Nyssa al Ghul (Arrowverse)

Nyssa Raatko, better known as Nyssa al Ghul (Arabic: نيسا رعتكو‎) is an anti-heroine/antagonist appearing in the CW superhero TV series Arrow, as an anti-heroine in Seasons 2, 4, 5 and 6 and a supporting antagonist in Season 3. She is the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, sister of Talia al Ghul and a high-ranking member of the League of Assassins. She was also a close friend and ex-lover of Sara Lance. Nyssa later becomes the wife of Oliver Queen, who has joined the league in the attempt to defeat Ra's.
She is portrayed by Katrina Law.
==Personality==
In the heat of battle, Nyssa shows a cold demeanor and a cold blooded killer side. When not in the heat of battle, contrasting what people would expect from her being in the League of Assassin as well as Ra's Al Ghul's daughter, Nyssa shows a warm, kind, and caring side.
Her pain is evident in her first appearance, heartbroken that Sara had left her behind. She was more upset over this than any apparent betrayal of the league. She refuses to kill Sara, even when she is offered the opportunity to do so. She finds herself stricken with grief when she discovers that Sara had poisoned herself, rushing to her aid and crying. An ultimate act of "kindness" on her part was releasing Sara from the threat of the League of Assassins; touched by Sara's undying care for her as the woman begged the Arrow not to kill her; despite being on the verge of dying herself. Her "friendliness" is also show in her debut; giving a warm smile and a playful wink to a young boy waiting in line near her at the airport. Nyssa also seems to be very moral as she simply subdued the guards that tried to arrest her during her debut and didn't involve innocent people and simply made her way out after she subdued them.
While by no means a heroic figure, this iteration of Nyssa seems to have her fair share of moral scruples and cares deeply for the woman she loves, likening her more to the comic adaptation of her sister Talia. This is in stark contrast to her publication counterpart Nyssa Raatko - Ra's illegitimate daughter from 19th-century Russia who, while initially disagreeing with Ra's genocidal 'cleanse the earth' mentality, comes into possession of a Lazarus Pit, survives into modern times, deposes her father to take over the League, uses the Lazarus Pits to drive her sister to the point of insanity by killing and reviving her countless times in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone by both punishing Ra's and depleting the Lazarus Pits of their power so that he can never use them again, and turns the League of Assassins from a sect of ideological extremists into a terror-for-profit organization.
==Abilities==
*Peak of human physical condition: As a highly skilled assassin, Nyssa is shown to be in top physical condition with fast reflexes. Nyssa is also noticeably much faster than Oliver and Malcolm, despite the former being the same age as her.
*League of Assassins training: It can be assumed that Nyssa has gone through the training all League members do. She likely possesses skills with a variety of other melee weapons such as swords, darts or the dagger that she keeps at her thigh.
*Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Nyssa has displayed that she is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, with a prowess that seems to rival Oliver's. She was able to easily beat five armed guards in a matter of seconds. She faced the Arrow head on in a close quarters battle in which she almost beat him. She proved herself an agile fighter, using her light weight and flexibility to her advantage. Despite being bested by both Oliver and Malcolm in the past she was able to defeat Malcolm in single comba, (however, she only manage defeat Malcolm, because she caught him off guard). In every single one of her confrontations against Oliver, she was never able to defeat the latter.
*Master archer: Nyssa demonstrated skills in archery that also rivaled Oliver's. She was able to fire multiple arrows in rapid succession from a moving car at an even faster moving target. She was able to face off against the Arrow in a duel of archers and nearly won; depriving the Arrow of his quiver with one of her arrows. She was able to quickly fire arrows while dodging his shots at her. Keeping up with the Arrow in this fashion had only been done by Malcolm Merlyn.
*Master swordswoman: As a member of the League of Assassins, Nyssa is a master swordswoman. In "The Magician", she used a sword against Oliver and Malcolm. Using her sword she was able to defeat and capture Malcolm. However, in "Al Sah-him", in her sword duel against Oliver, she was swiftly subdued by the latter. In "My Name Is Oliver Queen", she was able to defeat some assassins using Oliver's sword by herself.
