When Arrow premiered in the Fall of 2012, it was an exciting new development in the realm of superhero television. Here was a dark, grown-up show focused on a lesser-known DC character. It wasn’t clear if the show would work. But not only did it catch on like gangbusters, it launched multiple spin-offs over the years, creating its own extended Arrowverse. The first few seasons of Arrow were fantastic. Each episode brought whiz-bang action, interesting characters, and fascinating revelations. We couldn’t wait to find out what happened the following week. Unfortunately, the last few seasons of the show have led to increasingly diminishing returns.

Arrow is currently wrapping up its sixth season and coming back for a seventh. But more and more, watching the series, unlike its Arrowverse counterparts, feels like an exercise in futility. The spark that made the first seasons special is sputtering out. The characters and their actions just don’t make sense anymore. Instead, the different elements of the show resemble puzzle pieces the writers are moving around a board in a desperate effort to up the ante and keep audiences tuned in. Here are the top 20 things that no longer make any sense about Arrow, with a special focus on this past season.

20 THE TONE

The writers of the Arrowverse shows have given each show its own personality. That’s a good thing. But Arrow’s tone no longer fits in with The Flash, Supergirl, or Legends of Tomorrow. Arrow came into the world dark and brooding and has become even more so as Oliver has become mayor of Star City, found out he’s a father, and lost more and more people to his superheroics. While the other shows can also be serious, they often cut through it with lighter moments—or in the case of Legends, completely bonkers ones. What’s more, the struggles of the other shows’ characters are often more relatable, focusing on their relationships in all their messy meta-human and alien glory, instead of the inner workings of city government.

This, ironically, has made Arrow the odd man out in the Arrowverse. It’s the black hole in the CW’s weekly superhero cycle. The show comes across as tired and sad while the others continue to be buoyant and engaging. Arrow was always somber, but somber isn’t synonymous with hopeless. That’s increasingly how Arrow feels though. While the other three shows maintain an aura of optimism even when the characters find themselves in dire circumstances, Arrow lost that fight a while ago.

19 RENE'S INCESSANT USE OF "HOSS"

When Rene first appeared on the show, his use of the term "Hoss" to refer to some characters was kind of interesting. It set him apart and helped define his character. And initially it seemed like he was using it as a term of endearment for only certain characters—Quentin Lance, in particular. According to Rick Gonzalez, the actor who plays him, this is exactly how the term should be used. In a tweet, Gonzalez told fans that “Hoss” is a southern term used as a sign of respect or high regard.

The term has become less of a character trait and more of an uncontrollable tic.

But over time Rene’s reliance on the term has spiraled out of control. Now he uses it no matter who he’s talking to or how he feels about them. Because of that, the term has become less of a character trait and more of an uncontrollable tic. This is especially unfortunate since in every other way, Rene has grown into a deeper, more interesting character than his first appearances on the show indicated he might be. Before Quentin Lance went in for surgery for a bullet wound in the season six finale, he asked Rene not to call him "Hoss" at his funeral. We hope Rene honors Quentin’s last request.

18 WHO'S PAYING FOR EVERYTHING?

When Arrow began, Oliver was rich. His family ran Queen Consolidated and the money was rolling in. It was easy to understand then how he was able to bankroll his vigilante side project. After Oliver lost the business and all his money, Felicity became CEO of the company that took its place, Palmer Tech. So although Oliver could no longer afford to be the financial backer of Team Arrow, Felicity could. Then Felicity lost her CEO gig. Now, no one seems to be making enough money to afford all the fancy tech the team relies on. Certainly, Oliver isn’t covering costs on a mayor’s salary. So how does Team Arrow pay for everything?

In addition, after Dinah, Rene, and Curtis go off on their own, they set up their own superhero headquarters and outfit it with high tech gadgets too. How? It ‘s unlikely their jobs as a cop, an assistant to the deputy mayor, and a start-up founder would cover their costs. If we’ve learned anything from Iron Man, Batman, and the first seasons of Arrow, it’s that superhero-ing is expensive. Someone has to pay for all the accessories. When it comes to Team Arrow, it’s hard to figure who that is anymore.

17 HOW DID MR. TERRIFIC LEARN TO FIGHT SO FAST?

Curtis, aka Mr. Terrific, initially joined Team Arrow to help out with tech. Just like Felicity, he was a genius with a computer, so the two of them did the hacking, while Oliver, Diggle, and others did the fighting. Then after taking a beating, Curtis decided he wanted to be a fighter too. Now Curtis works on tech while also jumping into the fight with seriously slicked back hair. But how good a fighter could Curtis really be after a few months of training?

