History YMMV / Arrow

%% * {{Adorkable}}: Felicity. At times, even Oliver. And with Barry, adorkableness-squared when he's in the same room with Felicity.

** Damien Darhk has his fair share of fans thanks to his [[LaughablyEvil hilarious personality]] and for essentially being a Bond villain with magic powers.

** Malcolm Merlyn, both for his [[SharpDressedMan sharp]] [[BadassInANiceSuit attire]] and for being played by Creator/JohnBarrowman.
** Thanks to Creator/ManuBennett's performance, Slade Wilson is this for some, particularly for his BadassBaritone and [[TragicVillain tragic backstory]].

** Considering that all of the terrible thing that happens to Oliver in the first season's flashbacks was all her fault, how she unnecessary forced Oliver to work for her in the third season's flashbacks, all the terrible things she did while running task force x, and she tried to nuke Starling City, [[spoiler:seeing Joyner shoot Waller in the face can come as a huge relief]].

** In the Japanese dub, Creator/SatoshiHino voices ''the archer'' Oliver, who also previously voiced [[LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero Saito Hiiraga]]: [[spoiler: In the first season of ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'', Saito almost got killed by a '''RainOfArrows''']].

** Some fans were disappointed that there wasn't a confrontation between Oliver's half sisters Thea and Emiko in season seven due to the former being PutOnABus the previous season.

* AlasPoorScrappy:
** Well technically, it's more of "Alas, Poor BaseBreakingCharacter," but since said character hadn't fully been RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap for some fans they still qualify for this. While many people had their reasons to dislike [[spoiler:Laurel Lance/Black Canary]] due to her AdaptationalWimp and frequent UnintentionallyUnsympathetic behaviour, [[spoiler:her death at the hands of Damien Darhk in order for him to remind Team Arrow (and the audience) that he's still a serious threat]] sent the internet ''ballistic''. To this day it's still one of the most universally-despised writing decisions in the history of the entire show, to the point that the showrunners brought back Katie Cassidy as a series regular in Season Six as Black Siren and subsequently redeemed her over the next two seasons and made her the new Black Canary just to quell the outrage.
** The controversy around Felicity's character still continued until Creator/EmilyBettRickards' leaving of the series after the Season 7 finale. However, even the most die-hard Olicity haters found themselves sympathizing with Felicity [[spoiler:when her husband was taken from her by the Monitor, with him ''directly confirming'' that Oliver will not survive the impending crisis. This means that she is now left all alone to raise her daughter, just after retiring from superheroics, settling down and starting a normal life. Made even worse with the final FlashForward scene, where she (after more than 20 years) willingly goes with the Monitor just to be TogetherInDeath with her husband.]]

*** Felicity breaking up with Oliver because he hid William from her. Was she being unsympathetic because he did it because of Samantha's ultimatum and Felicity broke up with him barely a day after Oliver discovered the truth in the original timeline? Or was Felicity justifiably hurt as Oliver could easily have lied to the unreasonable Samantha instead of his fiancee? Also Felicity hiding the fact she was helping Team Arrow while living a normal life with Oliver. Was it because Felicity wanted to allow Oliver a peace of mind to recover and put her own wants on the backburner but Diggle, Laurel and Thea really needed her help so she was trying to keep them happy and Oliver guilt-free? Or was she just being a hypocrite and secret keeping herself? (And in Season 3 she knew both the Atom and Team Arrow at the same time yet kept them secret from each other.) Felicity's character is a big YMMV

