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Captain Sara Lance

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sara_lance_1.jpg
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arrowverse_white_canary.png
Click here to see her as The Canary
"Today is the day we earn the name "Legends"! Now... how do we sneak out the back?

Species: Human note 

Known Aliases: The Canary, Ta-er al-Sahfer (الطائر الأصفر), White Canary, The Paragon of Destiny

Affiliations: The League of Assassins, Team Arrow, The Legends

Played By: Caity Lotz, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Arrow Pilot only and pictures throughout Season One), Emily Murden (young)

Appearances: Arrow | Legends of Tomorrow | Invasion!note  | Crisis on Earth-X note  | Crisis on Infinite Earths

"I was an assassin. I was dead, now I'm the captain of a friggin' time ship. One thing remains the same. I'm still a sore loser."

The younger sister of Laurel Lance a.k.a. Black Canary. Sara was thought to have died on the Queen's Gambit when it sunk, she was actually rescued by the crew of the Amazo, where she became a reluctant participant in Dr. Anthony Ivo's experiments. She was later found and recruited by the League of Assassins, which she later left. After Malcolm Merlyn's attack on the Glades, Sara returns to Star(ling) City, becomes a vigilante known as the Canary, and reunites with Oliver and her family.

After being killed by Thea Queen (sedated and under Malcolm Merlyn's orders), then resurrected by the Lazarus Pit a year later, she joins Rip Hunter's team of "Legends" which he formed to kill Vandal Savage and prevent his reign of terror in the future. Before leaving, Laurel convinced her to go to deal with the bloodlust that she formed after reviving, giving her a new outfit and telling her to "be the White Canary". Unfortunately, just before defeating Savage for good, Sara went back home to her father, where she learned of her sister's demise at the hands of Damien Darhk.

When Rip Hunter went missing after a mission gone wrong, Sara was chosen by her teammates to lead them for the time being, which became permanent following Rip's return and then resignation. Leadership for her was difficult to maintain, as she attempted to confront Darhk at various points throughout history to kill him so she could save Laurel, as well as him joining a nefarious Legion with other time-travelling villains. Ultimately, when restoring history with the Spear of Destiny, she was able to say goodbye to her sister and allowed Damien to live out his life until his death at the hands of Oliver Queen.

Afterward, due to creating a reality warping paradox by having the Legends travel back and time and warn themselves to prevent the Legion's victory, the Legends briefly disbanded only to discover anachronisms throughout time and a demon named Mallus who sought to escape his prison. After begrudgingly teaming up with Rip's new organization, the Time Bureau, and even starting a relationship with one of their elite members, Ava Sharpe, she and the Legends fixed their mistakes... only to create a new one.

John Constantine, the man who helped retrieve her soul after being revived, tells her that the Legends opened a rift that held magical entities called "Fugitives". With his own demons (literally and metaphorically) to deal with being tied into it, John decided to tag along and help them capture them. In the end, the Legends created "Heyworld", where the Fugitives could live in harmony with humans, changing the future for the better. However, a woman whom John condemned to Hell decided to resurrect its most evil and notorious souls throughout history, causing Sara and her team to once again fix what's been broken.

see Arrowverse: Earth-2 to see her Earth-2 counterpart
see Arrowverse: Other Earths page to see her Earth-16 counterpart
see Arrowverse: Earth-X to see her Earth-X counterpart

