Tintin's Top Ten: Things We Want In Arrow Season 3

Tintin's Top Ten

Things We Want in Arrow Season 3

Arrow's second season began and ended with a massive bang. The show based on DC comics Green Arrow and airing on the CW Network, has been a great success and has become the foundation for superheroes to take over TV like they have the Silver Screens. 

This Fall it will air its third season alongside a plethora of superhero TV shows. Most notably The Flash, which is its spin-off, but even then it's Arrow that is the most anticipated, having built itself a growing fan base.

The Creators Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg left a lot of teases not just in the finale but through the season of things to come. Season 3 is highly anticipated and here's a few things I'd like to see...

10. Flash Crossover

With the flash series set to premiere during the same fall season as Arrow's third season, there's no doubt a cross over is being planned. Heck Arrow will make an appearance in the Pilot episode, as confirmed by the Flash trailer.  

One intriguing thread left open from season 2 is the idea of Oliver being a father. The seeds have been planted for Green Arrow's son from the comics; Connor Hawke to make his presence known. Now that we know the mother of Oliver's child is in Central City, then a Flash/Arrow cross over could relate to a villain taking Ollie's son hostage to get him out and Flash helping solve the case or we could just see Oliver meet his former flame during a visit to Central City. Somehow a Flash/Arrow cross over should take the advantage of Ollie's son being in the fastest man's city.

This could also tie into or create what seems to be the theme of season 3 regarding Father's and Children (the whole Diggle's expecting a son and Malcolm/Thea dynamic adding to Oliver's son)

9. The Bratva Comes Knocking

A small part of the season gone showed us the desperation Ollie had once Slade revealed himself. This caused his ties with the Bratva to come to an unceremonious end, yet as is with the focus of the narrative they never made their retaliation towards the Arrow. I fully expected Oliver to leave the island for Russia with Anatoli by the end of the season, but instead he headed off with Amanda to China.  

 So while we might learn by Season 4 how Oliver learnt Russian, which means that Bratva might become a bigger threat down the road with Anatoli in tow (more on that later). What we need now is for Bratva to be a threat to Oliver, even if it is just a filler episode. I always liked the idea of street level heroes taking on real crime figures, and an Oliver vs. Russian mob idea seems intriguing. 

8. Filling A SuperMAX

Each episode began with a brief introduction that would form the underlying theme of Oliver's arc this season; No more killing. As such it allowed one thing that is necessary for any superhero, it allowed Oliver to gain his own form of a rogues gallery. Yet in one hand, the amount of villains ready made to face Oliver can be counted as Malcolm Merlyn, Deathstroke and possibly the League of Assassins and Suicide Squad. This season killed off last year's built in Count Vertigo and redeemed the Huntress.

As such, Arrow still doesn't have a fixed amount of villains he can take on besides those that have been the big bad of each season. Oliver mentions that the super max on the island will fill up, but the question is how?

As with the Bratva thing, I could see Anatoli forced to turn against Oliver and then becoming his comic book counterpart; the KGBeast. The show can then introduce the likes of Richard Dragon, Solomon Grundy, Onomatopeia and maybe even another Count Vertigo (the real super powered one). Prometheus is another villain that would work, if they can mold him from his comic book Anti-Batman self into an Anti-Arrow type of character for the show.

With the GA not having a great set of villains, DC should allow the creators to borrow from where they want to create compelling set of rotatable villains for Arrow to take on and make each single standing episode exciting. 

7. Suicide Escalation

Rumors were swirling of Suicide Squad getting their own film, I'm unsure if this would be a team for the movies or basically the one from the show. It would be intriguing, especially considering how compelling a character Deadshot has become in the space of few episodes.  Flash's debut also means new rogues for the Suicide Squad to employ; specifically his vaunted foe Captain Cold . Then there's the tease that the show left for Harley Quinn, which could herald a wider array of villains from major heroes if it comes to fruition.

The demand though is for more Suicide Squad episodes, you never know that it may propel their own show in the future, making more for DC.

6. Red Arrow, Green Arrow

With hints from the cast and crew pointing at Merlyn becoming a major thorn for Arrow in season 3 and with Thea on his side, the next season could feature a battle between Merlyn and Arrow for Thea's soul. As such you would hard pressed not to find Roy with Oliver. The evolving dynamic was shunted for the latter half of the season, in favor of the driving plot and theme. As such, the next season needs to establish Arrow and his Arsenal's partnership as well as give  us more training videos to make sense as to how Roy became so good with the bow during the finale.

