Arrow Season 6: 7 Reasons Why It's Better Than You Think

Over the years, Arrow has given us both the best and worst villains that the Arrowverse has seen. On one hand, you have major successes like Dark Archer, Deathstroke and Prometheus while on the other, you have flunks like Ra's Al Ghul and Damien Darhk.

Season 6 attempted to subvert our expectations and deliver something quite different as apparent Big Bad Cayden James set up a super-team of bad guys instead. While some of the team members were interesting, the whole thing fell apart because, despite Michael Emerson's powerful performance, James just wasn't that engaging. He was neither the best nor the worst and just kind of languished in the middle with his supervillainous all-powerful technology.

However, the writers threw a curveball midway through and had Ricardo Diaz, a seemingly uninteresting lieutenant of James, kill the villain and take over his empire - officially becoming the season's new Big Bad. Despite some development issues early on, Diaz quickly grew into an intimidating, effective and believable threat, reminding us that Arrow is at its best when it focuses on flawed characters instead of colourful villains.

With a strong performance from Kirk Acevedo and an interesting backstory, Diaz became one of the standout aspects of Season 6, and he has untapped potential that will undoubtedly be explored further throughout Season 7.