    open/close all folders 

    A-C 
  • Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, the character who bears the name White Canary is a definite villain, but on this show, Sara, who has only been heroic (if somewhat damaged) on-screen, assumes the identity.
  • Adaptational Modesty: The White Canary costume is far more conservative than Sara's previous one, which had a prominent cleavage. Interestingly, the White Canary costume of the show is actually an inversion of the one from the comics. It's later averted.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: The comic White Canary, being Asian, has black hair and brown eyes.
  • All Gays are Promiscuous: A Rare Female Example; in Legends of Tomorrow, Sara sleeps around with a lot of women, and will even risk her own life by chasing tail in time periods when this is hazardous to her health, like 1950s America. Or 1693 Salem!
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: If her relationship with Oliver is any indication. Judging by her past with Nyssa, this extends to bad girls as well. In season one of Legends of Tomorrow, Sara even mentions that she dated many juvenile delinquents.
  • Always Someone Better:
    • After her (temporary) death, Laurel really has a lot to live up to when she starts donning her sister's mask.
    • And then inverted, at least in-universe, when Laurel dies in season 4 of Arrow. Even though she is a better fighter, it become clear that Sara always views herself as inferior to Laurel in everything else.
  • Amazon Chaser: Sara's not exactly picky, but she's shown an attraction to Action Girls, having a relationship with Nyssa, describing Supergirl as "kind of hot", and sharing a kiss with Guinevere. Ironically, she has sex with Alex Danvers before really finding out that she's a badass. She later dates Ava while previously having antagonized and engaged in combat with her.
  • And Starring: From season 4 onward, she is credited as "Special Guest Star" in Arrow.
  • Animal Motif: She loved canaries long before she joined the League of Assassins.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: In the past, her relationship with Laurel didn't seem to be particularly good. When she's revealed to be alive, an alcoholic Laurel completely rejects her. However, they do become closer after Laurel starts going to AA meetings, and she discovers Sara's vigilante identity.
  • Anti-Hero: While more lighthearted than she was before, Sara is still willing to kill or Shoot the Dog if she has to, nearly sniping Stein in the 1980's to prevent Savage from being able to create more of Firestorm.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • To Damien Darhk. She develops a burning hatred for him after he killed her sister Laurel in season four of Arrow, spending the first few episodes plotting to kill a past version of him. Once Darhk is brought Back from the Dead in Season Three of Legends, she makes several attempts to kill him and also wishes to prolong his suffering. Even when he becomes an ally of the Legends, she refuses to fully forgive him.
    • To Malcolm Merlyn. Aside from Darhk, Merlyn is a very personal enemy to her, due to their heavy history together and Malcolm being responsible for Sara's life turning out the way it was, not to mention having a hand in Laurel's death. She's frequently paired in fights with him throughout Season Two of Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Arc Symbol: Ever since the yacht incident, water has consistently been an important factor in her life. She was nearly drowned twice (said incident included), and was saved both times by people who will eventually teach her to become tougher and stronger. When she was really killed, she was resurrected in the waters of the Lazarus Pit.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Ta-er al-Sahfer doesn't really translate to "canary", it actually translates to "yellow bird". The actual Arabic word for "canary" is a loanword that is pronounced exactly like "canary".
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Becomes leader of the Legends in Season Two thanks to being their best fighter and strategist.
  • The Atoner: Like Oliver, she carries guilt and regret over her actions as a killer since Lian Yu and part of her motivation for joining the Legends is to redeem herself by becoming as Laurel puts it, "a hero in the light."
  • Back for the Dead: She leaves Starling City at the end of Season 2 of Arrow, only to come back in the Season 3 premiere, where she is unceremoniously killed to push Laurel's story and Character Development.
  • Back from the Dead: Has happened so many times it's treated as the norm for her.
    • She survived the sinking of the Queen's Gambit, much to Oliver's surprise. Then she survived the collapse and sinking of the Amazo freighter, being saved by Nyssa al Ghul. After her death in the Season Three premiere, she's revived a year later via the Lazarus Pit.
    • She dies in Central City when Vandal Savage destroyed the city is undone when Barry undoes that timeline.
    • She gets killed by a Brainwashed and Crazy Rip strangling her to death, but is Not Quite Dead and gets revived by Gideon's medical technology.
    • She along with the rest of the Legends get Devoured by the Horde when up against Atropos' Zombie Apocalypse, but are later revived by Charlie when the Fates rewrite reality.
    • She is killed by an alien hybrid Amelia Earhart and transferred into a cloned alien hybrid body by Bishop.
  • Badass Biker: She's frequently seen riding motorcycles, Sara is easily one of the best fighters and martial artists in the entire Arrowverse.
  • Badass Boast: In the second part of the Legends of Tomorrow Pilot, she claims she could kick the asses of a bunch of "70s rent-a-cops" in her sleep, much less while stoned.
  • Badass Family: She and her sister are Action Girls while their dad is Da Chief and the Arrowverse's answer to Commissioner Gordon.
