Wednesday’s episode of Arrow provided quite the twist. Instead of battling Oliver again, Ra’s Al Ghul chose to offer him his spot as the leader of the League of Assassins.
The question is why would the Demon’s Hand choose a stranger instead of his own daughter to replace him?
Showrunners Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg recently elaborated on this point in an interview with TVLine.com.
“Oliver is completely — as hopefully the audience is — taken aback, ’cause he was not expecting” Ra’s al Ghul’s overture, Kreisberg said. “It was something that [executive producer] Greg [Berlanti] and Marc and I talked about: It was important to have a different villain this year and somebody who is going to be doing something completely different.”
As for why the spot wasn’t offered to Nyssa, and whether this was because of her romantic relationship with the late Sarah Lance, the executive producers said that this was a subject that will be addressed in upcoming episodes.
“Nyssa is the Heir to the Demon, so you can imagine how she feels when she finds out that what she considered to be her birthright is being handed to Oliver,” Kreisberg previewed. “There’s a scene in [Episode 16] between Nyssa and Ra’s that definitely addresses that,” Guggenheim added. “From Nyssa’s perspective, it has everything to do with Sara. From Ra’s perspective? Maybe, maybe not.”
