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such-expensive-mistakes · 6 months

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When Oliver Queen was dead, he ended up in the Infinite Realms, where he inadvertently became the mentor to teen ghost hero Phantom. After Ollie came back to life, he made a point of reaching out to Phantom, just in case the kid needed anything.

DCxDP Week prompt: found family

Author's Notes: I've tried to make this accessible as possible to those of you who aren't familiar with the Arrowfam, but here are links to character primers on Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke and Mia Dearden if you want them. If you are familiar with GA comics, then just know that this is set loosely during the 2001 run. And finally, the idea of a hero in the Infinite Realms helping mentor Danny was largely inspired by Blueseabird2's fic Grave Promises. (It's excellent! If you haven't read it, go do that!)

"Do you remember it?" Ollie asks, looking at Superman out of the corner of his eye. They're standing in front of Oliver's grave. Always made the right enemies. It's a hell of an epitaph; Ollie wonders who came up with it. Roy or Dinah, probably.

"Remember..." Superman says.

"Being dead."

Supes gives him that same look everyone seems to be giving Ollie these days, like he's not quite sure if Ollie is all there in the head.

"Never mind." Oliver waves a hand. "Just thinking."

He does remember it, is the thing. He remembers the endless Infinite Realms, as green as any of Hal's constructs. He remembers the ghosts-- the ones who had originally been alive like him, and the ones that had never lived at all. Humans and aliens and otherdimensional beings, all together in one place. He remembers being in the same costume he'd died in, only color-flipped to red. (That was just wrong. Red was Roy's color, not Ollie's.)

And he remembers Phantom.

He'd met Phantom pretty early on. Time in the Infinite Realms was tricky; it didn't move like time did on Earth. Sometimes it went slower, sometimes faster, sometimes it even seemed to go backwards. So he didn't remember exactly how long he'd been in the Realms before coming across Phantom, but it didn't feel like long.

Phantom had been chasing down some magical artifact when he'd come across Oliver-- or rather, Red Arrow-- who had picked a fight with an asshole ghost way more powerful than him.

Some things never changed. But hey, ghost arrows were pretty nifty.

Phantom had helped him out, and in return Ollie had offered to help Phantom with tracking down the artifact he was looking for. As they talked, it quickly became obvious that Phantom was doing the whole teen hero thing-- and not just in the Realms, but on Earth. He clammed up when Ollie asked too many questions, but it was pretty clear that he didn't have a mentor or anything.

"Do you have the Teen Titans in your world?" Oliver asked, having learned by that point that the Infinite Realms connected every dimension out there.

"Yeah," Phantom had said, looking wary.

"You should talk to them," Oliver said. "It helps to have someone out there on your side, who knows what you're dealing with." The Titans had been good for Roy. Not just friends, although they were that, too, but an extra support system.

But Phantom shook his head. "I can't." And then he'd gone on to describe the Anti-Ecto Acts and the GIW.

Ollie had never exactly been a fan of the government-- too much corruption, too many rich assholes using the system to protect themselves-- but this still managed to surprise him. And while he was pretty sure his own world's Teen Titans wouldn't stand for this kind of thing-- or even the JLA, no matter how badly they sometimes overreached-- he had no way of knowing whether Phantom's Teen Titans were the same ones he knew.

"Tell you what," Ollie said. "Next time you get a chance, track me down and I'll show you a few things. I don't know how much help I'll be with superpowers, but--"

"Really?" Phantom had asked, then surprised Ollie by hugging him.

That was the start of it. They'd tracked down the artifact, Phantom had left the Realms to go back and do his hero thing on Earth, and Oliver was left to second-guess himself until the next time Phantom came around.

Oliver wasn't exactly a perfect mentor. He'd done his best for Roy, but there were so many things he would do differently if he had the chance. But he was better than nothing, which was what Phantom had been working with before.

Phantom didn't need to learn archery; he had superpowers. But Ollie managed to teach him a thing or two about picking your shot and waiting for the right moment. About trusting your instincts and dodging bullets (or ectoblasts).

Phantom was cagey about anything that wasn't hero work, but Oliver managed to glean a few details. He had a couple of living friends who helped him out, he was frequently chased down by ghost hunters, and most of the town he was based in didn't think particularly highly of him. And that was on top of his whole rogue's gallery of villainous ghosts, not to mention the GIW.

