Huntress (Arrowverse)



Huntress is a recurring villain in the live action television show Arrow. In contrast to the mainstream Helena Bertenelli, who though violent, cynical, and bitter is ultimately still prone to acts of heroism and made serious attempts to better herself, Huntress in Arrow is shown to be a brutal, merciless, and psychotic individual, who is even more violent than her mainstream counterpart and is even willing to endanger and hurt innocents in the name of her vendetta.

History
The daughter of crime boss Frank Bertenelli, Helena disapproved of her father's lifestyle and attempted to see him put behind bars, attempts that saw her fiancee Michael Staton killed. Enraged, Helena vowed to punish her father on her own, becoming the vigilante known as Huntress. As Huntress Helena planned to kill everyone that was close to her father, eventually crossing paths with the Hood (Oliver Queen) in the process. The Hood attempted to persuade Huntress to seek a less violent and vengeful path, but she refused to listen. After the two learned each other's secret identites, Oliver attempted to see Helena out of costume, but she shut him out after realizing that he retained feelings for Laurel Lance. When Oliver as the Hood stood between Helena and her vengeance on her father, she denounced him and left Starling City, threatening to expose his secret identity if he attempted to find her.

Huntress would later return to Starling City with the intent of starting a gang war between her father and the Chinese Triads so as to at last get vengance on him and keep him from escaping jail time (Frank Bertenelli had cut a deal to expose other criminals in exchange for leniency). Threatening to hurt Thomas Merlyn if Oliver did not help her, Huntress tracked her father but was arrested by Detective Quin. Still feeling some measure of sympathy for Huntress, Oliver broke her out of jail but also ordered her to leave the city. Refusing, Huntress sought out Oliver's ally Felicity and forced her to track down Frank Bertenelli's location. Tracking him down, she murdered the US Marshals guarding him but was headed off by Arrow. After an intense battle, Huntress was ultimately forced to flee, but not before shooting McKenna.

Huntress would later return again upon learning that her father was returning to Starling City. Taking over the Court House where he was being held, Huntress took hostages in the building and threatened to kill them if her father was not handed over to her. As Laurel was among those trapped in the court house, Sarah as Black Canary infiltrated the building to free her, in the process battling Huntress. Huntress was able to escape with Laurel however, and threatened to kill her if Arrow and Black Canary did not give her her father ine exchange. The two heroes met Huntress at a designated spot where an overzealous SWAT officer tracked them down also. In the ensuing firefight, Helena's father was killed while she was defeated by Black Canary, also falling into despair over how she was not the one to kill her father.

In prison, Helena was visited by Oliver, and admitted that he had been right about how her killing her father would not make her feel any better. Oliver in turn admitted that he had also failed to help Helena, but assured her before she was taken away that she was not alone.

Personality and Traits
Cold, bitter, cynical, ruthless, nihilistic, and completely bereft of a conscience, Huntress was in many ways a dark perversion of the Hood. Though the Hood could sometimes be violent and did on occasion kill criminals, as time wore on he attempted to temper his violent methods and began delivering criminals to the authorities in the hopes of building bridges with them. Huntress by contrast not only firmly believed that killing criminals was the only way, she also showed a complete and total willingness to hurt and sacrifice innocent lives in such amounts that in the end there is little moral disparity between her and her father. Huntress was heedless to the consequences of her actions, and to a certain extent could not even seem to understand why they were considered morally wrong.

Though Huntress was prone to justifying herself by claiming that she was fighting for "justice", in light of her again, consistent willingness to hurt and endanger innocent lives and also being very clearly motivated only by revenge, this claim holds little merit. Huntress was also shown to be paranoid and unreasonable, instantly assuming the worst of a well-meaning Oliver Queen the second she realized that he retained feelings for Laura.

In the end despite both her tragic loss and also her claiming to be well-intentioned, Huntress is ultimately little more than a psychopath who is just as bad as her father was, if not worse. However, in the end she did show some remorse and sadness, as well as vulnerability upon realizing how empty her revenge truly was.