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Ranking the best fighters in the Arrowverse

An often discussed topic is; who are the best fighters in the Arrowverse? There exists a number of threads on this, but instead of just listing characters with no reasoning what so ever, I'm going to try to the best of my abilities to analyze and evaluate the fighters. Feel free to disagree with me, I know most of you are going to either way ;)

Honorable Mentions

There are a few fighters that didn't quite make it into the top 15, but I feel like they deserve an honorable mention. These fighters are not ranked in any order in particular.

Yao Fei Gulong

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Yao Fei could potentially be ranked higher, but he doesn't have a whole lot of feats to show from. He displayed great skill in his fight against Billy Wintergreen.

I can't rank him any higher due to him losing his second encounter with Billy, who was handily beat by Slade. This puts Yao Fei right outside the top 15 fighters in the Arrowverse.

Speedy

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Speedy has proven herself capable of matching the likes of Malcolm Merlyn and Anarky in combat. That being said, I believed that Merlyn is seriosuly reduced without his arm, and Anarky is an extremely inconsistent combatant. Speedy herself has a whole lot of inconsistent showings, this puts her right outside of the top 15 fighters in the Arrowverse.

You can check out my respect thread on Speedy to dive deeper into her abilities and see what she truly is capable of.

Vigilante

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Vigilante is more of a weapons expert than he is a h2h combatant, but he has proven himself a challenge for the likes of Green Arrow and Prometheus, this puts Vigilante at an incredibly hight level of skill.

My respect thread on Vigilante can be used to further study his abilities.

Brick

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Daniel Brickwell has proven himself a challenge for the Green Arrow on more than one occasion. He has also proven himself to be able to defeat John Diggle as of mid season 3.

Brick doesn't really have a whole lot of showings that convinces me that he should be higher on my list, so until he gets some more feats, he'd do good as an honorable mention.

Other honorable mentions include: Al Owal, Konstantin Kovar, Captain Boomerang, Komodo and Billy Wintergreen

Now as we have gotten the honorable mentions out of the way, it's time to look at the top 15 fighters in the Arrowverse.

15. John Diggle

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As recently as yesterday did I finish my respect thread on John Diggle. Digg is a severely underrated fighter, due to the fight that he rarely ever wins fights against named characters. On the other hand Digg has proven himself the fodder wrecker machine, whether it be regular thugs or League Ninjas.

Diggle has also proven himself on multiple occasions in training sessions with Oliver, always presenting Oliver with more of a challenge than any of his other team mates did.

14. Anarky

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With any sort of consistency could Anarky be ranked way higher on this list. Anarky goes from holding off Green Arrow and Speedy at the same time and one shotting Speedy with a beautiful ninja kick to the face to getting one shot by Diggle and losing to Speedy in single combat. Anarky has some ridiculous high end feats, but he hasn't performed consistently enough to be ranked any higher. I feel like the base feat of where to rank Anarky is his fight against Green Arrow in 5x01.

13. China White

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China White did already in episode 2 of the series present herself as a real challenge to the Green Arrow.

China White also presented the Green Arrow a real challenge in season 2 as well. It wasn't until season 5 we could really establish Green Arrow as a superior combatant, where he beat her handily. China White is also skilled enough to match Katana in her own game, this really speaks volumes of her skill.

12. Katana

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Katana is skilled enough to cut down half a dozen men in seconds. She can fight China White to a near stand still.

Katana is even skilled enough to get the better of Maseo in a sword fight. It should be noted that Maseo did gain the upper hand and had Katana defeated, but Katana capitalized on a poor final strike from Maseo. Furthermore Katana is skilled enough to stalemate Nyssa in a sword fight, which is quite an achievement.

11. Maseo Yamashiro

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Maseo poses a threat for Green Arrow as of season 3, and is fast enough to catch arrows.

Maseo managed to defeat a distracted Nyssa in a sword fight.

Maseo also proved himself capable of stomping Oliver in the Hong Kong flashbacks.

Scaling off the fight with Katana, who is ranked 12, I think it's fair that Maseo occupies the eleventh spot on the list.

