History Fanfic / MoralOfTheStoryNyame

** 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 love of Laurel and her family, leaving him completely unable to make up for any of it.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Oliver really should have known better than to shout at a depressed alcoholic who had just lost her job and her reputation, which is repeatedly lampshaded by everyone.

-->"I wish you'd never come back from that island! We were all better off thinking you were dead!"

-->'''Sara''': I'm sorry, Laurel. For everything. [''turns to leave''] Go and live your life. Be happy. Forget about me. Just… just pretend I died on that boat, like I should've six years ago.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/47493463/chapters/119690737 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".

* 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.

** 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.

** Oliver is left emotionally shattered after realising just how much he screwed up everyone's lives, and even more so when it becomes clear there is nothing he can do to make up for it.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: A massive deconstruction. Having good intentions and secretly caring about someone is absolutely no justification for being a jerk to them, as Oliver brutally learns in this story. Especially when you don't bother to tell them about what you're doing or that you care about them. The reality is that, if you're going to act like a jerk, ''nobody'' is going to want to be around you.

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Raisa basically makes herself this for Oliver after everyone else in his life has left when he asks Diggle to leave him as well. Since Oliver can't fire Raisa without depriving her family of needed income, he has to accept her staying with him even when he feels he doesn't deserve such support, allowing Raisa to encourage him to recognise his flaws and work on fixing them.

* PoorCommunicationKills: This is the crux behind Oliver and Laurel's confrontation in the hallway. Because Oliver hasn't been making an effort to be a good friend to Laurel and be a confidant for her like she has been for him in the past, he is completely unaware of the various issues she has with her family or everything she's currently dealing with, causing him to interpret her outburst at the dinner as her acting self-centered and entitled. His "wake-up call", as a result, instead of invigorating Laurel to revaluate herself and make better choices, instead causes her to believe that everything wrong in her life, including Tommy's death and his and her family's poor treatment of her, is her own fault and [[SuicideForOthersHappiness that she needs to remove herself from their lives in order for them to be happy]]. What follows is an [[DisasterDominoes unmitigated disaster]] that sees Sara back in the League, Quentin OffTheWagon, Dinah fleeing back to Central City in shame, Oliver's civilian reputation in tatters and the man himself a guilt-ridden wreck, and a bitter and resentful Laurel washing her hands of all of them and leaving Starling City for good.

(''Oliver looks down, ashamed''.)\\
'''Moira''': (''sigh'') I love you, Oliver. I will always love you. You're my baby boy, and there is nothing in the world that you could do to change that. But right here, right now, I have never been more disappointed in you in my entire life.

'''Laurel''': (''abrupt'') Stop.\\
'''Oliver''': (''wilts'') Laurel?\\
'''Laurel''': (''beginning to cry'') Please, just stop. I can't do this. Not again.\\

'''Laurel''': You drove me to ''suicide'', Ollie. You drove me to suicide, and then you let my sister sell herself back to the cult she was doing everything in her power to get away from just to bring me back. That... (''closes her eyes, takes a deep breath'') [[LoveMartyr I have forgiven you for]] ''[[EasilyForgiven so much]]''. All the times you cheated on me. All the times you lied to me. [[AFamilyAffair Cheating on me with Sara]], taking her on the Gambit and for years letting us believe you got her killed. Abandoning me in the wake of Tommy's death. Leaving me to flounder alone while I turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with everything I'd lost. I forgave you because I loved you and honestly thought you had learned from all of that. That you were better than you were before. [[ItsAllMyFault That the fault lied with me]].\\

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. After her heart-to-heart with Oliver, Raisa insists he get therapy. The author even notes that Oliver's issues aren't because of anything inherently wrong with him, but because he has internalized a lot toxic ideas and behaviors, the kind of things that therapy is supposed to help people overcome.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Even after Oliver's mistakes basically destroy his life, Raisa is still willing to give him one of these, helping him recognise that the fact that he didn't want to have done so much damage to the people in his life shows that he at least wants to be better even if he's not sure how to go about it.

