Arrow Season 6 - How it should be

So yea this is becoming a habit of mine. Either in anticipation of a show season or in response to a show season I either write what it should be more like if I'm skeptical about the upcoming season or do my own version of how it could have been done better, in these cases Arrow Season 5 and Flash Season 3 respectively. Though I admit season 5 of Arrow turned out to be much better than I expected. However I am skeptical about season 6 despite the promising storylines so I decided to write up my own version of how I think season 6 should roughly be, and I was bored lol. Be warned it's about a 6 page long post though this is actually a lot better than my previous "how it should be" posts which are like 20 pages lol.

In the chaos that ensures on Lian Yu, Felicity and Samantha are killed by the explosions caused by Adrian’s suicide and those same explosions fatally injure Diggle and Thea, leaving him crippled and her comatose. Rene, Curtis and Nyssa are spared from the explosion by Dinah using her cry to deflect the explosion off of them, while Slade is able to withstand it due to residual Mirakuru. Quentin was spared from the explosion by Laurel impulsively using her cry to deflect the explosion off of him despite feeling a little resentment for him knocking her out. Talia however was able to escape the island in advance. Afterward Lyla sends an A.R.G.U.S. boat to rescue them all and while Oliver lets Slade go as per their agreement Laurel gives them the slip and takes off. Nyssa also parts ways to go find Talia and ensure she won’t keep targeting Oliver in Adrian’s place. Finally William is left to grief for his mother while Oliver is also suffering his own grief but takes the boy into his custody to raise him.

6 months later Oliver continues being mayor of Star City while also leading Team Arrow but has been struggling to cope with his grief for Felicity, especially when he is forced to be a single father and help his son cope with his own grief which has left William quiet and reclusive. However Oliver has refused to resort back to killing as he knows Felicity dying was his fault, as Prometheus wouldn't have existed if not for his own mistakes 5 years ago. Meanwhile Diggle is hospitalized with serious injuries forcing him to retire as Spartan while Thea is still comatose but is stable. Quentin is still deputy mayor but his encounter with Earth-2 Laurel still haunts him as she was the living embodiment of everything his own daughter could have become. Team Arrow is now only consistent of Dinah who has become Oliver’s right-hand woman in Diggle’s absence, Curtis who has filled for Felicity’s duties while improving his fighting skills and Rene who fills in for Thea. Dinah has also been tracking Laurel and is intent on bringing her back to A.R.G.U.S. custody so she doesn’t ruin her doppelganger’s legacy. Laurel herself, now directionless without Zoom or Prometheus, has been drifting but sticking close to Star City and committing several crimes to stay alive but has also exposed herself to the public several times now.

For the last few months a criminal named Ricardo Diaz / Richard Dragon has filled the vacuum left by Tobias Church as Star City’s criminal kingpin and has been committing several acts of murderer and theft. Dragon is also a highly trained martial artist with skills equal to even Oliver’s and has been Team Arrow’s primary source of anguish since Prometheus. Additionally Vigilante, whose identity is still unknown to Team Arrow, still continues his more extreme vision of justice and has been targeting Dragon also which often results in three-sided conflicts. Things get more complicated when Dragon encounters Laurel and offers her a place in his gang and she agrees. Quickly sweet-talking her way up the chain of command Laurel soon becomes Dragon’s right-hand woman and having her on his side evens the odds with Dinah.

Diggle soon recovers from his injuries enough to leave the hospital but when he tries to go back into the field as Spartan an encounter with Dragon almost kills him and he is forced to stay retired until his injuries fully heal and starts focusing his efforts elsewhere. He also starts helping Oliver with raising William taking some of the pressure off of him and starts consulting more on A.R.G.U.S. missions with Lyla. Meanwhile Dinah still struggles to fill the shoes of Earth-1 Laurel’s legacy and doesn’t fully believe she deserves it despite Quentin’s reassurances. She has also started displaying signs of affection towards Oliver but keeps these feelings to herself, knowing that he still hasn’t recovered from Felicity’s death. Curtis equally struggles to fill Felicity’s shoes as she was the better hacker but is determined to do right by her memory but has also been training with Dinah to improve his fighting skills.

