Fridge / Legends of Tomorrow

Fridge Brilliance:

• In the this official trailer where scenes from the shows were shown with has a corresponding comic counterpart, The Flash (2014) panels acknowledges both the Race Lift of Iris West and Barry Allen's Adaptation Dye-Job by putting scenes of the Caucasian redhead Iris kissing a blonde Barry from the comics along with the African-American version of Iris kissing the brunette version of Barry of the TV version. During the Legends part of the panel however, White Canary, who is originally Asian, was instead showed with the New 52 version of the Dinah Drake Black Canary with her outfit colored white corresponding with Sara Lance. It doesn't make sense unless you remember that Dinah Drake was Dinah Laurel Lance's predecessor as Black Canary in the comics, just as Sara is Laurel's in the Arrowverse.
• The "proof of concept" elements present all over the first trailer that end up contradicting actual details of the characters' appearances leading up to the show make more sense when you remember this is a series about a team whose adventures involve traveling through time to stop a Bad Future from taking place. So perhaps there actually is an altered timeline in which Oliver is still the darker Arrow, Barry's outfit has yet to be redesigned, Sara's revival comes sans clothing for whatever reason, and Ray either never gets captured by Damien Darhk or finds his own way out of the situation without Team Arrow's help.
• The Team not travelling to Ancient Egypt, where he got his powers, and killing Savage then and there. Since Savage has Been There, Shaped History several times, they want to lessen the paradox they will create by gradually destroying his resources in different points in time so the effects won't be as drastic.
  • Plus, Rip already tried that. Didn't work.
• Snart is visibly greying, which seems odd until the show reveals that he was about five or so years old in 1975. So in 2016, Snart is at least 45 years old; he looks younger because he keeps himself fit.
• Time ships all seem to glow an orange similar to speedster lightning so it's not outside of the realm of possibility that the Time Masters have harnessed the Speed Force to facilitate time travel.
• The Team's constant interference with time, coupled with the speedsters' (Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne especially), essentially justifies every single Continuity Snarl in the Arrowverse shows.
• Snart's considerable character development over the course of the show makes a lot of sense when you remember that, as ruthlessly pragmatic as he could be, the comic book version of Captain Cold was always the most decent of the Flash's Rogues Gallery, and actually served as something of The Heart to his team by setting and enforcing their code of standards.
• Sara's desire to get revenge for Laurel's death on Damien may be partly being fueled by her blood lust from being resurrected as she was never technically cured, she just got control of it and it explains why she goes into Revenge Before Reason mode, when she finds him in each timeline and has to be restrained by her teammates.
• Thawne picking Damien and Malcolm as members of his group seems odd, until it becomes clear: Thawne is desperate. The Black Flash is after him, and he needs the Spear of Destiny to save his existence. Therefore, he can't stay in one place for very long. He needs people as desperate as he is who can do the dirty work for him while being able to stay in one place.
• The name of the show itself. On the one hand it applies to the time-traveling misadventures of this rag-tag band of misfits. On the other hand the team has encountered such notables as George Lucas and J.R.R. Tolkien before they were famous.
• Multiple characters either want to, or do (in the case of Snart and Mick) make attempts to change their past in a way to avoid something awful. Snart steals a emerald to try to stop his father from being arrested and becoming abusive after getting out of prison, and Mick stops his father from killing innocent people both because the people don't deserve to die and because he's now realised that his experience in the war is what leads him to become an abusive alcoholic. However, time is explicitly shown to correct itself to make sure that Snart's father is still arrested, and there's no indication that Mick managed to stop his father from going down the same path - which makes sense because time needs the timeline to remain as close to the original as possible or the two won't become criminals and later Legends.
• The fact that at several times Mick shows his tender side when around kids. In the comics one of Snart's main rules is about avoiding harming children at all costs. While we've seen Mick kill plenty of men he's never harmed a child. Seems like he is honoring his friend.
• John comments he wants to save Astra, and have her grow up in a big house where he can always watch over her. His wish comes true, with a twist, when the team becomes Trapped in TV Land in a Downton Abbey parody. Astra grows up in a big house as the heir with John as her butler, where he always watches over her.
• Towards the end of Season Six, Behrad is the first to notice that something is wrong with John: his blood magic addiction is getting worse. While not an addict himself, Behrad does partake with weed a lot and has probably seen other people get into heavier drugs and behave the same way that John is. Also, everyone else is either too close to John (Sara, Astra, Zari), or too distracted with their own problems (Mick would have been the only other person to pick up on what is going on, but he has to deal with his pregnancy).
• Rip chose the legends as the most badass people he could pluck from the timeline who would never matter to the timeline. He got them all from 2016 because that's when the Arrowverse picked up steam and started throwing incredibly badass individuals into the world. But why did these incredibly badass people not matter? Because Rip picked them up and turned them into legends. By plucking them out of the timeline, he transformed them from people who would shape one place, one time in an unforgettable way, into time-traveling heroes who would show up wherever, whenever they were needed but only leave the faintest trace on history. He turned them into Legends.

