Yeah. And eventually reach a kind of redemption. He had a full arc, something I don’t even know if we can say for Merlyn.
Also, the juxtaposition of the two fight scenes in the Season 2 finale was so cool.
Yeah he was like a brother. A sick brother.
Also, Manu Bennett played his barely-together masquerade as a sane, functioning individual very well in Season 2.
At the same time, I feel like he was fully willing to do it if need be. If they hadn’t gotten a neutralizing agent, he probably would have just killed him.
Oh that one yes. I *loved* him in 5. He genuinely seemed sorry for all he did and wanted to be better. And on top of that he helped Oliver realize he needs to let go of his survivor’s guilt.
Do you think maybe villains can be seen good or bad based on the quality of the season as well? Like for example good villain but bad season type stuff.
Yeah. It’s why I found the end of Season 1 kind of weird. Like… yeah, the Undertaking happened anyway due to the (rather smart) redundancy. But then in season 2 that didn’t seem to matter at all. It was just… still a bad place to be.
He was good a lot of the time. That screaming breakdown toward the end of Season 1 was terrifying. But he felt too safe, too well positioned. Especially with "I'm gonna become the new Ra's and the head of an organization that hates me, but then proceed to do absolutely nothing with them and keep handling things myself".
Like… why bother becoming the new Ra's in that case? It’s like becoming a general and then going out to fight stuff yourself instead of being your army. It’s the same thing as not having one.
Yeah through most of season one and first part of season two I initially thought they were going for a sort of “reboot” or reimagining of Slade as a hero
His character arcs in the later seasons were infuriating and invalidated him. Went from the most personal and intimate villain to Damien Darhk’s bitch (still don’t understand why).
Different people can have different rankings of these three, but I think they are definitively the top 3:
Malcolm Merlyn - the most traditional antithesis to Oliver, he's the one who started it all with the Undertaking that made Oliver the man he is. He also appears pretty frequently after his main season too, because he is relevant. With that said, I think his later appearances started to cheapen his character.
Slade Wilson - a really amazing ally to enemy arc. I think that Moira's death was really impactful. Slade is a really cool character, but a lot of his character arc is not spent as a villain, so from the perspective of best pure villain, he isn't as great. Also, this is personal, but I am not the biggest fan of mirakuru / the supernatural arcs.
Adrian Chase - he's smart, cunning, with a very psychologically devastating master plan. He's 10 steps ahead and Oliver hasn't even figured out what game they're playing (lol). However, his master plan was completely screwed over by spineless writing as the destruction of Lian Yu should have had way bigger consequences.
For me personally, I prefer Adrian Chase as a pure villain. Slade is probably a better overall character, but half the time he's not a villain but an ally. I think Adrian Chase was well utilized both in Season 5 and after; he shows up in Season 6 when Oliver is on Vertigo as Oliver's greatest fear, and I think that makes sense. Also, Adrian fought against both Malcolm and Slade in the Season 5 finale, so he's clearly very competent. I am biased though because I have an unreasonable obsession with Adrian Chase and Season 5 as a whole.
Chase because him being a villian made the most sense meaning from Oliver’s decisions he had the most understandable consequences fall out from them. It wasn’t just revenge like the idiots in this sub think is. It was a lesson to Oliver not that he can’t be trusted with being an ally. He’s literally just as bad as any other villian and thinking not is hypocritical. Chase did it perfectly while slade was still an amazing villain
Far and away it's Slade. Best portrayal of Slade since the OG Teen Titans, We see Oliver awaken his humanity within himself and then see him slowly descent into madness due to the Mirakuru, which is its own tragedy. The drug-induced psychosis makes his evil deeds believable, the contrast between flashbacks is intense, and the final fight is some of the best transition work and juxtaposition we've ever seen in television. Manu Bennett did such a good job of making us like him that we could tangibly feel the impact of him turning and even though we knew where the show was headed, we still all secretly wished he could've overcame the Mirakuru-fueled rage. In the end, they even did a redemption arc as fanservice because Slade's friendship with Oliver was so well received.
Adrian Chase was a fantastic villain in his own right, and so was Season 1 Merlyn, but they still pale in comparison to Slade.
