Fanfic / Blackbird (Arrow)

Blackbird is a series of Arrowverse fan fics by Ray_Writes. It explores an Alternate Universe where it was Sara who went on the yacht with Oliver, and yet it's Laurel who ends up with the League of Assassins.

Part 1 is now complete, and has been cross-posted onto FFN.

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Tropes:

A-G

• Abusive Parents:
  • Dinah is emotionally abusive to Laurel, though Laurel doesn't really realize it until Dinah sells her out to the League to get Sara back.
  • When drunk at least, Quentin is verbally and emotionally abusive to Laurel as well, and (just like Dinah) blames her for what happened to Sara. The fact that he was too busy drinking and wallowing in self-pity to notice that Laurel was missing for three years doesn't speak well of him either, even if he does feel guilt over it.
  • Both of them are this to Sara as well, though of the neglectful variety. When Quentin and Dinah weren't spoiling her rotten and letting her get away with murder, they were ignoring her and failing to give her any sufficient moral support. Tellingly, Sara has been slowly wasting away over the last three years and neither of them have noticed and/or attempted to remedy the situation. When you look at it objectively, Sara is as much of a victim of their bad parenting as Laurel was, just in a less obvious and seemingly more palatable fashion.
    • To Quentin's credit, this is mostly because Dinah has been deliberately monopolizing Sara and keeping her away, and Sara herself is avoiding Quentin because of the guilt of what happened to Laurel. Once Laurel comes back, Sara all but begs Quentin to let her move in with him, calling life with Dinah 'stifling'.
    • In a way, Dinah forcing the decision of whether or not to give up Laurel to the League was another act of abuse towards Sara as much as Laurel. She put an impossible choice on her younger daughter in order to justify the choice she had already made on her own and assuage her own conscience, leaving Sara to deal with the guilt of what happened. It's no wonder Sara decides to move back in with Quentin the first chance she gets.
  • Ra's is also harsh and dismissive to Nyssa, and even threatens to punish her just for speaking out of turn one too many times.
• Accomplice by Inaction: This is Sara's real crime against Laurel. Dinah is the one who made the deal with Ra's, while Sara stood by and let it happen. Also deconstructed in the sense that Sara was in no mental condition to act anyway; she had just gotten out of a severe traumatic experience at the time and was in psychological shock during these events, so in some ways Dinah forced the decision on her almost as much as she did Laurel. In the end, however, it doesn't completely excuse her, and Sara knows it, which is why she's been punishing herself for the last three years.
• Acquitted Too Late: Peter Declan is executed before Oliver can prove that he was framed.
• Act of True Love:
  • Brutally subverted with Dinah and Sara. Dinah tries to portray her decision to trade Laurel for Sara as this, but it's blatantly obvious to everyone that she really did it to absolve herself of the guilt of letting Sara go on the Gambit, and that she doesn't care about Sara at all.
  • After learning the truth about Laurel's disappearance, Oliver risks his life to rescue her from the League of Assassins, including willingly entering a Duel to the Death with the vastly more trained and skilled Ra's al Ghul. This nearly kills him, but seeing a struggling Laurel trying to interfere with the duel to help him and knowing she will die with him if he doesn't win gives Oliver the Heroic Second Wind he needs to kill Ra's and ensure Laurel's freedom.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • On top of what she went through in canon (Oliver and Sara's infidelity and "deaths", her mother abandoning her, and her father's shoddy treatment of her), being handed over to the League by her own mother has left Laurel in a much worse state than her show counterpart.
  • Sara as well, who is still traumatized by the Amazo and has been eaten alive by the guilt of what happened to Laurel for years, going from a hardened killer with immense self-loathing to a suicidal, guilt-ridden wreck.
• Adaptational Badass/Adaptational Wimp: Like in all stories where it's Laurel who joins the League, Laurel is the one with the badass assassin skills while Sara is an Action Survivor in comparison.
• Adaptational Context Change: Oliver still makes Malcolm Ra's al Ghul, but the circumstances leading up to that decision are entirely different. Instead of it being a deal he made with Malcolm in order to get his help with defeating Ra's and stopping the League from destroying Starling, here it's because Malcolm blackmails him by holding Walter's life hostage. Therefore, instead of Oliver holding the Idiot Ball by making such a short-sighted choice in order to uphold the deal he made, here it's clear the situation is one where there is no choice but to give Malcolm what he wants, so nobody holds it against him for giving in. In addition, as this all happens before the characters find out about the Undertaking, no one present at the time is aware of how dangerous it is to give Malcolm that kind of power, only finding out after they return home and explain the situation to Moira and Walter.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Sara appears in the equivalent of Season 1, starting at the Queens' Christmas Party, thanks to the nail ensuring she never joined the League.
• Adaptation Expansion: The story highlights and expands the toxic family dynamics of the Lances, including Quentin and Dinah's excessive Parental Favoritism of Sara. Needless to say, it does not paint either of the girls' parents in a favorable light, and there are some implications that both Laurel and Sara would've been better off without their parents in their lives.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Unlike in canon, Laurel does not make an in-person appearance in the present storyline until midway through the equivalent of Season 1 due to being stuck in the League. Up until that point, she's only present in the flashbacks.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • Many of the difficulties and misunderstandings in Oliver and Laurel's relationship during the first two seasons are averted due to Oliver effectively redeeming himself in Laurel's eyes when he saves her from the League, something that nearly kills him in the process. This, combined with Oliver apologizing for his previous treatment of her and Laurel being made immediately aware of his identity as the Hood after she returns home, means they've returned to being close friends, with many of their loved ones believing that a renewal of their romantic relationship is inevitable. Tellingly, Laurel has a better relationship with Oliver than she does with her own family, which both highlights Oliver's improved character and her family's toxic dynamics, while Oliver himself is in a better position to understand her troubles and recognize that Laurel does not owe her family anything after all the years of poor treatment they put her through.
  • Because Laurel is missing when he returns home, Oliver is not open to the idea of another romantic relationship during the first half of the season and thus never dates Helena. The narrative explicitly notes he tries to be there for her as a friend, not as a lover/boyfriend.
  • Just like in canon, Tommy doesn't take it well when he learns Oliver is the Hood and subtly tries to shame his best friend for killing Ra's al Ghul. Unlike in canon, he immediately stops after he learns what kind of person Ra's was, and why Oliver killed him, allowing their friendship to repair itself almost immediately to the point that there's no real break in it in the first place. Tommy does call out Oliver for lying to him, but accepts it for what it is and they remain on relatively good terms.
  • Oliver and Sara's friendship becomes strained after Oliver learns the truth about what happened to Laurel. While he still cares about Sara, he cannot find it in himself to forgive her for her part in what happened. As a result of that, their relationship loses its romantic potential as well, and when Laurel is saved, he makes no attempt to convince her to reconcile with Sara like he did in canon. Most notably, while Oliver still acknowledges and accepts the blame for betraying Laurel, he stops taking responsibility for Sara being on the Gambit, suggesting that he is no longer interested in taking the blame for her choices.
  • Laurel's disappearance also prevents her and Tommy from becoming a couple, since she disappeared shortly before he was going to make his first attempt to ask her out. By the time they reunite, Laurel has been so thoroughly transformed by her Trauma Conga Line that Tommy is forced to acknowledge he can't be what she needs in a partner, and gracefully steps aside in favor of Oliver.
  • Laurel and Sara's relationship is much more damaged than it initially was in the show, as what happened to Laurel makes it impossible for Sara to ignore or try to wave off her betrayal, leaving her even more horrifically guilt-ridden than in canon. Meanwhile, while Laurel does still care for Sara and doesn't go out of her way to deliberately hurt her sister in retaliation for her betrayal, she also no longer feels any obligation to reconcile with Sara nor take responsibility for her. In addition, nobody tries to convince Laurel to reconcile with Sara, as it's openly acknowledged she owes nothing to her sister after everything Sara inadvertently put her through.
• Adapted Out: Felicity Smoak. Since the last events of the fic occur only shortly after Walter is kidnapped and before Oliver confronts his mother as the Hood, Oliver is never put into a position to reveal his identity to her. It's not even clear if he's even met her, in fact, as she's not mentioned once throughout the story.
