'Arrow' Show's Greatest Hero Is Heroine Felicity Smoak 

'Arrow' Show's Greatest Hero Is Heroine Felicity Smoak

is premiering its third season on Oct. 8, trying to hold off superhero show rivals

with further thrills in the journey of Oliver Queen from vigilante to hero. But while Oliver has finally forgiven himself long enough to consider himself a hero – for the time being, anyway – he still isn’t even the biggest hero on his own Team Arrow.

That honor belongs to seemingly mere IT girl Felicity Smoak, even though she doesn’t have the military background of John Diggle, the actual superpowers Roy Harper once had, or a place in

comic book canon as Oliver’s love interest and a future superheroine, like Laurel Lance. For that matter, Felicity and actress Emily Bett Rickards didn’t even become an official recurring guest star, let alone a member of Team Arrow, until midway through the first season.

But all of those supposed deficiencies only makes Felicity the best heroine of them all, and not just fodder for the ever growing ‘Olicity’ shippers who are finally on the verge of validation this season – for at least the season premiere, anyway. Yet even if Oliver and Felicity cannot be fully together for longer than an episode after all – although that may not be the wisest long term course – Felicity still doesn’t need to be Oliver’s love interest to be more than his girl Wednesday/Friday.

is to do little more than moon over Oliver and spout techno babble. That will be a little harder to argue this season, if it ever was to begin with, once she gets her own origin story later in Season 3 and gets male attention from someone other than Oliver, in the form of Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer. In any case, the Season 2 episode 'Time Of Death' already had Felicity doubt her usefulness, until she went on a mission on her own, took a bullet for someone she was jealous just hours earlier – and not just because she was with Oliver – and disarmed a villain who had been her technological equal.

Some can argue that Felicity constantly putting her foot in her mouth with babbling and accidental innuendos is more annoying than funny. Yet her lack of a filter makes her do a lot more than say awkward things to Oliver. Those same impulses also drove her to march right to her boss’s office and demand not to get fired in only her second episode, to trust Oliver even before knowing his secrets despite his obvious lies, to march into dangerous traps because it is “my life, my choice,” to confront none other than Moira Queen herself with the secret of Thea Queen’s true father, and to never back down from Oliver time and time again.

Some can argue that Felicity isn’t all that brave after all, since she can sometimes cry and tremble when out in the field. However, while she will never be as stoic as Oliver or John – which is probably for the best – she will never run away, either. In fact, her open fear and the fact she doesn’t always know everything only makes her all the braver when she stands tall anyway – like when she fights through tears to tell Oliver, “You are not done fighting!” although all seems lost against Slade Wilson.

Yet because she will not leave Oliver or stop believing in him, he will never truly be lost. Even when Felicity has her heart temporarily lifted, then broken by Oliver’s [supposedly] false “I love you” confession to draw out Slade, and even when Slade has her at sword point, she finds the strength to weaken Slade right according to plan, paving the way for his final defeat.

As Oliver stated, Slade never saw the true danger right in front of him, and neither does anyone else who comes across Felicity – not even Oliver. Although for him, the danger is finally finding someone who can accept, love and stand by him despite the danger and darkness around him, which he seems destined to continue to fight even now.

But in the face of Oliver’s own fear, self-hatred, hero complex and misguided overprotectiveness, Felicity doesn’t give in – although the start of Season 3 could make it harder than ever. Even in the face of evil and her own fear, Felicity conquers it even easier than Oliver and John often manage to do. Even with no background to handle anything outside of IT problems, Felicity adapts as brilliantly as her own programs.

Even when facing hardened figures like Oliver, John, Detective Lance, Sara Lance and Nyssa al Ghul, Felicity winds up winning them over, or at least making them smile, without even really trying. And when she faces more immovable figures like Slade and Moira, who have intimidated and brought down countless foes, Felicity refuses to let herself be one of them.

Some could argue this makes her more like a perfect “Mary Sue” than an actual character. But perfect clichés like that don’t usually babble, show fear, be too impulsive at times or doubt themselves so much at their worst. Further insight into her pre-

life this season should help prove that nothing was ever truly perfect for Felicity.

Oliver Queen is certainly proof that it doesn’t take perfection to be a hero. But Felicity Smoak proves that one doesn’t need a mask, years of torture on an island, a brooding demeanor, heavy secrets, an emotionally closed off soul or killer fighting skills to be a real hero. There’s certainly no doubt that Oliver and John – particularly Oliver for more than a few extra reasons – would argue Felicity is the truest hero of them all.

and those who aren’t even Olicity shippers would have to agree with that – or hopefully will by the end of this season. The show will always be about Oliver Queen, but his hero’s journey was pre-ordained by decades of comic book canon.

The hero’s journey that Felicity has been on, fueled by nothing but fan support, shipper devotion, a babbling brain, magic fingers, an unshakable backbone and bravery against all odds, is the real story of how heroism – and a hit character that can shake up an entire show – can rise from anywhere. The big hope for Season Three is that as ‘Olicity’ gets closer and yet perhaps further away from reality, the writers don’t manage to screw it all up now anyway.

Tags: Arrow, Gotham, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Brandon Routh, Stephen Amell

Robert Dougherty is a longtime online freelance writer, who wrote reviews, articles & editorials on movies/TV for several years on the now defunct Yahoo Voices.

Arrow is premiering its third season on Oct. 8, trying to hold off superhero show rivals Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Gotham and its own spinoff The Flash with further thrills in the...Read More

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