Carvaka Application

[saidyouweredead]

▸CHARACTER
Name: Malcolm Merlyn, AKA Dark Archer, AKA Al Sa-Her or 'Magician'.
Canon: Arrow
Age: In his fifties
Canon Point: [Has been canon updated to the end of season 3/post-'My Name is Oliver Queen']

Background Information:
http://arrow.wikia.com/wiki/Malcolm_Merlyn

Personality:
Once upon a time, Malcolm Merlyn was like any other person in Starling City, although he was part of the one percent that ran things. He had a wife he dearly loved, an eight year old son that was his everything, and he was CEO of Merlyn Global Group. The rest of the higher class of the city were friends of his, enough so that his son and Robert Queen's (the CEO of Queen Consolidated) were often together. He was known as a humanitarian, someone who did what he could to help the city he loved. His wife, Rebecca, ran a free clinic in the Glades, the poorest part of Starling City.

That all changed when she was murdered. That night, Malcolm had been in a meeting. He ignored the first call that had come in from her and then shut his phone off to avoid further interruptions. It wasn't until later that he listened to the message she had left him. Rebecca had been shot, and she lay dying with no one helping her, she called her husband for help. Twenty years later, Malcolm still had and listened to the voicemail of his wife's fading voice crying his name.

In the wake of Rebecca's death, one could call Malcolm lost. A short affair with Moira Queen happened and resulted later in the birth of Thea Queen. His son began spending more time with the Queens while Malcolm used his connections to find the man the police thought killed his wife. A short time later, he purposely ran into and killed the man. That night he fled Starling City, not to return for two years.

The man who came back to Starling City didn't seem different on the surface. He still charmed people, picked back up running his business and stepped back into the life he had left before. Only his son realized something was off, that his once loving father was now distant and cold towards him. And plotting to destroy a good part of Starling City along with everyone that lived there that he held responsible for the death of his wife and not wanting to be better.

The word most often applied by his enemies (or former enemies) to Malcolm is 'insane'. A more correct one would be 'sociopath'. Malcolm does realize that what he does is wrong, such as planning to kill everyone in the Glades or using his own daughter as a pawn in his war against Ra's al Ghul, but he sees the possible outcome as worth the action. His failing is that he expects others to see the terrible things he does in the same cold light that he does. Robert Queen referred to this once in that Malcolm had a 'god complex', that what he thinks is best for others is what he does without input from others.

That cold pragmatism serves Malcolm well in some ways. He is able to bully or kill those in his way enough to set in place and put in motion a plan to destroy the poor part of Starling City called the Glades. His best friend, Robert Queen, is even sacrificed to this plan that he sees as for the greater good when he sabotages his yacht, the Queen's Gambit, along with Moira Queen. So many of the plans he puts into play require that sort of ability to disassociate himself from the emotional matters for them to succeed.

Fear isn't something Malcolm knows all that well after his two year absence from Starling City that he spent at Nanda Parbat, the headquarters of the League of Assassins. There, he learned to understand the coldness of the world and what his purpose in it was. Having been part of the League of Assassins and the only person to have been released from their service, Malcolm has absolute confidence in his ability. The only thing that ever brings a show of that from him is the mention of Ra's al Ghul. When he is finally captured by the League after breaking their Code due to the all the innocent lives that would be lost in the Undertaking, Malcolm does beg for his life from Ra's al Ghul, offering to become his horseman again.

For most people, pain is a powerful motivator. At one point, Malcolm pours boiling water over his arm, explaining to Thea that as a warrior, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. This appears to extend to emotional suffering as well since he will openly refer to Rebecca's murder and the things he's done with no remorse or seeming pain over recounting those events.

