8 Unforgivable Mistakes Arrow Made (From Which It Never Recovered)

Ever since it first made its way onto our screens back in 2012, Arrow has been something of a revolutionary force in the world of superhero television.

Carrying the torch in a post-Smallville era, it ditched the prequel story and threw fans straight into a fully-blown film-like story centred on Oliver Queen's return from Lian Yu and subsequent rise to heroism. The end result was a thoroughly compelling narrative that introduced us all to a gritty reinvention of one of DC Comics' most beloved heroes.

Naturally, the success of Arrow spawned multiple spin-offs in The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl (with two more on the way), and, in the process, originated what is now known as the Arrowverse - a shared universe the likes of which television had never seen before, and one that looks set to stay long after Arrow concludes.

That said, while there's no doubting Arrow's contribution to superhero TV, the show hasn't exactly had the smoothest of runs. Unfortunately, it made a number of mistakes throughout its time on the air - some of which it hasn't really recovered from since...

If you could sum up perfection in a television season, then there's a good chance it might look something like Arrow Season 2. A season based on Slade Wilson's irrational hatred for Oliver Queen, it culminated with the utterly devastating death of the latter's mother Moira - a moment that is among the most haunting the show has ever produced.

There's no taking away how effective Moira's death was and how it ultimately drove the Emerald Archer to overcome Slade, but it was so effective that it ended up leaving the show with no room for further development of the character in the seasons to come.

It's something of a trope for shows aimed at young audiences to eventually kill off the parental characters and a lot of the time that can have a negative effect going forward, because it strips the respective show of some of its most mature storylines, and that's kind of what happened here.

Moira was one of Arrow's most well-rounded characters and one of the grounding factors of the first two seasons. But without her around, the show lost its parental figure and her ties to the Queen family, The Undertaking and even the Queen Consolidated board meetings. Worst of all, though, was that her absence paved the way for the show's evolution into a cartoonish and stereotypical superhero series.

Moira was such an illusive character and Susanna Thompson had a way of making everything interesting. It goes without saying that these are elements that the lacklustre third season (and every season that followed) could have benefited from.