#oliver queen

[embers-writes]

Roy's not even dead and Ollie's being haunted by the mistakes he made with him <333

Action comics #444

[nade2308]

@whumpgifathon | Day 3: restrained

Arrow, 1x23 "Sacrifice", Oliver Queen

[three-semicolons]

honestly I see u a lot in my dash and as someone who's mostly on the arrowfam side of dc it's nice seeing u post arrow related stuff 🥹🥹

I have so much love in my heart for the arrowfam, it’s absurd.

I love how flawed and yet self-aware — to the point of loathing — Oliver is. I love how kind and open and considerate Connor is. I love how plucky and absolutely, fundamentally hopeful, Mia is. And obviously, I fucking love Roy. He is so talented and intelligent, and it is so underrated. I loathe how little we acknowledge that, yes, he develops the majority of the trick arrows and other bits of weaponry the family use. I love his dynamic with Lian in the recent Dawn of DC run — that arc with the Scarlet Archer and how they ended it, scouting for addicts to take to clinics, made me want to cry.

And, god, how guilty Oliver feels, how sincerely he apologizes for his wrongs and how humble he is in spite of his attempts to keep the facade of arrogance. He knows he’s a piece of shit sometimes. It plagues him, and it hits.

In many ways, I think “Batfam” fans would find the way the Arrowfam treats their historical flaws and family drama to be ideal. The Arrowfam neither sweep it under the rug nor let it define them; rather, they (Ollie especially, with his various fuckups and unfaithfulness with Dinah, not being in Connor’s life as a child, and kicking Roy out/abandoning him during his addiction) spend their lives trying to make up for the harm they cause and showing their care. It’s astonishing how they straddle the line between genuinely doing some pretty terrible shit to each other and also never once casting doubt on how much they love each other. I have never once questioned it.

They’re just such a joy to read. I dunno.

And also. Like. Come on.

It’s funny as hell.

[nade2308]

@whumpgifathon | Day 2: broken bones

Arrow, 2x20 "Seeing Red", Oliver Queen

Roy breaks Oliver's knee

[three-semicolons]

The amount Roy and Oliver bring up Dick in Green Arrow (2001) is incredible btw. It is always some combination of confused, admiring, and varying levels of concerned. He is an enigma.

The “arrowcave” name coming from Dick is one thing:

It’s just adorable. Roy’s denial over how he supported it is even more so. I see who you are, Roy. You just like him. We can be honest here.

But it’s the gossiping about Dick and Bruce’s relationship that gets me. They’ve been watching this soap opera for decades now and they are judging. They have opinions.

Bro said “nothing like what Nightwing had to put up with” when his mentor was Oliver. Like DAMN. Give yourself some credit 😭

[big-green-commie]

Okay. I was talking with tim about this but how quickly do you think you would notice if I tried hiding an injury? @the-better-speedy

I’d like to think pretty quickly?? I mean I know you pretty dang well. And I’ve been told I’m hyper-vigilant about you.

[remi-bythesea]

begging you to write #1 from your meta list

Ask and you shall receive! Connor Hawke is my baby boy so against my better judgement I've decided to write my longest post yet because he deserves the world. It's definitely not as polished or extensive as I'd like but I hope you get something out of it!

Bodily autonomy is first and foremost, a person's ability to make informed choices in regards to their own body without coercion or other external factors that can hinder that decision-making. Connor is someone who very early on in his life makes a lot of conscious decisions, ones he sticks by for a very long time. He chooses to give up fighting when it upsets his mother, he chooses to go to the monastery, he chooses to go after Ollie, and he chooses to take up the Green Arrow mantle despite how he got there and he makes it his own, sticking by those same principles he's held for so many years.

I've mentioned Connor's relationship with martial arts before and I feel like writing this post helped me realise why I felt it was so integral to his character. Connor loves martial arts, I'm doing him a disservice by even using that term because he emphasises that its not just 'martial arts', it's a specific set of disciplines that he's mastered, each unique and important. He respects and values his body and the choices he makes for it: vegetarianism, non-violence, peaceful and intentional disciplines that he uses only to help others and nourish his body. He makes deliberate choices and sets standards he holds himself to when it comes to his own actions towards both himself and others, and he actively makes those choices.

So, his own experiences inform his belief that he is able to make those kinds of decisions, both when it comes to action(being a hero, protecting the innocent, fighting when he has to) and inaction(not killing, not using needless violence) and with that belief comes the obvious conclusion that others are also capable and deserving of making those sorts of decisions. There's two examples in particular that I feel demonstrate this very well.

The first is him training Mia. Mia in particular is kind of the perfect character for this because she has spent so much of her life stripped of the autonomy that so strongly characterises Connor. Her whole life prior to meeting Ollie, she was controlled and manipulated and hurt by men who should've helped her and been her safe place and she's been forced into doing things no child should have to do. It makes complete sense why Ollie doesn't want her to be Speedy- because she's still a traumatised child. What if by opening that door he makes her think he wants her to endanger her life? That she has to if she wants his approval? If she gets hurt in any way in the line of duty, it's on him because he's the one who encouraged her- who in some roundabout way made that decision for her by taking her in while being who he is and putting that idea in her head. So he chooses the lesser of two evils and makes a different decision for her: No masks, that's final.

Now, Connor isn't exactly unaware of Mia's past. Sure he might not have all the details but he knows enough and he's smart enough to put two and two together. He, like Ollie, doesn't necessarily want her to go out and endanger herself- it's why despite defending her wish to be a hero to Ollie, he doesn't push that strongly for it(which can also be read as him letting Ollie make his own decision in that regard and within his authority as her guardian). Still, he lets her make the decision. He trains her despite Ollie's disapproval and his own worry for her safety. More than anything, that speaks to a belief he has in Mia. A belief that when he gives her the knowledge she needs to hurt someone or defend herself, she will use that knowledge for good. More importantly, he believes that she has a right to that knowledge and that she, like him, is capable and deserving of making her own decisions. Action or inaction, to do or not to do. Mia takes that knowledge and decides to act, to be a hero against everyone else's wishes, and to bounce back even when she proves Ollie right and does get hurt, because that's what she chooses.

