Nyssara
Arrow
I was under the impression, when the members of the League of Assassins, which kept trying to get Sara to go back, repeated that she was the ‘beloved’ that her former lover was a man. I’m sure that the briefest glance through the comics make that a stupid assumption, but I’m not a comic book reader. I will occasionally read a graphic novel, extremely rarely.
However the passion between the two, regardless of the fact that they happen to be of the same sex was undeniable. Within moments of Nyssa meeting Sara on the street, they were sharing a deep kiss, revealing that there had been a very real love there on both sides.
It was the first time that I had seen Sara seemingly truly bonded to someone. I know that the relationship with Oliver was life changing, seeing as her knee jerk decision to go with him, resulted in both of them being lost for five years.
However I saw something else, in the connection between Nyssa and Sara, whether it was the intention of the writers or not. I realise that Nyssa’s plans to bring Sara back into the fold, were over the top to say the least, but could be argued as stemming from her desperation, to have the stabilizing influence of the person she loved best back at her side.
Looking back at that episode, now that we have seen all of the Ra Al Ghul arc unfold, it makes more sense just how desperate Nyssa might have been for a normal affectionate relationship.
She and Sara came together at one of the lowest points in Sara’s life, acknowledged on both their sides, but Sara didn’t dismiss it, as being just the fact that Nyssa had saved her life, the relationship sparking from gratitude alone. It was acknowledged that Sara truly loved Nyssa ‘I wasn’t with you because you saved me, I was with you because I loved you’.
The sadness with which Katrina Law invests her line in return, is part of the reason that I ship them so hard. Her scream of absolute despair, when Sara takes the poison, rather than return to the League, still sends shivers down my spine, despite the fact that I have watched it numerous times now. It’s the performance, and the reactions that the actresses give in their scenes together, that makes them so special.
Well that, and the fact that we have a truly extraordinarily physically adept couple, kicking ass and taking names. I’d say it doesn’t matter that they are a same sex couple. But of course it does, it matters because ever since the ending of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there has not been a same sex female couple in genre television, to the best of my knowledge.
It was exciting to get one with so many different layers to discover, and I hope fervently that we will at least get a few appearances of Nyssa on Legends of Tomorrow. I want to see how exactly the two of them met, and how their initial relationship unfolded, and to see how they interact now that Sara has been changed at the core by being in the pit.
Musings of a thirtysomething woman 