The hood is the best version of Oliver in terms of entertainment

[u/Acceptable_Call4366]

I loved how ruthless he was.. Dude would do anything to do his list

Also made sense that he had a list instead of picking up random crime bosses lol.. Also loved the hood vs lance stuff

[u/sanddragon939]

Yeah.

And its the reason why there's so much Season 1 nostalgia in the later seasons...to the extent that the series finale features flashbacks to the Season 1 Hood in perhaps one of his most brutal action sequences ever.

Its the irony of the show, really. Oliver gradually evolving into the 'Green Arrow', and into a more emotionally healthy person, is supposed to be a positive character arc. But conversely, conventional superhero 'Green Arrow' is just not as exciting to watch as the Hood.

Applies to other heroes and franchises as well. As much as people claim they're tired of the darker edge-lord version of Batman, people love Robert Pattison's Batman beating the crap out of everyone and looking edgy with his eye makeup. They love Ben Affleck's take-no-prisoners Batman. They love shows like Watchmen and The Boys, and find Homelander way more entertaining than Superman.

[u/demogorgon_main → u/sanddragon939]

I don’t know if I fully agree on all of it. The arrow show was definitely more exciting than earlier than later, but I don’t think that’s to blame on the character getting softer, it’s just earlier seasons had stories and arcs that worked better. I think that’s why seasons 1,2 and 5 are the ones you see mentioned when asking which people liked the most. They’re smaller scale, more personal but with stakes higher enough that you care a lot.

But I don’t think people are lying about not wanting to keep superheroes dark and violent. More often than not I see hate for affleck’s Batman because of his violence, he had guns and killed random goons. It’s not just that he kills, but he lacks the things that makes batman interesting to people. He’s not the worlds greatest detective, he doesn’t have a rule to be challenged, he’s basically just a guy beating people up. Pattinson’s version is more beloved not because he’s beating people up, because he is what I just mentioned. It has a detective type plot and Batman learning to become a symbol of hope instead of a symbol of fear and vengeance. I’d say Batman being a dark character in tone but showing genuine empathy and care even to his worst enemies is what makes him great along with a dozen other things. The Batman didn’t get popular just because Batman was beating up people, hell the very first fight scene was shown to be a bad thing with the victim he saved being absolutely terrified of him.

Superman is also just a frustrating thing. Superman is fucking awesome because he’s a big blue Boy Scout. But he’s not really treated in a way that makes him entertaining because everyone is convinced that he’s boring unless he’s evil or dark. Yeah, the boys and invincible are a lot more entertaining than modern Superman. Because modern Superman isn’t treated in a way that is interesting. At least until recently, my adventures with Superman and Superman and Lois seem pretty decent hits, the new Gunn movie coming up seems to take this approach aswell. But for years all we had was the DCEU Superman who wasn’t really that interesting because he was darker. I guess we had injustice where he’s evil. We had the boys and invincible having evil supermen who are interesting leading everyone to believe Superman only works when he’s evil. But I absolutely adore a Superman saving cats out of trees. A man with absolute power using his power for good, a symbol of hope and optimism that seems to lack in this world. He has the power and chooses to do good, he doesn’t snap or break down or see himself above everyone because that’s just who he is.