After several encounters Dragon uses Laurel to lure Oliver into an underground tunnel but abandons her and sets off the explosives intent on killing them both. However they survive this and Laurel is bent on revenge but knowing she cannot do it alone reluctantly allies with Team Arrow and gives them everything on Dragon. While they wait for the means to find Dragon at the Arrowcave Laurel makes everyone uncomfortable considering her aid in Adrian’s agenda, and she tries to annoy them as much as possible and looks at Dinah with contempt while sarcastically calling Quentin “dad” just to annoy him. Eventually they get a lead and Team Arrow takes Dragon by surprise and disrupts his operations as Oliver confronts him in a final fight and Dragon tells him he served in the League of Assassins, but Oliver emerges victorious with help from Dinah, Rene and Curtis. Laurel tries to kill him but the team holds her back as she then decides to flee before they call A.R.G.U.S. After Dragon’s defeat A.R.G.U.S. is where he’s taken and everybody celebrates their victory but are unable their efforts are being watched on monitors by Cayden James of Helix.

In the mid-season finale everybody celebrates Christmas with happy family reunions but Oliver starts hallucinating Felicity but is pleased when William starts to interact with his friends and family more. Shortly after though Vigilante returns and attacks city hall and kills several members of the city council before a large message broadcasts on live tv, with a man disguised in the shadows accusing Star City of corruption and promising to liberate it. Team Arrow starts investigating who could be working with Vigilante only for the team to be kidnapped one after the other, until Oliver is left alone and Vigilante himself leaves a message for Oliver inviting him to rescue his friends. With little choice Oliver agrees but knowing it’s a trap and will be outnumbered he seeks out Earth-2 Laurel’s aid and while she initially refuses, is persuaded upon learning Quentin is in danger. Oliver then heads to the location where Vigilante has all of Team Arrow captive but his real superior is the Helix leader Cayden James.

Cayden tells them that his vision for Helix is to liberate the world from the shackles of corruption and Star City has always been a primary source of this. However he also admires Team Arrow for their efforts in trying to save an almost broken city and extends an invitation to join him and really save the city but Oliver refuses. As Cayden expresses disappointment and sets Vigilante on him but Laurel sneaks up on him and she and Oliver fight together against the enemy and free their allies. Afterward however Laurel vanishes to avoid capture while the rest of Team Arrow regroup and discus what to do about Cayden, and Curtis promises to find them and try and uncover Vigilante’s identity if possible. Later that night Dinah meets up with Oliver at the apartment and she thanks him for saving them all and the two have a slight intimate moment but Dinah backs off out of consideration because for Felicity's memory but Oliver, starting to put Felicity’s memory to rest, pulls her back and they have an intimate night together. Unbeknownst to them however Laurel is spying on them from a building afar with a look on her face of resentment and sadness.

Later Thea finally wakes up from her coma but is devastated to learn of Felicity’s death and is barely over Malcolm’s but rather than fall into depression yet again, she decides to honor their memories and starts researching into Merlyn Global and discovers she has shares in the company left to her by Malcolm in his will. She then reaches out to Walter Steele, who was equally saddened to learn of Felicity's death, and begins looking into restarting the company under a new name, her name: Queen Inc (like in Barry's 2024 newspaper which means Oliver or Thea has to get their company back at some point in the next 7 years). However she still doesn’t feel like it’s enough to honor Malcolm’s memory and she decides to finally suit up again as Speedy and use the skills he taught her to properly honor his memory. She also puts up with more of Rene’s romantic passes despite her disinterest but she also meets his daughter Zoe and they become fond of each other, and seeing how Rene treats Zoe makes Thea re-evaluate her original view of Rene, and she agrees to give him a chance and they start a relationship.