Jumping from Olympic athlete to trained fighter is no small feat, and somehow Curtis went from zero to awesome in no time.

We know Curtis is athletic. He was an Olympic medalist at some point in the past. But jumping from Olympic athlete to trained fighter is no small feat, and somehow Curtis went from zero to awesome in no time. This isn’t the first time the show has done this. Both Laurel and Thea went from non-fighters to professional-level warriors in a matter of months. And each time this happens it defies logic. The other junior Team Arrow members, Dinah and Rene, each had some background in fighting before being trained by Oliver, so their ability to get up to speed quickly is at least a bit more plausible. How Curtis manages to stay in one piece during the life or death situations the team perpetually finds itself in is anyone’s guess.

16 ANATOLY'S FLIP-FLOPPING

Anatoly is Oliver’s friend from his days in the Russian Bratva. While Anatoly is a gangster, he has a soft spot for Oliver and something of a moral compass. That is, until Oliver reneges on a promise to him, and Anatoly is kicked out of the Bratva and exiled from Russia. For most of season six, Anatoly is at odds with Oliver. His only two goals are to make money and exact revenge on Oliver. He allies himself with both of the season’s big bads to meet those goals and does some awful things in the process.

Then towards the end of the season, Anatoly realizes that the criminal he's been working with, Ricardo Diaz, lacks honor. Suddenly he's forgiven Oliver and he decides to work as a double agent feeding Team Arrow information about Diaz’s plans. It’s an extremely dangerous move and one that makes little sense given Anatoly spent most of the season trying to get revenge on Oliver no matter what the cost. The shifts in loyalty and unmotivated character choices on Arrow this season have been enough to give a viewer whiplash, but Anatoly’s reversal is one of the most drastic. In a matter of a single episode, he goes from betraying Oliver to being on his side against all odds.

15 WHAT'S UP WITH EARTH 2 LAUREL?

Another character we can’t quite wrap our minds around is Earth Two Laurel. We appreciate that the Arrowverse show runners want to keep Katie Cassidy employed. That’s nice of them. The problem is that since Laurel Lance from Earth One was killed, the way they’ve brought Cassidy back is as Laurel from Earth Two. Unlike the heroic Black Canary embodied by Earth One Laurel, Earth Two Laurel is a villain who is comfortable doing what she needs to get what she wants. Having Earth Two Laurel show up on The Flash goosed the action for an episode or two. It made for a funhouse mirror look at who the character might have been had her circumstances been different.

But when the character made the jump to Arrow, the gimmick got tired quickly.

As Laurel has gone from criminal gang to criminal gang over the past couple seasons, her presence has made less sense. In the back half of season six things took a further turn as she bonded with Earth One Laurel’s father. While it was understandable why Quentin would want to nurture a relationship with a woman who looked like his tragically deceased daughter, it was less clear why Laurel would want to pursue one. As the season went on, Laurel's relationship with her (not) father softened her, suggesting that all any bad girl really needs to reform is a daddy that supports her. Blech!

14 THEA'S EXIT

Thea’s role on the show has changed over the past couple years as she stopped being a vigilante and refused to continue to fight even when her brother could have used her help. This often sidelined the character, so it wasn’t completely surprising when Thea exited the series midway through season six. The original reason for Thea’s departure—leaving Star City with Roy to finally find happiness elsewhere—made a lot of sense and seemed appropriate for a character who had lost so much over the years. But we should have known that nothing on Arrow could be so simple.

Instead, former members of the League of Assassins attacked Thea. They believed her late father, Malcolm Merlyn, left her a valuable map—and they would apparently kill to get it. Thea and Roy suited up to try to take down the bad guys, but in the course of the fight, they learned there are additional Lazarus Pits. So, instead of their happy ending, Thea and Roy take off with Nyssa al Ghul to find and destroy the Lazarus Pits. Thea has been steadfast in her refusal to fight, believing it wasn’t healthy for her after the Lazarus Pits at Nanda Parbat infused her with an uncontrollable aggression. So it seems silly for her to return to fighting to destroy these new Lazarus Pits when no one knows where they're located and only Thea has the map. Why change her plans for something that seems unlikely to cause a real problem?

13 ROY'S RETURN

Although one of the major catalysts for Thea’s exit was her reunion with Roy, it seems their time together won’t last long. TVLine reported that Roy is set to return to Arrow next season. Colton Haynes, who plays Roy, will be a series regular during season seven, a big upgrade for a character we’ve only caught the odd glimpse of since season three. Roy has always been a fan favorite, so it’s understandable that producers would jump at the chance to have him return to the show full time.

