With most CW shows, the canon of probability is a disaster. Supernatural for one, despite early season attempts otherwise, seems to have replaced the concept of “narrative rules” with “the rules do not exist until the Winchesters are breaking them.” The Arrowverse is also a semi-frequent violator, but these instances are sometimes explained. Often it is due to the Villain of the Week causing problems, which our heroes must set right. Occasionally, the Flash has been running around in the timeline and broke something. Due to the amount of the fantastic present in the shows’ universe, it comes as little surprise that the incident I am discussing comes from the series with the least amount of happenings that would handwave any questions away: Arrow.
Oliver Queen has gone by many names in his show, but the man currently known as Green Arrow has a fairly consistent (and obvious) choice of weapon. Though he practices various martial arts and can use a multitude of weapons, he is most often seen using a bow and arrows against his enemies. So when Damien Darhk appeared during the show’s fourth season, Oliver was in for a rude awakening when he could not subdue the man with archery or any other physical means. Darhk was a magician, with the means to drain the life force of anyone he touched, which meant that most of Oliver’s team was unable to successfully fight him. Instead, Oliver asked John Constantine, who he met during his time missing/superhero origin story, to point him in the direction of someone who could help with magic. Oliver ends up getting lessons, focusing the light inside of him to prevent Darhk from killing him before Oliver can kill him first.
This all seems like a set-up for a season finale deus ex machina, and it is. However, the set-up stayed within the canon of probability. John Constantine was not mentioned prior to this season because Oliver rarely talks about his life when he was missing unless it is relevant. Learning a new kind of skill to complete a new kind of task is regularly seen in hero tales. Even the fact that Oliver is choosing to embrace a less physical kind of fighting, while slightly out of character, is justified by the fact that he would do anything to protect his people and his city. The problem is not that Oliver learned magic.
The problem is that after Oliver uses magic to help defeat Darhk in the season finale, HE NEVER MENTIONS IT AGAIN. This could make sense if he only stayed in his city, where the villains tend towards the mundane. It would also make sense if he mentioned something about it being too difficult to use on a regular basis, or too draining, or not interesting enough for him to keep in practice. Unfortunately, the topic is simply dropped. Oliver leaves the city multiple times, encountering threats like aliens and Nazis from a parallel universe, but he does not call on his magic for a little extra boost. Even when he wakes up as the Flash, at no point does he think “magic could fix this.” There may be another superhero team currently dedicated to fighting all kinds of magical beasts, but Oliver Queen seems to have forgotten that magic exists, let alone that he has it.
There is a possible explanation for this. Oliver’s use of magic happened just before Flashpoint, aka the biggest instance of the Flash running around in the timeline and breaking things. It is possible that Darhk was defeated some other way, that Oliver never learned magic. However, the term is not “canon of possibility.” That is impractical, as the possible is infinite in narrative worlds and does include what actually happened. Until we get some explanation though, I maintain that Oliver’s neglect of magic in the current seasons is outside the canon of probability.
Oliver Queen has gone by many names in his show, but the man currently known as Green Arrow has a fairly consistent (and obvious) choice of weapon. Though he practices various martial arts and can use a multitude of weapons, he is most often seen using a bow and arrows against his enemies. So when Damien Darhk appeared during the show’s fourth season, Oliver was in for a rude awakening when he could not subdue the man with archery or any other physical means. Darhk was a magician, with the means to drain the life force of anyone he touched, which meant that most of Oliver’s team was unable to successfully fight him. Instead, Oliver asked John Constantine, who he met during his time missing/superhero origin story, to point him in the direction of someone who could help with magic. Oliver ends up getting lessons, focusing the light inside of him to prevent Darhk from killing him before Oliver can kill him first.
This all seems like a set-up for a season finale deus ex machina, and it is. However, the set-up stayed within the canon of probability. John Constantine was not mentioned prior to this season because Oliver rarely talks about his life when he was missing unless it is relevant. Learning a new kind of skill to complete a new kind of task is regularly seen in hero tales. Even the fact that Oliver is choosing to embrace a less physical kind of fighting, while slightly out of character, is justified by the fact that he would do anything to protect his people and his city. The problem is not that Oliver learned magic.
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| From the Arrowverse Wiki |
The problem is that after Oliver uses magic to help defeat Darhk in the season finale, HE NEVER MENTIONS IT AGAIN. This could make sense if he only stayed in his city, where the villains tend towards the mundane. It would also make sense if he mentioned something about it being too difficult to use on a regular basis, or too draining, or not interesting enough for him to keep in practice. Unfortunately, the topic is simply dropped. Oliver leaves the city multiple times, encountering threats like aliens and Nazis from a parallel universe, but he does not call on his magic for a little extra boost. Even when he wakes up as the Flash, at no point does he think “magic could fix this.” There may be another superhero team currently dedicated to fighting all kinds of magical beasts, but Oliver Queen seems to have forgotten that magic exists, let alone that he has it.
There is a possible explanation for this. Oliver’s use of magic happened just before Flashpoint, aka the biggest instance of the Flash running around in the timeline and breaking things. It is possible that Darhk was defeated some other way, that Oliver never learned magic. However, the term is not “canon of possibility.” That is impractical, as the possible is infinite in narrative worlds and does include what actually happened. Until we get some explanation though, I maintain that Oliver’s neglect of magic in the current seasons is outside the canon of probability.
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