• Alcoholic Parent: Quentin's alcoholism at the beginning of the story is even worse than it was in canon because Laurel isn't present to be a mitigating influence. This means that Dinah didn't just destroy Laurel and Sara, she destroyed Quentin too. It's only after learning about Laurel's disappearance that he starts controlling it better.
• All for Nothing: Part of Dinah's rationalization for trading Laurel for Sara is because she refused to lose Sara again after going so far to find her in the first place, trying to justify it by claiming that she already lost Laurel when she allowed Sara to go on the Gambit. Instead, all that decision does is cause her to lose Sara anyway, as being forced to go along with the trade drove her younger daughter over the Despair Event Horizon and left her completely unable to recover from her trauma until Laurel is finally rescued from the League. Once that happens, Sara ditches Dinah for Quentin without a second thought, calling life with her mother "stifling". In the end, instead of saving one daughter, Dinah ends up losing both, and only has herself to blame.
• Always Save the Girl:
  • The moment Oliver learns about what happened to Laurel, he devotes all his energy into finding a way to free her.
  • Laurel herself pulls off all the stops trying to save Oliver from his duel with Ra's, even silently urging him to run with her hand on her sword, implying that she would cover his escape. Later, when it appears that Ra's has killed him, she tries to intervene even though it will mean her death as well, and has to be restrained by her fellow assassins.
  • This is why Sara and Dinah never told Quentin about the deal. He would've gone to save Laurel himself, failed, and gotten everyone killed.
• And Then What?: While Laurel dreamed of freedom from the League constantly, once she has it, she's forced to acknowledge she never sincerely considered what she'd do with that freedom, as it's impossible for her to return to the life she previously had with how much she and everyone else around her has changed.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After Laurel is rescued from the League, she makes it clear she doesn't want to return to Starling. A panicked Sara insists she has to come back to at least reassure their father (who has been going nuts trying to find Laurel after realizing she was kidnapped), prompting one of these from Diggle. His question forces Sara to acknowledge that after the events of the last five years, there's basically nothing any of them have to offer Laurel to make her stay.
  Diggle: Well you can't force her to come with you, or how does that make you better than what she just left?
• Assumed Win: This is what costs Ra's his duel against Oliver. He disarms Oliver and runs him through, fatally wounding him, but doesn't bother to finish him off. That gives Oliver enough time to power through the pain with a brief Heroic Second Wind, grab Ra's from behind and snap his neck.
• The Atoner:
  • Oliver, naturally, after he finds out what really happened to Laurel. He puts himself through Training from Hell just to get her back from the League.
  • Sara has never forgiven herself for allowing her mother to trade Laurel for her. To the point that she outright expects her sister to kill her when they finally see each other again.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • Despite everything that's happened between them, Oliver and Laurel still love each other. Oliver trains his ass off so he can save Laurel from the League, and Laurel loses all control of herself and has to be restrained when it seems like he's about to be killed by Ra's al Ghul during their duel for her freedom.
  • Thea has been caustic with Oliver ever since he returned home, mostly due to being a Bratty Teenage Daughter and misconstruing a lot of his actions to be something more deplorable than they actually are. However, when she learns that he's about to enter a Duel to the Death with the world's greatest assassin, she's genuinely worried, and when she actually sees him dying after said duel, she's driven to tears. Notably, after Oliver is saved by the Pit, Thea refuses to leave his side at all until she's forced to.
  • Even though Laurel and Sara's relationship may very well be broken beyond repair, Sara nonetheless does everything she can to finally get Laurel away from the League, while Laurel is genuinely horrified to see how much her sister has fallen apart over the last few years, and sincerely hopes she recovers.
• Awful Truth:
  • Quentin Lance has been spitting abuse about his daughter Laurel for the past five years, first to her face and then to her sister over the phone after it seems like she abandoned him. Then her ex-boyfriend Oliver is rescued and voices his doubts about Laurel's "departure" to him. Quentin initially dismisses his concerns, but the thought doesn't leave his mind, so he does some investigating himself with his old partner. A few hours later, it becomes clear to him that the daughter he's been verbally abusing didn't abandon him, but was actually kidnapped and has been missing for the past three years.
  • What really happened to Laurel is this to Oliver, and later to Thea, Tommy, and Moira. It's so bad that no one, not even Laurel herself, has any plans to tell the full truth to Quentin after she's freed, because they know that the guilt will kill him.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the flashbacks, all Sara wants is to go home. She gets the chance... after her mother decides to trade Sara's innocent older sister to the League in place of her. To say Sara regrets this decision would be a vast understatement.
• Berserk Button: Sara is one for Laurel. Unlike Oliver, Laurel isn't happy to see her again at all and it's clear the only thing stopping her from lashing out is a combination of her training and the current situation they're in.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Like many of Ray_Writes' stories, the Lances. It's telling that the people who ultimately came through for Laurel in the end were the ex-boyfriend who cheated on her with her sister (even if he has changed significantly since they last saw each other) and the aforementioned sister instead of her parents, who either failed to realize she had been kidnapped for three years because they were too busy wallowing in alcoholic self-pity (Quentin) or arranged the kidnapping to save her other daughter in order to assuage her own guilt (Dinah). In the end, despite the parents' desperate attempts to blame the family's issues on Oliver and his relationship with Laurel, all the relationship actually did was just expose and magnify the problems that were already there.
• Big Sister Instinct:
  • Very darkly invoked. Dinah justifies trading Laurel for Sara under the "rationale" that as Sara's big sister, Laurel knows it is her responsibility to protect Sara.
  • In the end, Laurel recognizes that Sara has been wasting away, finds it hard to hate her sister when she sees the toll it took on her, and sincerely wants Sara to get better, even if she can't help with it.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Oliver and Laurel. Thea notes that Oliver is probably the only person who can really understand what Laurel's gone through, and the last chapter shows that in full, with him being the only person Laurel is comfortable with when talking about the skills she learned from the League. This is one of the reasons why their loved ones support them getting back together despite their previous messy history — if they aren't going to open up to anyone else, at least they'll be able to open up to each other.
  • On the plane ride back from Nanda Parbat, Diggle is initially the only one who can approach and talk to Laurel. The fact that he's a stranger, and as such can't compare her to who she used to be, certainly helps; but his status as a retired soldier allows for some similarities. Also, they are the only ones to speak Arabic, allowing a private conversation.
• Bittersweet Ending: The end of the first story. Oliver succeeds in rescuing Laurel from the League of Assassins and frees Walter from his captivity as well, fully redeeming himself for his past mistakes. All of his friends and family know he's the Hood and accept him, and he's fully reconciled with Laurel, who has become his friend again, with the potential of becoming more in the future. However, Laurel is still heavily traumatized by her time in the League and at a loss what to do with herself now that she's finally free, and her relationships with Nyssa, Quentin and Sara are still strained. Meanwhile, Sara has ditched Dinah and moved back in with Quentin to begin finally recovering from her trauma, Quentin himself is still completely unaware of the truth of Laurel's disappearance, and more ominously, Malcolm has become Ra's al Ghul, with his own grand plans for the world waiting in the wings.
• Blackmail: Malcolm uses Walter's safety to force Oliver into making him his successor as Ra's al Ghul.
• Blaming the Victim: Dinah tries to justify her decision to trade Laurel for Sara by blaming Laurel for bringing Oliver into their lives. Her reasoning is that if Laurel hadn't befriended and later dated him, he wouldn't have tried to blow up their relationship by taking Sara on the Gambit with him and Sara would have never gotten on it. It's such a bad case of Insane Troll Logic that even the traumatized Sara immediately tries to refute it, and the only reason she doesn't succeed is because Dinah talks over her and tries to bully her into accepting the latter's decision. Naturally, nobody else accepts that line of thinking either and the entire situation just serves to make Dinah a bigger Hate Sink.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: After her first kill, Laurel is deeply rattled but manages to stay composed, if for no other reason than it was self-defense. It's after her first actual assassination that she completely breaks down and vomits up everything in her stomach. Nyssa reassures her that it's a common reaction.
