Why Felicity Smoak Needs to Exit During 'Arrow' Season Six

Felicity Smoak. What a revelation. She came into Arrow’s first season and was only meant to appear in one episode, but thankfully she was loved so much that she has stayed on the show since. Not an easy feat.

Having said that, something needs to change. To this young (23 is still young, right?) fan, that something is Miss Smoak...I mean Mrs. Queen. Why? Because things seem to point towards her in that way at the moment.

So let’s look at the points.

The Foreshadowing

For people who didn’t read the comics, or didn’t notice me refer to Smoak as an original character above, Felicity is not from the source material, not in a major way at least. She is a minor character related to the hero Firestorm, hence why she was only meant to be in one episode of the show, probably as a nice nod to the comics.

Being an original character can easily make her disposable. She isn’t written to be a star-crossed lover of Oliver Queen, so who says she needs to stick around? Let’s look at this years crossover.

During the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover of all the shows in the Arrowverse, Felicity has an interesting exchange with Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash. As he holds her, Iris West and Supergirl hostage, he vibrates his hand as he prepares to run it straight into Felicity’s heart. Just before he is about to do so, he makes a speech about how the history books from his time period, hundreds of years into the future, speak of many people we know and love. Green Arrow, The Flash, Black Canary, their names still live on for doing good in their respected cities. But Thawne makes a point of saying no one from his time has ever heard of Felicity Smoak.

How in the name of Jay Garrick has no one heard of her? One theory? She’s Felicity Smoak, for whatever reason she could hack away every bit of information about herself from the net in seconds. Second theory? Maybe she doesn’t survive long enough to be ultimately noticed as a member of Team Arrow, and Oliver Queen has made a point of not mentioning her for the history books because of the pain her death brought to him.

However, having said all of that, look at Smallville. That show told the formative years of Clark Kent turning into Superman, and included an original character called Chloe Sullivan. The amount of times her non-existence in the future of Superman lore was teased, and she FUNNILY ENOUGH survived everything and married Oliver Queen (the Justin Hartley version of course). Arrow could do this route, but who knows!

Death Brings Change

This is Arrow, the story of a young man who has endured pain for year upon year and it has turned him into different things. One of those forms of pain is loss, and with every loss, Oliver Queen as a character has progressed. His father, Robert, died and left Oliver with the quest of The List, which set him on his path to being The Hood. His friend, Tommy, died which prompted Oliver to honour his memory and never kill again. His mother, Moira, died and set Oliver onto leading his family and having no parental figures to look up to anymore. Laurel Lance/The Black Canary, his first love, dies and leaves Queen with a crumbled team that he needs to rebuild with new team members and strengthen more than his original team.

Can you see the pattern? When Oliver loses someone, his character progresses. Losing people has pushed him from being a spoilt rich kid to being a one man army capable of leading a team, being a voice of reason for his sister and being able to raise his own child. So, if he were to lose his wife, would that not change him further? Maybe not for the best at first (he reacted terribly at first to all those other deaths as you would imagine).

So what would happen this time round? Personally, I think if Felicity died in the season finale, it would set up nicely for a season six premiere months later where Oliver has been hitting the bottle a bit too much, letting go of his responsibilities. He is then prompted to take on the Green Arrow identity again and build upon the fact that Green Arrow should not be emotionally attached to people and only invest in keeping Star City safe. Not that I’ve thought that much into it...

So what do you think?

So there is my thoughts. What do you reckon? Should the newly appointed Mrs. Queen be wiped off the face of the Earth? Or take a new direction into the Green Arrow lore? I guess we will find out sooner or later.

Happy Nerding!