With both men now in costume and Canary out, this will be the time for the episodes to become a Batman and Robin kind of thing between the two players. It would also make sense as Roy would be front and center facing off against a Thea when Merlyn and Arrow once again inevitably collide.

5. A Debt to The Demon

While Sara left with the League as the paid debt for their helping hand to Starling City, it would make sense that the League wont leave alone. If Merlyn does resurface, then the League will come back and if that happens Oliver will have to choose sides for the sake of Thea.

When the League was announced this season and Malcolm revealed to be alive, I dreamed of a sequence where Merlyn and Arrow would be back to back fighting against hordes of the League's ninja Assassins. A sequence like that would be magic.

Still even though Merlyn isn't involved, I'm sure Ra's would want more than just Sara as debt for their help in saving Starling. So it would be intriguing to see what Oliver is called upon to do and how far his and the League's friendship can go. Making them the seasons big bad would be a nice touch, as it becomes a change up from the singular hell bent entity that has a personal connection to Oliver.

4. Other Flashbacks

One of the coolest aspects of Season 2 were the Sara and Diggle flashback scenes, it helped bring some change from the island and it's slowly becoming implausible situations (that have been rectified thanks to ARGUS taking Oliver away). Even then Sara got fleshed out during the island part, so it would be much more cool to see how she came into the League, her services to them and her building relations with Nyssa.

More than that though, I would like to see some other character flash backs. First if possible a flash back for Deathstroke, to simply detail how he escaped the shipwreck and island and planned his vengeance. Then Merlyn's flashbacks, that could detail his journey in finding redemption for his wife and training among the league.

3. ARGUS in Purgatory 

As mentioned, season 3's flashbacks are going to be set outside of the island and most likely in China. As such this adds something new to the picture and can be a great way to flesh out both ARGUS and Amanda Waller. It means it would allow for some of the plot threads from Season one to be addressed, specifically Fyer's and what I feel should be his real reason to be on the island, and ARGUS's interests on it as well as with Yao Fei. Could ARGUS become the big bad for the next season? Maybe, but more importantly they could be a sort of more militant SHIELD for the DC universe.

There's also the point about the island being an Argus prison, adding to the whole many super villains plaguing Arrow in the present and even Oliver in the past. ARGUS might be where he got his training from and idea of the vigilante persona.

2. Olicity

The Season Finale provided a big pay off that fans had been waiting to see, or so it seemed until it became a fake out to trick Slade, or was it?

What I'm obviously talking about is Oliver professing his love to Felicity. It's a slow burning game the creators are playing, but it's one fans would gladly wait for, for it to peak beautifully. Trust me, rarely do you see comic fans on message boards going all bonkers over a romantic plot in a comic based item like this.

This all comes down to Emily Bett Rickards brilliant portrayal of Felicity and the sizzling chemistry she shares with Stephen Amell.  While it might have been a trick, there were hints in Amell's performance that make you feel that what he said to some extent may have been true. So hopefully by the end of next season we will have a final confirmation on where this relationship stands and whether Olicity (as it has been dubbed) will be alive and kicking.

1. The DC Cinematic Universe

The biggest thing next season needs to do, is what the entirety of DC and by extensions Warner Bros. needs to do; Confirm whether Arrow and Flash as well exist as part of their plans for the larger DC Cinematic Universe their creating.

A nice post highlighted how adding these two could be to DC/WB's benefit, as it would add one if not two members to the upcoming Justice League and be a much quicker push into the established continuity. Without them connected to the DCMU, all DC would be left with until it's first superhero meeting in 2016 with Batman vs. Superman, would be two hours of just one movie; Man of Steel.

Here three Seasons of Arrow would have gone, two of Flash and a whole host of rogues would be established. Even those such as the League and Harley Quinn and by de facto Joker, that would make sense considering their Batman played by Ben Affleck will be an experienced one having been as hero for quite a long time.

It could also make sense of ARGUS's involvement and give another influence for Oliver fashioning himself as a vigilante in lieu of Batman when he returned from the island, to complete his father's wishes.

It's the biggest leg up that Agents of SHIELD currently has on Arrow, it's connected to something much bigger. DC should be smart and follow suit. They might not get the Flash films they want, but they can have a long running TV show that could build to a film franchise down the road. DC makes a lot of money, fans are satisfied and a whole universe is properly set up in the process. 

'Nuff Said,

Aneesh Raikundalia