But it’s hard to understand how they could possibly justify the move within Arrow’s story.

When Thea and Roy left, they seemed more committed than ever to their relationship and a future together. So why would Roy return to Star City without her? Even if Thea dies off-screen, it would be more likely that Roy would continue their mission to destroy the Lazarus Pits than go back to Star City. We love Roy, but he’s been gone from the show for a long time and there’s no real reason for his return now. Just like the return of Laurel, sometimes less is more. The move to bring Roy back seems more like a ratings ploy than a story-driven decision.

12 OLIVER KNOWS BEST (NO MATTER WHAT)

Oliver may be brave, he may be on a noble quest to save Star City, but he also is self-righteous to a fault and has trouble trusting everyone around him. Because of that, he refuses to listen to anyone’s advice. But that doesn’t mean every call he makes is the right one. Team Arrow has always been more of a dictatorship than a democracy, but Oliver’s attitude towards the team members leaves him isolated. This is a problem given the team's need to have each other's backs in some very sticky situations. Needless to say, though, when Oliver continues to project his distrust onto the team, it’s hard for the everyone else to trust him.

Further, even when Oliver’s plans don’t pan out, Oliver doesn't learn from his mistakes. Instead of communicating, being open to other perspectives, and using the different strengths of the other team members, he closes off and berates them for not living up to his standards. This makes Oliver an ineffective leader, and someone everyone on the team eventually decides they no longer want to work with. Oliver’s communication skills have always needed some work, but his inability to express himself and to see others’ points of view reached an all-time low this season.

11 OLIVER'S GOALS SHOW NO EVOLUTION

Oliver originally returned home at the behest of his dead father, who encouraged him to go after the people who had let the city down. Over the first few seasons of the show, Oliver made some steps towards reaching his goal and some evolution in how he wanted to go about getting there. But as of season six, Oliver has made little additional progress. He keeps invoking his desire to save the city, and he's gotten multiple people to buy into that goal over the years, but Star City remains a crime-ridden cesspool.

More disturbingly, a great deal of that crime was brought into the city by Oliver himself!

Many of his nemeses from his years away followed him back home. And in an effort to fight him they have contributed to the terrible troubles of the place. As the same problems have recurred over and over through the years, it has made the show’s ostensible goal of saving the city seem hopeless and exhausting. While Oliver wasn’t responsible for all the mayhem and horror created in the city, he’s been responsible for enough of it that at some point it would have been wise for him to change his tactics or reassess his goals. None of that's happened. Oliver continues to drive towards a goal that seems increasingly impossible to reach.

10 THE B TEAM IS MORE INTERESTING THAN TEAM ARROW

When they were originally introduced, Dinah and Rene seemed like one-dimensional characters. Meanwhile, it was fun to watch Curtis banter with Felicity but we didn’t know much about him outside of that. This season, though, the characters have become more fleshed-out and exponentially more interesting, especially after they severed ties with Team Arrow. We learned about Dinah’s history with her former police partner, we saw Rene settle into his role as a father, and we watched Curtis start a new relationship. We also saw the trio come together as a team that genuinely respected, trusted, and looked out for each other. All in all, the team’s dynamic was much healthier than Team Arrow’s, and it was nice to see a team that functioned differently than the one we’d been following for years. Their interactions hinted at the way things could be if Oliver learned to be a better leader.

These were the characters we wanted to spend more time with and learn more about. But they repeatedly got sidelined in favor of Team Arrow and even the season’s scenery-chewing villains. It felt like an interesting story was happening at the periphery of the show, but we weren’t allowed to see most of it. The comparison did nothing for our faith in the show or its writers.

9 EVERY PUBLIC SERVANT NOT ON TEAM ARROW IS CORRUPT

It’s been clear from the beginning that Star City is a corrupt place, full of people out to make a buck with no concern for their effect on others. In season six, this corruption got truly out of control. Seemingly every public servant that was not in Team Arrow’s orbit was compromised by Ricardo Diaz. When they were caught, some of them offered sob stories about how Diaz had manipulated them into doing his bidding. But they all came across as entirely too determined to work for Diaz, going out of their way to make sure they followed through on his orders. This came across as ridiculous after awhile. Not a single public servant was willing to stand up to Diaz?

How could every Star City public servant be so easily corrupted?

