I believe Felicity’s romance arcs with Oliver in S3 and S4 were meant to be with Laurel initially. It makes far more sense if Laurel breaks up with Oliver over a kid that he made while he was with her.
So basically to fix Laurel, I’d give her most of the plots of Olicity’s romance through to Season 5 and then work on it beyond that. Make her a meta in Season 2, but with a delayed reveal.
Personally if we’re keeping close to the show’s actual plot, Darkh kills Quentin in S4 instead of Laurel, but earlier in the season, and she unlocks the Cry in her grief. Oliver finds out she has it, so they go to see Barry, where you can have Oliver find out about his son much the same way he does in the show. Eventually William’s kidnapped, Laurel breaks up with him (will they won’t they sucks but at least it’s a different plot to have Laurel be the reason they aren’t together, she throws herself at him constantly in Seasons 1 and 2) when she finds out, and her reactions to the events of the ep are effectively the same.
You can still have an alternate Earth BC, but make it Sara instead. Obviously wasn’t going to happen given she was the lead on Legends, but I think Season 5 works better if it’s Sara who turns on the gang, especially since it would mean 5x23 has redeemed Slade face off with an evil Sara as a nice throwback to S2.
Beyond S5 it’s a little harder, Felicity’s more embedded into the plot, but if it were me writing the show (and I had access to whichever actors I wanted), I’d be killing Felicity on the island, taking Diggle out of the field, having Roy lose an arm and bringing him back, and Thea’s coma has Roy fall into drug addiction so you get that plot too in S6. Season can start with the trio of Green Arrow, Arsenal and Black Canary working alongside Wildcat and Mr Terrific if they need to be there, but I’d actually prefer if they did a proper reset of the show and just had the main trio.
I have so many ideas for an Arrow rewrite lol
First, my compliments for all the ideas and how you explained them. The funny thing is that I would like to rewrite, also for personal satisfaction and for the community, the Arrow series in general. And that includes the character of Laurel as well. I agree about how the two would break up and also about the situation at the end of season 5, so not bad! Also for how it fits with the Flash!
Yes to fix Laurel to fit Black Canary you need to rewrite her completely.
But if you see her as a original Arrow character then the only thing she needed were more connected to the main plot stories.
The best season for her was s2 because Sara connected her to the main plot. When they killed Sara she again became this irrelevant to the main plot character who just took parts in the group fights and created some drama. Whether she was main character or side one she was just lacking stories that explored her more in relevance to the main plot.
Why to fix her you will give her stories no one liked? Olicity was a popular ship until these stories so even with Laurel they wouldn't be better. Laurel breaking up with Oliver over a kid he had while cheating makes sense but is still pretty contrived story for Laurivel and leaves them again in the position that she is better without him I.e. it makes no sense for her to be the love interest.
Now I’m kinda curious on how you would write S6 given that people hated that season the most. Mainly due to the whole NTA Civil War and Diaz as the villain.
It’s something I’m working on, just very slowly haha
I don’t know if it’ll ever be finished or released or anything (most of these kinds of projects never finish), but my initial thoughts are Felicity dies on the island which makes Cayden actually threatening and a challenge to stop and with Sara joining Diaz, it would make for some interesting plot lines for Laurel
As for how it works, I dunno yet, haven’t got that far!
I do know I want to condense Darkh’s arc down to 9 episodes (with the crossover moved to around Ep 15 or 16: after Oliver discovers Laurel’s Cry, he takes her to Central City to investigate with Star Labs and the crossover can happen then); with Amanda Waller as the back half villain having gone a little crazy following Darkh’s crimes.
Change up the flashbacks a bit to fit the change, but I figured she can serve as a double villain ala Slade, which can further go into exactly why Oliver hates her. She can deploy the Suicide Squad against Oliver and his team, knowing that Oliver has used magic, is working with a new metahuman etc.
I’m pretty confident Waller as a season villain was planned by the showrunners at some point and was just dropped when they were told to stop using the characters. So integrating that helps fix the pacing issues of Season 4’s villain arc (especially since Darkh fights Oliver from Episode 1).