In the end, Malcolm is many things all at once, sometimes conflicting ideas held as equal truths. He's a man that drugs his daughter into committing a murder so that he can force a showdown that he believes will save them all. He is a man who accidentally murdered his only son. Yet, he believes strongly in family at the same time and loved Tommy/loves Thea. It was simply what he felt needed done in order to get the outcome that would keep them all alive. He's the type of man one would want plotting out what to do next in a situation where lives would be on the line, but he would also need someone to rein him in due to his view of 'acceptable loss'.

Appearance:
As Malcolm - https://40.media.tumblr.com/bdfd0336bdc2249ea650b865b561dbcd/tumblr_n0yy9mgpcs1qcmak6o1_500.png
As Dark Archer - http://41.media.tumblr.com/615827cb6ed8e4e78c70db91cd8c09a9/tumblr_n24jibDVnm1t5ghc1o1_1280.jpg

Abilities: (http://arrow.wikia.com/wiki/Malcolm_Merlyn has a breakdown further on the page that I agree and disagree with... I wouldn't call Malcolm a toxicologist just because he uses a specialized drug on his daughter. I figure that's something he learned about in the League. He's never shown in series using any other sort that would lay beyond regular learning or good Google-fu. Same with his network of allies/information because it has no real bearing in Carvaka. His personality section reflects his charisma at getting people to follow along with the idea of hey let's slaughter half the city. You can view the full list there, but I think they went a little overboard or speculated in some areas more than I'm comfortable with.)

League of Assassins trained - Malcolm has shown time and again in series that he is a very skilled marksman with an arrow (able to fire three arrows at once and pin someone with them), swordfighting (defeats Thea and Oliver at once) and hand to hand combat. More than once, he's taken on Oliver and bested him even when unarmed, once resulting in him breaking Oliver's bow when he slammed his first through it. He shows this again later when two Triad members try to kill him and Tommy, Malcolm disarming and killing them with a few short moves. In series so far, he has shown skill in hand to hand, throwing knives, various swords and his bow. He can and does on two occasions catch an arrow fired at him from a few feet away. Malcolm is also capable of moving silently when needed, evading people and cameras on the way in and out of his crime scenes. He remains in Starling City for months without being found despite the League searching for him until Thea reveals where he is to them.

Archer - Most likely, this came with his League of Assassins training since they often use bows. As the Dark Archer, Malcolm is a deadly expert force that is are equal to or better than Oliver's. He carries a customized compound bow with specialized arrows.

Iron will/Ability to block pain - This is another skill most likely learned with the League. He can withstand pain up to the point of pouring boiling water on himself or being injured. In one instance, he is being badly tortured and still manages to try to warn Oliver and Diggle that they've walked into a trap. A few scenes later, he's shown standing despite having his feet burnt over coals. This ability also is shown later when he is able to fake being dead when Oliver stabs him with an arrow. When Moira sees him alive, he states that there are places where death is an illusion and that he's been to one of them. Most likely, this refers back to Nanda Parbat's pits, but again, we just don't know for sure.

Intelligence - There are a lot of areas that Malcolm is skilled in due to this. He finds out when Felicity hacks his systems and hacks them in turn so that he can watch them via their webcams. Having been Merlyn Global Group's CEO, Malcolm was able to build his business into one that earned billions as well as funnel that money to where he could still lay hands on it after being outed as a killer. When it comes to planning, Malcolm has shown that he can outthink most people long term or on the fly.

Sleight of Hand - This could probably be tied into his reflexes, but Malcolm does do the coin trick pretty well along with palming things. It's hard to catch him doing it. This trick was the one that earned him his League name of

For a man in his early/mid-fifties, all of this is pretty amazing. There's a lot of fan speculation that the green pendant Malcolm wears is something from the pits that Ra's al Ghul uses to keep youngish. While three seasons worth of canon hasn't confirmed or denied that Malcolm is using something like that to stay at the top of his game, should it ever be, I will let the mods know. I'm really hoping it's not just bad writing that lets a fifty year old man kick the crap out of twenty-some ones on a regular basis or be tortured to near death but walking around hours later.