  • Badass Longcoat: Her White Canary costume includes a trenchcoat, though she rarely wears it. She also fights while being Pretty in Mink during the early episodes of Legends.
  • Badass Normal: One of the greatest examples in the entire Arrowverse, second only to Oliver when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. She gets by solely with the skills picked up from her Training from Hell from a well-renowned Murder, Inc.. Though she edges away from the normal side of things with the revelation of her supernatural bloodlust and affinity for death due to being resurrected by the Lazarus Pit, which is why the Death Totem and Mallus both show such interest in her. By the time of Season Five she has fully transitioned to Empowered Badass Normal where she gains seer powers from Atropos. While she loses those abilities by the end of the season, her new body after her latest death in S6 comes with a Healing Factor along with other Bizarre Alien Biology such as being able to fall pregnant from a woman.
  • Badasses Wear Bandanas: She wears a black bandanna during the black market operation in the second episode of Legends.
  • Baritone of Strength: Her voice is notably deeper than most of the female cast at times. Doubly so as the Canary, where she used a voice-changer like Oliver that gave her an even deeper one.
  • Battle Couple: When she and Oliver fight together. Also was one with Nyssa Al-Ghul during her time with the League of Assassins, as confirmed in "Unthinkable". Then with Ava Sharpe after the two become an item in Legends.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Sara "Lance" was the inspiration behind Lancelot.
  • Being Good Sucks: When Sara runs into a time-displaced Damien Darhk she is left with the choice of either letting Laurel's killer live or risk changing the timeline in unknown ways by killing him. Ultimately she puts Darhk back into his proper timeline knowing that he will eventually kill her sister and has to live with the fact that she could use the Waverider to stop him but ultimately can't.
  • Beleaguered Boss: Sara is this to the Legends, a team of B-List outcast superheroes and failed villains. Once Sara is put in charge she finds herself as the long-suffering mother hen who has to deal with the Legends antics and keep them in check.
  • Berserk Button: Sara is normally levelheaded and practical on missions but whenever Damien Darhk is brought up, she loses it. It won't matter the situation or location, if she learns that he is near, Sara will drop everything and try to kill him. Even as Legends of Tomorrow gets Denser and Wackier, if you want to feel like you’re back in Arrow real fast, let Darhk show up and Sara find out about it. Since he is the one who killed her sister, Laurel, it's understandable.
  • The Berserker: As a side effect of being resurrected via the Lazarus Pit, she's afflicted with a bloodlust causing her to fly into an uncontrollable berserker rage in combat. She departs Star City and Team Arrow to find a way to deal with it and struggling to overcome it forms much of her arc in the first season of Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Sara is a very fun-loving, nice young woman. And a trained (by Ra's Al-Ghul, no less) assassin with a notable body count.
  • Bifurcated Weapon: Her weapons of choice are two Telescoping Staffs that she can detach if she wants to go Dual Wielding.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Shows up out of nowhere and saves Roy at the end of "City of Heroes".
    • She does it again twice in "Broken Dolls", once to save Oliver from the cops and later to stop a fleeing Barton Mathis.
    • In "Lost Canary", she shows up completely out of the bluenote  to assist Dinah in fighting Black Siren and Shadow Thief. Using her sister's modified Canary Cry device, no less.
  • The Big Gal: She's one of the Legend's go-to girls when it comes to melee.
  • Big Little Sister: Her original actress, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, is taller (5'8) than Laurel's actress, Katie Cassidy (5'7 1/2). No longer the case after Caity Lotz (5'6) takes over.
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows: Both Jacqueline MacInnes Wood and Caity Lotz have thick eyebrows (the former more so).
  • Big Sister Worship: She adores Laurel and, despite her flaws, always considers her the better sibling of the two. Since her return to Starling City, Sara views her tryst with Oliver as her greatest failure and doesn't object when Laurel accuses her of stealing her future with Oliver.
  • Birds of a Feather: With Oliver Queen, both before and after their time on the island.
  • Blind Seer: Becomes this during season 5’s endgame. When one of the Fates from Greek mythology tries to dispose of her by revealing her true form (most who see a god in their true form die screaming) Sara is instead struck blind but gains the ability to see the fate of anyone she touches. The bigger mystery of it all is just what makes Sara - who has no powers, just mad fighting skills - able to withstand the sight and even apparently gain a portion of her power.
  • Body Backup Drive: Technically, Sara Lance is dead for real, courtesy of the Zaguron poison. The Sara running around now is a genetically enhanced clone that has all of her memories.
  • Breakout Character: She was originally supposed to be just a Plot Device for her older sister's journey to become Black Canary (and was even slated to become the villain Ravager until Summer Glau's unhappiness with her small role caused it to be shifted to her), but she quickly became a fan-favorite character upon her introduction. After she got killed in the Arrow season three premiere, a lot of fans were upset. The showrunners eventually saw how beloved of a character she was and found a way to literally bring her Back from the Dead, and she is now one of the main characters of her own show. By season 2 onward, Sara becomes The Captain of the Waverider and arguably the closest thing Legends of Tomorrow has to a protagonist. Some even think that her importance in the Arrowverse is on the same level as that of Oliver, Barry and Kara, which comes full circle by Crisis on Infinite Earths, where she's one of the 8 main characters of the story alongside the aforementioned trio, Kate Kane, J'onn J'onzz, Ryan Choi, and Lex Luthor.
