History Series / HeroesJoinForces

''Heroes Join Forces'' is the second annual {{crisis crossover}} {{television serial}}, of Creator/TheCW's Series/{{Arrowverse}} once again told across ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. It would be a BackDoorPilot for the third Arrowverse show, ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''.

* {{Crossover}}: The second annual of the ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}''.

** In the comics, Ollie's son is named Connor (and he has another son named Robert); here he's named William. WordOfGod is that production wanted the freedom to involve Connor some other way later on, and they wouldn't be able to if he was ten years old. [[spoiler:Connor turns out to be Diggle's post-Flashpoint son in a BadFuture]].

* RealityEnsues: A bullet to the heart simply isn't something one person can handle, no matter how brilliant they are. The best Caitlin can do is stabilize Harry until Jay shows up. One person + Chemically-induced-superspeed ''can'' handle it.

->'''Carter Hall:''' [Kendra] You're Priestess Chay-Ara, I'm Prince Khufu, and we're lovers, soul mates. We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here... These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer.\\

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Samantha doesn't want William to be involved in Oliver's life as she considers it would be bad and even dangerous for him to be exposed to Oliver's life... the life of an immature, partying, womanizing playboy, which she still thinks of him as.

->'''Carter Hall:''' [Kendra] You're Priestess Chay-Ara, I'm Prince Khufu, and we're lovers, soul mates. We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here...These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer.\\

One night Cisco and his new girlfriend Kendra are attacked by a mysterious man calling himself Vandal Savage. Finding themselves outgunned, Barry recruits his friends from Team Arrow (and Malcolm Meryln) to aid them. They are aided by winged man calling himself Carter Hall. Turns out that he and Kendra are the reincarnation of an Egyptian Priestess and a Prince who've been hunted by Vandal Savage for millennial due to his obsessive lust for Kendra.

** Iris West (Creator/CandicePatton), Creator/Harry Wells (Creator/TomCavanagh), and Joe West (Creator/JesseLMartin) sit out the second part of the event despite taking place in Central City.

* BackdoorPilot: This {{crossover}} is for the introduction of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Carter states that Savage was responsible for the 1887 Huang He (Yellow River) flood in China. Savage also puts down Ollie's skills by claiming that he was the one to teach [[Myth/RobinHood "Robin of Locksley"]] how to use a bow.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Vandal Savage offhandedly mentions having trained Houdini, and Malcolm brings up legends of him having advised Genghis Khan and guided Julius Caesar on one of his campaigns.

** WordOfGod confirms that Thea is talking about ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' during her "Superheroes in a farmhouse" remark. Creator/NealMcDonough (Damien Darhk, who appeared in the first part of the crossover). Creator/WilliamSadler (Simon Stagg). Creator/JAugustRichards (Mr. Blank), Chin Han (Frank Chen) and Creator/FalkHentschel (Carter Hall) have all appeared in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''.

* DebutQueue: The episode marks the debut of ComicBook/VandalSavage, ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} and Oliver's son that is possibly (later {{Jossed}}) the future [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Connor Hawke]].

* GetOut: In the Ancient Egypt flashback, Vandal Savage caught Prince Khufu and Priestess Shiera in the same bedchamber. Prince Khufu proceeds to tell Savage to get out before starting a brawl.

** Even though they [[AbsenteeActor did not appear]] in this episode, most of the characters on ''Series/TheFlash2014'' (Iris, Joe, Harry, Captain Singh, Jay, Patty, and the villains that Oliver and Barry defeated that were imprisoned in Iron Heights) and Dinah Lance. Possibly also [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Sara]], assuming that she's still staying at her mom in Central City.
* KnifeNut: Savage apparently keeps ''32'' knives on his person.

** Barry escaping Savage's WorldWreckingWave is played out similarly to the finale of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheFlashpointParadox''. (although in the movie Barry races the explosion with an injured leg)

* NeverFoundTheBody: Literally with Savage, as Oliver and Barry doesn't see his corpse after Thea supposedly sends him to his DisneyDeath.
* NoOntologicalInertia: When Savage is killed the Staff of Horus disappears out of Barry and Oliver's hands.