Pilot, Part 1

• Team and the timeline:
  • At first it may seem odd, even impossible, that none of the team members are ultimately that important to the timeline. But think about when Rip goes to pick them up: in 2016, after they've all already had significant interaction with Oliver or Barry, and after they've all moved away from them. From a Doylist point of view, this is to prepare for Legends; from a Watsonian point of view, it means they've probably moved on with their lives.
  • Another reason: as far as the world is concerned, Ray, Sara, and Stein are all officially dead (Ray from the explosion at Palmer Tech, Sara from the sinking of the Queen's Gambit, and Stein from the particle accelerator incident), while Mick and Snart are both criminals, and as such live outside the law. Thus, there wouldn't be any record of their lives after 2016, because officially, they didn't exist. Meanwhile, Kendra and Carter are reincarnated every time they die, which means that even if they die outside their own time, they can still come back. The only exception is Jax... but since Stein can't become Firestorm without him, there's no real option of leaving him off the team.
  • It's also possible that Sara would become actually dead in the very near future, considering that Darhk specifically targetted Quentin's family immediately afterward. Maybe originally both sisters died.
• A minor point: In the pilot, when the Legends wake up on the roof after Rip kidnaps them, those pairs who were in close proximity when they were grabbed come to near the other (ie, Kendra and Carter wake up next to each other, while Snart and Rory are in close proximity)... with the exception of Stein and Jax (Stein's the second or third person in the line while Jax is at the end). This seems rather odd, until Heat Wave goes for his gun and Rip mentions that he tampered with their tech so he could be allowed to speak to them. He probably placed Jax and Stein apart so they couldn't immediately merge and attack him!
• Boardman sounds a lot like "birdman", which is fitting for the son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Pilot, Part 2

• Mick believing him and Stein to be friends comes across as Mick being dim, but look at how the two interact during the first episode; Stein entrusted Mick, and only Mick, with bringing the unconscious Jax on the Waverider, and he is the first to side with Mick about attacking Rip when the Time Master's deception was revealed.
• Seeing Damien Dahrk present at Savage's nuclear weapons auction makes a lot more sense after The Reveal of his organization's Evil Plan. They plan to unleash a nuclear attack on the entire globe. He's been gathering nuclear weapons as early as The '70s! Doubles as Fridge Horror.

Blood Ties

• The team leaving Savage's body behind instead of bringing him along so Kendra can stab him with the dagger when she's strong enough seems odd at first. Then I realized that even if they had a place on the Waverider that could contain him, there were hundreds of Vandal's Mooks between them and the exit. They most likely agreed that it was more practical to grab Carter's body and run while the guards were still dazed than to grab Savage and fight their way through an endless horde of evil minions, risking the chance of one of them getting overwhelmed and killed.
• In The '70s, Vandal had a bank hold a lot of his assets in Russia. In the 80's, he allied himself with Russia. It could be that after a while, he decided that the Russians protected his assets well enough (aside from the legends coming in), to decide that they were 'worthy' of his power and influence.
• The technique Savage uses was seen once before, and shown to be a small Fantastic Nuke, and yet it leaves all the heroes relatively unharmed here. It could look like a nerf or Plot Armor in place, but unlike that time, Savage it's using it in the middle of his power base, wich would be terribly unwise to blow up like that, and in a room full of Elite Mooks to boot, people he considered worthy of sharing Carter's blood with, and who he wouldn't just sacrifice like that. That's why Savage didn't use it to his full power, allowing the heroes to survive.

