So, after an entire season and a half of having conflicting thoughts about the Ricardo Diaz character, we finally saw his big climactic battle scene during this week's visually explosive episode. Here are my quick thoughts on what has so far been a season villain surrounded by a strongly mixed reception from fans and critics alike. Now, before you read this, understand that I felt the newest episode, "The Slabside Redemption", was absolutely phenomenal. This is simply a breakdown of my thoughts on Diaz as a character overall.
1. A Questionable Performance
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| Favorite scene from Kirk Acevedo as Ricardo Diaz on Arrow |
It's been over 15 episodes that we've had this character around and I'm still mixed on the performance given by Kirk Acevedo frequently going from low volume mumbling to loud excessive shouting. Sometimes it works perfectly giving the character an unhinged and sinister nature, yet in other instances, he simply comes across as slightly over the top even by Arrow standards. Like in many cases on these shows, it's really up to the director of said episode to make a particular actor shine, and so far, Kirk has definitely had several glimmers of a great villainous performance. Unfortunately, unlike other similar series' villains like Vincent D'onofrio's Kingpin from Netflix's Daredevil, I couldn't with a clear conscience praise Kirk's performance as being consistently great. To sum it up a bit more clearly, it's not the casting that's the issue here, it's the direction. Kirk is excellent in the role...when he's excellent in the role.
2. What did the "strength serum" subplot lead to?
I'm still not 100% sure on the whole super strength serum (Mirakuru?) storyline as there isn't really much to take from this entire episode that spotlights how significantly stronger he has become or the affects that it has on him. There's no moment where Diaz one arm lifts Oliver or anything remotely noticeable to show off this character's new power scale. Honestly, what have we seen him do after injecting himself with this mysterious chemical? Make a dent in a wall? Kill off a bunch of henchmen offscreen with us never seeing how the serum helped him? Yet, in this fight, the majority of Diaz's attacks comes across the same way in their impact as before. Only now, Oliver's obviously super exhausted prior to the fight after fighting hordes of enemies and being drugged by Stanley.
Yes, there is actually one scene where he kicks Oliver into a cell causing him to flip in the air and Diaz does literally say "I'm a lot stronger now". However, that one single moment is really where it ends. What this fight presented us with was an Oliver Queen who was clearly not 100% going in taking on a questionably powered up street thug with some fight training. Now, one idea that I had for Diaz after his Season 6 fall was to have him heal and actually train with a martial arts master (maybe someone from his past or a new connection) which would've leaned more towards his comic book counterpart. This would've given the audience something refreshing to see as we witness a villain who failed to beat the hero, and with a destroyed pride, became more powerful through rigorous and obsessive combat training while Oliver physically and mentally exhausted himself fighting old enemies in prison. With this, Diaz surprises Oliver with his skill level catching our hero off guard making things interesting for the viewers to see.
Is it a flawless idea? Nope. However, it's far better than "let's inject the villain with a mysterious cheat code just for him to hardly show off its worth and fail at the end of the day with a stab and a few headbutts" which is pretty much what happened. Watching this character fail over and over to legitimately (emphasis on "legitimately") be able to give Oliver a run for his money with his own skill level has become tiring at this point. What's strange is that Ricardo Diaz in the comics is known for being an exceptionally dangerous tactical fighter. What's the point of adapting this type of character for this particular type of series (an action-heavy series that always stood upon its badass combatant villains) if we're not going to fully exploit what he's known for?
Remember, every time Oliver fights Diaz, there's always a storytelling reason for Oliver either to be weakened prior to the fight or planning something that involves intentionally prolonging said fight (although not always best explained). For a series that has always excelled at giving its hero formidable physical threats for season villains, this adaptation of Diaz feels a little off-putting in the end. Why not just lean on the crime boss elements solely if you're not going to fully adapt his fighting prowess?
If the idea was to have someone who's dangerous because he leans on survival instincts due to his prison and street life (cheating and exploiting his enemies to bring them down to his level) then the show didn't do a good enough job at emphasizing on that element in the storytelling and dialogue. If Diaz was meant to actually be physically threatening to our central hero, then the writing bizarrely gave us obvious reasons to think otherwise. So, what exactly do we have here in the end? A somewhat good fighter who doesn't stand a chance against our hero in battle without cheating or potential plot convenience, but constantly gets thrown into scenes where the show wants them to fight only to prove that Oliver can surely beat him? Where's the tension in that? What am I missing here?
3. Ricardo's Super Power Is Convenience In Lack of Story Explanation
As much as I enjoyed Season 6's villain twist with Diaz killing off Cayden James, I feel as though the show has never truly given him any standout moments worthy of excitement. He still comes across as a villain who has basically made it this far by questionable circumstances. The Quadrant not shooting him down when they clearly had multiple chances, Diggle not shooting him in the head when he had a clear shot (the episode when Diaz gets arrested), or even Oliver not taking him down as swiftly as he should've during a couple of their encounters. Simply put, Diaz is only as strong as the individual situation's convenience/potential plot hole makes him to be which is an uninteresting trait for an antagonist. Characters tend to act scared around him or whenever his name gets mentioned yet, as fans, we've seen several villains who are legitimately twice as terrifying or powerful.
