Thoughts on Season 5 of Arrow: The Adversity of Oliver and Felicitiy

  Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.  We know that Oliver before his island experience  played around with women. He thoughtlessly went from girl to girl and he never focused on anyone or anything but himself.  Or did he?  We know that Oliver did show some remorse when he received the phone call saying that his baby had died.  He showed glimpses of the character that we know as Oliver Queen.

His time on the island revealed to Oliver what already lay hidden in his character and in his heart.  So the five years he spent on the hellish island served to show Oliver who he really was in his heart.  He was a good man who wanted to do right but had no foundation.  The island adversity became his foundation.  He wanted to save people not hurt them.  He never wanted to kill Shado to save Sara. He didn't want to "kill" Slade Wilson; he thought he had no other choice.  As he told Felicity, when he saw people,  he saw targets; he saw threats.

Have you wondered why he held onto Laurel's picture?  I don't think it was out of any love for her.  He never really loved Laurel, because if he had, he never would have been with her sister and the other women he slept with.  You don't do that to someone you love.  I think he felt he needed to not only right the wrongs his father had done to the city, but he somehow had to right the wrong he himself had done to Laurel.  That's why I think he could tell her in 2.16, he was done chasing her.  He had tried to help her, he had tried to right the wrong, but each of us are also responsible for ourselves.

The five years prepared him to go back to Starling City, but his character still had to be shaped.  Enter  Diggle and Felicity.  Oliver knew he wanted and needed to become a better person, and find a different way, and he needed teachers to show him.  His teachers became his best friends, and Felicity became someone he could love. Perhaps the first woman he could truly love. She didn't know anything about him before the island experiences, so she accepted him for the man he was now.

Season 5 of Arrow is about Legacy, what do we leave behind when we are done with our work. Oliver in season one had to find a way to honor his father.  Season two he had to find out about who he was as a the Arrow.  Season 3 he had to find out who the Arrow was and could the Arrow be separate from the man, Oliver Queen.  Season 4, he tried to find out how to balance who he was as both the Arrow and as a man.  He had to learn to trust. He had to learn to share, something he has been unable to do.  The adversity of season 4 cost Oliver Felicity.  Now here we are in season 5, and Oliver was willing to sacrifice the Arrow to save his city.  He has to find his legacy in the balance of life.  Life is a high wire balancing act.  Sometimes we fall, but when we do, we can rise higher.

We are more than halfway finished with season 5.  Oliver has sacrificed the Green Arrow, Felicity has sacrificed her compassion to help Oliver.  The two we care the most for  appear on different paths, yet the paths will join, because they have the same goal.  Felicity's adversity will reveal her true character and her legacy.  What an awesome season this has been.