• Both Sides Have a Point: After learning about the deal, Tommy and Thea are clearly unhappy with Sara. While Sara tries to rationalize their rightful anger as wrong, she is correct about one thing — they're in no real position to judge, seeing as they have never experienced the level of trauma everyone else on the plane has. As Sara puts it, Tommy and Thea are still the "spoiled children" Oliver and her were before the Gambit, and have never had to make the kinds of hard choices they've had to make for the past five years. The reality is Sara was put into an impossible situation, was barely in any state to think rationally about it, and pressured into making that choice by her own mother. While she is at fault, she's also as much of a victim of what happened as Laurel is.
• Broken Bird:
  • Laurel. By the time Oliver finds her again, she's close to shattering completely.
  • Sara as well. She's been living a half-life ever since her mother sold out her sister to a den of murderers for her freedom, and it's unclear how much longer she could've gone on like that. Sara even states that if Laurel decides to kill her when they see each other again, then she's fine with that.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Oliver's opinion of Sara takes a massive hit when he learns about what happened to Laurel. While it's clear he still cares about her and recognizes Laurel's fate isn't completely her fault, that doesn't stop him from being angry and disappointed in her, and the entire situation kills whatever romantic potential they once had.
  • Laurel's own opinion of Sara is, if even possible, worse than it was in Season Two of canon. Like Oliver, while she still loves Sara, she cannot find it in herself to forgive her for the part she played in Laurel's own trauma, and does not like to be around her sister for long periods of time.
  • Whatever positive opinion the characters might've had for Dinah dies when they learn of what she did to Laurel and Sara. Laurel herself hates Dinah and has disowned her by the end of the first story, while Sara only has a marginally better opinion of their mother that's mainly driven by her own guilt more than anything else. And even then, that doesn't stop her from leaving Dinah's care almost as soon as Laurel is saved and returned to Starling.
• Central Theme:
  • Betrayal. Namely, to what extent can betrayal be forgiven? Laurel is faced with three different betrayals in the first story, and to each one she reacts differently. She decides to forgive Oliver's betrayal, because it's relatively minor, he's genuinely remorseful for it, and he made up for it a thousand times over by fighting Ra's al Ghul to free her, something that nearly killed him. She is on the fence about Sara's betrayal, because Sara has yet to sincerely apologize for it and her betrayal was so much worse, regardless of her obvious guilt. And she refuses to forgive Dinah's betrayal, because it was the worst one of them all, and Dinah has yet to show an inch of regret for any of it.
  • Fault. To be exact, to what extent can you blame someone else for your actions? The most sympathetic characters in the story, Oliver, Laurel, and Sara, are all characters who are willing to take responsibility for their choices — arguably, too much responsibility. Oliver tries to take the blame for Laurel's time in the League, even though he literally had nothing to do with that sequence of events beyond inviting Sara to go with him on the Gambit; Laurel feels massive guilt for all the assassinations she had to conduct for the League, despite the fact that she was forced to do all those things under the threat of death for all her loved ones and millions of innocent people; and Sara is determined to blame herself for everything, ignoring how much her mother enabled and manipulated her. Meanwhile, the least sympathetic characters in the story, Quentin and Dinah, are people who do everything to ignore their culpability in the situation. Quentin downplays his poor treatment of Laurel after the Gambit, which caused him to completely miss the fact she had been kidnapped for three years, and Dinah flat out refuses to take any responsibility at all, trying to use Oliver and Laurel as scapegoats for her terrible parenting. Notably, it's only when Quentin begins taking responsibility for his treatment of Laurel that he becomes a more sympathetic character, to the point that everyone decides to keep him Locked Out of the Loop for fear of his possible reaction to the truth.
• Character Tics: Oliver is pleased to see that Laurel still has a stubborn line to her shoulders when she warns someone not to argue with her, and sees it as proof that part of the old her still exists.
• Cool Big Sis: Despite not being related, Laurel was this to Thea. Thea remembers that Laurel would tell Tommy and Oliver off when they complained about Thea following them all around, got Oliver to help Thea with her homework some evenings even when it was his and Laurel's date night, and even answered all of her questions about periods when her mom had been too caught up in grieving. It's what motivates Thea to talk to Laurel on the trip home, and reassure her that even if Laurel is (or was) an assassin, she'd never hurt Thea.
• Cult: More than one person refers to the League as a cult of murderers.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Keeping the truth about what happened to Laurel from Quentin is this, unquestionably. Everyone acknowledges that he deserves the truth, more than anyone else, but also that the guilt of the entire situation (unknowingly letting Laurel be kidnapped by the League, being oblivious to his ex-wife and other daughter's roles in what happened, unfairly disparaging Laurel for 'leaving him', etc.) might very well kill him. So they decide to keep it a secret from him instead, even though it strains his relationship with Laurel.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Ra's utterly destroys Oliver in their fight, and it only ends in a Mutual Kill because Ra's got cocky and dismissed the fight as over before it actually was, giving Oliver the opportunity to blindside him and break his neck.
• Daddy Didn't Show: Quentin promised Laurel he'd attend the mock trial she was in. She found him drunk in a bar after it was over.
• Dark Secret: What happened to Laurel is this for Dinah and Sara for the first three years after Sara returns home. Dinah has to constantly remind Sara not to tell anyone (especially Quentin) about what happened. Sara only acquiesces because she has no way to get Laurel back, and because the consequences of spreading the word could mean the death of both her family and all of Starling City. The very moment she does have a way, however, she doesn't hesitate to spill the beans in hopes of saving her sister.
• Death Seeker:
  • All the crimes Laurel was forced to commit under the League's banner have gradually ruined her over the course of her three years with them. If she wasn't one by the time Oliver found her, she was close to it.
  • Sara; she hates herself even more than Laurel does, even wishing that she had died on the Gambit. It's plainly clear that her desire to save Laurel stems from that death wish, as Sara knows that Laurel has every reason in the world to kill her when they finally see each other again, and by that point, would be perfectly capable and even willing to do it.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of Mama Bear, and overprotective parents in general. Dinah has an almost obsessive desire to protect Sara from everything that might negatively affect her life, including any potential consequences her daughter might face for her actions. However, this desire doesn't spring from any genuine love for Sara but rather because she sees herself in her younger daughter. That leads her to make poor parenting choices such as letting Sara run off to sleep with her sister Laurel's boyfriend just because she's convinced she's in love (rather than telling her the truth, namely that Oliver was just using her), to taking drastic measures to protect her daughter that Sara wouldn't agree with or would cause her emotional distress, such as trading Laurel to the League in exchange for her sister's freedom. The end result sees Sara so damaged by her mother's actions that she's unable to make any step toward a recovery from her trauma for several years. In the end, it's clear she would've been much better off had Dinah been less protective and hadn't tried to shield her from everything.
• Deconstruction Fic:
  • The story deconstructs the show's favoritism towards Sara, including the tendency to gloss over her betrayal of Laurel by choosing to go on the Gambit with Oliver, and pin the blame for what happened on Oliver and, to some extent, Laurel. While yes, what happened to Sara was horrible and by no means any way deserved, it doesn't absolve her of the guilt of her choices, and pinning the blame on others is ultimately wrong. In this story, such favoritism leads to Dinah (who was the one that let Sara go in the first place) using Sara's trauma to justify trading Laurel to the League of Assassins in exchange for her younger daughter's freedom and convincing Sara to go along with it. Instead, this act effectively dissolves whatever sympathy anyone outside of Dinah might have for Sara's situation, as Laurel did absolutely nothing to deserve such a cruel fate and had been mourning Sara as much as the rest of her sister's friends and family. Oliver, Tommy, Thea, Moira, and Walter are all appalled with Sara and Dinah when they find out, while Sara herself is now a guilt-ridden wreck with Death Seeker tendencies. It's telling that after this, Oliver effectively stops blaming himself for Sara's presence on the Gambit (even if he still takes the blame for betraying Laurel), suggesting that the entire situation has forced him to finally acknowledge Sara's fault in the whole affair.
