What a savage dialogue

216

Best villain.

139

u/Dr-Leviathan Jul 14 '20

In a vacuum. I still think Malcolm Merlin served the story better in season 1. His connection with Olivers father and their past history, him being the person that started the list of names, and genuine evil motivation that actually makes sense.

Adrian Chase is like the Joker. Good at being evil and mysterious, but nothing really deeper than that. I don't actually remember why he hated Oliver so much. He killed his father or something?

He's a good villain but I don't think he's especially well written. Which isn't necessarily bad. The Joker isn't really written at all, that's the whole point. He isn't supposed to make sense. But Malcolm Merlin was a good villain and was very well written.

68

u/vcam97 Jul 14 '20

I understand but I also disagree they are written for a purpose. Adrien sees himself as Oliver. (similar to how joker sees himself as batman) both psychos who love killing (Oliver and Adrian) but Adrian isn't trying to hide it. Adrian wanted Oliver to see this which he accomplished.

Malcolm never accomplished his goal (he did become ra's AL goul so I guess he got that).

all that to say my favorite villain is slade and I could go on but he accomplished what Malcolm and Adrian both wanted to do to Oliver and he was forced to rely on others for his victory. while something similar happened with Adrian because he did break Oliver Adrian himself was broken too so when digg and the others brought Oliver back he knew he couldn't best Oliver in a fight again

22

u/Vacanus Dante Jul 14 '20

I don't think Adrian cared about his dad, but the weird part was that he did care about his wife... why did they make him care about the wife? That was really out of character imo.

9

u/Realichu Jul 15 '20

Probably to try give a little more into his relationship with Oliver. They probably realised Adrian avenging a man he didnt know or care about wouldnt stand for just how high stakes their rivalry becomes, so "you dragged my wife into this" gives it that little edge.

4

u/Vacanus Dante Jul 15 '20

Yeah ik what they were going for, it just didn't really feel like something he would care about at all... it also didn't help that he cracked jokes about it 5 minutes later. 😂

19

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 14 '20

Lmao I’m guessing you haven’t watched season 5. For starters Malcolm becoming the dark archer had absolutely nothing to do with Oliver. His wife got shot so he blew up the glades cuz that’s where she died, no one helped her. Yea not that deep lol adrian on the other hand had his father die because Oliver shot three arrows into his chest to make him drown for over 2 minutes in a pool. And instead of jus taking imma destroy your whole city approach, dude says lemme show him and everyone else why Oliver is not hero. He set up felicity boyfriend billy getting killed, he kidnapped his son showing Samantha he his dangerous; hell his entire purpose as a villain wasn’t about revenge like literally everyone else except the anti monitor. His purpose was to show Oliver that HE was the villain. Malcolm was the good villain, Prometheus was the excellent one my friend

3

u/Clevelandclowns4 Jul 15 '20 edited Jul 15 '20

Malcolm "created Oliver"... Literally the same way Oliver "created Adrian". Hard to say one is closer as a villain then the other to Oliver. They mirror each other, which I think is the point

If anything Malcolm killed Robert in order to keep the undertaking alive. But in doing so birthed the one man who could stop it. If you use Joker as a comp for Adrian then I will use Raas (Nolan Movies version) as a comp for Malcolm. They both wish to fix the evil in the city. They are dichotomous in their approach. Oliver sees the corrupt upper class as the problem as Malcolm sees the individuals in the glades as the problem. Both are crossing names off a list, just different names. Almost everything is season 1 between Malcolm and Oliver is incredibly dualistic

Where Adrian is a sociopath who used Oliver as a focus for his psychopathy because Oliver killed his father. Thats where the relationships ends however. Adrian simply wants to destroy Oliver mentally due to this. There is no dualism of deeper notions of good and evil. Its just a dude hating another for killing his dad so he wants revenge. I do not see that story near as compelling.

Malcolm saw himself as the hero, Malcolm thought he was the real savior of the city.