"You can't make people like you," Ollie advised him. "Even if you do all the right things. You just have to trust yourself and ignore the public opinion." God knew plenty of people had hated the Green Arrow over the years.

It had been rewarding, in a way Ollie had almost forgotten, watching Phantom grow as a hero. Watching him grow more confident and more skilled-- and Ollie wasn't giving himself credit for all of that, but he'd helped bring those qualities out.

And then, Oliver came back to life.

"Where to next?" Roy asks, as they drive out of Central City. Ollie appreciates that Roy is willing to follow his lead on this, even though it's clear Roy thinks he's being ridiculous. Sure, Wally would probably have let Ollie have that old ring of Barry's if he'd asked, just like the JLA would probably have let him have the diamond-tipped arrow. But those things weren't theirs to keep or give in the first place.

"Amity Park, Illinois."

Roy gives him a skeptical look over the top of his sunglasses. "The hell is in Amity Park?" He's bracing himself to hear about some other memorabilia Ollie left behind upon his death, something else that wasn't disposed of the way Ollie had requested. Something else that other people-- even Roy-- think insignificant.

That would be easier to explain than this.

"Maybe nothing," Oliver says. "But I need to be sure."

Finding Amity Park in the first place is a task and a half. It's not on the map Roy keeps in his glovebox, and they have to ask directions at multiple gas stations across Illinois before they arrive.

It's immediately clear that they're in the right place. Amity Park is a small city-- barely even a city, really. But the property damage evident on the streets and the buildings is on par with the aftermath of an alien invasion.

Roy slides off his shades. "What on earth..." He glances at Oliver. "Ollie, what is this?"

A green streak shoots across the sky, followed by a white one.

Phantom.

"Follow them!" Ollie points at the ghosts.

By the time they arrive, it's a stand-off. The other ghost has disappeared, but Phantom is hovering twenty feet off the ground, dodging blasts from a couple in brightly colored hazmat suits.

The Fentons. Ollie had heard a few stories about them while he was in the Infinite Realms, though Phantom had been reluctant to talk about them.

"Ollie," Roy says. In his voice, Ollie can hear all the suppressed rage he himself is feeling, watching a child-- a superpowered child, but a child nonetheless-- getting shot at.

"Not yet." Ollie wants to help, but he doesn't want to make things worse by jumping in without thinking. Their help isn't needed in the end; Phantom manages to disappear from sight while the ghost hunters are distracted.

Oliver tells the whole story to Roy over dinner at the local fast food joint.

"Jesus Christ," Roy says.

"So you see why I want to talk to Phantom," Ollie says.

"Aren't you already training two kids already? You gonna add all of this on top?"

"Connor doesn't need training. He could probably teach me a thing or two. And no one is training Mia in anything." Okay, that last part isn't quite true; Oliver knows for a fact that Connor has been giving Mia lessons in archery and hand-to-hand. But as long as she's not trying to put on a costume and fight crime, he'll pretend he doesn't know. Hell, it makes him feel better, knowing that she has a trick or two up her sleeve.

"Phantom can't be much older than she is," Roy says, a hint of judgment in his tone.

"Phantom is already dead," he says. Roy flinches a little. "And he doesn't have a Hal Jordan to bring him back."

They go back to their burgers. It's not until Oliver is crumpling up his wrapper that he speaks again.

"Look," Ollie says. "This is a lot bigger than Phantom. And based on what I know of him, he's not going to want to leave Amity Park. But I want to let him know that someone's got his back."

Roy claps him on the shoulder. "More than just one person."

Tracking down Phantom for a conversation is harder than it sounds. Oliver doesn't know how much time he even spends out here, rather than in the Infinite Realms. Not to mention the handy ghost power of invisibility.

He suits up and stakes out a rooftop downtown, with Roy doing the same on the other side of town. He's just getting ready to pack it in for the night and try it again tomorrow when a familiar form materializes next to him.

"Arrow?" Phantom asks.

Oliver smiles. "Hey, kid."

"What-- how-- you're alive?" Phantom sputters a little.

"Am now," Ollie says. "A friend of mine brought me back." He gives a quick overview-- Green Lantern, godlike power, decided what the world was missing was one Oliver Queen.

"I'm going to do what I can about the Anti-Ecto Acts and the GIW," Oliver says. "But if you ever need anything, give me a call. Or just track me down in Star." He hands a slip of paper with his phone number and email on it to Phantom.

