Arrow season 6: Ranking its 10 best moments

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3. Thea Queen’s departure

Of all the mistreated characters in Arrow‘s history, Thea Queen ranks right up there with the original Laurel Lance. Portrayed brilliantly by Willa Holland, the character grew from troubled teenager to resurrected assassin to superhero during the course of her tenure on the show. But in recent years, the character has been sorely underused. And after being absent for the first part of the season, this was finally the year that we bid farewell to Thea Queen.

Although her recent stint on the show just highlighted how underappreciated she was, her departure shone the spotlight on her in a way that she always deserved. Fresh off saving the returning Roy Harper, her romantic getaway with him was ruined when the League of Assassins tried to ambush her. But one adventure later, Thea soon realized that she couldn’t do the whole settling down thing, and needed the thrill of crime-fighting in her life. Thus, she, Roy and Nyssa set off on a quest to locate the rest of the Lazarus Pits.

Reuniting Thea with Roy and resurrecting the League of Assassins really helped to make her departure all the more impactful. Sometimes when a character is reduced to a background role, it’s hard to miss them. But Thea’s last few episodes did a great job of reminding us just how integral to Arrow she really was. And the touching farewell stare she shared with Oliver had us all reaching for our handkerchiefs.

One thing is for sure, Season 7 of Arrow will definitely miss Thea Queen.