I’d also have Oliver’s tattoo from Constantine work on Darkh in the first ep’s fight scene so that Darkh has some arc where he learns how to beat Oliver while trying to do his schemes etc.
I’ve thought a lot about how to fix Season 4!
Yeah I don’t expect it to finished but just some ideas I like hearing about lol
Personally, I think I would’ve done is combine aspects from S6B and S7A with Diaz already being established as the big bad from the beginning. Maybe have him be build up before his reveal in episode 4 similar to Kingpin from Netflix’s Daredevil. Maybe expand his origin story to show where he learned how to fight.
Team Arrow could’ve been stuck on the Island between S5 and S6 until they managed to get off and when they got back, they realized that Star city is being control by Diaz.
Oliver would go to prison in the mid season finale AS Oliver Queen and not as GA while Roy takes up the GA mantle temporarily to stop Diaz. The finale would be the fight between Oliver and Diaz in prison.
S7 would focus much more on the Ninth Circle. Maybe with Onomatopoeia as a secondary villain
It’s far from perfect but it’s the best idea I can think of
I always wanted to bring back Komodo too so maybe Diaz hires Komodo for a few episodes to break up the season.
I’ll be doing stuff with Helena too, probably all the characters who they wanted to bring back but couldn’t get the actors scheduled.
I think if I kill Quentin earlier I need to use another non-mask character to take over his story arcs with Oliver, which I like Walter for. I’ll keep him unaware of Oliver’s secret too
Funny enough, while Adrian Chase is still the big bad of S5, the one thing I would actually change is the name. Instead of him being called Prometheus, he would be called “Komodo” since his outfit resembles Komodo from the comics a bit more.
This would mean that the Komodo from S3 would be somehow else with a different name
It would be an interesting process and this would add so much colour and details to Diaz's character, by also having contact with killers or soldiers like Komodo! I believe Diaz's villain arc was too forced in season 6
I would have Quentin die in season 4 (like having one of Darhk's goons dress up as a cop and attack him in the police station or something like that). Then, in season 5 I would Have Laurel be a meta as a result of flashpoint and have her in the first half of the season hunting any of Darhk's men that might be still around (it parallels Sara's Arc in trying to kill Damien Darhk in legends). In the second half of the season it will develop Oliver and Laurel's relationship and in season 6 they are officially back together.
I'll probably add more later
WOOO, this is cool! Imagine also if what you wrote here, fits with Prometheus storyline... Chase trying to wreci every single member of team Arrow, using also Laurel's hatred for that man who killed Quentin! There are so manu possibilities, can't wait to see what you'll add later!!
>using also Laurel's hatred for that man who killed Quentin!
This could somehow play into Earth-2 Laurel working with chase as well. She could say something like "I've killed my father's killer. Why aren't you willing to do the same for yours?"
Well for starters, she seeks out Ted Grant after the events of s.1, e2. Since she works in the glades, it could even be a storyline where she gets him as a client at CNRI. And she could decide that despite having self defense training, she'd want to be able to take care of herself better, since most of the people she goes after in court are really bad guys. She discovers Oliver's identity much earlier than she does in the actual show, like in s1,e5. She agrees to keep his secret, and becomes an ally initially. She can use the season to nudge Oliver towards taking on people not on his list.
Then after Sara is killed, Nyessa offers to train her when she first comes to Starling in season 3, in order to feel a sense of closenes to Sara, and Laurel agrees, having the same motivation as she does in the actual show. But she doesn't take on Sara's mantle until the end of season 3. This time, she has far more ttraining than she did in the show. Her suit is still the same as it was in the show. At least for season 3 and 4. Once Oliver levaes the city, she officially becomes the black canary, along with Diggle as a vigilanti, and Thea as Speedy. (I liked these 3 as a team).
