Franchise / Arrowverse

Where comics come to life.

"In the end, there was only one...a single black infinitude. Then the infinitude found release, and finally, the darkness broke, filling it with life. With The Multiverse. Every existence multiplied by possibility and spread out before space and time in infinite measure. Civilizations rose and fell, and rose again to cross realities grasping expanse. Life, a precious gift persevering in the face of every obstacle, until finally, the age of heroes was born."

— Oliver Queen

The "Arrowverse" (or "Arrow-verse", etc.) is a common Fan Nickname given to a group of superhero TV shows based on DC Comics that air on The CW and share the same continuity and producers. Officially, as seen above, the network refers to them as "The CWverse".

It began in 2012 with an adaptation of Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) called Arrow, hence the Fan Nickname. In its second season, it introduced The Flash (Barry Allen) before he got his powers (he got struck by the legendary lightning bolt in his second appearance), and he soon gained his own spinoff naturally called The Flash. An animated web series starring Vixen, guest-starring Arrow and Flash cast members as their characters, was streamed on CW Seed in 2015. The second live-action spin-off, Legends of Tomorrow, began airing in 2016. It features The Atom, who debuted during Arrow's third season, and Firestorm, who debuted in The Flash, teaming up with both new and old characters. Another animated CW Seed show, Freedom Fighters: The Ray, aired in 2017, and also has the honor of being the first superhero series with a gay lead character. The third live-action spin-off, Batwoman, premiered in 2019. The fourth live-action spin-off, titled Superman & Lois and starring Superman and Lois Lane, premiered in 2021.

For years, the Arrowverse was not in the same continuity as the DC Extended Universe shared movie universe that began with Man of Steel. Warner Bros., which owns DC Comics, used to have a stringent embargo that prevented crossovers of its film and television divisions. The result was that there was no direct hint that Superman or Batman were known or active in Arrowverse until Supergirl, which features Superman as a supporting character, was integrated to the franchise in 2016, while Batman was first directly referenced in 2017. Superpowered abilities and the supernatural in general were not common until The Flash introduced metahumans, though there were "hyper-realistic" elements that skirted the line. References to the greater DC Universe (not to be confused with DCEU) are common; elements of the Batman mythos were heavily incorporated into Arrow. There are some characters in the shows that are in the DCEU, but played by different actors. After a nearly seven-year embargo, a DCEU character, specifically the version of The Flash as portrayed by Ezra Miller, made an appearance within the Arrowverse proper, establishing the DCEU as part of the Arrowverse's multiverse (about which, see below).

Executive producer Geoff Johns always likened all DC movies and TV shows to parts of a multiverse and that crossovers with shows not set within the same continuity are not 100 percent out of the question. The Arrowverse introduced the concept of the multiverse in the second season of The Flash, which is exactly like it sounds; hundreds of universes (called "Earths", though a universe also includes the outer space) exist where things play out differently, even though they might share elements. Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman are set within the same universe called "Earth-1". After the cancellation of Constantine, which aired on NBC, the character (played by the same actor Matt Ryan) and show transferred to the Arrowverse, with Constantine appearing in the fourth season of Arrow, while the show's setting was placed in Earth-1. Supergirl, originally a separate show airing on CBS, was crossed over into the Arrowverse in 2016 when Barry Allen appeared in a first season episode, followed by a full-on integration after the series underwent Channel Hop to The CW in its second year, but the show's setting remained independent, being set in "Earth-38". Black Lightning, which airs on The CW but not originally envisioned as part of the Arrowverse, was integrated to the franchise starting with the 2019-2020 crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, which merged its Earth, as well as that of Supergirl, with Earth-1, now called "Earth-Prime".

Most other live-action DC shows that aired concurrently in other networks are self-contained and independent of the Arrowverse. Series aired on the HBO Max streaming service, which includes Titans and Doom Patrol - two considerably Darker and Edgier DC-based shows - as well as Stargirl, are considered to exist within the same multiverse as the Arrowverse, but in the cases of Titans and Doom Patrol, even though they share the same executive producer, Greg Berlanti, the other producers involved invoke Schrödinger's Canon and say that while they are represented in the Arrowverse, they themselves also have their own canons. See below for which shows are set on which Earth.

Also called the "Berlanti-verse" (referring to executive-producer Greg Berlanti), the "Flarrowverse" (a portmanteau of Flash and Arrow), and the "Beeboverse" (named after Beebo, the absurdly cute and popular stuffed toy that became an unofficial Series Mascot and has appeared in four of the shows so far).

Works set on Earth-Prime ^note The Arrowverse's main setting, an amalgamation of the pre-Crisis Earths-1, -38, and -TUD 5 in the Multiverse include:

• Arrow (2012 — 2020) ^note The first live-action series to air and the first to end, it finished its run on January 28, 2020 after eight seasons and 170 episodes.
• The Flash (2014 — 2023) ^note The series ended on May 24, 2023 after nine seasons and 184 episodes.
• Constantine (2014 — 2015) ^note Originally aired on NBC as an unrelated series, it was canceled after its first season, which ended on February 13, 2015. Matt Ryan guest starred as Constantine in the fourth season of Arrow ("Haunted"), but rights issues prevented The CW from using Constantine again until 2017, when he appeared in the third season of Legends of Tomorrow. His series has since been retroactively added into the Arrowverse.
• Vixen (2015 — 2016) ^note A 12-episode animated series that aired on CW Seed, with voice actress Megalyn Echikunwoke later reprising the role in the fourth season of Arrow ("Taken"). An ancestor of Echikunwoke's character was later introduced as a cast member of Legends of Tomorrow, where the main Vixen storyline was finally resolved.
• Supergirl (2015 — 2021) ^note Formerly Earth-38. Originally aired on CBS as an unrelated series, later established in the multiverse through a crossover episode with The Flash in the first season and picked up by The CW for its second season. Merged into Earth-Prime after the universal reboot in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The series finished its run on November 9, 2021 after six seasons and 126 episodes.
• Legends of Tomorrow (2016 — 2022) ^note The series finished its run on March 2, 2022 after seven seasons and 110 episodes.
• Black Lightning (2018 — 2021) ^note Formerly set on its own Earth, dubbed Earth-TUD5 by the Arrowverse wiki due to its designation never being revealed. Despite being a CW show, it had a different filming location making frequent crossovers expensive to do, but it later merged into Earth-Prime during Crisis on Infinite Earths, in which Black Lightning himself appeared. The series finished its run on May 24, 2021 after four seasons and 58 episodes.
• Batwoman (2019 — 2022) ^note The series finished its run on March 2, 2022, after three seasons and 41 episodes.

Works set on other Earths in the post-Crisis Arrowverse include:

• Superman & Lois (2021 — present) ^note The series has aired three seasons.

Canceled works set on Earth-Prime include:

• Green Arrow and the Canaries ^note Arrow spinoff starring Oliver's daughter, Mia Queen, as well as Dinah Drake and Laurel Lance; debuted as a backdoor pilot after Crisis on Infinite Earths during the final season of Arrow. It was briefly considered for a dual run on The CW and HBO Max. Almost a year after the backdoor pilot aired, The CW confirmed that the show is not moving forward in January 2021.
• Painkiller ^note Black Lightning spinoff starring the titular character Khalil Payne / Painkiller. A backdoor pilot was reported to be in development in November 2020 and aired as the seventh episode of the fourth season of Black Lightning on April 12, 2021. However, the series was ultimately not picked up.
• Justice U ^note Arrow spinoff starring John Diggle as he trains five metahumans and aspiring heroes, who go undercover at a university. The project was originally confirmed to be in development on January 13, 2022, and was to be developed by Michael Narducci (Superman & Lois) and Zoanne Clark (Grey's Anatomy). However, the series was ultimately abandoned in May 2023 due to management changes at the CW.

Other Canonical Earths in the original and post-Crisis Multiverse include:

• Earth-1: DC Extended Universe (2013-2023) ^note  Per Ezra Miller's appearance as Barry Allen/The Flash in Crisis on Infinite Earths; Earth designation confirmed as Earth-1 in the Serving Up Justice comic.
• Earth-2: Stargirl (2020 — 2022) ^note The first season aired as a DC Universe original series, although The CW secured a deal to air it a day after every new episode launched on the streaming service. In July 2020, it was announced that the show would move to The CW from the second season onward. Aside from a nod in Crisis on Infinite Earths and one shared character, it is kept separate from the rest of the Arrowverse. The series finished its run on December 8, 2022 after three seasons and 39 episodes.
• Earth-9: Titans (2018 — 2023) ^note Originally a DC Universe series; moved to HBO Max from season three onwards. The series finished its run on May 12, 2023 after three seasons and 49 episodes.
• Earth-12: Green Lantern (2011) ^note As shown using archive footage of Hal Jordan and the planet Oa in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Earth-19: Swamp Thing (2019) ^note A short-lived DC Universe series. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the production of the Arrowverse shows, The CW secured a deal to air the series' first and only season for their Fall 2020 schedule.
• Earth-21: Doom Patrol (2019 — 2023) ^note Originally a DC Universe series; aired concurrently on HBO Max for season two before moving there permanently from season three onwards. The series ended on November 9, 2023 after four seasons and 46 episodes.
• Earth-66: Batman (1966 — 1968) ^note Aired on ABC. Per Burt Ward's appearance as Dick Grayson in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Earth-76: Wonder Woman (1975 — 1979) ^note Aired on ABC for its debut season and CBS for the rest. Only seen in the Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant tie-in comic.
• Earth-89: Batman and Batman Returns (1989 — 1992) ^note Per Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Earth-90: The Flash (1990 — 1991) ^note Aired on CBS. First teased in an episode of The Flash ("Welcome to Earth-2") as seen in the Speed Force; Earth-90's Barry later appeared in Elseworlds and Crisis on Infinite Earths as portrayed by John Wesley Shipp.
• Earth-96: Superman Returns (2006) ^note Per Brandon Routh as Superman in Crisis On Infinite Earths.
• Earth-97: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin (1995 — 1997)^note confirmed through Word of Godinvoked
• Earth-167: Smallville (2001 — 2011) ^note Aired on The WB for the first five seasons and The CW for the rest. Per Tom Welling and Erica Durance's appearances as Clark Kent and Lois Lane in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Earth-203: Birds of Prey (2002—2003) ^note Aired on The WB. Per Ashley Scott and Dina Meyer's appearances as Helena Kyle and Barbara Gordon in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Earth-666: Lucifer (2016 — 2021) ^note Originally aired on Fox, but later picked up by Netflix. Apparently set after Crisis on Infinite Earths according to star Tom Ellis, since Lucifer's characterization in Crisis is more line with his early Season 1 self, well before the Character Development he gets later.
• Earth-F: Superman Theatrical Cartoons (1941 — 1943) ^note Originally produced by Fleischer Studios until 1942 when Famous Studios took over, only seen in the Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant tie-in comic.
• Earth-X: Freedom Fighters: The Ray (2017 — 2018) ^note A 12-episode animated series on CW Seed, preceded by Russell Tovey's appearance as the title character in Crisis on Earth-X.
• Earth-N52: New 52 (2011—2016) ^note  A comic book brand that served as a revamp and relaunch for DC Comics before being replaced by DC Rebirth, only seen in the Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant tie-in comic.
• Unknown Earths^note Schrödinger's Canon applies to these DC media being canon to the Arrowverse:
  • The Adventures of Superman (1952 — 1958)^note Per George Reeves's appearances as Superman in The Flash (2023).
  • Superman Film Series (1978 — 1987)^note Per Christopher Reeve's and Helen Slater's appearance as Superman and Supergirl in The Flash (2023).
  • Teen Titans Go! (2013 — Present)^note Per Beast Boy's appearance in the Titans episode Dude, Where's My Gar?.
  • Harley Quinn (2019 — Present) ^note As heard using archive footage of Harley in the Titans episode Dude, Where's My Gar?. Originally a DC Universe series; moved to HBO Max from season three onwards.
  • Joker (2019)^note As heard using archive footage of Arthur Fleck in the Titans episode Dude, Where's My Gar?.
  • Superman Lives^note Per Nicolas Cage's appearances as Superman in The Flash (2023).

