If Green Arrow and the Canaries is to move forward, changes need to be made to Mia Smoak because she’s been made to be Oliver’s replacement in so many ways more than his next generation.
With Arrow officially over, and the potential for the Arrow spin off, Green Arrow and the Canaries to take flight, it’s time to talk about one thing that is concerning for the future: Mia Smoak and how the writers created her to be a younger, female replica of her father.
An Oliver Queen replacement
Since Mia Smoak was first introduced on Arrow season 7, the similarities to her father, Oliver Queen, have been the essence of her character. Throughout season 8, during their time together in the present day, these similarities were pointed out and heavily focused on, as if we didn’t already know how alike Mia and Oliver are.
They’re both stubborn, they’ve both been through so much, and they both lost their fathers, leading them to become the Green Arrow. Why are we watching the same origin story with two characters? (And, for the record, it’s very clear that William is being written as the male Felicity… where’s the originality?)
It’s been clear since the moment she arrived that Mia Smoak was being written to lead her own spin off, to be the next Green Arrow on The CW, and that’s come to fruition, but at what cost? So much of the final two seasons were spent on setting up Mia’s story, rather than bringing Arrow to a close, especially the final season. Even on the last episode, Mia faced off against a man that Oliver did, and she made the same choice as him, cementing that they are basically the same hero, even if Mia has a long journey ahead of her to end up where he did.
Mia Smoak-Queen should be her on person, not her parents
Not only is writing Mia Smoak as Oliver’s replacement disrespectful to his legacy, it’s disrespectful to her character. Why should Mia be almost a carbon copy of her father when there are so many opportunities for her to learn and grow from his mistakes, successes, and take some of the optimism that her mother had?
On Green Arrow and the Canaries, it seemed like Mia was finally being differentiated from Oliver… at least a little since she was basically the same as him before Lian Yu with her socialite Earth-Prime memories. But on the Arrow finale, she felt like she had regressed back to who she was before “Crisis on Infinite Earths” merged the Earths and fixed the future.
We’ve already watched Oliver Queen’s journey for seven years, saw his highs and lows, and watched his love story and vigil-antics progress until he ended up dead. Oliver had a disappointing and awful ending to his journey, but this is a chance for Mia to be different. Much of Mia’s journey as the Green Arrow has and will, on Green Arrow and the Canaries, be about operating under Oliver’s shadow and following in his footsteps. However, that doesn’t mean that Mia can’t be her own person along the way.
She shouldn’t be written as Oliver was because Mia, just by being a different character, is not the same as him. She can’t replace him, nor should the writers try to make her into the replacement for him. I want to see Mia shine as her own hero, not the hero her father was. I want to see her personality flourish in her new life with a mix of memories to guide her. Kat McNamara has such talent and plays Mia so well, and it’s time to put her talent to use and flesh Mia out as more than just the next generation of Oliver Queen.
(All of this goes for William, too. He’s should be more than just Felicity 2.0, and his very traumatic and tragic background — including the loss of two parents — has all of the makings of a great story. William shouldn’t solely be used for comic relief when he clearly has so much to offer. Step up the writing and try something new, please.)
Stay tuned for word about Green Arrow and the Canaries.
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