So once Oliver returns, he is not a d... over her as a vigilanti, but still express concern as a friend, over her going out there. But she'll have had 3 years of training, as oposed to a couple of months, on top of self defense classes. She meets Cisco in the crossover, and he becomes a fan, and becomes her friend. She also meets and befriends Iris.
And she gains a love interest herself in season 4. Not nessecarily a long term thing, but a short brief fling. Maybe she hooks up with Constantine once.
WHen Darhk is about to kill her, Quentin sacrifices himself for her, which leads her to grieving. In responds to her grieving, she resigns from her job at the DA's office, and leaves town at the end of season 4, to gain some clarity on everything since loosing her dad. She leaves with Nyessa. In between season 4 and five, she meets and gains a new trainer, so an additional 6 months of training.
when she returns in season 5, she has meta human powers, akin to that of her earth x doubleganger. As well as hightned senses. And her powers are discovered due to flashpoint, but she has a hard time controlling them, and needs to learn how to control them. When she returns, Oliver is alone in the field, so for a while, she's the only one out there with him, but she still encoruges him to get a new team. And she decides to reopen CNRI. And when she returns, Cisco has made a new suit for her. And there is a tension between her and Oliver in season 5, until the crssover, where Oliver comes to the conclusion that he still loves her.
In the explosion at the end of season 5, Diggle and Rene are killed, and Curtis is injured to the point of not being a vigilanti anymore. Felicity decides to retire from the world of vigilantism after the death of Diggle, so Curtis takes her place as the hacker. Oliver's son does not go to live with him.
Roy comes back in season 6, having his name cleared, and the ones out in the field, are Oliver', Laurel and Roy, with Thea in a coma.
This story is a good idea of what they could have done with Laurel,
[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13737423/1/A-Canary-s-Tutelage](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13737423/1/A-Canary-s-Tutelage)
I would like to make it clear that all this evolution is MAGNIFICENT! Especially the way it dovetails with the rest of the series! Several possibilities could be implemented here. Also, over the course of season 4/5, Laurel and Oliver could get back together! At least, that's how I would make it!
Episode 17 and 18 of season 4 shows how well they could have worked, if they got back together, which they probably would have, had Laurel not been killed. They were both much different from how they were before he got shipwrecked. Like, he had grown up and matured, and she was less naive and not so perfect.
Season 5 is how I would make it..
I've never hated Laurel, and I think this sub has gotten over hating her mostly because of how misunderstood she was and how crappy the writer's did her; wish sucks cause she had so much potential as a character.
For In Canon, Laurel finds out she's a meta after Sara's death as she screams in grief. During Season 3, she trains with Wildcat and later Nyssa, slowly becoming a better fighter but uses her powers too often. In Season 4, she has a good balance of her combat skills and Canary Cry in equal measure. However, in Season 4, Darhk kills Quentin and uses his magic to take away her Cry; Laurel decides to retrain herself as vigilante without her Cry. By season 5, after much intense training with a Master Martial Artist like Katana or better yet Lady Shiva, Laurel is the master combatant like she is the comics and gradually her Cry returns but she only uses in when necessary.
Another alternative I have, is Laurel is Black Canary from Season 2 as it's revealed she had much more combat training during Oliver's five years in hell but gave it up to be a full time lawyer. As much as I like Sara, I part of me would always believe that Season 2 should've been Laurel starting point as a superhero. Sara would come back in Season 3.
A Sara storyline in season 3, along with the League is something that I would've liked to see! For your first idea, i really like the way Laurel would discover her meta-power, is a nice touch that I would definetly see applied very well in the show.
Personally I think what I would’ve done in S2 is give the whole drug addiction and alcoholism arc to Thea’s character instead. I think I just would’ve had Ted Grant train Laurel earlier in S2 and Laurel using that to cope with Tommy’s death in S1.
I feel like it would make sense with Thea doing drugs and drinking too much after the events of S1 given how her mom and Malcolm (who she thought was a family friend) was responsible for the death of the people in the Glades and of course Tommy. Then she finds out about Malcolm being her father, which makes things worse for her until Malcolm appears and gives her a better solution than her the drugs and the alcohol.