Star City 2046

• The Reveal of who Connor Hawke really is makes sense in a lot of things. First, Diggle most likely was the one who taught him how to fight and shoot arrows. Think about it, he is the one who covers for Oliver as The Hood the most since the beginning of Arrow. Also, Connor moves very tactically compared to Oliver, which makes sense since both of his parents were officially trained by the military. His angst of failing his father also not only stems from not being able to save him, but because he likely feels that his father died thinking he hasn't learned anything from him.
• Grant Wilson. Slade never mentioned him. Why should he? Grant wasn't born yet! Slade probably had him between the time of island and season two of Arrow. This explains how young Grant is, why he's so skilled, and why he hates Oliver! He took his father from him, before he could know him.

Marooned

• Stein and Jax not fusing as Firestorm near the end of the episode. If they did, they would've likely trashed the ship they were at, and the reason they were there in the first place is to ask for help in updating Gideon and they can't do that if the ship gets damaged or if the ship's captain was caught in the crossfire.

Left Behind

• Assuming that Stable Time Loop is in play (which happened several times in the show), then it puts new light on why Ra's didn't want Sara for his daughter Nyssa. He knew even before Nyssa is born that Sara is going to leave The League of Assassins.
  • Given the revelations that Chronos is actually Mick Rory, Chronos' actions up to that point make a lot more sense, as does the fact he was overall ineffective at beating the Legends in previous episodes but here blows straight past all of Gideon's defenses and defeats the team easily during this one. Before, Chronos was simply holding back so that his former self could survive, get dropped off by Snart wherever he left him, and become Chronos. After the point in the mission this happens he no longer risks getting Retgoned and now can go all out, which he does.
• Mick Rory being a Composite Character with Chronos actually fixes a lot of the differences he has with the original Heatwave and Chronos. In the comics Chronos was just a petty criminal who stole the equipment needed to become a super-villain which is exactly how this Mick became Heatwave. Mick was convinced to join the Legends with the idea of stealing things throughout history, exactly Chronos's original MO. The only difference is Chronos is an Atom villain whereas Mick's relationship with Ray is complicated, but then consider that Ray is himself a composite character with Ted Kord. And who was his best friend? A nobody from the future who stole time traveling equipment.

The Magnificent Eight

• After being built up by Mick as The Dreaded, the Hunters go down rather easily. Mick spent a long time being brainwashed by the Time Masters, and the Hunters were the ones who would have taken him down if he went rogue. It makes sense that they'd feed him propaganda about the Hunters being unstoppable.
• Racism:
  • In contrast to the 1950s, no one gives Jax or Kendra any trouble aside from a few dirty looks. Of course they wouldn't, they came into town with a group of armed gunmen. Past a certain point, racism has to give way to common sense.
  • Also, non-white people did exist in the Old West. It wasn't quite as white as the John Ford movies would have us believe.
  • Not only that, the towns folks themselves were oppressed. Kind of hard for the town folk to be judgmental and oppressive when they know what its like to live as second class citizens under the heel of someone else. Someone who decides their worth, keeps them fearful and can decide whether they live or die. That kind of life would naturally lead to a sense of empathy for those normally ostracized and considered less.

