I’ve chosen to analyze the TV show, “Arrow.” I’ve been an avid fan since the season started but I’ve been unable to keep up with the new season since the semester started. For my analysis, I’ll be focusing on Season 3, episodes 10-11. Every episode of the “Arrow” begins with a recap of Oliver Queen, a.k.a. the Arrow’s back story. Oliver Queen was stranded on an island for 5 years and only went back home to Starling City to save his city. In every episode, there are flashbacks of Oliver during the 5 years he was missing, enlightening the viewers of what happened within that time span.
In the previous episode, Oliver Queen challenges Ra’s al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins, to a duel and ends up getting stabbed, resulting in his fall off a cliff. To the viewers, that scene revealed the death of the Arrow. The reason Oliver challenges Ra’s is because Malcolm Merlyn used his daughter Thea Queen, who is Oliver’s half-sister, to kill the Canary. As a result, the League of Assassins have to kill the person responsible for the Canary’s death because she is part of the League of Assassins. By making Thea kill the Canary, Malcolm knew Oliver would step in to save his sister, resulting in him challenging Ra’s. In season 3, episode 10 called “Left Behind,” Oliver Queen is missing so the Red Arrow, Roy Harper, and his partner, John Diggle, have to keep the peace in Starling City without him. The episode demonstrated the significance of death on different individuals. Diggle, Roy and Felicity are each coping with the reality that Oliver is probably dead. For Felicity, she doesn’t want to believe he’s never coming back which affects her logic and her emotions. Felicity decides to quit the Arrow operation because she believes without Oliver it no longer exists. In the episode, we see Oliver being rescued by his old friend Maseo and is brought back to life by Maseo’s wife, Tatsu. The conflict with this encounter is Maseo is part of the League of Assassins and by helping Oliver he puts himself in danger. Laurel Lance, the Canary’s sister, decides to follow in her sister’s footsteps and fight crime in her memory.
Felicity Smoak is my favorite character of the show. She’s a perfect example of an empowering female role model within the series. She’s more intelligent than the men yet still is feminine. She’s in love with Oliver and he’s in love with her which makes their relationship complicated and her loss more painful. What I love most about Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak’s relationship is the fact that they can’t be together but their feelings for each other are so empowering. Both are strong, independent individuals and because of Oliver’s dangerous lifestyle he can’t be with Felicity. The way Oliver protects Felicity is by not succumbing to his feelings for her. If he were to do so, Felicity would be the target of many of his enemies and he can’t bear the thought of losing her. To me that’s true love, being able to sacrifice how you feel for someone in order to protect them.
In season 3, episode 11 called “Midnight City,” begins with Oliver having a nightmare that he told Felicity he wasn’t going to stay and dies in her arms. Felicity says in Oliver’s nightmare, “I’m afraid Ra’s is going to use your humanity against you.” Oliver started out as a vigilante, ruthless killing criminals but progresses to a superhero by taking criminals down without killing them. By Felicity highlighting Oliver’s humanity in her comment, she demonstrates that fighting Ra’s could change Oliver back into the vigilante he started out as. Just like the last episode, death is a prominent theme within this episode. Tatsu, Maseo’s wife, says, “The line between grief and guilt is a thin one. Sometimes death is preferable to the agony of life.” Maseo joined the League of Assassins leaving his wife behind and as a result it seems as if he’s dead. He’s no longer present in her life except for when he takes Oliver to her. In a flashback, Maseo saves his wife from the Triad and Oliver asks Maseo why he would risk thousands of lives for one which Maseo responds, “For my wife, yes. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my family.” Not only is death a prominent theme within the series but sacrifice and family as well. Oliver would do anything for his family in the present but in the past, it wasn’t important to him. Laurel poses as her sister, the Canary, by dressing in her black leather jacket and blonde wig to fight crime. Yet she fails—similar to other female characters we’ve seen in comics when they try to fight but end up being the damsel in distress.
I find Laurel’s character to be the most inconsistent. For instances, there are times when she’s able to take care of herself as seen in this episode when she breaks off her stiletto to take down a criminal shooting up the precinct on Brick’s order to retrieve confident documents. Other times, like when she’s posing as the Canary, she’s unable to take anyone down. Laurel Lance proves to be an empowering female role model as the assistant district attorney. She’s able to persuade criminals into giving up vital information that helps the Arrow and his partners take down the villain. However, her weak combat skills illustrate her as silly and results in her needing to be saved. I think her breaking her stiletto to use as a weapon illustrates the development of female characters within comics. She uses a beauty item to take someone down which provides the image that beauty is still important for women in comics. This episode really reminded me of the comic we read for class called “Phantom Lady” because the Phantom Lady is perceived as weak and it’s not until the end of the comic where she’s seen as strong. Similarly, Laurel posing as the Canary is seen as weak in the beginning but as the episode progresses, she grows stronger and is able to escape from Brick.
Thea Queen shows the most character progress through being a drug addict to developing into a young strong, independent woman. Something I love about Thea’s progression is she tries to keep everyone in her life honest and if they’re not, they become no longer part of her life. She demands respect from those around her and has grown to deserve it. Malcolm is scared that Ra’s will kill Thea and himself and asks Thea to leave with him but Thea tells her father, “Why not stay in fight? Seven months ago, I asked you to teach me, to teach me how to not be afraid and how to not get hurt. So why are you asking me to be afraid now?” Before, Thea depended on others for her success and help but as the series progresses, Thea becomes more self-confident, stronger, and able to take care of herself. In my opinion, Thea and Felicity are the most empowering female characters within the series. On another note, an observation I also noticed within these episodes was the numerous gruesome acts of violence. In class, we discussed how comics were banned because of the violence they contained being bad examples for children. Now we have ratings such as TV-14 but even this show illustrates a lot of shooting, fighting and blood. I can understand why parents don’t want their children watching shows or reading comics with so much violence yet times are changing and comics and TV shows have become more accessible to young children.