  • It also deconstructs the idea that Oliver "destroyed" the Lance family by "seducing" Sara. In addition to the above point of Sara choosing to go with Oliver on her own, the events of the story show that the Lance family had several preexisting problems even before the Gambit, and what happened to Sara just blew it all out in the open and made those problems worse, eventually culminating in Laurel's horrific forced induction into the League. All of this suggests that even without the Gambit sinking, some other tragedy would've eventually caused the Lances to fall apart as a family. Ultimately, Oliver's role in what happened is so minor that both Sara and Laurel herself refuse put any of the blame on him, rightfully blaming either themselves (in the case of the former) or Dinah (in the case of the latter) instead.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Laurel crossed it after Dinah traded her for Sara. It only got worse after she made her first kill, and by the time Malcolm sees her again, he notes that she wouldn't have lasted much longer before becoming an outright Death Seeker. The final nail in the coffin seemed to be when she learned of Ra's immortality, and that Nyssa's promise to release her when she becomes the Demon's Head is a dream.
  • Sara crossed it at the same time as Laurel, and it's strongly implied that not only does she expect Laurel to kill her when they see each other again, she wants her to.
  • It's theorized that Quentin will cross this if he ever finds out the truth about Laurel's disappearance. That's why everyone determines keeping him Locked Out of the Loop is the best course of action.
• Determinator:
  • Dinah Lance refuses to accept that Sara is dead, and actually manages to track her down to Nanda Parbat, where the League of Assassins is headquartered. What comes next is the more horrifying aspects of such determination.
  • Once he learns the truth, Oliver will stop at nothing to find Laurel and set her free.
• Didn't See That Coming: Oliver is struck by three of these right off the bat: Laurel is gone, Sara is alive and made it home (even if she's not in Starling City), and the Lances got divorced. Laurel's absence in particular throws him, as trying to get back to her was what kept him going the five years he was missing.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Dinah's decision, which Oliver lampshades. In her desperation to save Sara, she made the rash choice to trade Laurel, knowing she would lose one daughter in exchange for the other. Dinah failed to account for how Sara herself would feel about the trade; once she finally got out of shock, Sara crossed the Despair Event Horizon all over again and has been a shadow of herself ever since. Essentially, in trying to save one daughter, Dinah destroyed both of them.
  • Laurel notes that Oliver didn't really think through the unintended consequences of the method he used to free her from the League, though to his credit that was partly because it was the only option offered by Ra's that would allow them both to leave Nanda Parbat alive with minimal bloodshed.
  • While it's justified by how desperate she is, Sara put relatively little thought into how was she going to free Laurel, figuring that Oliver alone would be enough since he could fight. She doesn't factor in how Oliver being able to fight does not necessarily mean he is a better fighter than whoever he might need to kill in order to free Laurel, or how Ra's will react to another person trying to free her sister. The end result is that Ra's grows tired of the matter entirely and decides that if Oliver loses their duel, both he and Laurel will die. The duel itself sees Oliver barely win, mostly by dumb luck, and even then he would've died not long after his victory had it not been for the Lazarus Pit.
• Disowned Parent: Laurel disowns Dinah as her mother after she trades Laurel to the League for Sara's freedom. It's implied the only reason Sara hasn't done the same is her massive Guilt Complex in regards to the situation. That, and because she had to live with Dinah since she couldn't bring herself to tell Quentin the truth about what happened to Laurel.
• Duel to the Death:
  • The final step to officially joining the League is to have one of these with a fellow recruit. This was where Laurel made her first kill, and she was only able to deal with it because it could easily be argued that it was self-defense.
  • Oliver and Ra's have one to determine Laurel's fate. It ends in a Mutual Kill, though Oliver is saved by the Lazarus Pit before he can actually die.
• Dysfunction Junction: Everyone. It's telling that the most sympathetic characters after Laurel are Oliver, her cheating ex-boyfriend, and Sara, the sister he cheated her on with. That's how screwed up everyone else involved is, and they don't even have the same level of trauma as the former three to excuse it!
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted. After Laurel is freed, it's clear she hasn't forgiven any of the people that have wronged her so much as that her training and self-hatred are preventing her from mustering up the energy to get angry at them. If she has forgiven anyone, it's Oliver, and even then that's because he's probably the only one who has genuinely earned it.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Thea hitches a ride on Oliver's plane trip to the Himalayas and sees Sara there with him, she initially believes they're trying to hook up again. At this point, the last person Oliver wants to be in a relationship with is Sara.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Nyssa finds the manner in which Laurel "joined" the League, and the threat against her city to keep her in line, utterly repulsive. So much so that she even promised Laurel that she would release her from her vow the moment she became Ra's. Unfortunately, the present time shows that there was no way Laurel would've been able to last that long. Nyssa's refusal to start a relationship with Laurel, despite indications of feelings on both sides, may also count.
  • Sara, to her credit, is well aware of how horrible this "trade" is, tried to talk her mother out of it^note But by her own admission, she went along with it at the time because she just wanted to go home., and has been wracked with guilt ever since.
  • Moira and Walter are also both horrified once they learn about the deal. For Moira in particular it hits close to home, considering that she is a mother herself, and the very idea of what Dinah did is unthinkable to her.
  • As angry as Laurel is at Sara, even she can't help but be worried when she sees how much her sister has been neglecting herself over the years. While Laurel understandably can't be the person to help Sara, she sincerely hopes that someone else will try.
  • Everyone is left in Stunned Silence after Moira reveals that Malcolm intended to destroy the Glades and kill all its residents.
• Flashback: Much like the actual show, every chapter can be divided in halves. One half shows Oliver and his search for Laurel, and eventually his attempt to get her back, and the other half shows Laurel's time with the League, including how she ended up there in the first place.
• Foil:
  • Oliver and Sara to Quentin and Dinah. Quentin was too stuck on himself and his alcohol to realize his eldest daughter had been kidnapped for years, while Oliver managed to figure out what happened to Laurel as soon as he got home and found out she was gone, and then trained his ass off to rescue her. Dinah traded Laurel to the League to save Sara and felt little to no guilt about it due to her Insane Troll Logic rationalizations, while Sara recognized how horrible the "trade" was, regretted it immediately and all but destroyed herself in her remorse, before throwing her lot in with the first person she knew who had the will and means to save her sister years later. In the end, the two people who betrayed Laurel are the ones to prove their love for her and come through for her, while the parents that were supposed to comfort and protect her failed to do so in every way imaginable.
  • Moira to Dinah: Moira would do anything to keep her both of children safe, whereas Dinah will only do anything for one of her children. Tellingly, when Moira learns of the exchange, she is absolutely horrified, and as a mother can barely stand to think of it. In addition, Moira's poor parenting and neglect of Thea is mainly due to the stress having to deal with Malcolm and the Undertaking, and even then she still makes an effort to be there for Thea when possible. Dinah's poor parenting of Sara is because she doesn't really care about Sara as a person so much as a Trophy Child to prove that she's a "good" mother, which is why Sara has no issues ditching her for Quentin at the end of the story.
  • Laurel to Malcolm. Both were members of the League of Assassins for years before being released. Laurel was slowly destroyed by years of killing people, Malcolm was not (and probably enjoyed it). Moira even notes that Laurel lacks the "cold menace" Malcolm had when he returned from the League, indicating that she is still a good person whereas he never was.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Laurel's absence has a subtle, but still overt effect on the events of the first season. Oliver is a lot harder than he was in canon, and Quentin wasn't able to hold his job as a detective down (or indeed, stay on the force at all) without her to help moderate his drinking. However, things don't really go off the rails until Oliver realizes that Laurel didn't actually leave Starling willingly. This eventually leads to the death of Ra's al Ghul two seasons earlier than in canon. Oliver replaces him, subsequently releases both Laurel and Nyssa from their vows, and gives control of the League to Malcolm, who in turn lets go of Walter and gives up his plans for the Undertaking.
