Arrow Season 5: 8 Ups And 2 Downs From 'Legacy'

4. The Renewed Edge

Arrow Ups Downs
The CW

You could say it’s an old edge, you could say it’s a new edge. Either way, this season premiere showed that Oliver Queen certainly has a renewed edge.

Yes, it may not be exactly superhero behaviour to be snapping people’s necks, and it may technically be morally wrong, but it definitely makes for awesome TV to see Stephen Amell’s Emerald Archer cracking skulls with a clinical edge not seen for a good few seasons now.

Obviously the flashback version of Ollie has that vicious side to him – after all, that is the Oliver who turned up back in Star(ling) City in Season 1 with the aim of killing anyone who had failed the city – but it’s a little different to see the present day Oliver taking a more kill-happy approach to proceedings, too.

We all know that the formation of a new Team Arrow will ultimately lead to Ollie eventually taking less of a killer approach, but it’s good to see him using the fate of Laurel Lance to fuel his more aggressive, somewhat effective gameplan.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.