Arrow: Season 2

This show is awesome!!! You know that sensation? The one where right after you wake up you still have these ghost like images and snippets of the dreams you were just having floating around the edges of your mind in your mental peripheral vision, bathed in a fog as they quickly fade away and no matter how hard you concentrate or try to grasp onto those little bits the faster they disappear? This is nothing like that at all, Arrow is well written, well acted, and very well thought out almost like the fuzz on a velvet painting when you rub it against the grain and it gets all prickly. I have only seen the first season and about a third of the second season but man it is more addictive than toaster crumbs on a low fat mustard and apple pop tart strudel. This show is extremely entertaining and I know that you can use maple syrup as a hair gel on your dog although it can be hard to get out but I don't let the addictive nature of this show over power the pure entertainment of it. I am really impressed with Stephen Amell as an actor but the price of fast food jumping so diversely from county to county makes being a fan of Canadian muskrat jug bands hard to acknowledge even to friends and family so I can see where he will get a lot of roles in the future and not just superhero roles I am willing to bet. The actor playing Diggle is participating in the episodes but some of his lines are directed towards me, just yesterday I was watching an episode where he said something to Stephens character but he was looking at me and doing an impersonation of the gremlins taunting Mrs. Deagle but he was saying "Diggle Diggle Diggle". It's not the first time actors have sent me messages so I'm used to it by now, anyhoo, it's about time for my meds so I'll wrap this up with a quick quote... " never trust the banana that wont look you in the eye when it's time to water the day lilies" - Crusty the homeless guy that hangs out behind they medical supply warehouse!

It was mostly this season in particular which secured my official loyalty as a fan of the show, as this was a particularly intense season, and a definite game changer for everyone, especially Oliver. As a writer, one of my favorite types of characters are the noble heroic types generally typical of superheroes, but what makes Oliver stand out is his superpower is, strangely enough, pain and suffering.When the show began, Oliver's main reason for taking up the bow and becoming the vigilante was intensely personal, as his father had confessed just before killing himself that his family's wealth had been built on the suffering of others. During the first season, his prime obligation is indeed towards the welfare of the city, but is mainly influenced by his desire to cleanse the sins of his family. By the end of the first season, especially following Tommy's death, his personal connections to that vow fades considerably and transforms into focusing directly on the city. In the second season, we begin to see a transformation in Oliver in which he comes to possess an understanding that what he began as the vigilante is something far bigger than himself.The completion of this transformation in Oliver occurs in the episode "City of Blood", in which Amell has received considerable praise for his deliverance of a very distinct performance. Based both on what he has experienced since returning to Starling City and what he experienced on the island, he comes to possess a better understanding of how one's actions affect others on an intensely personal level. This transformation started with the arrival of Slade Wilson in the city, and ended with Slade's tirade vendetta against Oliver inflicting on him probably the worst suffering he's experienced during the course of the show. By the time this episode occurs, it has been revealed that Slade has suffered greatly because of actions Oliver either took or failed to take. First came Shado's death, with whom Slade was in love with, which occurred when Oliver chose to save Sara instead. More significantly was when the Mirakuru came into usage, as Oliver both administered this to Slade and later failed to cure Slade of its effects when he had the chance, for which Slade suffered immensely.One of the major stages of Slade's vendetta was recreating the situation in which Shado met her end, in which Slade forced Oliver to chose between the two most important people in his life, who would live and who would die, Moria or Thea. Despite Oliver's best efforts, Moria sacrifices herself for her children, after which, before disappearing into the darkness, Slade tells him that before this vendetta was to end, one more person had to die. Here, the transformation completed. Following Moira's death, Oliver attains an unusual sense of clarity over the situation based on the evidence before him. In seeing how Slade recreated the scenario which led to Shado's death on the island, and how he planned on unleashing the army of Mirakuru-induced soldiers on the city, Oliver accepts this was all in fact result of his actions on the island. At the same time, he's also painfully aware of the fact that at that time, he had no means of defeating Slade or preventing anyone else getting hurt, leaving him with only one card in his hand left to play. Seeing how Slade spared him and Thea after Moira sacrificed herself, he comes to one firm resolution.Now, several critics, while still praising Amell's very intense performance in this episode, denounced Oliver's following actions as rash, fool hearted, self centered and wallowing in self pity, and that he wasn't thinking clearly. I'm seeing the exact opposite.When Oliver doesn't show up to Moira's funeral, John and Felicity track him down at an apparent secret backup hideout, where he reveals in striking clarity what he intends to do as a last effort to stop Slade from hurting anybody else, which is to surrender to Slade. He starts by correctly acknowledging his responsibility for Slade's actions, and based on Slade's proclamation that before the vendetta could end, one more person had to die, comes to the conclusion that if he offers himself as that last person and lets Slade kill him, Slade would spare everybody else, and the city.Oliver's reason for coming to this conclusion is about as far from self-centered as possible, as despite the fact that he's in an overwhelming amount of pain (based on his facial expression and the tone in his voice), he manages to keep his composure, his only concern being to keep those closest to him (Thea, Laurel, Sara, Felicity and John) safe and to spare the city he vowed to protect from destruction at the hands of Slade's army. When Felicity tries to dissuade him from his decision, he makes a reference to something someone else he'd met on the island had told him. When on the island, he and Sara were trapped underwater on a Japanese submarine with a man named Peter. The only way for them to escape is to dislodge the sub using one of the torpedoes, which could only be operated in such a manner manually from the inside, basically a suicide mission. However, Peter tells them that he is already dying from radiation poisoning, conveying the same scenario of their being no other alternative Oliver finds himself in, and offers to free them. Oliver tells Felicity the same words Paul had offered him and Sara, that "the essence of heroism is to die so that others could live".This is what I like to call the perfect example of the makings of "The Heroic Sacrifice"First, based on Oliver's conviction of duty stemming from his justifiable sense of responsibility over what happened to Slade, it seems reasonable to assume that this was not a decision Oliver was making on a whim, but was rather more almost as decisive as Slade's efforts to torture him. Second, having seen that Slade was decisive and merciful enough to spare Thea after killing Moira, Oliver had every reason to believe that Slade had enough restraint for him to convince Slade to accept him in exchange for everyone else, making this undoubtedly the bravest thing a person in this kind of situation can do. That transformation of conviction which started with Tommy's death and ended with his mother's death, even in spite of all the pain he'd suffered at the hands of Slade, gave him the strength to stay true to his devotion to those dear to him and even more so to the vow he made to protect the city, even in the face of death. Finally, Oliver had properly analyzed the situation to the point that he concluded the only bargaining chip he had left to use against Slade was his own life. Luckily, Laurel was able to find him another one just in the nick of time by providing solid evidence that her suspicions about Sebastian Blood had been true, that he'd been conspiring with Slade all along. With Laurel renewing his hope that he could still defeat Slade after all, he abandoned his plan to surrender, owing to the logic that the Heroic Sacrifice is only to be used as a last resort. Him not going through with that plan didn't matter, the fact he was willing to go that far when there was no other option proved him capable of true heroism.