  • Also, Peter Declan is executed as Oliver does not have a lawyer to help him with his crusade. CNRI is shut down as since Laurel doesn't work there, Oliver, Tommy, and Moira don't care about it enough to hold a fundraiser for it; to them, it's just a random legal aid office. Firefly manages to kill all his targets (and himself) since in canon, Joanna told Laurel about it, who in turn told the Hood.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: A very interesting example. Sara herself makes absolutely no excuses for her actions, openly acknowledging that what happened to her does not absolve her of her guilt of betraying Laurel twice, first when she chose to go on the Gambit to sleep with Oliver, and again when she allowed Dinah to trade Laurel to the League for her freedom. The person actually trying to argue that for her is her mother, because it will absolve her of the blame for her part in the situation, by enabling so much of Sara's selfish behavior in the first place.
• Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: Played for Drama. By the end of the story, Laurel is on good terms with everyone except her family. Thea, Tommy, and Moira are overjoyed at her return, and she's fully reconciled with Oliver, to the point that a renewal of their romantic relationship is no longer out of the question. Meanwhile, she's disowned Dinah for her Parental Betrayal, and has strained relationships with Sara and Quentin, the former for her part in the aforementioned Parental Betrayal, the latter because she refuses to tell him the truth of where she's been for the last three years. Overall, the situation has long-since proven how toxic her family is to her, which is why she is able to get along with everyone but them.
• Friendship Moment: On the plan ride back from Nanda Parbat, Thea is the one who convinces Laurel to come home with them. Oliver later recalls they talked for hours, before Thea fell asleep on Laurel's shoulder.
• Guilt Complex:
  • Oliver blames himself for Laurel's fate. While he does share some of the blame, it's tangential at best, and the ones really at fault are Dinah and, to a lesser extent, Sara. Arguably even Quentin holds more responsibility because he failed to actually keep an eye on Laurel due to his own grief and thus failed to realize she was kidnapped for years until Oliver pointed out how out-of-character her departure was. Even Laurel acknowledges this in the flashback where she finds out he's alive, though part of her is understandably still angry at him. In the present when Oliver tries to blame himself again, she firmly cuts him off, telling him that he shouldn't take responsibility for the wrongs of other people.
  • Sara also blames herself for what happened, even more than Oliver does. The fact that no one except Thea, who she barely saw, bothered to even call her out on her choices just made the complex worse, and led to her deteriorating health. When Oliver meets her again, it doesn't take him long to see what a complete wreck she is.
• Guilt-Induced Nightmare: It's implied Sara has these, stemming from her second betrayal of Laurel. She flat out admits to Oliver she hasn't been able to sleep a full night since she came home, and attributes it to Laurel's fate.

H-Z

• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • Your choices have consequences, no matter how unintended they might be. While she is a victim and the trauma she underwent is entirely unwarranted, that reality is Sara chose to get on the Gambit and betray Laurel, and thus what happened to her is, in part, her own fault. Nobody else can take that from her — not Oliver, for making the offer, and not Laurel, for dating Oliver in the first place. The only person who has any right to share the blame (besides Malcolm Merlyn) is Dinah, for letting Sara go and letting her believe it was a good idea in the first place. This is important because trying to absolve Sara (and herself) of the blame is what Dinah uses to justify trading Laurel to the League of Assassins for Sara's freedom, something that only makes Sara's preexisting Guilt Complex worse and drives her over the Despair Event Horizon, since that makes Laurel's terrible situation another consequence of Sara's actions.
  • Sometimes, there are no good options. While Sara's decision to let Laurel take her place is rightfully portrayed as wrong since her sister was an innocent who had been the victim of her choices once already, it's openly acknowledged by Oliver that Sara was put in an impossible situation (while also not being in a sound state of mind). Either she betrayed Laurel one last time so she could finally go home and live with knowing what she made her sister suffer in her place, or she could stay and endure brutal Training from Hell to become an assassin for the League. There was just no way for Sara to win, and Oliver rightfully blames Dinah for putting her in that position by making exchanging Laurel for Sara an option in the first place.
  • Having a parent who is willing to do anything for you is not always a good thing. One of the driving factors that led to Laurel being traded to the League is the absolutely terrible job her parents did of raising her younger sister Sara, who could do no wrong in their eyes and thus had her self-serving behavior constantly enabled by them. Eventually, this causes Sara to believe it's alright to betray her sister and sleep with said sister's boyfriend because she thinks she herself is 'in love' with him, which led to the Gambit and the Amazo. Then, after Dinah finds Sara with the League, she is so desperate to free her daughter and bring her home that she ends up trading her other daughter to them to make it happen, leaving Sara a guilt-ridden, traumatized mess who is incapable of caring for herself and unable to make any progress towards a recovery for several years. When it comes down to it, Dinah's obsessive need to protect Sara from everything, including any fault and consequences for her actions, is the true cause for why Sara's life has become such a wreck.
• Hate Sink: Dinah Lance. Selling out one daughter to save the other is bad enough, but when you try to rationalize it by victim-blaming the daughter you betrayed for what happened to the other one, you're gonna make everyone with a shred of decency that finds out want you dead.
• Hates Their Parent:
  • Laurel despises Dinah for obvious reasons, and it is very much deserved. By the time Oliver rescues her from the League, she's already disowned Dinah and addresses her mother by her first name in her thoughts.
  • It's implied that Sara also hates Dinah, for not just trading away Laurel but also forcing Sara to go along with it. She just hasn't been able to act on or acknowledge it because she hates herself that much more, and because she had to stay with Dinah since Sara couldn't bear to tell Quentin the truth about what happened to Laurel and therefore couldn't stand to endure his Oblivious Guilt Slinging whenever he drunkenly lambasted her older sister.
• I Have Your Wife:
  • To force Laurel to fully commit to the League, Ra's says he will not just slaughter her family, but also all of Starling City if he finds her unsatisfactory in any way.
  • Malcolm uses Walter's life as leverage to convince Oliver to make him Ra's al Ghul after Oliver is forced to take up the position in the wake of Ra's' death.
• I Have No Mother!: In the last chapter, Laurel implicitly disowns Dinah as her mother. Even in her thoughts, she addresses Dinah by her first name.
• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: On the plane ride back from Nanda Parbat, Diggle takes advantage of the fact that only he and Laurel speak Arabic to have a private conversation with her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Oliver clearly still loves Laurel and wants to be with her again, but understands that she needs time to recover from her stint in the League and is no position to even consider restarting their relationship. So he opts to be a better friend to her instead, feeling that's what she needs most right now.
  • A minor example is Tommy, who also had feelings for Laurel and intended to ask her out after his trip to Hong Kong, before she disappeared. After Laurel is saved and returned to Starling, however, he openly recognizes that he can never understand and empathize with everything she's gone through like Oliver can, and so gives up on his crush on her, instead gently encouraging Oliver get back together with her.
• In Spite of a Nail: Oliver kills Ra's (two years early), and makes Malcolm the head of the League of Assassins.
• Insane Troll Logic: Dinah's poor rationalizations for her decision are an obvious veil to cover up her self-centered motives. How poor? She uses the make-believe games that Laurel and Sara played as kids, where Laurel always played the police officer that shielded Sara, as proof that Laurel is obligated to protect Sara no matter what, and thus deserves to take her place with the League. It's such a weak justification that the only reason Sara wasn't able to speak up against it harder was because of the recent traumatic experience she had just gone through.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In the flashbacks, Laurel learns Oliver survived the Gambit from Maseo, who recognized her from the picture of her Oliver carried around.
  • The second half of the story sees Tommy and Thea learn about Oliver being the Hood and Laurel's true fate. Neither of them take it well, though they are coping for the most part.
  • The last chapter of the story sees Moira and Walter learn the above as well. In turn, everyone else learns about the Undertaking and the truth about the Gambit.
• Irony:
  • Tommy bitterly notes that Oliver's return coincided with The Reveal that Laurel was kidnapped and has been missing for the past three years, meaning he gets to rejoice in the return of one best friend only to begin mourning the other immediately after.
