a condensed timeline of roy harper’s life.
! content warning for drug use, alcholism, addiction, parental death !
roy begaye-harper junior was born on november 26th to shelia harper and firefighter roy begaye-harper senior on the tohajiilee indian reservation. when roy was 3 shelia died in a car accident when she was driving drunk, leaving his father to raise him with the help of his brother brave bow. roy harper senior died in a forest fire when roy was only 6 and from there his uncle brave bow became his primary guardian.
roy was a troubled kid and often got into trouble with the reservation police and also the state troopers. when he was 12 he stole a car for a joy ride and was pulled over going well over a hundred miles per hour, which is how he earned the nickname "speedy". when he was 13 brave bow died under mysterious circumstances and fearing he was to blame roy ran away from the reservation, preferring to live on the streets than go into the foster care system. he moved slowly across the country and by the end of the year he had made it from new mexico to star city in california.
he met oliver queen when he picked his pocket and stole his wallet, oliver took him in off the street and realized how brilliant he actually was and offered to be his guardian. roy quickly discovered oliver’s identity as green arrow and roy started helping oliver by fixing his equipment, and then making him better tools. he started actually joining him as a vigilante and joined the teen titans ( as an honorary member ) when he turn’s 14.
he first started using heroin when he was 17 but he struggled with drinking and other drug use since he was 13. when roy was 18 oliver discovered his addiction he freaked out, kicking roy out and roy got a place of his own and his addition only got worse.
roy came into contact with the government agency the cbi ( central bureau of intelligence ) or checkmate then and checkmate recruited roy and put him under the command of sergeant steel. it was with checkmate roy learned that he’s just as good of a shot with a gun as he is with a bow. it was in that time he met jade nguyen a.k.a. cheshire and they had a brief but passionate relationship until the addiction got too much and it started to consume his life. he lost the apartment he was renting, jade left him, checkmate fired him, and soon his body was unable to keep up with the physical demand of being a vigilante. it was only when he found out about his daughter that he fathered with jade that he was able to get off the street, into rehab ( paid for by oliver ) and get sober, by then he was 21.
after 6 months in rehab oliver buys an apartment in manhattan for roy, so that he can focus on raising his daughter and staying sober. roy sees a therapist and attends weekly AA meetings and once lian was old enough to start going to school he rejoins the titans.