For S3 and S4, I believe the Olicity romance arc were supposed to be for Laurel instead with her breaking up with Oliver because Oliver hid the truth about having a kid he had with a woman he was seeing while he and Laurel were dating at the time. Maybe also give her powers due to the Particle Accelerator explosion, have her discover it in S3 and have her be the one that appears in the first Captain Cold episode of the Flash instead of Felicity to test her powers in Star Labs (or maybe have her and Felicity appear idk). Either that or give her power post Flashpoint.
S5 I guess would more or less be the same where Oliver and Laurel broke up but still works together. Maybe have E2 Laurel be a one time thing and have her die in 5x10 or maybe give her a scar to differentiate her from Laurel idk.
S6 I guess would be the same except Felicity could die instead and Laurel would be the one who helps Oliver raise Willam.
So you're talking about a reconciliation between them in S6, it's nice! Well, the idea of her appearing in The Flash is very good, we could also see Cisco becoming a fan of her and the character development of Thea that would start from her weakest points, seems truly great as a narrative tool!
I’m doing a rewrite currently, changed Laurel’s profession to align more with her wanting to help people. I have an outline for the rest of the series as a whole which I won’t put here as I am uploading my rewrite elsewhere
Edit: In case anyone is interested https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14332031/1/The-Green-Arrow
Interesting! Me too, I have a plan of rewriting the whole Arrow series, if you want, we could also talk about toghether! Now I'm going to read what you're doing!
Season 1 was just perfect for her. She was fighting crime in her own capacity, that overlapped with The Hood's list. She could kick ass, even without any superpower/device/LOA training.
But Laurel's addiction story-line in season 2, retconed all her badassry from the first season and turned her into a whining alcoholic. While it was very well-acted by Cassidy, it did hurt Laurel's character the most. Also, NOT making her a meta when particle accelerator exploded in Central City, was a mixed opportunity for sure.
Then they rushed her arc in season 3 and made her BC way too quickly. She was slowly getting there, but in season 4 but they killed her.
Season 4-5 was the perfect time for her to become a full-fledged Black Canary (that we eventually saw in season 8 in the form of Earth-2 Laurel).
Laurel had potential and was killed off, so stupidly. It was outrageous how the writers wrote Felicity in Laurel's place and gave Laurel the boot. Felicity poisoned the show. Well Olicity did, I just wish she was the same as S1, S2 Felicity. But that Woman is gone, now an annoying, bitchy and toxic woman.
They must've know that they messed up with Laurel, by killing her off. So they got E2 Laurel. I still don't like how Oliver was still with Felicity tho. I actually think if Felicity died in S4, rather than Laurel, it would actually be entertaining and dramatic. Felicity had a lot of Death Encounters, so it would be right. And S4 was when Olicity was getting started (The Death of Arrow), so her Death would still be sad, and she'd be remembered as the funny, lovable woman she was in Arrow S1,S2 and S3.
Laurel story was unfixable from day one with a story - the ex, who the main hero cheated on her with her sister. There is no way a self respected person to come back to this relationship, while also be in a love triangle with the best friend. Also they casted an actress who wasn't suitable for the big action the show and the role required.
To fix Black Canary story:
Sara- with the same story but could have the name Dinah for bigger accuracy, is introduced from s1. We see her separately how she comes back to town, come up with her costume, save Sin, tries to reconnect with her familly, saves women. So much better stories, Laurel either dies or becomes BSiren.
Laurel should have become the Black Canary between seasons 1 and 2. Using Tommy's death as the catalyst. As well as having her present in central city when the accelerator went off. Sara's return should have been saved for season 3 with a league storyline.
