History Fanfic / MoralOfTheStoryNyame

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/47493463 moral of the story]]'' ([[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14238015/1/moral-of-the-story FFN Link]]) is an Series/{{Arrowverse}} {{fanfic}} by Nyame, the author of ''Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'', ''Fanfic/OneDayAtATimeNyame'', and ''Fanfic/TheHurricane''. It is an ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' Season Two [[AlternateUniverseFic canon divergent AU]], stemming from the infamous hallway scene in the episode "Time of Death".

* AdviceBackfire: Diggle constantly advising Oliver to ignore Laurel and citing her as a distraction from the latter's mission to save the city is one of the driving factors that leads to Oliver's abusive outburst towards Laurel in the hallway, the situation that led to her suicide. Felicity calls him out on it while she's quitting the team, and later on Oliver, Laurel, and even Diggle himself openly acknowledge that it was terrible advice, mainly driven by Diggle's unwarranted grudge against Laurel for Oliver choosing to help her over him during the episode "Home Invasion". When Laurel briefly visits Starling for Moira's funeral, Diggle goes out of his way to apologize for it.

* ForWantOfANail: Laurel's suicide and subsequent resurrection changes the events of the rest of the second season greatly:
** Felicity ends up quitting the team permanently and leaving Starling out of disgust for what Oliver did to Laurel, killing OTA and any chances of a relationship between Oliver and her.
** Roy and Thea never break up, as Oliver's BrokenPedestal status means Roy is much more willing to argue with him, especially in regards to his romantic life. As a result, he was able to get a bit more leeway with telling Thea what he was up to, including learning under the Arrow and having the Mirakuru injected into him. He also refused to comply with Oliver's order to break up with Thea, allowing him to remain as her emotional support.
** The Siege of Starling City never happens, as Laurel ends up killing Slade with her Canary Cry before Slade can go through with his plans. This subsequently spares Isabel Rochev and Sebastian Blood, who are merely arrested after evidence of their association with Slade and his terrorist plot come to light.
** Isabel's early arrest also means Oliver is able to regain Queen Consolidated as the majority shareholder, allowing Oliver and Thea to remain billionaires.
** Thea leaves Starling City with Laurel instead of Malcolm, as she's overall in a less emotionally vulnerable place and has somewhere and someone else to get away with. Roy later joins her after he's cured of the Mirakuru, being much less attached to the idea of being a vigilante with Oliver, even if he hasn't given up the idea of being a vigilante in itself.

** Horrible trauma does not mean you are granted the right to judge and demean other people for their own troubles just because you think they had it "easier" than you did. If you aren't willing to show other people empathy for their issues, then they will gradually lose any empathy they had for yours.
** [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse No amount of trauma excuses your previous mistakes]], especially when those mistakes involve hurting someone you care about. On top of Oliver using his own trauma to excuse abusing and neglecting Laurel and Thea, Sara tries to get out of apologizing to Laurel for betraying her by going on the ''Gambit'' with Oliver under the belief that everything she endured on the ''Amazo'' and with the League washes away her guilt. While under normal circumstances Laurel might be willing to let it slide for that very reason, her current depressed state means she needs the apology as proof that Sara cares about her. Sara withholding it is therefore proof to Laurel she ''doesn't'' care about her, and ends up one of the main factors in her suicide. This convinces the now guilt-ridden Sara she genuinely is a monster if she couldn't even scrounge up enough decency to give an apology to her own sister for betraying her, and she ends up rejoining the League to both give Laurel a second chance at life and to punish herself.

** Felicity quits both Queen Consolidated and Team Arrow and leaves Starling after Oliver's mistreatment of Laurel and how it led the latter to suicide comes to light, now viewing her former friend as a misogynistic jerk. When John tries to convince her not to go, she blows off all his attempts and delivers a ReasonYouSuckSpeech to both Oliver and him before leaving, not even bothering with a goodbye.

** Oliver has a major one after Laurel's temporary death, as the entire situation forces him to confront how his terrible treatment of Laurel is hurting her. Unfortunately for him, his attempts to make amends are rebuffed due to the damage its caused to the lives of Laurel and her family, leaving him completely unable to make up for any of it. All he can do is reform his behavior in hopes of not causing anymore pain to everyone else.