In the previous episode, Oliver Queen challenges Ra’s al Ghul, leader of the League of Assassins, to a duel and ends up getting stabbed, resulting in his fall off a cliff. To the viewers, that scene revealed the death of the Arrow. The reason Oliver challenges Ra’s is because Malcolm Merlyn used his daughter Thea Queen, who is Oliver’s half-sister, to kill the Canary. As a result, the League of Assassins have to kill the person responsible for the Canary’s death because she is part of the League of Assassins. By making Thea kill the Canary, Malcolm knew Oliver would step in to save his sister, resulting in him challenging Ra’s. In season 3, episode 10 called “Left Behind,” Oliver Queen is missing so the Red Arrow, Roy Harper, and his partner, John Diggle, have to keep the peace in Starling City without him. The episode demonstrated the significance of death on different individuals. Diggle, Roy and Felicity are each coping with the reality that Oliver is probably dead. For Felicity, she doesn’t want to believe he’s never coming back which affects her logic and her emotions. Felicity decides to quit the Arrow operation because she believes without Oliver it no longer exists. In the episode, we see Oliver being rescued by his old friend Maseo and is brought back to life by Maseo’s wife, Tatsu. The conflict with this encounter is Maseo is part of the League of Assassins and by helping Oliver he puts himself in danger. Laurel Lance, the Canary’s sister, decides to follow in her sister’s footsteps and fight crime in her memory.
Felicity Smoak is my favorite character of the show. She’s a perfect example of an empowering female role model within the series. She’s more intelligent than the men yet still is feminine. She’s in love with Oliver and he’s in love with her which makes their relationship complicated and her loss more painful. What I love most about Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak’s relationship is the fact that they can’t be together but their feelings for each other are so empowering. Both are strong, independent individuals and because of Oliver’s dangerous lifestyle he can’t be with Felicity. The way Oliver protects Felicity is by not succumbing to his feelings for her. If he were to do so, Felicity would be the target of many of his enemies and he can’t bear the thought of losing her. To me that’s true love, being able to sacrifice how you feel for someone in order to protect them.
In season 3, episode 11 called “Midnight City,” begins with Oliver having a nightmare that he told Felicity he wasn’t going to stay and dies in her arms. Felicity says in Oliver’s nightmare, “I’m afraid Ra’s is going to use your humanity against you.” Oliver started out as a vigilante, ruthless killing criminals but progresses to a superhero by taking criminals down without killing them. By Felicity highlighting Oliver’s humanity in her comment, she demonstrates that fighting Ra’s could change Oliver back into the vigilante he started out as. Just like the last episode, death is a prominent theme within this episode. Tatsu, Maseo’s wife, says, “The line between grief and guilt is a thin one. Sometimes death is preferable to the agony of life.” Maseo joined the League of Assassins leaving his wife behind and as a result it seems as if he’s dead. He’s no longer present in her life except for when he takes Oliver to her. In a flashback, Maseo saves his wife from the Triad and Oliver asks Maseo why he would risk thousands of lives for one which Maseo responds, “For my wife, yes. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my family.” Not only is death a prominent theme within the series but sacrifice and family as well. Oliver would do anything for his family in the present but in the past, it wasn’t important to him. Laurel poses as her sister, the Canary, by dressing in her black leather jacket and blonde wig to fight crime. Yet she fails—similar to other female characters we’ve seen in comics when they try to fight but end up being the damsel in distress.
I find Laurel’s character to be the most inconsistent. For instances, there are times when she’s able to take care of herself as seen in this episode when she breaks off her stiletto to take down a criminal shooting up the precinct on Brick’s order to retrieve confident documents. Other times, like when she’s posing as the Canary, she’s unable to take anyone down. Laurel Lance proves to be an empowering female role model as the assistant district attorney. She’s able to persuade criminals into giving up vital information that helps the Arrow and his partners take down the villain. However, her weak combat skills illustrate her as silly and results in her needing to be saved. I think her breaking her stiletto to use as a weapon illustrates the development of female characters within comics. She uses a beauty item to take someone down which provides the image that beauty is still important for women in comics. This episode really reminded me of the comic we read for class called “Phantom Lady” because the Phantom Lady is perceived as weak and it’s not until the end of the comic where she’s seen as strong. Similarly, Laurel posing as the Canary is seen as weak in the beginning but as the episode progresses, she grows stronger and is able to escape from Brick.
Thea Queen shows the most character progress through being a drug addict to developing into a young strong, independent woman. Something I love about Thea’s progression is she tries to keep everyone in her life honest and if they’re not, they become no longer part of her life. She demands respect from those around her and has grown to deserve it. Malcolm is scared that Ra’s will kill Thea and himself and asks Thea to leave with him but Thea tells her father, “Why not stay in fight? Seven months ago, I asked you to teach me, to teach me how to not be afraid and how to not get hurt. So why are you asking me to be afraid now?” Before, Thea depended on others for her success and help but as the series progresses, Thea becomes more self-confident, stronger, and able to take care of herself. In my opinion, Thea and Felicity are the most empowering female characters within the series. On another note, an observation I also noticed within these episodes was the numerous gruesome acts of violence. In class, we discussed how comics were banned because of the violence they contained being bad examples for children. Now we have ratings such as TV-14 but even this show illustrates a lot of shooting, fighting and blood. I can understand why parents don’t want their children watching shows or reading comics with so much violence yet times are changing and comics and TV shows have become more accessible to young children.