Line #165 Series/Arrow


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_5449559_arrow.png]]
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6	->''"My name is Oliver Queen. For seven years, I have fought with only one goal — to save my city. But now, a new threat has emerged, a danger so severe, it has forced me to leave my family in order to face it. And it won’t be enough for me to just be the Green Arrow. To prevent the Crisis that’s coming, I’m going to have to become someone else. I’m going to have to become '''something''' else."''
7	-->-- '''Oliver Queen''', Season Eight OpeningNarration
8
9	''Arrow'' is a television series from Creator/TheCW based on the Creator/DCComics character ComicBook/GreenArrow. Originally conceived as a spin-off from ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' set to star Creator/JustinHartley, it was instead decided to offer a different interpretation of the character. Premiering on October 10, 2012, it was the series that became the foundation for what would become known as the {{Series/Arrowverse}}.
10
11	Billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Creator/StephenAmell), missing and presumed dead for five years after his family's yacht, ''The Queen's Gambit'' sinks in a violent storm in the Pacific, is discovered alive on a remote island in the North China Sea. When he returns home to Starling City, his mother, Moira (Creator/SusannaThompson), younger sister, Thea (Creator/WillaHolland), and best friend Tommy Merlyn (Creator/ColinDonnell) welcome him home, but they sense Oliver has been changed by his ordeal on the island and the losses sustained in the sinking of his family's yacht, in which six other people, including Oliver's father, Robert, and his ex-girlfriend's sister, Sara Lance, were also aboard. Oliver keeps quiet about the man he’s become, as he desperately wants to make amends for the actions he took as an arrogant, unfaithful playboy. Most particularly, he seeks reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend, [[ComicBook/BlackCanary Laurel Lance]] (Creator/KatieCassidy), who at the time of the sinking he'd been cheating on her with.
12
13	As Oliver at first tries to play the role of the wealthy, carefree and careless philanderer he used to be, he secretly creates the crime-fighting persona of the Hood – a vigilante – to right the wrongs of his family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory. In the beginning, his reasons for seeking justice for Starling City stems from a confession apparently made by his late father, who before his death informed Oliver that their family's immense wealth had been forged on the suffering of others. In his mission, Oliver gradually seeks aid from others who join him in his endeavor, the first being his bodyguard, John Diggle (Creator/DavidRamsey), not long afterwards followed by Felicity Smoak (Creator/EmilyBettRickards), a Queen Consolidated I.T. specialist, and Roy Harper (Creator/ColtonHaynes), a street kid and Thea's boyfriend who needs guidance – while carefully concealing the secret identity he turns to under cover of darkness. However, Laurel’s father, Detective Quentin Lance (Creator/PaulBlackthorne), is determined to arrest the vigilante operating in his city.
14
15	Flashbacks to the island reveal that Oliver was far from alone those five years, dealing with [[PrivateMilitaryContractors paramilitary forces]], {{Mad Scientist}}s and being trained by [[Characters/{{Deathstroke}} Slade Wilson]] (Creator/ManuBennett) to be the vigilante he is today. In the present day, Oliver finds himself taking on an organization far more dangerous than he anticipated, headed by Tommy's father, Malcolm (Creator/JohnBarrowman), who has been operating as a masked vigilante named the Dark Archer. Meanwhile, Oliver’s own mother, Moira, knows much more about the deadly shipwreck than she has let on – and is more ruthless than he could ever imagine.
16
17	As the show progresses, Oliver and his comrades frequently face off against both personal enemies and those who pose a threat to the city Oliver swore to protect, making amends with some and burning bridges with others along the way. Oliver starts his mission as a [[PragmaticHero ruthless vigilante killing enemies]] without hesitation, but has a [[ThouShaltNotKill change of heart]] when he sees the negative effect it has on the city, his allies, friends and family. Aside from the Dark Archer and Deathstroke, the villains Oliver faces throughout the series include [[Characters/BatmanRasAlGhul Ra's al Ghul]], Damien Darhk, Prometheus (Creator/JoshSegarra), Ricardo Diaz (Creator/KirkAcevedo), and Emiko Adachi (Sea Shimooka).
18
19	In season 5, Oliver recruits a series of people into the Team Arrow, with the idea of having them eventually succeed him and his friends as vigilantes, though circumstances [[TenMinuteRetirement force them to go back into the action, anyway]]. These recruits are [[ComicBook/MisterTerrific Curtis Holt]] (Creator/EchoKellum), Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez), and Dinah Drake (Creator/JulianaHarkavy), who succeeds Laurel as the Black Canary.
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21	The show follows the comics in BroadStrokes, playing the line between staying faithful to the source and [[NotHisSled keeping the audience surprised]]. Those unfamiliar with the comics will miss some {{Mythology Gag}}s and references to important characters in the DCU, but the series enjoys employing {{Red Herring}}s to keep even the comics fans on their toes. The show's goal was to depict an evolving group of characters who may be closer or further from their comics origins, but through CharacterDevelopment may eventually grow into the classical characters.
