re: Arrow Season Long Thread 5/14 Pg. 54

yeah youd think Ra's would be tired of these crazy Americans that make terrible soldiers and keep defecting from him.

I agree that eventually we'll meet other mentors who helped train Ollie along the way. He likely picks up some of the skills from spending more time with Slade. We can assume he also spends some time in Russia with the Bratva. I don't think he had any direct contact with Ras; he's only hinted a limited knowledge of Ras and The League ("If half of what I've heard about Ras al Ghul is true..."). The concept of Ras as a "hidden mentor" is pretty cool, but it would hue too closely to the plot of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises, and the Arrow showrunners have gone to great lengths to distinguish the Ras of The Dark Knight trilogy from the Ras in the Arrow universe (different/correct pronunciation, "League of Assassins" vs. "League of Shadows", Nyssa instead of Talia, etc.).

This is slightly off-topic, but I would love to see Warner Bros mold this show into the larger DC Universe being created for the Man of Steel 2 / Justice League film series presently under-development. I believe Warner would benefit from having an actual coherent universe a la Marvel & Disney. Warner doesn't seem to put much of a premium on this concept, so I won't be surprised to see a completely different Oliver Queen in a completely different universe on film vs. TV.

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I think Tommy's been revived by the pit and when he shows up again he will be trained up and out for Ollie's blood because of the crazy that the pit put's on you.

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I'm wondering how they are going to explain how Malcolm survived. I wonder if they will try and tie it to the pits. If so, it wouldn't be that much of a further stretch to have whoever revived him also revive Tommy.

But with that said I could also see them leaving Tommy dead, giving Malcolm more incentive to try and reconnect with Thea (which already seems to be happening), or maybe even bond with Laural over Tommy's death.

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I don't think he had any direct contact with Ras; he's only hinted a limited knowledge of Ras and The League ("If half of what I've heard about Ras al Ghul is true...").

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I agree, I don't think Ra's will be his mentor. I kind of think he will basically train himself. I think toward the end of the flashbacks, Oliver will end up being alone on the island for the last couple of years he was there. He'll basically take what he has learned from Slade, Shado, Yao Fei and whoever else they might introduce to the island and use a constant regiment to train himself (sort of like he did in the comics).

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Do you think the flashbacks will ever stop or will it be a continual thing they go back to every time Oliver gets into a new situation?

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The showrunners have said that the flashbacks will be part of every episode and every storyline. One of the producers made a comment along the lines of "the last flashback you will see on the series finale will be what happens right before Oliver is discovered by the chinese fishing boat on the island."

I agree that I don't see Thea being very keen to readily accept Malcolm has her father. But who knows considering how messed up that family already is.

I do think it is possible for Malcolm to somehow convince Laural that Tommy's death (and maybe even Sarah's death) is Oliver's fault, and thus conning her into letting him take her under his wing and train her. I don't see that as being out of the realm of possibilities at this point. Especially if she becomes further estranged from her family (which she is already starting to do) and Oliver (which could happen if she finds out Oliver and Sarah are back at it).

And when I said I think he will end up being alone on the island I meant more in that he won't have any friends or a trainer/mentor. At some point he'll have to become the loner that he was at the beginning of the series.

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I am bothered by Sara's chin and I think it and her will be dead by the end of this seasons finale.

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While fun to look at, she really displayed the real world uselessness of a low cut top on a crime fighting outfit. It's really impractical.

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Definately. I think the last scene of the last episode of the series will be the scene where he fired the burning arrow to get rescued.

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That would be awesome. Or at least end a season that way.