Notable Story Arcs

• Flash vs. Arrow (2014), the Arrowverse's first annual crisis crossover, told across two consecutive nights throughout "The Flash" and "Arrow". Team Arrow is visiting Central City, which is a good thing since the Flash is hit by a Hate Plague. Later, Team Flash decides to visit Team Arrow in Star City. A much more low-key affair than the successive crossovers, but notable for the first time the different heroes teamed up.
• Heroes Join Forces (2015), the Arrowverse's second annual crisis crossover, told across two consecutive nights throughout "The Flash" and "Arrow", also serving as a Backdoor Pilot for Legends of Tomorrow. Teams Flash and Arrow once again reunite to help Cisco's new girlfriend Kendra against the mysterious and immortal Vandal Savage. Kendra discovers she's a reincarnated Egyptian priestess who has latent metahuman powers and dubs herself Hawkgirl. What's more, she's had the same lover throughout history - Carter Hall, a.k.a. Hawkman, who has been hunted by Savage ever since Ancient Egypt due to his obsessive lust for Kendra. Every time he kills them, they reincarnate thanks to a mysterious meteorite shower during their first life.
• Invasion! (2016) ^note Also known as "Heroes vs. Aliens" , the Arrowverse's third-annual crisis crossover, told across four consecutive nights throughout four ^note Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow live-action shows. An alien race known as the Dominators invade Earth-1 after having come and gone once before in The '50s. Barry Allen takes it upon himself to stop them by recruiting his friends and allies from Team Arrow and the Legends, as well as bringing in Supergirl to help even the odds in their favor — based off the classic Invasion! storyline from the 1980's.
• Crisis on Earth-X (2017), the Arrowverse's fourth-annual crisis crossover, told across two consecutive nights throughout five ^note four live-action shows: Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow and characters from one animated one — Freedom Fighters: The Ray shows. Everyone gets together to attend Barry and Iris' wedding, only for the ceremony to be attacked by the forces of Earth-X. Treated as a standalone from the four series, with its own opening credits and logo and with none of the regular branding.
• Elseworlds (2018), the fifth-annual crisis crossover, that introduced Batwoman and Gotham City into the Arrowverse, marking the first direct appearance of a bearer of the Mantle of the Bat in the Arrowverse. In addition, Lois Lane made her debut in the Arrowverse, and the Barry Allen of The Flash (1990) appeared too. The crossover aired over three nights - December, 9, 10 and 11 and only involved the casts of Flash, Arrow and Supergirl, although Legends of Tomorrow poked fun at their non-inclusion in the crossover (twice).
• Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019-2020), the sixth-annual crisis crossover, and an adaptation of the iconic story of the same name. Announced on-air following the final installment of Elseworlds. It is unique in that it aired in two halves; the first half in 2019 and the second half in 2020 after the winter break, when Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 premiered. It is spread over five shows, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and newcomer Batwoman. Dozens upon dozens of characters from various DC adaptations make appearances in this event, the biggest crossover to date.
• Armageddon (2021), an adaptation of the 1991 storyline of the same name. It unfolded over the first five episodes of the eighth season of The Flash. It is not a crisis crossover, as only The Flash is involved, but it does feature characters from other series crossing over, including Mia Queen, Ryan Wilder, Jefferson Pierce, Ray Palmer, Ryan Choi, Alex Danvers, and Damien Darhk.
• The seventh-annual crisis crossover was supposed to air in the 2020-21 season, involving only Batwoman and Superman & Lois. However, a combination of the COVID-19 Pandemic (which made coordination between the crews difficult) and the departure of Ruby Rose as Batwoman put it off. To compensate, David Ramsey (John Diggle) made a Cross Through in the contemporary seasons of The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Supergirl, and Superman & Lois.

Other media set in the Arrowverse:

Comic Books

• Arrow (2012-2013)
• Arrow: Season 2.5 (2014-2015)
• The Flash: Season Zero (2014-2015)
• Supergirl: Sister Act (2015)
• Arrow: The Dark Archer (2016)
• Adventures of Supergirl (2016)
• Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant (2019-2020)
• Earth-Prime (2022)

Novels

• Arrow: Vengeance (2016)
• Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen (2016)
• Arrow: A Generation of Vipers (2017)
• Arrow: Fatal Legacies (2018)
• The Flash: Climate Changeling (2018)
• The Flash middle grade trilogy:
  • The Flash: Hocus Pocus (2017)
  • The Flash: Johnny Quick (2018)
  • The Flash: The Tornado Twins (2018)
• Supergirl middle grade trilogy:
  • Supergirl: Age of Atlantis (2017)
  • Supergirl: Curse of the Ancients (2018)
  • Supergirl: Master of Illusion (2019)
• Crossover Crisis middle grade trilogy
  • The Flash: Green Arrow's Perfect Shot (2019)
  • The Flash: Supergirl's Sacrifice (2020)
  • The Flash: Legends of Forever (2020)

Guidebooks

• Arrow: Heroes and Villains (2015)
• Arrow: Oliver Queen's Dossier (2016)
• S.T.A.R. Labs: Cisco Ramon's Journal (2018)
• The Secret Files of Barry Allen: The Ultimate Guide to the Hit TV Show (2018)
• Supergirl: The Secret Files of Kara Danvers: The Ultimate Guide to the Hit TV Show (2019)

Blogs

• The Chronicles of Cisco (2015-)

Web Series

• Arrow: Blood Rush (2013)
• John Con Noir (2015)
• Chronicles of Cisco: Entry 0419 (2016)
• The Flash: Stretched Scene (2017)
• Mister Parker's Cul de Sac (2020)

Television Specials

• Beebo Saves Christmas (2021)

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Tropes found in the shows:

• Adaptational Heroism
• Adaptational Villainy
• Adaptation Name Change
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul
• Arch Enemy
• Big Bad
• Breakout Character
• Celebrity Paradox
• Composite Character
• Darker and Edgier
• Decomposite Character
• Expy
• Hollywood Law
• Lighter and Softer
• One Steve Limit
• Rogues Gallery Transplant
• Superman Stays Out Of Gotham