* 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. 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.
* DeconstructionFic: The story is a massive deconstruction of Oliver's abysmal treatment of Laurel Season Two and beyond, including his tendency to completely dismiss her problems as insignificant since her trauma over the past several years doesn't compare to what he went through and subordinate her feelings below his own. It shows that this is not Oliver standing up for himself, as canon tried to portray it as, but rather another example of him being a self-centered jerk who is actively using his trauma and status as a vigilante/"hero" to excuse abusing and neglecting his loved ones. Once Laurel and everyone else realize this, they begin distancing themselves from him, with Laurel herself noting that the island hasn't really changed Oliver as much as he likes to think it has, stating that he is "as selfish as [he's] ever been". This is only reinforced by his treatment of Thea after Laurel leaves Starling, as he does everything he can to hide his vigilante secret from his sister even in the face of Slade's threat to her life, up to and including trying to force Roy into breaking up with her, just so she won't shun him for it or for his time on Lian Yu. By the time Thea finds out about his secret, she no longer cares about it, as everything he's done to hide it has given her enough reason to hate him on its own.

* 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. 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''.

* CurseEscapeClause: When discussing the side-effects of the Lazarus Pits such as the feral anger that can only be ended by killing a person's killer, Laurel and others wonder but don't say out loud that Laurel never had to deal with this issue because she killed herself rather than being killed by someone else.

* IAmAMonster: After selling herself back to the League to bring Laurel BackFromTheDead, Sara declares she is this to Team Arrow (Oliver, John, and Roy), believing her part in Laurel's suicide proves what a terrible person she is and that she belongs with all the other monsters in the League.

** While the circumstances are entirely different, Sara still ends up rejoining the League.

** Oliver is left emotionally shattered after realising just how much he screwed up everyone's lives.

* 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. 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 the still horrible, selfish people they were before the ''Gambit''.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: With Laurel as the Giver and Oliver and her family as the Takers. Laurel is constantly expected to subordinate her feelings to everyone else's and support them through their troubles, while dealing with her troubles on her own without their support. And when she tries to complain about this, they label her as selfish and tell her off. It takes her ''committing suicide'' for them to recognize and regret their bad treatment of her, but by that point it's too late.

* DeconstructionFic: The story is a massive deconstruction of Oliver's abysmal treatment of Laurel Season Two and beyond, including his tendency to completely dismiss her problems as insignificant since her trauma over the past several years doesn't compare to what he went through and subordinate her feelings below his own. It shows that this is not Oliver standing up for himself, as canon tried to portray it as, but rather another example of him being a self-centered jerk who is actively using his trauma and status as a vigilante/"hero" to excuse abusing and neglecting his loved ones. Once Laurel and everyone else realizes this, they begin distancing themselves from him, with Laurel herself noting that the island hasn't really changed Oliver as much as he likes to think it has, stating that he is "as selfish as [he's] ever been". This is only reinforced with his treatment of Thea after Laurel leaves Starling, as he does everything he can to hide his vigilante secret from his sister even in the face of Slade's threat to her life, up to and including trying to force Roy into breaking up with her, just so she won't shun him for it or for his time on Lian Yu. By the time Thea finds out about his secret, she no longer cares about it, as everything he's done to hide it has given her enough reason to hate him on its own.

* HumblePie: Laurel's suicide and its aftermath proves to be this for Oliver, as it reinforces that becoming a hero and redeeming himself takes a ''lot'' more work than just giving up killing like he assumed. And because of his actions, he has made the road to redemption much, much harder.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/47493463/chapters/119690737 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/OneDayAtATimeFanfic'', 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".

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: A massive deconstruction. Having good intentions and secretly caring about someone is absolutely no justification for being a jerk to them, as Oliver brutally learns in this story.