  • Break the Cutie: Flashbacks show how much of a carefree party girl Sara was before the Queen's Gambit. A lot of horrible things happened to her to turn her into the ruthless assassin she is in the present.
  • Broken Bird: After nearly dying on Lian Yu and having to join the League of Assassins to survive, she went from a carefree party girl to becoming quiet, reserved, and haunted, seeing herself as a murderer and not a hero.
  • Burn the Witch!: Or rather the more historically accurate hanging, which Sara is almost subjected to when she gets stuck in 17th century Salem for "corrupting" young women. In her defense, they were happily corrupted.
  • But Not Too Bi: Downplayed. Her romantic and/or sexual relationships with Oliver, Snart and Constantine are much more subdued than that of Ava, Nyssa, or any other women she flirts with throughout time.
  • But Now I Must Go: After John Constantine restores her soul, she takes all of one episode to decide she needs to leave town until she can control her Lazarus Pit-induced violence, conveniently setting her up for her role in Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Came Back Wrong: Being brought back by the Lazarus Pit gave her an increased aggression that can only be permanently dealt with by killing the person who killed her, Thea Queen. Since she's obviously not willing to do that, she has to get by with occasionally killing other people to drive off the urge, which is why she left Team Arrow shortly after being brought back. She regains her soul after being Rescued from the Underworld.
  • Canon Character All Along: Laurel's counterpart and namesake doesn't have a sister in the comics. She's later revealed to be a Decomposite Character after she shows up as the Canary. She's then also confirmed as the Arrowverse's White Canary, who is a villain in the comics.
  • The Captain: After Rip goes MIA in the Season Two premiere, Sara is made team leader and captain of the Waverider. Ironically, this is the same rank her father had when he was a police officer. She is ultimately made the Waverider's permanent Captain, with Rip's blessing, after the Legion of Doom debacle.
  • The Casanova: She becomes a Rare Female Example in season two of Legends of Tomorrow, effortlessly sleeping with multiple gorgeous women.
  • The Charmer: Seems to be able to charm people fairly easily in any era.
  • Celebrity Paradox:
    • Barry is mentioned to be a Lady Gaga fan. Sara's (second and permanent) actress was a backup dancer of the singer (she even appeared on some of her music videos) before she got into acting.
    • A season 2 episode of The Flash (2014) mentions the Law & Order franchise. Sara's (same as above) actress guest-starred on Law & Order: LA during its third episode playing a key character.
    • Bishop lets her binge Wynonna Earp while he gives her time to consider joining him. In that show, there is a scene where the character Nicole admits to having a fantasy about her girlfriend cosplaying as Sara.
  • Celibate Hero: During season one of Legends of Tomorrow. She takes quite a while to recover any kind of sexual desire after being resurrected, resulting in an awkward situation when she encourages a closeted lesbian, only to pull back when the woman actually kisses her. She gets over it by season two.
  • Chekhov M.I.A.: Presumed dead even before season one of Arrow, she returns as an integral member of Team Arrow in season two.
  • Clark Kenting: Her disguise as the Canary is a large black Domino Mask and a wig that's a lighter blonde than her natural hair color. This and a voice changer are enough for her own sister not to recognize her, apparently.
  • Color Character: White Canary.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: How she uses her newfound seer abilities in battle, being able to anticipate her opponents' moves.
  • Composite Character: Despite mainly being Decomposite Character of the Dinah Drake Lance's Black Canarynote , she also has shades of the Dinah Laurel Lance version as wellnote . Both are also her mother and older sister, respectively. Once she joins Rip Hunter's team, she dons the identity of White Canary, yet another different character in the comics. During crossovers, she all-but takes the usual role of Black Canary within the Justice League, largely due to Laurel dying and Dinah Drake (no relation) replacing her.
  • Cool Big Sis:
    • Served as one to Sin, due to a promise she made to Sin's father to care for his daughter.
    • She also has this dynamic with Kendra, being her close female friend on the team and giving her guidance in controlling her powers.
    • To both Jax and Wally. Jax especially she was noticeably quite close to while on the Waverider and regularly seen working together or sharing jokes. When it's time for him to leave, Sara was the most upset to see him go. For Wally, this was somewhat downplayed due to him leaving the show a lot quicker.
    • She also serves as one to Zari, being strict with her about not changing history for her own selfish gains (something Sara herself learned from experience), while still deeply caring about her, even seeing some of herself in Zari.
  • Covered in Scars: She has extensive scarring on her back (at least until she goes into the Lazarus Pit), to the point that her doctor assumed she was a combat veteran.
  • Cruel Mercy: After Nora is initially consumed by Mallus, Sara decides to spare Damien instead of killing him, so he can live with the fact he lead his own daughter to her doom.
  • Cute and Psycho: Sara is an attractive, adorable young woman who happens to be a trained assassin with occasional bouts of homicidal rage and who's been known to fantasize about killing people she finds especially annoying. She's also referred to being able to kill someone over the course of several days.