A-C

• Aborted Arc:
  • Plans for Harley Quinn to be a major character in Season Four of Arrow after her Season Two cameo were canned due to Executive Meddling.
  • Likewise, despite all the numerous nods and teasers to the Green Lantern mythos in Season One of "The Flash" and Season Three of Arrow, Hal Jordan never appeared (outside of a extremely brief cameo that didn't even show his face - just the torso of somebody wearing a flight jacket) due to an arbitrary ban on anything involving aliens.
  • The Arrow episode "Legends of Yesterday" ends with Malcolm Merlyn harvesting the ashes of Vandal Savage, hinting that Malcolm would play a role in Savage's return. In Legends of Tomorrow, it's just handwaved that Savage always comes back From a Single Cell and whatever role Malcolm had in his resurrection is never addressed, not even when the latter appears in season 2. It's possible that Flashpoint might have undone this.
  • Crisis ended with the leads of the then current airing shows (and Superman, who was about to have his start next season) forming the Justice League, albeit not by name, with a Hall of Justice and round table and the idea that they'd remain in touch and cooperate setting up justification for future crossovers. However shortly after this the Covid pandemic happened which not only shut down filming early, but made future crossovers impossible the next season due to each shows cast and crew requring heavy isolation. It also caused Melissa Benoist to decide to end Supergirl the next season, and during the break Ruby Rose decided to leave Batwoman. And then CW started ending the Arrowverse shows one by one. In the end the Justice League never cooperated once and was a factor one other time on the Flash where Barry called in Black Lightning to assist him as a guest star and they met in the Hall of Justice. And with all Earth Prime shows completed the Justice League never was.
• Absent Aliens: With Superman not being a part of this 'verse, no other aliens make an appearance. However, Barry does meet Supergirl in a crossover episode and is amazed to discover that aliens are real on her Earth. The Legends of Tomorrow spin-off puts an end to this with the revelation that Thanagarians are set to invade Earth in the distant future and that the meteorite that mutated Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Savage had been sent by them. Completely averted when the Dominators are confirmed to exist and actually invade Earth.
• Acting for Two: In addition to cases of Alternate Self, sometimes an actor will portray two unrelated characters from different Earths.
  • John Wesley Shipp plays Henry Allen of Earth-1, Jay Garrick from Earth-3 and Barry Allen of Earth-90.
  • Brandon Routh plays Ray Palmer of Earth-1 and Clark Kent of Earth-96, the most improbable likeness, considering they're literally of different species.
  • With the addition of Lucifer (2016) to the Arrowverse, Tom Welling plays both Clark Kent of Earth-167 and Marcus Pierce of Earth-666, and Kevin Alejandro plays both Dan Espinoza of Earth-666 and Sebastian Blood of Earth-1, although no character ever interacts with both so the resemblance goes unmentioned.
• Action Girl: All of the shows, even the shows with male leads, have done a good job of having female characters, good and bad, who are capable in their own right and not just filling the role of Love Interest.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Thea was introduced before Roy due to Related in the Adaptation coming in full force. In the source material, her counterpart Mia Dearden is the second Speedy succeeding Roy Harper.
  • Isabel Rochev is supposed to be introduced when Oliver is well into his career as the Green Arrow. Here, she was introduced in his second year and died two years before he officially named himself "Green Arrow".
• Adaptational Friendship: In the comics, Barry and Oliver weren't very close and, at times, the two actually had quite an antagonistic relationship due to their contrasting political ideologies. In this franchise, however, the two are incredibly close friends and Oliver even inspires Barry's code-name, The Flash.
• All Myths Are True: Constantine and Vixen are both part of the Arrowverse, and each of these take a Fantasy Kitchen Sink approach to the mythology of a particular religion (Constantine does whatever the hell it pleases with religion, and take a look at the entry for Artistic License – Religion for what Vixen does to Africa).
• Alternate Continuity:
  • This is a major adaptation of the DC Universe...and Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are nowhere to be seen. However, Superman is explicitly active on another universe while Bruce Wayne is explicitly name dropped by Oliver in Arrow Season 6.
    Rip Hunter: I've seen Men of Steel die and Dark Knights fall.
  • As of Crisis on Infinite Earths, not only an alternate universe Batman has appeared, but 3 different Supermen as well.
• Alternate Self: Several have appeared when The Multiverse concept is introduced.
  • So far, Harrison Wells has the most counterparts shown with fourteen. They are from Earths 1, 2, 12, 13, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 47, 221 and three unnumbered ones.
  • Minor character Renee Adler has six, from Earths 1, 38 and four unnumbered ones. The Earth-1 incarnation is Sherloque Wells's love interest. All the others are his ex-wives.
  • Characters with five confirmed counterparts are:
    • Bruce Wayne from Earths 1, 38, 66, 89 and 99.
    • Francisco "Cisco" Ramon from Earths 1, 2, 19, 22, and X.
  • Characters with three confirmed counterparts are:
    • Oliver Queen, Dinah Laurel Lance, Felicity Smoak, and Quentin Larry Lance from Earths 1, 2, and X.
    • James Olsen and Alex Danvers (Earths 1, 38, and X).
    • James Jesse from Earths 1, 3, and 90.
    • Clark Kent from Earths 38, 96 and 167.
    • Kara Zor-El from Earths 38, X, and 167.
  • Characters with two confirmed counterparts are:
    • Winslow Schott, Jr., John Corben, and Red Tornado (Earths 38 and X).
    • Thea Queen, Caitlin Snow, Martin Stein, Joe West, Damien Darhk, Ronnie Raymond, Linda Park, Hunter Zolomon, Robert Queen, David Singh, Shay Lamden, Henry Hewitt, Al Rothstein, Adam Fells, Clay Parker, Dante Ramon, Patty Spivot, and Floyd Lawton from Earths 1 and 2.
    • Ray Terrill, Tommy Merlyn, Mick Rory, and Sara Lance from Earths 1 and X.
    • Grodd and Shade Earths 1 and 19.
    • Anthony Bellows, Julio Mendez, Tina McGee, and Zoey Clark from Earths 1 and 90.
    • John Diggle from Earths 1 and 90.
  • The Allen family, Iris West, Leonard Snart, Sam Scudder, and Linda Park are interesting cases.
    • John Wesley Shipp played Barry Allen in Earth-90, whereas the Earths 1 and 2 versions are played by Grant Gustin. Shipp also plays the Earth-1 Henry Allen as well as the Earth-3 Jay Garrick, but their respective counterparts in Earth-90 are played by M. Emmet Walsh and Tim Thomerson.
    • Nora Thompson-Allen is played by Priscilla Pointer on Earth-90, but played by Michelle Harrison on Earths 1 and 2. (Harrison also plays Earth 2's Joan Williams, wife of Shipp's Jay Garrick.)
    • Iris West-Allen is played by Paula Marshall on Earth-90, but played by Candice Patton on Earths 1 and 2.
    • Earth-90 has Leonard Wynters as the supervillain Captain Cold played by Michael Champion, but the Truer to the Text versions of Leonard Snart from Earths 1 and X are both played by Wentworth Miller.
    • Sam Scudder is played by David Cassidy on Earth-90, but played by Grey Damon on Earth-1.
    • Linda Park is played by Mariko Tse on Earth-90, but is played first by Olivia Cheng then Malese Jow on Earth-1. Jow plays the Earth-2 version from the get go.
• Alternate Timeline: Oh boy...
  • The Flash episodes "Out of Time" and "Rogue Time" take place in two different timelines which diverge when Barry time-travels by accident at the end of the former.
  • In "Tricksters", it's revealed that the entire series, and by extension the Arrowverse itself, was already set in one, caused by the arrival of Eobard Thawne from the future. He murdered Nora Allen and framed her husband for the crime, significantly altering Barry's life and relationships. He also murdered and stole the identity of Harrison Wells, the man who created the particle accelerator in the original timeline, and ensures that the particle accelerator is created seven years earlier, so that Barry gains his powers and becomes the Flash earlier, as well as all the metahumans in his Rogues Gallery.
  • This happens again in the "Legends of Today"(The Flash)/"Legends of Yesterday"(Arrow) crossover. This time, Barry knows enough to anticipate this happening, but it still happens mostly by accident after Vandal Savage destroys Central City and kills most major Flash and Arrow characters. The second run-through goes much better.
  • In "Flash Back", Barry decides to travel back in time to learn from Thawne how to increase his speed. Despite every character warning him about damaging the timeline, he deliberately takes actions which led to the off-screen reformation of Harley Rathaway, AKA Pied Piper.
  • In the Season Two finale, "The Race of His Life", Barry, having reached his Despair Event Horizon over the death of his father, goes back to the moment Eobard Thawne killed his mother and saves her life. As revealed in the Season Three premiere, this creates a radically different timeline, dubbed "Flashpoint", wherein Wally West, not Barry, became the Flash; Barry grew up with both his parents; Joe became an alcoholic; Cisco Ramon became a billionaire and the owner of STAR Labs (now called Ramon Enterprises); etc. Following the above, in a bid to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, Barry lets Thawne kill Nora again, seemingly restoring his original timeline. In fact, it's only a Close-Enough Timeline, with some crucial changes for the worse — Iris never forgave Joe for keeping the secret of her mother's survival (something they originally sorted out early in Season Two), Cisco's brother Dante died in an accident and Cisco blamed Barry for not running back in time to save him, Barry now has a new partner named Julian Albert who's worked with him for a year in the new timeline (and hates him for some reason), Sara Diggle was never born and has been "replaced" by baby John instead (setting up a plot point explored in the first season of Legends of Tomorrow), and Caitlin, unknown to anyone else, somehow has Killer Frost's powers...
  • On Legends of Tomorrow, Zari originally grew up in a dystopian police state, only joining the Legends after her family had been killed and she was left the only one to inherit the mystical Air Totem. At the end of Season 4, Zari "hacks history" to prevent that police state from ever emerging; in the process, she also accidentally leaves behind a dragon egg that is discovered and adopted by her six-year-old self. As a consequence, Zari's personal history is radically different, turning her into an almost completely different person. This change also means that her brother, Behrad (deceased in the original timeline), took up the family Air Totem and joined the Legends instead of her.
• Alternate Universe: Tackled more on The Flash; several main and recurring characters are from Earths -2, -3, -19, and -X. Supergirl also takes place in one^note specifically, Earth-38 compared to the other shows.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: The shows are flooded with these type of women. There are the Defrosting Ice Queen types (pre-Character Development Laurel Lance and Caitlin Snow, Tatsu Yamashiro, Dr. Tina McGee, Mei, Alex Danvers), Deadpan Snarkers (Thea Queen, Sin, Lisa Snart), those who are downright rigid (Helena Bertinelli, Isabel Rochev, Nyssa Al-Ghul, Amanda Waller, Taiana, Valentina Vostok, Astra, Earth-2 Laurel Lance), usually distant (Felicity Smoak in her backstory, Shado, Lyla Michaels-Diggle, Mary Martin, Alura Zor-El) or just plain aloof (Carly Diggle, Linda Park on a bad day, Linda's Earth-2 counterpart aka Dr. Light, Siobhan Smythe pre-Face–Heel Turn). Also pretty much everyone mentioned except the usually distant ones.
• Arc Number:
  • 52 pops up a lot in the shows.
  • 4587 tends to pop up a lot in shows where Marc Guggenheim is an executive producer, like Arrow or Legends of Tomorrow. ^note  This is a Shout-Out to a particular series that Guggenheim loves, Wiseguy, where 4587 was Vinnie Terranova's agent ID number (itself a reference to the premiere date of that series, April 5th 1987).
• Arc Welding/Canon Invasion:
  • NBC's short-lived Constantine series was retconned as part of the 'verse the following season; Word of God at the time was there were no plans to use him after his one appearance on Arrow, but a few years later he joined Legends of Tomorrow as a main character.
  • Supergirl (2015) was initially created as an unrelated show for CBS, but from the start the crew had their eye on how it could be made part of the 'verse. They ended up quickly being able to negotiate an appearance by Arrowverse Barry Allen, with the show presented as one of the numerous alternate Earths already presented in The Flash (it couldn't simply be the same Earth due to Superman already being an established hero). The following season the show moved to the CW, allowing for much easier crossovers in the future.
  • In a lighter example, the earlier The Flash series from 1990 starring John Wesley Shipp was retroactively folded in as one of the many Earths in the multiverse.
  • The Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover takes the invasion part literally. Black Lightning, Smallville, Birds of Prey and even the Christopher Reeve Superman Film Series are set within many different Earths across the multiverse.
• Artistic License – Law: The 'verse plays fast and loose with the law, but the secret extrajudicial prisons are the big ones.
  • Oliver's prison on Lian Yu is built, maintained, and operated by A.R.G.U.S., a US military black-ops project, so we can assume it to be legal in the same way as Guantanamo Bay—that is, it's legal, but a lot of people really wish it wasn't.
  • Barry's prison in the particle accelerator, on the other hand, doesn't even have that shaky legal justification. It's owned and operated by private citizens with no legal or law enforcement training, keeping people imprisoned for life with no chance of trial or parole, based solely on whether or not they have powers. Only one person involved with the legal system (Joe) knows about it, and he's uncomfortable with it, but lets it slide because there's nowhere else to put them. When he brings up the situation with a friend of his in the DA's office, she points out that it is horrifically illegal, and he's very likely to go to prison for a very long time if he doesn't dissociate himself from the situation.
    • Near the end of Season 1, the particle accelerator prisoners were going to be transferred to Lian Yu, whose operation as a prison is legitimate as mentioned above. Of course this never happens, as Snart breaks them all out.
    • By Season 2, the city's prison has been equipped to hold metahumans, so the highly illegal particle accelerator prison is no longer needed. However, a villain from Earth-2 shows up and happens to have the same face as one of the Flash's friends. Obviously, she had to be imprisoned in the particle accelerator.
  • Almost averted by Supergirl, whose alien foes, who are by definition criminals who escaped their cells when Fort Rozz crash-landed on Earth, are contained by a perfectly legal government backed D.E.O. prison. That is, until metahumans like Livewire start being stored there, wherein they start moving into the murky territory of imprisoning US citizens. And then the D.E.O. kidnaps and holds indefinitely without trial Maxwell Lord, a non-metahuman whose actions, while illegal and sociopathic, were not within the D.E.O.'s charter. Eventually, James is able to talk Kara and Alex into letting him go, while the Flash is able to provide the same information used by Central City to build their metahuman prison.
• Ascended Extra: In a broader sense. Both Green Arrow and The Flash are popular characters in the DCU, but (Green Arrow especially) not exactly the main players in the superhero community, and outside the comics, neither have had much exposure beyond the ensemble shows. Within this universe, they 'are' the Batman and Superman of the setting.
• Back from the Dead: The Lazarus Pit exists in this universe so resurrection is possible. So far, only four people have done it; Malcolm Merlyn (only implied, though strongly), Oliver Queen (though not by the pit), and Sara Lance (Thea was near death, but not dead). The Pit was destroyed after that last one to keep the 'verse from falling into Death Is Cheap. However, Damian Darhk is shown of being capable of resurrecting, though whether it's from the waters he stole from the Pit or if he's a Necromancer is yet to be revealed.
• Bad Future: The future is not a happy place in the Arrowverse:
  • In 2021, a law was passed banning all metahumans and requiring them to be in a registry database.
  • Central City in 2024 is a bad place, because Barry is depressed over losing Iris, allowing the city to be overrun with criminals. He eventually snaps out of it only to disappear in April in a "Red Sky Crisis" while battling the Reverse Flash. Luckily however that future is undone when Team Flash stops Savitar from killing Iris...to an extent; the Red Sky Crisis will happen and Barry is destined to disappear during it, and never come back.
    • In the future a time remnant of Barry snaps and becomes evil renaming himself Savitar.
  • By 2040, the lives of Team Arrow have all gone to hell - Felicity and Oliver have had to "abandon" William, Roy Harper is brooding alone on Lian Yu (what happened to Thea goes unmentioned). Star City itself has gone to hell - the Glades has built a wall around itself to protect itself from the rest of the city with the SPCD becoming thugs for hire — Dinah Drake is implied to have lost her Canary Cry going by the scar on her throat and Rene has left the city but to his daughter's bitterness. But that's the only tip of the berg. Things will get much much much wore by 2046 as seen below.
  • By 2042, A.R.G.U.S. has become a facist organization roaming the streets looking for metahumans to lock up and experiment on; religion has been banned and the whole world seems to be one giant Police State.
  • Star City is even worse by 2046. Its been conquered by Grant Wilson (Slade's youngest son) with the aid of his own personal Mirakuru augmented army, who slaughtered every member of Team Arrow (Barry wasn't around to help them since he disappeared) sans Oliver (though he lost an arm), and Felicity who just gave up hope and left. It thought this was only a possible future but there's a good chance it may come to pass since in that future the current Green Arrow is John Diggle Jr. In the present day, Barry creating Flashpoint meant that Sara Diggle no longer exists and John Diggle Jr is the only child of John and Lyla instead.
  • In Eobard Thawne's time there are no more cows.
  • Vandal Savage rules the entire world by 2166 (although that future no longer exists thanks to the Legends). Before he conquered the Earth, corporations had assumed governing duties over the various countries.
• Badass Family: Some of the Sibling Teams below are exactly that for a reason.
  • The Brother–Sister Team of Oliver and Thea is already formidable enough, add the latter's biological father to the equation and it's one kickass family on paper.
  • The Lances are composed of two Action Girls and their veteran Action Dad cop.
  • Happily Married Battle Couple John Diggle and Lyla Michaels are retired military personnel who respectively serves as The Lancer to The Hero and the de-facto Number Two to A.R.G.U.S. at the start of Arrow.
  • The Snarts are a family of career criminals, dysfunctional as they may be.
  • The Tricksters, like the Snarts, are career criminals that composes of a father-and-son duo. Unlike them however, they get along quite well which makes them more dangerous.
  • Another criminal example is the Royal Flush Gang, a family of bank robbers.
  • Ra's al Ghul is The Leader of The League of Assassins. His daughters, Thalia and Nyssa, are also deadly Dark Action Girls. Like the Snarts however, they also have a tendency to be dysfunctional.
  • The West-Allen family might just take the cake, since it compromises Detective Joe West, Iris West, Wally West, and, of course Barry Allen.
• Belated Happy Ending: At least for Constantine that was Cut Short before the Story Arc reached any conclusion. John's appearance in Arrow implies that the Brujeria failed to bring hell on Earth but on the other side the fate of Zed Martin who has a brain tumor and Jim Corrigan who was destined to die in a vision remains unknown.
• Big Good: Barry and Oliver. They're the ones who unite the team in Legends. Barry in particular is acknowledged as having the potential to be the most powerful hero of The 'Verse. Kara later joins them as this, as they practically form this universe's version of the DC Trinity.
• Broken Pedestal: "Dr. Harrison Wells" had the admiration of nearly every promising scientific mind in the verse: Barry, Felicity, Ray, and of course Cisco and Caitlin. They were crushed when they found out he was a) a villain and b) not really Wells at all.
• Brother–Sister Team: Leonard and Lisa Snart, Oliver and Thea Queen starting Arrow Season 4.
• Burn Scars, Burning Powers: Mick "Heat Wave" Rory is an arsonist and pyromaniac who specializes in the use of a flamethrower, and has a number of self-inflicted burn scars. Additionally during season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow he acquires the Fire Totem and gains actual fire superpowers.
• Canon Character All Along: This universe loves playing with this. Notable examples are:
  • Oliver is given a younger sister named Thea, who is then revealed to be the equivalent and sort-of-namesake of Mia Dearden (Dearden is her middle name, and she's used Mia as an alias.)
  • Like Oliver, Laurel is given a younger sister named Sara, who is then revealed to be a Decomposite Character of Laurel's mother Dinah Drake. Mind you, Dinah Drake is also in the series (portrayed by Alex Kingston) but she is an Adaptational Wimp. She also turns out to be this universe's White Canary, making her a triple Composite Character.
  • During the middle of The Flash Season 2, Barry encounters a Man in the Iron Mask imprisoned with him and Jesse Quick. This man turns out to be the real Jay Garrick.
• Canon Immigrant: John Diggle and Tommy Merlyn from Arrow have both appeared in the DC New 52 reboot comics.
• Canon Invasion: As mentioned above, Constantine was retroactively made part of this universe. So is The Flash (as an Alternate Universe).
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The shows are filled with good-looking men. Arrow in particular had a "Cast Full of Hunks" during its second season, while Legends has had four Tall, Dark, and Handsome men in its lineup.
• Celebrity Paradox: Several, and the existence of The Multiverse and people universe-hopping only makes things complicated. Specific details are found in its own page.
• Chekhov's Time Travel:
  • Used in the four-part crossover, specifically in the last two installments "Invasion!", "Invasion!".
  • The Supergirl (2015) season 1 The Flash/Supergirl crossover showed that the Earth-1 heroes were getting better at inter-dimensional travel. The crossover opens with a need to go find Supergirl on Earth-38 because her alien expertise is needed to help fight the Dominators.
• Chick Magnet: Oliver and Barry have their fair share of girls, the former more so.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • The Oliver/Tommy/Laurel Love Triangle. For the matter, the Oliver/Laurel/Sara Sibling Triangle.
  • Barry has been in love with Iris since they were in fourth-fifth grade.
• City of Adventure: Central City after the Particle Accelerator exploded.
• Close-Enough Timeline:
  • The Flash reveals that the Arrowverse as we know it was altered by the Reverse Flash traveling back in time to kill Barry's mom. It's also made clear that there are domino effects involved with Time Travel so there were unknown differences in the original timeline, but Barry and Oliver still became their particular heroes.
  • In season three The Flash, Barry himself ends up causing this by preventing and then restoring his mother's death. While most of the changes are confined to his own show, Sara Diggle no longer exists, having been "replaced" by John Jr.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Happens a lot across Arrowverse shows, sometimes used as an Easter Egg, often used intentionally to foreshadow a supporting character's budding development into a costumed hero by featuring colors prominent in their comic costumes. Barry's first appearances on Arrow feature him prominently wearing red. On Arrow Roy is almost always featured in some manner of red, then Thea starts sporting a lot of red after season 2. Lately William is also seen sporting red pretty often too. Also shown with Earth One Laurel adopting Sara's black jacket, as well as black, green, and/or yellow in her training gear and work attire in season 3, and Wally and Jessie both wearing more yellow and/or red in The Flash season 2.
• Color Character: Black Canary, White Canary, Golden Glider, Dark Archer, Green Arrow.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Zigzagged depending on the show. On Arrow it's a while before Oliver embraces his hero name, and even though the villains have codenames they're usually referred to by their civilian names. While on The Flash, Cisco is quick to dub every villain with a codename.
  Oliver: Last month, you took on a man named Leonard Snart—
  Barry: We call him Captain Cold.
  Oliver: We can talk about you giving your enemies silly codenames later.
  Barry: You mean, like, over coffee with Deathstroke and the Huntress?
• Continuity Snarl: In the long run, constant time traveling of speedsters like Barry, Eobard Thawne and Zoom, coupled with Team Legends' own shenanigans, may justify this inconsistencies. Nonetheless, the following specific examples.
  • The pilot episode of Arrow is guilty of this for two things.
    • It shows a very different Sara Lance. Not only because she was played by a different actress, but because said actress actress has nothing in common with the more well-known version — the former is a tall brunette, the latter is a blonde with above-average height, and both features were made as an important plot point for her family's arc late in Season 1. The former's name was also spelled slightly different (with an "h").
    • Robert Queen's birth year was shown as 1948 before it was reestablished as 1958 in the following episode.
  • According to Malcolm Merlyn, he was informed of his wife's murder when he was at his office. When the flashback was shown in Season 3, the authorities informed him at his home.
  • The timeline of Barry's Superhero Origin differs from the one shown in Arrow to the one shown in his own show's pilot. In Arrow it happens on the same night he comes back from Star City, while in The Flash it happens the night after. Then again, rectifying his Origin Story was his show's Big Bad's intended goal. And he already screwed the timeline significantly to do that.
  • The crossovers worked pretty well in the first half of Arrow Season 3 and The Flash Season 1, but in the second half they appeared to get knocked out of sync by a week or two, resulting in the Arrow team picking some rather odd moments to head to Central City.
    • This is even more awkward the following season when Barry appears on Arrow with his powers at a time when he'd lost them on his own show. And it was a whole month before we got to see how he got to Supergirl's Earth.
  • Al Rothstein, who will eventually become Atom Smasher, was mentioned by Harrison Wells as one of his staff that died during the Particle Accelerator incident. He appeared as the Starter Villain of Season 2 but both Caitlin and Cisco clearly don't know him. And that one was from Earth-2. Cisco and Caitlin didn't know the one from Earth-1 either. Said Earth-1 counterpart wasn't even in Central City when the Particle Accelerator went off.
  • Batwoman appeared in the Elseworlds (2018) crossover, apparently having some experience at the time, but Kate Kane ended up becoming Batwoman when her show premiered almost a year later. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019) crossover, Kate mentioned both that she's still new to being a superhero, and that the events of Elseworlds (2018) happened a year earlier.
  • Earth Prime Post-Crisis borrows mainly from Earth-1's history, which doesn't jive with Earth-38's history as seen in Supergirl (2015) or Earth-TUD 5's seen in Black Lightning. In particular, Batman was an active crimefighter and had met Superman many times Pre-Crisis, but Post-Crisis Batman adopts his backstory from Batwoman (2019) completely, albeit with Kryptonite being mentioned in Lucius Fox's journal as a means to pierce the Batsuit implying they worked together at least once. As for Black Lightning, much of the overall story arc revolves around the Green Light metas and the government wanting to control these metas as if they are the only superpowered beings in existence. However, nothing in the second half of Season 3 (the first Post-Crisis episodes) indicates the ASA has any knowledge of Flash or his Rogues in Central City, nor any fear of dealing with the Kryptonians or the DEO. somewhat subverted as Gotham City is mentioned as one of Odell's base of operations in Season 3 & Gambi has knowledge of STAR Labs in Central City being the location of a device used to help restore Jennifer Pierce in Season 4.
• Crossover: As can be expected of a franchise based on comic books, these happen frequently.
  • There was a big two night crossover advertised as Flash vs. Arrow. The characters also make frequent visits to Central and Starling City which is helped since the two air at the same time-slot on consecutive nights (Tuesday and Wednesday respectively).
    • Not only was there a second crossover the following year, but it served to set up the events of Legends of Tomorrow, featuring two of its main heroes and the first appearance of its primary villain.
  • On a rare example of a crossover with a canceled show, Arrow had a crossover with Constantine in season 4’s fifth episode, "Haunted", where Matt Ryan reprised his role as John Constantine.
  • Flash and Arrow both made guest appearances in the first season of Vixen. The tables turned several months later when Vixen herself showed up on the fifteenth episode of Arrow's fifth season, "Taken".
  • And then Flash crossed over with Supergirl, by way of Barry travelling to an alternate universe.
  • Supergirl, Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow all team up in a massive four-night crossover event to fight an alien invasion.
  • A musical crossover, entitled "Duet", between Flash and Supergirl also occurred later in The Flash's third season.
  • Elseworlds (2018) crossed over Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl (plus a Legends of Tomorrow cameo), and briefly crossed over with the 1990 Flash series. It also served as a Backdoor Pilot for a Batwoman series.
• Cosmic Retcon:
  • After Flashpoint, reality was altered in a few sublte ways, like Lyla and John having a son instead of a daughter, Ralph Dibny being alive again or Cisco's brother being dead.
  • Happened after Crisis. The Pre-Crisis Earths 1, 2, 38 and Black Lightning, merged in to one Earth, called Earth Prime, where the history of each Earth had blended together. There were some changes, including Sara Diggle coming back and coexisting with JJ, Earth-96 Superman never losing his loved ones, and some Green Arrow associates never dying.
• Crisis Crossover: Once Flash premiered they started a tradition of multi-part episodes spanning between episodes. They took advantage of the weekly airing CW schedule to tell a new part of the story in each installment, and it became a tradition. By the "Invasion!" crossover they became the first television Shared Universe to feature four television series sharing four parts of a whole story.
  • The first was in fall of 2014. As Flash aired on Tuesdays and Arrow on Wednesdays the first episode was Flash's "Flash vs. Arrow" and followed by Arrow's "The Brave and the Bold", which were largely self-contained stories using the events of both episodes to explain the crossover.
  • Fall of 2015 tried out a genuine Two-Part Episode featuring the casts of both shows coming together to face off against Vandal Savage and learning about his connection to Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders. It started on Flash's "Legends of Yesterday" and concluded on Arrow's "Legends of Today." This crossover, in addition to other story points in both shows, help to set up the premise of Legends of Tomorrow.
  • invokedFall of 2016 went even further, as Supergirl (2015) came to Mondays on CW from CBS and Legends of Tomorrow aired on Thursdays. Supergirl episode "Medusa" was largely a standalone but ended with Barry and Cisco arriving in her universe to recruit her for a special mission back in Earth-1. The following episodes of Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, in that order, showed the characters facing off against against an Alien Invasion and were all called "Invasion!" It also, appropriately, featured Arrow's 100th Episode as the origin of the Arrowverse.
  • The following year, they straight up called their Crisis Crossover Crisis on Earth-X, a four-part story told across episodes of each series.
  • Then came Elseworlds. A 3 parts crossover with Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl. Which would set up next year's crossover...
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths, the mother of all Crisis Crossovers. All the Multiverses where at stake.