Meanwhile Diggle is still retired from being Spartan but has started learning more of the ropes at A.R.G.U.S. and has begun to see things more clearly from Lyla’s perspective and the tough calls she has to make, but understands she doesn’t just make Waller-based choices unless she is left with no other option which has allowed them to make more amends over Cayden. However Cayden takes control of the computers at A.R.G.U.S. and appears on them accusing Lyla of corruption and intents to get payback for his wrongful imprisonment. Several A.R.G.U.S. agents then turn out to be Helix spies and kill several other agents and Lyla is fatally shot, but Diggle intervenes and stops them from killing her. Lyla is then taken to a hospital in Central City for extensive surgeries but Diggle is surprised when the next in line for director of A.R.G.U.S. is him, approved by Lyla herself. Though feeling unready to take on a role like this Diggle doesn’t refuse out of respect for his wife’s wishes and reluctantly becomes the man charged with protecting the world.

Quentin continues with his duties as deputy mayor but has been struggling with his grief over Laurel and trying to avoid drinking but has been haunted by his recently meetings with E2-Laurel, seeing how bitter and twisted she is yet seeing how she risked her life to save him. However Quentin is caught off guard when E2-Laurel sneaks into his apartment and asks for a place to lay low, hoping he’s the one person that won’t just turn her into A.R.G.U.S., and he reluctantly agrees and she periodically visits to stay out of public view. However their time together is very tense and awkward, with her still referring to him as “dad” to annoy him. However out of curiosity asks why she became Black Siren but she only vaguely goes into detail, telling him to imagine every choice E1-Laurel made from Oliver’s presumed death was the opposite to what it was. She also confirms that Earth-2 Quentin is dead as Quentin had suspected and also confirms that she did had a sister named Sara who is also dead. However tensions eventually rise between over their differences but is really the two of them simply butting heads over their own losses. Eventually Quentin feels regretful but Laurel is gone before he can apologise.

I still think Deathstroke should be an antagonist/anti-hero, so I'd have him be a mercenary who works for the highest bidder but still has sentiment towards Oliver and will help him on occasion if needed.

Anatoly returns to Star City to exploit it now that Dragon is out of the picture as has been struggling to keep the Bratva together but out of sentiment towards Oliver is reluctant to use lethal force on Team Arrow. However Oliver and his team continually disrupt their operations which forces Anatoly to take more drastic actions and hires Slade as a mercenary. However Slade’s motives are not out of resentment nor does he hold any contempt against Oliver but he is simply trying to earn money the only way a disavowed soldier can, and many of his funds go towards his son Joe. Slade had initially tried to reach out to him but Joe was terrified of Slade and had every right to be because of what he’d done and this is the only way he can help his son. Because of his sentiment Slade also uses restraint against Oliver and is quite capable of taking him and most of Team Arrow on solo. Additionally Anatoly also discovers Laurel and ropes her into his group but she is initially sceptical because of Dragon and Prometheus betraying her, but gives him a chance and aids him against Team Arrow. However Oliver is more hesitant now having seen Laurel’s potential but Dinah is still perfectly willing to fight her though does still feel bad because of Oliver and Quentin’s sentiment towards her.

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Not too fond of this girl but I might give her a chance if they make her something more than just Felicity's #1 fan.

Curtis continues looking for Cayden through every inch of the dark-web that he can and finds several places in Star City that he Rene and Dinah search but with no luck. However one of their searches leads them to Alena, Felicity’s hacker friend, and they try to get her to tell them where Cayden is but she refuses to give him up. However she is caught off guard when she learns Cayden sent Vigilante after them all to rope into the cause, and almost made an orphan out of John Jr. Before the conversation can go any further Vigilante appears to rescue Alena but she is quite disturbed to learn that Helix has willingly targetted civilians and endangered children.

