Tommy Merlyn - Slytherin
Albus Dumbledore: You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue... resourcefulness... determination... a certain disregard for rules.
So from what I’ve seen, Tommy Merlyn is usually sorted in Hufflepuff. I respectfully disagree? I think he’s a Slytherin, just like his best buddy Oliver, and Hufflepuff is actually the house that fits him the least (the puppy eyes are made to fool you!). Tommy is a troublemaker, he is resourceful and determined, he puts a lot of value on family and brotherhood but not on loyalty in general, and he definitely has a lot of potential for greatness. Ergo Slytherin.
Long post under the cut! Consider yourself warned.
I’m just going to go over the major Slytherin traits and values and how they relate to Tommy. Talk about the other houses is at the end.
“A certain disregard for rules”
Tommy: I wish we had just met, and that all this was just beginning and there wasn't so much of me I wish you'd forget.
- 1x07
Both Oliver and Tommy were rebellious playboys: it’s almost their entire backstory. It seems to have been even more the case with Tommy if possible - at least we hear about him getting Ollie in trouble more than the reverse (“Don’t let him get you into too much trouble” from 1x01, or “Tommy had me out a little bit later than maybe I should have been, and I'm wiped” from the 2x20 flashbacks, or how he got Oliver to go with him to Max Fuller’s club in 1x03, or even that story in 5x09 about how Oliver once tried to land a helicopter on the grounds of the US Open because Tommy wanted to impress some girl named Maria Sharapova). An early Arrow promo even describes Oliver hanging with Tommy as “running with the bad crowd”.
If that’s true, it could be because of their different relationships with their parents. Ollie was a bad boy, but he was very close to his mother and hero-worshiped his father. So he did bad things, but that’s because they let him (as Oliver himself said). He probably never intentionally disrespected them or did things that he knew would really upset them. It was different with Tommy. His relationship with his dad was disastrous, and I think this meant he could get even more out of control than Ollie in his own way. Tommy’s parties were apparently legendary (“I never left one of Tommy's parties with my memory intact.”) and prompt to get broken up by the cops. He filled his dad’s pool with beer (roughly a thousand kegs or so), majorly pissed him off, and didn’t care. Heck, even years later as a 24 year-old adult, he stole Malcolm’s private jet to fly to Hong Kong without warning or permission, and when he called him Tommy literally told his father to fuck off (“No, I didn't tell you I was taking the jet because I knew you would freak out like this” and “Look, why don't you just go back to banging your Pilates instructor, ok?”). I do think it’s kind of telling of his mindset.
Point: insubordination toward authority and a love for mischief are Slytherin qualities and Tommy Merlyn certainly qualifies.
Brotherhood
Unlike Gryffs and Claws, Slyths are team players. It’s a group-oriented house, where “you’ll make your real friends.” They stick together and protect one another. Tommy is all about brotherhood and family. We know that he’d sometimes look after Thea in his best friend’s stead after the Gambit sank, that he posed an alert on Oliver’s e-mail account just in case, and went looking for him in Hong Kong when it went off. We know he had a really strong friendship code:
Tommy: No, man, you were with Laurel. And whether you were dead, or as it turns out, alive on a deserted island, you are my friend. And me being with Laurel violated that friendship in about 50 different ways.
-1x03
This code included keeping your friends’ secrets no matter what. As early as the pilot, we saw that he was ready to lie to the police to support his best friend’s story without even being asked beforehand. This is reinforced after 1x16: Tommy chose to keep Oliver’s secret against his own morals. No matter what he thought of him, he didn’t give him up to the police, he didn’t ask Oliver to stop, he didn’t even tell Laurel when it started to put some strain on their relationship. When Detective Lance almost discovered the lair in 1x19, he actively helped him escape the authorities, by lying to an officer of law and his girlfriend’s father, making himself his accomplice. He didn’t have to: he saw the Hood as a murderer, wanted nothing to do with his crusade, and Oliver never even asked for his help. But Tommy protected him anyway. Helping a friend when you think what he is doing is wrong is a very Slytherin thing to do. In general, they’re the ones who’d help you cheat at an exam or bury the bodies, whereas Hufflepuffs’ strong beliefs in justice and fairness would conflict with their sense of loyalty.
