help she needs, but also recognizes she can't be the person to provide it due to her own trauma and all the pain Sara has directly and indirectly caused her the past five years.
• Birds of a Feather: With Oliver, which is why their friends and family are supportive of them getting back together. Laurel herself notes this upon meeting Oliver again and seeing the scars on his body, recognizing that just like her, he's been living a harsh and difficult life for the past several years.
• Broken Bird: Her time with the League has effectively ruined her, and she has no idea if she can ever piece herself back together.
• Death Seeker: Malcolm speculates her time in the League has made her this, as Laurel has too kind a temperament to endure the constant killing.
• Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: By the end of the first story, she has a good relationship with everyone except her family. Even her ex-boyfriend Oliver has fully reconciled with her, and the two of them have returned to being close friends with underlying romantic tension between them. Meanwhile, she openly despises her mother for her Parental Betrayal and has strained relationships with both her sister and father for various reasons that aren't really her fault.
• Living Emotional Crutch:
  • To Quentin. His life fell apart without her, and all his anger at her during the past three years was rooted in the fact that he missed her. When Quentin realizes Laurel didn't actually leave him by choice, he goes completely spare trying to find her, something Sara cites as a reason for why Laurel has to come back to Starling. It's also the reason why nobody is in any rush to tell him what exactly happened to Laurel in the first place; they all know there's no way he would be able to live with the guilt of what he unknowingly let happen to her.
  • She's also this to Sara, in an odd way. It's the only idea of rescuing Laurel from the League and making things up to her older sister for the past five years that allows Sara to start breaking away from her self-destructive spiral.
• Trauma Conga Line: Ex-boyfriend cheated on her with her younger sister, both seemingly died in a shipwreck, parents divorce, father emotionally and verbally abuses her after becoming alcoholic, mother sells her out to a cult of murderers to save said sister, Training from Hell to become a murderer herself... Need we go on?
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Nyssa. It never went anywhere, however, due to the circumstances of Laurel's entry into the League making them a solid Unequal Pairing.