*** Felicity breaking up with Oliver because he hid William from her. Was she being unsympathetic because he did it because of Samantha's ultimatum and Felicity broke up with him barely a day after Oliver discovered the truth in the original timeline? Or was Felicity justifiably hurt as Oliver could easily have lied to the unreasonable Samantha instead of his fiancee? Also Felicity hiding the fact she was helping Team Arrow while living a normal life with Oliver. Was it because Felicity wanted to allow Oliver a peace of mind to recover and put her own wants on the backburner but Diggle, Laurel and Thea really needed her help so she was trying to keep them happy and Oliver guilt-free? Or was she just being a hypocrite and secret keeping herself? (And in Season 3 she knew both the Atom and Team Arrow at the same time yet kept them secret from each other.) Felicity's character is a big YMMV.
*** After ''Crisis on Earth-X'', a lot of people question whether or not Felicity truly loves Oliver or [[LovingAShadow loves the idea of being the Green Arrow's significant other]]. This is because during the crossover, Eobard Thawne gave her a ReasonYouSuckSpeech revealing that [[TakeThatScrappy no one remembers her in the heroic tales of Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the Flash]], inadvertently casting a very dark pall over her actions from then out. Felicity, who had spent the majority of her screen time during the crossover bitching about how she didn't want to marry Oliver, then changed her mind at the end and [[NeverLiveItDown tacked on their wedding to Barry and Iris']], going as far as to interrupt ''their wedding vows''. Many strongly believe she did this because she wanted to be remembered as the Green Arrow's wife rather than any earnest desire to marry Oliver. Considering the sheer selfishness of the act, this interpretation of her actions was not entirely rooted in the bias her already sizable hatedom had against her.

*** After ''Crisis on Earth-X'', a lot of people question whether or not Felicity truly loves Oliver or [[LovingAShadow loves the idea of being the Green Arrow's significant other]]. This is because during the crossover, Eobard Thawne gave her a ReasonYouSuckSpeech revealing that [[TakeThatScrappy no one remembers her in the heroic tales of Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the Flash]], inadvertently casting a very dark pall over her actions from then out. Felicity, who had spent the majority of her screen time during the crossover bitching about how she didn't want to marry Oliver, then changed her mind at the end and [[NeverLiveItDown tacked on their wedding to Barry and Iris']], going as far as to interrupt ''their wedding vows''. Considering the sheer selfishness of the act, this interpretation of her actions was not entirely rooted in the bias her already sizable hatedom had against her.

** Tommy's a guy with good intentions but at every turn, people just seem to shoot him down and don't look at what he's trying to be. For starters, he loses his best friend to a shipwreck, and when he goes to Hong Kong to find him, he gets kidnapped by said best friend as part of a plot to cover up the fact that he's still alive. His dad cuts him off from his trust fund, without so much as an advance warning, purely because he's fed up with Tommy being a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob, which in a positive turn of events, leads to Tommy moving in with Laurel and taking a job at Oliver's club. Only ''that'' all blows up in his face when [[spoiler: he learns that Oliver is the Hood]], as he can't look at his best friend since childhood anymore and his own insecurities in comparison to Ollie result in him breaking up with Laurel because he thinks that if Laurel knew what he knew, she'd return to Ollie without a second thought. [[spoiler: Oh, and his dad is also the BigBad.]] Worse, when Ollie himself tells Tommy to go see Laurel, he sees them making out. Any attempt he makes to become a better person is shot down! And to top it all off, [[spoiler: he dies in the Season One finale... by an earthquake caused by his dad. However, he got an opportunity of finding happiness since his death was undone and he got to marry Laurel]].

* HamAndCheese: Much like Season 3, Season 4's reception has been somewhat mixed (compared to the positive reception for the first two seasons), but many reviewers have consistently praised Creator/NealMcDonough's hammy performance as the season's BigBad, while also not being afraid to criticize how the character is ''written''. It is likely that the character's charismatic portrayal was a direct response to the generally negative reception for [[Comicbook/RasAlGhul the Season 3 main antagonist]], who was often considered a [[FlatCharacter dull and boring character]].

[[Recap/LegendsOfTomorrowS1E10Progeny "Progeny"]][[note]]Hired Ray's brother & allowed Ray's A.T.O.M. tech to be perverted by the defence industry[[/note]], "

** Damien Darhk, despite being a BaseBreakingCharacter, has his share of fans for his [[LaughablyEvil hilarious personality]] and for essentially being a Bond villain with magic powers.

** Helena Bertinelli/Huntress was not very popular when she first debuted, being seen by many as a blatant Catwoman {{Expy}}. However, as the series entered some SeasonalRot later on, not helped by the addition of several [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive characters]], she became one of the most missed characters on the show since her departure, along with the likes of Walter Steele, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, and Thea Queen [[spoiler: (Tommy Merlyn, Moira Queen, and Laurel Lance, too, if you count dead characters).]]