"Danny," Phantom says.

"Sorry?"

"My name. It's Danny."

"Oliver." Ollie holds out his hand and Danny shakes it. "Good to meet you, Danny."

For a while, he only hears from Danny through irregular emails and the very occasional phone call. Ollie leans on his Justice League acquaintances to help repeal the Anti-Ecto Acts and get rid of the GIW. It's slow going-- much slower than Ollie would like. Too many JL members are advising caution, wanting to find out more about ghosts and how dangerous they might be before they take a stand. Luckily, neither Superman and Wonder Woman were happy about Oliver's news, and hold a lot of sway with the American public. And rather conveniently, a number of reporters have suddenly begun looking into the Anti-Ecto Acts, stirring up public sentiment against them even more than before.

Things are looking good. And then, Danny shows up at the front door of Oliver's brownstone.

Oliver is making himself a sandwich when he hears the knock at the door. Mia (who had finally gotten Ollie to agree to let her be Speedy a few weeks back) is with the Teen Titans for the weekend, and Connor is working at the youth center for most of the day, so there's no one else here to answer the door. Ollie wipes his hands on a kitchen towel, and opens the door.

Ollie doesn't know it's Danny at first. The Danny he met was a ghost, complete with jumpsuit and white hair and superpowers. The kid that shows up at Ollie's front door is a living, breathing kid. He's got pale skin and dark hair and he can't be any older than sixteen. He's a little on the thin side, though given his age, he could just be going through a growth spurt, and the backpack slung over his shoulder is decorated with a NASA patch.

"Ollie?" the kid asks.

"That's me," Ollie says. "What can I do for you?"

"It's Danny. Phantom," he clarifies in a low voice. "From Amity Park."

He can see it, now that he knows to look. The face and build are the same, just color-swapped.

“I need your help,” Danny continues.

The kid looks like he’s about to fall over from exhaustion or stress or both.

Ollie opens the door a little wider. "Come on in. I was just making myself some lunch. You can tell me what's going on."

Danny follows him into the kitchen and takes a seat at the counter. Ollie finishes the sandwiches and slides one over to Danny.

Danny doesn't pick it up at first, busy fidgeting with the sleeves of his hoodie. “I don’t know where to start."

"Well, I gotta say," Oliver says. "You're looking pretty alive for a dead guy. I mean, same could be said for myself, but I told you how that happened."

Danny grimaces. "About that. It's kind of complicated."

Oliver leans against the opposite counter. "Hit me with it."

He already knows it's bad. He was worried about Phantom in the first place; that's why he gave Danny a way to contact him if necessary. Whatever made Danny travel halfway across the country to see him? It can't be good.

"My parents are the Fentons," Danny starts.

Immediately Oliver knows the story is going to be worse than he anticipated. "The ghost hunters. The ones who built the portal." Ollie had heard all about that portal during his sojourn in the Infinite Realms-- some from Phantom, some from other ghosts.

"Yeah. Well, the portal didn't exactly work at first. My friends wanted to see it, and..." Danny shrugs. "It worked better than anyone gave them credit for, it's just that they accidentally put the switch on the inside."

He can see where this story is going. "And you accidentally turned it on."

"Yeah. It killed me, but all the ectoplasm coming through the portal brought me back to life. So I'm only half-dead." Danny finishes up his sandwich but Oliver, who is familiar with the eating habits of superhero teenagers, hands him another one.

"I'm guessing your folks don't know."

"My sister does. My parents don't." Danny fidgets with the sleeves of his hoodie. "That's not important."

It seems a little bit important.

“It don’t know if there’s anything you can do,” Danny adds. “I just… I didn’t know where else to go.”

“You can stay here as long as you need to," Ollie says. There's an extra bedroom that Stanley used as an office, back when this place belonged to him. He'll need to get the junk cleaned out, but it should work for Danny. "But it might help if I had a few more details. Is someone gonna come looking for you-- or for Phantom?"

"I don't think so," Danny says. "Well, the GIW might, but they're not super active outside of Amity Park."

"We'll handle them if they show up." Oliver would love the chance to put a few arrows in them, and he's sure Connor and Mia would feel the same.

There's obviously more to this story than Danny is currently telling him, but Ollie isn't gonna press. Not yet. Long and difficult experience has taught him how badly that usually goes when dealing with teenagers.