Sara Lance

Sara Lance

• Accomplice by Inaction: Zigzagged. While Sara did stand by and let Dinah trade Laurel to the League, it's fairly obvious that she was in psychological shock at the time thanks to her recent traumatic experience. While it doesn't completely excuse her, both Oliver and Laurel (the only people in any position to judge Sara) recognize that she's a victim herself, and find it hard to be really angry at her.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: While Sara avoided the angst she had as a member of the League (all of that went to Laurel), it was replaced by the guilt of letting her mother trade her sister in her place. She's been wracked with regret and wasting away ever since; one would imagine that if Oliver hadn't returned when he did, she probably would have died from the despair alone.
• Adaptational Wimp: Never received League training due to Laurel taking her place.
• Broken Bird: Perhaps even more so than Laurel. Sara is shattered by everything that happened to her on the Amazo and the consequences it had on her family (especially Laurel). She only really begins the road to the recovery when she finally gets her sister back and leaves her mother at the end of the first story.
• Broken Pedestal: To Oliver and Laurel. Both recognize that Sara has been through a Trauma Conga Line herself, is as much of a victim of the situation as Laurel, and that she genuinely feels guilty about the role she played in what happened. However, neither of them can quite find it in themselves to forgive her just yet, and are understandably still angry with her. While they both still care about her, neither of them like to be around her for long periods of time.
• Death Seeker: Along with her inability to take care of herself, Sara admitted that she would let Laurel kill her if it came to that. There's some implication that one of the reasons why Sara is so desperate to rescue Laurel is because she's hoping her sister actually will kill her. Considering that at one point she admits she wished she had died on the Gambit if it would've prevented Laurel's forced induction into the League, it's very likely she's had suicidal thoughts over the last couple of years.
• Despair Event Horizon: Sara officially crossed it after Dinah forced her to let Laurel be traded to the League for her freedom. One of the reasons Oliver has a hard time staying angry at her in the present storyline is because he can see how much of a wreck she's become thanks to that choice.
• Foil: To her mother Dinah. While Dinah traded Laurel away and created increasingly delusional excuses to herself to justify it, Sara knew full well how horrible the deal was, instantly regretted it the moment it was completed, tried to go back on it, and then spent the following years wasting away because of the guilt. Whereas Dinah paid no more mind to Laurel other than making sure no one ever figured out where she was, Sara seized the first chance she saw to save her sister with everything she had, even though she knew Laurel might very well hate and kill her for what she'd done. When it comes down to it, Dinah is a narcissist and an absolutely terrible person that wants to pretend she's otherwise and is incapable of accepting fault, while Sara is a good person who openly acknowledges she's made many mistakes, has changed for the better, and honestly blames herself more than she really should.
• Guilt Complex: One of her defining traits, more than even Oliver. Sara is guilt-ridden over how her choices ended up destroying her family, and the fact that no one ever tried to punish her for it and instead kept excusing her previous behavior didn't help matters. This guilt is why she has shades of being the Death Seeker, with the implication that she's hoping that Laurel (who is easily the biggest victim of Sara's choices) will finally give her a "rightful" punishment and kill her.
• Hates Their Parent: It's subtly implied throughout the story that deep down, Sara hates Dinah as much as Laurel does for the trade — to be more specific, for forcing Sara to go along with it and doing absolutely nothing to assuage her guilt after it was done. She just doesn't express it because, as much as Sara hates Dinah, she hates herself more, since if she had never gone onto the Gambit, none of this would've happened.
• Heroic BSoD: One that's been ongoing for three and a half years. Sara was broken after everything she went through on the Amazo, something that her mother used to pressure her into going through with the plan to trade Laurel. Instead, all the decision did was break Sara further, and she admits to Oliver she hasn't been able to eat a full meal or sleep more than a few hours since.
  Sara: What my mother did, it wasn't giving me freedom.
• It's All My Fault: Sara is brutally aware of the fact that if she had never chosen to take up Oliver on his offer, almost all the suffering her family went through (especially Laurel's stint with the League) would've never happened. The fact that her parents still ignore her mistakes doesn't help matters, because it only makes her feel more guilty. The reality is that while much of the guilt does fall on her for choosing to go on the Gambit, the worst of it is actually her mother Dinah's fault for both letting her go and letting her think it was a good idea, and for offering up Laurel to the League and forcing Sara to go along with it.
• My Greatest Failure: Allowing her mother to trade her older sister to the League of Assassins for her freedom. Sara has never gotten over the guilt of what happened and it nearly destroyed her. It's only by finding a way to finally free Laurel and bring her home that she's able to begin moving on and healing.
• Only Sane Man: Between the trio of Dinah, Quentin, and Sara, Sara is the only one to act with any rationality (such as acknowledging her guilt in choosing to go on the Gambit) and recognize how screwed up their family is.
• Selective Obliviousness: A rather tragic example. Sara is so determined to blame herself for what happened to Laurel that she's willing to ignore or downplay the parts her parents played in the situation by enabling her self-serving behavior (or, in the case of Dinah, outright manipulating Sara using her trauma). At one point, she even tries to defend her mother by pointing out that Dinah tried to trade herself first for Sara instead of Laurel, something that does absolutely nothing to soften everyone else's low opinion of Dinah.
• Trophy Child: To Dinah. It's implied that Dinah only cares about Sara because it makes her seem like she's a good mother, without actually being a good mother. The fact that Sara is more alike to her than Laurel is supports that.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: While she's worried for Quentin's health like Laurel, the main reason Sara doesn't want to tell her father the truth is because she fears he might disown her for it. It's justified, as Sara does share some of the blame for what happened to Laurel, as well as keeping it a secret from Quentin, causing him to wrongfully lambast Laurel for three years.

