Base Breaking Character / Arrow

• Thea, with the fans either liking her for being like an average teen dealing with losing her brother and father or hating her for making the problems all about her and being a Spoiled Brat (being a Canon Foreigner doesn't help her with that last part). Fans in general have now warmed up to her considerably (in due part because of her improved attitude and close friendship with Tommy and Laurel, and her relationship with Roy), so she's probably left this territory now. At the very least, by Season 3, when she becomes a core component to the show's Myth Arc rather than Trapped by Mountain Lions like she was previously.
• Laurel, who constantly swings from being likeable and annoying as the show goes on. She started off disliked, but became tolerated mid-Season 1 thanks to her relationship with Tommy, then spiralled into The Scrappy Heap in Season 2 thanks to her drug story arc leading her to become a Jerkass, before Character Development made her become more well-liked. Season 3 similarly has her act in an irrational and idiotic manner when venting her grief for Sara's death with many finding her journey to becoming Black Canary loaded with Character Shilling, only to eventually become more tolerated after spending time bonding with Nyssa. Season 4 then has her set out to resurrect Sara using the Lazarus Pit, which split fans with some thinking she's an idiot for doing something so risky (especially as she insisted on not telling Oliver) while others supported it for undoing Sara's controversial death^note which, it should be noted, is no different than Oliver's decision to resurrect Thea using the same means, in-spite of warnings by Malcolm and opposition from Felicity, or his constant secret keeping, followed by her then demonstrating her improved character as she avoided being angry at Quentin for his own secret keeping and became a more balanced character within the team, leading to her actually gaining quite a fandom.
• Count Vertigo; people either love Seth Gabel for portraying him as a Large Ham or despise him. It should also be noted that, many wanted to see the New 52 version of the character, Werner Zytle, to be introduced, which then happened, only to then make him exactly the same as Seth Gabel's Count, only with a funny accent.
• Felicity was very popular originally, being the only female character who wasn't regularly yelling at Oliver and the adorable, fun, and most innocent member of the team. However, in the third season, Oliver/Felicity became the Official Couple, which resulted in making her more emotional and calling out Oliver over any morally questionable act he did, further splitting fans between those who sympathized with Oliver and those who agreed with Felicity. By Season 4, she seemed to regain her fun quirks, and with it, some of her fan-adoration, but then she found out about Oliver's child and her reaction to it was seen as unsympathetic, which, combined with several Trapped by Mountain Lions plots, meant she ended the season as the biggest Scrappy in this connected universe. The following seasons had some level of Rescued from the Scrappy Heap for many as she showed growth from her previous behaviors, though her attaching her and Oliver's wedding to Barry and Iris' did not go over well with the fanbase and remains a Never Live It Down moment to this day. The final two seasons did win over a lot of fans due to downplaying some things that made her controversial, and most fans were satisfied by her and Oliver being reunited in the afterlife.
• Malcolm Merlyn by Season 3:
  • First season, he was an engaging and tragic Anti-Villain, Season 2 had him become something of a Nominal Hero, but the third season has made him this. Manipulating Team Arrow into protecting him from Ra's Al Ghul, betraying Thea's trust to use her as a murder weapon, kill Sara in order to do so, has caused a lot of fans to turn against him.
  • The season 3 finale only helped divide things more with him becoming the next Ra's al Ghul. Some fans are happy, given it shows that he is still the same old schemer he once was, while others are infuriated with how that story-line ends, given many hoped for the likes of Nyssa to inherit it, not to mention how it seems everyone has forgotten that Malcolm is the reason Sara is dead.
• Felicity's mother, Donna Smoak was beloved come the third season when she first appeared, but has become quite polarizing in season 4. She's been bumped from a minor character to recurring character and as a result, there are people who find her character being bubbly and perky a clash to the show and rather annoying. Her romance with Lance was also wanted when she first appeared, but many have also deemed very useless and takes up screen-time. There's also a group of people very worried it will end up being her in the grave, not out of concern for the character, but rather just a hope that this big death they're hyping up the whole season doesn't end up being given to a side character. This was at least appeased when it was revealed she wasn't in the grave
• Ray Palmer, once he finished the suit and it became blindingly obvious that the show is trying to make him an Iron Man knock-off rather than anything like the comics' Atom. Though in fairness, this likely has a lot to do with his being planned as the Blue Beetle until DC wouldn't let them use the character. The fact he was pushed into a love triangle with Felicity and Oliver probably didn't net him many fans, save for the anti-Olicity fans.
• Anarky. He's either liked for his Joker-esque persona and being so dangerous that he overshadowed Damien Darhk (the Big Bad of the season), or he's hated for hitting Oliver and Team Arrow with the The Worf Effect by making them struggle in fights when he's supposedly some random delinquent with no special training. Comic fans further criticise him for ruining the character who in the source material was a deconstruction of the Bomb Throwing Anarchist that the show depicts him as.
• Susan Williams. Some fans hate her for supposedly planting bias in her reporting, breaking journalism ethics by sleeping with Oliver and thus manipulating him and because they think Oliver, normally a competent and intelligent individual, puts the Idiot Ball in a death grip and becomes blindly hypocritical when it comes to anything associated with her. Others however think that she as a journalist is absolutely right to investigate if the mayor of her city is an Ex-Bratva member and a vigilante and that Thea's way of dealing with her was WAY overblown and downright cruel. They also point out that Susan really does care for Oliver, since she doesn't go public with the story after getting her job back.
• Dinah Drake, the new Black Canary. Opinions on her are firmly split on those who find her to be a Replacement Goldfish to Laurel Lance and a very lazy way of making a Truer to the Text Black Canary. While other genuinely find her to be a better Black Canary than Laurel ever was. Season 6 divided the base further with the contentious "Team Arrow civil war" arc, with Dinah's stubborn animosity towards Oliver causing a lot to turn on her.
• Cayden James has attracted large amounts of scorn from part the fandom for supplanting being the Big Bad of Season 6 instead of Ricardo Diaz/Richard Dragon, despite being a Canon Foreigner, and because his hacking abilities seem to spell more focus for Felicity, already a divisive character herself. On the other hand, many people praised Michael Emerson's Creepy Awesome acting and thought that after being teased back in Season 5, him taking the spotlight was the logical thing to do. Him being a Non-Action Big Bad is also a point of argument. While some people think it makes him less menancing, others think of it as a pleasant change in comparison to previous Big Bads and see the potential in his mental abilities.
• Ricardo Diaz has become this after "The Dragon". After this episode, many turned around on him and came to appreciate his methodical planning, patience and grounded nature, and enjoyed the motives and personality established by his backstory. For others, this development came too late in the season and/or they still see him as an overhyped second-tier bad guy who can't match up to many of the show's past villains and found his backstory weak.
• Mia Smoak; some fans adore her for being a Badass Adorable and essentially a living product of Olicity, while others strongly dislike her for being wangsty and essentially a living product of Olicity. Kat McNamara herself doesn't help, as some really enjoy her while others find her acting annoyingly wooden. And then she's set up to be the lead of a spin-off show as Oliver's legacy, which for some is great and excitedly look forward to it, hoping it becomes a Spiritual Successor of the Birds of Prey; others are dreading the idea, feeling that she stole Connor Hawke's place as the Green Arrow legacy, and are really against seeing the Birds of Prey 'adapted' in such a way considering that fans of the comic strongly dislike the Arrowverse for how it's treated Black Canary and Huntress.