History Arrow / TropesNToS

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Moira tells Walter that his investigation is angering dangerous people. Walter is kidnapped and spends months locked in a bare cell. Walter is rescued by the vigilante. Walter hands Moira divorce papers.
** In Season One finale "Sacrifice", Det. Lance finally tells his superior that over the past several months he had been in-contact with the Hood and tries to explain that the Hood is trying to stop Malcolm's attack on the Glades. [[CassandraTruth The chief don't buy it]] and suspends him, asking [[TurnInYourBadge for his badge and gun]]. It doesn't seem to matter afterwards, although he is still demoted to beat cop for his trouble.
** After Sara's attempted suicide fails and she recovers, she is reunited with her family. After she had an affair with her sister's fiancé, nearly got them all killed, and caused them so much avoidable grief that it destroyed Quentin's and Dinah's marriage and turned Quentin into an alcoholic. And then, to put the cherry on the cake, Sara ''resumed'' her relationship with Oliver. Her parents might be more forgiving, but Laurel is understandably ''pissed''.
** Numerous characters take rather awful beatings from the Deathstrokes in Season 2, but they're mostly costumed vigilantes, who are likely prepared for when they get the stuffing kicked out of them. In the season finale, Quentin is hurled into a table by a goon, and he coughs up blood and passes out due to a collapsed lung.
** Also in Season 2, Roy is dosed with Mirakuru and has difficulty controlling the insanity. The Arrow takes him on as his apprentice, and he manages to get Roy to snap out of it as a critical juncture by revealing his identity. This does not magically cure his rage issues; only the removal of the drug from his system does that.
** In Season Three, Oliver has finally gotten the crime rate down. Problem is that after two massive terrorist attacks, the population is still dwindling as not that many people want to live in Starling City anymore.
** Despite being the son of the former CEO and caring much more about the company, the board of Queen Consolidated are resistant to the idea of Oliver taking over the company given his detachment from it and his general inexperience. So as soon as Ray Palmer enters the scene, they gladly give the job to him instead. Oliver even acknowledges soon after that it was probably better for Palmer to become CEO and even thought it was selfish of him to try to get the company back after his behavior in the previous seasons.
** Also related to above, Isabel Rochev the other CEO, who lead the charge to oust Oliver out of Queen Consolidated because of his vigilante activities, the board of directors are in no hurry to want Oliver to resume his position as CEO after the former’s death despite the fact that Rochev engaged in multiple acts of terrorism and violence on Starling City just to spite the Queen family.
** Laurel's first outing as a vigilante goes like this. She ambushes a wife-beater with a baseball bat. After getting a couple of shots in, the guy takes the bat from her and beats her badly enough to put her in the hospital. Afterwards, Laurel seeks training.
** In Season Four Samantha demands Oliver keeps his son a secret from everyone he knows. Although he could have told Felicity the truth and lied to Samantha, Oliver goes along with it. Unsurprisingly Felicity isn't happy to discover her fiancé hid his son from her, risking making her a step-mother without her knowledge or consent, and breaks off the engagement.
** Damien Darhk is a BadBoss who not only punishes his underlings failures with death, but also threatens the board that's providing his funding. So when that same board sees a chance to get rid of him, they quite naturally take it.
** In Season Five, the chickens have come home to roost for Oliver in the form of Prometheus, a supervillain whose father was killed by Oliver in the first season. Granted, most of people on the list Oliver killed off were CorruptCorporateExecutive characters who were never meant to be sympathized with. However, just like in real life, even those people have their loved ones, be they wives or children, who will want revenge on you for killing their relatives. It was practically inevitable that Oliver would create a Prometheus sooner or later through his actions in the first season because chances are, not every person on the list that Oliver removed would be a lone miser whom nobody would miss.
** Oliver may be a certified badass and hardened killer but he is still regularly beaten by opponents with superior training, more experience, or actual powers. This forces him to get better training himself or seek outside help.
** Considering The Ninth Circle is a massive evil organization as well as an ancient one, it's not really surprising that they turn on and try to kill Emiko after she has not only been wasting so much time and resources trying and failing to get petty revenge on her brother, but also wasted so much time away from the organization and killed the previous leader of the circle. If anything, it's surprising they didn't do it sooner.

