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Arrow‘s Thea Queen is a complex character. On the one hand, she is laid-back and supportive. Especially in later seasons, she is also brave and heroic because she fights crime to save her city. On the other hand, though, she is a self-centered, revengeful character when she feels wronged.
Daughter of billionaires Moira Queen and Robert Queen, Thea Queen’s life should be enviable. Nevertheless, Thea deals with the death of her father Robert; the assumed death of her brother – who was shipwrecked then stuck on an island for five years without contact; the revelation that her actual father – Malcolm Merlyn – is a mass murderer; and more, all while she’s still a teenager.
Additionally, no one in her life (as it seems) will tell her the truth, and Thea hates being lied to. As a result, Thea frequently acts out. And honestly, it gets annoying when she acts out because she causes unnecessary problems in doing so. But is Thea unreasonable when she acts out? Or is she justified because of how others have wronged her?
When Does Thea Act Out?
Before she is criticized, acknowledge that Thea is generally a level-headed, loving character, especially in the later seasons of Arrow. In fact, she is a noble, moral character; when Thea is told that the only way to stop her bloodlust from killing her is to kill other people, she decides to die rather than harm anyone else. That being said, when Thea uncovers a lie or a hidden truth, she feels wronged and will take her frustration out on the wrong-doers, regardless of how it may hurt her and others.
For example, leading up to her 18th birthday, Thea began to suspect her mom of having an affair with fellow-billionaire and family friend Malcolm Merlyn. Seeing them together on the night of the 18th birthday party, Thea decided to take Vertigo – a drug that makes multiple occurrences in the show – and take a drive in her new convertible. As is typically the case with drugs and driving, Thea crashed her car, got sent to the hospital, then got arrested and brought to court.
All this because she felt wronged by her mother lying about an affair, which was not actually the case.
Why Do Lies Make Thea Feel So Wronged?
To be fair, I don’t think anyone likes being lied to, but Thea gets really upset when she’s lied to, even when those lies are hidden truths meant to keep her safe. Nevertheless, there are a few possible explanations as to why she feels so wronged by lies.
- She is vocal about her hatred of lies, so she expects people to tell her the truth:
- On multiple occasions, she tells the people in her life how much she hates lies and how much she appreciates the truth. For example, when her brother Oliver tells her his secret about being the Green Arrow, she thanks and hugs him for telling her the truth, unlike many others on the show who get angry at him. Moreover, she later tells him how appreciative she is of the truth because she feels like there aren’t any secrets between the two. Because of how vocal she is about her hatred of lies, it does make sense that lies make her feel personally wronged.
- She hates feeling as though she has no control over her life, and that’s how lies make her feel:
- It is important to remember that Thea lost her dad (and brother for five years) to a shipwreck, resulting from a storm. Not only is something like that traumatic, but it also reminds one of how little control one has over his/her life. For someone who learned this lesson at a young age, it can make sense that Thea wants to have as much control of her life as possible by eliminating lies or truths she doesn’t know.
- She likes to make her own decisions:
- Thea does not like to be told what to do/how to feel, etc. In Season 4, her brother (rightly) tells her that she is acting out-of-character and being overly aggressive when they are fighting crime together. Instead of listening to him, however, she fights back verbally and physically because she doesn’t like others to tell her what’s wrong with her. Rather, she likes to make her own decisions and do as she sees fit. Lies inhibit this ability, which can explain why she feels so wronged by them.
When She’s Been Wronged, How Does She Act Out?
You’ve probably picked it up already, but Thea Queen is a stubborn girl. And while there are times when her stubbornness may keep her alive in battle, there are many more times when her stubbornness leads to many, many problems. This is mainly because Thea doesn’t know how to let things go, especially when she feels like she’s been wronged by lies. Take the time when Thea discovers that Malcolm Merlyn – AKA billionaire/CEO of Merlyn Global/super-villain – is her father, not Robert Queen as she’d thought.
This so happens to be the time when her family is also about to be completely broken. Luckily, the Queen family financial manager offers the family a way to at least maintain a fraction of their assets. All that needs to happen is every member of the family signs a paper. Thea, though, decides not to sign the document because she’s angry for being lied to. As a result, she loses the family all their money. Moreover, she won’t speak to her mother, and when her mother gets killed soon after, she dies feeling Thea’s hate. Thea acted out, causing all these problems just because she felt wronged. Can we really blame her, though?
Unreasonable Or Wronged?
The short answer is that Thea is both unreasonable and wronged. Yes, of course, Thea is allowed to feel wronged. She’s allowed to act out. I think many of us, myself included, would be mad if we were told lie after lie after lie after expression of our hatred of them. That being said, though, it’s unreasonable to bankrupt one’s entire family or drive a car while high, simply because of anger. Moreover, it’s unreasonable to leave behind all one’s loved ones, promising never to return, after uncovering a lie, as Thea does at the end of Season 2.
Why are these actions troublesome? Because the person who usually gets hurt by taking such extreme measures is the one taking the measures. So, if there’s anything we can learn from Thea, it’s this: it’s okay to want things to change when you’ve been wronged. But, you shouldn’t act out in a way that hurts you, simply to spite others; the damage will be worse for you than for them.