  • Oliver, the one person no one would've blamed Laurel for never forgiving, ends up being the only person she reconciles with at the end of the story, to the point that not only would it not be surprising if they started dating again, but it's something that all their loved ones actively want to happen. Meanwhile, the family that was supposed to love and support Laurel no matter what each end up betraying her to one extent or another so thoroughly that no one would blame Laurel if she never wanted to speak with any of them ever again.
  • Dinah tries to use Laurel's relationship with Oliver as rationalization for going through with the trade, blaming the former couple for Sara's trauma. Her actions instead emphasize to everyone how little Oliver and Laurel had to do with Sara's situation, and help facilitate a reconciliation between them when they reunite.
• It Gets Easier/It Never Gets Any Easier: Discussed. After Laurel breaks down from killing her first target, Nyssa comforts her, assures her that's a common reaction and it will pass. Laurel expresses concern that killing people will get so easy, that she won't feel a thing anymore. Given how broken she is in the present, it probably didn't get easier.
• It's All About Me:
  • It becomes very clear that Dinah's decision isn't driven so much by the desire to save Sara as it is to absolve herself of the guilt of letting Sara go onto the Gambit. Made all the more obvious by how much Sara has been able to destroy herself under Dinah's care, implying that her mother has completely failed to offer any real emotional support. Combined with how she kept both girls away from Quentin to make sure her actions stayed secret even though she knew he was destroying himself with alcohol without Laurel around to mind him, it really makes you wonder if Dinah actually cares about her family at all.
  • Quentin himself was too busy drowning in self-pity to realize Laurel was missing. To his credit, he's genuinely horrified by that and throws himself into finding her immediately.
• It's All My Fault: Sara blames all the suffering her family went through (particularly Laurel's stint in the League) on her decision to go on the Gambit. While to an extent that's true, what happened to Laurel is mainly Dinah's fault, as she's the one who made the choice to trade Laurel to the League for Sara's freedom and essentially forced a traumatized Sara to accept it when the latter tried to protest her decision. In some ways, Sara is as much of a victim of the situation as Laurel herself is.
• I've Come Too Far: Part of Dinah's rationale for trading Laurel for Sara. She acknowledges that between abandoning Laurel and letting Sara get on the Gambit, she's already lost Laurel. But she won't lose Sara too.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • Quentin finally recognizes how much of an asshole he's been to everyone but especially to Laurel when he realizes that he completely failed to notice his eldest daughter had been missing for three years. Worse yet, it was Oliver who pointed out how strange Laurel's departure was, which is just rubbing salt in the wound at that point.
  • After seeing Oliver near-death, learning about her father's true fate, and finding out what really happened to Laurel, Thea finally begins to realize how small and insignificant her problems are in comparison.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: By Chapter Three, most of the readers have guessed that the "terrible choice" Dinah made was trading Laurel to the League of Assassins in exchange for Sara's freedom.
• Late to the Realization: A minor example in Tommy kicking himself for not realizing Laurel had actually gone missing three years ago. As Laurel's other best friend, he should have seen what Oliver saw when he first got home and made those same connections himself.
• Living Emotional Crutch:
  • Laurel is this for Quentin. Without her, his drinking spiraled out of control, causing him to lose his job, and everyone is well aware that all his drunken rantings about her are born out of his loneliness and he deeply misses her. Sara even cites this as a reason for Laurel to come back to Starling, as Quentin has been going completely spare after finding out she didn't leave him of her own volition.
  • In an odd way, Laurel is also this for Sara, who never got over the guilt of indirectly forcing her older sister into the League, which was extremely detrimental to her own physical and mental health. It's only when Oliver returns and provides a way for her to get Laurel back that Sara begins taking care of herself again and recovering from the trauma of the past five years.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Both Tommy and Thea end up on Oliver's trip to the Himalayas. Tommy because he provided the plane, Thea because she snuck on. The thing is, they have no idea why Oliver is going to the Himalayas (or why he took Sara with him), and neither of the aforementioned two, nor Diggle, are talking. It isn't until Malcolm enters the picture that they get some idea of what is actually going on.
  • Laurel has been deliberately isolated from the outside world beyond missions for the League for the past three years. Hence, she has never heard of Oliver's vigilante alter ego and doesn't understand the significance of him being the Hood.
  • By the end of the story, Quentin is the only character left in the dark about everything. This is deliberate, because everyone knows that if he finds out the full truth, it would destroy him.
• Mistaken for Romance: Most of Oliver and Sara's interactions are mistaken by outsiders to be attempts to become intimate with each other again due to their previous affair. In reality, what happened to Laurel has effectively killed whatever interest they had in each other. Said interactions are mostly discussions (read: arguments) over how to get her back from the League.
• Mugging the Monster: It becomes fairly obvious early on that Oliver has no idea what he's up against when it comes to Ra's al Ghul, only knowing him as the man who trained the Dark Archer and is holding Laurel hostage. Part of this is because he got faulty information from Sara, who never saw Ra's fight in person or learned how to fight herself. Therefore, while she knows he's dangerous, she doesn't know just how badly he outclasses Oliver, otherwise she would've never sent Oliver to save Laurel for fear of getting him killed as well. The only reason Oliver even survives the duel is because Ra's got cocky at the wrong moment and gave Oliver the opening he needed to win at the last possible second.
• My Greatest Failure: Sara regards everything involving her decision to go on the Gambit, including what happened to Laurel, as this. She's well aware that she'll never be able to completely make it up to her sister, but is nonetheless willing to try because she can't live with the guilt.
• Never My Fault:
  • Dinah Lance, who absolutely refuses to acknowledge that her bad parenting is what led to Sara going on the Gambit and caused a sequence of events that led to both her daughters going through years of unwarranted and undeserved horrific trauma. Instead, she would rather blame Oliver and Laurel, trying to claim that their relationship (and Oliver's attempt to blow it up) was the real cause. In reality, it shows how little Oliver and especially Laurel had to do with the situation, as everyone else who finds out the truth notes.
  • Zigzagged with Quentin. He's willing to acknowledge that his poor treatment of Laurel after the Gambit is what might've driven her away, but that doesn't stop him from resenting her anyway. It's then thoroughly subverted after he learns Laurel was actually kidnapped, which causes an immediate Jerkass Realization. This is actually one of the reasons why everyone decides not to tell him the truth about Laurel's "kidnapping", because they all know that if he finds out, he'll blame himself for unwittingly letting it happen.
  • Played with and subverted with Sara. Sara refuses to allow anyone except Laurel to rake her over the coals for what happened to her sister... but that's because she already blames herself plenty, and can't handle hearing it from anyone else because it will just make her feel even worse.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Laurel's disappearance becomes this for her loved ones, as they all thought she left and only realized she had been taken three years later. For someone so close to them to disappear just like that without hint of what happened to them or why is utterly terrifying.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Quentin unknowingly did this every time he drunkenly insulted Laurel in Sara's presence, as she knew Laurel didn't leave him by choice. That is probably why she didn't leave Dinah to move in with him until after Laurel is rescued from the League.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • Trading Laurel to the League of Assassins for Sara's freedom is this for both Dinah and Sara. Dinah is basically Persona Non Grata to all of Laurel's loved ones now, and by the end of the first story, neither Laurel nor Oliver are quite ready to forgive Sara yet, even though she's palpable with her guilt and regret.
  • Ironically subverted with Oliver's decision to cheat on Laurel with Sara. Under normal circumstances, it would be this, but what Dinah and Sara did to Laurel was so much worse that it ended up overshadowing his actions completely. Then, he redeemed himself entirely by saving Laurel from the League, something that nearly killed him. By the end of the story, nobody holds what happened against Oliver anymore, not even Laurel herself, and some of them, such as Thea and Tommy, actively encourage him to get back together with her.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Part of what convinces Oliver that there is something wrong about Laurel's disappearance. She is too confrontational to use the Silent Treatment, and even if she had left Starling City, she would have returned just to tell him and Sara how much they hurt her.
  • It takes Oliver to point it out, but Quentin also eventually notes that disappearing and staying gone doesn't fit Laurel's argumentative nature and that, above all else, she cares and wouldn't just simply vanish.
