This year marked the end of Arrow's 8-year run following the story of Oliver Queen and his journey as the Green Arrow. Throughout the 8 seasons Oliver and his allies have battled thugs, drug gangs, magic, super-soldiers, aliens, and even themselves from alternate earths.
From Laurel Lance to Oliver and Felicity's children, William and Mia, the producers have tried their best to give the characters interesting story arcs and make them come to a satisfying conclusion for fans, which is extremely hard to do. Some characters even rose from the dead for the show's final episodes. In the finale, some characters got the endings they deserved, while a few had the potential for more.
Fitting Ending: John Diggle
Being Oliver's right-hand man from the pilot, John Diggle, played by David Ramsey, has been with Oliver throughout it all and the two shared a fitting goodbye scene at the end of Arrow's final season. For years fans have speculated that Diggle would appear as Green Lantern, with only receiving nods and references from John Wesley Shipp's Earth-90 Barry Allen.
Finally, in Diggle's last scene fans can see a meteor hitting earth, throwing Diggle against a van and knocking him unconscious before awaking to find a box in the meteor crash site. Upon opening the box, we only see a green glow from inside the box, which fans are lead to believe is the Green Lantern power ring. Will fans see Diggle popping up again as Green Lantern? Only time will tell.
Deserved More: Oliver Queen
Oliver's mission from the beginning was to save his city and his family, a mission that became even more important with each growing threat and each additional member of the team. Throughout the show, we have seen a version of Oliver in 2046, leading fans to believe that Oliver's ending could have gone down the route of retirement from the Green Arrow mantle.
Oliver's final moments involved being reunited with Felicity in the afterlife to live out the rest of their days knowing their city was saved after Oliver sacrificed his life for the multiverse. While the Oliver and Felicity storyline got its romantic ending and he did save his family and city from the CURRENT threat of the anti-monitor, the fact that his daughter, Mia Queen, the Canaries, and the others still exist to fight crime suggest that his family and city may not be as safe as he hoped. That being said, the spin-off shows do need story-arcs of their own and in every show, most fans never want to see their favorite character die.
Fitting Ending: Felicity Smoak
As mentioned, Felicity Smoak, played by Emily Bett Rickards, got her romantic ending with Oliver Queen that she waited decades for in the show. During Oliver Queen's funeral scene in the present day, we can see Felicity standing with her children and a shot of Oliver's tombstone, which flashes forward to 2040 where we see Felicity standing with the monitor who takes her to the afterlife to be with her husband for the rest of eternity.
From the beginning, Felicity and Oliver's relationship was met with mixed reactions from fans. Felicity being reunited with Oliver knowing her children can now take care of themselves in their own right without their protection seems like a good ending for this character. However, there wouldn't also have been anything stopping Felicity staying with her kids as the 'Overwatch' to their own heroic ventures.
Deserved More: William Queen
Since fans saw the grown William Queen in the future, they have seen that he acted as the eye in the sky for Mia and the rest of their team. As for young William, we last saw him at Oliver's funeral standing with his mother. However, with the future changed as a result of the multiverse, can we be sure William will follow in the same footsteps and still turn out to be the 'Overwatch' for his sister?
While we are all for this path for William, a nod to this would have solidified this for fans, or simply a glimpse of young William beginning to follow in his mother's footsteps would have confirmed to fans that he would still be very much involved in the hero life. Instead it seemed as though the character's future was left relatively unclear. Hopefully, William will return in the Green Arrow & The Canaries spin-off to continue his very promising arc.
Fitting Ending: Dinah Drake
Dinah Drake first appeared in season 5 of Arrow in the episode titled 'Who Are You?!'. The show initially ended with Dinah retiring as SCPD Captain and living a normal life in Metropolis after mysteriously being taken to 2040. However, Laurel appears and needs Dinah's help to prevent a dark future, so Dinah teams up again with Mia Queen and Laurel in 2040 as the new canaries.
Similarly to these characters, her characters ending depends largely on the success of the new spin-off show focusing on the new female-trio so that remains to be seen. However, if the season does not get ordered we know that Dinah can return to her normal life.
Deserved More: Emiko Queen
Oliver's funeral saw the return of many characters that had died in earlier episodes. One of which was Oliver's step-sister Emiko Queen, played by Sea Shimooka. Emiko got to meet Thea and Moira Queen at Oliver's funera,l but this is all we saw of Emiko in the finale. Perhaps this means she went on to lead a normal life, which is no issue to fans.
However, given her redemption arc from the ninth-circle and the skills that she has as a fighter, one alternate possibility is that Oliver's death could have inspired her to keep up protecting another City or even joined forces with Mia Queen and the Canaries. It seemed as though she was brought back in the show just for the presence of the funeral.
Fitting Ending: Lyla Diggle
Lyla has been a supporting character for many years, keeping John Diggle in line and working for Argus. The final season ended with, John and Lyla moving to Metropolis with their kids and as previously mentioned, John Diggle assumingly becoming the Green Lantern.
Given that her character has always been more of a supporting role, fans never needed a tease or a continuing arc for this character to end on and knowing that she and John were starting a new life together after Oliver's death was enough.
Deserved More: Deathstroke
Appearing on the show since season 1 and being the cause of a lot of Oliver's pain, Deathstroke/Slade Wilson's fate was left unclear at the end of Arrow, as when the timeline was rewritten during 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', Oliver tackled Slade Wilson and therefore stopped him from killing Moira Queen in front of him and Thea.
Fans can only assume that Oliver locked him away on Lian-Yu, but Slade was left lying unconscious on the ground, still alive, before fading to black. Some confirmation would have left fans sure of his fate.
Fitting Ending: Thea and Roy
Thea Queen and Roy Harper's relationship has had its ups and downs throughout the show's run, but managed to end on a positive in their final moments. Despite Roy's run-in with Mirakuru and lying to Thea about being involved with team Arrow (which lead to Roy cheating on Thea, forcing her to break up with him) the two managed to reconcile their relationship.
In the final season Roy asks Thea to marry him, which she initially seems hesitant about, but soon accepts his offer. It seemed inevitable from the beginning that they were the kind of characters who were most likely going to end up together.
Deserved More: Earth 1 Laurel Lance
Of all the previously dead characters that were brought back to life after 'Crisis', one notable absence was the original Laurel Lance, although earth-2 Laurel Lance attended the funeral and spoke with her newly revived father Quentin Lance.
The only explanation for this, given by Quentin, was that Oliver was trying to "fix" the universe and that the old Laurel was never brought back because Laurel from earth-2 didn't need fixing. It seems rather interesting that Oliver would not bring back one of his closest friends and allies just to make earth-2 Laurel feel better. However, fans can maybe assume that Oliver and the original earth-1 Laurel have met again in the afterlife to continue their friendship.