Arrow: 10 Ways That Season 3 Went Wrong

Arrow has always somewhat fallen short with its female characters. The comic genre is frequently represented from a male-centric point of view that casts women as distressed damsels in need of rescue or guidance more often than capable of acts of heroism; with a male protagonist whose history demanded that he leave a string of women scorned in his wake, the first two seasons of the show were somewhat tough on all of the ladies.

Season 3 was just plain awful for them.

Superheroine extraordinaire Sara Lance was shot full of arrows, knocked off of a rooftop, banged into a dumpster on the way down, and landed in a dirty alley on her head. Laurel Lance was shoved into Sara’s vacant mask before the brain matter could be wiped off because apparently the Lance sisters are as interchangeable as vigilantes as they were bedmates to Oliver. Felicity was rewritten to facilitate the story of a man who stalked her, belittled her, and denied her credit that she was professionally due. Nyssa was forced by her father to marry Oliver with the understanding that she would bear him children ASAP, then forced to kneel before the man who had ordered the death of her beloved. Thea was violated by her father as he drugged her, brainwashed her, and forced her to murder Sara. 

Huzzah for feminism.