I believe Felicity’s romance arcs with Oliver in S3 and S4 were meant to be with Laurel initially. It makes far more sense if Laurel breaks up with Oliver over a kid that he made while he was with her. So basically to fix Laurel, I’d give her most of the plots of Olicity’s romance through to Season 5 and then work on it beyond that. Make her a meta in Season 2, but with a delayed reveal. Personally if we’re keeping close to the show’s actual plot, Darkh kills Quentin in S4 instead of Laurel, but earlier in the season, and she unlocks the Cry in her grief. Oliver finds out she has it, so they go to see Barry, where you can have Oliver find out about his son much the same way he does in the show. Eventually William’s kidnapped, Laurel breaks up with him (will they won’t they sucks but at least it’s a different plot to have Laurel be the reason they aren’t together, she throws herself at him constantly in Seasons 1 and 2) when she finds out, and her reactions to the events of the ep are effectively the same. You can still have an alternate Earth BC, but make it Sara instead. Obviously wasn’t going to happen given she was the lead on Legends, but I think Season 5 works better if it’s Sara who turns on the gang, especially since it would mean 5x23 has redeemed Slade face off with an evil Sara as a nice throwback to S2. Beyond S5 it’s a little harder, Felicity’s more embedded into the plot, but if it were me writing the show (and I had access to whichever actors I wanted), I’d be killing Felicity on the island, taking Diggle out of the field, having Roy lose an arm and bringing him back, and Thea’s coma has Roy fall into drug addiction so you get that plot too in S6. Season can start with the trio of Green Arrow, Arsenal and Black Canary working alongside Wildcat and Mr Terrific if they need to be there, but I’d actually prefer if they did a proper reset of the show and just had the main trio. I have so many ideas for an Arrow rewrite lol
First, my compliments for all the ideas and how you explained them. The funny thing is that I would like to rewrite, also for personal satisfaction and for the community, the Arrow series in general. And that includes the character of Laurel as well. I agree about how the two would break up and also about the situation at the end of season 5, so not bad! Also for how it fits with the Flash!
Yes to fix Laurel to fit Black Canary you need to rewrite her completely. But if you see her as a original Arrow character then the only thing she needed were more connected to the main plot stories. The best season for her was s2 because Sara connected her to the main plot. When they killed Sara she again became this irrelevant to the main plot character who just took parts in the group fights and created some drama. Whether she was main character or side one she was just lacking stories that explored her more in relevance to the main plot.
This is also a correct point!
Bro I would give everything to see your ideas put in she show instead of what we got. Huuuge respect my man, I love your scenario
Why to fix her you will give her stories no one liked? Olicity was a popular ship until these stories so even with Laurel they wouldn't be better. Laurel breaking up with Oliver over a kid he had while cheating makes sense but is still pretty contrived story for Laurivel and leaves them again in the position that she is better without him I.e. it makes no sense for her to be the love interest.
Now I’m kinda curious on how you would write S6 given that people hated that season the most. Mainly due to the whole NTA Civil War and Diaz as the villain.
It’s something I’m working on, just very slowly haha I don’t know if it’ll ever be finished or released or anything (most of these kinds of projects never finish), but my initial thoughts are Felicity dies on the island which makes Cayden actually threatening and a challenge to stop and with Sara joining Diaz, it would make for some interesting plot lines for Laurel As for how it works, I dunno yet, haven’t got that far! I do know I want to condense Darkh’s arc down to 9 episodes (with the crossover moved to around Ep 15 or 16: after Oliver discovers Laurel’s Cry, he takes her to Central City to investigate with Star Labs and the crossover can happen then); with Amanda Waller as the back half villain having gone a little crazy following Darkh’s crimes. Change up the flashbacks a bit to fit the change, but I figured she can serve as a double villain ala Slade, which can further go into exactly why Oliver hates her. She can deploy the Suicide Squad against Oliver and his team, knowing that Oliver has used magic, is working with a new metahuman etc. I’m pretty confident Waller as a season villain was planned by the showrunners at some point and was just dropped when they were told to stop using the characters. So integrating that helps fix the pacing issues of Season 4’s villain arc (especially since Darkh fights Oliver from Episode 1). I’d also have Oliver’s tattoo from Constantine work on Darkh in the first ep’s fight scene so that Darkh has some arc where he learns how to beat Oliver while trying to do his schemes etc. I’ve thought a lot about how to fix Season 4!