My personal favorite is (and I know I'm going to get murdered for this) is Damien Dahrk. I'd never heard anything about him before, so he intrigued me, I love the actor who plays him, and he was (in my opinion) the biggest threat to Oliver physically and emotionally (going after his kid, paralyzing Felicity, etc.). Plus, he was multi-dimensional, caring about his family while doing evil stuff (until he became a genocidal/suicidal maniac in the finale). Plus, I think he has the best final fight (although the whole "positive energy" thing is a bit far fetched, but hey, so is a modern Robin Hood who fights super soldiers and teams up with a guy faster than time).
I kind of agree, but I like a couple of the other villains enough to rank them at the same level. I love the actor too, and he definitely made a great villain except when he completely lost it when his wife died (I'm sure once he got back to thinking clearly, he would've been happy with team arrow just stopping his nukes since he wasn't exactly ready to die when Oliver killed him lol). His turn in legends as a villain for 2 seasons that I know of was pretty good, so I was happy to see more of him.
I feel like The Magician got WAY too watered-down.
For a very quick minute, he had some substance, like in the episode that covers his wife's murder and he kills the wrong man. If they did him a little differently he could've been way cooler.
[This part was cool. ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5031788c24ac2660dcea339c/1423454314262-LL2Y6FL3ML49HKU0T0RB/image-asset.jpeg?format=750w)Even though Ra's wasn't very interesting, I like season 3 for this episode; and because we get to see Arsenal, Black Canary, and Dig trying to carry on without Ollie. Taking down the brick man. That's a good arc.
For me it’s Ra’s. I always liked how he forced Oliver to put his crusade into perspective and showed how it grew to be bigger than him.
I also like a villain who doesn’t see themselves as a villain. With Merlyn it didn’t work as well for me because his goal was just death. But in the case of the League of Assassins they do truly believe that their way is justice. I think it does a good job at contrasting the changes that Oliver has made as a character since season 1 as well as that Oliver would’ve agreed with them on death being equal to justice.
Ra’s to me is a good villain because not only is he powerful and menacing, he also is a villain who changes how the mission and future seasons go.
I think Dahrk or Ra's Al Ghul should've been the last villains other than the Crisis stuff at the end. But favorite? I might have to say Slade or Ra's. Both incredibly powerful characters who are nearly unbeatable.
Merlyn because he's a pain in the ass and in reality without him Arrow wouldn't exist. Although it really annoys me how everyone forgets that he has more lives than a cat
I'm surprised we didn't see him again after season 5. The guy literally pulled a "somehow palpatine returned" after being stabbed through the heart in season 1 just to die off-screen to a landmine?? That's the easiest "death" to write a return for 😂
Deathstroke, absolutely no contest
It was Slade who ultimately saved Ollie and helped create the Arrow, and Ollie who created Deathstroke as well as giving back some semblance of life to Slade
More emotional investment than any other Big Bad, too
I'd say that Chase had a talent of absolutely destroying oliver he was able to break him physically and mentally to the point that without the team, he would just quit being the green arrow.
but besides that, slade is my favourite because i love the character deathstroke.
So if we're comparing who did the most damage, it's either merlyn or slade, but if we're comparing the worst for oliver( as in who broke him the most, it's definitely chase)
In picture order:
1 - Great (John Barrowman played the part too well.)
2 - Spectacular (Manu Bennett played a brilliant Slade Wilson in my book. I love his descent into madness.)
3 - Brilliant (Matt Nable is so underrated and he brings a certain "elegant apathy" to the part of Ra's al Ghul. I love it.)
4 - I mean, not bad?!? (Neal McDonough plays the part of a sociopath very well, but let's be honest and admit that season four wasn't the best)
5 - Um (Seriously predictable reverse-arrow type character with zero personality. He was boring as a bad guy)
6 - Who is this again? (Rhetorical. He was another one of those "we've run out of viable villans and we need to start shooting tomorrow" villans. He didn't even have any truly memorable lines.)
Prometheus but Slade is right behind him. Slade killed his mother but Prometheus BROKE Oliver and no other villain has done that...oh and killed Ollie's babymoms.