D-L

• Dead Alternate Counterpart: Several of the Alternate Selves mentioned above weren't so lucky.
  • Two (from Earths 1 and 19) of the thirteen confirmed Harrison Wellses are confirmed dead. As fate would have it, both deaths involved body changing devices and evil speedsters from the future who time traveled to the past to kill an important woman in Earth-1 Barry Allen's life.
  • Of John Wesley Shipp's four confirmed characters, one (Henry Allen from Earth-1) is confirmed dead. ^note He also played Pollux, a clone of the Earth-90's Barry Allen who performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
    • Since Tim Thomerson's re-imagined version of Jay Garrick (named Jay Allen) was killed in The Flash (1990), this makes him this trope to the Earth-3 Jay Garrick played by Shipp.
    • The Earth-1 Henry Allen also played by Shipp is this to the M. Emmett Walsh version of Henry Allen from The Flash (1990) as well as the Earth-2 version.
  • Of the four confirmed Francisco Ramons, two (from Earths 2 and 22) are confirmed dead.^note The Earth-1 version actually died twice, but was brought Back from the Dead both times via Cosmic Retcon from Earth-1 Barry Allen
  • Of the three confirmed Oliver Queens, two (from Earths 2 and X) are confirmed dead. The Earth-X version was in fact killed by his Earth-1 counterpart.^note The Earth-1 version himself actually died briefly two years earlier, but was brought Back from the Dead via Cosmic Retcon from Earth-1 Barry Allen
  • Of the three confirmed Dinah Laurel Lances, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead.^note The Earth-1 version actually died earlier, but was brought Back from the Dead via Cosmic Retcon from Earth-1 Barry Allen
  • Of the three confirmed Quentin Larry Lances, two (from Earths 1 and 2) are confirmed dead.
  • Of the three confirmed Nora Thompson-Allens, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Kara Zor-Els, one (from Earth-X) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Sara Lances, one (from Earth-X) is confirmed dead.^note The remaining one (from Earth-1) technically died too, but was brought Back from the Dead possibly twice. First when her sister and Thea dipped her into the Lazarus Pit, while the second one was ambiguous since she was staying at Central City when Vandal Savage destroyed it before Earth-1 Barry makes his second Cosmic Retcon
  • Of the two confirmed Caitlin Snows, one (from Earth-2) is confirmed dead. She actually died because she tried to kill her Earth-1 counterpart.^note The Earth-1 version actually died earlier, but was brought Back from the Dead via Cosmic Retcon from Earth-1 Barry Allen
  • Of the two confirmed Joe Wests, one (from Earth-2) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the three confirmed Alex Danverses, one (from Earth-X) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the three confirmed James Olsens, one (from Earth-X) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the three confirmed Leonard Snarts/Wynters, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Ray Terrills, one (from Earth-X) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Damien Darhks, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead. The Earth-1 version actually died twice before being finally Killed Off for Real.
  • Of the two confirmed Robert Queens, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Julio Mendezes, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Shay Lamdens, one (from Earth-1) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Clay Parkers, one (from Earth-2) is confirmed dead.
  • Of the two confirmed Adam Fellses, one (from Earth-2) is confirmed dead.
  • Two of the confirmed Ronnie Raymonds (Earths 1 and 2), Martin Steins (Earths 1 and 2), Al Rothsteins (Earths 1 and 2), John Corbens (Earths 38 and X), Red Tornadoes (Earths 38 and X), and Tommy Merlyns (Earths 1 and X) are all dead.
• Doppelgänger: While they're technically alternate selves, this is how they are called by the main characters.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Count Vertigo takes several arrows to the chest and then falls to his death. The writers later pulled a Decomposite Character move and introduced a second Count Vertigo in the Season 3 premiere of Arrow.
  • Firefly commits suicide after being defeated by Ollie.
  • Shado is shot and killed by Professor Ivo.
  • The Dollmaker is killed by The Canary after he kidnaps Laurel and Quentin.
  • Detective Chyre, an ally of Wally West in the comics, dies even before Barry Allen gets his powers.
  • Clyde Mardon was killed by Joe West in the pilot episode of The Flash.
  • Dr. Wells kills Simon Stagg (long before a version of Metamorpho shows up, if any) when he determines that he poses a threat to the Flash.
  • Deadshot calmly waits to get caught by the explosion of the building he was standing in.
  • Eobard Thawne/The Reverse-Flash went on to Kill and Replace Dr. Harrison Wells, making the actual founder of S.T.A.R. Labs Dead All Along in this continuity.
  • In the comics, Eobard's ancestor and the present day Thawne becomes the supervillain Cobalt Blue. Here, the present Thawne, Eddie, committed a Heroic Suicide on the first Season Finale of The Flash before even donning his alleged/supposed supervillain identity. For the matter, this directly leads to Eobard Thawne/The Reverse-Flash being Ret Goned from existence.
  • Laurel Lance/Black Canary was infamously killed-off late into Arrow Season 4.
• Death Is Cheap: As befits a show based on comic books. Interestingly, deliberately trying to change history to effect this never works. Characters' habits of coming back to life are lampshaded in an episode of Arrow when they suspect the villain of the week is a past villain Ollie did away with in his Judge, Jury, and Executioner days. Instead, it's Laurel who returns.
• Deconstruction Crossover: In relation to the above, the teams crossing over is usually depicted as "out of place" in the city they're visiting due to their different approach in heroics.
• Depending on the Writer: "The Flash" and "Legends of Tomorrow" take very vast different approaches to time travel. While both shows agree that there are certain events that can't (or shouldn't) be changed — they vastly diverge after that. "Legends" operates under the premise that major alterations to time can be fixed with little ill effect. While "Flash" operates under the idea that there are major consequences to messing with time - Jay Garrick compares it to a cracked cup it can be fixed but never quite the same. The differences become more pronounced after "Flashpoint". It's obviously due to Poor Communication Kills between the writers for each show.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Barry showed up in two episodes of Arrow's second season a year before the Flash began airing. Cisco and Caitlin also showed up in a later episode of Arrow Season Two.
  • Hawkgirl briefly shows up near the end of Flash's season one finale.
  • In 2015, John Constantine had a one episode guest appearance on Arrow, for a long while serving as the only connection between his cancelled series and the Arrowverse. He wouldn't appear in The 'Verse again until the tail end of 2017, joining the cast of Legends of Tomorrow.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: the first season of Arrow is very grounded and realistic in tone, very similar to the Nolanverse. You'd never expect the same show to later share a universe with superpowered, magical or time-travelling people.
• Ensemble Cast: Arrow started off with a very tight focus on Oliver, but by the halfway point of the season he had developed a team structure with Diggle and Felicity. The other cast members certainly had their own plotlines, but as the show moved on everyone started gathering around Oliver as a Character-Magnetic Team. The strategy was very well received and The Flash was a lot quicker to bring the entire cast in on the secret identity. This culminates in the team-based show Legends of Tomorrow.
• Evil Mentor: Slade Wilson and, to a lesser extent, Malcolm Merlyn, for Oliver. Eobard Thawne aka "Harrison Wells" and Hunter Zolomon aka "Jay Garrick" for Barry. Sara begins to view Rip as her Evil Mentor in "Return of the Mack".
• Evolving Credits: Arrow's "My Name Is" Opening Narration changes every season (it changed twice during the third). The Flash's does as well, including a (slight) change once during the first Season Finale.
• Expy: The Arrowverse doesn't have free reign over all of the DCU, and so many characters are off limits. So many of the characters they CAN use are obvious stand-ins for who would normally be the bigger names. Of course, many characters are an expy/copy of the bigger names to begin with.
  • Oliver and Barry are quite similar to Batman and Superman with Kara herself seeming to feel the role of Wonder Woman
  • Mark Hamill's Trickster is not unlike the Joker.
  • The Atom for Blue Beetle. Enforced by Executive Meddling, as the writers had planned to use Blue Beetle. Mostly in Arrow. In Legends of Tomorrow, The Atom finally gets the powers he is famous for.
  • The Legends themselves seem to play the role of The Justice League or for that matter any other super team.
• Fanservice: The shows prefers Leg Focus for the men, and Shirtless Scene for the women.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While the setting started with nearly no fantastic elements, it eventually came to feature earthquake machines, Super Soldiers, ancient ninja cults, metahumans, Artificial Intelligence, magical healing ponds, Powered Armor, Time Travelers, Alternate Universes and immortal supervillains. As of the fourth season of Arrow, magic and the supernatural have been fully brought into this continuity. The last major comic book staple left are aliens, which are fully brought on to the franchise with the revelation in an episode of ''Legends of Tomorrow'' that the Time Masters are trying to prevent a Thanagarian invasion of Earth in 2175. And that's only going to continue with Supergirl thrown into the mix.
• Flying Firepower: The verse has Firestorm, The Atom, and Supergirl. One Legends of Tomorrow episode also shows that, in the future, the Kasnia Conglomerate will use flying robots inspired by the Atom suit to police the populace.
• Force and Finesse: Some character dynamics display this perfectly.
  • The Lance/Canary sisters. Laurel is an Incompletely Trained fighter who only recently retrained and crash-courses her advance training. As a result, she has a very smash-mouth fighting style (Force). On the other hand, Sara received Training from Hell from a renowned Murder, Inc. and as a result has a more graceful fighting style (Finesse).
  • The Reverse-Flash and Zoom, Barry's Evil Counterparts and arch-enemies. Zoom is an Ax-Crazy speedster who smugly does things For the Evulz upfront (Force), while the Reverse-Flash is also smug but a very cunning schemer who does things discretely as much as possible (Finesse).
  • Roy and Thea, the wearer of (the same) red-hooded costume. Thea is a more boisterous vigilante (Force) compared to Roy, who is more discreet (Finesse).
  • Leonard Snart and Mick Rory. Mick is, appropriately, a Hot-Blooded Pyromaniac (Force), while Leonard is a cool-headed schemer (Finesse). Puns intended.
  • The Mardon brothers after receiving Weather Manipulation powers. Clyde never trained using it, and as a result has some uncoordinated attacks (Force). On the other hand, Mark trained himself with it and has complete mastery of his powers (Finesse).
  • Slade Wilson and his son Grant. Grant prefers open attacks (Force), while his father prefers to use stealth and mind games. (Finesse).
• Fully Absorbed Finale:
  • Season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow basically serves as the final season for Vixen, which wasn't able to finish its story before it was canned after its second season. Though the main Vixen character is different (Amaya is Mari's grandmother), it does feature Mari's sister Kuasa as a major villain and the story explores the other Zambesi totems that the original show never got around to explain.
  • The Elseworlds and Crisis on Infinite Earths crossovers handily solve the short-lived 1990 Flash series, albeit in a very depressing way: Earth-90 is wrecked by the Monitor, while its Barry Allen sacrifices himself to stop the Anti-Monitor from destroying the whole multiverse.
• Future Self Reveal:
  • The Legends of Tomorrow Season 1 episode, "Left Behind", reveals that Chronos, the bounty hunter pursuing the Legends across time, is an older version of Mick, who was presumed dead before the reveal.
  • The Flash's Season 3 episode, "I Know Who You Are", reveals that Savitar, the Big Bad of the season, is a future version of Barry.
  • Cicada II's debut episode in The Flash's Season 5, "Failure is an Orphan", ends with the reveal that she is a future version of Grace Gibbons, Cicada's comatose niece.
• Gay Aesop: The shows are not shy in showing their pro-LGBT stance. This is especially obvious in Supergirl season 2, a big part of which is spent on Alex coming to terms with her sexuality.
• Gender Bender: A strange version in the Elseworlds crossover between three CW series. Deegan has rewritten reality so that he is Superman. However, Kara soon realizes that technically he is not actually Superman, but rather a male version of herself, based on the scans that the AMAZO robot took of her. This is because she is from Earth-38, and the Book of Destiny that Deegan used to rewrite reality only contains information on things from Earth-1. Kara mocks him for being too scared to just go all the way and become her. The three different series and episodes are:
  • The Flash (2014) "Elseworlds Part 1"
  • Arrow (2012) "Elseworlds Part 2"
  • Supergirl (2015) "Elseworlds Part 3"
• Gender Flip:
  • The Bug-Eyed Bandit in the comics is a man called Bertman Larvan. Here, her name is Brie.
  • In the comics, Katana had twin daughters. Here, she had a son.
  • In the comics, Mr. Terrific was married to a woman named Paula Holt. Here, she's a man named Paul and both he and Mr. Terrific were given Adaptational Sexuality by making them a male gay couple.
  • In the comics, Supergirl's adoptive sibling is a male infant. Here, she's female and is Age Lifted to be her Cool Big Sis.
  • In the comics, the Top is a male supervillain named Roscoe Dillon. Here, the Top is female named Rosalind.
• Genre Shift: Originally the verse was very Nolan-esque and grounded in as much realism as possible for a superhero drama. The addition of Barry Allen to the cast opened the floodgates for the verse to become more fantastical. The Flash involves metahumans with superpowers based in science. While Arrow is still more of a grounded, Pragmatic Adaptation (Laurel's Canary Cry is a sonic device and not a superpower), the show took the approach to include more supernatural powers with the reveal of Ra's Al-Ghul's Lazarus Pits in Season 3 and eventually outright magic with John Constantine in Season 4.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing:
  • Oliver Queen as the grumpy one and Felicity Smoak as the gleeful one from Arrow.
  • Oliver also acts as the grumpy one to Barry Allen and Kara Danvers whenever they team up.
  • Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow from The Flash (2014) are often this, especially in the beginning of the series when Caitlin is still grieving her boyfriend.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Reverse Flash Eobard Thawne, created the timeline of the Arrowverse as we know it by killing Barry's mother in the past. He is more powerful than almost any other villain the shows have to offer, and the few who are more dangerous than him die out while he remains Immune to Fate thanks to, again, his constant use of time travel.
• The Heart: Barry not just for Team Flash, but for Team Arrow as well due to his status as an All-Loving Hero.
• Hell: The Chinese island Lian Yu is not a happy place (it even means Purgatory in English).
• Hellhole Prison: Iron Heights, which houses criminals from Starling, Central, and Keystone City. Starling DA Laurel Lance flat out admits that "protective custody" is non-existant in the prison.
• Hufflepuff House: There are currently over fifty Alternate Universes in The Multiverse, but so far, only seven are visited (1, 2, 3, 19, 38, X, and retroactively an unnumbered one)
• Hypocrite:
  • Majority of the Arrow characters, with Oliver, Laurel and Felicity being the most notable examples.
  • Thawne quickly scolded Barry about the dangers of Time Travelling. Never mind that the reason he was Trapped in the Past in the first place was because he did just that. Also, he was actually training Barry to become stronger for that very purpose so he can travel back home.
  • Rip Hunter lectures Sara on messing up the timeline if she plans to go back in time to save her sister, despite the fact that the main reason Rip "recruited" his team in the first place is to prevent the murder of his wife and child.
• Ink-Suit Actor: As seen in the first Vixen trailer, the same actors voice their roles and thus their animated versions have a decent resemblance to them. Except Cisco, who is more muscular. The actress who voiced Vixen, Megalyn Echikunwoke, later guest-starred (in live action) on Arrow.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: A recurring theme on both Arrow and The Flash. Secret keeping often causes a lot of fallout between team members.
• Legion of Doom:
  • It forms in Season 2 of "Legends of Tomorrow". Its membership consists of Eobard Thawne, Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, and Leonard Snart.
  • The Cult of Mallus in Season 3 (also in Legends of Tomorrow) and Helix in Arrow Season 6.

