Nyssa Al Ghul
Arrow
I thought Nyssa was remarkable from her first scene. The writers allowed Katrina Law to show two very different sides to the character, as she shares a soft smile with a little boy also waiting at the airport, and then seconds later knocks several security men unconscious in a coolly efficient fight which reminded me somewhat of the embassy fight in the Bourne Identity.
There hadn’t been very many women capable of taking down men bigger than them, with their physical abilities, within Arrow, although the writers had shown the full gamut of women’s strength, emotional, physical and intellectual.
I was anxious to see how she would be in the next scene, and was a little surprised by her next entrance, falling gracefully to the ground before Sara, with the help of a banner, and then kissing her. I had been expecting the one that considered Sara to be their ‘beloved’ to be a man, given the fact that all of the love connections within the show up until that point had been heterosexual to the best of my knowledge.
The connection between them was not forced though, in my opinion. It seemed to be a genuinely lovely and well tested affection that had been created during the years that Sara had been missing assumed dead.
Law effortlessly showed all of Nyssa’s desperation, and hurt at the fact that her lover had left her without even saying farewell, and her frantic misguided attempts to get Sara to return, showed the depths of her feelings. The scene between the two, after Sara has taken the pit viper venom? God Law was incredible, delivering a performance strong enough to drive me to the verge of tears, Heartbreaking, the hurt that Sara would rather die than return to her, how could you not feel for the character?
She didn’t seem to be overtly or over the top ‘evil’, despite the fact that she had been raised in such a environment, and that strand in her character continued into the third and fourth season. She possesses a hell of a lot more compassion and understanding than any of the men connected with the League of Assassins.
The friendship that developed between Laurel and Nyssa felt realistic, that after losing someone so important in both their lives, that they would search for another similar connection, seeking comfort in the common connection. Nyssa training Laurel
Nyssa suffered a good deal during the third season, and I hated the vast majority of the storylines that she received. She permanently lost the love of her life, and the scenes between her and Oliver in Sara’s loft, touched me, in the same way as the scene with Nyssa and Laurel in the grave yard. We got to hear some of the back story between the two, revealing the first time that Sara met Ra’s, might have been part of the reason that he dislikes her.
I know that Sara’s death was part of the overall plot for that year, impacting Thea, Oliver and Laurel in particular, but the other story lines in Nanda Parbat?
I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be showing that Ra’s was genuinely very old, and had old fashioned beliefs, but the fact that he dismisses her love for Sara, launching a attack because his authority has been challenged by Oliver? It was just one more reason to hate the character, in case you were inclined to like the villain of the season.
I particularly hated the story line during the last few episodes, of that season, where Nyssa was forced to relinquish her birthright, marry the man who had taken the birthright, and was going to have to have his baby. It felt off, that the writers had pushed her down that path, after creating such a strong character, and developed a believable connection between Sara and Nyssa.
The fight scene on the airplane, was great, watching Nyssa fight several Assassins, while Oliver and Ra’s duked it out. I have been impressed by Law’s physical prowess, and ability to fight on screen since watching her in Spartacus, but she has evidently advanced, and got better in the time between her stint on that show, and getting the job as Nyssa.
I found myself rooting for Nyssa, during the fight between her, Oliver and Malcolm, instead of the star of the show. I was a little disappointed that the writers didn’t allow someone who has supposedly been training and fighting since she was a child, to defeat opponents who had at most a decade of training. Extraordinary
I was so pleased to see her take the League of Assassins back from Merlyn, despite the fact that she had to rely on Oliver to actually defeat Merlyn in battle, in a annoying plot development. It was nice that she was shown to be able to shake off the chains of her past, and be her own person regardless of who her father had tried to make her into.
I still harbour a longing to see the beginning of Nyssa and Sara’s relationship, possibly in the Legends of Tomorrow. It could be possible right, I mean if Sara’s meant to meet a earlier version of Ra’s in a upcoming episode?
Musings of a thirtysomething woman 