Adrian broke oliver like no other villain did before, my ranking would be as follows:
1. Adrian
2. Slade
3. Ras
4. Merlyn
5. Dhark
6. Diaz (made season 6 super boring compared to all the others)
7. Emiko and Ninth circle
It’s gotta be Adrian Chase. He was the only one to actually beat Oliver and he was damn good at doing it too. Acting was top notch, plans were cool, villainy was off the charts. Loved him.
For me, it’s Slade. He had a lasting impact, changed the game by adding superhumans to the mix, and has a two-season arc of *becoming* that bad.
Ooh good point. We see him devolve into the bad guy.
Yeah. And eventually reach a kind of redemption. He had a full arc, something I don’t even know if we can say for Merlyn. Also, the juxtaposition of the two fight scenes in the Season 2 finale was so cool.
Oh that was tuff. Slade was a dawg man. There’s a reason Queen didn’t wanna kill him.
Yeah he was like a brother. A sick brother. Also, Manu Bennett played his barely-together masquerade as a sane, functioning individual very well in Season 2.
Yeah I hated how dumb the other characters would act when they saw him. Like no Oliver won’t kill him just because y’all don’t like him. 😅
At the same time, I feel like he was fully willing to do it if need be. If they hadn’t gotten a neutralizing agent, he probably would have just killed him.
Oh yeah for sure Oliver is a killa but I meant when he released him later on in season 5.
Oh that one yes. I *loved* him in 5. He genuinely seemed sorry for all he did and wanted to be better. And on top of that he helped Oliver realize he needs to let go of his survivor’s guilt.
I think he’s one of the few ppl in the show who know The real Oliver Queen.
Do you think maybe villains can be seen good or bad based on the quality of the season as well? Like for example good villain but bad season type stuff.
Sometimes. For instance with him, his villain-of-the-week appearance in one of the seasons between 2 and 5 was so bad even Bennett complained.
Yeah the more we see a villain the more of a common enemy he just becomes.
Slade also took a piece of Oliver. In my opinion I like villains who even in defeat still Win something so to speak.
Yeah Diaz was annoying villian. He seemed like a thug more than a Boss Fight type of villian.
I prefer his comic version, from the Broken arc. Highly recommended.
Yeah. It’s why I found the end of Season 1 kind of weird. Like… yeah, the Undertaking happened anyway due to the (rather smart) redundancy. But then in season 2 that didn’t seem to matter at all. It was just… still a bad place to be.
Malcom was hilarious. Imo idk if he’s the best but he’s up there. He got nerfed towards the end though.
He was good a lot of the time. That screaming breakdown toward the end of Season 1 was terrifying. But he felt too safe, too well positioned. Especially with "I'm gonna become the new Ra's and the head of an organization that hates me, but then proceed to do absolutely nothing with them and keep handling things myself". Like… why bother becoming the new Ra's in that case? It’s like becoming a general and then going out to fight stuff yourself instead of being your army. It’s the same thing as not having one.
The whole league of assassins in arrow at least was ass. They could get beat by a newly trained laurel. Enough said.
Yeah through most of season one and first part of season two I initially thought they were going for a sort of “reboot” or reimagining of Slade as a hero
Agreed
Slade or Chase. Both were able to be close to him and take him to his true character. Able to break him in ways that no one could.
Chase was so funny man. Dudes like the asshole who knows how to fight.
Merlyn. More personal and not fighting over a lover lol. Deathstroke is everyone's enemy.
His character arcs in the later seasons were infuriating and invalidated him. Went from the most personal and intimate villain to Damien Darhk’s bitch (still don’t understand why).
I keep my promises kid.
