#oqueenappreciation

Oliver Queen Appreciation Week

#7: Go creative! - Oliver + Lyrics

Oliver Queen Appreciation Week (Day 7)-go creative! (in collab with rebecca who wrote the whole meta for if there is any confusion)

After “The Climb” aired, there was a lot of discussion on the four people that Oliver Queen saw in his dying moments, those being his parents, Thea, and Felicity. Many criticized the fact that he only saw these four individuals, saying that there were more people that he cared about that should have been shown. Now it’s true, there are many other people that he loved deeply, and equally, I would argue, as those shown, but this was not meant to be a montage of Oliver Queen’s favorite people. This was something else entirely. This was his instincts kicking in, attempting to keep him alive.

First his brain showed him his parents. Both of his parents have now given their lives for him, and Oliver is constantly aware of this. He feels indebted to their sacrifice, and desperately wants to stay alive to honor their memory and to keep fighting, because that is what he knows they wanted from him.

But Oliver is still dying. So his brain steps it up a notch. He sees Thea. While this duel may have saved her from the judgment of Ra’s al Guhl, it does not change the fact that Oliver still feels the need to protect her. Malcolm has her in his clutches, and Oliver knows that he will continue to abuse his relationship with her to achieve his own nefarious purposes. He is her older brother, and he still feels the need to keep her safe.

Finally, in it’s last ditch effort to stop the looming hand of death, his brain pulls out all the stops, and shows him Felicity. In that moment, all the things he’s been telling himself about her, about why they can’t be together, go away, and she is what he’s been trying not to look at her as: hope. Hope for a better future, a better life, a better him. She is an ocean of joy that he didn’t know could exist and right now he has barely got his feet wet. If he dies now, she will be the greatest thing that never happened to him. Oliver loves her so much and he knows how it will crush her if he leaves. He can bring himself to bruise and batter her heart, justifying that it’s protecting her from something worse, but his death would break it, and that, he cannot allow.

Yes, it’s true that Oliver cares immensely for people like Diggle, Tommy, Laurel, and Sara and I do not doubt that if he were dying as most of us will, he would think back on them. But this is not Oliver Queen reminiscing over his loved ones as his life draws peacefully to a close.

This is his body violently screaming at him to survive. 

oliver queen appreciation week | day 7

Oliver Queen Appreciation Week

oliver queen appeciation week | day 6

Oliver Queen Appreciation Week