    D-K 
  • Dance Battler: Her (second) actress practices Tricking, training discipline that combines martial arts kicks with flips and twists from gymnastics as well as many dance moves and styles from breakdancing, and it shows in some of her fight scenes.
  • Dating Catwoman: She used to date Nyssa Al-Ghul, and they still care for each other.
  • Deadpan Snarker: She's developed a snarky side since her time on Arrow. She quips about Rip and Snart failing to take down one guy in a steam room full of Russian mobsters, and joins Jax in taking shots at Stein's nostalgic view of the fifties.
    Stein: Even someone as jaded as yourself can’t deny how idyllic this time was.
    Jax: If you're white.
    Sara: And a man. And straight.
  • Death by Origin Story: Played With. She "died" in the pilot of Arrow. Later, there was evidence to suggest she was alive, but it was refuted. However, she's now back alive and well, kicking ass and taking names in Starling City. For Oliver, she had two deaths, because he saw her "die" again on the island. And then a third time, as her real death is Laurel's Black Canary origin story, though she's eventually resurrected.
  • Death Is Cheap: Over the course of five years' worth of appearances (about ten years In-Universe), Sara has either been presumed dead or actually killed no less than five times, but each time, has either turned out to be Not Quite Dead or comes Back from the Dead.
  • Decomposite Character: At first, she seems to share the role of Black Canary with her sister, Laurel. However, given the creators have mentioned their desire for this to be a Legacy Character-type thing, she's actually more of a Decomposite Character of Dinah Drake, her and Laurel's mother and the comics' first Black Canary. She does have Comic!Laurel's bisexuality though.
  • Devious Daggers: Being a former assassin, Sara prefers knives when dealing with undercover work.
  • Dies Wide Open: In "The Calm", Laurel finds her corpse this way, as Sara was in shock while a brainwashed Thea is killing her.
  • Disney Death: Has one in season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow where a brainwashed Rip Hunter strangles her and Gideon confirms she is dead, however she is able to be shortly revived due to the futuristic medicine on the Waverider.
  • Domino Mask: Wears one in her guise as the first incarnation of the Canary. It's still larger and more concealing than Helena's mask or Oliver's face paint.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: She gets killed by Thea at the end of the Arrow season 3 premiere. She gets better though.
  • Dual Wielding: Her staff can be detached into metallic Eskrima sticks.
  • Dying to Be Replaced: Zigzagged. Sara shows up in costume before Laurel is even started on a proper heroic journey, seemingly replacing her in her iconic role as Black Canary. Her story arc introduces major fan-favorites like the League of Assassins and has a definite Redemption Quest angle. However, since Laurel is the female lead, with the planned out fate of becoming Black Canary herself, Sara became an awkward character for the show. As a result, she has to be killed off. However, the backlash to the decision influences the writers to bring Sara back essentially wholesale, barring name and costume changes. As a result, we now have two characters based on Black Canary (later seasons upgrade this to four, with the introduction of Dinah Drake to replace Laurel, who is killed off in season 4, as well as another Laurel from a different universe. Both of these characters possess an organic Canary Cry, unlike Sara and the original Laurel).
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • She looked completely different in theArrow pilot episode due to the recasting of her actressnote , along with briefly being spelled as "Sarah". In addition, her original height and hair color were important plot points late in Arrow season one when her family thought they found her, but instead found an Identical Stranger having both those attributes.
    • Her appearances in Arrow from seasons 1-4 feature her being much more moody than the more upbeat, commanding character she is in Legends of Tomorrow and later seasons of Arrow. Justified due to having just recently spent six years as a prisoner, then an assassin.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Gains a Healing Factor post-S6 of Legends.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: The younger Sara, before she got on the Queen's Gambit with Oliver, had telltale bangs hanging from her forehead.
  • Fake Guest Star: Caity Lotz has been in 22 out of 23 episodes of the second Arrow season, which is more than some of the actual regular cast, and was integral to the season's plot, but wasn't promoted to series regular. Her being a guest star in seasons three and four makes sense though, as in the former she dies in the first episode and makes only a few posthumous appearances, while in the latter she's resurrected in a brief recurring stint that sets up her role in Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Flanderization: On Arrow, she did have a love life, but she mainly kept that in private and didn't let it interfere too much with her other activities. Her migration to Legends of Tomorrow really cranks up her flirtatious side to the point of being a Lovable Sex Maniac. She goes out of her way to flirt, seduce, and sleep with every attractive girl and sometimes guy she comes across. In the first episode of season two of Legends of Tomorrow, she is scolded by Rip for seducing the Queen of France and mother of the Sun King, and accused of being a witch by the Town of Salem after seducing all of the women there. This could be justified by the fact that, by the second season of Legends of Tomorrow, Sara has gone through quite a bit of character development and has relaxed some of the tense, private, emotionless attitude that she had before. Subverted in season three once she enters a committed relationship.
  • Force and Finesse: Her and Laurel's fighting styles can be described this way. Sara prefers to fight more gracefully (Finesse) while Laurel has a more smash-mouth style of fighting (Force).
  • Forgotten Fallen Friend: Zigzagged and acknowledged In-Universe. After "The Climb", Sara's death was essentially forced to be swept under the rug in Arrow due to the mastermind behind her murder successfully manipulating Oliver into protecting him. The only people who still actively try to find justice for her are her sister, Nyssa, Thea (who ironically was the one used to unknowingly and unwillingly kill Sara), and her father. That said, Oliver explicitly states in the season finale that he'll never forgive what happened to her.
  • Former Teen Rebel: Back in season one of Arrow, Laurel and Quentin discussed how troublesome she was during her youth, including an incident when she was arrested for shoplifting.
  • Fun Personified: In the two-part Legends of Tomorrow pilot, she really has fun in the 70s, going out for drinks with the Rogues, getting into fights while flirting with every attractive guy and girl she can, having some pot with Martin Stein's younger self (after, again, flirting with him in front of his future self then teasing the older Martin about it), knocking him out with a bong then stealing the rest of the pot before going off to recover Ray's missing tech.
  • Funny Background Event: In "Abominations", when General Grant and Nate are discussing battle plans on dealing with the zombie confederates, Sara is seen in the background throwing knives to pass the time.
  • Genius Bruiser: On top of being an expert martial artist with League of Assassins training, she demonstrates proficient biology and technology skill which she learned from Ivo and the League (enough to make Felicity jealous), is multilingual, and is also an Ace Pilot who learnt how to pilot the Waverider instantly.
