Oliver Queen was relaxing on a regular Wednesday evening. The adjustment to normal life after deciding to finally hang up the hood had been anything but easy.
Oliver, being the son of extremely rich entrepreneurs Robert and Moira Queen, inherited all of their money and lived alone in a giant mansion.
The life he used to lead was that of a man delivering justice illegally. Just a year ago, he had been marooned on an island for five straight years after his party boat capsized. His father, who was also on the boat, did not make it out alive.
Oliver soon discovered that his father was involved in the wrong crowd back at home. A massive undertaking had been in the planning for a long time before the shipwreck, and his father had been coerced with hollow promises of making their city a better place.
When Oliver escaped from the island, he found the city he once loved had become a cesspool of crime and villainy.
Dedicated to the idea his father had, Oliver made it his sole purpose to rid Starling City of its crime, and take down the undertaking once and for all!
This, of course, was a long time ago. Despite Oliver's efforts, crime continues to run rampant through the streets. The undertaking was soon discovered as a plan to level half the city, which is referred to as the Glades. The Glades is where crime is at its highest. The mastermind behind the undertaking, a man named Malcolm Merlin, planned to totally destroy that half of the city and everyone in it in an effort to "make the city a better place".
When Merlin was finally taken out of the equation by Oliver, an entirely new wave of criminals and lunatics struck Starling City. Dark secrets from back on the island (which I'm not going to get in to) resurfaced and Oliver was faced with old foes who were now much more powerful. But yet again, Oliver was able to somehow find a way through all of his predicaments and all the villains were seemingly vanquished.
But it didn't stop there! More and more threatening characters started to emerge out of nowhere and the more Oliver stood up for what's right, the more of a target he became for villains much bigger, faster, stronger, and more dangerous than him.
Then one morning, Oliver had a so-called revelation. What if he was wasting his life trying to save people he didn't even know? What if there was more meaning to his life then almost getting killed while trying to be the hero?
Days went by where that thought hung over Oliver's head like a dark cloud. It weighed on him so heavily that all of his potential in life could be unrealized if he continues getting himself involved in things he had absolutely no business being involved in.
This unfortunate situation continued, until one day... Oliver made a life changing choice. He was in way over his head, and it was time the Arrow rides off into the sunset. Therefore, Oliver faked his death to the city.
Staging the death
It was during a bank robbery. The police were hot on the tails of the criminals, who were in possession of hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a high speed car chase. Just as the criminals shook the cops, their car began to vibrate wildly and they came to a complete stop.
"What the heck is this, man!?!?!" shouted one of the two criminals.
"I think the tires are flat!" replied the other one.
"What! I pumped them this morning!"
"Well apparently you didn't do a good job, now did ya!?!?!"