When Vigilante returns Alena to Cayden he warns not to slip up again or she’ll be out which leaves her very disturbed. Cayden then meets up with his partner, Talia al Ghul. Talia demands a quick reason for their meeting as Nyssa has been relentless in pursuing her and can't even spend ore than two days in one location before she catches onto her. Cayden demands to just kill Team Arrow but Talia refuses to as per the terms of their agreement: She aids his crusade against Star City’s corruption by having her assassins carry out his plans while he keeps Team Arrow alive long enough to see the fallout of the “uprising”, long enough for Oliver Queen to see all his work undone. Then when he has lost everything she will finally correct her mistakes and destroy her greatest creation. However she warns Cayden that she’ll kill him if he or any member of Helix harms a single member of Team Arrow before the uprising occurs. However as she leaves she starts displaying signs of physical illness by coughing blood from her mouth.

Later Anatoly becomes decidedly more ruthless in his approaches and starts endangering innocent lives trying to force the Team Arrow to let the Bratva fulfil its missions. However Slade begins to disagree with Anatoly’s methods as he is endangering children too. To prevent this Slade informs Team Arrow of the location of Anatoly’s Star City hideout and they storm the place and take down most of the Bratva gangsters. Anatoly is forced to flee with his remaining men back to Russia, and leaves E2-Laurel behind who slips away to avoid capture and the team celebrates having taken down another enemy. William also starts to grow closer to Oliver and starts growing fonder of Dinah and it truly seems like Oliver is building a family. However Anatoly promises they will keep coming back until the Bratva is back on its feet but berates Oliver as he wanted the Bratva to help people, and believed if he’d stayed 6 years ago he could have help him sort things out.

A little while later though Dinah is called to a factory by Curtis to investigate a possible Vigilante hideout but in truth Laurel sends her a fake message to lure her into a trap. When she arrives Laurel viciously tries to kill Dinah and the pair end up in a heated fight which ends in a draw. Both injured, Dinah calls Oliver for help. While waiting, with neither going anywhere, Dinah asks Laurel why she hates her so much and Laurel surprises her by telling Dinah she is envious of her. She's Black Canary, she has friends and family who love her and she even has Oliver, everything that Laurel wanted in her life. She reflects that while these tragedies opened her eyes to who she really was, she would rather have died after leading a fulfilled life like her doppelganger did. As both are taken back to the Arrowcave Dinah begins to feel sympathy for Laurel. Rather than send Laurel back to A.R.G.U.S. Oliver decides to keep her in the Arrowcave cell out of sentiment as he still believes he can get through to her, though she just scoffs at his words when she isn’t busy throwing flirtatious glances at him. Though Oliver appears to just brush this off he secretly finds Laurel's sassy and playful attitude quite amusing, but has been brushing off the idea that he could be attracted to her out of guilt because of Dinah and E1-Laurel.

User-Deadshot143-1 — I'm out of logical options. I think Deadshot is Vigilante and I will be amazed if he's not.

Eventually Diggle is relieved of his duties as A.R.G.U.S. director once Lyla wakes up though is kept hidden in a disclosed location with John Jr. for their safety and continues her job from there, but Diggle has gained a clearer understanding of how messy the world can get having been forced to make some tough calls that have been weighing on him since. After getting himself checked up his injuries have also fully healed and he decides to return to being Spartan and as soon as he does Vigilante makes another appearance targeting corrupt officials. Diggle pursues him and finally Vigilante is taken down but upon unmasking him Diggle is stunned to learn he is really a still-alive Deadshot.

Considering he's a mirror image of season 1 Oliver, I think Vigilante may have been Talia's way to replace Oliver after killing him.