** Barry, after time traveling from the first disastrous attempt to fight Savage, tells Oliver about not only how the attempt went wrong, but also how things ended badly, especially since Oliver and Felicity got into a bad fight about his son. But, due to justified reasons, Barry fails to mention that the fight wasn't because Oliver had a kid, but it was about how he didn't tell Felicity about it.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The episode is a blatant introduction to Hawkgirl, Hawkman and Savage. If anything, the title highlights it as a prologue to ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''.

** Assuming that Sara is still staying at her mother in Central City, then this is also her second official death, and the '''fourth''' time she cheated it.

* YouCantThwartStageOne: Vandal Savage was already advertised as the BigBad of Season One of "Legends of Tomorrow" so the audience knows is "death" is only temporary.

* DidTheResearch: The 1887 flood that Carter states Vandal Savage was responsible for is one of the few widespread natural disasters that could, theoretically, really have been caused by a single relatively normal human arranging for breaches (using gunpowder explosives, for example) in the dykes holding back the Huang He.

** Laurel Lance[=/=]Black Canary (Creator/KatieCassidy) sits out the first part. It's stated by Thea that she was already in Central City visiting her mother.

** For the matter, his mother's name is Samantha Clayton instead of Sandra Hawke.

* AmicableExes: Cisco discontinues his relationship with Kendra after knowing that she should be with Carter, but remains supportive of her, like when he gives her something to ask for help.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: This episode brings back Barry's supposed Top speed of Mach 2. Apparently the writers still haven't figured out that his top feats are far faster than that and that Mach 2 is not even close to being enough for Time Travel (otherwise every second jet Pilot would be a time traveler). Hell, Jay Garrick even stated in a previous episode that he could reach near-light speed and that Barry is much faster than him. Though there is a chance that Barry is still being somewhat held back by memories of his brutal defeat at Zoom's hands and that the "Mach 2" top speed is the fastest speed Star Labs can actually measure.

* {{Bromance}}: Oliver and Barry cemented their new found closeness with a hug.

** WordOfGod confirms that Thea is talking about ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' during her "Superheroes in a farmhouse" remark. Creator/NealMcDonough (Damien Darhk, who appeared in the first part of the crossover). Creator/WilliamSadler (Simon Stagg). Creator/JAugustRichards (Mr. Blank), Chin Han (Frank Chen) and Creator/FalkHentschel (Carter Hall, who appeared in this episode) have all appeared in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''.

** Barry lists the amount of craziness that he's had to deal with in the past few weeks such as [[Recap/TheFlash2014S2E7GorillaWarfare fighting against a telepathic gorilla last episode.]]

* DarkestHour: Vandal ''kills'' Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and then Oliver himself, and then wipes out all of Central City with the Staff of Horus. Fortunately, Barry time travels, and this time, Barry actually ''knows'' that he will beforehand thanks to now understanding what seeing a speed mirage means.

* DenserAndWackier: A very dark play on the trope. In his screen time, Darhk is noticeably snippier and a lot less collected than usual, as demonstrated by his childish mockery of an ARGUS guard struggling to breathe as Darhk kills him and his genuine shock at the Flash's appearance. There's some implication that it's a side effect of whatever happened when he tried to kill Thea.

* DramaticIrony: Felicity wonders what the Earth-2 Oliver Queen is like, when the audience knows full well that he died a few years ago.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Thanks to an old tape our heroes dig up when researching Vandal Savage, we get to see Professor Boardman well before ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' even gets started.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Jay Garrick mention the Speed Force as if there is more to it than just science and its a gift, we learn more about it near the end of the season as Barry gets trapped inside it.

* HollywoodTactics: When Team Arrow (minus Black Canary) ambushed H.I.V.E. Oliver opened a battle with [[TrickArrow magnet arrow]] and disarmed all ghosts at once. That in itself is perfectly understandable. What is ''not'' understandable is that Team Arrow after this jumped down from the container they were standing on and engaged in fist-fight instead of using high ground advantage and bowing down ghosts from above. This wouldn't have worked on Darhk, since he can stop arrows, but ''would'' have worked on ghosts. Especially glaring since it's ''Green Arrow'' we're talking about.
* InternalReveal: One that's actually played for laughs; after Thea managed to never find out about the team's connection to the Flash last season, she's pretty flustered to suddenly have him show up to save them.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: Hawkman does it with Flash and Arrow, largely because he chooses to introduce himself by abducting Kendra.