Danny finishes up his lunch, and Ollie shows him around, eventually leaving him to hang out in the living room and watch TV. Ollie himself starts packing up the junk in the spare room. Danny might have to sleep on the couch for a day or two, until they get a bed for him to use, but it's an alright couch. Ollie has certainly slept in less comfortable places.

He doesn't realize how much time has passed until he hears Connor call him from downstairs.

"Dad?"

His tone of voice is carefully measured, but it's enough to remind Oliver that Danny is downstairs-- and that he didn't let Connor know about their new guest.

He dashes down the stairs and, sure enough, Connor and Danny are watching each other warily from other sides of the living room. Danny in particular looks like he wants to bolt.

"This is Danny," Oliver says. "He's gonna be staying with us for a while. And Danny, this is my son, Connor. He's the other Green Arrow."

"Nice to meet you," Connor says to Danny. Then, "Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ollie follows Connor downstairs to the training room in their basement. He has no idea how far Danny's enhanced senses extend outside the Infinite Realms-- or even if they work at all when he's not a ghost-- but Ollie suspects this conversation might not be as private as Connor is hoping.

"Are you sure about this?" Connor asks.

"He doesn't have anywhere else," Ollie says. "What do you want me to do?"

Connor runs his hand over his face. "I don't know. But have you even talked to Mia about this? When did you even meet this kid?"

"It was a sudden development," Ollie says. "So no, I didn't. But I don't think Mia's gonna tell me to send him packing." He knows that's not what Connor is worried about; for all her bravado, Mia is still insecure about many things. "As for how I met him... that's a bit of a story."

"Okay," Connor finally says. "As long as you're sure."

Ollie clasps his shoulder. "I appreciate it."

They don't explain anything further to Connor that night, which is probably unfair to him. But Ollie doesn't really want to make Danny explain more than once, and Mia won't be back until the next day.

Danny sleeps on the couch, and in the morning, he helps Ollie and Connor clean out the spare room. Mia shows up a little after noon, having gotten a ride back from one of her powered friends, and finds the three of them eating pizza in the living room.

"You better have saved me some," she says, as she tosses her overnight bag on the floor.

"Didn't your friends feed you?" Ollie asks, but he passes her the box of pepperoni.

Mia takes a slice and perches on the back of the couch, right next to Danny. "Hi! I'm Mia." She gives Danny a look that is probably intended to be flirtatious.

Danny looks a little like a deer in the headlights. "Uh, hi?"

Connor raises an eyebrow at Oliver, and yeah, maybe having a teenage boy staying in the same house as Mia is a bad idea. Then again, he's closer to her age than the guys she usually hits on.

"This is Danny," Oliver says. "Danny, Mia is my other kid. She's also Speedy."

They give Connor and Mia the cliff's notes version on ghosts and the Infinite Realms. Danny knows a lot more than Ollie does about all of it, but he's much worse at explaining. He either gets lost on tangents about inconsequential details, or he assumes they have more baseline knowledge than they do.

"I'm sorry," Mia says. "Can we go back to the part where ghosts exist?"

"We've fought actual demons," Connor says. "How are ghosts harder to believe?"

"Ollie was never a demon," Mia says with a shrug. Then she narrows her eyes at Oliver. "Were you?"

Ollie laughs. "Definitely not."

The next week or so is pretty quiet, by their standards. The Green Arrows and Speedy go out and handle low-level crime in the city every night, though Phantom stays in at Ollie's suggestion; if the GIW is looking for him, it's better if he lies low. It's a little worrying how easily he agrees. It had never been that easy to convince him to do anything when they were training in the Infinite Realms.

Mia, who is better with technology than Ollie is, helps Danny send a message to his friends, letting them know he's safe.

"It's better if I don't give them too many details," Danny says. "Anyone who's looking for me will be watching them. All of our devices are encrypted, thanks to Tucker, but I don't want to take any chances."

Danny comes with them to help out at the youth center, even while Ollie tells him that he's welcome to stay home and play video games or whatever. Danny hasn't said anything about it, and so Ollie hasn't either, but Danny doesn't seem to want to be left alone for long.

Oliver wonders if that's because he's worried about himself or about them.

"So, where do your folks think you are?" Ollie asks at one point.

Danny shrugs. "Does it really matter?"