When Diggle takes Deadshot back to A.R.G.U.S. he reveals how he survived: When the building exploded underneath him 2 years ago Deadshot was badly injured but was located by H.I.V.E., who had kept tabs on him, and turned him into one of their Ghosts. However his family who lived in Star City were among the victims in Damien Darhk’s killings. Only when H.I.V.E. disbanded after Damien's death was Deadshot freed from the mind-control pills. Afterward he began hunting down H.I.V.E. remnants in retribution for his family. During this time he encountered Talia al Ghul who was dong the same in retribution for all the trouble Damien had caused Ra's during his reign, who saw potential in Deadshot and trained him in the ways of the League of Assassins. She then left him to roam Star City to enforce his own vision of justice, occasionally having encounters with Prometheus. Later Helix reviewed the footage of his encounter with Prometheus and Cayden was impressed with how long he lasted against somebody with the same skills as Green Arrow, and recruited him to their cause.

However this leads Diggle into beating down Deadshot in rage due to Lyla’s near death experience but Deadshot, while remorseful for Lyla, still stands by his views that the world is corrupt and it needs to end and Star City is the first step in bringing that vision to life. He also reveals Talia’s involvement with Cayden’s agenda as she’s the only reason Team Arrow hasn’t been killed yet, but Diggle admits that he is part of Team Arrow. Deadshot is quite surprised to learn this but thinks back to earlier encounters and it clicks, but Diggle asks Deadshot to make things right and tell him what Helix is planning. However Deadshot doesn’t actually know, he just points and shoots at targets, but does know it will involve the entire city but refuses to help him stop it as he still believes in Helix plan and doesn't believe they can be stopped. His only advice is for Diggle to take his family and team out of the city and leave it behind for good and don't make the same mistake he did.

After this Diggle informs Oliver who is then confronted by Talia who tells Oliver that Helix was always part of her plan to ruin him, and Adrian was simply a means to an end just like Cayden is. She also reveals she turned Deadshot into Vigilante to serve as a more effective replacement for Oliver as her plan, unlike Adrian’s, will end with Oliver’s death but only after he watches everything he worked so hard to build crumble. Oliver however accuses Talia of being a delusional hypocrite as her teachings are what led to Prometheus’ existence. While she admits this she berates Oliver for not taking more effective measures in preventing his existence in the first place. She also expresses some remorse but only that she failed to be a more effective teacher whose star pupil should have gone on to succeed her father as Ra’s al Ghul. Instead Oliver killed him and allowed the League of Assassins to fall into Malcolm's hands, then Nyssa’s, who destroyed it. Additionally since Nyssa destroyed the Lazarus Pit, which she wouldn't have been able to do had Oliver simply accepted the offer, Talia's health has been declining and soon she will be dead but is going to make sure Oliver goes with her. Over the next few weeks the team starts actively searching for Talia and Cayden but neither resurface and with Vigilante locked up Helix attacks are reduced quite significantly. However Oliver knows this is simply the calm before the storm.

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I've kind always thought of E2-Laurel being a cop rather than a lawyer on her Earth.

Sometime after Quentin visits E2-Laurel, still in captivity in the Arrowcave, and asks why she became Black Siren. With nothing to lose and no hope of escape she finally tells him her story: In 2007 Laurel was a police officer in Starling City like her father but her ex-boyfriend Oliver was dating her sister Sara. While Laurel tried to be supportive she secretly resented Sara as she was still in love with Oliver, which led to a falling out between the sisters. The next day Oliver and Sara embarked on the Queen’s Gambit and perished at sea. Laurel was riddled with grief and regret and became reclusive and dived into her work. Quentin tried to help her, despite dealing with his own grief, but she pushed him away and even pushed her mother away. Over the next 6 years she tried to move on and had several boyfriends, and girlfriends, but could never recover from Oliver and Sara’s death and gave up on finding happiness. Being emotionally detatched also allowed her to climb up the chain of commend and she became a detective.

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Earth-2 flashbacks means we could get some Flash character crossing over. I've kinda always wanted to see Laurel and Iris interact so maybe their Earth-2 counterparts could?

