YMMV / To Hell and Back (Arrowverse)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Oliver actually a better combatant than Ra's? In-universe, none of the characters are sure. The Dominator's machine fight scene would tend to imply that...but it didn't create Ra's, it created Oliver's memory of Ra's, and it's doubtful that Oliver ever had to see Ra's go all out.
• Complete Monster:
  • Talia al Ghul is the daughter of the legendary Ra's al Ghul who let the dream of power go to her head. Convinced that she was deserving of power and respect from everyone, Talia once murdered 50 innocent people just because one of them insulted her, making even her own father disown her and remove her from the League. Wanting a Lazarus Pit for her own use, Talia forces Malcolm Merlyn to lead her to one by manipulating his son Tommy into a relationship with Isabel, killing her, and driving him into her own League. After learning that the League has a line of succession, Talia attempts to murder the innocent Iris West to attract the Justice League's attention before assaulting Nanda Parbat, attempting to murder her own father and sister to attain the role of Ra's; Nyssa also reveals that this is not the first time Talia has attempted to kill her out of jealousy. After being handily defeated, Talia abandons her own loyal followers to die while she retreats.
  • Hunter Zolomon, aka Zoom, is a Serial Killer from Earth-2 who used his powers to conquer the world. Zoom also doubled as a superhero so that he could "kill" the hero on national TV and further destroy the world's hope. After learning that he was losing his speed, Zoom mercilessly tortured Earth-3 Jay Garrick before killing him; murdered Jesse Wells after forcing her father to help him—a low to which even his own canon counterpart never sank—and then murdered his Earth-1 counterpart to take over his life. Upon entering the story by almost murdering Barry for no reason, Zoom quickly establishes himself as Barry's Arch-Enemy and attempts to take over Earth-1 just because. After attempting to murder Barry's father just to prove they're not so different, Zoom leads an invasion of Earth-1 that leads to hundreds of deaths and thousands of dollars of destruction to the city, all because he believes that he deserves to rule over whatever was left.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: In the earlier chapters, a number of readers suggested the possibility of Oliver/Kara or Tommy/Kara, despite Oliver already being slated to be either with Laurel or Nyssa, while Kara remained single. The author permanently sunk former by reiterating that none of the three leads (Oliver, Barry, and Kara) would be paired with each other, and sunk the latter by informing readers that, like Kara, Tommy wasn't getting paired with anyone for plot reasons. They later went back on their word by pairing Tommy with Isabel, though they did clarify it was for the sake of the plot than any genuine pleasure in the pairing itself.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Eddie Thawne. His Adaptational Jerkass treatment makes it hard to like him; he's selfish, obsessed with the Flash, and struggles with taking responsibility for his actions. And then we meet his parents and so much of his behavior makes sense, especially as we see just how often they demean, insult, and outright dismiss him whenever they don't need him for PR purposes. It's taken to its logical extreme when they don't even visit him during his nine-month coma.
  • Tommy Merlyn. He's possessive, jealous, prone to fits of rage against the wrong people, and throws his lot in with his father after killing Talia. He's also given the harshest Trauma Conga Line in the entire fic (getting shot on two separate occasions is only the start of it) and is being lied to and manipulated by everyone around him for their own goals, ensuring that he never knows the true impact of his actions. Additionally, when he believes that he's found love with Isabel, it's revealed that she was only using him for her own ends, and then she ends up murdered anyway.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Malcolm Merlyn, aka the Dark Archer, is a former member of the League of Assassins who fled the League following a massacre by Talia al Ghul. Endeavoring to better Starling City and avenge his wife's death, Malcolm masterminded the Undertaking, an attempt to destroy the Glades and make the city better. Upon coming into conflict with the Green Arrow, Malcolm schemes against him, yet ultimately proves to be little threat to the fellow archer before the Undertaking's failure. However, upon being captured by Talia and having Tommy's life threatened, he proves his manipulative abilities: first by convincing Tommy that Talia had his lover Isabel murdered, including leaving out his correct assumption that they were working together because Tommy would never believe him, then turning Tommy to his side and having him murder Talia, passing control of the League of Shadows onto him. After killing those who helped him because they might betray him as well, Malcolm then plants a Body Double so effective that even ARGUS is fooled, faking his death so he can lay low while Tommy helps him scheme against the Green Arrow further.
  • Amanda Waller is the director of ARGUS and the true leader of the Justice League. Quickly deducing the heroes' identities, Waller blackmails all of them into working for her under the threat of exposing them. She also works with the Queens to scapegoat Frank Chen into confessing to the Undertaking, allowing them to get off scot free in exchange for stopping Malcolm Merlyn, while also revealing that she's aware of Malcolm and Oliver's relation yet is happy to keep it secret. Upon learning of the Dominator threat, Waller leads the human resistance in arming and preparing everyone capable of resisting the threat, later proving vital to repelling the invasion with her scientists. Upon becoming aware of Zoom's threat, Waller tortures Killer Frost to learn everything she can, making Deathstorm cave within moments. She then unleashes her signature creation, Task Force X, to rescue Barry and save his father from Zoom. Lacking any powers yet brave enough to insult Zoom to his face, Waller is one of the few people able to control the various heroes that work for her with nothing but her intelligence and information.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Talia al Ghul and Adrian Chase cross it when they arrange for Tommy to fall in love with Isabel, only to murder her just as he was going to propose to her. While Isabel herself is not innocent, they deliberately mimic the murder of Tommy's mother from a decade earlier to ensure that he truly is emotionally broken enough to leave Starling City completely.
    • If there was any doubt, it's revealed that Talia actually crossed it long before the story began. During a mission to assassinate a drug lord, one of the target's harem insulted her, leading to her poisoning all fifty women in revenge. Malcolm later cites this as the moment that convinced him to leave the League completely.
  • If Zoom didn't cross it in his very first appearance by showing up out of nowhere and almost killing Barry with no provocation, he definitely crosses it when he forces Barry to watch him torture Earth-3 Jay Garrick, knowing full well that Jay is a doppelgänger of Barry's father.
  • Eddie crosses the line with his actions after Ralph's murder. While Ralph's murder was a genuine accident, his response is to mutilate the corpse, then frame a mugger for it to throw off any suspicion. At this point, it becomes clear that he needs to be stopped as soon as possible.
• One True Threesome: During the Dominators' illusion, Oliver and Laurel only regain full memory of their real lives when they meet Nyssa in the illusion, with the author affirming that this foreshadows Nyssa becoming part of Oliver and Laurel's relationship in reality; the two admit their feelings to Nyssa in chapter 88.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • The author does not like Felicity Smoak, and even admits as much in the first part of the prologue.
    • In the unaltered timeline from where Eobard comes from, Felicity was a Green Arrow stalker that had convinced herself that Oliver was her soulmate and outed his secret identity to the public right before she was jailed after he rejected her.
    • In the current timeline, she's in jail for creating the hacktivist supervirus that her college boyfriend took the blame for in canon. Said boyfriend is also in jail for using it to clear out his student loans.
  • Andy Diggle and the Darhks (sans Nora) are both killed in Part IV of the prologue. Andy's death isn't even mentioned, just inferred by readers.

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