Last Refuge

• The Time Masters ordered The Pilgrim to Ret-Gone the entire legends sans The Hawks. It makes sense in two levels, a.) Because they are cursed with Reincarnation anyways, it will be pointless. b.) There are several theories that the Time Masters are in cahoots with Savage all along. If the theories are indeed true, then they're gonna leave the killing of the Hawks for Savage as he needs to kill them himself to absorb their life force.
• If you observe carefully, The Pilgrim prefers to kidnap the strongest relatives of the Legends such as Jax's father who is/was a soldier and Leonard's Action Girl sister Lisa. It shows how savvy she is. But of the Lances, The Pilgrim chose to kidnap Quentin instead of Laurel. She actually has valid reasons. First, Quentin is obviously more physically capable than either of his daughters around 2007 as even though Laurel is/was already an Action Survivor at the time with few self-defense classes, she has yet to experience real combat and the advanced Training from Hell she received in Arrow Season 3. The other is it's not a good idea to do it in present day as compared to Lisa who is likely on her own, Laurel is likely around Team Arrow most of the time.
• The Reveal of Rip's backstory as a sleazy Street Urchin gives light on him tricking the Legends in the pilot. To survive, he must have also conned several other people in the past.

River of Time

• The revelation that the Council have been basically working for Savage all along explains so much of the series. From their initial reluctance to allow Rip to change time to why it's been so hard to locate Savage throughout history to their relentless hunt to stop the team, it all stems from the Council covering for Savage the entire time. Thus, the real battle of the season has been Rip against his own fellow Time Masters which Rip didn't even know was happening.

Destiny

• Not only did Jax give Martin the idea to slip him a "roofie" — he also provided Martin with the solution to save his life in the previous episode by sending Jax back to 2016 in the first place!

Legendary

• Vandal Savage's combat abilities seem to lessen after losing his immortality. This makes sense when one realizes Savage wasn't aware of the fact the ritual would remove it. Losing his immortality would also cost him his ability to regenerate it that's responsible for it (and any other perks stemming from it). Savage is a fantastic fighter, but he's likely not used to fighting while as vulnerable to injuries piling up on him as a normal human or having to worry about dying. Meaning the injuries the Legends inflicted on him as the fight went on probably began hindering him much more than they otherwise would because he's not used to having to deal with injuries that DON'T heal faster than normal. And since he's unaware he's no longer immortal, he doesn't realize that he NEEDS to worry about them now until it's too late.

Beebo the God of War

• Overlapping with Fridge Sadness, but Jax's efforts to save Martin were doomed from the start. Why? Because the cause of Stein's death was getting shot on Earth-X, and the Flash previously established that changing the timeline of one universe doesn't affect the timeline of another, so Stein would've been shot no matter what Jax did.

Daddy Darhkest

• Nora suddenly being so much older than she was in Arrow when only two years have passed might just be lazy writing, but consider what happened between her last appearance in Arrow and her appearance here? Flashpoint. Nora going from a little girl to a teenager is actually another example of Barry's actions causing a 'ripple effect' that led to Darhk having a child earlier than he did in canon.

Here I Go Again

• Zari's initial attempts to inform the team they were stuck in a time loop falling on deaf ears makes sense when you know it was Gideon's way of railroading her into understanding the team better.

Guest Starring John Noble

• Rip didn't just use AVA clones because they can be replaced after they die. One clone out of hundreds or thousands of exact copies is completely inconsequential to history. Who matters less than someone who can be exactly duplicated? He can take as many as he needs without corrupting the future of that timeline.

Fridge Horror:

Pilot, Part 1

• No affect on the timeline:
  • In the pilot, Rip's reasoning for going to see Dr. Boardman on that specific day in 1975 is that Boardman is fated to die the next day, minimizing whatever negative effect on the timeline the team's visit will have. This casts his decision to specifically recruit the team in January 2016 in a darker light; it's not just to align the show's in-universe timeline with its real-world airing schedule, it's because at least one of them was days, maybe hours away from death in the original timeline. For all of Rip's lies about the legendary status of the team in the future, he's giving at least one of them a chance at a future they wouldn't have had otherwise.
  • Adding to this, note that in each case, with the exception of the Hawks, they were all in the middle of a mission, fight, or robbery, all of which they had a risk of being killed during. It's very likely that all of them were about to be killed, while the Hawks were probably close to being hunted down by the revived Savage of 2016.
  • Partially confirmed in the season finale. Rip tells a tearful Sara that if he hadn't removed her from the timeline in January 2016, Damien Darhk would have eventually killed her along with her sister and father.

