ARROW: Characters That Need To Be Written Off In Season 7!
Arrow has had some really great additions to its roster whether they end up on Team Arrow or against them, however, some characters just aren't interesting or aren't necessary anymore.
The cast of Arrow has grown rapidly over the years with some amazng characters debuting, however, Arrow has missed the mark with some of its characters and as such, the show would be better off without those characters. Who are those characters? Well, let's get into it.
New Team Arrow
Rene joined Arrow early into season 5 and his role was a pretty simple one. Rene is a vigilante who is code-named Wild-Dog and while his involvement in season 5 was really good, he quickly became one of the most disliked characters on the entire show in season 6. Now, I'm not someone who believes you should just remove a character because the audience dislikes them but Rene's story is no longer interesting. His character is no longer going through the development we saw him going through in season 5 and so overall, his character has quickly in a way become obsolete. In fact, all the character development he underwent in season 5 is basically undone in season 6 as we see him blaming Oliver and even fighting him for issues that Oliver wasn't responsible for. It comes to show that Rene did not grow as a character, instead showing that he is irresponsible and cannot be trusted. Now, I understood that his role in season 5 was to be a side-kick or a partner to Oliver out in the field but Rene is especially not needed anymore for season 7 because Roy Harper is confirmed to return, meaning Roy Harper will most likely resume his role as a partner-in-crime with Oliver.
The same goes for Dinah Lance who basically joined midway into season 5 as a replacement for Laurel's Black Canary role. Unfortunately, Dinah Lance never felt convincing as Black Canary and while she does have a handful of cool scenes as Black Canary, she just isn't interesting as a character. Her loss of Vincent/Vigilante at no point made me feel sorry for her and rather made me roll my eyes as the loss of a loved one type of storyline is a massive cliche, especially if that loss leads to a revenge storyline. However, despite lacking any real quality that made her likeable, Dinah Lance reached a new level of annoying during the sixth season. As I mentioned, she suffers the loss of her boyfriend due to E-2 Laurel Lance/Black Siren and oh boy... Dinah became the least likeable character for me during the sixth season as her constant bitching about needing to get revenge was just pure moronic. As someone who was involved in the police force for years, you'd think Dinah had been taught some restraint or something. Overall, her character just isn't needed as she can easily be replaced with E-2 Laurel Lance who has since gone through a redemption story arc.
Of course that leaves Curtis Holt/Mr Terrific who, while not being absolutely annoying, is a character that Arrow never needed. When Curtis joined back in season 4, no one was excited for this addition, no one really even cared. However, he quickly became an unnecessary addition as he was basically a male Felicity Smoak. We didn't need another geek who somehow could hack faster than a person could write their own name on a piece of paper. The thing with Curtis is he isn't too annoying at times, he actually has some funny lines and his excitement over small/stupid things makes him relatable at times. Nevertheless, Curtis really is a character that the show doesn't need, we already have Felicity who is the techy-geeky type of person and so Curtis kind of becomes irrelevant most of the time as he barely has any stories dedicated to him. He could be written into Legends of Tomorrow but that's not something I could see happening.
John Diggle
This is hard for me to admit because John Diggle is a character I really like... despite being an idiot late into the sixth season. Diggle is a character that has been on the show since the start and he has been one of the best characters on Arrow. Like any other character, Diggle has had some idiotic moments or stories but overall, Diggle is a really great character due to his close friendship to Oliver. However, if season 6 proved anything, it's that the writers don't know how to write anymore stories involving Diggle. They pretty much screwed up his entire character and done a whole 360, making him go from being absolutely loved to unbelievably out of character. Unfortunately, Arrow also saw Diggle being put onto the sidelines for most of season 5 as well which really shows that for the past two seasons, the writers haven't been able to come up with a solid story for him. It's better to just write him off for a little while so that if he comes back, he could come back with a good storyline as he is someone that deserves a strong story dedicated to him.
William Clayton
The son of Oliver Queen was originally introduced back in season 4 and as it so happens, William Clayton found himself as a main character in season 6. Surprisingly enough, William was written quite well and he only had a handful of moments when he was somewhat annoying, if not less than a handful. However, the issue with having a 15-16 year-old child on a show like Arrow is that there isn't much he can do. Unless Arrow is willing to take William on a path of becoming a side-kick to his father's crusade, there's very little reason to have him. That's not to say that he should be removed from the show entirely but only have him in a handful of episodes or episodes that are actually dedicated to William in someway. The actor does quite well playing William most of the time as well so if the writers can come up with a good story for him then it's all well and good. Season 6 saw William developing a strong father-son relationship with Oliver and for the most part, it was done really well, unfortunately William didn't really have much else to do and because Oliver was more concerned with other severe issues, Oliver shared a small amount of scenes with William.
Ricardo Diaz/The Dragon
Ricardo Diaz is possibly my favourite villain for Green Arrow in the comics, he's actually someone I've wanted to see on the show since the very start especially after having read Green Arrow: The Outsider's War which is a New 52 storyline. However, in comparison to his comic counter-part, Ricardo Diaz on the show is plain boring and comes off as nothing more but a thug who, realistically Oliver should be able to defeat within a few minutes. The problem with Diaz on the show is that he was made the primary villain of season 6 a little too late for him to undergo a full development and I understand that he's supposed to develop even further in the upcoming season. However, just because he's featured in the seventh season, does not excuse the fact that Diaz was written quite poorly in season 6. I understand that he could improve as a villain in season 7 and hopefully he does but I don't want to see Diaz as the primary villain for the entirety of the seventh season because he simply isn't interesting enough. If it were someone like Adrian Chase, Slade Wilson or Malcolm Merlyn then I would be content to see them return. In saying that, Diaz just doesn't have enough story or attributes to allow him to be strong enough as a character to run through an entire season. None of this is the fault of his comic counter-part though as Ricardo Diaz in the comics is a much better character with more depth and background that hasn't been explored on Arrow.