In Arrow Season 1, Felicity was just a cute, nerdy blonde girl who helped the asshole playboy with his vigilante shenanigans. She looked at Ollie longingly, but he thought nothing of her, only paying attention to her when he needed someone to hack something. You could argue Felicity was the best part of the debut season of Arrow, and her role quickly grew into something much larger than an occasional sidekick.
Oliver and Felicity’s relationship progressed between his flings with Laurel and Sara Lance, but they eventually became a full-blown couple: Olicity. Opinions about their relationship aside, their story arc is a core part of the show. Carlos Valdes even said at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in New Jersey that if he could save one person from dying, it’d be “Felicity because she is way too important to the franchise.” But Katrina Law, who plays Nyssa Al Ghul, had a different way of thanking Felicity fans for their (at times insufferable) attachment to the series.
“When I read all the sudden that they [Oliver and Nyssa] were getting engaged, my jaw dropped and I dropped the script and probably laughed maniacally for twenty minutes. I was like, ‘Oh my god, the fandom is going to lose their minds. Felicity fans… oohhhh this one is going to hurt. It’s going to hurt bad.’ So teasing them was good fun and I get a sick kind of joy when I call him husband.”
Oliver trained to become Ra’s Al Ghul’s heir in Season 3 in order to save Thea’s life. Nyssa, of course, is Ra’s daughter. She betrayed the League of Assassins and Ra’s ordered Oliver to kill her, stopping him as he was about to cast his sword. He says her blood could be of another purpose: to unite the Queen’s and the Al Ghul’s with a child.
“I would rather die,” was Nyssa’s response to the marriage. Mind you, Nyssa absolutely loathes her father and Oliver used to date Sara Lance, Nyssa’s ex-girlfriend. Oliver was also dating Felicity at the time. Nyssa even pulled a knife on Oliver during the ceremony, but they’ve been on better terms ever since Oliver defeated Maclom Merlyn (the Ra’s at the time) in trial by combat, allowing Nyssa to be Ra’s Al Ghul. To our knowledge, Nyssa and Oliver are still technically husband and wife. That said, the League of Assassins is pretty much disbanded with Malcolm Merlyn out of the picture.
Regardless, it’s pretty funny that Law found so much joy in that moment. If Nyssa liked guys and didn’t hate Oliver’s guts at the time, they would have been quite the deadly power couple. We still get a few good jokes about it here and there on the series, too.
Arrow Season 6 returns Oct. 12.
