Arrow
- Thread starter Sterling
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Grimmlokk
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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They don't call Ollie "Green Arrow" so I guess it's not as natural as it could be. Still, Arrow and Red Arrow would work.
It was the episode with the boxer/ex vigilante. His old sidekick told Roy he was nothing more than an arsenal for Oliver.
Am I the only one who thinks the actor playing Roy Harper looks stupid with his gear on? Guy is skinny as all shit and does not look imposing at all
Qhue
Tranny Chaser
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Well he's a 5'9" former A&F model... they aren't really known for looking too tough. That's kinda why the mirakuru thing worked for him for a time since it gave him a superpowered edge. Now that he's clean he's really having to work to keep up which is only gonna get harder with more and more metahumans. Maybe he relapses and goes for more mirakuru which is how they handle Speedy's heroin storyline from the 60s
ohkcrlho
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Yeah this. There was an episode this season when he did some parkour shit over a car and still was defeated lol
Sabbat
Trakanon Raider
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In all the episodes I've seen, Arrow uses Eskrima/Arnis (Fillipino stick fighting) the most, he also uses Wing Chun dummy for most of his open hand to hand combat training. As lame as this will sound, I've studied JKD, Arnis, and Wing Chun for a few years, by no means an expert -- and they all flow very naturally together. The complexities of footwork from JKD, the Trapping and upper body movement from Wing Chun (which is JKD's roots) and the footwork and striking patterns from Arnis make for a formidable groundwork for a fighting system. Throw in a little BJJ and you've got yourself the Arrow.
While Arnis starts with Rattan stick/s, it directly translates to bladed weapons as well, as long knives are very commonly used. It then transitions to open hand fighting. An Arnis practitioner is just a dangerous without a stick as with a stick.
This is the reason why Oliver chose the shorter of the swords available and most importantly "paired" swords. Butterfly swords (which these are not) are very commonly used in Eskrima because the style focuses on attacking the hands of the opponent and Butterfly swords are short, wide bladed for parrying and have very heavy guards to protect the hands.
There's no debate that it appeared that Oliver phoned in that fight, he seemed totally unlike his normal economic, thoughtful and precise self. I believe this was deliberate on behalf of the directors (and I think poorly thought out) to club home the message that Oliver is *vastly* out skilled by Ra's.
But... saying that Oliver is terrible with swords is just wrong.
Hoss
Make America's Team Great Again
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Oliver probably would have done better with a staff. When he melees with his bow, he used it like that anyway. But yeah, he should have been competent with the short swords. I thought he looked intimidated more than phoning it in. Also, other than when he's shooting arrows at people, he doesn't really attack people. He's more of a counter-attacker. I think that's why the fight scene seemed so wrong from the beginning.
Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
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It was lots of charging and flailing, which no matter the situation, is out of character for Oliver. He's competent enough (and even with swords or sword-like instruments) that he should not have been doing that. Also, am I dreaming this, or did he not train with Slade with a sword at some point on the island, early on?
Master assassin or no, i just don't think anyone thats half competent with weapons ( especially bladed ) could lose to some one that had none. Its just silly that oliver manages to best Mirakuru soldiers, can out play the flash, and beats other "master" assassins on the reg. gets utterly curb stomped by an unarmed one.
Weapons are just way too much of a force multiplier.
Weapons are just way too much of a force multiplier.
Sabbat
Trakanon Raider
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You really have to keep two things in mind, firstly, that having a weapon, no matter how skilled with said weapon is NOT an auto-win verses someone without a weapon -- this is fact (when referring to weapons, I'm talking about melee shit only here). Secondly, Ra's isn't just a dude without a weapon, he's arguably the worlds most skilled and experienced fighter.
Oliver has 8 years training and experience vs. about 400 years if we're using that version of Ra's, which I'm pretty certain they are.. because of the need to be shirtless when fighting the duel. I don't believe it was just an excuse to get Oliver out of his clothes for the women. It was to show that Oliver has dozens of scars in 8 years, and Ra's has none. Why doesn't Ra's have scars? That'll be the Lazarus Pit in action.
The only advantage a sword gives over open hand combat is reach.
Void
BAU BAU
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You don't think that if you had (potentially) several lifetimes to practice, and actually did practice in life or death combat every single day instead of just fucking around, you couldn't get that good? I realize that Ra's probably has other duties, but it sure looks like one of them includes periodically slaughtering handfuls of deadly assassins all at once. Let's not forget the "I've killed thousands of men" thing. Oliver has only been training for a maximum of what, 6-7 years depending upon how long he has been back from the island? And a lot of that was on-the-fly training so to speak. Much of it with a bow and arrow no less, and not even close to every day. That's literally 1/10th the time since Ra's' last duel, let alone however long he trained before that.
For Oliver to have been anything but completely outclassed in that fight (weapons or not) would have been completely unbelievable given both characters as presented on the show. Of course, as previously mentioned, if the writers want a different outcome it is going to happen, so I'm sure one day we'll see Oliver defeat him if they go that path, but it is going to take a lot to convince me that he deserves to.