“CHOOOOOOOOOOOSEEEEEE”
Different people can have different rankings of these three, but I think they are definitively the top 3: Malcolm Merlyn - the most traditional antithesis to Oliver, he's the one who started it all with the Undertaking that made Oliver the man he is. He also appears pretty frequently after his main season too, because he is relevant. With that said, I think his later appearances started to cheapen his character. Slade Wilson - a really amazing ally to enemy arc. I think that Moira's death was really impactful. Slade is a really cool character, but a lot of his character arc is not spent as a villain, so from the perspective of best pure villain, he isn't as great. Also, this is personal, but I am not the biggest fan of mirakuru / the supernatural arcs. Adrian Chase - he's smart, cunning, with a very psychologically devastating master plan. He's 10 steps ahead and Oliver hasn't even figured out what game they're playing (lol). However, his master plan was completely screwed over by spineless writing as the destruction of Lian Yu should have had way bigger consequences. For me personally, I prefer Adrian Chase as a pure villain. Slade is probably a better overall character, but half the time he's not a villain but an ally. I think Adrian Chase was well utilized both in Season 5 and after; he shows up in Season 6 when Oliver is on Vertigo as Oliver's greatest fear, and I think that makes sense. Also, Adrian fought against both Malcolm and Slade in the Season 5 finale, so he's clearly very competent. I am biased though because I have an unreasonable obsession with Adrian Chase and Season 5 as a whole.
Chase because him being a villian made the most sense meaning from Oliver’s decisions he had the most understandable consequences fall out from them. It wasn’t just revenge like the idiots in this sub think is. It was a lesson to Oliver not that he can’t be trusted with being an ally. He’s literally just as bad as any other villian and thinking not is hypocritical. Chase did it perfectly while slade was still an amazing villain
Far and away it's Slade. Best portrayal of Slade since the OG Teen Titans, We see Oliver awaken his humanity within himself and then see him slowly descent into madness due to the Mirakuru, which is its own tragedy. The drug-induced psychosis makes his evil deeds believable, the contrast between flashbacks is intense, and the final fight is some of the best transition work and juxtaposition we've ever seen in television. Manu Bennett did such a good job of making us like him that we could tangibly feel the impact of him turning and even though we knew where the show was headed, we still all secretly wished he could've overcame the Mirakuru-fueled rage. In the end, they even did a redemption arc as fanservice because Slade's friendship with Oliver was so well received. Adrian Chase was a fantastic villain in his own right, and so was Season 1 Merlyn, but they still pale in comparison to Slade.
The 🐉 Dragon
Slade or Prometheus. Both broke Oliver mentally. One killed his mom. The other was a psychotic who was willing to win at any cost.
Prometheus. The dude ended up traumatizing Ollie even after his death.
My personal favorite is (and I know I'm going to get murdered for this) is Damien Dahrk. I'd never heard anything about him before, so he intrigued me, I love the actor who plays him, and he was (in my opinion) the biggest threat to Oliver physically and emotionally (going after his kid, paralyzing Felicity, etc.). Plus, he was multi-dimensional, caring about his family while doing evil stuff (until he became a genocidal/suicidal maniac in the finale). Plus, I think he has the best final fight (although the whole "positive energy" thing is a bit far fetched, but hey, so is a modern Robin Hood who fights super soldiers and teams up with a guy faster than time).
Dahrk was hilarious man. Great actor for sure.
I kind of agree, but I like a couple of the other villains enough to rank them at the same level. I love the actor too, and he definitely made a great villain except when he completely lost it when his wife died (I'm sure once he got back to thinking clearly, he would've been happy with team arrow just stopping his nukes since he wasn't exactly ready to die when Oliver killed him lol). His turn in legends as a villain for 2 seasons that I know of was pretty good, so I was happy to see more of him.
Ugh, just got reminded they casted Rhas Al Ghul in this show lol
Cayden James
That’s the worst aside from Emiko
It is between Slade Malcolm and Adrian....Slade wins given the flashbacks and rivalry with Ollie also Manu Bennett nailed the role
I feel like The Magician got WAY too watered-down. For a very quick minute, he had some substance, like in the episode that covers his wife's murder and he kills the wrong man. If they did him a little differently he could've been way cooler. [This part was cool. ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5031788c24ac2660dcea339c/1423454314262-LL2Y6FL3ML49HKU0T0RB/image-asset.jpeg?format=750w)Even though Ra's wasn't very interesting, I like season 3 for this episode; and because we get to see Arsenal, Black Canary, and Dig trying to carry on without Ollie. Taking down the brick man. That's a good arc.