* DisasterDominoes: A single abusive outburst from Oliver leads to Laurel committing suicide. That in turn leads to a sequence of events that sees Quentin quitting his job and going OffTheWagon, Dinah fleeing Starling in shame, the ruination of Oliver's relationships with his family and the destruction of his reputation with the public, Felicity leaving the team permanently, and Sara breaking up with Oliver. For the final finishing touch, Sara ends up rejoining the League to resurrect Laurel using the Lazarus Pit, completely negating all the efforts Team Arrow went to get her released from her vow. Naturally, when the resurrected Laurel wakes up and sees all the damage Oliver's words to her caused (when the reason she committed suicide is because his words convinced her that [[SuicideForOthersHappiness everyone else in her life would be happier without her]]), she's absolutely heartbroken and furious, and, finally getting sick of his terrible treatment of her, cuts him out of her life for good. It's clear to everyone that had Oliver never said those words to Laurel (or hell, just plain not shown up at the Lance family dinner), none of this would've happened, ensuring that all the blame will fall on his shoulders.

** Horrible trauma does not mean you are granted the right to judge and demean other people for their own troubles. If you aren't willing to show other people empathy for their issues, then they will gradually lose any empathy they had for yours.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Oliver really should have known better than to shout at a depressed alcoholic who had gone through multiple traumatic experiences and had just lost one of her best friends/ex-boyfriend, her job and her reputation, which is repeatedly lampshaded by everyone.

* NeutralityBackfire: Felicity considers her decision to stay neutral in the "Laurel debate" as this, as she feels her refusal to chime in and reveal how uncomfortable she was about the way Oliver and John were talking about Laurel helped enable the sequence of events that caused the latter's suicide. She decides to remedy this by telling her former friends [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech exactly how she felt about their discussions about Laurel]] before leaving the team permanently.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of TheAtoner. The story displays that while there is nothing wrong with wanting to redeem and feel better about yourself, it shouldn't be your primary motivation for atonement, otherwise, it could quite easily morph into selfishness instead. Your primary motivation should always be the sake of someone else, usually the person/people you wronged. This is perfectly displayed with Oliver and Sara, who are attempting to redeem themselves by being "heroes"/vigilantes for the city while studiously ignoring their poor treatment of Laurel, the person they wronged most, under the mistaken belief that what they're doing in the shadows and how they suffered during their time away gives them a pass. This eventually causes Laurel to commit suicide after Oliver's abusive outburst in the hallway convinces her that they don't care about her, completely destroying any sense of atonement and redemption they once felt and instead reinforcing the idea that they are still the horrible, selfish people they were before the ''Gambit''. If they had just owned up to how they wronged her and apologized for it, the entire situation could've been avoided.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: While what Oliver and Sara went through the years they were gone was horrible, the story makes it painfully clear that Laurel is under no obligation to forgive them after they betrayed and hurt her so terribly. Their attempts to make her think otherwise (when one of them can't even give her the apology they know she deserves) instead convince her that they don't care about her or her feelings, which combined with all her other recent difficulties leads her to be DrivenToSuicide. That effectively evaporates any sympathy everyone else has for Oliver and Sara's trauma, and when Laurel is resurrected, everyone is sure not to repeat the same mistake by trying to force her into forgiving them for that too.

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: While what Oliver and Sara went through the years they were gone was horrible, the story makes it painfully clear that Laurel is under no obligation to forgive them after they betrayed and hurt her so terribly. Their attempts to make her think otherwise instead convince her that they don't care about her or her feelings, which combined with all her other recent difficulties leads her to be DrivenToSuicide. That effectively evaporates any sympathy everyone else has for Oliver and Sara's trauma, and when Laurel is resurrected, everyone is sure not to repeat the same mistake and try to force her to forgive them again.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Oliver really should have known better than to shout at a depressed alcoholic who had gone through multiple traumatic experiences and had just lost one of her best friends, her job and her reputation, which is repeatedly lampshaded by everyone.