Hey youtubers it’s Charlie, a lot of you requested an Arrow video so this is going
to be all about the new Heroes of the second half of the season.
Power abhors a vacuum.
So let’s start with a question?
What happens when your main hero vacates his role?
One or more characters step in to fill it.
So the second half of the season is going to kind of spin the Joseph Campbell archetype
wheel on everyone.
Bad Guys will be heroes, and new bad guys will step in to fill that void too.
It’s way more complicated than that.
But what I’m suggesting is that Merlyn and the other Team Arrow members are the heroes
while Oliver is away and in present day, we’ll be following their journey.
We will still follow Oliver’s journey in flashbacks but this video is mostly about
what’s going on in present day.
In case you’re not familiar with that, Joseph Campbell wrote a book about the different
archetypes characters represent to each other at various points in a story.
Careful for spoilers through Episode 9, I have to reference some specific details.
Rewind to Season 1.
Just taking the show at face value, Oliver is the protagonist.
The story is about his journey to becoming the Justice League super hero Green Arrow.
Malcolm Merlyn is the main villain.
Oliver has to defeat Darth Merlyn before he can call himself a Jedi.
Oh wait, wrong franchise.
Isn’t it crazy to think about through the star wars lens though.
In that scenario, Oliver would have to ultimately redeem Merlyn.
So that’s something to file away under the maybe pile in your mind palace.
So pushing deeper into the Lazarus Pit here, when you look at the story from the different
viewpoints of each of the characters.
Everyone’s role, or their archetype changes depending on which character you’re thinking
about.
Malcolm Merlyn for instance, is always going to be the Hero of his own story.
If you were John Barrowman and someone asked you who the hero of the show was.
You’d say Malcolm Merlyn.
Grain of salt, maybe he goes a little overboard sometimes.
Like drugging his daughter’s tea to get her older brother to help you out of your
jam with your former boss.
But you’re not a bad guy, you just want your family back.
Forget those lazer eyes Oliver is shooting at you.
Seriously, every time oliver makes this face at Merlyn, I picture him boring a hole in
the back of Merlyn’s skull with Superman heat vision.
Oliver is, by all accounts, dead when things pick up in Episode 10.
At least he’s dead to the world, even if he’s not Capital “D” dead as in “The
Final Death”.
His role in the story needs to be filled by another character or multiple characters.
Appropriately, the title of Episode 10 is “Left Behind”.
It largely refers to Team Arrow Proper, but now that Oliver is gone and only Merlyn knows
what’s really going on, I think he’ll integrate himself into Team Arrow, a little.
Let’s remember that Felicity and Diggle are nobody’s fool, she’s not going to
trust Merlyn.
And as gullible as Roy looks, he’ll listen to Felicity and Diggle.
Laurel, Ted Grant and Ray Palmer are also waiting in the wings to help when called upon.
Thea is kind of an X factor in all this, yes.
I think she’ll also be one of the heroes but both she and Merlyn also have this Loki
Trickster thing going on.
In Joseph Cambell’s book there are The Hero, the mentor, the guardian of the threshold,
the herald, the shapeshifter, the shadow and the trickster.
All of the character represent different things to each other.
For the most part the different archetypes Team Arrow embody are all positive.
Sometimes characters will change their roles in each new scene.
But just looking at the next block of episodes in general.
Like the next 5 episodes.
Merlyn will be one of the biggest new heroes.
Mostly from his own perspective.
But he’ll be a much bigger presence on the show.
Not to forget Laurel becoming Black Canary.
We should just say that she’s going to be wearing the costume, but calling her Black
Canary right away is like calling Oliver Green Arrow.
He’s not Green Arrow yet.
So let’s just continue to think of her as a stabby Laurel.
What about Oliver though?
When is he coming back in present day.
How is he coming back?
In case you haven’t read it, these are the steps in what Joseph Campbell called the Hero’s
journey.
1.
Heroes are introduced in the ORDINARY WORLD, where
1.
they receive the CALL TO ADVENTURE.
1.
They are RELUCTANT at first or REFUSE THE CALL, but
1.
are encouraged by a MENTOR to
1.
CROSS THE FIRST THRESHOLD and enter the Special World, where
1.
they encounter TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES.
1.
They APPROACH THE INMOST CAVE, crossing a second threshold
2.
where they endure the ORDEAL.
1.
They take possession of their REWARD and
1.
are pursued on
THE ROAD BACK to the Ordinary World.
1.
They cross the third threshold, experience a RESURRECTION, and are transformed by the
experience.
1.
They RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR, a boon or treasure to benefit the Ordinary World.
Marc Guggenheim and the other Arrow writers don’t completely stick to the Joseph Campbell
storyline, but there are a lot of similarities.
Really I think most of our questions about the characters in the second half are first,
what is the mechanism by which Oliver comes back.
And two, when are we going to see the big super hero justice society team up?
A lot of you have been pointing to the fan art of the Lazarus Pit and yes Marc Guggenhiem
has said he’s reversed his decision to not do superpowers on Arrow.
But I think the Lazarus Pit on Arrow will be something much more practical.
They’ll still play it as realistic as possible.
They just did Mirakuru in Season 2.
I think they’re not going to go miracle cure route.
But I do think someone tied to the League will heal Oliver using their methods.
Malcolm Merlyn said that Nanda Parbat was a place where death doesn’t mean anything
and The title of Episode 15 this year is Nanda Parbat.
Even if Oliver doesn’t come back in that episode.
I think we’ll find out how he’s going to come back.
For those that are wondering Episode 14 is called The Return.
That refers to Tommy coming back.
Colin O’Donnell filmed scenes, probably in flashback just like when he appeared at
the beginning of the season in Hong Kong.
Stephen Amell posted this picture to facebook saying, “We wouldn’t shoot our 60th episode
of Arrow without Colin O’Donnell”.
So “The Return” has nothing to do with Oliver returning.
Yes, Manu Bennett is appearing in it.
But the title is a reference to Tommy, not Deathstroke.
I’ve done a breakdown of the next five episodes, so if you want to learn what some of the story
arcs are going to be I’ll add a link in the description.
I am working on another Flash video but I’ll probably post an Agent Carter preview next.
That show debuts next week on Tuesday and I’ll be doing weekly videos.
So be sure to subscribe to get everything.
My next Flash video will probably be a character video.
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here you can click on.