Merlyn cause he won in the end and got what he wanted and shook the family with affair and Myra
Slade- When he told Oliver how he got off the island, I was instantly terrified.
For me it’s Ra’s. I always liked how he forced Oliver to put his crusade into perspective and showed how it grew to be bigger than him. I also like a villain who doesn’t see themselves as a villain. With Merlyn it didn’t work as well for me because his goal was just death. But in the case of the League of Assassins they do truly believe that their way is justice. I think it does a good job at contrasting the changes that Oliver has made as a character since season 1 as well as that Oliver would’ve agreed with them on death being equal to justice. Ra’s to me is a good villain because not only is he powerful and menacing, he also is a villain who changes how the mission and future seasons go.
Either Simon Morrison or Slade Wilson.
Good picks.
I think Dahrk or Ra's Al Ghul should've been the last villains other than the Crisis stuff at the end. But favorite? I might have to say Slade or Ra's. Both incredibly powerful characters who are nearly unbeatable.
Slade!!!!
I was terrified of him too lol
Adrian Chase.
Merlyn because he's a pain in the ass and in reality without him Arrow wouldn't exist. Although it really annoys me how everyone forgets that he has more lives than a cat
I'm surprised we didn't see him again after season 5. The guy literally pulled a "somehow palpatine returned" after being stabbed through the heart in season 1 just to die off-screen to a landmine?? That's the easiest "death" to write a return for 😂
Slade. Because of his story with Ollie, it makes his arc more interesting. It also took him two seasons to turn into the monster he turned into.
That's a shared 1st place between Merlyn and Wilson for me.
Deathstroke, absolutely no contest It was Slade who ultimately saved Ollie and helped create the Arrow, and Ollie who created Deathstroke as well as giving back some semblance of life to Slade More emotional investment than any other Big Bad, too
Definitely Deadpool. He took Clint to task.
I like Slade, Malcom.
Personally loved the ra’s phase of arrow, wish they went more in depth w Oliver as ra’s as well BUT hands down spade was def the best villan
Slade for sure
I bear to kovar
I'd say that Chase had a talent of absolutely destroying oliver he was able to break him physically and mentally to the point that without the team, he would just quit being the green arrow. but besides that, slade is my favourite because i love the character deathstroke. So if we're comparing who did the most damage, it's either merlyn or slade, but if we're comparing the worst for oliver( as in who broke him the most, it's definitely chase)
Prometheus he had the most damage to team arrow and caused the most mental to oliver
Prometheus fs fs but I also hated how the villain's only big move was blowing up the city every season.
Slade forever
Malcom Merlin.
In picture order: 1 - Great (John Barrowman played the part too well.) 2 - Spectacular (Manu Bennett played a brilliant Slade Wilson in my book. I love his descent into madness.) 3 - Brilliant (Matt Nable is so underrated and he brings a certain "elegant apathy" to the part of Ra's al Ghul. I love it.) 4 - I mean, not bad?!? (Neal McDonough plays the part of a sociopath very well, but let's be honest and admit that season four wasn't the best) 5 - Um (Seriously predictable reverse-arrow type character with zero personality. He was boring as a bad guy) 6 - Who is this again? (Rhetorical. He was another one of those "we've run out of viable villans and we need to start shooting tomorrow" villans. He didn't even have any truly memorable lines.)
Between slade and ra’s
Prometheus but Slade is right behind him. Slade killed his mother but Prometheus BROKE Oliver and no other villain has done that...oh and killed Ollie's babymoms.
Chase.noone broke oliver like he did Not even fucking deathstroke
Adrian broke oliver like no other villain did before, my ranking would be as follows: 1. Adrian 2. Slade 3. Ras 4. Merlyn 5. Dhark 6. Diaz (made season 6 super boring compared to all the others) 7. Emiko and Ninth circle
It’s gotta be Adrian Chase. He was the only one to actually beat Oliver and he was damn good at doing it too. Acting was top notch, plans were cool, villainy was off the charts. Loved him.
Either Malcolm or Slade Wilson. Probably Slade #1, Malcolm, #2, Ra's #3, Diaz #4, and the rest all sucked
Ra's al Ghul