** Helena Bertinelli/Huntress was not very popular when she first debuted, being seen by many as a blatant ComicBook/Catwoman {{Expy}}. However, as the series entered some SeasonalRot later on, not helped by the addition of several [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive characters]], she became one of the most missed characters on the show since her departure, along with the likes of Walter Steele, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, and Thea Queen [[spoiler: (Tommy Merlyn, Moira Queen, and Laurel Lance, too, if you count dead characters).]]

** Back during Season 1 and 2 Laurel was seen as TheScrappy due to her DramaQueen tendencies and constantly being a DamselInDistress, to say nothing of her descent into alcoholism and drug addiction during Season 2. These days, when people re-watch these seasons they view her in a more positive light, as these trials helped developed her into the Black Canary and put everything into perspective. Granted, part of this is NostalgiaFilter, due to [[spoiler:Laurel's premature and ''widely'' despised death in Season 4]].
** Helena Bertinelli/Huntress was not popular when she debuted, but she becomes one of the most missed characters in the show since her departure along with the likes of Walter Steele, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, and Thea Queen (Tommy Merlyn, Moira Queen, and Laurel Lance, too, if you count dead characters).

** The rivalry popped up again when [[spoiler:Deathstroke's cameo]] in ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'' meant Slade having to be written out of ''Arrow'', leading to his whole character arc having to be [[AbortedArc aborted]].

* LoveToHate: Prometheus, [[spoiler: aka Adrian Chase/Simon Morrison]] once he's de-masked. His arrogance and smarminess, combined with his [[TheSociopath sociopathy]], make for a very hateable yet entertaining antagonist.

** Felicity/Oliver shippers have been at war with comic!Oliver/Black Canary shippers since the beginning of the third season, as ''Arrow'' moved further away from the source material and towards Felicity. The Olicity fandom's tendency to ''celebrate'' the deaths of Sara and ''especially'' Laurel and their often antagonistic attitude towards comic fans helped contribute to the overall toxic reputation of the ''Arrow'' fandom at large, and it's not helped by Olicity fans mocking the comics for the [[DorkAge late 2000s comics which soiled the Canary/Arrow ship]] while ignoring the much better written depictions of them, as if ''Arrow'' itself doesn't have it's own share of CanonDiscontinuity or share of toxic moments between Oliver and Felicity. It's gotten to the point that the most vocal of Felicity's hatedom are comic!Black Canary fans who have taken more issue with her fandom then the character herself.

*** By an extension of that is Laurel's character. Back during Season 1 and 2 Laurel was seen as TheScrappy due to her DramaQueen tendencies and constantly being a DamselInDistress, to say nothing of her descent into alcoholism and drug addiction during Season 2. These days, when people re-watch these seasons they view her in a more positive light, as these trials helped developed her into the Black Canary and put everything into perspective. Granted, part of this is NostalgiaFilter, due to [[spoiler:Laurel's premature and ''widely'' despised death in Season 4]].
*** Helena Bertinelli/Huntress was not popular when she debuted, but she becomes one of the most missed characters in the show since her departure along with the likes of Walter Steele, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, and Thea Queen (Tommy Merlyn, Moira Queen, and Laurel Lance, too, if you count dead characters).

* MemeticLoser: Curtis constantly gets the short end of the stick in the fandom on how useless he is.

* MemeticBadass:
** Slade, while plenty Badass in his own right, seems to get this treatment from the fandom.
** Prometheus is always [[MemeticMutation ten steps ahead]], and knows ''everything'' about ''everyone''.
** In a rare negative case of this trope, Felicity. Her hacking skills are talked up as borderline (nay, above) god-like but it's mainly by those who consider her a CreatorsPet.
* MemeticLoser:
** Curtis constantly gets the short end of the stick in the fandom on how useless he is.
** Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle's tenure as showrunners are a subject of jokes and mockery among the fandom.

