Slade Wilson (Arrowverse)

## Media

**Slade Wilson**, also known as Deathstroke, is a supporting protagonist/antagonist in the Arrowverse, debuting in the *Arrow* episode, "Betrayal".

## History

He crash-landed on an island, to free Yao Fei with his partner Billy Wintergreen, who ultimately betrayed him to the mercenaries they were hunting. Eventually meeting fellow island survivor Oliver Queen six months after he ship-wrecked, Slade accepted him as a partner and later became his second mentor. However, their friendship was fractured after learning Oliver chose to save Sara Lance from Anthony Ivo over Shado, a woman they both loved. Since then, he held a personal vendetta against Oliver, threatening to destroy his life and all those he cares about. After being cured of the Mirakuru, and realizing the error of his ways, works to atone for his past crimes.

Slade served as a supporting antagonist in Season 1, the main antagonist of Season 2, a minor antagonist in Season 3, and a supporting character in Season 5 and 6

## Heinous Acts

After being injected with the Mirakuru serum by Oliver, Slade’s personality took a turn for the worse, with his identity resembling his comic book counterpart.

Upon waking up from his resurrection, Slade’s first concern was Shado, who, at this point, had already been killed by Anthony Ivo. He first displayed his more homicidal tendencies by mercilessly killing Ivo’s men. Heartbroken and vengeful, Slade swore to make the men responsible for Shado’s death suffer to no end. Now a shadow of his former self, Slade’s humanity was nearly falling through and his sanity slipping because of the drug's effects. Shortly after Shado’s funeral, Slade nearly choked Oliver to death with his enhanced strength, but broke out of it when Sara grabbed onto a branch with the intent to hit him with it. However, he showed signs of alarm and regret of nearly hurting Oliver. Later intending to use one of Edward Fyers' old missile launchers to kill Ivo and his men, Oliver managed to talk him out of it by mentioning Shado and Joe. Upon learning Oliver was given the choice of saving Shado and Sara, but chose the latter when Oliver thought Ivo was going to kill her, Slade was being all reason and thinking. He immediately turned on his former friend and later, had him tortured. This is when Slade’s vengeance and vendetta against Oliver began. It only took a turn for the worst when Oliver had the opportunity to heal Slade or kill him, he managed to stab him in the eye and seemingly killed his former friend. It was the mercenary’s will to hate Oliver that caused him to survive. After being reunited with Joe and Adeline, Slade tried living with the Mirakuru, but he became much colder and distance. Some of his actions as Deathstroke under the mask would later cause his son, Joe to become a mercenary and later, a killer like his father. He would begin to hallucinate Shado like Oliver did wherever he needed Shado most. The same would happen with Slade, albeit a darker and twisted way. While Oliver would see a kind and beautiful figure, remembering Shado’s kindness and good heart, Slade would see the darker aspects of her. However, Slade’s bloodthirst and vengeance reflected upon her, as Shado urged Slade to get revenge on Oliver, something the woman he once loved would never do. Speaking of which, when it comes under the subject of Oliver Queen, Slade is driven by his revenge before reason mentality; his insanity reached to a boiling point upon learning Oliver was alive and became a vigilante, the Green Arrow. Despite his anger, Slade killed many ASIS recruits, accept his son Joe, who he still held affection for.  He swore to make his former comrade pay for Shado’s death, but Slade never took into account that it really wasn’t his former friend’s fault but rather, it was Ivo’s. He even snapped at Sebastian Blood for questioning his plans at making Oliver suffer, at least throughout the whole second season.

Despite his sanity deterring, Slade has become a master manipulator who can metaphorically feed on people's egos and manipulating events into his image. He managed to gather a group of followers, including an army of Mirakuru soldiers, with most individuals being willing to be subjugated to the serum’s effects save carry out his vendetta of both Oliver and, later, Sara. Slade swayed the mind of Sebastian Blood with promise of making him Mayor of Starling City by feeding off his desire to rebuild the city from the ground while Slade planning to raze it to the ground just to hurt Oliver. When he met Isabel Rochev, Slade learned of her anger towards Robert Queen, and by extension, the Queen family and managed to get her to join his vengeance campaign. He later tricked Moira into thinking he was supporting her mayoral campaign, when in reality, he was at her house to plant cameras to spy on her. When he kidnapped Thea Queen, Slade pretended to be ignorant of being involved in her disappearance, with the police force believing him and eventually, releasing him because of Quentin Lance only arrested him out of suspicion. Of course, this was only Slade's way of showing Oliver and Team Arrow he couldn't be taken out that easy. However, despite his master manipulation, Slade’s arrogance and vengeance, as well as his vendetta against the Archer, to could also be his weakness. He later revealed to Laurel that Oliver was the Arrow in an effort to hurt him and break Oliver’s and Laurel’s relationship. However, Slade’s plan would ultimately fall through.  She was deeply affected by this revelation, and at first distant about it, Laurel accepted that Oliver was doing good as the Arrow and later comforted him when she saw he was afraid and alone. Instead, she would show her support for Oliver, even giving him reason to fight Slade because of Sebastian Blood’s involvement in his mother Moira's death.  He was ultimately tricked by Oliver during the events of the Siege.  Slade watched video footage of Oliver telling Felicity he loved her, knowing that his former friend would hurt the woman he loved. From this point on, Oliver and Felicity were planning on stopping Slade by curing him from the Mirakuru; if the madman captured her, then Felicity would be close enough to inject him with the Mirakuru serum cure.  Slade had never taken into account what would happen if Oliver was aware of the hidden cameras, he had in the Queen Mansion. However, he was somewhat successful in ruining Oliver and Thea’s relationship when he told her that both Moira and Oliver kept the secret that Malcolm was her biological father and not Robert. She grew cold towards them but this changed when Oliver told Thea to leave Starling City, as this was what she wanted and would lead to their reconciliation.