"Well, I'd like to know if I'm likely to be charged with kidnapping." Connor and Mia both shoot him judgmental looks, but it's not like either of them were under any illusions about Ollie's ability to be delicate. "I mean, I can handle it if I am, but I'd like to be prepared."

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Danny says, and that's the subject closed for the moment.

Mia corners Ollie one afternoon at the youth center, while Danny is playing basketball with some of the kids. Danny is losing, badly. Turns out he's incredibly clumsy when he's not using his powers. The kids don't seem to mind, though, and Danny is a pretty good sport about it.

"We're keeping him, right?" Mia asks.

Oliver gives Mia a level look. He hasn't noticed anything beyond some flirting on Mia's side, but that doesn't mean much.

"Not like that," Mia says, rolling her eyes. "I mean, he's cute, but he's kind of dense."

"Funny, I'm pretty sure the same has been said about me," Ollie jokes.

"Whatever he's not telling us... it's got to be pretty bad, right?" Mia says. "But he seems happy here. And we won't let anything happen to him."

There's a lot Oliver could say here: Danny has parents, he has friends, he has a home he obviously misses. By almost every measure, he's far more powerful than Ollie or his kids, and whatever has him scared is quite possibly out of their league. But the truth is, he feels the way Mia does.

"It's up to him," Oliver finally says. "But he's welcome to stay as long as he wants to."

Green Arrow and Speedy are crouched on a rooftop, taking aim at a couple of drug dealers, when Connor's voice crackles across the comms.

"I've got eyes on some guys in white suits," he says. "At Fifty-first and Green."

That's halfway across town, though nowhere near the brownstone. If something goes down in the next few minutes, Connor is going to be on his own.

"Don't engage," Ollie says. "We're on our way."

They break up the drug deal and make their way toward Connor, who has been updating them on the GIW's movements the whole while.

"I think they're looking for something," Connor says. "They keep stopping and checking some kind of device-- I think it's a tracker of some kind."

"They're looking for Danny," Mia says.

"How did they even know he's here?" Ollie wonders, but neither Mia nor Connor have any idea. He makes a split-second decision. "Mia, head back home and keep an eye on Danny. Tell him Connor and I are handling it."

Mia is obviously put out by being sent away from the action, but she complies. Oliver catches up with Connor, perching next to him on the edge of a roof. Down on the street, a couple of men dressed all in white exit a white van and wave around a couple of handheld electronic devices. They don't look up, which seems like a mistake from people who ostensibly deal with ghosts. Convenient for the Green Arrows, though.

Trailing the GIW agents is a piece of cake. Their all-white getup makes them clearly visible from a distance, and they seem to rely on their equipment rather than their eyes or ears.

Their apparent incompetence makes Oliver get a little cocky, and that's where things go wrong. He lands on the building closest to the agents, sure that they won't look up and see him-- and he's right.

Unfortunately, their device starts beeping just at that moment, and the two men are suddenly on high alert. Ollie gets the bad feeling that something about him is what set it off. They pull out their guns and look around wildly, until one of the geniuses gets the bright idea to look up. That's when they start shooting wildly at Oliver and Connor.

Their aim isn't great, and whatever kind of energy weapons they're using are only powerful enough to do some superficial damage to the building facade, but Ollie isn't eager to find out how it would feel to get hit by one of those. Fortunately, he and Connor are both much better shots than these guys.

They shoot the weapons out of the agents' hands first, then Ollie puts an arrow through one guy's hand while Connor puts one through the other guy's foot.

For a minute, it seems like it's going to be that easy. Then, three more white vans come peeling down the street and a dozen more agents pour out. Now, it's Oliver and Connor who are pinned down, ducking behind the roof's edge to avoid getting hit by those energy weapons.

Ollie puts an arrow through another guy's shoulder, and is just a smidge too slow getting back out of the way. The energy blast is going to hit him right in the shoulder. He braces to take the hit--

A green shield appears in front of him. The energy blast hits it and dissipates.

For a moment, Ollie thinks it's the work of a Lantern. And then he sees Phantom, a bright white and glowing target hovering above the street.

The GIW agents have completely disregarded Ollie and Connor, and are frantically shooting at Phantom. Phantom is dodging the blasts easily; there's no sign of the clumsiness that he's beset with when he's a normal human. One of the agents gets an arrow through his shoulder, and Ollie spots Mia perched on a roof across the street.