In mid-2013 when Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the Glades in the Undertaking Laurel was trapped in the precinct and Quentin gave his life to save her. Additionally several of her exes Tommy Merlyn, Sebastian Blood and Helena Bertinelli were all killed and even her partner McKenna Hall. A number of friends of her's also died including Johanna, Roy Harper and Sin. After enduring all this loss Laurel became catatonic, and decided to move to Central City where her mother Dinah lived, hoping for a fresh start while her sanity was on the brink of collapse. There she was partnered with Detective Iris West and CSI Barry Allen and took down several criminals including Hunter Zolomon. In late-2013 however a criminal she was following, Sean Sonus, kidnapped and tortured her in retribution and executed her mother in front of her. As she screamed in response to her mother being shot Laurel was affected by dark matter from Harrison Wells’ particle accelerator and gained her sonic cry.

Finally Laurel snapped and hunted down and massacred Sonus’ men before killing him too. With nothing left and horrified by what she'd done, Laurel tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. However she was saved by Zoom who sympathised with her position, but told her the darkness is not to be feared but embraced, then she’ll be free to do anything and offered to teach her. While she was hesitant at first Zoom revealed his identity to her as “Jay Garrick/The Flash”, and Laurel realized he was in fact Hunter Zolomon. He also remembers Laurel being one the detectives who arrested him but is glad she did, as it lead to him becoming Zoom and offers to extend the same gift to her. With nothing left and grateful to Hunter for saving her and giving her new purpose Laurel gave into her dark impulses and became Black Siren. Over the next 3 years she went out of her way to impress Hunter by murdering as many people as she could and climbed up the ranks and by mid-2016 was his right-hand woman. She also enjoyed killing every single one of her victims as their pain and suffering allowed her to dull her own and was free from the weakness of family and the burden of heartache.

Hearing all of this makes Quentin riddled with emotions to learn just how much suffering this woman endured especially when his own daughter could just as easily have become her. Unbeknownst to any of them the rest of Team Arrow was listening through the monitors and all of them, especially Oliver and Dinah, are quite emotional. Dinah is particularly touched by Laurel’s story as it is not dissimilar to her own while Oliver realizes that Laurel is just like him and what he could have become if he didn’t have a reason to fight. Even Thea feels a little sympathetic as she too fell under the influence of a murderer, and even talks to Laurel about this and expresses her sympathies. Laurel, having become fond of Thea, encourages her to take her advice and just give into the darkness so it will hurt much less when she loses everyone she loves, which she believes will happen given how often friends and family seem to die around her.

After some discussion Oliver and Dinah let Laurel out of the cell and try to convince her to stay and let them help her. Still kept depowered under a sonic-dampener they allow her to roam free but she asks to be taken to E1-Laurel’s apartment, now Thea’s. While there she notes the similarities between her and her doppelganger, mainly their shared inability to cook anything. However she also asks many questions Oliver can't answer such as where will she live and how she'll support herself when everybody in Star City will recognise her. She also asks how they will be able to work with her when she’s killed so many people and has served Oliver and Barry’s greatest enemies. She also disbelieves the team will be able to tolerate her as she is a constant reminder of what the lost. Quentin’s daughter, Thea’s best friend, Diggle’s failure and Oliver’s first love. She especially doesn’t believe that Oliver, despite his intentions, will ever be able to work with her because she recognises the pain he secretly feels every time he looks at her, the same feeling she has towards him. Before Oliver can reply Laurel starts having a panic attack and in a fit of impulse lashes out and escapes and flees to a remote location outside the city where she lets out her anger in a screaming fit.