M-R

• Mass Super-Empowering Event: The explosion of the S.T.A.R. Labs' Particle Accelerator is how both superpowered heroes and villains got their powers. Until we learn that Deathbolt, a metahuman who showed up in Starling City, was nowehere near Central City during the explosion, being in an Opal City jail at the time. And of course, the Reverse-Flash got his powers from some other source besides the explosion.
• Montage Out: Always followed by The Stinger, this device is so commonly used in Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl that it's the rule more often than the exception. Not present in Legends, though, likely due to its emphasis on adventure rather than interpersonal relationships.
• The Multiverse: Tackled more on The Flash, after the events of the first season finale cause portals to open up and link this world to alternate realities.
  • Universes confirmed to exist prior to the Crisis included:
    • Earth-1: The main universe where the franchise takes place.
    • Earth-2: The first parallel Earth visited on the show, has a Diesel Punk motif. The universe is home to Harry Wells, Jesse Quick, Zoom, King Shark, Dr. Light, and Black Siren. A news briefing indicates that Robert Queen became The Arrow in Earth-2, a Mythology Gag wherein Flashpoint Thomas Wayne became Batman.
    • Earth-3: The universe that is home to the real Jay Garrick.
    • Earth-12: The universe that is home to Herr Harrison Wolfgang Wells.
    • Earth-13: The universe that is home to Harrison Wells "the Grey", who appears to be a wizard.
    • Earth-15: The universe is said to be a "dead universe".
    • Earth-17: A Harrison Wells living there is briefly glimpsed during The Flash Season 3.
    • Earth-19: The universe that is home to Harrison "H.R." Wells and Gypsy.
    • Earth-22: The universe that is home to Harrison Wells "2.0". In this universe, Earth is a barren wasteland and most of its inhabitants are now cyborgs.
    • Earth-24: The universe that is home to Harrison "Sonny" Wells.
    • Earth-25: The universe that is home to Harrison H.P. Wells.
    • Earth-38: The universe where Supergirl takes place.
    • Earth-47: The universe that is home to Harrison Lothario Wells.
    • Earth-90: The universe where The Flash (1990) takes place.
    • Earth-X: The universe where the Nazis won WWII and home to the Ray and the Freedom Fighters.
    • The as yet unnamed universe where Hells Wells lives.
    • The as yet unnamed universe where a mime Harrison Wells lives.
    • The as yet unnamed universe where Harrison Sherloque Wells lives.
  • After the Multiverse was restored at the end of the Crisis, some universes were merged together, some universes split up and the numbering in others shuffled. The universes confirmed to exist so far include:
    • Earth-Prime: The main universe where the franchise takes place, resulting from the merging of pre-Crisis Earth-1, Earth-38 and Black Lightning’s Earth.
    • Earth-2: Now home to Stargirl and her Justice Society of America. (S.T.R.I.P.E., Wildcat, Sandman and Dr. Mid-Nite).
    • Earth-9: Remains the home of the Titans.
    • Earth-12: Now home to the Green Lantern Corps.
    • Earth-19: Now home to the Swamp Thing (2019).
    • Earth-21: Now home to the Doom Patrol (2019).
    • Earth-96: Restored as the home to another version of Superman ^note The Superman of Superman: The Movie and its four sequels (1978 — 1987, 2006).
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Flash has several nods to Green Lantern: the Emotional Spectrum is mentioned in "Flash vs. Arrow", Barry goes on a quick trip to Coast City for pizza in "Who is Harrison Wells?", and he mentions that Ferris Air closed down after one of their pilots disappeared in "Rogue Air".
  • Arrow season 4 includes flashbacks to Oliver's time in Coast City. One such flashback begins with the camera focusing on a man in a pilot's jacket with the named Jordan stitched on the front. But that's the furthest they're going to get due to Hal being off limits for the TV shows and restricted to movies. Luckily, the same crew's show Supergirl doesn't have such restrictions, and all the stuff in the DC Universe involving aliens is now more or less reserved for it anyway. And "Legends of Tomorrow" reveal that the Thanagarians will invade Earth sometime in 22nd Century.
  • Opal City is mentioned in Arrow, and briefly visited by Harrison and Jesse Wells in Flash.
  • The pre-Crisis Supergirl verse was Earth-38, in reference to Superman's first appearance in 1938.
• Nerds Are Sexy: The 'Verse seems to favor this with the likes of Barry Allen, Felicity Smoak, Ray Palmer, etc.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Supergirl on Earth 1. While she's still a powerhouse in her own show, most of her enemies and a couple of her allies can at least keep up with her while the combination of Green Arrow, Spartan, Speedy, Team Flash, and the Legends couldn't scratch her during a training exercise. While she was holding back.
  • Subverted in terms of speed where Barry (and presumably Wally) can still outmatch her speed, but lack the rest of her powers
• Oddball in the Series: Constantine, as it was introduced in the verse retroactively. It's not a superhero show but an Urban Fantasy, it's much darker, there's no Opening Narration and it didn't air on CW but on NBC.
• Odd Name Out:
  • Despite starting the entire Verse, Arrow is the only series in its entirety that has a name starting with a vowel. Exaggerated as this is also the case regarding Oliver with the entire cast of his show.
  • Legends is the only show that has a Team Title and the only one that's not an actual adaptation.
• One True Love: A recurring theme in the shows. It's not uncommon for characters to end up in multiple romances in their lives, but they often have only one soul mate.
  • Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak.
  • Barry Allen and Iris West.
  • The incarnations of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
  • Kate Kane and Sophie Moore ... until Kate had to be written out, after which, never mind.
• Once a Season: Beginning in 2014, the year "The Flash", debuted there have been annual crossovers between the shows, just before the winter finale. And as more shows are added to the roster, the more epic they get!
• Opening Narration: For a while, all the shows had one that would evolve based on the circumstances of that season.
• Poor Communication Kills: A staple of Arrowverse drama has always been for one or more protagonists to decline to tell another protagonist some important information, usually with a For Your Own Good justification, and then later to watch things explode when the truth inevitably comes out. And no matter how many times people get hurt, they never seem to learn to stop doing it...
• The Present Day: The majority of The Multiverse's Earths are set in this, specifically Earth-1, Supergirl's Earth, an unnamed Earth, and Earth-19.
• Preserve Your Gays:
  • Sara Lance's multiple reincarnations, the first of which comes just in time for her to come out as bisexual, the second because of her ex-boyfriend and current girlfriend fighting.
  • Main lesbian character Alex Danvers' frequent rescues from death, including her introduction in a plane crash that was later humorously suggested to be the one that killed her actress's straight character on another show, though possibly justified in having a superhero sister.
  • Maggie from Supergirl gets shot and for a brief time it looks like died; however, she recovers and the near death actually results in her entering a relationship with Alex, who she previously rejected. This episode was made at the height of the Bury Your Gays controversy, too.
  • When Ruby Rose left Batwoman, the show came up with some truly convoluted reasons to write out her character of Kate Kane without killing off TV's first lesbian superhero.
• Prime Timeline: Earth Prime is the center of this multiverse. Other dimensions are listed up in the description.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality:
  • Originally Oliver Queen was a pragmatic hero who was in the process of crossing names off a list of those who "have failed this city," typically allowing a white collar crook to live while having no qualms about taking out mercenaries and corrupt bodyguards surrounding them. He eventually realizes that he needs to change his ways, but the pre-existing body count seemed to be ignored in his current Thou Shalt Not Kill mood.
  • Team Flash went further by keeping the metahumans illegally locked in a private prison without due process of the law - which they tried to justify In-Universe, because Iron Heights Prison was not capable of holding them. That didn't stop them from briefly holding the Pied Piper (a non metahuman) prisoner though. Eventually they all escape in a botched prison transfer so all it was for naught.
• Protagonist Title: The shows are named after their respective main characters (or rather, their superhero identities) except Legends, which went with Team Title instead.
• Red/Green Contrast: The franchis's two flagship shows, Arrow and The Flash (2014), are headed by the green-themed Green Arrow and the red-suited Flash, who also contrast each other in several different ways.
• Red Herring: The showrunners present some elements from the comics, then have fun with it by either subverting or double-subverting it.
• Red Is Heroic: The Flash being the most notable example. Ray Palmer also has a stronger red Color Motif than blue. Also both Arsenal and Speedy.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • The most prominent example would be Thea Queen, who is Mia Dearden re-imagined as Oliver Queen's younger sister. Not only that, as it also turns out that she is actually Malcolm Merlyn's (Arthur King/Merlyn) daughter after having a brief affair with Oliver's mother.
  • Technically, Barry Allen to the Wests, as he was adopted by them in this version after that fateful event with his parents, though he has married Iris in the comics (albeit not the current post-Flashpoint timeline, thanks to Cosmic Retcon).
  • Shado is re-imagined as Yao Fei's daughter. Their respective counterparts have not even met.
  • The two Tricksters, James Jesse and Axel Walker, are reimagined as father and son, although this was probably only done so that Mark Hamill could say "I am your father."
  • Since Sara dons the identity of White Canary in Legends, this makes said character related to (Quentin) Larry, Dinah (Drake), and (Dinah) Laurel Lance. In the comics, the White Canary is a self-appointed Arch-Enemy of (Laurel, the second) Black Canary.
  • Played with with the Huntress and her father. It is later revealed that the head of the Bertinelli family is not Helena's biological father, but he still pretty much raised her anyway. Then again, her father in the show is a Composite Character of both her legal father and her biological Archnemesis Dad anyway.
  • Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond were married in the Flash first season finale. In the comics, they're enemies (though not without Foe Romance Subtext, especially on the former's part).
  • Inverted with Felicity Smoak and Ronnie Raymond. In the comics, the former is the latter's stepmother. Here, they have no relation and do not even know each other (yet).
  • Walter Steele becomes Oliver's (and Mia Dearden's, see above) stepfather. In the comics, Walter is a very minor character.
  • Inverted with Deathstroke and Ravager. Canonically, the latter is the former's illegitimate daughter. Here, she's merely his Dragon. Justified though, as she's a Composite Character of Ravager and Isabel Rochev, the latter of whom is her main counterpart.
  • A remixed variant. The 'Verse's version of Wally West is Iris' brother instead of nephew because they want closer ties between the characters.
  • Inverted with Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne's ancestor. In the comics, Eobard Thawne's ancestor, Malcolm Thawne/Cobalt Blue, was Barry's literal Evil Twin. While Eddie Thawne is still Eobard's ancestor, he's not a relative of Barry's.
  • Oliver and Nyssa were married at the penultimate episode of Season 3. In the comics, Oliver has only been married to Dinah Laurel Lance while Nyssa has always been single. In turn, this makes him son-in-law to Ra's Al-Ghul and her in-laws with the Queens and Mia Dearden (again, see above).
  • Inverted with Oliver and Connor Hawke. In the comics, the latter is the former's son. Here, they have no relation to each other and the latter is instead the son of Diggle and his wife Lyla aka Harbringer, which in turn plays this straight with the mother.
  • Jesse Quick becomes the daughter of the S.T.A.R. Labs founder (their Earth-2 versions, at least). In the comics, the S.T.A.R. Labs founder is a minor character while her father is Johnny Quick.
  • Felicity Smoak becomes the daughter of Noah Kuttler aka The Calculator. In the comics they have no connection, as she's a Firestorm character while he is a Birds of Prey villain.
  • A variation with Barry Allen and Jay Garrick - The latter is his father's Earth-3 counterpart who somehow had a different name (Earth-1 Henry hinted at this when he said that Garrick was his mother's maiden name).
• Ret-Canon: Elements of the shows have started to influence the comics canon.
• Retro Universe: Some parts of The Multiverse, specifically Earth-2 (styled mostly on 1920s-1930s Art Deco), Earth-17 (early 1900s Steampunk), and an unnumbered Earth (set in The Wild West).
• Ridiculously Long-lived Family Name: The Legends go back to feudal Japan and met the man who forged Tatsu's sword. His family name is also Yamashiro.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The 'Verse is prone to Cosmic Retcon. But there are those who are immune, such as...
  • Cisco Ramon, who has the ability to see changes in time and dimensions. This is the first evidence that he is also a metahuman, with gradually increasing strength and control.
  • In general, speedsters such as Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne seem to have this whenever they travel through time (especially justified when there's Mental Time Travel involved). Notably averted in The Flash Season 3 where Barry, having created the 'Flashpoint' timeline, gradually starts to lose his memories of his original timeline the more he uses his speed.
  • Similar to speedsters, the Legends are also aware of the changes in the timeline due to being in the temporal zone for most of the time.
  • The Flash Season 3 Big Bad Dr. Alchemy appears to have this, and seems to have the ability of giving others this as well - for instance, he restores Edward Clariss' memories of the 'Flashpoint' timeline, enabling him to resume his identity as villainous speedster 'the Rival' in the normal timeline.
  • Related to the above, it seems that people who were metahumans in the 'Flashpoint' timeline can subconsciously remember their 'Flashpoint' lives through dreams. This happened to Frankie Kane AKA Magenta, and its implied this is happening to Wally as well.
  • The Flash Season 3 establishes that this applies to people on parallel earths while the timeline is being changed. Therefore, Earth 2 Harrison Wells and Jesse remember how the timeline was during their time on Earth 1 prior to Barry creating (and undoing) the Flashpoint timeline and are as unfamiliar with the changes to the revised Season 3 timeline as Barry is. This also explains Jay Garrick's awareness of Barry altering Earth 1's timeline.
  • The Paragons, Lena Luthor, and Jennifer Pierce are the only people from the Earths now merged into Earth-Prime who naturally remember the pre-Crisis multiverse; everyone else was subjected to Death Amnesia. J'onn has to restore everyone else's memories for them to remember.
• Rogues Gallery:
  • Zig-zagged in Arrow. The show is centered around a seasonal Big Bad, and while there are recurring villains like China White, Count Vertigo and the Suicide Squad, they are only minor villains in the grand scheme of things. Justified, as Green Arrow is notable for his lack of a rogues gallery in the comics.
  • Played straight in The Flash, which has one of the most famous galleries in the comics. In addition to Cold's gang - the Rogues, which form a Big Bad Ensemble with the Big Bad of each season - there are other recurring foes as well.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Both Oliver and Barry do not exclusively stick to their respective canonical Rogues Gallery. It goes In-Universe too in the cases of The Clock King, the Royal Flush Gang, Deathbolt and Brie Larvan.
• Running Gag:
  • Barry is always late, even after he got his Super-Speed.
  • Diggle will always, always throw up whenever Barry carries him somewhere at superspeed.
  • It seems to be a general rule that secret lairs in the Arrowverse have lousy security. People can walk right into S.T.A.R. Labs without any kind of challenge and the elevator to the Arrowcave, while hidden behind a secret wall panel, was easily ridden down to the lair by Curtis Holt once he discovered it. The waverider was also easily infiltrated by the young Martin Stein when they went to The '70s.