Public servants are frequently important characters on The Flash and Supergirl. But the police force on The Flash and the government agents on Supergirl are forces for good. Even if one becomes corrupt, they don’t all join the club. Meanwhile Star City has suffered from corruption for so long the city's had a hard time finding a mayor until Oliver steps up. With everything holding the city back, it’s hard to understand why anyone still lives there at all.

8 OLIVER HANDED THE ROLE OF ARROW TO DIGGLE

When the FBI started investigating Oliver on the suspicion that he was the Green Arrow, Oliver handed the reigns of his vigilante operation over to Diggle. Oliver had come to the conclusion that he couldn’t be a vigilante and guarantee he would continue to be there for his son. This was a nice sentiment, sure, but the thing is Diggle has a son too: a fact Oliver seemed to conveniently forget when he asked Diggle to take his place. While there’s nothing wrong with Oliver retiring from vigilantism, asking someone to do it that has the same familial constraints as he does is blindly hypocritical.

While Diggle is one of the few people Oliver trusts, and therefore, the most likely heir to the Arrow mantle, Oliver’s decision still seems haphazard and selfish. Oliver started something and then didn’t make sure he had the right pieces in place to finish it. A few seasons ago, both Thea and Diggle retired from vigilantism. But while Thea managed to stay away, Diggle got sucked back into Oliver’s world. Both Diggle and Oliver seem to have trouble stepping back from their vigilante roles to attend to their other obligations. The fact that Oliver played on Diggle’s loyalty to him without thinking it through comes across as careless and cruel.

7 OLIVER REFUSES THE TITLE OF GREEN ARROW

When Oliver reclaimed the title of Green Arrow, he swore it would only last as long as it would take Diggle to recover from nerve damage. But that ended up being a lie. Oliver never handed the costume back to Diggle, and Diggle got increasingly frustrated. Meanwhile, Oliver neglected to tell Diggle that he’d decided he was his best self when he was the Arrow and no longer wanted to give it up. When Oliver finally told Diggle  the truth and apologized, Diggle seemed to accept Oliver’s decision. But after some consideration, Diggle confronted Oliver about his leadership skills.

Instead of communicating like two rational, self-aware adults, this led to the friends taunting each other followed by a knock-down, drag-out fight.

Diggle swore his issue was with Oliver as a leader and not his refusal to give up the role of Green Arrow. But ultimately Oliver holding on to Green Arrow was the issue that precipitated the conflict and led Diggle to walk away from the team. The whole thing comes across as immature and silly. If either of the characters had openly communicated with one another, the conflict likely could have been avoided, instead of festering into an unsolvable rift.

6 OLIVER'S DECISION TO GO BACK TO BASICS

When Diggle leaves Team Arrow, Oliver makes the decision to go back to basics. He wants to be a lone wolf like he was when he first started working to save the city. A nice idea, except for the fact he never really was alone in his fight. He was quickly joined by Diggle and then Felicity within his first couple of missions in the city. Not to mention, while everyone else has left Team Arrow, Felicity is still around—and married to him. Rejecting her formidable abilities to help him doesn’t come across like a principled stand to return to a simpler time in his superhero career. Instead, it seems more like a squandered opportunity, a rejection of the support Oliver knows Felicity can offer him.

Of course, Oliver’s return to the good ol’ days doesn’t last long. A couple episodes later he’s back with both the B Team that left earlier in the season and Diggle, who left more recently. Oliver needs help in his fight and when he loses sight of that, it makes him seem like he’s lost perspective. The show has never made it seem like he or any of the superheroes in the Arrowverse can really go it alone, but Oliver is the only one who has tried several times, and not for the better.

5 FELICITY'S RECENT CHARACTER ARC

When Felicity was initially introduced during Arrow's first season, she was one of the best parts of the show. In an interview with Refinery29, Felicity actor Emily Bett Rickards said the character was only supposed to stick around for an episode, but fans liked her so much that she became an integral part of Team Arrow. She was a worthy addition to the show, adding a bit of humor and lightness to some otherwise dark story lines. Her palpable chemistry with Oliver also offered a spark of romance to balance out some of the superhero brooding. Over the years, though, that’s changed.

Felicity has largely deferred to him, or passive aggressively defied him.

While Oliver and Felicity have had their ups and downs as a couple, Felicity seems to spend more and more time being the support system for Oliver instead of her own woman. This past season, especially since she married him, Oliver’s become overly protective of her, a stance that has less to do with her and more to do with his need to make sure his son, William, has a parent. Instead of calling out the hypocrisy of this, Felicity has largely deferred to him, or passive aggressively defied him. All of this has made her come across less like a person and more like a cipher the writers aren’t completely sure what to do with anymore.