Yeah I don’t expect it to finished but just some ideas I like hearing about lol Personally, I think I would’ve done is combine aspects from S6B and S7A with Diaz already being established as the big bad from the beginning. Maybe have him be build up before his reveal in episode 4 similar to Kingpin from Netflix’s Daredevil. Maybe expand his origin story to show where he learned how to fight. Team Arrow could’ve been stuck on the Island between S5 and S6 until they managed to get off and when they got back, they realized that Star city is being control by Diaz. Oliver would go to prison in the mid season finale AS Oliver Queen and not as GA while Roy takes up the GA mantle temporarily to stop Diaz. The finale would be the fight between Oliver and Diaz in prison. S7 would focus much more on the Ninth Circle. Maybe with Onomatopoeia as a secondary villain It’s far from perfect but it’s the best idea I can think of
I always wanted to bring back Komodo too so maybe Diaz hires Komodo for a few episodes to break up the season. I’ll be doing stuff with Helena too, probably all the characters who they wanted to bring back but couldn’t get the actors scheduled. I think if I kill Quentin earlier I need to use another non-mask character to take over his story arcs with Oliver, which I like Walter for. I’ll keep him unaware of Oliver’s secret too
Funny enough, while Adrian Chase is still the big bad of S5, the one thing I would actually change is the name. Instead of him being called Prometheus, he would be called “Komodo” since his outfit resembles Komodo from the comics a bit more. This would mean that the Komodo from S3 would be somehow else with a different name
It would be an interesting process and this would add so much colour and details to Diaz's character, by also having contact with killers or soldiers like Komodo! I believe Diaz's villain arc was too forced in season 6
I would have Quentin die in season 4 (like having one of Darhk's goons dress up as a cop and attack him in the police station or something like that). Then, in season 5 I would Have Laurel be a meta as a result of flashpoint and have her in the first half of the season hunting any of Darhk's men that might be still around (it parallels Sara's Arc in trying to kill Damien Darhk in legends). In the second half of the season it will develop Oliver and Laurel's relationship and in season 6 they are officially back together. I'll probably add more later
WOOO, this is cool! Imagine also if what you wrote here, fits with Prometheus storyline... Chase trying to wreci every single member of team Arrow, using also Laurel's hatred for that man who killed Quentin! There are so manu possibilities, can't wait to see what you'll add later!!
>using also Laurel's hatred for that man who killed Quentin! This could somehow play into Earth-2 Laurel working with chase as well. She could say something like "I've killed my father's killer. Why aren't you willing to do the same for yours?"
an interaction BETWEEN E1 LAUREL AND E2 LAUREL, this makes me freak out!!
Well for starters, she seeks out Ted Grant after the events of s.1, e2. Since she works in the glades, it could even be a storyline where she gets him as a client at CNRI. And she could decide that despite having self defense training, she'd want to be able to take care of herself better, since most of the people she goes after in court are really bad guys. She discovers Oliver's identity much earlier than she does in the actual show, like in s1,e5. She agrees to keep his secret, and becomes an ally initially. She can use the season to nudge Oliver towards taking on people not on his list. Then after Sara is killed, Nyessa offers to train her when she first comes to Starling in season 3, in order to feel a sense of closenes to Sara, and Laurel agrees, having the same motivation as she does in the actual show. But she doesn't take on Sara's mantle until the end of season 3. This time, she has far more ttraining than she did in the show. Her suit is still the same as it was in the show. At least for season 3 and 4. Once Oliver levaes the city, she officially becomes the black canary, along with Diggle as a vigilanti, and Thea as Speedy. (I liked these 3 as a team). So once Oliver returns, he is not a d... over her as a vigilanti, but still express concern as a friend, over her