Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Arrow. After hours of binge watching, I have formulated some very pressing questions. Spoilers are ahead...you have been warned.
Isn't it so convenient to be a billionaire playboy? If only we could all lounge around our mansions with butlers and staff and act as vigilantes by night. But what happens when a superhero isn't spectacularly opulent? Who funds these elaborate crusades against evil? Perhaps there is no funding at all and televised storylines are as fictional as they seem.
Seasons one and two of Arrow provided a straightforward approach to the budgetary system of the Green Arrow. Oliver Queen, former playboy and then current billionaire, had a massive trust fund to dive into whenever the need arose. His lair, equipped with thousands of dollars of technology and weaponry, was easily paid for, and he could afford to support John Diggle, his seemingly superfluous body guard and driver. This allowed Diggle to be his vigilante partner. Felicity Smoak was churning out a living as the immensely overqualified IT girl for Queen Consolidated and the suspiciously promoted assistant to Oliver Queen. Thea Queen was benefitting from her family's immense fortune, and her inherited nightclub was presumably making a pretty penny (although it can be questioned why a minor was running a bar and nightclub?).
Season three began to deviate from this theme of easy money, and this is when financial matters became muddled. Oliver Queen lost his company to Ray Palmer, an adorable billionaire who appears to be even more liberal with his fortune than Oliver Queen was in his glory days...I mean seriously this guy bought the entire corporation that Felicity worked for to try to hire her. So Felicity has an incredibly well-paying career thanks to her newest love interest and her irreplaceable technology skills. John Diggle, on the other hand, has some questionable budget issues. He is no longer Oliver's bodyguard so he must be leaning entirely on his wife, Lyla's, salary from ARGUS. Lyla resigns from ARGUS in the middle of the third season and that draws to mind the question of who is supporting John and baby Sara. I guess ARGUS has a pretty amazing severance package or their squirreled away savings rival Oliver's. Anyway, Thea lost her nightclub, but she gained a great job as a cafe waitress on an exotic island. That job gets cut short (much like her now dazzlingly stylish hair and crop tops) when she returns to Starling City and must rely on Malcolm for spending money. How a supposedly dead man can travel the world and still have access to his massive fortune is a conversation for another day. The questions now are how is Oliver financially stable, how much of his inheritance is squirreled away, and who is funding the Diggle family?
Season four solves some of these issues. Felicity is the new CEO of Palmer Technologies, and her romantic partnership with Oliver Queen allowed him to live a comfortable life. Thea still has no nightclub or career, but she is living with Laurel so I guess that solves her money problems? John and Lyla enter the series with no jobs. But then things start to get interesting. In a game of financial chicken, the Diggles pull away to play with reality again. Lyla goes back to working for ARGUS, and this time, she has a massive promotion. Oliver, however, must revert back to Ramen mode after Felicity dumps him. He still has no job, and his savings must have run out by now. So how is he getting by? And who is watching baby Sara every day? Is there an ARGUS certified babysitter on hand? Will Thea go back to being a waitress? Can I discover the secrets of living well without a job?
