I've been thinking about the bell ringing test today, because, well...
One thing about Oliver and Barry is that they're both not...amazing?...at teaching other people. They kind of just repeat what they've been told and hope it works the same for others that it did for them. (Exception being...Arrow v. Flash. Of course.) This isn't a bad idea in general, but often their comments remain static even with new variables. A lot of the strength of their leadership comes from their ability to build strong relationships with others, not from their teaching ability.
Anyway, the bell test is interesting because Oliver does change it. The original test is about taking control of a group and making them do what you need them to do (take down the guard) in order for you to achieve your end (ring the bell). When Oliver does it, he doesn't quite understand that until after the test is over—he says it's about teamwork, and, well, for Oliver Queen, the wealthiest person in any room bar his parents, "teamwork" has often meant making a group of people do what he wants them to do so that he can achieve his own ends.
But when he sets up the bell test for the S5 recruits, it really is a teamwork test. It's a game that pivots on recognizing the strength of social support rather than individual ability, which is the thing that Oliver really cares about.
The recruits push Oliver into giving away the answer before they can figure it out. This is...at least partially reasonable, because that kind of mystery test with a puzzle for an answer is irritating beyond reason when you don't trust the person administering it. For the recruits to take it seriously, they need to trust Oliver, as a teacher, knows them and knows what he's doing.
Ultimately, what the recruits want is to be let in to the know; Oliver isn't willing to let in anyone unless he knows for sure that they can hold their own. So Oliver needs them to trust him as a vigilante/leader/teacher enough to let him muddy the waters for a bit and test their skills, and the recruits need their capabilities and skills to be recognized and respected, and neither of those things happen. The end result of the bell test is that the group of recruits more or less trust each other, but they don't trust Oliver. The recruits succeed in teamwork as a unit, but Team Arrow fails teamwork as a whole.
Asking Oliver to let them into the know is, I think, a bit absurd. Oliver and Felicity and John have been working under an immense amount of secrecy and have obviously weathered a lot of conflicts as a team. It makes sense that similar camaraderie would have to be earned over time. But asking Oliver to respect them enough to be clear about trainings and goals and the purpose of seemingly silly exercises is a reasonable request, especially so early on in their relationship with him.
The problem is that Oliver has rarely been taught or trained within a framework of respect and mutual trust. Almost everyone who's ever tried to train or teach him anything has demanded rituals of humiliation and self-deprecation first, and as a result Oliver is able to completely set aside his ego and self-respect and follow someone else's lead in a way that he hasn't quite figured out other people can't replicate on command. For Oliver, he's already cut out the really horrible part of the bell test (murder), so the recruits' inability to manage it on "easy mode" (not murder; also, not being screamed at them by mob enforcers with guns) actually suppresses his trust in their abilities. But to the recruits, who have no idea that Oliver rigged this game out of a murder gauntlet, Oliver is pointlessly humiliating them and getting frustrated when they don't submit to his whims.
Oliver's definitely got some idea that his ability to totally take his self-respect out of a situation makes people uncomfortable, but he's so used to it that I think he mostly tries to playact around the space rather than try to feel it. I think it's genuinely hard for him to figure out why the recruits are so upset, because this is inherently part of "learning things" to him; and further more, Roy managed it, so he's sure he's right.
The dehumanization is inextricable from the skills he gained is inextricable from how he learned them. And it's no longer something he struggles with, because, like...what could you possibly do to Oliver Queen, at this point, that hasn't already been done? Beat him up? Tie him up? Disparage his physical abilities? His intelligence? His endurance? Shoot him? Shoot his friends? Strip him down? Dress him up? Cut his hair? Take his bow? Take his gun? Hold him down and experiment on him? Hold him down and mark him with a blowtorch? With a tattoo gun? With a branding iron? Don't hold him down at all and just make him stand there while you knife him? Make him stab himself? Endure torture? Torture others? Take away his name? Make him relinquish his name? Take him far from home? Take him home but don't let him in?
The gulf there in experience and concept of teaching and how relationships develop and what can reasonably be asked of someone—Oliver's age-old difficulty in understanding other peoples' boundaries—is really immense right here in this space. I think it's indicative of all of that how quickly NTA proper falls out of Team Arrow in the future, and how much difficulty Oliver has in navigating these late-seasons relationships.
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