In my opinion, 'Arrow' is the more interesting story because it has a superior lead. Stephen Amell is genuinely one of the most charming and likable men I have ever seen, and it's saying a lot to put him over Charlie Cox since he possesses similar charisma, but Stephen Amell is really just something else. I'm completely in love with the guy, and most other 'Arrow' fans who I talk to hold similar feelings. He makes Oliver Queen a more compelling character than Matt Murdock, but this is also largely due to the fact that Oliver's story itself is just a lot larger and more interesting than Matt's. Douchebag kid survives for five years on an island, returns to city as a murderer, grows into a hero. Matt's story is just so much more basic, and I also feel like Amell brings more raw emotion to his acting. All in all, 'Arrow's' lead is superior, and that's the biggest factor.
But another reason I prefer 'Arrow' over 'Daredevil' is because I am emotionally invested in the 'Arrow' world, outside of Oliver Queen. Diggle is an amazing character. Malcolm Merlyn is always intriguing. Laurel and Thea have each developed so much and I want to see them both go even further and become stronger heroes. Slade speaks for himself. The list goes on. I think 'Arrow' seriously has one of the most solid casts out of any TV show I've watched. Ray, Roy, Yao Fei, Maseo, there's literally not a single character who isn't likable and compelling besides Felicity. With 'Daredevil', I like Matt, and I love Wilson Fisk, and I like Frank Castle. That's it. Foggy is massively likable and entertaining but I'm really not invested in his story. He's received little to no character development, in fact he's something of a Marty Stu. Karen is okay, I find myself incredibly bored whenever she's doing stuff, it's always something incredibly dull and redundant because she's always just reading through taxes and newspapers looking for clues towards her investigations, than isn't excising at all, but I acknowledge that she is a good character. I'm just not invested. Claire is cool but there's not much too her. And that's basically how I feel about the whole 'Daredevil' cast. Cool, nice, but not interesting in any way.
I acknowledge that 'Daredevil' generally has far superior writing to 'Arrow', but on the same token the pacing is awful. I'll never understand how people can ignore 'Man of Steel's' brilliance and ambition just because it was dull and slow, then ignore 'Daredevil' having the same faults and just reap endless praises on it. The show is freaking boring at times, let's be honest. The stories can literally be trimmed down to six or seven episodes, SO much time is wasted in these episodes with characters just retreading the exact same topics, talking really slow and quietly, reading papers about taxes and stuff, walking slowly, looking around, and then talking about how they read tax papers and found nothing useful after we just saw that happen on-screen. 'Arrow' might have a lot of filler too, but at least something is always going on. And that's where it takes the advantage. I never pull out my iPhone and check Comic Vine while watching 'Arrow' because I might miss something important. I do it constantly while watching 'Daredevil' though.
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