* OutDamnedSpot: In "Salvation", Moira, after Chen - whom she made the scapegoat for their failed attempt on Malcolm's life - is killed in front of her by Dark Archer, notices that she literally has his blood on her hands and quickly tries to scrub it off.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Ollie preaches to the Huntress quite a bit about her blasé attitude toward killing, pointing out that he only kills when it's necessary and only after giving his target a chance to do the right thing. This is true when it comes to his high-profile targets, but [[WhatMeasureIsAMook he extends no such niceties to the mooks in their employ]], dropping a half-dozen hired guards in a typical episode with seemingly little care whether they live or die from the grievous arrow wounds he inflicts.
** Everyone on Team Arrow instantly stops wanting to stop the Vigilante when it is revealed that he is Dinah's presumed dead ex-boyfriend .

* {{Retcon}}: Mild examples.

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Oliver invokes this to hide his activities as the Arrow. Really comes into play in "Honor Thy Father" when he decides that in order to honor his father's wishes he has to dishonor his father's memory by acting like his old self. Ironically, it works not because he's really pulling off the playboy lifestyle, but because the people close to him think he's still suffering the trauma of the island and ''trying'' to pull off the lifestyle as a coping mechanism.

** In Season Four Samantha demands Oliver keeps his son a secret from everyone he knows. Although he could have told Felicity the truth and lied to Samantha, Oliver goes along with it. Unsurprisingly Felicity isn't happy to discover her fiancé hid his son from her, risking making her a step-mother without her consent, and breaks off the engagement.

** Oliver may be a certified badass and hardened killer but he is still regularly beaten by opponents with superior training, more experience, or actual powers. Forcing him to get better training himself or seek outside help.

** Helena takes it UpToEleven. She flat out doesn't care who gets in her way as long as her target ends up dead. Subverted when Frank gets killed by someone other than her, after which she realises how pointless her RROR truly was.

** Damien Darhk regularly kills members of his organization for failure, and threatens the board providing his funding When his backers see a chance to get rid of him they quite naturally take it.

* OverarchingVillain: The League of Assassins. With the exception of Slade Wilson, every major villain in the series has ties to the League in some way, and their impact on the series is always present. The League itself were the main antagonists of Season 3, with Ra's al Ghul at the helm.
** Malcolm Merlyn: Fled to Nanda Parbat after the death of his wife and joined the League, eventually becoming TheEnforcer to Ra's al Ghul.
** Damien Darhk: Former co-protégé of the previous Ra's al Ghul with the series' main Ra's. Darhk would flee the League to start his own organization to oppose his rival.
** Prometheus: In pursuit of his revenge against Oliver, he deliberately sought the tutelage of Talia al Ghul, the eldest daughter of Ra's and a former mentor of Oliver's. Talia, seeking her own vengeance after the death of her father, agreed to teach him and aligned herself with him when he finally began his vendetta.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge:
** The main conflict of Season 2 is set into motion by Dr. Ivo killing Shado after forcing Oliver to choose between her and Sara.
** Defied in "Seeing Red" Deathstroke is trying to invoke this, making Oliver choose between Moira and Thea to make him suffer like he promised, and to parallel Shado's death. But Moira confidently stands up and says that her children are going to live, and her bravery makes Slade kill her, acknowledging her courage.
** In "Eleven Fifty-Nine" Damien Darhk fatally stabs Laurel Lance because he made a promise to her father that if he had betrayed him, he would kill his daughter. This then set in motion for Oliver to kill Damien Darhk in "Schism".