Speaking of loyalty, another difference between Slyths and Puffs is that Slyths are loyal to their people, but not necessarily very dependable in general. Just like Tommy used to be:
Tommy: Lying, keeping secrets about who she’s spending time with… Does that remind you of anybody we know? Oliver: Me, in every relationship that I’ve been in. Tommy: Me too. Except this one.
-1x13
Tommy was that guy who’d do anything for the people he loved, but prior to his character development, he wasn’t the most trustworthy person out there.
It’s also interesting to note that despite being a very extroverted person who spent a lot of time outside with other people, he didn’t seem to have any close friends apart from Oliver and Laurel (by season 1 anyway, he seemed a bit lonely on that front). I think he was rather detached from all the people he spent time with - he was their host, their entertainer, even their lover for the ladies. But he couldn’t relate to them like he and Ollie could relate to each other. Here again, this way of living with people - a few very close friends and a giant network of contacts - is very slytherinish.
Ambition and determination
Tommy doesn’t seem very ambitious at first glance, but one has to consider the fact that he’s been drowning in money since birth. For all his life, he could get everything he wanted whenever he wanted (even girls, thanks to his good looks). We know he and Oliver used to talk about going into business together since forever (like opening a ski-lodge), but he never felt the push to go on and make these ideas a reality. He was already Prince of Starling, why bother? In a way, he never needed to be ambitious until his father cut him off.
Oliver: Why didn't you say anything? Tommy: Embarrassment, shame, jealousy. Probably a few other emotions I'm not used to feeling.
-1x08
Tommy never felt threatened before. But after Malcolm froze his funds, it became another story. There was Laurel, whom he was trying to impress, Oliver, his best friend for whom she still had deep and complicated feelings, and then there was him, now forced to work for said best friend. I doubt Tommy left the club and went to work for his father only because Oliver refused to see him for the man he’d become. There was probably a lot of complex reasons behind that choice, and one of them was definitely that he was trying to reclaim his place in the universe as one of the elite, on equal if not superior footing to Oliver Queen (not just in terms of money, but also in terms of power and position - executive at Merlyn Global Group versus manager of a small nightclub in the Glades). He was born with power and prestige, and jumped back into that world without hesitation. But this isn’t even the primary reason I think Tommy was more ambitious than he let on:
Tommy: I'm trying to change. Not sure into what yet but I don't wanna be what I was anymore.
-1x08
This strong desire to be more than what he was, as soon as he realized that it was no longer enough and that there was more, to become someone worthy of Laurel’s love, that makes him pretty ambitious. He started the show a useless playboy and man-child, became a great boyfriend, a successful businessman, and ended the season as a hero.
And I think this is important about Tommy: once he’d find a goal, something for which he was really motivated, then he was driven to the hilt and did whatever he could to succeed. The club, Laurel (winning her heart, becoming a person she’d want to be with, building something with her), even his job at Merlyn Global. It didn’t even have to be something huge that would demand a lot of effort, it could be just another goofy idea, like filling his parents’ pool with beer or playing strip kickball with models on a pro football stadium - Tommy had a tendency to go big with his projects. He was capable of following through an idea to the end even when it became difficult. So he proved he had plenty of determination, the kind Salazar Slytherin would have loved.
Leadership
Tommy was shown to be able to assume leadership positions with ease. Before the start of the show, he seemed to have been a leader in troublemaking around Starling - the guy who knew how to have fun, the guy who hosted the biggest parties, even the guy with the shady contacts (“Before I left, you played hard. You played with bad people who were into bad stuff!” - 1x19). During season 1, we saw him effortlessly falling into his role as nightclub manager - he immediately took charge of the construction process, made sure everyone was doing their job, and showed his willingness and ability to be an authoritative boss (1x10 and 1x11). We saw him do an excellent job at Verdant, and then we saw him comfortably assume a leadership role at Merlyn Global Group for the short period of time he was working there. Tommy was a natural leader, like his father.