In hindsight, he really should have expected this. Neither of those kids are the type to sit at home when they could be helping instead. Even so, he doesn't like it.

With Danny distracting the agents, it's much easier for Ollie, Connor and Mia to hit them. They may be outnumbered, but the GIW agents are terrible shots. At some point, the agents seem to realize this, too, and flee back into their vans, limping and bleeding, and drive away.

"Follow them?" Connor asks.

"No," Ollie says. "I don't think they're going to try anything else tonight."

The four of them make their way back to the brownstone.

"I told you to stay here with Danny," Ollie tells Mia, once they're inside and putting away their gear.

"Did you really think I was going to listen?" Mia asks.

Ollie runs his hands over his face. "A man can dream."

"Besides," Mia adds, "from where I was standing it seemed like we bailed you two out. Right, Danny?"

With a flash of light, Danny transforms back to his human form. "I'm sorry," he says. "I don't know how they knew I was here."

"I'm not sure they did," Connor says. "They were looking pretty hard for something before they went after the two of us."

"But they were looking for me specifically," Danny says.

Ollie gives Danny a closer look. He's clearly nervous. More than just nervous, he looks like he's on the verge of taking off and running.

"What makes you so sure they're here for you?" Oliver asks. It's not that he doesn't trust Danny's instincts, but he doesn't feel like he's got the whole picture.

Danny leans against the workbench, almost knocking a set of half-finished arrows to the floor. "They've been trying to catch Phantom since the beginning," he says. "I kind of made their lives difficult."

"Good," Connor says, crossing his arms.

"Plus, a lot of Amity Parkers kind of... don't like Phantom? So the GIW heard about what a menace I was, and that didn't help. But then you got Superman and Wonder Woman and all of them to talk about how bad the GIW and Anti-Ecto Acts are, and that helped, and-- I had it handled. "

"So what happened?" Mia asks.

"My parents found out. And I kind of freaked out? And I flew off, and the GIW caught up to me." Danny looks around, takes in their stricken expressions, and hurries to add, "Not for long! But then I headed back home and my parents were telling everyone I was dead. I didn't know what to do, so I came here."

Oliver's head hurts just thinking about this mess. He walks across the room and wraps an arm around Danny. "We'll get this figured out," he promises, though he's not entirely sure how. "First things first. What do you want to do about your parents?"

Mia scowls at him-- she's clearly already formed her opinion on Danny's parents. Ollie can't say he disagrees, but he's made his own share of mistakes in the parenting department. He hopes that the Fentons might be able to come around, if only because Danny clearly loves them.

"The GIW..." Danny begins.

"I've got a few ideas about them." Ollie is a little torn between hunting them down himself, pointing Supes or someone in their direction, or letting it leak to the public that these government lackeys chased a kid halfway across the country. "Do you want to go back to your parents?"

"I don't know," he says. "I miss them, but... I don't know if they'll believe I'm really me. They think all ghosts are evil. But even if they believed me..." He trails off.

"You can stay here," Mia insists. "Right, Ollie?"

"Of course he can." He didn't actually need Mia's prompting for that. "You're welcome to stick around as long as you want, but you should at least stay until we get the GIW shut down."

Danny looks around the room at the three of them. Whatever he sees must reassure him because after a long minute, he nods. "Okay. At least until then."

#dc x dp fic #dcxdp #dpxdc #green arrow #arrowfam #dpxdc week 2023

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royboyfanpage · 2 months

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Okay, let's talk about Ollie's experience with fatherhood.

I'm an Oliver Queen apologist forever, but I think that there's a tendency in fandom to go one of two ways- "absolutely perfect dad, no flaws whatsoever" or "evil abuser who shouldn't be within six miles of a child". This isn't an Ollie exclusive phenomenon, a lot of characters and topics do fall into that black-and-white mindset. But the thing is- Ollie doesn't have to be either extreme. Particularly with Roy, who most of the debate centres around, Ollie wasn't perfect! I think there's such a rich discussion point in terms of young Roy's relationship with Ollie, so much more than just That Panel. Because, in my interpretation, Ollie absolutely cared about him, absolutely saw him as a son, but also the idea of being a father is something that deeply terrified him. The idea that this literal child being dependent on him made it feel more real, if that makes sense. Coming to terms with the fact that he was responsible for another person's life was difficult for him, and so he put up this wall- hero and sidekick. A conceptual dynamic, one that's not based in reality. He can keep that distance between himself and Roy and decide what that means, he doesn't have to be a father because that word has so many strong connotations, but he can still express that he cares about Roy, in his own way. That's why he always calls Roy 'Speedy' even out of costume, that's why his first thought is that Roy's undercover in Snowbirds. He can focus on being a good mentor to Speedy, which will have a trickle-down effect to being a good guardian to Roy, right?