After this Cayden informs Talia that the plan is ready to execute and she has her assassins infiltrate A.R.G.U.S. and free Richard Dragon and Vigilante while she also has Black Siren and Deathstroke kidnapped. After bringing the four of them before her she makes them all an offer to be part of the revulotion. Vigilante agrees as does Dragon out of respect for Talia as he served her father. Laurel is sceptical given her recent history of being used and betrayed/abandoned. However Talia promises to send Laurel back to Earth-2 if she helps out where she can continue her criminal pursuits away from her family’s doppelgangers and she agrees. Slade however refuses unless the price is right but not if it involes the mass murdering of civilians. However Talia forces Slade’s co-operation by revealing she knows the identity and whereabouts of his son Joe and will have him killed if he refuses and Slade reluctantly complies.

With the plan ready to execute Cayden appears on every television in Star City telling the people to take back freedom from the corruption of their leaders, the ones who oppress them for their own gain and fills people’s computers with sensitive information on government activates which sparks a full blown revolution. Additionally the city's power grids shutdown disabling the response cabilities of the S.C.P.D. and A.R.G.U.S. In the space of an hour people quickly succumb to killing each other to take back what’s theirs in what's called the "uprising". Team Arrow is helpless to do anything but watch the city fall, to watch their 6 years of efforts be undone in a matter of hours. What Oliver is most hurt by is that Cayden hasn’t actually killed anyone to achieve his plans either he’s just exposed the truth, and showed the true face of Star City. Cayden also sends a message to Oliver directly thanking him for meeting Felicity Smoak because if not for her none of what is happening would be possible, though Oliver isn't angered as it was her biggest mistake but swears to make it right for her.

While searching for Helix' location Oliver resorts to Anatoly and promises to give him whatever he needs to keep the Bratva active if he helps him find Cayden and Talia. As they search they remise about old times and hope to start mending their friendship once Helix is gone. When they find a lead however Oliver and Anatoly find Talia waiting for them reflecting on the chaos that has ensured, and is enjoying watching Oliver’s suffering. She also reveals her wildcard to keep him from interfering: William, and threatens to kill him if he interferes. However Oliver and Anatoly outsmart her and Oliver keeps Talia busy while Anatoly takes out the mercenaries to get William back. When he does however Talia angrily tosses a knife at William only for Anatoly to push him away and is stabbed instead, while Talia vanishes. Oliver rushes to Anatoly’s side but is too late to save him so Anatoly apologies for his recklessness and reflects that despite his loyalty to the Bratva, he was glad to choose his brother in the end and passes away in Oliver’s arms.

Later while Anatoly’s body is retrieved by the Bratva Oliver is vengeful and takes William into A.R.G.U.S. custody and ensures he’s safely away while they locate Talia amidst all the chaos. However Alena who has become regretful of what Helix has done provides them with their location. However Talia anticipates this and has her team ready themselves as Team Arrow storms their hideout. As the teams confront each other Oliver surprises them when Nyssa and members of the Bratva vengeful for Anatoly’s death arrive also. Both sides clash with each other in a brutal battle to the death. As Oliver fights Slade he discreetly tells Oliver why he’s helping Talia, and that there is a bomb her assassins have spent the last several months building underground set to explode in a few minutes. Talia only wanted to use Helix as a means to show Oliver the "true face" of the city he protects, but her endgame was to always destroy the city itself in front of Oliver while they are both killed as well. Oliver tells Curtis this and he goes to disable it but Cayden goes after him.

Dinah fights Laurel but Dinah barely comes out on top and Laurel begs Dinah to kill her and end her suffering but she refuses, and tells Laurel to wake up and realize what’s right in front of her. Meanwhile Diggle fights Deadshot and after an emotional fight Deadshot finally realizes how far he’s fallen, once reminded of his daughter and told of Talia's plan. Meanwhile Dragon fights and corners Thea and Rene but before he can finish them Diggle and Deadshot gun down Dragon together. Oliver and Slade continue to fight but upon seeing the tables turn defects back to Oliver's side knowing he's now the best chance to save Joe. Curtis tries to disable the bomb but is kneecaped by Cayden who expresses remorse for Felicity and what’s about to happen, but promises that this isn’t the only purpose to Helix and offers Curtis a place at his side.