Star City 2046

• The Uprising, when Deathstroke II took over Star City, took place in 2031, and in the 15 years since no outside force has managed to come in and restore order to the city. Not the US Federal Government, not A.R.G.U.S., not even other metahuman superheroes. This implies that the rest of the world is such a Crapsack World in 2030s and 2040s that Star City is considered a secondary concern. Either that, or after one terrorist attack too many, the government pulled a Batman: No Man's Land and cut off Star City from the rest of the US, forbidding external intervention. The later hypothesis gains credence after the reveal in Genesis that Star City is a mystical nexus of evil that attracts trouble, which would give the authorities an actual valid reason to quarantine the place.
• Oliver claims that they might have been able to save the city with Sara and Ray's help, which seems counter to Rip's claim that they had no real effect on the timeline. Following the Fridge Horror about them dying if Rip hadn't recruited them, then that means they weren't going to be there to save Star City no matter what.

Left Behind

• So what the hell happened to Talia that she wasn't even so much as mentioned by her father or sister during their time on Arrow?
• Sara might have ruthlessly killed again around the two-year gap she rejoined The League of Assassins.

Leviathan

• So we learn that by 2166, Carter has reincarnated. Assuming that he has been constantly reincarnating since his death in 1975 (or even just since 2016, if his soul cannot reincarnate in the same era twice somehow), it means that he's spent around 150-200 years (probably a half-dozen lifetimes, if he got murdered in all of them by Savage) without finding his beloved Chay-Ara/Kendra and having absolutely no idea why she hasn't reincarnated alongside him. Maybe the lack of his soul-mate for those centuries lead to him subconsciously blocking his memories of his true identity and preventing his hawk-side from 'emerging'...making it easy for Savage to brainwash him.
• Cassandra's Heel–Face Turn may seem somewhat rushed, but it actually makes sense. Why is Leonard able to get through to her? Because both grew up with abusive fathers whom they still wanted to believe the best in, and it's clear that she honestly believes that her father is doing his best to protect and stabilize the world order. In addition, she actually states that her father made her learn to resist savage torture, no doubt by subjecting her to it. He taught her how to lie and to fight, but probably never showed her much love. In addition, she knows that the Armageddon virus killed her mother...and then she finds out who actually was responsible for unleashing that.

Destiny

• If the Time Masters have been manipulating all the events of the series — especially the ones related to Rip Hunter — then this puts Rip's statement about seeing "Men of Steel die and Dark Knights fall" into a more sinister light — were the Time Masters responsible for their deaths, as well as those of Rip's family?

Doomworld

• In the titular reality that he helped create, eagle-eyed viewers can see that Eobard Thawne has a little gold ring on his left hand. His comic counterpart tried to force Iris West into marriage; who's to say he didn't do it with the Spear of Destiny as one more middle finger to his hated enemy?

Welcome to the Jungle

• Mick's pyromania takes on a far more disturbing turn after the reveal that he uses fire to self harm. Between him burning down the house as a child, and him telling Caitlin on Arrow that the flames showed him who he really is, how likely is it that he was contemplating this as a child?

Dancing Queen

• For the "ballkick paradox"—a very, very specific application of the Grandfather Paradox—to have its own name implies that the problem of time travelers attempting to Ret-Gone themselves in that particular way is so common that they named the paradox after it!

Wet Hot American Bummer

• Ava recounts being bullied at camp as a child, this really demonstrates how horrific her backstory is. Rip presumably programed her with memories of being bullied and ostracized throughout her whole childhood so she'd grow up with No Social Skills and cling to her Jerkass Façade as a defense mechanism to the point of pushing others away and only letting in certain authority figures she really respects (I.E. Rip himself). This way she remains subservient to him and never gets close enough to someone for them to notice the inconsistences in her backstory and find the truth, as Sara eventually did.

Ship Broken

• Apparently, in the Arrowverse, the Son of Sam killer really was under the control of a demonic dog (specifically, the hellhound Marchosias). Which means that there is a man serving a life sentence for crimes he wasn't actually responsible for. And, presumably, he thinks he deserves it.

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