Arrow: 5 Reasons Why Oliver Queen Is The Most Compelling Superhero On Television
4. He Makes Mistakes
Oliver Queen is the protagonist of a comic-based television series. As such, he gets the Big Dang Hero moments and the epic romance and the swelling score whenever he makes a particularly awesome entrance. He's the good guy who gives up everything to face off with a supervillain at the end of each season.
Oliver also makes mistakes. He has blind spots for those whom he loves most, and he doesn't always take into consideration the repercussions of his actions. He can be so frustrating and foolish at times that the urge to reach through the screen and slap some sense into him is not uncommon to many viewers.
Those mistakes, however, are part of what has made his journey so fascinating. Oliver actively errs, and it has added a touch of realism that is absent to Barry Allen over on The Flash and even to some of the other masked marauders on Oliver's own show. Rarely enabled by those around him, Oliver always pays for his mistakes. While not always pleasant to watch, the nuances build him into a three-dimensional individual rather than draw him as a character so flat that he may as well have been lifted straight from the pages of a comic book.