*Free running/Acrobatics: Nyssa is shown to be highly skilled in entering and leaving buildings. Like Sara she uses a scarf to quickly descend down from ceilings.
*High-level intellect/Master tactician/Leader: Nyssa is highly intelligent as she was able to devise a plan to poison Laurel and kidnapped Dinah to drawback Sara and kidnapped Thea to lure Malcolm Merlyn. As the former heir to the demon she displayed leadership skills as she lead a team of assassins against Slade's Mirakuru army and to capture Malcolm Merlyn.
*Toxicology/First aid: Nyssa displayed a familiarity with poisons, using a small amount to poison Laurel Lance in a ruse to bring Sara back, as well as knowing that Sara was poisoned immediately. She later used a dart to make Roy pass out. She is skilled in first aid, she treated the sword wound on Oliver's hand and nursed Sara back to health.
*Multilingualism: Nyssa is capable of fluently speaking English and Arabic.
*Meditation: Nyssa is skilled in Meditation, she was able to stay calm while held captive in a cell by Team Arrow.
==Equipment==
*League of Assassins suit: Nyssa wears a protective suit of black robes, unique from the usual garb worn by League assassins. Her suit differs in that it features loose fitting garbs and a red shoulder pauldron.
*Customized PSE Chaos AD Compound Bow: Nyssa wields a personal compound bow, similar to that of Malcolm Merlyn. It is possible that this bow is the signature bow to the League of Assassins.
*Customized Hunting Arrows: Nyssa carries a number of black arrows with her at all times. These arrows feature a special red fletching and tip.
*Trick arrows: In "Al Sah-him", shortly after her return to Starling City, Nyssa uses a bola arrow to save Laurel from a thug, who was about to use a second knife, after the former underestimated her opponent.
*Quiver: Nyssa wears a black quiver to keep arrows on her back at all times.
*Dagger: Nyssa carries a personalized dagger at her right thigh. It features a gold trim and a marked blade. She draws this dagger upon seeing Sara and during her battle against the Arrow.
*Sword: Nyssa can proficiently wield a sword. It is unknown what type of sword it is.
*Scarf: Nyssa uses a scarf to descend down a ceiling. She also used a scarf to block Malcolm's arrows.
*Darts: Nyssa was shown using a dart to poison Roy Harper and make him pass out.
==Relationships==
===Sara Lance===
At some point Nyssa met Sara bought her the League of Assassins, the two later became lovers, however, Sara left the League, as she did not want to kill people anymore, much to her heartbreak, however Nyssa let her go, as she realize, Sara would just commit suicide to avoid returning to the League.
After Sara got killed she became furious and was convinced Malcolm was the killer. In the process she even abducted Thea to draw Malcolm out. When Oliver didn't believed Malcolm did it she quickly considered him an enemy as well, and was prepared to kill him. She had a deep hatred for Malcolm as she was convinced he had killed Sara despite him swearing on his daughter he wasn't responsible, although it was later revealed she was partly correct as he had drugged Thea and had her kill Sara, however, she did not actually have any evidence that Malcolm was the culprit, as Nyssa's actions were not only out of line, but also out of control.
Her actions went too far, as she threatening to kill 50 people just to draw out Sara's killer, under the misguided belief that Sara would want her death avenged no matter the means and so dishonoring Sara's memory.
However, She disapproved of bringing Sara back to life via the Lazarus Pit since she wouldn't be the same person she once knew.