  • The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Prior to the start of the series, she fell into the Beautiful Sister category, a rare younger sister variety. Still, both she and Laurel had some crossover. Flashbacks and comments after the fact indicate generally they had quite a troubled relationship, but both managed to move past it in the present.
  • Going Native: She rejoins the League of Assassins after being stranded in the 1950's, but finds herself succumbing to the mindset of an assassin, even initially attacking the team when they arrive to extract her.
  • Good Bad Girl: She was having an affair with her sister's boyfriend. Sara later revealed to Oliver on the island that Laurel apparently got her grounded, knowing she had a crush on Oliver, and went after him herself. It's also revealed in another flashback that she was having doubts about betraying Laurel, but a fight between the two (ironically, because Sara was trying to warn Laurel that planning her future around a guy who's known for being The Casanova wasn't a good idea, stemming from Ollie's texts pleading with Sara to come with him) was what ultimately pushed her into going through with it. This heavily implies an element of revenge in her sleeping with Oliver on the yacht.
  • Good Is Not Soft: As nice and fun-loving she might be, she is still a deadly fighter who is not afraid to take a life when the need arises.
  • Good Wears White: Sara favors a white outfit in her new heroic identity as the White Canary.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted when she fights with Oliver. Though they are proficient with each other's weapons, she prefers the Bo Staff while Oliver prefers the bow. Also inverted in Season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow, where she is a strictly melee fighter in a cast of mostly male long-range superheroes.
  • Hair Color Dissonance: She has raven hair in the Arrow pilot flashback, but season two onwards recast her as a blonde and stick with it. What's really jarring is that her original raven hair was a plot point late in season one when her family believed that she may be alive only for them to find an Identical Stranger (who has raven hair). This has never been addressed on the show or by Word of God ever since.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Unlike in Arrow, she is firmly attached to the side of good in Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Handicapped Badass: Becoming a Blind Seer doesn't slow down her fighting prowess even one bit. If anything, it makes her even better due to Combat Clairvoyance.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl: In her youth. No longer in the present, though she can still hold her liquor.
  • Healing Factor: After being turned into an alien hybrid, she can shrug off being shot through the head.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Like Ray, she doesn't have high self-esteem, even if it's improved since her time on Arrow; especially when her bloodlust takes over, Sara tends to get very big on self-loathing. She consistently calls herself a killer, and not a hero, due to her past as an assassin and her comfortableness with taking a life, ending up leaving Starling City briefly from "Seeing Red" until her reappearance in "Streets of Fire" as a result. Sara realizes that maybe she's more than that after hearing praise the Canary got from a police officer who saw her do a Heroic Fire Rescue in the latter episode. This continues into Legends of Tomorrow, especially after becoming captain and entering a relationship.
  • Hidden Depths:
  • Hiding Behind Your Bangs: She has bangs slightly covering her eyes in season two of Arrow, as part of the blonde wig she wears on top of her already blonde hair. Actually does a nice job of giving her some additional concealment similar to Oliver's hood.
  • Homosexual Reproduction: In Season 6 of Legends of Tomorrow, she is killed and resurrected as a clone by Bishop. However, Bishop splices some extraterrestrial DNA into her new body, among many changes to her physiology, one of being absorbing DNA upon contact. This is how Sara ends up becoming pregnant with Ava's child.
  • Hypocrite: Downplayed; Sara chews Barry out after learning that he messed with the timeline and changed the lives of the people around him, after having tried to do this herself by killing Damien long before he'd kill Laurel. However, Sara had already learnt her lesson about this, and was still noticeably more understanding of Barry's actions compared to everyone else.
  • I Am a Monster: She sees herself as this thanks to the bloodlust not just making her want to kill but need to, then again after Mallus attempts to corrupt her.
  • Inconsistent Spelling: The Continuity Snarl above caused this, with her name being Sarah in the pilot. Once she's recast, the "h" gets dropped.
  • In Name Only: "White Canary" in the comics is an Asian assassin and remorseless killer, a Female Misogynist who killed her own brothers because they were bested by a woman. Sara is obviously nothing like this; the name seemed to be given to her mostly to act as a companion to her sister's "Black Canary" moniker.
  • Instant Expert: She was able to skillfully pilot the Waverider on her first attempt, to the point where she impressed Rip, who let her continue piloting.
  • Invincible Hero: An odd example; she can die and has died multiple times, the issue is making her stay dead. Across her tenures on both Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, she has been assumed dead a total of ten times, with five of those times actually killing her.
  • It's All About Me:
    • When it comes to her pursuit of female lovers during time eras when such relationships were still taboo. While Sara is more than capable of defending herself, she never seems to really take into account the potential social consequences her female lovers can suffer as a result of being found in a lesbian relationship during less progressive time periods. She was called out on this however, and seemed to grow out of it.
    • Her vendetta with Damien Darhk after he murders Laurel blinds her to the ramifications of the timeline if she kills him decades before his actual death, which she's also called out on and eventually outgrows.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies:
    • Sara tells her father this is why she can't come home to stay. Justified in that she is being chased by the League of Assassins, and they do actively go after her family to draw her out. No longer the case after "Heir to the Demon", however.
    • She also attempts to do this to Ava after being possessed by the Death Totem and fearing if she lost all control. They reconcile by the end of the season.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
    • Despite still very much being in love with Oliver, Sara leaves him because she believes she is irredeemable, and she loves him too much to be with him.
    • Despite falling in love with Ava, Sara ultimately breaks up with her after being possessed by Mallus through the Death Totem as she believes that Ava deserves someone better. However, they get back together after Mallus is defeated.
  • Killed Off for Real: While she manages to come back from the dead several times, in the sixth season episode, "Bishop's Gambit" she dies and is not coming back. Fortunately, a clone of her with all her memories survives.
  • The Kirk: Sara's leadership style fits this. She is pragmatic but also caring and shows compassion. Ironically, ever since she became the leader of the team, she has toned down her Casanova ways while Kirk famously did not.
  • Knight Templar Big Sister: In the "Invasion!" crossover, she briefly expresses this sentiment in the illusion world when Oliver misses his and Laurel's rehearsal dinner and tries to talk to Laurel while Sara is helping her with her wedding dress.