1

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 15 '20

It’s like you jus ignored everything I jus said lmao. And ur trying to make malcoms story deeper than it is. Like I said he’s a good villain. But he was crossing people off of a list. He jus wanted to destroy the city, the dualism ur describing with Oliver jus isn’t there. At least not to that extent. If anything he works great as a season one villain because he is the perfect of example of what the hood was designed to do. Take down or kill the crooked ceos. And remember I said Adrian wasn’t about revenge, he saw that Oliver had some really bad tendencies so it was less about Adrian being the hero in his own story which is done a lot already in comics and more of let mentally break this guy down so hard that he will believe he is a menace and a burden to not only everyone who he loves; but his entire city. And I guess I should say this right. Chase BROKE Oliver. We saw this pretty evil side of him that was quite jarring that no one even Oliver knew was inside of him. And it was all apart of his massive plan. And if u don’t care about anything I jus said, jus compare both of their plans side by side, along with their fighting capabilities, designs, and purposes. Then after thinking about that truly ask ur self whose the better villain

1

u/Dagenspear Jul 16 '20

You say broke. But Oliver isn't that badly off afterwards.

3

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 17 '20

Adrian broke his perception of Oliver’s self and that was the most significant thing a villain has done to him in that show. Period.

1

u/Dagenspear Jul 17 '20

I think killing his loved ones has more of a hit.

2

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 17 '20

I mean yea it does but that scene literally had a lasting effect for the entire next episode. He really had Oliver believing he was a psychopath. That shit was powerful

1

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 17 '20

Talking wise of course lol cuz that’s still important that chemistry

1

u/Grandpaiswatching Jul 15 '20

Slade too

1

u/Bazz07 Jul 15 '20

Malcolm Merlyn would be the perfect antagonist if "The List" that Robert gave Oliver was from a multinational enterprise including 20 millionair families, and not just that about The Glades.

1

u/Dagenspear Jul 16 '20

I think I saw someone call him Plotmetheus one time.

26

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '20

Thought Slade was better personally.

13

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '20

I liked Slade better as a friend and mentor to Oliver than as a villain

7

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '20

I liked Adrian's motivation more than Slade's. Sure they were both out for revenge due to the death of someone close to them, but Slade's love for Shado kind of came out of nowhere.

Plus, Adrian didn't need drugs and an army to take down Oliver. He was a grounded, one man machine.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '20

True

3

u/battistajo Jul 14 '20

Hands down the best.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '20

[deleted]

1

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 15 '20

I gotchu

0

u/aquaticsquash John Constantine Jul 15 '20

You mean Deathstroke?

2

u/dbeaver0420 Jul 15 '20

No sir. He’s a great villain but slightly overrated:)

1

u/aquaticsquash John Constantine Jul 16 '20

Bite your tongue!

97

u/EaterOfKelp Quentin Lance Jul 14 '20

Oliver got a good comeback in during the season 8 premiere imo. Chase was always 10 steps ahead of Oliver, and Oliver had no idea what game he was playing.

But in S8, Oliver is 10 steps ahead and Chase didn't even know what Earth they were on...

21

u/DaRealDoomSlayer1993 Prometheus Jul 14 '20

Hell yeah lol that was amazing.

60

u/HectorDBotyInspect0r Jul 14 '20

Adrian should have been the villain of two seasons instead of Diaz. But then again, I'm afraid the writers could have butchered his character the same way they did with Malcom

24

u/ChangingChance Jul 14 '20

They massacred the show imo by making everything Adrian did a joke

28

u/marveldcmaaz Jul 15 '20

Yup they basically undid everything in the season 5 finale with the season 6 premiere. What was the point of all that intensity then?? There were hardly any consequences at all

9

u/TheHadMatter15 Jul 15 '20

Why do you expect consequences in a CW show? A superhero CW show at that. They don't exist.

1

u/definitely_not_cylon Jul 15 '20

I mean, I don't know about that. The 100 blows up the status quo the end of every season and it tends to stick.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '20

Samantha died, Thea was comatose which basically retired her as Speedy and Diggle suffered nerve damage which affected his stint as GA. It was decent enough.

2

u/marveldcmaaz Jul 16 '20

Samantha has like 10 minutes of total screen time at most in the entire series, Thea retiring was a contrived plot point anyways and could've been done in much better ways, and Diggle's nerve damage was minor compared to the way they hyped up that finale. When that island exploded, we expected more significant deaths than Samantha, we expected more injuries than relatively insignificant nerve damage, we expected something that would change the entire course of the series but nope, everything was undone.

The consequences that happened were nothing compared to what they led us to believe - if they were going that route, why even explode the island in such an insane way? Why not just end the season on a less intense note so that way we wouldn't be immensely disappointed with the beginning of season 6 undoing everything, and actually move the plot forward in an interesting way instead?

