Thea Queen
Arrow
There have been a great many changes in Thea Queen’s character, since the pilot. When we first meet her, she is a little bit emotionally immature, and using drugs as she is struggling to cope with both the five years when she believed that she had lost both her father and brother, and the fact that he seems to be disappointed in who she has become.
It’s her sheer excitement about everything that I really like, particularly in the most recent season. She’s not able to hide her excitement about fighting alongside Laurel and Diggle, despite having been part of the team for five months.
The writers have taken her from a unsure child, through a business owner, to a adept fighter through Malcolm’s questionable teaching methods, and finally to a vigilante.
It’s the arc which I particularly respect, as it feels believable that someone who has been through such loss, and has felt emotionally weak would want to be strong in any way that they could. Of course, not many people thankfully have been through all the things that Thea has, even leaving aside the supernatural resurrection.
Willa Holland’s extremely expressive face, means that the audience can see everything that Thea might be feeling, crossing her face. It was especially effective during the scene in Sebastian Blood’s former office, when Diggle admits that Oliver ‘has had a perma grin on his face, the whole way’ as he, Oliver and Felicity have been driving to meet Thea and Laurel, and that Oliver ‘has some big announcement’. The thoughts speed across Holland’s face, almost giving us the opportunity to see her thought processes, before she blurts out, through her happiness at the prospect of her brother being engaged ‘Wait where is it? Why aren’t you wearing it?’
That scene, and others in which Holland is allowed to show Thea’s excitement over life, is a nice contrast with the demons, and bloodlust she is suffering under since coming back from the brink of death. It’s a testament to how good a actress that Holland has become, and how used she is to playing the character, that the two opposing sides of Thea don’t seem forced. I feel for the character, hoping that she will be able to get back to herself, minus the psychotic episodes.
Musings of a thirtysomething woman 