S-Y

• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Barry Allen, the Nice Guy vs. Oliver Queen, the brooding Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Serial Escalation: While the conflicts were quite personal and mostly citywide before, both the Big Bad of Arrow Season 4 and Flash Season 2 now seek to conquer (in Flash's case) and destroy (in Arrow's case) the entire world.
  • The Mid-season crossovers also count. To start off with, Team Arrow visited Star Labs and helped Team Flash defeat the Villain of the Week, and then Team Flash did the same thing for Team Arrow; each episode could be watched without the need to watch the other.
    • The second crossover was a Poorly Disguised Pilot for Legends of Tomorrow, and both episodes had to be watched together as one story.
    • The Invasion crossover took place over Arrow, Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. The only involvement Supergirl's episode, which was shown at the start of the week, had was breaches opening and closing a few times during the episode, and then a short scene at the end which was repeated in the following Flash episode.
    • Crisis on Earth-X took place over all four main shows.
    • Elseworlds (2018) scales back to three episodes, leaving the Legends out, but Superman makes his crossover debut and Batwoman is introduced in anticipation of her own show. While previous crossovers were fairly self-contained, this one is clearly stated to be a trial run for a crisis that's just around the corner...
    • And topping this is 2019's Crisis on Infinite Earths which crossovers over all FIVE shows and many cameos from previous non-Arrowverse shows, such as Batman (1966), Smallville and the DC Extended Universe.
• Shared Universe: While the shows have largely the same producers, they have different writers. This doesn't stop them from holding yearly crossover events, though.
• Sibling Team: Leonard and Lisa Snart, Mark and Clyde Mardon, Oliver and Thea Queen starting Arrow Season 4, Kara and Alex Danvers, and Zari and Behrad Tomaz as of Legends Season 5. Averted by the Lance sisters, since they go on their separate paths, Laurel is killed by Damian Darhk, and the Earth-2 Laurel who comes to replace her spends two whole seasons as a villain.
• Siblings in Crime: The aforementioned Snart and Mardon siblings.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Comes with the two main heroes being The Cape and The Cowl. Barry's a Nice Guy and when he got his super speed becoming a hero was just natural to him. By contrast Oliver was a selfish playboy and became a hero as a way to atone for his own misdeeds and to fulfill his father's dying wish for him to save their Wretched Hive of a city; and even then he had to go through five years of Training from Hell on an inhospitable island before he could even begin to fulfill his father's wish. Barry has always valued help from others since day one, while Oliver has to be persuaded to accept any help.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Majority of which are Posthumous Characters in the comics for the sake of their loved ones' Death by Origin Story.
  • Moira Queen died along with her husband Robert in most Green Arrow stories. She dies near the end of Season 2 courtesy of Slade Wilson.
  • In most stories, Dinah Drake Lance died before or around the time Laurel is the Black Canary. She's alive as of Season 4. [Her other daughter Sara covered that, among other things. Or so it seems.
  • In relation to the above, Detective (Quentin) Larry Lance is usually dead by the time Laurel is the Black Canary. He's dead at the end of Season 7.
  • In the comics, her entire family's death at her very young age is what pushed Helena Bertinelli to become The Huntress. Here, her father is not only still alive but also becomes an Archnemesis Dad for her. He survived until the third quarter of Season 2.
  • Maseo Yamashiro's death is integral to his wife Tatsu's backstory, ditto their twin daughters'. Here, he outlived their child for five years until Tatsu, in Katana gear, (forcefully) killed him herself at the penultimate episode of Season 3.
  • In the comics, Henry Allen dies in prison while not being able to have his name cleared. Barry was able to prove his innocence and he was set free in the Season 2 premiere, only to be killed by Zoom near the end of the season.
  • In most stories, Iris West's mother is long dead. She shows up during Flash's second season. She's revealed to be living on borrowed time, and eventually succumbs to her illness in the middle of the season.
• Spiritual Successor: To the DC Animated Universe. Both started with a show based on The Cowl, followed by a spinoff with The Cape, and then led into a team-up show.
  • Both also had shows that were originally separate continuities but later retconned in: Static Shock for the DCAU, Constantine, Supergirl, and the 90's The Flash for the Arrowverse.
  • It's also one to Smallville. Both are DC Comics-based shows that aired on The CW, David Nutter directed the pilot episodes for Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash, they all have a massive Love Dodecahedron, some of the crew who worked on Smallville worked on these shows, the show currently air on some of Smallville's timeslots, some of the same heroes are in both, such as Green Arrow, Supergirl, the JSA, etc, actors from older DC productions have been cast in roles in these shows, they all filmed in Vancouver.
    • Both Smallville and Supergirl originally aired on a different network before moving to The CW in a year that ends with 6, Martian Manhunter as a mentor to the hero, a Luthor as an ally to the hero while their parent is their enemy, a best friend who is in love with the hero, and the hero is a reporter for some type of news outlet.
    • Both Smallville and Arrow aired alongside Supernatural, they both have a blonde tech expert, a Token Black Friend, a love interest that's a Creator's Pet and thus The Scrappy, a rich main antagonist, and they both use Hatley Castle. As a trivia, Arrow was originally envisioned as a spin-off of Smallville, with Justin Hartley supposed to reprise his role as Green Arrow.
    • Both Smallville and The Flash started out with villain-of-the-week episodes before focusing on major story arcs, both have a love interest that's a childhood friend and crush who dates another guy in the first season, in both shows, the hero went back in time to prevent a loved one's death that causes the death of another.
    • Recognized as such in when Crisis on Infinite Earths came around, in which Smallville Clark Kent and Lois Lane appeared, with executive producer Marc Guggenheim stating that this was to recognize the fact that the Arrowverse was built on top of Smallville.
• Star-Crossed Lovers:
  • Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance. There are at least three earths where the two have fallen in love and gotten together. The real issue with them is staying together. While the Earth-X versions simply broke up, the Earth-1 and Earth-2 versions were still very much in love with each other. Earth-1 Oliver and Laurel broke up but were in a position to get back together, only for Earth-1 Laurel to die before they could. Earth-2 Oliver and Laurel did not break up, and were still very much in love only for Earth-2 Oliver to die when the Gambit sank on their earth, which was the last straw in Earth-2 Laurel's Start of Darkness. Basically, it doesn't matter how much Oliver and Laurel love each other — it seems the multiverse is intent on keeping them apart.
  • Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond. Like Oliver and Laurel, there are at least two earths where they've gotten together, only for their love story to end in tragedy. Caitlin and Ronnie where separated for over a year, with the former believing the latter to be dead for most of that time, and finally married when they were reunited — only for Ronnie to die on their wedding day trying to stop the Singularity. Their evil Earth-2 counterparts also got Happily Married and were together for quite some time, only to get on the wrong side of Zoom and die within weeks of each other.
• Statuesque Stunner: Some women literally just tower over the others.
  • Helena Bertinelli, Nyssa Al-Ghul, Betti Sans Souci, Kendra Saunders, Patty Spivot, and Kara Zor-El all stand 5'8. Ditto for Sara Lance's original actress Jacqueline McInnes Wood.
  • Laurel Lance came short at 5'7 1/2.
  • Ava Sharpe stands 5'9. Combined with her choice of footwear, she tends to tower over her love interest, Sara.
  • U.S. President Olivia Marsdin (of Earth-38) stands 5'9 1/2. Doubles as Silver Vixen given she's played by Lynda Carter.
  • Tracy Brand is a sexy scientist at 5'10.
  • Valentina Vostok is the second tallest female character to date at 5'11.
  • Lillian Luthor is the tallest woman in the franchise to date standing at a whopping 6' feet. Doubles as Silver Vixen given she's played by Brenda Strong.
• Stealth Pun: The 'Verse just loves making very subtle Visual Puns for the sake of Actor Allusion, namely;
  • Katie Cassidy, a prominent "Scream Queen" during the 2000s, plays Laurel Lance, who in the comics (and eventually on the show proper) is renowned for screaming.
  • The penultimate episode of Flash Season 1 shows Captain Cold arranging a literal prison break for Barry's Rogues Gallery.
  • Brandon Routh's Star-Making Role is playing Superman, aka "The Man of Steel". His character in The 'Verse is wearing Power Armor, literally making him just that.
  • invoked Liam McIntyre, whose Star-Making Role is playing the titular Spartacus whose Red Baron is "The Bringer of Rain", plays Mark Mardon, a recurring villain with Weather Manipulation powers.
  • Whenever Barry (or Oliver with super-speed) runs Diggle somewhere, Dig will almost inevitably hurl—in other words, a literal Running Gag.
• Strong as They Need to Be: The shows are infamous for this, as the characters' competence and effectiveness largely depends on the demands of the plot.
• Student–Master Team:
  • Oliver spent the first three years of the Arrow flashbacks teaming up with his mentors Slade, Shado, and Maseo. The role is reversed by present day, as the now experienced Oliver now serves as the Big Brother Mentor to many heroes, namely; Roy, Barry, Curtis, Rene, Rory, and Evelyn.
  • Speaking of Barry, he double-subverts this with Jay Garrick. This is because the first "Jay Garrick" is actually the Season 2 Big Bad in disguise. However, once he finds the real Jay (who is his late father's Alternate Self), the latter becomes a straight-out Stern Teacher to him.
  • According to Leonard Snart, his father was the one who thought him how to be a criminal, and did it by taking him to different jobs. It's heavily implied that Leonard was also the one who taught his sister Lisa, though their relationship is a lot more healthier than their relationship with their father.
  • Ra's Al-Ghul can be seen fighting along the League of Assassins, all of whom he personally trained.
  • Supergirl is trained to fight by her adoptive Cool Big Sis Alex, making them also double as a Sibling Team. Both of them are mentored by the Martian Manhunter, who occasionally fights alongside them.
• Superhero Prevalence Stages: It started out Early Stage in Arrow season one. Five years on, it's well into the Middle - while there isn't yet a single "superhero governing body", the various heroes are a matter of public knowledge and regularly help each other out
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Implemented in general, but defied in practice. It's discussed In-Universe; the Flash and Arrow's methods work well in their own cities but not in each other's cities. Central City is more or less an average city, so the police can handle normal criminals while the Flash focuses on the super villains and the rogue metahumans (he fights minor crimes as well, just not as prominently). Starling City is a Wretched Hive to the point where the police are out of their depth so Oliver as a brutual vigilante is tolerated out of necessity. In Starling City, Barry (supposedly) doesn't understand how to handle their kind of criminals, and Central City has little tolerance for a vigilante like Oliver. A couple of times, Barry has assisted Oliver in the latter's show with something minor, though he conveniently never stays for the extra two seconds it would take to apprehened the villain. Crossovers do happen, though, especially a Crisis Crossover to answer questions about why the other is pre-occupied during other points.
  • Usually played straight in that, even after Cisco invents multi-dimensional teleportation devices and Barry gains enough speed to hop from one universe to another, teams Flash and Arrow seldom ask for Supergirl's help or vice versa. At least in the Flash's case, it's occasionally justified, when it's noted that the Thinker had measures in place for other heroes and that other heroes tried to take down Cicada, but were unsuccessful.
