6 Times Arrow Improved Green Arrow Mythology (& 4 Times It Failed)

2. Too Reliant On Lian Yu

Lian Yu
The CW

Okay, so Oliver Queen was presumed dead after the Queen’s Gambit was lost at sea, rendering all aboard as supposedly deceased. Instead, Oliver was washed up on the shores of Lian Yu, where he would begin to hone plenty of the skills he’d later utilise as the Green Arrow.

That was great, that was fine, and the first two seasons of Arrow culminated – in a flashback sense – in Ollie finally making it off Lian Yu. Despite following seasons seeing the flashback elements of the show taking Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow-in-waiting to Hong Kong and Russia, he always seemed to end up lumbered back on Lian Yu. And similarly, the modern-day narrative of Arrow kept bringing Oliver back to this strange and brutal island.

Those scenes on Lian Yu have been handled well, yet Arrow has spent eight seasons becoming a little too reliant on Lian Yu. Even now, as the show heads towards its final few episodes, we saw Stephen Amell’s Emerald Archer making yet another trip to Lian Yu – this time to visit his sister, Thea – and all of this pushes the narrative that Lian Yu is some inescapable monster in terms of the greater mythology of Green Arrow.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.