Quentin Lance

Quentin Lance

• Abusive Parents: Verbally and emotionally abusive to Laurel when he's drunk. His failure to realize Laurel had been missing for three years also doesn't speak well of him, but to his credit, it prompted a Jerkass Realization and he started frantically searching for her soon after.
• Alcoholic Parent: At the start of the story, his alcoholism is even worse than it was in canon because Laurel was no longer around to help him moderate it, which eventually cost him his job. He only starts learning to control it better after realizing Laurel is missing.
• Always Save the Girl: Dinah and Sara refused to tell him about the deal because they knew he would've never approved, tried to save Laurel himself, and gotten everyone killed.
• Foil: To Oliver. Quentin's tendency to wallow in self-pity and inability to accept fault is neatly contrasted with Oliver's Guilt Complex and his active attempts of atonement. This shows in their respective relationships with Laurel: Quentin emotionally abused Laurel and blamed her for everything, which blinded him to the fact that she was kidnapped and missing for three years. Compare this to Oliver, who immediately figured out something was wrong with Laurel's departure upon his return, then did everything in his power to save her when he learned the truth. This gives an ironic bent to their own relationship — no matter how much Quentin tries to disparage Oliver, both the readers and later the rest of the main cast are well aware that Oliver is a far better man than Quentin could ever hope to be.
• It's All About Me: Not usually, but he does have a bad habit of wallowing in self-pity. It immediately dies after he learns Laurel is missing.
• Jerkass Realization: Finally recognizes what an asshole he's been to everyone when he realizes that Laurel was missing.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Deliberately. At the end of the story, Quentin's the only person of the main cast that is completely unaware of what happened to Laurel. This is because everyone is scared that, if he finds out, the guilt will kill him.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Unknowingly did this to Sara whenever she visited and he began drunkenly verbally abusing (the absent) Laurel. This was one of the reasons Sara didn't like visiting him and Starling.
• Papa Wolf: Owing to his status as Parents as People, both Dinah and Sara acknowledge he would've never accepted leaving Laurel with the League and would've done just about anything to save her.
• Parental Neglect:
  • With Laurel. He was so deep in his cups that he completely failed to notice Laurel had been missing for three years. To his credit, though, he quickly wises up after that.
  • Unintentionally with Sara. He honestly did want Sara in his life when she came back but Sara's guilt over Laurel's fate caused her to avoid him while Quentin's own problems hindered him from actively reaching out to her. Notably, the moment Laurel is brought home, Sara immediately ditches Dinah and asks to move back in with Quentin.
• Parents as People: Quentin honestly does love Laurel and Sara (more than Dinah does at least) but isn't immune to his grief — nor the alcohol that comes with it — and has a tendency to wallow in self-pity. Notably, while Laurel does fear he'll reject her if he ever found out the truth of her disappearance, she intellectually acknowledges that's unlikely to happen because, unlike Dinah, he does love her. And as consistently pointed out, Quentin, unlike Dinah, would've never stood for trading Laurel for Sara and would've tried to find another way to save his youngest rather than hurt his eldest further.
• Selective Obliviousness: Refuses to acknowledge Sara's fault in the entire situation with Oliver and Laurel. The fact that Sara herself accepts her part of the blame in what happened does not help matters.

