Green Arrow's 10 Greatest Failures
3. Lets Felicity Get Shot - Arrow 'Dark Waters'
The Arrow TV show on the CW brought about a new age of television and did for DC heroes then what Disney+ does now for Marvel's own gallery of heroes.
While the show took a lot of liberties with the Green Arrow mythology, one thing that stayed consistent with Oliver both on TV and in the comic books was his ability to fail those closest to him. In Arrow, Ollie meets a woman named Felicity Smoak, who joins his team as tech support, as well as the group's moral compass.
Eventually the two fall in love, going through several peaks and valleys in their relationship. A major valley formed in the relationship on the day Oliver proposed to Felicity, as on the ride home they were ambushed by heavily armed soldiers hired by that season's main antagonist Damien Darhk.
Ollie initially shields Felicity from the absolute hailstorm of bullets going through their limo. But literally right as he goes to the driver's seat to try and get them to safety, Felicity is hit by a bullet that permanently paralyzes her.
She eventually makes a device that helps her walk again, but the entire ordeal is quite traumatizing for Felicity and the Green Arrow, putting an incredible amount of strain on their relationship, and showing that Star City's hero can fail even when acting as a human shield for those he cares deepest about.