* RealityEnsues:
** Moira tells Walter that his investigation is angering dangerous people. Walter is kidnapped and spends months locked in a bare cell. Walter is rescued by the vigilante. Walter hands Moira divorce papers.
** In Season One finale "Sacrifice", Det. Lance finally tells his superior that over the past several months he had been in-contact with the Hood and tries to explain that the Hood is trying to stop Malcolm's attack on the Glades. [[CassandraTruth The chief don't buy it]] and suspends him, asking [[TurnInYourBadge for his badge and gun]]. It doesn't seem to matter afterwards, although he is still demoted to beat cop for his trouble.
** After Sara's attempted suicide fails and she recovers, she is reunited with her family. After she had an affair with her sister's fiance, nearly got them all killed, and caused them so much avoidable grief that it destroyed Quentin's and Dinah's marriage and turned Quentin into an alcoholic. And then, to put the cherry on the cake, Sara ''resumed'' her relationship with Oliver. Her parents might be more forgiving, but Laurel is understandably ''pissed''.
** Numerous characters take rather awful beatings from the Deathstrokes in Season 2, but they're mostly costumed vigilantes, who are likely prepared for when they get the stuffing kicked out of them. In the season finale, Quentin is hurled into a table by a goon, and he coughs up blood and passes out due to a collapsed lung.
** Also in Season 2, Roy is dosed with Mirakuru and has difficulty controlling the insanity. The Arrow takes him on as his apprentice, and he manages to get Roy to snap out of it as a critical juncture by revealing his identity. This does not magically cure his rage issues; only the removal of the drug from his system does that.
** In Season Three, Oliver has finally gotten the crime rate down. Problem is that after two massive terrorist attacks, the population is still dwindling as not that many people want to live in Starling City anymore.
** Despite being the son of the former CEO and caring much more about the company, the board of Queen Consolidated are resistant to the idea of Oliver taking over the company given his detachment from it and his general inexperience. So as soon as Ray Palmer enters the scene, they gladly give the job to him instead. Oliver even acknowledges soon after that it was probably better for Palmer to become CEO and even thought it was selfish of him to try to get the company back after his behavior in the previous seasons.
** Also related to above, Isabel Rochev the other CEO, who lead the charge to oust Oliver out of Queen Consolidated because of his vigilante activities, the board of directors are in no hurry to want Oliver to resume his position as CEO after the former’s death despite the fact that Rochev engaged in multiple acts of terrorism and violence on Starling City just to spite the Queen family.
** Laurel's first outing as a vigilante goes like this. She ambushes a wife-beater with a baseball bat. After getting a couple of shots in, the guy takes the bat from her and beats her badly enough to put her in the hospital. Afterwards, Laurel seeks training.
** In Season Four Samantha demands Oliver keeps his son a secret from everyone he knows. Although he could have told Felicity the truth and lied to Samantha, Oliver goes along with it. Unsurprisingly Felicity isn't happy to discover her fiance hid his son from her, risking making her a step-mother without her consent, and breaks off the engagement.
** Damien Darhk regularly kills members of his organization for failure, and threatens the board providing his funding When his backers see a chance to get rid of him they quite naturally take it.
** In Season Five, the chickens have come home to roost for Oliver in the form of Prometheus, a supervillain whose father was killed by Oliver in the first season. Granted, most of people on the list Oliver killed off were CorruptCorporateExecutive characters who were never meant to be sympathized with. However, just like in real life, even those people have their loved ones, be they wives or children, who will want revenge on you for killing their relatives. It was practically inevitable that Oliver would create a Prometheus sooner or later through his actions in the first season because chances are, not every person on the list that Oliver removed would be a lone miser whom nobody would miss.
** Oliver may be a certified badass and hardened killer but he is still regularly beaten by opponents with superior training, more experience, or actual powers. Forcing him to get better training himself or seek outside help.
** Considering The Ninth Circle is a massive evil organization as well as an ancient one, it's not really surprising that they turn on and try to kill Emiko after she has not only been wasting so much time and resources trying and failing to get petty revenge on her brother, but also wasted so much time away from the organization and killed the previous leader of the circle. If anything, it's surprising they didn't do it sooner.

** There was criticism concerning the excuse for Oliver surviving police gunfire in the finale was due to the League of Assassins' armour he was wearing, given that this did nothing to stop [[spoiler:Ra's]] being fatally stabbed or previous times League members were shot down by gunfire. In the former case, body armour is typically designed to stop one particular attack, not all (ie, a bullet vest can stop bullets, but would be useless against a knife or an arrow), meaning it would be similarly useless against swords. Meanwhile, in the latter case, though it stops the bullet, typically the armour doesn't do anything to stop the resulting concussive force, meaning its likely to still knock you out or at least hurt a lot. Which, combined with Team Arrow being largely non-lethal at this point, would indicate that they didn't actually ''kill'' the League members they'd previously shot at.