• Only Sane Man: Sara is this for the Lances, sans Laurel. Unlike her parents, Sara fully acknowledges her fault in the situation and is desperate to make up for it by any means possible.
• Parental Betrayal: Dinah already had this with her canon decision to let Sara sleep with Laurel's boyfriend, but she gave this trope an ugly new face when she traded Laurel for Sara.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Dinah. Lance. She even goes as far as to blame Laurel for what happened to Sara just because she was the one who was dating Oliver and brought him into their lives. Dinah refuses to admit that Sara's choices were her own and she only has herself (and unbeknownst to everyone, Malcolm Merlyn) to blame for what happened. She's also a deconstructed example, because it's blatantly clear throughout the first story that she isn't a better parent to Sara than she is to Laurel just because Sara is her favorite, and the bad state Sara is in when Oliver meets her again is mostly Dinah's fault.
  • Even before the Gambit, Laurel was aware that although she was the daughter her parents were proud of, both of them favored Sara. Quentin because she was the baby of the family, Dinah because Sara reminded her of herself when she was younger.
  • Nyssa tries to comfort Laurel by commenting that she also knows what it is like to be the unfavorite child. Presumably, she has too much of a soul to be a "good" heir.
• Parental Neglect:
  • Quentin failed to realize that Laurel had been kidnapped for over three years because he was too deep in his cups with his grief over Sara's (supposed) loss. Knowing what happened to Laurel, it's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for him.
  • The Lances basically let Sara get away with figurative murder because she was the baby of the family, and completely failed to parent her at all. Notably, this extends to even after she comes back — Quentin has made no genuine effort to actually build a relationship with Sara and Dinah is willfully ignorant of how her 'favorite' daughter has been slowly killing herself over the last three years due to the guilt over what happened to Laurel.
    • To Quentin's credit, that's partially because Sara and Dinah have both been avoiding him. Then, in the last chapter, Sara asks to move in with him, which he happily agrees to, fulling averting this trope.
• Parents as People:
  • Quentin. For all his neglect and verbal and emotional abuse, he does love Laurel and Sara. Once he realizes that Laurel has actually been missing for the past three years, he throws himself into finding her immediately, even though he is no longer a member of the SCPD. In fact, one of the reasons Sara and Dinah never told Quentin about the deal is because they knew he would've never approved, tried to get Laurel back himself, and gotten them all killed (along with the rest of Starling City). In the present, everyone keeps him Locked Out of the Loop because there is a genuine fear that if he finds out the Awful Truth, the guilt will kill him.
  • Moira. She does a lot of shady things, and is hardly a model parent for Thea, having been too caught up in her own grief to be there for her daughter and letting her get away with far too much. However, she loves both of her children more than anything else and everything she does is for their sake. The thought of doing what Dinah did to Laurel is outright unbearable to her.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Pretty much all of Nyssa and Laurel's interactions, aside from the Training from Hell.
  • After learning the truth about Laurel's disappearance, Moira happily offers to let her stay at the Queen Mansion until she gets back on her feet.
• The Power of Love: Ultimately, what gives Oliver the strength and will to finally kill Ra's is remembering that Laurel will die with him if he fails.
• Rebuilt Pedestal:
  • Thea is hard on Oliver for most of the story because she thinks he's trying to hook back up with Sara. Her opinion of him makes a complete 180 after he saves Laurel and she learns the real reason he was hanging out with Sara so much.
  • Laurel's opinion of Oliver is also improved after he saves her from the League at the near-cost of his life. While her current emotional and mental state means she is no position to even reconsider restarting their relationship, the situation has, at the very least, repaired their friendship, compounded by Oliver apologizing to her for his previous behavior towards her. It also means Laurel has no issues staying at his house and asking for a job to help get by while she gets back on her feet.
• Role Swap AU: An interesting variation. Usually in stories where Laurel ends up in the League, it's because she went on the Gambit with Oliver instead of Sara. Here, Sara still went on the Gambit, but Laurel ends up in the League anyway due to Dinah managing to find Sara in Nanda Parbat and offering Laurel in her place.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • For Sara, this was what her mother's choice boiled down to. She could've protested Dinah's idea to trade Laurel for her, stayed with the League, and suffered Training from Hell to become an assassin, letting the killing destroy what was left of her already tattered soul. Or she could've gone with it and let her innocent sister (who Sara already betrayed by running off with said sister's boyfriend) suffer in her place while she goes home and lives with the guilt of what she let her mother do for the rest of her life. Under coercion from Dinah, Sara ultimately chooses the latter, and has hated herself ever since.
  • Telling Quentin the Awful Truth is this for both sisters. On one hand, keeping him in the dark is cruel and is causing his relationship with Laurel to be strained, which is hurting both of them, especially after they've been apart for so long. On the other hand, if he does learn the truth, then there's a good chance the guilt he'll feel will cause his already poor health to turn for the worst. On top of that, Quentin also might shut Sara out of his life for her part in what happened and lying to him for so long, which Sara can't bear as he's all she really has left, since Dinah is not an option.
• The Scapegoat:
  • Both of Laurel's parents try to blame all the family's troubles post-Gambit on Laurel's relationship with Oliver and thus by extension, Laurel herself. They refuse to acknowledge that, in the end, what happened to Sara was her own fault (and Malcolm Merlyn's, but that's an entirely different kettle of fish). All Oliver did was the make the offer; Sara is the one who accepted, and everything that followed after, including what happened to Laurel, was either the result of her choices or Dinah's.
  • Defied later by Laurel herself. While Oliver blames himself for what happened to her, she refuses to do so, saying she's placed the blame for what happened where it belongs.
  • Also defied by Sara, who openly acknowledges that everything that happened was her fault, not Oliver's, and has been wasting away for the past three years because of it.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • What most people thought Laurel did when the League took her. Thea at least, didn't blame her for wanting to leave.
  • Once the trade has been made, Dinah grabs Sara and runs, at least in part because she could see that Sara was already trying to stop it.
• Selective Obliviousness:
  • Quentin and Dinah blame Oliver for inviting Sara on the Gambit and Laurel for dating Oliver in the first place. Neither one seem to realize that Sara chose to get on the boat. Dinah does blame herself for letting Sara go, but Quentin doesn't seem to realize yet the role his parenting played in the situation. On top of that, Sara fully acknowledges and accepts her fault in the situation, and has the appropriate guilt to show for it, which makes her parents' obliviousness all the more damning in comparison.
  • Dinah also justifies trading Laurel for Sara by arguing that as the older sibling, it is Laurel's responsibility to protect Sara. It does not occur to Dinah that as their mother, it is her responsibility to protect both of them.
  • Tragically, Sara is so determined to blame herself for everything that happened that she's oblivious to how much her parents (especially Dinah) enabled her self-serving behavior prior to the Gambit, which led to Laurel's situation. At one point, she even tries to defend Dinah by pointing out how her mother didn't immediately jump to trading Laurel for Sara, instead trying to trade herself first — as if that really makes it any better. Especially when, after that failed, Dinah outright manipulated Sara into agreeing with trading Laurel by taking advantage of her trauma. Tellingly, even Oliver is able to see how much Dinah is using Sara, and while it doesn't completely cool his anger towards his friend, it does make him sympathize with her.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Dinah is convinced that her decision to let Sara go on the Gambit has already cost her Laurel (who she believes would never forgive her if she found out the truth about Sara's presence on the boat), and uses that as resolve to go through with trading Laurel for Sara, as she refuses to lose Sara as well. All her actions do is ensure that she loses both anyway, as neither of them can forgive her for her decision or for making Sara go along with it.
• Ship Sinking:
  • Any hopes of Oliver/Sara die after Oliver finds out about Laurel's fate and Sara's part in it. The two constantly bicker and Oliver can barely stand to look at her, let alone be in her presence.
  • Nyssa is very comforting to Laurel, and Laurel even thinks in another life she could have fallen in love with Nyssa; but the circumstances of Laurel's membership with the League prevent anything from developing. Unlike Sara in canon (who joined the League of her own free will, even if it was under duress), Laurel was forced into the League by her own mother and kept there due to the threat against her city and the loved ones that lived in it. To Nyssa, she will always be a victim, and that barrier keeps them apart.