4 OLIVER AS A FATHER

When Oliver learned he had a son  a couple seasons ago, their relationship started out slowly. William’s mother, Samantha, was reluctant to let Oliver into their lives. But once Oliver found out about his son, the show’s villains somehow learned about his existence too. William ended up being a pawn who was kidnapped and threatened by both Damian Darhk and Prometheus. After Samantha perished in the explosion on the island of Lian Yu, William moved in with Oliver.

In season six, Oliver repeatedly declares the importance of his role as a father. Then he leaves William to be raised by his former nanny Raisa while he attends to his obligations as the mayor and Green Arrow. While he steps away from his Green Arrow role in an effort to keep a promise to William, that doesn’t last long. And by season’s end, he’s made a deal that gets him jailed for his vigilantism. If anything, it seems that to Oliver being a father and protecting his son doesn’t involve helping him with his homework or throwing a ball in the yard, but doing everything he can to spend time away from his kid. And Oliver’s motivation for getting back together with and then marrying Felicity seems to revolve around his desire to put her in the role of parent while he steps away. Oliver cares enough to make sure others can care for William, but not to embrace the role of father himself.

3 CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS THAT DON'T SEEM SMART

Arrow has seen some truly fantastic villains over the years. Malcolm Merlyn was menacing, Slade Wilson was downright scary, and even Prometheus from last season had his moments. Meanwhile season six has brought us not one but two bad guys. First, Team Arrow contended with Cayden James. While James was definitely the more interesting of this season’s villains, he was still mostly a nerd with an outsize vendetta. Michael Emerson, the actor who portrayed James, is known for his enigmatic, villainous turn on Lost, but there just wasn’t enough story behind his Arrow character to make him compelling.

The show keeps telling us he’s a dangerous genius, but he comes across like a petulant child.

Then, the second half of the season brought us supposed criminal mastermind Ricardo Diaz. Diaz was originally a member of James’s crew but apparently the whole time he was actually pursuing his own agenda. Once James was caught, Diaz finally took a leadership role in executing his master plan. Which is what, exactly? He seems to want to make money, but he also wants respect, but he also wants revenge, even on the boy who bullied him as a child. Diaz is all over the place. The show keeps telling us he’s a dangerous genius, but he comes across like a petulant child who could easily be undone by one of his many foibles.

2 A WHOLE EPISODE ON A TERRIBLE VILLAIN

Season six’s Ricardo Diaz is a singularly terrible villain. Even worse, the writers decided to spend a whole episode focused on him and his “plans.” It was one of the most painful hours of television in recent memory. The gambit of spending minimal time with a show’s main protagonists in favor of focusing on minor characters to flesh out their backstories has worked in some cases. This wasn't one of them. The more time we spent with Diaz the more time we wish we hadn't.

Here is a villain who has brought the whole city to its knees, who has managed to blackmail or seduce every city official into working for him. But instead of the episode convincing us this man is a criminal genius whose dastardly plans are second to none, the episode only made us wonder how this man has managed to put one over on so many people. Yes, Diaz is very comfortable killing and maiming whoever gets in his way, but we’ve seen villains like that before. And never have they been such a bundle of neediness and hurt feelings. Diaz is supposed to be menacing but the biggest reaction we have to him is an eye-roll.

1 HOW OLIVER AND FELICITY GOT MARRIED

Olicity has been a fan favorite since the show’s earliest seasons. So, when Oliver and Felicity finally tied the knot during the "Crisis on Earth X" Arrowverse crossover event, it was the fulfillment of years of anticipation. Except the way the couple ended up getting married was truly bizarre. Oliver popped the question, poorly, during Barry and Iris’s rehearsal dinner. After Felicity realized that when Oliver said “we should consider doing something along these lines” he’s asking her to marry him, she turned him down. When Oliver pressed the issue, Felicity shouted, “I don’t want to marry you!” in front of the whole party.

Apparently, to Felicity marriage equals bad things.

Naturally that didn’t go down very well and despite the Nazi catastrophe raging, Oliver and Felicity found time for a heart to heart later where Felicity explains she doesn’t want to marry anyone. Yes, Oliver and Felicity were engaged a couple years ago, but then she got shot and paralyzed right afterwards. Apparently, to Felicity marriage equals bad things. After all the protesting, though, just as Diggle is finally marrying Iris and Barry, Felicity interrupts and asks Oliver to marry her, right then and there, not seeming to realize that by doing so she was crashing their friends’ wedding. Not cool, Olicity, not cool.