Now lets dive right into, what I believe is the 10 best fighter in the Arrowverse

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10. Bronze Tiger

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The most casual of the casual arrow timers in the Arrowverse, maybe apart from our number 9 on the list

Bronze Tiger doesn't have a whole lot of on screen feats, but what the feats he does have are really impressive. He killed 10 prison guards with his claws when he broke out of prison. China White also hired Turner in to kill the Green Arrow, I view this as China White thinking that Turner would have a better shot at the task than she would have herself. I'm vaguely implying Bronze Tiger>China White. It's also worth noting that that Turner did better than China White in their 2v1 fight against Green Arrow.

The most impressive record Bronze Tiger holds, is that the Green Arrow has never defeated him in a fair fight. That speaks volumes for his skill.

I wont dive too deep into evaluating him as a fighter, as I have already written a respect thread on him. The reason he is ranked so high, is cause Oliver has never been able to defeat him and based upon scaling with characters 9, 11, 12 and 13 in the list.

9. Nyssa al ghul

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I know what you think, herr derr, Nyssa doesn't win any fights. Well, when you look at her opposition that may not be too weird.

This is another character that I won't analyze and post to many feats for since you can find that in my respect thread for her.

Although I do feel like pointing out that Nyssa has performed extremely well in fights against both Oliver and Merlyn, although losing next to all encounters. At one point in one of their confrontations, Nyssa was holding off Merlyn and Oliver at the same time. That is seriously impressive.

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Nyssa has also stalemated Katana in a sword fight, meaning she is at least the same level of a fighter that Katana is, but with way more feats, meaning I feel like she should be above Katana at this list.

Lastly we should note that the very same man that killed Bronze Tiger with his own claws, was taken prisoner by Nyssa. So through scaling, i feel inclined to put Nyssa at the spot above Turner.

8. Mick Rory

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This is where I think things get tricky. There is no reason what so ever for me to believe that Mick should be any way close to being a this good fighter, but he really is.

Mick is even before his lifetime of training with the time masters, able to match Sara in a fight. He was always a good brawler, but matching Sara takes some. serious skill.

Mick was also able to defeat a version of Vandal Savage in h2h combat. It's important to note that Vandal Savage was inconsistent, like extremely inconsistent, but that is still a good feat.

Mick was also capable of wrecking samurais and ninjas in combat, even when he said he didn't want to hurt the ninjas, cause he loves ninjas :)

7. Malcolm Merlyn

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No, I am not talking about the season 4 jobbing Merlyn of the one after he lost his hand. I am talking about peak ass kicking Merlyn.

In season 1 Merlyn was able to annihilate the Green Arrow in their first true h2h encounter.

Merlyn did also have the upper hand against Green Arrow in their fight in the finale as well. Green Arrow was only able to win with stabbing himself in the chest. Right before their final encounter, Merlyn was able to hold off Diggle and Green Arrow at the same time. Merlyn at his peak was extremely skilled.

Not only was he skilled, but he was quick and strong as well.

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He was capable of performing incredible strength feats, which very few characters in the Arrowverse could replicate.

Denting metal
Denting metal

Merlyn was always protrayed as superior to Nyssa as well, who occupies the 9th spot on the list. It is only fair that Merlyn is a couple of places above Nyssa.

Lastly, even one handed Merlyn was capable of matching Sara in a fight.

6. Slade Wilson

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I am obviously talking Slade without the mirakuru, as he is without mirakuru currently.

Slade was dead equal to Oliver at the end of season 2, maybe even superior (?). That feat alone should put him clearly in the top 10 imo. At this point in time, Oliver was already superior to Nyssa, evident by their fight in season 2. So that means that Slade as well should be placed handily above Nyssa. Nyssa is honestly a very good character to sacle character through.

Here Slade is able to dispose of Boomerang in seconds. Boomerang had already proven himself a real threat.

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We also got the see Slade cut through ninjas like tissue paper when he returned to Arrow. If this is anything to go by, I feel like Slade handled ninjas easier than Merlyn ever did. Slade also performed as good as Merlyn against Oliver, but against a more experienced Oliver.