  • In the last chapter, Tommy admits to Oliver that he was planning on asking Laurel out when he got back from Hong Kong. Now, with everything that's happened, he's given up on that and subtly pushes Oliver to get back together with her.
• Shipper on Deck: As the truth gradually comes out, more than one person has expressed the desire for Oliver and Laurel to get back together again. Partially due to Oliver having changed to become a much better person, and partially because he's probably the only person who can really understand and connect with Laurel now.
• Shipping Torpedo: Played with and subverted. Thea thinks she's this to what she perceives as Oliver and Sara's renewed affair, which she makes no secret of to Oliver, because she thinks it would be disrespecting Laurel's "memory". In reality, Oliver is even more disgusted with the idea than Thea herself is due to still holding a grudge against Sara for what happened to Laurel. Sara similarly has lost interest due to her own guilt over the situation, and most of their interactions usually devolve into arguments about how to get Laurel back from the League.
• Slut-Shaming: As one flashback shows, if Laurel wore a skirt instead of pants, Quentin would dismiss her as a slut, and then say that was what allowed Oliver to use her to get to and kill Sara.
• So Proud of You: While she's angry at him for putting himself in danger every night, Moira can't help but express pride in Oliver for managing to not only save their family but Laurel as well.
• Stunned Silence: Of the Stunned Horror variety. This is the reaction everyone else in the room has after Moira reveals the truth behind the Undertaking.
• There Are No Coincidences:
  • Oliver refuses to believe that Laurel disappearing shortly before Sara returned is a coincidence, and he's right.
  • When Walter is kidnapped, Thea is worried that it's the same people that took Laurel. This time, though, it really is a coincidence.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Dinah is a parental version of this to Sara. Between letting her believe it was a good idea to go on the Gambit to sleep with her sister's boyfriend because she was 'in love,' to manipulating her using her trauma to go along with trading Laurel to the League in exchange for her freedom, everything that's gone wrong in Sara's life can ultimately be traced back to Dinah's terrible parenting. On some level, Sara is aware of it too, but has been unable to leave Dinah for the past three years because she would have to tell the truth about Laurel's disappearance to Quentin, the only other person that would be willing to take her in. Unsurprisingly, the moment Laurel is freed and that is no longer a concern, Sara ditches Dinah for Quentin almost immediately.
• Training from Hell: Laurel's training with the League gets an in-depth look. As expected, it's every bit as breaking as Oliver's was.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • First, Laurel finds out that her boyfriend cheated on her with her sister on the boat trip that (supposedly) killed both of them. Over the course of the following two years, her parents divorce and she suffers emotional abuse from both of them because they blame her relationship with Oliver for what happened. Then she's kidnapped, finds out her sister is alive, and is betrayed and sold out to a cult of murderers by her mother in exchange for the safety and freedom of said sister, and is forced to commit to said cult or else her entire city dies. She then suffers Training from Hell, and is forced into becoming a murderer herself in order to honor the deal. To say Laurel is a Broken Bird after all this would be a massive understatement.
  • Oliver has his canon one, in addition to the above situation with Laurel. While he's handling it well, it's clear that he isn't really any better off than Laurel is.
  • Sara doesn't have the trauma of joining the League of Assassins; instead, she has the guilt of living with the fact that her mother traded her sister for her freedom. As a result, she's arguably an even bigger Death Seeker than both Oliver and Laurel.
• Trophy Child: It gradually becomes clear that this is what Sara really is to Dinah. Her favoritism of Sara isn't because of any notable achievements, but rather because Sara is the child that resembles her the most, which is probably why Dinah does everything she can to excuse and absolve her youngest daughter of any wrongdoing. Combine this with the fact that Dinah's main motivation for saving Sara is to absolve herself of the guilt of letting her daughter go on the Gambit, it suggests she's mainly using Sara to make herself look like a good mother without actually being a good mother.
• Underestimating Badassery: Oliver and Ra's al Ghul, which goes both ways. For all his training, Oliver has no comprehension of what he's up against (a near-immortal with centuries of combat experience) and pays for it dearly during their duel. Meanwhile, Ra's underestimates Oliver's sheer determination to free Laurel, which is what allows Oliver to win the duel at the last possible moment.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Deconstructed. Oliver's decision to invite Sara onto the Gambit exposes the Lances' Dysfunction Junction and ultimately destroys the family. It's deconstructed in that, again, all Oliver actually did was invite Sara; everything that followed was result of the Lances' choices, not him, and when it comes down to it he's actually relatively blameless in comparison. However, the Lances' Selective Obliviousness and Parental Favoritism means that they'd rather use him and Laurel as scapegoats rather than acknowledge their own faults in the situation.
• Villain Respect:
  • Ra's al Ghul is impressed by Dinah's dedication to find her daughter, and is willing to make a trade out of respect for it.
  • Later, he shows some respect for Oliver when the latter manages to actually cut him during their duel. As Ra's notes, few manage even that much.
  • When Laurel gets Oliver to release Nyssa from the League, Malcolm (who was planning on killing her as a show of force) is impressed and notes that Laurel was always the most clever of Tommy's social circle.
  • Malcolm also expresses some respect and admiration for Oliver over having the strength and will to not only challenge Ra's al Ghul, but also win.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal:
  • One of the reasons why Laurel doesn't want to tell Quentin the truth is because she fears he'll reject her for becoming a murderer, even though it was clearly under duress. However, she knows he's not that unreasonable, and so her bigger fear is that the guilt will kill him.
  • Sara also fears telling Quentin for this reason, because she knows her father would've never approved of the deal and might disown her for it. Unlike Laurel, however, this fear is much more justified because some of the fault does fall on Sara for what happened, in addition to her decision to keep the truth from Quentin for so long and allowing him to wrongfully lambast Laurel for three years. Whereas Laurel is completely blameless for her situation, Quentin would have legitimate reasons to be angry with Sara were he to ever learn the truth.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • When Sara first came home, she went to the Queens to tell them that Oliver was dead and apologized for not having any good news. Thea angrily asked if she'd apologized to Laurel, which hit a lot closer to home than Thea was expecting.
  • Sara gets another one after telling the truth about Laurel to Oliver. She does acknowledge Oliver is right to be angry with her but nonetheless rebukes him, because she's already plenty angry at herself.
  • Both Tommy and Thea give Sara a silent one of these after they learn the truth as well.
  • After Laurel gets Oliver to release Nyssa from the League, Nyssa lets Laurel have it. Pointing out that that was Laurel's desire, not hers, and it has lead to her losing the only life and home she has ever known.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • In the end, Oliver, Laurel's cheating ex-boyfriend, and Sara, her sister and the one he cheated on her with, prove that they love her more than either of her parents ever did (or in Quentin's case, bothered to express) by saving her from the League and, in the case of the former, nearly dying in the process. Not only did they prove that they truly do care for Laurel, but they have also changed and become better people.
  • By contrast, Quentin's reaction to Laurel's abrupt departure was to assume she abandoned him and resent her for the next three years, while Dinah outright traded Laurel for her sister because she didn't want to live with her own guilt of letting Sara go on the Gambit. To say nothing of their treatment of Sara when they got her back, where they rejoiced in her return and then summarily ignored her, allowing her to slowly self-destruct over the guilt of what happened to her sister. Ultimately, while Laurel's plight showed that Oliver and Sara were good people at heart who had changed for the better, it also revealed to her and to them what Quentin and Dinah really are: self-centered people and terrible parents.
• Why Can't I Hate You?: Played for Drama. Laurel notes it's so much easier to hate Sara for her betrayal when she was far away and a distant memory. Seeing her sister again up close, however, makes it impossible to do, as it becomes obvious how much Sara suffered during her own time away as a castaway. Ultimately, Laurel can't bring herself to wish her sister any ill-will and hopes that Sara can get the help she needs, even if that help can't come from her.
• Your Make Up Is Running: Defied. Despite how hurt she is after a fight with her father, Laurel refuses to cry on the grounds that she will not have runny make-up over this.

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