Arrow: 6 Reasons Why Laurel's Death Was Actually A Good Thing
3. Team Arrow Was Too Big
Arrow started out in Season 1 as the story of one man hitting the streets to try and rid his city of crime. Oliver was a hero who occasionally required backup in the field from Diggle, while Felicity worked her techno magic from the Arrow Cave.
The three-person dynamic worked, and Arrow managed to incorporate Sara as a non-permanent member and Roy as a sidekick in Seasons 2 and 3 well enough. Season 4 featured a Team Arrow with five members, four of whom were masked fighters out in the field. The team was bloated with an overabundance of muscle that took the focus away from the Green Arrow on his own show, and turned too many of the formerly tight fight sequences into messy melees. Four field members was just too many. Somebody had to go.
Frankly, Laurel was the field member of Team Arrow that made the least sense. Oliver is a master of multiple disciplines after enduring half a decade of hell to be forged into a weapon, Digg has years and years of experience in addition to his sheer size, and Thea went through months of League of Assassins boot camp with Malcolm Merlyn that gave her some believable skills for her itty bitty frame. Laurel would have been useful more as a lawyer than a vigilante, but she could be spared in the field. Team Arrow needed to be pruned; Laurel made sense as the branch to be snipped.