Arrow Fanfiction Novels & Stories

It depends on what you mean by 'best,' honestly. Are you looking for classic post-season-two Oliver and Felicity stuff, or the darker 'what if' scenarios that twist the show's premise? Most people will point you to Archive of Our Own first, and I get why—the tagging system is phenomenal. You can filter for completed works over 100k words, which weeds out a lot of the abandoned WIPs that plague other sites.

But I have a soft spot for some older, dedicated LiveJournal communities. The quality there feels different; writers took their time with world-building, and the feedback was more substantive. A lot of those stories got migrated to AO3 eventually, tagged with things like 'Arrow Season 2 AU' or 'Slade Wilson Redemption.' Those are my personal favorites—they explore the moral grey areas the show sometimes glossed over.

Don't sleep on FanFiction.net either, even though its search is a nightmare. The sheer volume means there are hidden masterpieces buried under piles of... less masterful work. I found a fantastic multi-chapter where Oliver is trapped in the League of Assassins and Nyssa al Ghul is the central POV character, and it's only got like twelve reviews. You have to dig, but the gems are there.

My current bookmark is a crossover with 'The Blacklist' on AO3, where Oliver Queen and Raymond Reddington have to negotiate a truce between their... respective circles of influence. It shouldn't work, but the author nails the voices. That's the kind of thing I'm always hunting for—the storyline that makes you see the characters in a whole new light.

Arrow? Like Green Arrow? Honestly, I'd skip the show-based fics entirely if you're just starting. Most of it is heavy Felicity or Olicity stuff from years ago, and the quality is super inconsistent.

I'd point anyone to the comics-inspired fics on AO3. Look for works tagged with 'Oliver Queen/Black Canary (DCU)'—that's the classic Dinah Lance pairing from the comics, not the TV show's version. There's a fantastic, old-school author named 'sapphicschina' who writes these tight, character-driven one-shots that feel like lost issues. Another great one is 'kingmakers' which is a sprawling, modern-day mob AU that somehow gets Oliver's voice perfectly—that charming, haunted bravado.

You can also filter for 'Oliver Queen & Roy Harper' if you want some classic mentor-protege found family stuff, less romance-focused. Just avoid the 'Arrowverse' crossover tag at first; it gets overwhelmingly big.

Finding those takes a bit of patience, but they're out there. My first thought is Archive of Our Own, obviously. The tagging system there is a lifesaver when you're hunting something this specific. Filter by the 'Arrow (TV)' fandom, then crossovers, and you can often add additional fandom tags like 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' or 'The Flash (TV 2014)'. You'll get a mixed bag—some are just Oliver Queen meeting the Avengers, others fully integrate the 'Arrow' characters into a bigger superhero universe.

Don't sleep on fanfiction.net either, even if the search is clunkier. The sheer volume means there are older crossover epics that never got ported over to AO3. Try searching for 'Green Arrow' paired with 'Iron Man' or 'Batman'—sometimes you get comic-book Oliver Queen instead of the TV version, but the plots can be just as fun. Tumblr blogs dedicated to specific pairings or crossovers sometimes rec them, but it's more of a scavenger hunt.