Recently Arrow concluded it's final season after 8 years, bringing about an end to one of the longest-running superhero television shows. The show did a great job of balancing great action and interesting characters and relationships. The show, as great as it was, was not without its share of mistakes. As is the case with basically every show, Arrow had a decent of continuity errors.
While they don't make the show any less amazing, it is interesting to see the times when the show contradicted itself. So here are 10 continuity errors in Arrow.
Age Difference
In the pilot, we learn that Oliver Queen was stranded on an island for 5 years after his ship went down, with many believing both him and his father, Robert Queen, were dead. Due to this, even though only one of them was, funerals were held for them both. When Oliver and his sister are by the tombstones in the 2nd episode of the 1st season, the birth year on Robert's tombstone reads 1958 which, at the time, would have made the character 54 had he still been alive.
However, the news report from the pilot states Robert's birth year as 1948, which instead would have made the character 64. The simple changing of one number creates a 10 year age inconsistency for the character. Whether this was a conscious decision by the writers to de-age Robert or whether it was something that simply got overlooked by the series is unknown but it is likely the latter.
Hair Color
As many have realized, the actress that played Sara Lance in the pilot episode was eventually replaced in the show. Actress Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, who played Lance, was later replaced by Caity Lotz causing lots of the flashbacks to be reshot. While recasting isn't a foreign concept for shows, there is something about this casting that messes with the logic of the show. Sara in season 1 was shown to be a brunette in the past, however, the flashbacks that occur during season 2 changed that to her being depicted as a blonde.
This is most obvious in the scenes that take place upon the Queen's Gambit which were reshot. This wouldn't be such a big deal had the fact that Sara was a brunette being essential to the plot back in season 1 when Dinah Lance, Sara's mother, insisted that her daughter was alive because she had proof in the form of a photo of a brunette woman.
Speed Healing
Without a doubt, one of the most iconic moments from the show was the mountain-top fight between Ra's al Ghul and Oliver Queen with many eager to see the battle between the two extremely skilled and experienced fighters. It wasn't long into the fight before it became obvious that Oliver was clearly outmatched.
After gaining the upper hand by throat-chopping him, Ra's proceeds to stab Oliver in the chest, just below his left pec causing him to draw blood. However, in one of the shots that follow, when Ra's pulls his sword out the stab wound is non-existent and there is no sign of blood on Oliver's chest at all despite it only occurring moments before.
Jumping Stabs Wounds
In the 10th episode of the shows 3rd season "Left Behind" which followed after the episode which saw the fight between Ra's al Ghul and Oliver which resulted in Ra's stabbing Oliver and tossing him off the side of the mountain they were on. The lethal blow was made to Oliver's chest, right below his left pec.
However, in this episode, the stab wound is shown to be much lower near his abdomen. The episode took place after a long hiatus so maybe the people behind the show were hoping that the audience would forget the original placement of the impalement in order to make it seem more severe.
Suit Up
One of the best and most iconic parts of the show has been seeing Oliver suit up in his green arrow costume. Each time it gets even cooler with each version of the suit becoming more evolved than the last. In the episode "Identity", we see Oliver ditch a fundraiser in order to track down and stop Bronze Tiger and China White. We get to see him putting on his costume and arming himself with his bow but if you pay close attention you will notice that the suit-up scene is actually from season 1, specifically the episode "Honor Thy Father".
It's easy to miss after a quick watch but the quiver on his forearm combined with the old arrow cave gives it away. They likely decided to reuse the footage in order to save the time and money that filming a completely new suit up scene would cost.
Diggle's Disappearance
In the episode, "The Slabside Redemption", we see Oliver get released from prison following after he turned himself in at the end of the show's 6th season. When he got out of the Supermax, both Diggle and Felicity were waiting for him.
During the final scene, Oliver and Felicity embrace leading to a touching moment between the husband and wife. However, when the camera pans out at this moment it reveals that Diggle is completely gone despite standing directly behind them, almost as if he wasn't there in the first place.
Time Jump
One of the turning points in Malcolm's life was him finding out about the death of his wife. In the episode "The Undertaking", Malcolm told Robert about the night he found out, stating "A little after midnight, two SCPD officers showed up at my office,"
However, during a scene in the episode titled "Uprising", we get a flashback to the actual moment he finds out. When the two officers arrive after Malcolm had just put Tommy to bed, the clock on his nightstand actually showed it to be 10:10 p.m., 2 hours earlier than Malcolm had originally stated. While this could just be a character misremembering details of a traumatic moment, it is much more likely that the people behind the show missed this small mistake during filming.
Missing Driver
In the 15th episode of the shows first season, "Dodger", Oliver is pursuing a target on a motorcycle. The vehicle then crashes after he causes the driver to lose control in order to stop him. We then see the driver trying to get out of the car and escape. During this shot, we see the motorcycle Oliver was on in the background but Oliver himself is nowhere in sight.
However, seconds later we see Oliver standing next to the bike almost as if he had just gotten off of it but if that were the case, we would have seen him in that same spot in the earlier shot.
Passing The Bow
When Oliver gets to Lian Yu, he struggles to survive and can barely fend for himself, often relying on Yao Fei, his companion on the island, to hunt animals for them to eat. One particular scene shows Yao Fei shooting a rabbit with an arrow and then instructing Oliver to go retrieve the dead it. After insisting that they swap roles, Oliver is given the bow by Yao Fei who tells him to attempt and hit a nearby tree.
After Oliver fails and completely misses, Yao Fei tells him, "You will die badly" before taking the bow back from him. He then instructs Oliver to go and get the dead animal but before Oliver does, we see him return the bow to Yao Fei's hands for a second time. Since Oliver never took the bow back after giving it to Yao Fei the first time, he should have still been holding it.
Face Paint
In the episode "Three Ghosts" we find out Barry Allen left Oliver a new mask in order to help him better conceal his identity since, prior to this, he was only using the cover of his hood to hide his face. When Felicity puts the mask on Oliver for the first time is when we get the continuity error.
Prior to the mask being put on, Oliver's face is bare and he isn't wearing any eye make-up but in the next shot when the mask is on, he suddenly is.