YMMV / Arrow S 5 E 23 Lian Yu

• Crack Pairing: People started shipping Deathstroke and Black Siren after this episode for some reason.
• Critical Dissonance: A variant. Many Critics described it as the best episode of Arrow, with some even giving it perfect ratings. While fans generally agree that's it's a great episode, it still has its flaws and controversies.
• Evil Is Cool: The episode is literally a showcase of many of the most badass villains in the show's history.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Slade really seems to have made a genuine Heel–Face Turn, which just makes his son Grant's future monstrous actions all the more tragic, as if an Arrowverse version of Kylo Ren.
• He Really Can Act: As per usual Stephen Amell gets to shine in this episode as Oliver's desperation to rescue William from Chase is made palpable (especially when they are all on the boat together). However he really gets to shine in his phone call with Moira wherein Amell and Susanna Thompson get to show of some truly impressive emotion after being reunited after so long. Many consider this phone call to be one of the episodes finest moments in an already impressive episode.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • The finale ended on a major cliffhanger just like the finales for "Legends" and "The Flash"; it's kind of repetitive for all three shows to use the same plot device.
  • Oliver's arc is not unlike Barry's. Both of them were sorely tempted to kill their much-hated Arch Enemies (which their enemies want) but don't; they also both move forward from their issues — for Oliver it's his father's death, for Barry his mom's death. And unfortunately for both heroes defeating the villain doesn't remotely solve all their problems.
  • All three of the CW shows, Supergirl, Flash, and Arrow, did a recap of the entire year, leading up to the setup of the season finale. After the first two, viewers were expecting it one last time.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The episode's biggest draws are Deathstroke, Black Siren, Prometheus, the Al-Ghul sisters, and the Grand Finale of the flashbacks.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Despite John Barrowman confirming he's not coming back next season, few believe that Malcolm is really dead. Not only has he managed to escape what seemed like certain death before, but there's also the fact we don't see his corpse. After all he is the Magician and a multiple magnitude Karma Houdini. Weeks after the episode aired, the production team admitted that John has an open invitation to return to the franchise any time he wants.
  • Would the writers really kill their entire cast minus the main character and his son? Especially since the crew had already revealed Black Siren would be in Season 6 despite her being in one of the worst positions for survival of everyone on the island.
• One-Scene Wonder: Susanna Thompson makes a memorable cameo as Moira Queen in the final flashback.
• Rooting for the Empire: A number of fans are actually Team Prometheus given that they are composed of cool and fan-favorite (except Evelyn) villainous characters.
• Spoiled by the Format: On March 29th, Marc Guggenheim said that as long as he's involved with the show they will never kill off Thea, meaning she at least will survive the explosion. On April 13th it was confirmed that Rick Gonzalez (Rene) and Juliana Harkavy (Dinah) were being upgraded to series regulars for season 6, meaning it's unlikely they died on the island. Since they were all last seen as a single group, that by extension means they all likely survived. Even more amazingly, Katie Cassidy is confirmed to be a series regular as Black Siren in Season 6 way before those two^note In fact she's the first regular announced for the following season next to Stephen Amell himself, despite her survival seeming even more unlikely.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Several of them.
  • Evelyn gets defeated pretty unceremoniously and left behind in a cage (possibly to die in the explosion at the end).
  • Malcolm seemingly finally dies and in a pretty unspectacular Dropped a Bridge on Him way too.
  • Dinah gets defeated by Black Siren, with her giving her some trash talk on the ridiculousness of trying to replace her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • A fight between Black Canary and Black Siren would've been even more awesome if it was Laurel vs. Laurel.
  • Many fans were hoping that Black Siren would pull a Heel–Face Turn and join Team Arrow, since she seemed troubled by Quentin's rejection of her in the previous episode. She doesn't and indeed it's Quentin who takes her out. Although it had already been announced that she would be a regular character in Season 6, so there's still time.
• Win Back the Crowd: Like this entire season, this episode has proven phenomenally popular, with many critics even citing this as one of the best season finales, if not one of the best episodes period, in the show's history.