Opening Remarks
Well, that's another year in the books! I've got pretty mixed feelings about Arrow season 6. There was plenty of good--Oliver's fatherhood, "back to basics," Diggle's arc, and Ricardo Diaz--but there was also a whole lot of bad--Dinah's arc, Vigilante, Cayden James, and the Team Arrow civil war. Like with season 5, it seems like the writers started from a really strong idea for the end of the season, then worked backwards to set up all their chess pieces for that endgame. Consequently, the first two-thirds of the season were mostly tedious filler.
But what an ending it was! Granted, Oliver's identity being revealed to the public wasn't exactly a huge surprise: Marc Guggenheim and Stephen Amell had pretty strongly hinted it about a month before the finale. Nonetheless, the twist was plenty satisfying, and precisely for the reason that Guggenheim and Amell had said: it's a game-changer that cannot be undone.
Of course, there was one other very unique thing about the season 6 finale: Ricardo Diaz is still at large. What a strange yet very smart way of mixing things up! Now he can be the catalyst of the first half of season 7, during which the back half gets set up. Hopefully, this can break the cycle of boring season beginnings in the service of exciting endings. Ideally, each exciting thing should set up the next one, so there are no dozen-episode lulls in between.
Anyways, without further ado, here are my random ideas and predictions for Arrow season 7.
The Longbow Hunters
In, the season 6 finale, Diaz references his super-secret allies, the Longbow Hunters. So what do we know about them? There are three of them. They were believed to have died in the 1950s. Even the League of Assassins feared them.
Well this all points in a fairly obvious direction, I think. What else did we learn this year that there are three of? Lazarus Pits! Somehow, the three Longbow Hunters are each affiliated with their own Lazarus Pits, which explains their continued presence over 60 years. The League connection all but confirms it.
So what does this mean for season 7? Well, we know that Nyssa, Thea, and Roy went off to track down and destroy the three pits, which sets them on an inevitable collision course with the Longbow Hunters. This makes a lot of sense as a way of bringing Roy back to Star City and making him a relevant player again. No doubt, the stories of the Lazarus Pits, Ricardo Diaz, the Longbow Hunters, and the Thanatos Guild will all be intertwining in season 7.
Life Sentence
Oliver's in federal prison (Slabside Penitentiary, no less) on a life sentence. So what does that mean? The show is over? No more Green Arrow? Of course not! Oliver's gonna get out--the only questions are when and how.
A prison break doesn't work. Oliver is surely capable of it, but it would leave him as a fugitive. We already had that story with Diggle in season 5. No, Oliver needs to get out legit. As far as I see it, that gives him only one option: presidential pardon. A presidential pardon actually makes sense in continuity, in fact--the Arrowverse's superheroes saved President Susan Brayden (and the rest of the world) from the Dominator invasion in 2016, earning her gratitude and respect. Thus, under the right political circumstances, a pardon seems quite plausible.
Another idea that could work in tandem is the Suicide Squad. Perhaps Oliver works for A.R.G.U.S. for a while as a way of earning his presidential pardon. That'd be an excellent way of keeping him in the action for season 7 without immediately getting him out of prison. The Squad was hinted over a year ago in a weird out-of-the-blue reference in F3x22, which revealed that Cupid, Grodd, and Cheetah (!) comprised the latest incarnation of the team. Those'd be some pretty wild characters to see on Arrow, but I for one would be all for it!
The Secret Society of Super-Villains
So I'm not too enthused about the idea of Batwoman and Gotham City being the foci of this year's crossover. Not tying the annual crossovers into the show's ongoing storylines simply feels like a huge missed opportunity. In my opinion, the best way to do this would be to pit the heroes against a team of already-established supervillians. I have no delusions that this is actually going to happen--I just think it's fun to consider the possibilities!
Last year I floated the idea that Taila al Ghul could lead a team of Arrowverse supervillains. Since we (very bizarrely) got zero information about Talia in all of season 6, I can only assume that there are some plans for her to come back in season 7. Of course, I know that my supervillain team idea is not gonna happen, but I'm still excited to see what's in store for Talia moving forward.
Anyways, here's my pipe dream idea for what could (but won't) happen in season 7:
Oliver's arrest by the FBI has brought the issue of superheroes to the forefront of national (or world) politics. He's working for the Suicide Squad in hopes of earning a presidential pardon, but the president's willingness to grant one depends entirely on the public's perception of superheroes. In other words, it's a watershed moment. Either the world will embrace superheroes or force them back into the shadows. The situation is very fragile.
This all makes it the perfect time for a team of supervillains led by Talia al Ghul to strike. Besides these villains obvious motivations of making life harder for the heroes, Talia has an ideological stake in the issue. This all ties back to Oliver's dismantling of the League of Assassins--Talia's ultimate vengeance will be turning the entire world against Oliver, his friends, and everything they've been fighting for.
So what's the plan? Something along the lines of framing the heroes for some huge, public disaster, thus destroying their credibility. The seeds for this storyline should be sown in the first few episodes of Arrow and The Flash. Maybe Oliver can still be in the Suicide Squad when episode 8 rolls around. Then the crossover can start with a big ARGUS infiltration/jailbreak that raises the stakes by padding the deck in Talia's favor.
