#lao fei

First season done, seven more to go.

But my overall impressions after rewatching it years later are these:

- Many characters and subplots that I thought will show up in later seasons, appeared in the first one. For example, I expected for Roy Harper to appear in S2 (since he has larger role there, anyway). I also suspected that The Return of Huntress episode will be in S2.

- I’ve noticed some positive things about Laurel Lance, I didn’t notice before. Back when I watched this show for the first time I didn’t like S1!Laurel, because her romantic drama with Oliver and Tommy was distracting from what I really wanted to watch: crime fighting. It was only in S2, when her character grew on me, when she had to face her own demons. But while rewatching S1 this time, I’ve noticed that her law work is an important factor in many episodes - in far more episodes than I originally remembered. Even her love subplot was far less irritable than I expected.

- Malcolm Merlyn was far more manancing, but also far more sympathetic here, than in later seasons. Him being a crusading widower, hellbent on destroying Glades for mugger killing his wife and bystanders letting her die, was a really powerful characterization. Compered to this Malcolm Merlyn, his each subsequent appearance in later seasons deteriorates drastically.

- I also didn’t remember that Royal Flush Gang debuted in Arrow S1. After I’ve seen them last time in The Flash, I thought they debuted as Scarlet Speedster’s villains.

- Finally, the Lian Yu flashbacks are far more confusing than I remember, partly because Lao Fei keeps on betraying Oliver and co., but we know he’s kinda coerced into it

Now, onto the Season 2! I’m especially looking forward to see first apperance of Barry Allen