    • At the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019), Barry, Kara, Clark, Jefferson, Sara, Kate, and J'onn come together at the Hall of Justice and sit down at a table together, seemingly forming the basis for a Justice League. And then...nothing whatsoever comes of it beyond a mention or two, with J'onn even creating a new superhero base just for his team. This gets explicitly egrigeous in Black Lightning, where the titular hero is overwhelmed, but never thinks to call, at the very least, the Kryptonians, nor does the DEO ever acknowledge that Freeland has any trouble whatsoever. Additionally, Barry begins to lose his speed in Season 7, with this being presented as a huge problem, but no one ever considers calling in another hero for backup against some of the bad guys.
    • The "Armageddon" event on The Flash suggests that the heroes all do meet up to battle mega-villains like Felix Faust ... it just all happens off-screen.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: While not a straight-out copy, Arrow feels like a Batman show at times, particularly its liberal dabbling on Rogues' Gallery Transplant (especially during season 3, when perennial Batman enemy Ra's al Ghul serves as the main villain).
• Swiss-Cheese Security: The heroes' bases of operations having poor security measures is the most consistent Running Gag in The 'Verse.
• Take That!: Each appearance by Constantine so far has one to NBC's mismanagement of his series.
  • In Arrow his list of ingredients for a magic spell ends with a dead peacock's feather.
  • In Legends of Tomorrow he keeps getting stopped from lighting his cigarette but finally succeeds to much satisfaction; NBC execs decreed that while he could be portrayed as a chain smoker like in the comics, he could never actually light up onscreen.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: All over the place. How they use their appeal varies, if they use it at all. There's Barry Allen (6'2), Ray Palmer (6'3), Kal El-/Clark Kent (6'), Tommy Merlyn (5'11), Hunter Zolomon (6'3), Ronnie Raymond (5'11), Malcolm Merlyn (6'), Mark Mardon (6'2), Leonard Snart (6'1), Carter Hall (5'11), and Jeremiah Danvers (5'11).
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: All over the place. Whether they're snarky, icy, or both varies. There's Oliver Queen (6'1), John Diggle (6'2), Quentin Lance (6'3 1/2), Hank Henshaw, who is actually J'onn J'onzz (6'1), Malcolm Merlyn (6'), Slade Wilson (5'11), Harrison Wells (6') Eobard Thawne as "Wells" (6'), Helena Bertinelli (5'8, which is tall for a woman), Nyssa Al-Ghul (5'8), Ra's Al-Ghul (6'), Leonard Snart (6'1), Mick Rory (6'2), Mark Mardon (6'2), Carter Hall (5'11), Vandal Savage (6'1), Earth-2 Ronnie Raymond (5'11), Earth-2 Laurel Lance (5'7 1/2), and Hunter Zolomon (6'3).
• Time Travel: Tackled more on both The Flash and Legends, especially the latter.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The Time Travel rules of this verse are anything but consistent; even within one show there are multiple contradictions.
• Title by Year: A few episodes are titled after the years in which they are (at least partially) set:
  • Legends of Tomorrow:
    • "Star City 2046"
    • "Camelot/3000" (a Shout-Out to the comic book series Camelot 3000).
  • Arrow episode "Star City 2040".
• Took a Level in Badass: Applies to pretty much every major character. Our heroes are constantly gaining and refining new powers, skills, and tech. The one major exception is Malcom Merlyn, who has gone from the terrifying Big Bad of Arrow season one to losing almost every fight that's not with mooks or red shirts.
• Transplant:
  • Before The Flash began, Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow appeared in three episodes of Arrow season 2.
  • Legends of Tomorrow is a show built around a group of these. Its founding members include two characters transplanted from Arrow (Sara Lance and Ray Palmer) and five from The Flash (Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, Martin Stein, Jefferson Jackson, and Kendra Saunders). The main villains for season 2 are the Legion of Doom, composed of three returning major villains: Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk from Arrow and Eobard Thawne from The Flash. Finally, Wally West from The Flash joins the Legends for most of season 3.
  • After his show was canceled by NBC, John Constantine guest starred in a season 4 episode of Arrow. Two years of negotiations later, he made a return to the Arrowverse as a guest star in season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow, before becoming a main cast member from season 4 onward.
• Trash the Set: The heroes' respective headquarters occasionally gets badly ruined.
• True Companions: One of the Central Themes of the shows is for The Hero to see their respective support team beyond just that.
• Turn of the Millennium: Many character backstories and the most important Flashbacks happened in this decade, specifically:
  • Near the end of this decade (2007), a yacht accident happened which led Oliver and Sara to the long path of becoming superheroes. This path was also directly involved in making Slade Wilson a supervillain.
  • At the very beginning of this decade (2000), The Reverse-Flash murdered Barry's mother and his father was framed for it. Around the same time, Dr. Harrison Wells and his wife Tess Morgan suffered a car accident which took the life of the latter. A month after the death of Barry's mother, Dr. Wells opened S.T.A.R. Labs. It is later revealed that the "accident" was arranged by The Reverse-Flash so he can Kill and Replace Dr. Wells, the man who will be responsible for giving The Flash his powers, so he could do that much sooner for his own personal gain.
  • Kara Zor-El landed on Earth in 2003, unknowingly bringing the massive Kryptonian detaining facility Fort Rozz with her.
  • In 2005, D.E.O Director Hank Henshaw leads a team including Dr. Jeremiah Danvers to hunt down a martian taking refuge at South America. Dr. Danvers encounters and befriended the alien and defended him from Henshaw, seemingly at the cost of their lives. The alien, J'onn J'onzz, then impersonates Henshaw and assumed his life as the director of D.E.O.
  • John Diggle spends most of this decade fighting The War on Terror. His sense of duty and valor are the main reasons why Oliver recruited him and why Dig himself agreed to be both The Lancer and Morality Chain.
  • At the very end of this decade (2009), Dr. Wells and General Eilling parted ways after the former was disgusted at the latter's treatment of a specific laboratory test subject, a gorilla named Grodd.
• Two Girls to a Team: The shows love invoking this.
  • Arrow
    • Team Arrow frequently have this dynamic starting Season 2 until late in Season 3. By Season 4, this trope becomes inverted.
    • Tempest only had two female members; Moira Queen and an unnamed woman.
    • The League of Assassins only had two known female members; The Canary and Nyssa Al-Ghul. Unless of course one counts the League priestess.
    • The Suicide Squad only has two known female members; Cupid and "an unnamed deranged woman'.
  • The Flash:
    • While Caitlin is generally The Smurfette Principle, she's occasionally joined by Felicity, and later Iris, to play this straight. With Iris getting inducted into the team in late season 1, it seems like it will be played straight for good. This trope plays straight starting Season 2.
    • As of the first season, there are only two female metahumans that showed (Plastique, Peek-a-Boo). Same goes for non-metahuman criminals (Lisa Snart, Brie Larvan).
• Two Guys and a Girl: It's been a dynamic of both Arrow and Flash to feature The Hero (Oliver/Barry) usually accompanied by The Lancer/Sidekick (Diggle/Slade/Roy/Maseo for Oliver, Cisco for Barry) and The Smurfette Principle (Felicity/Shado/Sara/Laurel/Tatsu for Oliver, Caitlin for Barry). They're also involved in a Love Triangle with this dynamic (Tommy/Laurel, Ray/Felicity for Oliver, Eddie/Iris for Barry).
• The 'Verse: The shows form a separate continuity from the current crop of DC movies from Man of Steel onwards, which share their own continuity.
• Virtual Sidekick:
  • In The Flash, Eobard Thawne's Reverse-Flash suit has a built-in AI system called Gideon. She is able to communicate to him via earpieces and can appear as a holographic interface with the appearance of a bald woman. Thawne later downloads Gideon into a more stationary form and keeps her in a secret room of STAR Labs known as the Time Vault. Gideon is able provide analysis for Thawne, notably changes to the timeline. Barry Allen and Team Flash later discover Gideon where she reveals that Barry is her creator and thus will follow all of his instructions. Years later, Barry rebuilt Gideon (after she got destroyed) and wired her up as a "mobile Gideon" who much like Thawne's version could be accessed from his suit.
  • Legends of Tomorrow features a different Gideon of the Spaceship Girl variant, built into the Waverrider to serve the Legends. While similar in appearance, to Flash's Gideon, usually appearing as a hologram of a bald woman, this one is a Ridiculously Human Robot who displays a lot of emotion and personality, being somewhat of a cheeky Servile Snarker. Gideon serves as the resident Ms. Exposition and The Smart Gal, providing Info Dumps on the various eras of history that the Legends visit, as well as monitoring changes to the timeline. She can also directly interface with the Waverrider which includes: piloting it in the absence of a human pilot, serving as the Auto Doc of the medical bay, putting the ship or areas of it into lockdown, and even put crew members into a Lotus-Eater Machine (which she has done with Zari and Rip). It's also revealed that she has a few Override Commands built in by Captain Rip Hunter, who uses them against the Legends a few instances when he opposes them.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: For the heroes, the answer is almost always "From Cisco Ramon", who takes extreme pride and joy in designing all the equipment Team Arrow and Team Flash employ in their crime fighting.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: So in what part of the country are Central City, Keystone City, and Star City located? What makes this trickier is that both Star City and Central City send their criminals to the same prison. However, Barry runs from one to the other to get "The Best Pizza in the West", so it's in the western United States.
• White Shirt of Death:
  • Tommy Merlyn was wearing a white polo when he was impaled by a rebar on Arrow's Season 1 finale.
  • Nora Allen was wearing an Ivory blouse when she was stabbed by a knife in the heart by The Reverse-Flash.
  • Hannibal Bates plays with this. His default form was wearing a white polo, but he was shot while impersonating Eobard Thawne who is wearing black. However, he reverts back to his default form and clothes as he dies.
  • Eddie Thawne was wearing a similar outfit to the first example when he performed a Heroic Suicide on the Season 1 finale of The Flash.
  • The last we see of Francine West she was wearing a white hospital gown as she's on a hospital bed. Since she died there, it's very likely that she was wearing a same gown (maybe even the one she was wearing above) when she succumbed to her illness.
  • Played with regarding Laurel Lance, who dies while wearing a white hospital gown, but was wearing her Black Canary costume when she was stabbed.
• Why Won't You Die?: Eobard Thawne should be dead, but he has a knack for coming back he even though he was erased from existence twice. In Crisis on Earth-X, the heroes are exasperated how he managed to return without any explanation.
• A Wizard Did It: Every Continuity Snarl in the shows are justified by a number of speedsters (Barry and Eobard mostly) and the Legends' constant meddling with time.
• World of Badass: A Multiverse of Badass given how many superheroes and supervillains exist in many sides of it.
• The World Is Always Doomed: Much like the world it's based on; by a few years in, how often the heroes have to save the world (or multiverse) is a running joke.
• Wretched Hive: Star(ling) City, so much that a gang of thugs was able to turn one neighborhood (the Glades) into their own personal kingdom while Oliver was away.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: How Earths 1 and 38 work. In both "Verses Zoom" and "Invasion" it took a few seconds to cover what took up a whole episode of Supergirl (2015), while it hasn't yet been shown how long a trip to Earth-1 takes from Earth-38.

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