Thea Queen

Thea Queen: 1988 - 2001
Thea Dearden Queen (her middle name is her mother's maiden name) is the second child of Robert and Moira Queen, and the younger sister of Oliver Queen. The Queens came from old money and were quite adept at spending their wealth on living life to its fullest.

Of course, Thea never really got to know their parents. They died when she was still in diapers, mauled by a lion while the family were on an African safari. Thea herself was nearly killed but was rescued by her older brother who shot and killed the lion with a bow and arrow.

The Queens were the raised by a friend of the family and their godfather, Walter Steele. This is the man that Thea would grow to call father. In her early childhood, Thea was happy. She loved her brother very much and was known for running around the Queen Estate wearing costume gowns and having tea parties with stuffed animals. Oliver would call her Princess and she would always chime back: "I'm not a princess! I'm a Queen!" but her protests never changed Oliver's mind and the nickname "Princess" stuck to Thea like a glue.

When Thea was five, Oliver was believed dead, lost at sea, and though Thea never really understood what happened to her parents, she definitely understood loss after Oliver was gone. Thea sank into an emotional slump and was never really the same child, Walter did the best he could to help Thea, she became melancholic and prone to fits of anger.

This began to fade as Thea neared her tenth birthday, but then Oliver made a miraculous return from the grave, claiming he had been stranded on an island for years, and thea was again launched into a new unstable chasm of emotional turmoil. She was at least happy to have Oliver back, but the man who returned was not the brother she remembered.

No one seemed to notice his eyes were different and Thea noticed Ollie was deeply troubled and had became a paranoid and rattled alcoholic who kept disappearing and making excuses to ditch out on Thea. This continued into Thea's teen years before she would learn the truth about what had become of her brother, but then she only felt hurt he had lied to her for so long.

Arrowette: 2001 - 2006
Thea and Sara became besties in short oreder and both were quick to fill the other in on their shared experiences as unofficial sidekicks to their older siblings. This was therapeutic for Thea whose relationship with Oliver had become strained.

Sensing this (or actually having pointed out to him by Roy Harper), Oliver decided to let Thea train with him and Roy. Thea was never going to be as good an archer Oliver or Roy, but she kept at it and proved herself to be better than most. She was even able to outshoot Roy in terms of accuracy when she had a chance to focus and not get caught up in the head games she would put herself through.

I think Thea saw this as a way of proving her worth to Ollie and if she failed to impress him, she would losethe attention and affection he would give her in training and while in the field as Green Arrow and Arrowette (the name Ollie gave her). When Thea joined the Titans, she found herself unsure of where to fit in. She could hang with the girls and she was friendly with Roy (technically her nephew), but she missed her friend Sara and her brother Oliver. On top of this unfamilarity, after one blunder in the field caused Helena to get a concussion when a thug clocked her with a 2x4 that Thea didn't stop in time, Thea felt added pressure to perform at leves that she was uncertain she could maintain, Eventually, the stress go to Thea and she turned to drugs. The Titans were too busy goofing off and getting involved in their own teenage drama, none of them really noticed until Thea (as Arrowette) had been caught using drugs she had confiscated from drug dealers.

The intervention for this came at a bad time, literally hours after Thea had some mail that showed Robert Queen was not her father; and her real father was Oliver's old archery instructor, and family friend, Malcolm Merlyn. The drug-addled teenager felt even more disconnected from her family and friends and when the intervention from the Titans happened, it caused Thea to turn her back on them and storm out. As if it all weren't enough, Sara Lance reached out to tell Thea she had run away and asked Thea to meet her. Thea accepted.

Sin: 2006 - Present
After meeting up with Sara and prompting a joint confessional where Sara admitted her love for Thea and Thea opened up about her true father, the two young women decided to run away. It was not long after that they were recruted into the League of Assassins by none other than Nyssa al Ghul and Malcolm Merlyn. Thea was desperate for a father figure at this point due to Walter being busy running the business and Oliver protecting his city and Merlyn played her like a fiddle. During training, Merlyn did not go soft on Thea due to their genetic bond. No, he pushed her harder than any and when she failed to live up to his standarts, he punished her worse than any others. This was a brutal wake-up call for Oliver's "princess". When things were at their worst, Thea tried to kill herself. Sara happened to rescue her in time and in her moment of weakness, Thea came on to Sara. The next day, Thea declared that Thea Queen was dead and she had been reborn. This reborn Thea dedicated herself to the League when it came time for her trials, she requested the most difficult contract available and deciding to truly test his daughter, Merlyn gave Thea an asigment meant for Deathstroke: eradicating the seven sons of Frederick DeLamb, the boss of the Markovian mafia. In order to challenge her further, Merlyn requested that Thea kill each one in a manner which would send a message to their father. In a single night of bloodshed, Thea had killed seven brothers, leaving the name of on of the deadly sins near the body. For these heinous acts, Thea was given the name Khatiya (or "Sin") and she memorialized the deed by tattooing her flesh.

Sometime later, while on assignment in the field, Thea was forced to lay low and go into hiding. Unable to contact the League, she found herself changing. Her focused mind has become clouded and her conscience heavy and filled with regrets. When she returned to the League, Thea wanted nothing to do with this life. She could hardly stand her own reflection. On a hunch, she raided Merlyn's tent and found the mind-altering drugs he had been giving her. Furious, Thea left the League behind. Eventually, Sara found her and convinced her t join the Legends.

Trivia

 * As a member of the second generation of Titans, Thea was considered to be a member of the "Brat Pack", a clique amongst the Titans where the Titans with mentors would be scolded far less than those without.
 * As one of the Wild Childs (the Gen-2 Titans), Thea was at the center of several scandals and antics just like every other member, such as listening to Karen compare their male companions "attributes". Mostly though, her scandal revolved around the fact that Thea had a notorious drug problem in her personal life and it threatened her dual identity many times when Arrowette was photographed swiping drugs off dealers she had just caught or getting high in a back alley while in costume.
 * She was Sara Lance's first crush.
 * Thea has substance abuse problems, having been addicted to drugs as a teenager and now alcohol.
 * She has a tattoo with a list of seven deadly sins on her arm. She has a second tattoo on her belly, an spiral with seven spot, that symbolizes the fall into the seven sins and her first seven targets.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Thea Queen
 * Character Gallery: Thea Queen