It's not just that Connor believes in Mia though. Believing in Mia is easy because she's a good kid who was dealt a bad hand and wants to help others. Conner's belief extends to total strangers.

In Green Arrow (2001) #32, Connor and Roy are at a store when an attempted robbery takes places. It's a very run-of-the-mill incident: a few guys threaten the employees, our heroes save the day. What stands out is an interaction Connor has with one of the robbers. The robber pulls a gun on Connor and threatens to shoot, but Connor is insistent that the guy doesn't want to do it. The guy denies this over and over but Connor makes no move to defend himself, he just keeps repeating himself with absolute certainty.

Eventually, Roy throws something at the guy and he's knocked out, and Connor is annoyed by that. He tells Roy that the guy had the safety on and he wasn't in any actual danger. So why stall? Why not just tackle the guy instead of trying to reason with him? Roy voices that sentiment, and Connor finally explains his reasoning. Because if the guy put the gun down, it would've been his choice. He would've chosen to do good amongst all the bad. The issue as a whole is very sweet, Roy and Connor attempt to bond and eventually they acknowledge their differences and are closer for it, but it also reveals just how much the idea of choice matters to Connor. Sure the outcome would have remained the same even without his conversation with the robber, but for even this total stranger to choose to do good was something Connor went out of his way to try and ensure.

Connor let Mia hold a bow in her hand, and he let the robber hold a gun in his. He believed that Mia would choose action- to aim her bow at those who hurt the innocent and accept the inevitability that is her getting hurt in the process(hopefully not too hurt because he's armed her with the knowledge she needs to protect herself), and that the robber would choose inaction: to lower his gun and hurt no one. And if they didn't? They still had the right to make those choices.

Another relationship wherein Connor encouraged someone to make the right choice was with Eddie Fyers. Eddie is someone who has made the decision to take a life before, and has made it over and over again. He's unpleasant and violent and he smokes but Connor continuously encourages him to make the right decisions(and it works, Eddie is a lot less lethal around Connor and is even briefly a monk- though he could still work on the smoking). This is very interesting because for someone who values choice so much, you would think Connor would make moral judgements on someone who has chosen to do the wrong thing before. Instead, he's more concerned with what Eddie actively chooses to do, and doing his best to nudge him in the right direction so that he'll do better in the future. Connor places importance on autonomy and decision-making, but he's also extremely compassionate and those two together give make it so that he's a strong believer in that people have an endless capacity for change.

This is one of the reasons he doesn't kill and shouldn't kill. Or if he does, it should be handled with extreme care. I haven't even touched on Connor's morality that much, but his choice to give up violence when he saw how him getting into fights at school upset his mother was the first in a chain of dominoes that lead to him becoming the person he is- becoming a monk, meeting Ollie, becoming a hero. That belief in non-violence is foundational to the person he is and killing would mean he has to grapple with seemingly betraying beliefs he has held since he was a child. The first time Connor 'kills' in canon is in Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood, a six-issue mini-series that as far as I know fits somewhere in the middle of Green Arrow Vol. 3. It was honestly a spectacularly horrendous way to handle this conflict. Aside from the stunningly mediocre writing, I'm almost certain it is never acknowledged in the main Green Arrow title or just ever again, when it is a character moment that I'd argue should have been almost as devastating as Ollie killing Hal, regardless of the circumstance, purely because Connor Hawke made the choice to kill.

Final thoughts! I didn't know where to put this but he also defends Stephanie when Tim wants to exclude her in one of their team-ups, arguing that she has as much of a right to be there as the two of them which is neat and a nice parallel to him and Mia. I wanted to write more about Moonday/Sandra Hawke, but I feel like that'd warrant a proper reread of Connor's run. She's honestly very central to Connor's character and I think her relationship with Milo and Connor's reaction to it could also factor into this conversation in a very interesting way, plus her role in Connor's childhood in general so if I were to ever expand on this topic(like I haven't talked enough) I would love to go in that direction, I just feel like I wouldn't do it justice right now. There's also the fact that he always corrects people on her name, it's a blink and you'll miss it detail but he respects her choice even when it's seemingly 'silly'. Of course if anyone reading this wants to expand on that or add their two cents in general please feel free to do so!

When it comes to references I've read read pretty much everything Green Arrow from the 80s up to about half of Green Arrow/Black Canary so you'll notice I haven't really touched on modern Green Arrow. This meta was mostly inspired by Green Arrow 2001 and Connor's Green Arrow run. Thanks for reading and I hope you got more connorpilled after this!

[big-green-commie]

*Within seconds, Clark lands in a slight rush a few feet away from Oliver.*

Oliver. Put the phone down. Let Diana come to us, so we can have a proper conversation.

@big-blue-of-tomorrow

Ollie flinches at the woosh of air when Clark flies in. He doesn’t do that, usually, he’s far too used to him dropping in. But he’s been off his game for a while, ever since…

“Fine,” Oliver grumbles, shaking himself out of his thoughts. He tosses his phone down on the coffee table in front of his couch, his jaw working. The wounds on his cheeks still look fresh, trenches dug into his skin. They’d told him to leave it uncovered while he was awake—let the gashes breathe. There’s some kind of clear ointment on them. “But you know I don’t wanna talk to her.”

Ollie leans back on his couch, arms crossed, brows furrowed. It’s a bit too serious and angry to be a pout, but it’s close.