===Oliver Queen===
When Nyssa first met Al Sah-him, back when he was known as Oliver Queen, she immediately had a bad start in a relationship with him, she hates Al Sah-him, for no apparent reason; for defeating her in battle, robbing her of her so-called justice for the death of Sara Lance, and for supposedly stealing her position as the next leader of the League, initially Ra's had ordered Al Sah-him to kill Nyssa for her betrayal - but stopped him at the last second - reasoning that Al Sah-him had emotionally broken Nyssa (something that Ra's was unable to do as an heir to the demon, to his ex-best friend Damien Darhk and that her death would serve no purpose, Ra's decides that the two should marry to unite their families bloodlines, much to Nyssa's dismay, Nyssa boldly states that she would rather die than become Oliver's wife, however, Ra's emphasised that she has no choice in the matter. Later she was brought before her father and Oliver for dinner, the night before her wedding when she once again refused to marry Oliver. Ra's threatened that if she did not marry him, she would suffer the pain of a thousand deaths. Unknown to her father at the time, she had secretly procured and hidden a knife while she was at their dinner in the hope of assassinating Oliver at the soonest opportunity to avoid marrying him. When the wedding begins Nyssa walks down the aisle, making her attempt as the Priestess spoke of their ceremony. She tries to stab Al Sah-him with the knife, only to be disarmed by him, after which Al Sah-him calmly instructs the Priestess to continue. Nyssa is reluctant to continue with the necessary rituals to seal their matrimony - but a threatening look from her father forces her to resign herself to her fate and go through with the wedding, and so - the ceremony ends with Al Sah-him and Nyssa being officially married.
While not completely explicit, her animosity towards Al Sah-him might be lessening, as she has shown multiple times that in "My Name Is Oliver Queen", she trusts and cares for him. Examples include when she willingly listened to his every word when they crashed the plane; her immediately raising her bow to defend her new husband when Diggle punched Al Sah-him to the ground; and later when she treated his sword wound after his battle with Ra's. Notably, Nyssa held no ill-will against Al Sah-him when he killed her father despite wanting to do it herself and even quickly changed the subject to his surviving getting shot due to his League armor, conveying a warm smile during which. 
She later helped Oliver in rescuing their friends from Prometheus' team in "Lian Yu". 
===Laurel Lance===
At the start of their relationship, Nyssa, for some reason, initially disliked Laurel. After Sara was killed the first time, Nyssa and Laurel met in the cemetery visiting Sara's grave. Nyssa offered her condolences for the loss of Sara but Laurel rebuffed her. Before leaving the cemetery, Nyssa saw Laurel was wearing a black leather jacket she once gave Sara and felt Laurel was not fit to wear it. However, Nyssa later changed her mind when she got to know Laurel, and how the latter reminded her of Sara. Even though she considered Oliver an enemy, Nyssa remained friendly with Laurel. When she had been captured by Oliver and imprisoned in the arrowcave, Laurel visited her. Nyssa shared memories with Laurel about how she fell in love with Sara. Afterwards, Nyssa asked her to dinner and offered to train her.
==Trivia==
*Nyssa's relationship with Sara, and even being named Nyssa, is the result of a time paradox. A time displaced Sara traveled back to the 1960s to join the League of Assassins back then, but before leaving Sara told Ra's that he would have a second daughter he would name Nyssa and told him to send her to Lian Yu around 2008 where Nyssa would meet Sara's younger self. 
*In the original comics, Nyssa was the older sister. however, in the Arrowverse, Talia is portrayed as the older sister. 
==See also==
*
==Navigation==
Category:Anti-Heroes
Category:Arrowverse Heroes
Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Criminals
Category:DC Heroes
Category:Redeemed Villains
Category:Antagonists
Category:TV Show Heroes
Category:Assassins
Category:Leaders
Category:Good Vs. Good
Category:Friend of a Villain
Category:Mentors
Category:Masterminds
Category:Arrogant
Category:Lethal
Category:On & Off
Category:Extremists
Category:In Love
Category:Related to Villain
Category:True Neutral
Category:Jerks
Category:Martial Artists
Category:Fighters
Category:Ninjas
Category:Vengeful
Category:Science Fantasy Heroes
Category:Pawn of the Villain
Category:Tragic
Category:Charismatic
Category:Spouses
Category:Warriors
Category:Vigilantes
Category:Comic Book Heroes
Category:Disciplinarians
Category:Chaotic Good
Category:Stalkers
Category:Master Orator
Category:Wrathful
Category:Sophisticated
Category:Right-Hand
Category:Amazons