Apart from his vendetta against Oliver, Slade became a mercenary once more through brutal methods. He is shown to be extremely deadly and fearful, and being intolerant of failure and betrayal. When Blood failed to “take care of” Laurel, Slade demonstrated his failure intolerance when he killed four of Sebastian’s followers, threatened to kill Sebastian if he failed him again. This shows Slade no longer has regard for anyone’s well-being. However, it is implied that he had some level of care for Isabel Rochev, however according to her, Slade was brutal with her in their training sessions when she became his apprentice. After she was killed by John Diggle, Slade used the Mirakuru, as well as his own blood to revive her. However, he abandoned her to Nyssa Al Ghul, Oliver Queen and their reinforcements during the siege and it is unknown how he reacted to her death. Apart from this, Slade has no regards for human life in his anger towards Oliver, which is in stark contact to him on the island, when he wanted to blow up a missile launcher to foil Edward Fyers and save innocent civilians. Now, his methods became dark and twisted.

Even after being cured, Slade's vendetta against Oliver still remained. He once goaded Thea to kill him, but he did not beg on her presence, probably because he didn't want to give active the satisfaction of his fear. However, Slade proved to be somewhat sane, warning Oliver to keep Thea away from Malcolm Merlyn, perhaps showing some level of respect for his former protégé. However, it didn't stop him from mocking Oliver that he will continue to lose those closest to him if people like Merlyn are able to manipulate both Queen siblings or anyone related to them.

## Redeeming Qualities

At least four years after his imprisonment on Lian Yu, the Mirakuru was finally out of Slade Wilson's system, with Slade's sanity intact when he met Oliver since their last encounter. According to him, the Mirakuru was like waking from a nightmare. Aware of all his past actions against Team Arrow, Slade was at best, remorseful of what he had done. These included the suffering he inflicted on Starling City and murdering Oliver's mother in front of him and Thea, listing this as one of the reasons why Oliver should not ask him for his help. However desperate, Oliver offered Slade the chance to redeem himself by helping him saving his son, William, from Adrian Chase. Slade remarked it would be 'like old times," showing he was the same man Oliver had met ten years ago.  He also likes to tease his old enemies turned allies, telling Felicity she still had the same fire when they last encountered each other. Slade later teased Oliver, about his 'marriage' to Nyssa, instead of ending up with Felicity. On a more serious manner, Slade has also helped Oliver come to terms of his survivor's guilt, empathizing that they are both the same on an emotional and personal level. He could also return to his old charades, as he pretended to betray Oliver and Team Arrow, but only did so they could get closer to saving Dinah, Curtis, Rene and William. Slade is also capable of showing sympathy to others, as he showed this sentiment to Oliver when it Chase lied and told him that his son was dead. This is probably influenced by the fact Slade is a father himself, and the thought of a child's death is devastating to him.

However, Slade's loyalty to Team Arrow only extends to Oliver, as he refused to leave the island without him and his son and left the team to find him. After witnessing Samantha, the mother of Oliver's son, die after the explosion, Slade would further push Oliver to give up being the Green Arrow to be a father and also influence his decision to finding Joe himself. Though he would ask for Oliver's help to find Joe, he proceeded to knock him out to prevent him from helping, and later leaving a note telling him to go back home.

Despite no longer being under the influence of the virus, Slade still remains to be an intimidating and dangerous figure when it comes to being Deathstroke. He claims that under most circumstances, including the involvement of saving Joe in Kesnia, he is not so "nice a guy." However, this mostly stems from Slade's need to finding his son. From past experiences, Oliver has known that it is not wise to test Slade. When he and Oliver were at the prison Joe was apparently killed in, Slade was sneering at the warden when he was forestalling his and Oliver's search for Joe and likely would have attacked him, but Slade kept his anger in check, or rather, tried to. Angered at the Jackals for apparently abducting his son, he swore to save Joe from them at all costs. Like everyone when they are angry, Slade's only plan to save Joe involved visiting the Jackals' hideout by force, thinking he could take down all of the Jackals. However, he couldn't take into account that Joe could have been one of the Jackals, even rising to the ranks as their leader. Slade also refused to kill Oliver when Joe presented his father with the idea to enacting his vengeance on the latter from the promise he made four years ago. Instead, the two parted ways as friends, with Slade going on to find Joe and his other missing son, Grant.