** Patty is unaware of TheMultiverse situation, and consequently reacts badly on seeing Wells.

** As in [[CallBack "The Brave and the Bold,"]] the arrow is replaced by the lightning bolt from the Flash titles.
** [[CallBack Returning from "Flash vs. Arrow,"]] the lightning bolt running through the title is replaced by an arrow, and the one behind it is green instead of yellow.

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: In addition to the Vandal Savage subplot, there's one associated with Oliver's son that started in the Flash portion of the crossover, but became more fleshed out here.

* WhamEpisode: Oliver finds out he has an illegitimate son, William Clayton which has major ramifications for Oliver's arc for years to come.

** When we last saw Sara, she said that she'll visit her mother. She did not appear in both episodes.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arrow_flash_crossover_poster.jpg]]

** Savage killing ''all'' the main characters of both this show and ''Series/TheFlash2014'' sans the latter's title character. Granted, Barry negated it via CosmicRetcon but it's still a shock to see.

->'''Carter Hall:''' You're [Kendra] Priestess Chay-Ara, I'm Prince Khufu, and we're lovers, soul mates. We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here...These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer.\\

'''Carter:''' In every lifetime, he hunts us down and kills us. He's done it 206 times, and I'm not planning to make it 207.\\
'''Diggle:''' Why does he kill you?\\
'''Carter:''' His life force is tethered to ours. Every time he kills us, he becomes more powerful. You do the math.\\

->'''Carter Hall:''' You're [Kendra] Priestess Chay-Ara, I'm Prince Khufu, and we're lovers, soul mates. We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here.\\
'''Cisco:''' Okay, Romeo, why don't you pump the brakes.\\
'''Carter:''' These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer.\\

->'''Carter Hall:''' You're Priestess Chay-Ara, I'm Prince Khufu, and we're lovers, soul mates. We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here.\\

* PlayingBothSides: Malcolm Merlyn. He aides the heroes against Vandal Savage mainly because he doesn't want Savage to kill Thea, but after all is said and done he collects Savage's ashes with the intent of collecting a favor from him down the line, which never played out.

* WhamEpisode: Oliver finds out he has an illegitimate son, William Clayton which has major ramifications for Oliver's arc for years to come.

* SerialEscalation: This crossover began the trend of the stakes being raised from each previous crossover. Last year's Prism and Captain Boomerang weren't particularly threatening, so who do you bring in to raise the stakes? '''ComicBook/VandalSavage'''!

''Heroes Join Forces'' is the second {{crisis crossover}} {{television serial}}, told across Creator/TheCW's Series/{{Arrowverse}} franchise of shows based on Creator/DCComics: ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. It would be a BackDoorPilot for the third Arrowverse show, ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''.

* SerialEscalation: This crossover began the trend of the stakes being raised from each previous crossover. Last year's Prism and Captain weren't particularly threatening, so who do you bring in to raise the stakes? '''ComicBook/VandalSavage'''!

* PlayingBothSides: Malcolm Merlyn. He aides the heroes against Vandal Savage mainly because he doesn't want Savage to kill Thea, but after all is said and done he collects Savage's ashes with the intent of collecting a favor from him down the line, which never played out.

''Heroes Join Forces'' is the second {{crisis crossover}} {{television serial}}, told across Creator/TheCW's Series/{{Arrowverse}} franchise of shows based on Creator/DCComics:''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. It would be a BackDoorPilot for the third Arrowverse show, ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow''.

* PlayingBothSides: Malcolm Merlyn. He aides the heroes against Vandal Savage mainly because he doesn't want Savage to kill Thea, but after all is said and done he collects Savage's ashes with the intent of collecting a favor from him down the line.

One night Cisco and his new girlfriend Kendra are attacked by a mysterious man calling himself Vandal Savage. Finding themselves outgunned, Barry recruits his friends from Team Arrow (and Malcolm Meryln) to aid them. They are aided by winged man calling himself Carter Hall. Turns out that Kendra is the reincarnation of an Egyptian Priestess

* "[[Recap/ArrowS4E8LegendsOfYesterday Legends of Yesterday]"

* PlayingBothSides: Malcolm Merlyn. He aides the heroes against Vandal Savage mainly because he doesn't want Savage to kill Thea, but after all is said and done