Unfortunately, kids' brains don't work like that! Especially not a kid who's already lost two fathers. Roy needed a stability in his teenage years that Ollie just wasn't able to give at that time. He didn't see "Ollie's nice to me as Speedy because he loves me and doesn't know how to show it", he saw "Ollie's nice to me as Speedy, which means I'm only good as Speedy". This, at least in my opinion, is a major factor in Roy’s later self-esteem issues. Roy’s constantly underestimating himself as a hero, constantly comparing himself to Dick, and pushing himself 24/7 to improve because he internalised the idea that if he’s good, if he’s the perfect hero, then he’ll be loveable. He can’t be bad, he can’t fail, he can’t back down because if he does, he’s nothing.

It’s absolutely not Roy’s fault, but also this doesn’t mean that Ollie’s an evil neglecting abuser, either. Even the best parents fuck up, and Ollie was by no means the best parent. He took in Roy as a sidekick, as a buddy, and then never really found a way to combine the ideas of sidekick and son. He assumed that Roy would be able to interpret meanings behind gestures, which is something that Roy seems to struggle with even into adulthood. I’ve talked about it a fair bit, Roy’s absolutely someone who relies on the explicit, but he’s also not someone who’ll ask for clarification, which has caused conflict in his relationships time and time again. And while it's something he has gotten better at as he's gotten older, a 12-18 year old Roy would absolutely not be able to read Ollie's motives.

And Ollie's fear of fatherhood isn't something exclusive to Roy, either. Sure, he'd gotten better at it by the time Connor and Mia entered the picture (speaking as an oldest child myself, we are the guinea pigs of parenting, I was my mum's sibling), he absolutely still expresses this with them. I mean, just look at his face when he finds out Connor's his son.

That's the face of a man who's just had the crushing weight of parenthood slammed down onto him again, the moment Connor stopped being an ally and started being his responsibility. He's scared, because Ollie absolutely does not see himself as a good father for someone to have. This was very much present during Roy's teenage years, but particularly since this is post-Snowbirds. Both in terms of Roy developing a drug addiction and in terms of Ollie's own initial reaction to it, he immediately spirals. And, since we've already established he does not know how to process things, he lashes out at Connor.

And as for Mia, he's definitely matured significantly by the time she comes into the picture, and compared to with Roy he's a lot more open with his feelings. However!

He still won't explicitly accept the responsibility of fatherhood! Despite acting like a father to Mia in every way through his actions, he still won't use his words! Even though in the issue following, he expresses a paternal protectiveness over her.

And I think Mia's HIV diagnosis is maybe one of the biggest examples of his distancing himself and hiding his feelings, particularly when Connor asks him how he's feeling about it.

He's so fine, so totally fine, trust him when he says he's fine, totally not freaking out. He's absolutely not terrified for his not-daughter, no way.

Ollie has this fear that if he gets too attached to his kids, he's gonna end up failing them. If he keeps a distance from them, then he can't blame himself when they get hurt. Is this good parenting? No! Absolutely not! But this is also the man who dresses up as Robin Hood and who chose to die rather than lose his arm. This is not a healthy man.

But he tries, he tries so hard, even if it's in his own way. And he recognises when he fucks up! And he tries his best to mend it later on!

He's not the best at showing his kids that he loves them, but he's so proud of Roy when he becomes Red Arrow. He comes back to life to save Connor. He stands by Mia's side when she gets diagnosed and becomes Speedy. He's not a great dad, but goddamnit he's trying to be.

In conclusion, no, Ollie is not the perfect father. He's deeply flawed, and his own emotional incompetency has been and always will be a point of conflict between him and his kids. But he's not some uncaring abuser, either. He's trying.

#oliver queen #green arrow #connor hawke #roy harper #red arrow #arsenal #speedy #mia dearden #arrowfam #dc comics

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