Arrow: The Best Character In Each Season

Arrow is full of classic DC Comics characters. Every season has multiple great cast members, but one person always seems to stand out.

Arrow is full of classic DC Comics characters, and fans have their favorite from every season. Every season has multiple great major players, but one particular person always seems to stand out. This is the case for all 8 seasons of the show.

Some characters are great in multiple seasons, but each character will only be picked as the best for one season. Some characters are the big hero of the seasonal story, some are the big villain, and some just stand out as memorable or important characters. Who were the stars of every season of Arrow?

Season 1: Felicity Smoak

Before Felicity Smoak was Overwatch, Oliver Queen's love interest, or the most skilled hacker in the Arrowverse, she had a desk job. In his early crimefighting days, Oliver would go to Felicity for help with information, or with a bad guy's laptop, or whatever else he couldn't figure out on his own. She also helped him when she found him bleeding in her car in one of her most iconic scenes.

Felicity stole the show in season 1, mostly with her quick wit and her shock at Oliver's next request. She also has hilarious responses. When Australia comes up, Felicity says, "I have this thing about kangaroos. More of a phobia; they wig me out. They look evil, and I'm sure their picture's up on like everything everywhere in that country." Another season 1 highlight quote of hers is, "You look like something the cat dragged in, not that there are cats in this building. Well, once a cat did get in, but a guard tazed it, it smelled like fur and static in here for like a week."

Season 2: Slade Wilson / Deathstroke

Deathstroke is one of the Arrowverse's best villains, and he dominates the show in season 2. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the fans' favorite storylines. Part of what makes him such a big threat is that he knows Oliver's past, he blames Oliver for Shado's death, and he's able to get close to Oliver's family. He's also quite a physical match for Oliver.

Slade knows how to knock Oliver down, and not just in a fight. In one of his best season 2 quotes, he says, "You told everyone when you started this crusade it was about making up for your father's sins. That was a lie. This charade is to atone for your sins... Wherever I am, it's time you joined me. They say a coward dies a thousand deaths, but even that wouldn't be enough for you." Slade also strikes a horrible blow to the Queen family when he kills Moira.

Season 3: Ray Palmer

Ray Palmer isn't a main character in season 3, but his time on the show really stands out. As proof, the character was eventually brought to Legends of Tomorrow as a main character on the Waverider. But before he was the Atom or a time-traveler, Ray was a businesses man looking to help Star City.

Ray always had the perfect balance of humor and seriousness. And while he was rich, he wasn't snarky about it. At one point he describes something by saying, "Yeah, it's couture, which I'm pretty sure is French for 'expensive.'" He also cares deeply about the city, notably saying, "Energy is something that should be given freely to the masses."

Season 4: John Diggle

John Diggle is Oliver's right-hand man and most trustworthy ally from the very beginning. He's also one of the show's bravest characters. He carries a weight with him because of the death of his brother, Andy. But in season 4, Diggle finds out that Andy is not only alive, but he's a villain working with H.I.V.E. Diggle stands out throughout the season for having to deal with these revelations and with his brother's betrayal.

When Diggle finds out Andy is alive, he still shows loyalty to Oliver, saying, "My brother needed me. The green one." Diggle eventually has to make a choice when Andy chooses H.I.V.E. over him, and he tells Diggle that he'll come for his wife and daughter. Diggle kills Andy, adding another crushing weight that he has to carry.

Season 5: Adrian Chase / Prometheus

Perhaps the show's best villain, Adrian Chase is the Star City D.A. who is secretly the killer Prometheus. Seeking revenge against Oliver for his father's death, Adrian slowly and carefully plots his revenge, and he ends up threatening literally everyone Oliver cares about. The episode where Oliver and his team try to defeat Adrian, only for Adrian to blow up the island where Oliver's friends and family are, is the highest-rated episode of Arrow on IMDb.

Adrian gets down to the core of who Oliver is, exposing that he's not as innocent or noble of a person after all. After capturing and torturing Oliver, Adrian asks him, "You've told yourself you kill because you have to. Confess, Oliver. You don't kill because you have to. So why? Why do you do it?" Oliver confesses, "I wanted to! And I liked it!"

Season 6: Quentin Lance

Quentin Lance is one of the rocks of the show. He's a character many people turn to for guidance. He also has an excellent arc, going from an angry man who holds a grudge against Oliver and hates the Green Arrow to a father figure who stands by Oliver in any situation.

Quentin is sadly killed in season 6. Before then, he shows incredible care for Black Siren, even though she's a doppelganger from another Earth and not his actual daughter Laurel. His relationship with Oliver has grown by then too. When he and Oliver tell each other they're both good fathers, Oliver says, "I had a good example." Quentin says, "Yeah, your dad was a good man." Oliver responds, "I'm not talking about my dad."

Season 7: Laurel Lance / Black Siren

After the death of Laurel in season 4, it seemed the character's time on the show was done. And although it was an unpopular opinion, some fans felt that killing her off was meant to minimize Laurel. But then the Earth-2 version of Laurel, Black Siren, came to Earth-1. There's a lot of growth for Black Siren in season 7. She joins Team Arrow, she takes over Earth-1 Laurel's job as District Attorney, and she finds redemption from her past as a villain.

The show also starts having its flash-forwards, complete with Siren being one of the heroic Canaries of the future. She also decides to return to Earth-2, saying, "Someone told me that if I wanted to be one of the good guys that I needed to right my wrongs, and the only way to do that is to go back to where it all started."

Season 8: Oliver Queen / Green Arrow

Oliver Queen is the hero of Star City throughout the show, but that's never more apparent than season 8. Not only that, but Oliver becomes the hero of the multiverse. Oliver spends season 8 traveling the multiverse to prepare for the coming Crisis, all the while aware that he will die by the end of it.

Because of Oliver's sacrifice, multiple characters are returned to life, including Quentin and Moira. Quentin beautifully eulogizes Oliver by saying, "Oliver Queen wasn't just a hero. He was a good man. He was an honorable person. The fact that he didn't start out that way makes him, in my book, even more honorable. He stands as a reminder to all of us that anyone can change."

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