    L-R 
  • Lady of War: She moves gracefully in battle, employing gymnastic flips and dance-like movements, and uses a bo staff with speed and deadly efficiency. Her costume as the White Canary is also rather elegant.
  • The Lancer:
    • While Ray and Snart are advertised as this, Sara acts more of the support for Rip early on. Which is hilarious considering her name. From season 2 onward, however, she's been promoted to Hero, with Ray serving as the Lancer in turn.
    • In Crisis On Infinite Earths after Oliver dies for the first time saving a billion people from Earth-38, Sara seems to have stepped up to the co-leadership role alongside Barry, who is the most instrumental to resolving the Crisis. Cemented after Oliver dies for good and passes the torch to Barry and Sara, as Barry becomes the face of the Arrowverse, with Sara as his second-in-command.
  • Last of His Kind: By the end of the Third Hour of Crisis On Infinite Earths, she is the last living Lance and Legend. Gets reverted in the Fifth Hour, when the universe is recreated.
  • The Leader: After Rip disappears in the Season Two premiere of Legends of Tomorrow, Sara takes over as captain of the Waverider from the second episode onwards.
  • Light Is Good: In contrast to her former look as the Canary which was all in black, her look as the White Canary is as it sounds.
    Laurel: You've lived in the shadows long enough. Be a hero in the light.
  • Living Legend: Lancelot is conspicuously absent from the team's trip to Camelot... and then it's revealed that Sara Lance was the inspiration for him in the legends.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: A Rare Female Example. This side of her becomes more apparent once she joins the Legends, having a tendency to seduce anyone in history that interests her. It kicks up a notch in the second season, when, in the first episode, she immediately gives in to the seduction efforts of the Queen of France — despite her mission being to ensure the Queen sleeps with her husband to conceive Louis XIV — and then uses being stranded in Salem as an excuse to sleep with an unknown number of women, despite knowing that in 1693, this would get her hung for witchcraft — which almost happens. Despite her horniness, she's never portrayed as a bad character, and this trope is Zigzagged in that she stops being so sex-obsessed after taking up the leadership role.
  • Meaningful Rename: She becomes the White Canary because she's now "a warrior in the light".
  • More Deadly Than the Male: A running thread through Arrow season two is that while Oliver is holding valiantly to his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy, Sara has shown to be more than willing to kill if she feels it's necessary, with the same conversation coming up regarding Helena and Roy.
  • Ms. Fanservice:
    • In her first flashback appearance, she's dressed in lingerie and an open robe. Her outfit as the Canary also qualifies — aside from the tight black leather, she shows off a lot of cleavage.
    • She also spends time on the salmon ladder, and there are a good number of shots of her wearing only a bra, somewhat similar to Ollie's tendency to spend a lot of time shirtless, though hers are less frequent.
    • Thanks to her Fanservice Costumes, several people on her team, including Stein and Jax, take notice, and the former actually calls her a "sexy assassin from the future" when calling her out on flirting with his younger self, which she finds very amusing.
  • Named by the Adaptation: The comic White Canary was never given a real name.
  • Never Found the Body: Being swept away by a violent ocean storm will do that. Twice even.
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye:
    • She wasn't with Laurel during her final hours. She finally finds out about her death during Legends of Tomorrow's first Season Finale. Subverted somewhat in the 2016 crossover between all four Arrowverse shows; while being trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine, Sara sees a construct of Laurel and was finally able to say goodbye to her.
    • History Repeats in "Life Sentence", where she shows up in the Star City hospital a few minutes before Quentin is pronounced dead in the ER. He's resurrected on Earth-Prime, though.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: Nearly everything about her shown in the Legends of Tomorrow teaser trailer did not make the show.
    • It suggests that she has no idea that Ray is a Sizeshifter. She was actually part of Team Arrow's rescue mission when Ray was captured by Damien Dahrk because he couldn't grow back to his normal size.
    • It also shows her costume including a normal-length white jacket. It's a Badass Longcoat in the show proper, which she doesn't even wear until the sixth episode.
    • In it, she was shown being Naked on Revival and alone, doing a dramatic Sexy Surfacing Shot out of the Lazarus Pit. During her actual resurrection, a ceremony was first held by the League of Assassins, with its members, her sister and Thea in attendance. She was wearing her old costume sans jacket, wig and Domino Mask (Foreshadowing perhaps?) when that happened.
  • Nice Girl: Apart from being a trained and deadly assassin with occasional bouts of uncontrollable blood lust, Sara is a very friendly and fun-loving person.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her Breaking Speech to Damien Darhk is what spurs him to become Eobard Thawne's partner in crime and being forming the Legion of Doom.
  • No Ontological Inertia: When Atropos is killed, Sara's sight is restored and she loses her precognitive abilities, as both states were caused by exposure to Atropos's full power.
  • Not Me This Time: She and the other Legends are elated when they find out it's technically Constantine's fault - not theirs for once - that there's a new threat to the timeline.
  • Not Wearing Tights: Unlike her previous costume, her new White Canary outfit doesn't seem to come with a mask or wig to conceal her identity. In the pilot episode of Legends of Tomorrow, it's revealed that Laurel gave Cisco instructions explicitly not to design the costume with a mask, so Sara can proudly fight the bad guys as herself.
  • Odd Friendship: She hit it off with The Rogues pretty quick.
  • Official Couple: She and Ava become the primary couple in Legends of Tomorrow from season 4 onwards, after being on-again/off-again in season 3 and they even get married in season 6.
  • Of Corsets Sexy: What's under the leather jacket of her Canary costume. Much like her previous one, the White Canary costume is also a corset.
  • Once a Season: Ever since joining the Legends, she only appears in an episode or two in the following seasons of Arrow.
  • Only Sane Woman: Becomes this post-Season Two. Aside from her Lovable Sex Maniac tendencies, she's usually the more maturer Legend acting as Team Mom to the likes of Ray, Nate, and Rory.
  • Le Parkour: One of her many skills learned from the League of Assassins.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The shortest member of the team who is a deadly assassin and an One-Woman Army.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: Her death is what basically kickstarted season three of Arrow.
  • Posthumous Character: Subverted in season two of Arrow. Double subverted in Season Three when she gets killed, then triple subverted when she's resurrected in season four.
  • Pretty in Mink: When infiltrating a high-class event, her disguise will often include a fur wrap or fur-trimmed coat.
  • Professional Killer: An erstwhile member of the League of Assassins, she proves to still be highly adept at the "killer" part, though she's not happy about it.
  • The Promise: She made a promise to a dying pilot that she'd look after his daughter — none other than Sin.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Twice in "Unthinkable" - Sara leaves with the League of Assassins as in exchange for their assistance in stopping Slade's army in the present; whilst at the same time the flashbacks reveal that Sara was dragged into the ocean during the destruction of the Amazo, explaining why Oliver believed she was dead throughout the first season of Arrow.
    • She leaves Team Arrow in "Lost Souls". The In-Universe reason is Sara wanting to control her unpredictable bloodlust by herself, away from her friends. The out-universe reason is because Sara, like Ray, is starring in the Legends of Tomorrow, so double duty-ing would have been too much. Outside of crossovers, she only appears in Arrow again thrice: in "Life Sentence", "Emerald Archer", "Lost Canary" and "Fadeout".
  • Race Lift: Dons the White Canary identity, who is Asian in the comics (though see Composite Character above), upon joining Rip Hunter's team. Though given she's a Canon Foreigner, it also crosses into In Name Only.
  • Really Gets Around: She likes having sex. A lot. In one episode she seduces... sorry, is seduced by the Queen of France, and apparently all the women in the town of Salem, c. 1670. Not to mention Alex Danvers and John Constantine in the same season.
    Nate: Is it gonna get weird between you and Alex Danvers 'cuz she and Sara had a fling?
    Ava: Swing a dead cat. Sara never liked to be alone.
  • Red Baron: Among the League of Assassins she was known as: Ta-er al-Sahfer (الطائر الأصفر)- "The Canary"note .
  • Related in the Adaptation: Since she dons the White Canary identity in Legends of Tomorrow, this made the character related to the Lance/Black Canary family by default. In the comics, the White Canary is an unrelated character who is a self-appointed Arch-Enemy of Black Canary (the Dinah Laurel Lance version).
  • Rescued from the Underworld: Oliver and Laurel, with the help of John Constantine, bust into The Underworld and retrieve Sara's soul to return it to her body.
  • Rescue Romance: Played with. Nyssa claims that she found Sara, saved her life, and then slowly nursed her back to health. Sara, however, insists she wasn't with Nyssa because of that, but because she loved her.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Or in this case, avenging while trying to prevent before reason. She's totally obsessed with killing Damien Darhk before he later kills her sister, to the point where she'll immediately jeopardize her current mission and even the rest of her team to take a shot at him if she gets wind of his presence. She later gets over this.