Dinah Lance

Dinah Drake Lance

• Abusive Parents:
  • To Laurel on the emotional level, culminating in selling her out to the League for Sara's freedom. Unsurprisingly, Laurel effectively disowns Dinah after this and either references her by her first name or by the title of "birth mother".
  • To Sara as well. Regardless of her intentions, Dinah put Sara in a terrible position, something that Oliver (who is pissed at Sara, mind you) recognizes. Either she stayed with the League, become an assassin, and have what little she had left of her soul destroyed, or she let her innocent sister, the same sister Sara already betrayed, take her place and let the guilt destroy her instead. Sara chose the latter, but that was because she was in psychological shock at the time, allowing Dinah to effectively browbeat her into it so that way, she could assuage her own guilt for choosing the same. Combined with the fact that Sara has been effectively wasting away while still under Dinah's care, suggesting a level of Parental Neglect, and no matter how you look at it, it isn't hard to see that she's just as much a victim of Dinah as Laurel is.
• All for Nothing: Dinah betrays Laurel by selling her out to a cult of murderers to save Sara, and by the end of the first story, has nothing to show for it. Laurel is freed from the League by Oliver and now hates her, and once that's done Sara has no issues ditching Dinah for Quentin thanks to her emotional neglect and controlling behavior, which effectively allowed Sara to self-destruct for the past three years. Her former social circle knows the truth and also hates her, and even Quentin will want nothing to do with her if (or rather, when) he finds out the truth about why Laurel went missing. Dinah has effectively lost everything that once mattered to her, and only has herself to blame.
• Broken Pedestal: Whatever consideration anyone might have had for her dies when they learn about what she did to Laurel and Sara. Laurel herself hates Dinah and has already disowned her as her mother, while Sara's opinion is only marginally better and mainly driven by her own guilt and self-hatred more than any positive regard for Dinah.
• Control Freak: Heavily implied, judging by how Sara describes living with her is like.
• Didn't Think This Through: Her decision to trade Laurel for Sara destroyed both of her daughters, as lampshaded by Oliver. It's one of the first signs of what a terrible parent she is.
• Hate Sink: It was bad enough trading Laurel to the League for Sara, but what truly makes Dinah despicable is her victim-blaming Laurel to justify her decision. It's telling that almost every character that hears of what she did is utterly appalled by her actions.
• Hated by All: She becomes instantly hated by her former social circle in Starling after they learn what she did to Laurel. The only person who has any care for her is Quentin, and that's only because he's Locked Out of the Loop.
• The Heavy: Of In the Dead of Night. While Ra's al Ghul is ostensibly the Big Bad, it's Dinah's choices (and the effects that they have on both Laurel and Sara) that drive the plot. Despite each being treated differently by Dinah, both sisters end the story beginning the recovery from her abuse.
• Insane Troll Logic: Dinah bends over backwards to justify trading Laurel for Sara, and the only person she really convinces is herself. And even then, not fully — the fact that she kept herself from telling anyone, especially Quentin, what happened shows that on some level, she recognizes what she did was wrong but is unwilling to admit or acknowledge it.
• It's All About Me: A look at Dinah's thoughts makes it clear that her wish to save Sara doesn't actually come from any concern for Sara herself, but rather from trying to absolve Dinah of the guilt of letting her daughter go on the Gambit. Considering how much Sara has managed to destroy herself during the three years she was under Dinah's watch, it really does make you wonder if Dinah loved either of her daughters.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Her Parental Betrayal of Laurel, full stop. Up to and including manipulating Sara to go with it, and then letting her be eaten alive by the guilt for years afterwards.
  • Abandoning Quentin in Starling and allowing him to self-destruct with his alcoholism despite knowing that Laurel was the one keeping him together and she is the reason Laurel can no longer do that.
• Mama Bear: A brutal deconstruction. Dinah has an obsessive need to protect Sara from everything, including any fault for her actions and the consequences she might face for them. However, this desire is at least partially driven by the fact that she sees herself in Sara rather than any real love for her younger daughter, which is why Dinah is willing to take measures that Sara wouldn't agree with or would cause her emotional distress, including trading her other daughter and Sara's older sister Laurel to the League. The end result is that she's inadvertently made Sara into a traumatized, guilt-ridden mess who is incapable of making any progress toward a recovery for several years, most of which could've been avoided had Dinah actually bothered to parent her daughter instead of trying to shield her from everything that might negatively affect her life.
• Manipulative Bitch: In the flashbacks, Dinah has already chosen to trade Laurel for Sara, especially after seeing Sara's condition, but she then uses that condition to convince Sara to go along with it to absolve herself of any remaining guilt, blatantly ignoring whatever guilt Sara might feel after the deed is done. That instance subtly proves that, for all that Sara is her favorite child, Dinah isn't any better of a parent to her than she is to Laurel.
• My Beloved Smother: Is implied to be this to Sara. Notably, one of her first scenes is reminding Sara not to tell Quentin the truth about Laurel's disappearance, something that Sara notes Dinah has been constantly telling her to do for the past three years. Sara later describes life with her to be "stifling", and it's suggested that the only reason she's living with Dinah at all is because she couldn't go to Quentin without telling him the truth about what happened to Laurel.
• Narcissist: She's the typical narcissistic parent who treats one of her children as The Scapegoat (Laurel) and the other as the Golden Child (Sara). Tellingly, Sara is her favorite not because of anything she had done to endear herself to Dinah, but rather because she reminds Dinah of herself when the latter was younger, which certainly explains why Dinah goes so far to absolve Sara of any wrongdoing.
• Never My Fault: She refuses to acknowledge that her bad parenting is what led to Sara going on the Gambit, causing all the pain her family went through, including her decision to trade Laurel to the League. Instead, she'd rather blame Laurel for bringing Oliver into their lives, and Oliver for betraying Laurel by taking Sara with him.
• Parental Betrayal: Sold out her older daughter Laurel to the League of Assassins in exchange for her younger daughter Sara.
• Parental Favoritism: Favors Sara over Laurel — not that it's saying much, considering how much she failed to be a half-decent mother to Sara after she came home.
• Parental Neglect: The fact that Sara has been able to destroy herself so much under Dinah's care more-or-less confirms this. To her 'favorite daughter' no less.
• Toxic Family Influence: To Sara. Everything that has gone wrong in Sara's life for the past five years is ultimately a result of Dinah's terrible parenting. First, by enabling Sara's self-serving behavior and letting her go on the Gambit to sleep with Laurel's boyfriend; then, by manipulating Sara to go along with trading Laurel to the League of Assassins for Sara's freedom. It's no wonder Sara ditches her for Quentin the first chance she gets.
• The Unfettered: Deconstructed. Dinah is determined to rescue Sara at all costs, but it isn't because of any love for her. Instead, she hopes to absolve her own guilt for almost getting her daughter killed. As a result, she's willing to trade Laurel and coerce Sara into going along with it despite knowing Sara would never be able to forgive herself for this betrayal, and then basically ignored Sara's trauma for years once they were home because it would mean having to continue living with the guilt she's so desperate to be rid of.