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23	It is also notable for utilizing a TwoLinesNoWaiting format. Following the example set in ''Series/{{Lost}}'', each episode usually juggles at least two plotlines set in different time periods. In the first five seasons, the story constantly shifts between Oliver's current vigilantism in the present and his past experiences in Lian Yu, the latter of which is depicted with [[FlashbackEffects a grayish color palette]]. Since the fifth season finale's flashback catches up with the pilot's present-day plot, the sixth season shakes up the status quo by focusing on the present almost exclusively. The format is brought back for the last two seasons, with a twist; instead of the second storyline being a flashback, it is now a FlashForward set 20 years into the future, focusing on the new generation of Team Arrow, which includes Oliver's two children, Mia (Creator/KatherineMcNamara) and William (Creator/BenLewis), and Diggle's adopted son, Connor (Joseph David-Jones).
24
25	Despite some hesitation regarding the series[[note]]As mentioned above, a different version of Green Arrow was a cast member on ''Smallville'', and the producers were concerned by the DarkerAndEdgier tone that the new show would take, with many detractors saying it felt like the writers wanted to do a Franchise/{{Batman}} show. As it turned out, it eventually ''did'' become a Batman show of sorts, thanks to various references and dabbling liberally on RoguesGalleryTransplant. When the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse started in 2013, however, the creators were limited to a select number of figures they could choose from the Batman mythos, as DC did not want its film and television divisions to cross over too much. Notably, they could not make an explicit reference to Bruce Wayne himself until 2017[[/note]], the show ended up highly acclaimed for the cinematic presentation and having a strong cast. It brought in high ratings for The CW and was such a success it lead to the creation of a televised SharedUniverse, known popularly by its FanNickname: "Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}." Two other shows in the franchise had their main characters debuting in ''Arrow'' first. The first, ''{{Series/The Flash\|2014}}'', stars Creator/GrantGustin as [[ComicBook/TheFlash Barry Allen]], who debuted in the second season. The second, ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', features an EnsembleCast of minor DC characters, including two debuting in ''Arrow'': Creator/BrandonRouth as Ray Palmer / [[ComicBook/TheAtom the A.T.O.M.]] and Creator/CaityLotz as Sara Lance, who has taken the mantle of "White Canary". Following the cancellation of ''Series/{{Constantine}}'', in the fourth season of ''Arrow'', Creator/MattRyan showed up reprising the title character, [[CanonWelding retroactively incorporating]] that show [[NetworkToTheRescue into the shared universe]]. While Constantine never reappeared again in ''Arrow'', he was added into ''Legends of Tomorrow'' starting with its third season. As the franchise' flagship title, ''Arrow'' participated in all of the franchise's {{Crisis Crossover}}s: ''Series/FlashVsArrow'', ''Series/HeroesJoinForces'', ''[[Series/Invasion2016 Invasion!]]'', ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'', ''{{Series/Elseworlds\|2018}}'', and ''{{Series/Crisis on Infinite Earths\|2019}}''.
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27	In March 2019, The CW announced that ''Arrow'''s then-upcoming eighth season would also be its last, with a contracted order of ten episodes to wrap up the series as part of the build up to ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', with the final episode airing on January 28, 2020 after eight years and 170 episodes. This makes ''Arrow'' the first live-action Arrowverse series to come to an end.
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29	Shortly before the final season premiered, it was reported that [[https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/arrow-canaries-spinoff-katherine-mcnamara-katie-cassidy-juliana-harkavy-cw-1203347438/amp/ The CW was developing a female-centered spin-off]] focusing on Mia Queen. The spin-off would have focused on a new timeline set after the ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', where Mia, having taken her father's moniker of Green Arrow, works together with Dinah and Laurel, the Black Canaries, to prevent Star City from falling back into chaos. A [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot backdoor pilot]] was aired as the penultimate episode of ''Arrow'' on January 21, 2020 with a tentative title of ''Green Arrow and the Canaries''. After almost a year of silence, The CW confirmed on January 8, 2021 that [[https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/arrow-spinoff-canaries-cw-1234881450/ the spin-off was not moving forward]] ([[https://ew.com/tv/arrow-spinoff-green-arrow-and-the-canaries-not-moving-forward/ according to EP Marc Guggenheim]], the decision had been made since March 2020).
30	----
31	!!Trope subpages:
32
33	[[index]]
34	* Arrow/TropesAToD
35	* Arrow/TropesEToG
36	* Arrow/TropesHToM
37	* Arrow/TropesNToS
38	* Arrow/TropesTToZ
39	[[/index]]
40
41	!!Season subpages:
42
43	[[index]]
44	* Arrow/SeasonOne
45	* Arrow/SeasonTwo
46	* Arrow/SeasonThree
47	* Arrow/SeasonFour
48	* Arrow/SeasonFive
49	* Arrow/SeasonSix
50	* Arrow/SeasonSeven
51	* Arrow/SeasonEight
52	[[/index]]
53
54	----
55
56	->''"My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal--to save my city. For eight years, I've fought alongside brave men and women striving for justice. But then, a crisis came. And I had to become someone else. I had to become '''something''' else. I made the ultimate sacrifice, which helped birth an entirely new universe. Now my friends and family will have to go on without me. And although I have become a Spectre, there is a part of me that will always be the Green Arrow."''
57	-->-- '''Oliver Queen''', "Fadeout" OpeningNarration
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Context Series / Arrow