going out there. But she'll have had 3 years of training, as oposed to a couple of months, on top of self defense classes. She meets Cisco in the crossover, and he becomes a fan, and becomes her friend. She also meets and befriends Iris. And she gains a love interest herself in season 4. Not nessecarily a long term thing, but a short brief fling. Maybe she hooks up with Constantine once. WHen Darhk is about to kill her, Quentin sacrifices himself for her, which leads her to grieving. In responds to her grieving, she resigns from her job at the DA's office, and leaves town at the end of season 4, to gain some clarity on everything since loosing her dad. She leaves with Nyessa. In between season 4 and five, she meets and gains a new trainer, so an additional 6 months of training. when she returns in season 5, she has meta human powers, akin to that of her earth x doubleganger. As well as hightned senses. And her powers are discovered due to flashpoint, but she has a hard time controlling them, and needs to learn how to control them. When she returns, Oliver is alone in the field, so for a while, she's the only one out there with him, but she still encoruges him to get a new team. And she decides to reopen CNRI. And when she returns, Cisco has made a new suit for her. And there is a tension between her and Oliver in season 5, until the crssover, where Oliver comes to the conclusion that he still loves her. In the explosion at the end of season 5, Diggle and Rene are killed, and Curtis is injured to the point of not being a vigilanti anymore. Felicity decides to retire from the world of vigilantism after the death of Diggle, so Curtis takes her place as the hacker. Oliver's son does not go to live with him. Roy comes back in season 6, having his name cleared, and the ones out in the field, are Oliver', Laurel and Roy, with Thea in a coma. This story is a good idea of what they could have done with Laurel, [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13737423/1/A-Canary-s-Tutelage](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13737423/1/A-Canary-s-Tutelage)
I would like to make it clear that all this evolution is MAGNIFICENT! Especially the way it dovetails with the rest of the series! Several possibilities could be implemented here. Also, over the course of season 4/5, Laurel and Oliver could get back together! At least, that's how I would make it!
Episode 17 and 18 of season 4 shows how well they could have worked, if they got back together, which they probably would have, had Laurel not been killed. They were both much different from how they were before he got shipwrecked. Like, he had grown up and matured, and she was less naive and not so perfect. Season 5 is how I would make it..
I like your narrative reasoning! Those episodes very actually intriguing: watching then even now, and I feel robbed...
I've never hated Laurel, and I think this sub has gotten over hating her mostly because of how misunderstood she was and how crappy the writer's did her; wish sucks cause she had so much potential as a character. For In Canon, Laurel finds out she's a meta after Sara's death as she screams in grief. During Season 3, she trains with Wildcat and later Nyssa, slowly becoming a better fighter but uses her powers too often. In Season 4, she has a good balance of her combat skills and Canary Cry in equal measure. However, in Season 4, Darhk kills Quentin and uses his magic to take away her Cry; Laurel decides to retrain herself as vigilante without her Cry. By season 5, after much intense training with a Master Martial Artist like Katana or better yet Lady Shiva, Laurel is the master combatant like she is the comics and gradually her Cry returns but she only uses in when necessary. Another alternative I have, is Laurel is Black Canary from Season 2 as it's revealed she had much more combat training during Oliver's five years in hell but gave it up to be a full time lawyer. As much as I like Sara, I part of me would always believe that Season 2 should've been Laurel starting point as a superhero. Sara would come back in Season 3.
A Sara storyline in season 3, along with the League is something that I would've liked to see! For your first idea, i really like the way Laurel would discover her meta-power, is a nice touch that I would definetly see applied very well in the show.