The Merlyns

Tommy Merlyn

Thomas "Tommy" Merlyn

• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • He never starts a relationship with Laurel due to her being stuck in the League for the past three years and through half of Season 1. While he did develop feelings for Laurel, enough to want to ask her out after Hong Kong, they never deepen like in canon, and he gives up on them after she's rescued because he knows he can never understand and empathize with the person she is now like Oliver can.
  • Tommy doesn't break off his friendship with Oliver after finding out he's the Hood. While he is critical of Oliver being a killer, he quickly gets over it after learning what drove Oliver towards his crusade, and the fact that it was the only way to save Laurel from the League. Tommy does call out Oliver for lying to him, but accepts it for what it is and they remain on good terms, with Tommy even encouraging Oliver to pursue Laurel again.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Tommy sincerely dislikes the fact that Oliver is a killer, and tries to shame his best friend for killing Ra's al Ghul. However, he immediately backtracks after learning it was the only way to get Laurel out of the League, acknowledging that what Oliver did was necessary.
  • Just like everyone else, Tommy is horrified when he learns that Dinah traded Laurel to the League for Sara's freedom. In fact, it's one of the reasons why he lets Oliver killing Ra's go so easily.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Minor example. He had a crush on Laurel before she disappeared, and while it's persisted throughout the past three years, he recognizes that he can't be what she needs in a partner after her time in the League, and gracefully steps down in favor of Oliver.
• Shipper on Deck: After giving up on his lingering crush on Laurel, he encourages Oliver to get back together with her.

Malcolm Merlyn

Malcolm Merlyn | Al Sa-Her | The Dark Archer

• Manipulative Bastard: He expertly manages to manipulate Oliver into making him Ra's.
• Villain Respect:
  • He shows admiration for Oliver's tenacity, since it's what allows Oliver to defeat and kill Ra's al Ghul.
  • Laurel managing to use Oliver's brief tenure as Ra's al Ghul to get Nyssa dismissed from the League before Malcolm can kill her also wins some of his respect. He even muses that Laurel was always the most clever out of all his son's friends.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Malcolm is as fully committed to the Undertaking as ever at the start of the story, but quickly changes tact after Oliver manages to kill Ra's and become Ra's al Ghul. Using Walter's life as leverage, Malcolm convinces Oliver to make him Ra's in exchange for having his stepfather back.