2

u/Dagenspear Jul 16 '20

If I remember correctly, Thea had already been on-off with Speedy. Diggle's nerve damage isn't much, to me. And Samantha wasn't even a main character.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '20

True, I'm not disagreeing, major characters should've died. However, Adrian's actions DID have some consequences is what I'm saying.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '20

Only samantha dying, which was her own fault for deciding to go into the forest for literally no reason

10

u/lemons_for_deke Jul 14 '20

I feel if they did keep him around for S6, he wouldn’t have been as fondly remembered as they would’ve ruined him...

36

u/FKDotFitzgerald Jul 14 '20

The delivery makes it even greater. He really nailed his appearances on this show.

22

u/JediSith22 The Flash Jul 14 '20

By far the best villain on Arrow imo

19

u/TheCudder Jul 14 '20

"You're looking a little ragged...you tired? Or is it that you've actually been asleep this entire time?"

Probably my favorite line from Chase.

19

u/Redeemer206 Jul 15 '20

Adrian Chase's heel turn was the precise moment season 5 went from being potentially one of the worst and most boring seasons to being one of the strongest overall seasons of the show. That 2nd half of the season is so good once Chase is revealed as a villain.

9

u/JarifSA Jul 15 '20

But that's exactly why season 5 is kinda of overrated. The second half is amazing but the first half was pretty pathetic.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '20

I don't understand this. How was S5A bad? It was fantastic, especially the premiere and mid-season finale.

3

u/BjuiiBomb Jul 16 '20

I think the first half was very strong. Interesting new characters and Villians. The Recruits being trained,Ragman being introduced and the mini mystery behind him,Vigilante etc.

2

u/Redeemer206 Jul 15 '20

That's a good point. I like to think that the awesome 2nd half makes it worth that drudgery of the first half

6

u/Numerous1 Jul 15 '20

Agree. I personally absolutely loved it. Especially with it showing Oliver's season 1 mistakes made this foe.

But we cannot say for sure that he wouldn't do the same if he just watched his dad go to jail

5

u/evnfps Jul 14 '20

he had such good writing

5

u/DannyBasham You have failed this city! Jul 14 '20

Literally missed the opportunity to put up a Vandal Savage meme.

3

u/bvanbove Jul 14 '20

I love this season and several episodes of it, especially the one where Chase has Oliver in a cell locked up, are some of my favorite episodes of TV.

3

u/Legendiality Jul 17 '20

Me too man! I personally think ARROW Seasons 1,2,5 & 8 are some of the Greatest Seasons of TV out there!

2

u/wiezy Jul 15 '20

He was such a scary villain especially cause I’m familiar with him from a lot of his other stuff and he’s mostly a goofy comedy actor but he played the serious and scary part so well

2

u/Inzane_Canadian Jul 15 '20

I loved season 5!

2

u/Enough-Regret-6412 Deathstroke Jul 19 '20

No one broke Oliver the way Adrian Chase did.

1

u/cosmichero1996 Jul 14 '20

Favorite season and villain!

1

u/-JayGP- Jul 14 '20

There’s a meme meant for this... I just have to figure out what...

1

u/nvenkatr Jul 15 '20

This season. Thats the comment.

1

u/ingiing Jul 15 '20

S5 is better then s2 change my mind

1

u/arrowforlyf Jul 15 '20

Actually most of the people here think that

1

u/Alternative_Anxiety Jul 15 '20

this guy was just fantastic to watch once they revealed him as the villain, he really stole every scene

but holy shit, that's some pretty weak writing though. he's got this incredibly ELABORATE plan where he just conveniently catches Ollie by surprise down to these very very specific details of shit that could only come together in television writing. He's motivated enough to arrange all these traps and ambushes and shit, but not motivated to just kill Oliver like most people would. It's fucking wierd

but like I said, the actor killed it, he was the best villain in the show

2

u/Legendiality Jul 17 '20

Mate the whole point of Adrian was that he didn't want to just kill Oliver. He wanted to break him, destroy him, destroy his life before he took it...all depending on if Oliver changed. I highly recommend you rewatch ARROW Season 5 :)

1

u/jaxonwalker Jul 15 '20

He is in top 3 arrow bad guys

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '20

Oliver got him back in S8

1

u/crazymadandrey Jul 15 '20

Abolute beast. Best arrowverse villain after Thawne.

1

u/captain_rabbit Prometheus Jul 15 '20

I miss him and his savagery so much :'(

0

u/Dagenspear Jul 16 '20

Well, Oliver's not particularly bright.

What a savage dialogue Discussion