** A behind-the-scenes photo from the [[Recap/ArrowS8E10Fadeout series finale]] posted by Creator/EchoKellum on his Instagram that shows [[spoiler:[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/grant-gustin-next-to-oliver-queens-grave Grant Gustin making the peace sign next to Oliver Queen's grave]]]]. This one in particular has taken off well outside the ''Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}'' fandom to the point where it's now a mainstream meme template, making it almost certainly the most popular and widespread meme to come from not just ''Arrow'' but the entire ''Arrowverse''.

** A behind-the-scenes photo from the [[Recap/ArrowS8E10Fadeout series finale]] posted by Creator/EchoKellum on his Instagram that shows [[spoiler:[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/grant-gustin-next-to-oliver-queens-grave Grant Gustin making the peace sign next to Oliver Queen's grave]]]]. This one in particular has taken off well outside the ''Franchise/{{Arrowverse}}'' fandom to the point where it's now a mainstream meme template.

** "[[CriticalResearchFailure Scimitar, another big DC universe character]]" [[note]]Statement by Wendy Mericle, a [[WordOfGod writer for the show]], despite there being no such character existing in DC comics[[/note]].

* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://www.withanaccent.com/2018/06/08/white-feminism-is-killing-the-arrowverse With An Accent]] feels that ''Arrow'' suffers from "white feminism" and does a disservice to women of color, either by [[RaceLift whitewashing them]] or by showing them as unsympathetic villains most of the time.

** ''Felicity'' ''Smoak''. She gets this so bad that she might as well be the trope codifier. In Seasons 1 and 2, she was an {{Adorkable}} IT Girl and the source of a lot of the show's humor. As of the third season, she has taken on several of the traits that once led to Laurel and Thea being polarizing, is consistently depicted as being in the right, and has had large amount of screen-time dedicated to her subplots. In comparison, Diggle (Oliver's [[TheLancer longest running ally]]) only received a proper subplot in Season 4 because it was tied so closely to the main plot. The showrunners and most of the writers openly acknowledge that she's their favorite character. This treatment continued until Season 6, even as Felicity became more controversial and was already TheScrappy for many.

* EvilIsCool: All of the {{Big Bad}}s have their own impressive badass cred.

** ComicBook/RasAlGhul is, as ever, a WarriorPoet of the highest order, leads a cabal of assassins, and [[HeroKiller damn near]] ''[[HeroKiller killed]]'' Oliver in their first duel [[CurbStompBattle with ease]].

** Thanks to Creator/ManuBennett's performance, Slade Wilson is this for some, particularly for having a BadassBaritone and being somewhat of a TragicVillain.

** Malcolm Merlyn in Season 3 has been downgraded from the CrazyPrepared man he was in Season 1 to a DirtyCoward willing to idiotically sacrifice the daughter he wants to love in order to save himself, and eventually sinks low enough to [[VillainWantsMercy beg for his life]] in front of Ra's al Ghul. While things turn out quite well for him, during Season 4 [[spoiler:Oliver [[CurbStompBattle quite effortlessly beats him]] in a fight. This one's at least justified though as Oliver had spent weeks being trained intensively with Ra's Al Ghul in preparation for him to succeed him, so Ollie being a bigger badass at this point makes sense]].

** Malcolm Merlyn, both for his [[SharpDressedMan sharp]] [[BadassInANiceSuit attire]] and for being played by John Barrowman.
** [[spoiler:Beneath his mask, Prometheus is played by the TallDarkAndHandsome Josh Segarra.]]
** Black Siren, an especially good example, since she's played by the same actress as Earth-1 Laurel, but she's still much, ''much'' sexier.

** Malcolm Merlyn in Season 3 has been downgraded from the CrazyPrepared man he was in Season 1 to a coward willing to idiotically sacrifice the daughter he wants to love in order to save himself, and eventually sinks low enough to beg for his life in front of Ra's al Ghul. While things turn out quite well for him, but during Season 4 [[spoiler:Oliver quite effortlessly beats him in a fight. This one's at least justified though as Oliver had spent weeks being trained intensively with Ra's Al Ghul in preparation for him to succeed him, so Ollie being a bigger badass at this point makes sense]].
** Slade Wilson became this in season 3 where he is defeated by Oliver and Thea in one episode (which is also the only appearance he has for the entire season), which was bad enough to the point even his actor complained about it and didn't use Slade to his full potential.