Personally I think what I would’ve done in S2 is give the whole drug addiction and alcoholism arc to Thea’s character instead. I think I just would’ve had Ted Grant train Laurel earlier in S2 and Laurel using that to cope with Tommy’s death in S1. I feel like it would make sense with Thea doing drugs and drinking too much after the events of S1 given how her mom and Malcolm (who she thought was a family friend) was responsible for the death of the people in the Glades and of course Tommy. Then she finds out about Malcolm being her father, which makes things worse for her until Malcolm appears and gives her a better solution than her the drugs and the alcohol. For S3 and S4, I believe the Olicity romance arc were supposed to be for Laurel instead with her breaking up with Oliver because Oliver hid the truth about having a kid he had with a woman he was seeing while he and Laurel were dating at the time. Maybe also give her powers due to the Particle Accelerator explosion, have her discover it in S3 and have her be the one that appears in the first Captain Cold episode of the Flash instead of Felicity to test her powers in Star Labs (or maybe have her and Felicity appear idk). Either that or give her power post Flashpoint. S5 I guess would more or less be the same where Oliver and Laurel broke up but still works together. Maybe have E2 Laurel be a one time thing and have her die in 5x10 or maybe give her a scar to differentiate her from Laurel idk. S6 I guess would be the same except Felicity could die instead and Laurel would be the one who helps Oliver raise Willam.
So you're talking about a reconciliation between them in S6, it's nice! Well, the idea of her appearing in The Flash is very good, we could also see Cisco becoming a fan of her and the character development of Thea that would start from her weakest points, seems truly great as a narrative tool!
I’m doing a rewrite currently, changed Laurel’s profession to align more with her wanting to help people. I have an outline for the rest of the series as a whole which I won’t put here as I am uploading my rewrite elsewhere Edit: In case anyone is interested https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14332031/1/The-Green-Arrow
Interesting! Me too, I have a plan of rewriting the whole Arrow series, if you want, we could also talk about toghether! Now I'm going to read what you're doing!
Yeah, I’d be up for that!
Season 1 was just perfect for her. She was fighting crime in her own capacity, that overlapped with The Hood's list. She could kick ass, even without any superpower/device/LOA training. But Laurel's addiction story-line in season 2, retconed all her badassry from the first season and turned her into a whining alcoholic. While it was very well-acted by Cassidy, it did hurt Laurel's character the most. Also, NOT making her a meta when particle accelerator exploded in Central City, was a mixed opportunity for sure. Then they rushed her arc in season 3 and made her BC way too quickly. She was slowly getting there, but in season 4 but they killed her. Season 4-5 was the perfect time for her to become a full-fledged Black Canary (that we eventually saw in season 8 in the form of Earth-2 Laurel).
The missed opportunity of making her a meta, is what makes me disappointed the most, throughout her character
Laurel had potential and was killed off, so stupidly. It was outrageous how the writers wrote Felicity in Laurel's place and gave Laurel the boot. Felicity poisoned the show. Well Olicity did, I just wish she was the same as S1, S2 Felicity. But that Woman is gone, now an annoying, bitchy and toxic woman.
Precisely what i think too... And these thoughts gets confirmed when they try to fix her character, by bringing E2 Laurel
They must've know that they messed up with Laurel, by killing her off. So they got E2 Laurel. I still don't like how Oliver was still with Felicity tho. I actually think if Felicity died in S4, rather than Laurel, it would actually be entertaining and dramatic. Felicity had a lot of Death Encounters, so it would be right. And S4 was when Olicity was getting started (The Death of Arrow), so her Death would still be sad, and she'd be remembered as the funny, lovable woman she was in Arrow S1,S2 and S3.
It would've been perfect this way.
Laurel story was unfixable from day one with a story - the ex, who the main hero cheated on her with her sister. There is no way a self respected person to come back to this relationship, while also be in a love triangle with the best friend. Also they casted an actress who wasn't suitable for the big action the show and the role required. To fix Black Canary story: Sara- with the same story but could have the name Dinah for bigger accuracy, is introduced from s1. We see her separately how she comes back to town, come up with her costume, save Sin, tries to reconnect with her familly, saves women. So much better stories, Laurel either dies or becomes BSiren.
Sara as the main Black Canary might truly be an interesting turning point!
Laurel should have become the Black Canary between seasons 1 and 2. Using Tommy's death as the catalyst. As well as having her present in central city when the accelerator went off. Sara's return should have been saved for season 3 with a league storyline.
Tommy's death would be the perfect catalyst!