* DisappointingOlderSibling: The story also deconstructs Oliver's treatment of Thea in the latter half of Season Two, pointing out that Oliver's actions during that season made him into an absolutely terrible brother for her. Between accidentally driving Laurel to suicide and causing Sara to sell herself back to the League just to bring Laurel BackToLife, keeping the danger Slade posed to them all secret from Moira and her (which led to Slade blindsiding them and ''killing Moira''), and blackmailing her boyfriend into lying to her using his condition as an unwilling super soldier, at one point even trying to force Roy to break up with her, Thea understandably has an extremely low opinion of Oliver. When she learns that he ignored Laurel's suspicions about Blood because of the latter's addiction issues (the same issues that he would accidentally drive Laurel to suicide over weeks later), another thing that indirectly contributed to Moira's death, Thea has enough and can't stand to be around Oliver anymore if he's going to act like this, so she goes to Gotham to join [[CoolBigSis Laurel]] instead.

** A more concrete example is Roy's attitude towards Oliver, which notably cools after having to comfort Thea over Laurel's suicide. While he's still willing to learn Oliver in order to control the Mirakuru, he no longer idolizes Oliver and it shows.

* DoubleStandard: Lampshaded by Laurel. When others in her life struggle and need help, she's required to be their confidant and help them through their problems. But when it's ''her'' turn to struggle and need help, they disparage and ignore her, telling her to deal with her problems on her own, and labelling her selfish and entitled when she gets angry. It isn't until after her resurrection that Laurel realizes how messed up this is.

** While still angry at Oliver, Sara also blames herself for what happened, thoroughly convinced her return was the cause of Laurel's suicide and that she should have never come back. The reality is far more complicated.

** Oliver himself also a victim of this, as he interpreted Laurel's outburst as an act of spite rather than what it really was: a desperate cry for help and a desire for proof that her family actually cared about her. It didn't help that he lacked context about the situation, namely the fact the the abuse Laurel's parents had been putting her through the past five years over Sara's death. When he finally gets all the information, he openly acknowledges that he should have never tried to force Laurel to reconcile with her family and that he would've handled Laurel's reunion with Sara very differently had he known.

** Oliver himself also a victim of this, as he interpreted Laurel's outburst as an act of spite rather than what it really was: a desperate cry for help and a desire for proof that her family actually cared about her. It didn't help that he lacked context about the situation, namely the fact the the abuse Laurel's parents had been putting her through the past five years over Sara's death. When he finally gets all the information, he openly acknowledges that he should have never forced Laurel to reconcile with her family and that he would've handled Laurel's reunion with Sara very differently had he known.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: As an attempt to reconcile with Laurel after her resurrection, a drunk Quentin tries to make Laurel [[ParentalFavoritism his new favorite child]] and begins disparaging Sara instead. He fails to realize that this isn't what Laurel wanted at all; she just wanted her family, ''including'' Sara, to show that they cared about her too and to have her parents treat both of their daughters equally. Therefore, his actions have the exact opposite effect in that it just ends up driving Laurel further away from him.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: With Laurel as the Giver and Oliver and her family as the Takers. Laurel is constantly expected to subordinate her feelings to everyone else's and support them to their troubles, while dealing with her troubles on her own without their support. And when she tries to complain about this, they label her as selfish and tell her off. It takes her ''committing suicide'' for them to recognize and regret their bad treatment of her, but by that point it's too late.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Part of the motivation for Laurel's outburst at the family dinner was a desperate desire to have at least one of the people present prove they still cared about her and her feelings. After her suicide, she finally gets her proof... [[HeroicSacrifice in the form of her sister Sara trading herself back to the League of Assassins]] in exchange for being allowed to use the Lazarus Pit to bring Laurel BackFromTheDead. Laurel does not take any of this well ''at all'', and while she rightfully blames Oliver for what happened, a part of her can't help but blame herself as well.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: As an attempt to reconcile with Laurel after her resurrection, a drunk Quentin tries to make Laurel [[ParentalFavoritism his new favorite child]] and begins disparaging Sara instead. He fails to realize that this isn't what Laurel wanted at all; she just wanted her family, ''including'' Sara, to show that they cared about her too and to have her parents treat both of their daughters equally. Therefore, his actions have the exact opposite effect in that it just ends driving Laurel further away from him.