Cunning and resourcefulness
We haven’t seen much in terms of cunning and ruthlessness from Tommy in the show per-se - which is why I think he wasn’t as perfect a Slytherin as other characters like Moira or Malcolm - but it was suggested that he was capable of that to some degree. Pre- character development, Tommy was a playboy, a charmer who cheated and kept secrets in every relationship he’d been in. He wasn’t shown as manipulative or anything, but as we’ve seen with Laurel, he knew how to win people over. He was also no stranger to deceit and evasion, and used them to achieve his ends whenever he felt it was necessary. E.g. when he had to keep Detective Lance from discovering the Arrow cave in 1x19. This episode also showcased how resourceful he could be: in very little time, he was able to clean up and hide all the evidence of the Hood’s activities in the basement without anybody realizing it. We also learned he had no problem using illegal solutions to his problems, like bribing a city inspector.
Concerning the other houses
Hufflepuff is in my opinion the house that suits him the least. Honesty and loyalty we’ve seen weren’t really Tommy’s forte. And he hated the idea of hard work. He was called lazy by several characters including himself. Before Malcolm decided to “jolt his son into adulthood” in some late parental awakening, it seems Tommy planned on keeping up his life of debauchery forever, living off daddy’s money (bless inheritance). People expected Oliver to eventually get his act together and take his place in his father’s company, but everyone seemed to think Tommy would always be Tommy. In general, he also didn’t really seem to care all that much about ideals of justice and fairness. As the son of the most powerful billionaire in Starling City, he was extremely privileged, knew it, and loved it (“Isn't that place ridiculously expensive?” “Everywhere worth going is.” -1x08). He was raised in an upper-class environment with rich people values and the understanding that the rules do not apply to him the way they do other people. The fact that Malcolm regularly had to bail him out is one of the three things that came to mind when he described his distant relationship with his father. Tommy actually literally used to laugh in the face of justice. He loved whenever he and/or Oliver would break the law and get away with it (“I just picked up a new sports car. I'm thinking, we can open her up, pick up a few speeding tickets…” -1x06). So yeah, I don’t think Hufflepuff fits.
Gryffindor is not a bad house for him, but not a good one either. Bravery, boldness, recklessness… Tommy didn’t seem to have ever been particularly action-oriented (Oliver was the one doing the crazy taxi or helicopter stealing stuff). He was certainly capable of immense bravery (the way he stood up to the Hood in 1x16, the way he protected Taylor in 1x20, or his final sacrifice in 1x23), but he wasn’t particularly into grand showings of strength, daring or heroism à la Gryffindor. Among the main characters, he was one of the less enthusiastic (utterly unimpressed) about the Hood’s exploits (he saw him as a crazy murderer - see 1x13, 1x17 or 1x19). In fact it’s interesting to compare his opinion to Laurel’s, a true Gryffindor.
Ravenclaw I think would actually be a good sorting for him. Tommy was clever (the way he was quickly able to learn the ropes of club management). The show seemed to hint at a rather developed pop-culture geeky side (just small stuff like his talking about Lost, he read movie reviews, his wanting to name his dog “Arthur” as a kid because he was a “Merlyn”, etc.). He was charming, talkative and witty, even just a little bit eccentric in the way he could tell shameless jokes and be totally inappropriate. He was also very creative - in deeds (I mean, the beer-pool and strip-kickball game with models were certainly original ideas) and in speech (he doesn’t just say “I love you”, he says “I have finally figured out why poets have been in business for the last few thousand years”). So, if he wasn’t a Slytherin, I could see him making a pretty good Ravenclaw.