    S-Y 
  • Sacrificial Lion: In the final moments of the Arrow season three premiere, Sara is killed off. Right after speaking to her sister and saving Oliver from Werner Zytle, the new Count Vertigo, she is shot with three arrows and her body falls off a roof and lands near Laurel, killing her on impact as Laurel screams out in horror.
  • Screw Destiny:
    • In Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover, her designation as the Paragon of Destiny seems to be rooted in her tendency to do this.
    • She mysteriously withstands Atropos, one of the Fates, revealing her true form in "Zari, Not Zari". It seems that the power is somehow connected to her status as the Paragon of Destiny.
  • Second Love: To Ava Sharpe, who had a previous girlfriend before Sara.
  • Seen It All: By the time of Crisis On Infinite Earths, her travels across time and space leave her completely unfazed by things like a giant toy rampaging Central City compared to most other heroes.
    Dinah: Is this actually happening?
    Rene: Is this what all crossovers are like?
    Sara: Yes and not exactly.
  • Series Mascot: As of Season Two of Legends of Tomorrow, she's the main promotional character for the series.
  • Sex Goddess: She's implied to be a highly satisfying lover. Alex admits to Kara in Crisis on Earth-X that Sara gave her three orgasms when they slept together.
  • Sexy Backless Outfit: Her White Canary costume doesn't have a jacket to cover the corset. Subverted Trope once she starts wearing one.
  • Sex Signals Death: Triple Subversion. She appeared to have died after sleeping with her sister's boyfriend, but she later turned up alive. And then she dies for real in the Season 3 premiere, only to get resurrected.
  • She-Fu: Her combat style involves her twirling around her enemies and evading blows.
  • Sherlock Scan: She's very perceptive of everything around her. To quote her line from Arrow Season Two, she's "mindful of her surroundings".
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: She mostly ditches the Badass Longcoat of her White Canary costume, resulting to her exposing her arms and shoulders.
  • Smash Sisters: With Amaya, the two of them really click well on the battlefield.
  • Staying Alive: Pretty much her superpower, Damien Darhk even once comments "she never stays dead for very long". The confirmed moments include:
    • Missing and presumed dead after the sinking of the Queen's Gambit. Saved by the crew of the Amazo.
    • Missing and presumed dead after the battle on the Amazo. Saved by Nyssa al Ghul.
    • Actually killed by a brainwashed Thea for Malcom Merlyn. Resurrected by Laurel and Thea using the Lazarus Pit.
    • She would die when Vandal Savage destroyed Central City with his staff, but Barry's time travel undid that.
    • Was meant to be killed alongside her sister and father by Damien Darhk had Rip not recruited her for the Legends.
    • Presumed dead with the other Legends, save for Rory, following a mission gone awry in 1942. Undone by Hour-Man going to 2016 to warn them.
    • Briefly killed by a brainwashed Rip snapping her neck, before managing to be revived by Stein and Gideon.
    • Her Doomworld counterpart, the sole survivor after the other Legends of Doomworld died along the way, was erased after her past self undid the events with the Spear of Destiny.
    • Killed by a unicorn at Woodstock after Constantine tried to save Desmond from being possessed by Neron, later undone.
    • Was one of the survivors of the Crisis on Infinite Earths as the Paragon of Destiny.
    • Eaten alive by zombies. Returned to life by the Loom of Fate.
    • Finally subverted in the sixth season, where she is killed off permanently by Amelia Earhart. However, a clone of her managed to survive with her memories, thus technically allowing her to live again.
  • Stepford Smiler: Despite her more cheerful disposition, Sara is still feeling the effects of her Dark and Troubled Past, her resurrection, and the blood lust she was cursed with by the Lazarus Pit. When she first uses the Death Totem, these take control of her.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: Had a bad case of this thanks to Ivo, who callously manipulated her after she was brought aboard the Amazo. Sara grows out of it when she realizes how horrible he really is even to her.
  • Stranger in a Familiar Land: Both of her returns to her home city were met with her own cynical view of herself, stating that she's no longer the Sara who returned (first from The League of Assassins, the second from death).
  • Sudden Name Change: Her name is originally Sarah in the pilot before becoming officially Sara in subsequent episodes.
  • Sympathetic Adulterer: She slept with Oliver while he was dating her sister Laurel, but rather than portrayed as a homewrecker, she was shown to be a love-sick college girl jumping at the chance to be with her teenhood crush. Even if it doesn't excuse her actions, it was also indicated that Laurel was a bit of a Big Sister Bully to Sara, and originally got together with Oliver partly to spite Sara in the first place. After patching things up, Laurel gave Sara her blessing to date Ollie.
  • Team Mom: After becoming the Legends' new captain, Sara finds herself acting as a beleaguered den mother to the crew, especially Nate and Ray. Beleaguered or not, Sara does not take the role lightly, and all who threaten her teammates had better beware of her going Mama Bear.
  • Telescoping Staff: Her weapon. It can also separate into a pair of Eskrima sticks.
  • Temporarily a Villain: In "Left Behind", she went back to the League for a place to belong, and later tried to kill the team, having succumbed to her assassin conditioning. She was also this on Arrow when she Came Back Wrong before Constantine steps in, as well as being consumed by the power of the Death Totem in Legends of Tomorrow season 3.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: Her superpower might as well be, not staying dead, with Legends of Tomorrow taking her previous reputation on Arrow up a notch.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Even after Damien turns over a new leaf and becomes an ally to the Legends, Sara is unable to forgive him for killing Laurel. Up to his last appearance in "Mr. Parker's Cul-De-Sac", she still refuses his offer of handshake before he commits suicide to prevent Astra from claiming his soul.
  • Tomboyness Upgrade: Her outfits prior to the yacht accident were more feminine. Once she returns, she basically becomes an older version of a Shorttank.
  • Took a Level in Badass: When she joined and trained with the League of Assassins.
  • Took a Level in Cheerfulness: More open and carefree now compared to her quiet and reserved self in Arrow, with her having a lot of fun with the team during their travels. She still has angst, mind, due to her Bloodlust, but it seems that her pre-Island 'happy college girl' personality has come back.
  • Touched by Vorlons: She survives seeing the true form of Atropos, which should have killed her but instead eventually made her a Blind Seer that can predict the future (mostly deaths) by touch.
  • Transplant: She was a Fake Guest Star in Arrow throughout its second season until the premiere of the third. She then guest-starred in the fourth before transferring permanently to Legends of Tomorrow, although she still made a handful of appearances in Arrow afterward.
  • Trapped in the Past: She, Kendra, and Ray get trapped in the late 50s to the very beginning of The '60s during the middle of Season One. Happens again in the Season Two premiere after Rip time scatters the team, sending her to the 17th Century during the Salem witch trials.
  • Troll: She really enjoys tormenting Stein by flirting with his younger self.
  • Two First Names: Per the DC Comics norm.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: The trailers alone shows her with the most wardrobe change. Most are Fanservice Costumes too! Technically, everyone has this thanks to the Waverider being able to make them costumes and clothing for whatever they need, but apparently she's the one that actually takes advantage of it.
  • Vigilante Man: What she becomes in season two of Arrow. She seems as rough as Oliver was in the beginning — she kills a pinned-down Serial Killer (to be fair, he did go after her sister and father), and her targets of choice, as opposed to early Oliver's white-collar criminals, appear to be those who abuse women. However, time with Oliver makes her calm on this.
  • Walking Spoiler:
    • It's nigh-impossible to talk about her, or the plot of the second season of Arrow, without revealing that she's alive and a fellow vigilante.
    • Also impossible to talk about Season Three without bringing up she's dead, or Season Four where she's Back from the Dead.
  • Weak, but Skilled: The only member of the Legends without superpowers, magical totems, or advanced gadgetry, but on par with Oliver Queen as one of the premier combatants in the Arrowverse. She gets by solely on her training and skill. Even the weak part gets subverted as her resurrection had her Came Back Wrong and she was instilled with a ferocious bloodlust.
  • What You Are in the Dark: In "Aruba", she doesn't use the Spear to bring back Laurel — in part because a vision of Laurel helped her to finally move on.
    • Before this, after having been determined to kill him, she ultimately spared Damien. She later returned him to his point in time despite knowing what he was going to do.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • During the Invasion! (2016) crossover, Sara was the only one of the brainwashed Badass Normals to give Oliver any sort of a challenge, and that was when Oliver was only trying to hold them off and not seriously harm them.
    • During "Zari", she gets her ass kicked by Kuasa.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Her primary character arc in Arrow season 2 is her learning that she's not just the cold-hearted monster she thinks she is, resulting in her getting told this by people. This continues to crop up long after, and she's still having people assure her that she's not irredeemable all the way to the end of the third season of Legends of Tomorrow.
  • You Are in Command Now: After Rip's disappearance, Sara eventually takes over as captain of the Waverider.

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