Why Ricardo Diaz Does Not Work For ARROW Season Six!
Ricardo Diaz was a great choice as a villain for Arrow so it begs the question, why isn't he as good as previous Arrow villains better?
Season six of Arrow has had a major issue with handling its villains and making them interesting. Starting with Cayden James the writers couldn't manage to make him interesting even though they had Michael Emerson who is a great actor. Now, despite having a more hands-on villain like Ricardo Diaz, the writers continue to make the mistake of not having him be interesting. However, that's not the only issue the show has with its villains this season so let's get started.
Season six tried something a little different as it started with a team of villains that eventually became narrowed down to Black Siren and Ricardo Diaz but let's firstly talk about Cayden James. Arrow went a different direction with Cayden James as they made him more brains than anything else and his wit and intellect were his weapon against Team Arrow. The problem isn't that he wasn't a more practical villain though, the problem was that the writers couldn't write an interesting story or give him a story that could in a way enable the audience to understand him on a personal level. However, when they did finally give Cayden James a solid backstory, it was in the same episode that he dies in and by that time it was already too late. Cayden James didn't have an interesting personality, nor did he really have anything too unique as a character but my main issue with him this season is that he was not needed at all. We could've just started with Ricardo Diaz as the main villain and just essentially build Diaz up throughout the season. Instead, we've had Diaz as the main villain for about four episodes overall even though he's the primary season villain.
Let's focus on Ricardo Diaz and why he isn't working well on Arrow. Now, let's try to ignore the lazy writing this season for a moment and focus on the villains of Arrow so far. Adrian Chase, Slade Wilson, Ra's Al Ghul and even Damien Darhk are at this stage better than Ricardo Diaz for the sole fact that they actually worked for the seasons they were in. The reason those villains worked so well though was because they challenged Green Arrow in either a way he hasn't been challenged before or has allowed him to use his previous experience to defeat an enemy. However, after defeating those major villains who posed a massive threat to Oliver and his team, he essentially develops, becomes smarter, stronger and even more paranoid on who to trust. The issue is that the writers seem to ignore that development for season six. Ricardo Diaz on the show is a criminal with martial arts skills but from what we've seen so far, he's a minor at best. So how does he pose a threat to Oliver who has defeated someone like Ra's Al Ghul?
One of my issues with Diaz in this season is that Diaz simply outsmarts Oliver. Now, I'm not saying Oliver should be the most intelligent person alive but I do expect him to be smarter in every season as he is developing and going through issues that allow him to progress. Otherwise everything he's going through becomes obsolete and meaningless. Let's talk about the way that Ricardo Diaz is being written though. Recently we've learnt that Ricardo Diaz had taken over Star City to essentially impress a group called "The Quadrant". The issue with this is that they've only just revealed his true motivations in episode 19... four episodes away from the finale rather than developing and building up the story from the beginning. The writers haven't allowed room for Ricardo Diaz to develop even though it's a season with 23 episodes in it.
What do you think though? Have you enjoyed Ricardo Diaz this season so far or have you also thought he's been mediocre? Personally, I think the writers could've handled him a lot better than what they've done this entire season for him. Again, it's a shame because Richard Dragon in the comics is one of the best Green Arrow villain and even though Green Arrow doesn't have a wide variety of villains like Batman or Flash, villains like Komodo or Richard Dragon make for amazing Green Arrow stories.