Here's a whole bunch of possible candidates for our Super-Villainous Society:
Talia al Ghul
First of all, Talia herself. Last we saw her, she was on Lian Yu when Prometheus set off his bombs in the Arrow season 5 finale. Season 6's refusal to even mention her since then all but confirms her survival as far as I'm concerned. As the mastermind of the Society, Talia would take center-stage in this crossover. Perhaps she could play the role of a master-manipulator who infiltrates some high role in the government as part of her plan to turn the country against its heroes.Grodd
If anyone deserves a role as Talia's partner, it's Gorilla Grodd. He was last seen in Zambesi 1992 fighting the Legends. Presumably, the Time Bureau returned him to his cell at ARGUS, present-day, after that ordeal. But I can't help wondering if the Bureau's mind-wipe devices were really designed to work on the science-experiment-gone-wrong mind of a meta-gorilla. Suppose Grodd retained his memories from Legends of Tomorrow season 3: that could give him an edge against the Legends, and give Taila a good incentive for bringing him aboard. You know, not that really you need an excuse to invite a giant, super-strong, telepathic gorilla to your evil super-team.Rainbow Raider (Roy Bivolo)
The one that got away. Literally. Rainbow Raider escaped from Team Flash over 3 years ago in F1x22 "Rogue Air," never to be seen again. He was sorta the villain of the first-ever Arrowverse crossover, "Flash vs. Arrow," which would make it all the cooler to see him come back 4 crossovers later. Also, his supposedly "rainbow" superpowers never really got past the color red. How great would it be to see him return with power over the entire emotional/chromatic spectrum! Besides providing another Green Lantern reference for the Arrowverse, this sounds like a pretty useful super-person to have around if your goal is manipulating people into hating superheroes.The Mist (Kyle Nimbus)
Besides Bivolo, the Mist and Peek-a-Boo also slipped away in the chaos of "Rogue Air." Peek-a-Boo finally reappeared in F4x01, but Nimbus--like Bivolo--has remained absent. Anyways, his superpowers are unique and interesting, so I say why not bring him into the Society, too. He could be just the person to pull off the super-jailbreak that gets Grodd out of ARGUS.Cupid (Carrie Cutter), King Shark (Shay Lamden of Earth-2), and Cheetah (???)
Well, if you're gonna go through all the trouble of breaking into ARGUS, why stop with just one gorilla? Cupid is a master manipulator, and who knows what new super-spy skills she's picked up in her years at ARGUS. King Shark and Cheetah would certainly make good foot-soldiers. If you're gonna go up against two dozen superheroes, you're gonna need some muscle backing you up! It's gonna take more than muscle, though--a lesson that the Dominators and the Nazis learned the hard way.The Trickster (James Jesse)
Sometimes you need a little crazy! F4x11 revealed that James Jesse escaped from prison, so the Trickster's certainly available. Since he's basically the Joker of the Arrowverse, Mark Hamill's Trickster would be a phenomenal choice for the Society. No supervillain team is complete without a healthy dose of infighting and backstabbing, and the Trickster would be the perfect wildcard to keep things interesting. Is he using Talia for his own ends? Is Talia using him? Sounds fun, right?Dr. Light (Linda Park of Earth-2)
The Flash has had a LOT of villains-of-the-week over the years, and most aren't all that memorable. That's why it was a smart idea to make Dr. Light the Earth-2 doppelganger of established character Linda Park. The resulting two-episode arc was fairly memorable, even though neither version of Park has appeared since. Dr. Light is presumably still on the loose, though, and her superpowers could certainly be of use to Talia's Society. Besides shooting energy projectiles at the speed of light, Linda can use her powers for illusion-casting via light manipulation. In other words, she's a good counter for a speedster. The only hitch I see is that she was portrayed fairly sympathetically, so it may take a bit of contriving to get her onto a team of hardened killers and maniacs.The Bug-Eyed Bandit (Brie Larvan)
Maybe I'm the only one, but the Bug-Eyed Bandit is a character I'm always hoping will come back. As Felicity Smoak's arch-nemesis, she is one of the best computer hackers in the world. She also commands swarms of robotic bees, which is just awesome. Furthermore, she made her first appearance in a mini-crossover (F1x18 "All Star Team Up"), meaning she's already faced Team Flash, Team Arrow, AND the Atom. In other words, she's a perfect character for the Society! In her last appearance she was arrested after failing to obtain Felicity's neural implant, so she's presumably now both in prison and paraplegic. Sounds to me like revenge is in order.Closing Remarks
Well, that's all I've got for now. Like the title says, these were just my random ideas about the future of Arrow. The Longbow Hunters/Lazarus Pit connection feels pretty strong, though. I wonder if anyone else has figured that out yet... probably, but I haven't seen it.
Let me know your predictions for Arrow season 7! Is there some other way Oliver could get out of prison? What's the deal with Batwoman and Gotham City? In particular, I'm wondering if the crossover will take place on Earth-1 or Earth-38... or some other Earth entirely... or all of the above!
Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip
