#it's giving “don't worry. Esmeralda was only ADOPTED by the Romani!” (in the original novel)

[zithcavooris]

Growing up on the outskirts of the Navajo Nation, Roy Harper always felt a little bit of an outsider due to his biracial parentage. This persisted even after his white father died a hero’s death, rescuing innocent bystanders from a forest fire. Although a troubled, angry youth, Roy worked hard to fill his father’s heroic shoes. He channeled his anger into fighting against bigger kids to protect the smaller, doing odd jobs to help make ends meet, and studying archery under his mother, a world-class archery master fittingly named Brave Bow.

One day, a man named Oliver Queen came to town looking to hone his already impressive archery skills as Brave Bow’s student. He became a family friend and would return many times over the next few years. On one such visit, one of Oliver’s enemies followed him, revealing his identity as the hero Green Arrow. Roy and Oliver wound up working together to defeat the villain, saving each others’ lives and further cementing their friendship.

Tragically, Brave Bow began to succumb to illness. Having no family, and nothing else in town to keep her son there, she beseeched Oliver to take Roy in and give him a better life elsewhere. Uncertain that life with him would be much more stable, Ollie nonetheless agreed. Roy, who insisted he was “practically an adult anyway”, also began fighting alongside Green Arrow as his sidekick. He was nicknamed Speedy, after his agility on both foot and bow, a nickname that everyone regretted once the two became friends with superspeedsters.