Lastly I feel like Oliver's encounter with Slade in season 3, both the series and the tie in comic, just gives Slade the edge against Merlyn, although those two spots are pretty interchangeable

5. Damien Darhk

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Now this may surprise some that I don't rank Darhk any higher. Damien was extremely inconsistent during season 4 of Arrow. Damien did also have amped physicals in his fights against Green Arrow. His feats goes like this:

Enhanced Damien stomps Green Arrow

Enhanced Damien is on the back foot against Green Arrow

Non enhanced Damien gets curbstomped by Green Arrow

Enhanced Green Arrow and Damien are almost dead equal, but Green Arrow has taken extreme amounts of damage before the fight, being rag-dolled by Damien's TK. Green Arrow still manages to finish Darhk off.

An earlier version of Damien, taken from the timeline many years earlier then when he fought Green Arrow, is still able to handily defeat White Canary.

This very same version of Damien is also slightly superior to one handed Merlyn.

In conclusion, I definitely believe that Darhk belongs among the 5 best fighters in the Arrowverse, but he is definitely inferior to Green Arrow.

4. Prometheus

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Prometheus unlike Darhk, has always been able to give Green Arrow a good fight, Prometheus didn't have any enhanced physicals to aid him either.

And bare with him, this is some flawed ass scaling. In season 4, Anarky was regularly portrayed as Green Arrow's superior, this is the same Green Arrow that fought Darhk. Green Arrow was in season 5 able to handily beat Anarky. Meaning s5 Green Arrow>s4 Green Arrow. Prometheus was fairly close to s5 Green Arrow in combat ability, but not his superior. So through some very unreliable scaling do I conclude that Promethus is a better fighter than Darhk.

I have a respect thread on Prometheus, diving deeper into his abilities as a combatant, check that out if you are not sold on my half assed attempt on scaling them.

3. Sara Lance

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Early in season 2 of Legends was Damien able to handily defeat her, link to the vid is in Damien's section. In the finale of season 2 is appears that Sara has surpassed that version of Damien.

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Sara is also ever so slightly superior to Merlyn, evident by their fight.

Sara's most impressive feat imo, comes during the 4 3 night crossover, when she stalemates Green Arrow. If Sara is next to equal to s5 Green Arrow, I have every reason to believe that she is superior to prime Damien as well.

2. Green Arrow

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I really don't feel like I should explain myself in why I'm placing Green Arrow on the second spot, but rather why I don't rank him as the best fighter in the Arrowvsere. But I'll give you a few reasons to why I rank him so high.

Defeated Merlyn in the season 1 finale - Stomped Merlyn in season 4

Defeats Slade, but they are portrayed as next to equals.

I have already established why I rank him over Darhk (ranked 5th) in Darhk's own section. Prometheus (Ranked 4th) could never beat Oliver in single combat.

Oliver held off Sara (ranked 3rd) along with Speedy and Diggle at the same time.

Other impressive feats include, holding the upper hand in a fight against Cupid and China White.

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Oliver has feats against fodder that not a single person on this list has replicated. Defeating 21 mercenaries while saving Walter. Defeating about 20 mercenaries to save Thea.

Not a single person in the Arrowverse has feats that even comes close to his own.

1. Ra's al ghul

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I don't think anyone should be surprised. (?) The Demons Head, Ra's al ghul is imo the best fighter there is in the Arrowverse

The very same Oliver that managed to defeat Merlyn and managed to defeat Slade, is the very same Oliver that gets absolutely ridiculed by Ra's al ghul. Oliver challenges Ra's to a trial by combat, Oliver starts with two swords, Ra's starts unarmed with both hands on his back.

As an after breakfast workout, Ra's cuts down 8 of his men like they were nothing. He had Merlyn shitting his pants, afraid to face him. Need I say more?

After Oliver's League training, where he improved massively as a sword fighter, he was still not Ra's equal. In their final fight of the season, Ra's hols the upper hand the entire fight and only loses because he wants Oliver to take his place. With his death, his wish comes true.

I realize there are some flawed logic behind this, but my verdict remains the same. There are many inconsistencies, but I have done my very best to compile this list of who I think are the best fighters in the Arrowverse. And oh, I completely ignored Vandal Savage cause he sucks.

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