However Curtis respectfully refuses and cripples Cayden with a T-Sphere explosion and hacks into the bomb’s detonation sequence, hidden behind numerous layers of coding, but hacks it in as fast an effort as Felicity would have and disables it. While the rest of Team Arrow is busy with Helix Oliver pursues Talia to the roof where she has been fighting Nyssa for some time and eventually injures her and Oliver intervenes. With only hours left until the effects of the Lazarus Pit kills her Talia fights Oliver empowered by sheer rage for her father but as she tries to deliver the killing blow, she is knocked over by a sonic cry from Laurel. Pleased to see her making the right choice Oliver and Laurel team up against Talia and defeat her as Team Arrow, Slade, Nyssa and Deadshot arrive in time to see.

Beaten and crppled Talia, now coughing blood from her declining health, tempts him into killing her since she kidnapped William and killed Anatoly. However Oliver refuses and remains steadfast in his resolve and tells her the monster she thought was dwelling inside of him no longer exists. Though Talia mockingly tells him no matter how much he may fool himself he’ll always be the monster deep down, but he simply reflects that he's glad he met because she encouraged him to return to his family. He also reminds her that while he won’t kill her she did play a part in Felicity’s death and he doesn’t have to save her, and as Team Arrow leaves to get Cayden and clean up the mess Vigilante, Black Siren and Deathstroke are left to take revenge on Talia for kidnapping, torturing or brainwashing either them or their loved ones and torture her until the effects of the Lazarus Pit finally kills her as Nyssa watches with relief.

In the aftermath the city is restored to order and Oliver as mayor promises to make Star City free of the corruption and make it a place people are glad to call home. Cayden is tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment while Alena takes control of Helix and steers it towards being what it should be like Felicity would have wanted. Slade parts ways with Oliver and returns to what he does best and thanks Oliver for saving his son. Laurel leaves a message for Oliver admitting that while she is happy to have somebody who believes in her, somebody she's grown to care about and knows he feels something for her too, she doesn’t know what she believes anymore and needs time to figure out what she is. Deadshot parts ways to find a new life. Nyssa also parts ways with the intention of reforming the league and its original membership seeing as how it’s members either joined Talia or resorted to crime like Dragon did.

Dinah however decides to leave too to find Laurel and bring her back home as she too believes she can be redeemed but needs to face her demons rather than run. While she admits she does have feelings for Oliver she believes they won't work out because his feelings spawned from his grief for Felicity's death which he's recovered from. Oliver admits it to be true and respects Dinah's wishes to call things off and they respectfully end things (which leaves the possibility of Oliver and E2-Laurel having a thing in season 7). Before leaving she also reveals she's been curious about the Legends and would also love the opperunity to travel through time when she settles loose ends, and Oliver promises to put in a good word with Sara. William has finally recovered from Samantha’s death and starts treating Oliver more like a father, and expresses an interest in archery though Oliver tells him not to get any ideas...

Meanwhile in a remote location in a hospital bed with several pieces of medical equipment attached to him a still-allive Malcolm Merlyn, who survived Lian Yu by forcing Captain Boomerang to take his place and killing him instead though Malcolm still sustained fatal injuries from the explosion itself, is revealed to have been watching everything and while he is happy for Thea, his resentment towards Oliver only continues to grow. Furthermore learning of Nyssa's new plan to rebuild her own version of the League of Assassins makes him espeically angry and he is equally outraged to see Cayden's work undone, believing it to be the most effective plan to fix Star City yet. Additionally he's revealed to have Talia's corpse being examined for trace remnants of the Lazarus Pit waters in her systems, intent on locating it's origin...

So yea this is basically what I think the overall direction of season 6 should be like, in as compressed and simplified form as I knew how to make without getting distracted with too many sub-plots like I have in my other "how it should be posts". Tell me what you think. Do you think season 6 will be, or at least want it to be, like this or am I way off course?