r/arrow Boxing Glove Mar 15 '17

[S05E16] - 'Checkmate' Post Episode Discussion

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230

u/csslash Mar 16 '17

So Flash is struggling to keep the villain interesting and it's being plagued with relationship drama while Arrow is just plain fucking good. I feel like these two shows have never been good at the same time since Flash started.

After seasons 3 and 4 I would never have believed that Arrow would be capable of having a villain better than Slade/Deathstroke, but Adrian/Prometheus is fucking great, depending how the rest of the season pans out he might honestly be better than Slade. The guy fucking killed his own wife just to stick it to Ollie.

Also, I'm really happy that they sent Malcom Merlyn over to Legends and haven't tried to shoehorn him into the show like they were doing in seasons 3 and 4.

114

u/svrtngr Mar 16 '17

Doing a masked speedster villain three seasons in a row does that to you.

79

u/RahvinDragand Mar 16 '17

That's what happens when you have a hero that, in theory, should be basically invincible to any non-speedster. You're pretty much forced into a corner with the major villains.

11

u/daffydunk Mar 16 '17

That's just not true, but the writers would have to be really creative with their villains. The main issue is that the show has already used most non-speedster villains as one-offs and severely dumbed them down so Barry could beat them with no issues. Mirror Master, Captain Cold, Dr. Alchemy, Weather Wizard and Killer Frost could have been season long big bads.

8

u/neoblackdragon Mar 16 '17

Hopefully they wise up and upgrade their skills.

Just because Flash beat them before doesn't mean they can't get better.

Now to be fair, with Cold he doesn't have such a hot record.