In the case of this episode, how does Diaz infiltrate a high security prison? How many people are on his payroll in this prison or the city for that matter and how did he manage to put himself in such a position with said people? These are huge questions, yet none of it gets highlighted in an impactful manner throughout his time on the show. Diaz simply just shows up, takes charge without question, then the rest of the episode just goes along with it via a series of spectacular action sequences. Now, as much as I drooled over said action sequences with the prison setting with child-like excitement, it doesn't take away from the lack of explanation to how one man can just pop up and swiftly take over a high security facility. Remember, this is a visual medium after all which means "showing and telling" plays a huge role in the audience's experience.
It seems as though the Arrow staff either forgot about this or some planned future episode will shine a light upon it (which it never did). I did enjoy how the character manipulated his way via corruption and blackmailing of authority figures during Season 6. It was one of the highlights of that season and what made Diaz truly come across as a highly prioritized threat. However, that component has obviously withered away a little leaving us with a "don't ask and just assume that he can do whatever he wants now" mentality. It feels just as lazy as the Flash Season 3's villain explanation for his existence. What was that line again? "The more you do it, the less the rules apply to you".
4. "Peace has cost you your strength, victory has defeated you."
Whoops, wrong villain dialogue
I'm just gonna come out and say it. Oliver getting beaten down by Diaz felt...wrong. Whereas in other seasons like the Ra's Al Ghul cliff fight, or several encounters with Deathstroke, I remembered feeling excitement at the sight of our hero facing a surprisingly powerful antagonist, I felt nothing here. As comic book (and I'd also include anime) fans, many of us get wide eyed with anticipation whenever a new and incredibly powerful villain shows up and completely dominates the scene. With the prison fight scene involving Diaz beating the mess out of Oliver however, I found myself questioning everything happening despite it admittedly being a well shot action sequence. I realized that I couldn't just sit back and enjoy it on a surface level which really bothered me to no end. Why? As fanboy-ish as it may sound to say this, it didn't feel earned for the villain to have this moment due to a poor set up with the character overall.
Ricardo's intro, character development, and entire arc leading to this point felt like one bumpy race track filled with entire sections missing all the way up to a carelessly painted line. You can see the overall idea of what it should be, but it's a fractured foundation that clearly needs final construction, yet the drivers still decided to race on it. What makes this worst is the fact that Oliver defeats Diaz by getting up so fast that the cameraman jumped and missed the moment, stabs Diaz with a knife, then head butts him until he falls. Yep, that's our big villain defeat. Is it to show a prison changed Oliver fighting dirty and unpredictable as Diaz did? Sure, we can throw that out there as a possibility for head canon purposes, but as a supposedly climactic fight scene, this was rather anti-climactic.
6. Season 7's Villainous Future
With Diaz bleeding out in a cell grasping for his life, what does that mean for the Longbow Hunters moving forward? Assuming that Ricardo is officially confirmed dead or at least out of commission for a while, will we be looking towards the mysterious group of mercenaries as our next big bad? One would hope that Season 7 does something more, shall I say, exciting and well developed with its main antagonist. The prison arc was refreshing and entertaining in regards to Oliver's story, but villain-wise, Season 7 has been been a noticeable step down from Seasons 2 and 5. I'm sure as heck not looking towards Stanley (Oliver's annoying prison sidekick revealed to be insane) to take on the mantle, so it's really up in the air at this point.
What I'd love to see is a much more expansive look at the Longbow Hunters since we have them now for an uncertain amount of time. How long does the group date back? Why were the League of Assassins cautious of them as told in Season 6? Are there more members? Please...please tell me there are more members than a woman with special darts, a strong guy with a shield, and a lady who can mute the sound around her. Those are unique and interesting character traits, but they feel more like supporting pieces to something much bigger in scope. Either way, it'd be great to know that Diaz, a character that I once had high hopes for, is out of the way paving the way for the writers to truly give us something worthy of being called "season villain". Also, if it's not too much to ask, let it be a legitimate physical threat this time for our heroes to face. Lady Shiva perhaps?
To The Readers...
If the entire article sounds like one giant rant about one character, please understand that I don't necessarily hate Diaz or Kirk in the role. Diaz, much like other season villains in the Arrowverse franchise was a potential filled villain that just didn't quite hit the mark 100% for this loyal fan despite enjoying this season overall. Do you guys agree with my thoughts? Am I nitpicking too hard on this character? What would you like to see going forward in a new season villain? Would love to read you guys' thoughts.
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