I fell in love with Arrow almost immediately, especially with the characters and the dynamics between the characters. So, as a tribute to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite TV shows, here is a short one-shot examining a bit of the conflict going on with Oliver as of the end of the second episode.
Enjoy and review please!
Oliver Queen was a lie. It was a game, a front, a face he put on. It was the person he needed them to see, the same one who had lived five years ago before the island. And they believed him so easily, he hardly had to try. He just had to smile and laugh on cue, be rude and crass and entirely inappropriate, and they were completely fooled. Thea, Laurel, they were all so willing to believe what he wanted them to see.
And that tore him apart.
How could they possibly believe that he wasn't changed by the island?
How could they not see through his façade?
Several times he had to remind himself that he didn't want them to- that had been the purpose of acting like a fool again. Still…
It hurt, it burned, and it twisted knots in his stomach to see the looks they gave him, full of shame and disappointment and pain. He ached to be honest. He wanted to be the man he knew he could be. He could be a good man, one who was known for his actions and morals, not his nightlife and scandals.
Yet he couldn't. That promise he made to his father…they couldn't know his secret, they couldn't know who he had become. He had to protect them, and at the same time he had to save his city from the corruption and sickness that was entwined throughout the heart of Starling. And he couldn't let anything or anyone stop him from fulfilling his promise.
So he continued to be exactly who he had come to resent, continued to make a fool of himself and see the hurt in the eyes of those he cared about. For now, it was the only thing he could do. It was a maddening, sickening game. But he would do a lot worse, sacrifice a lot more, to save his city.