No one truly comes back from Lian Yu, they only bring back a version of themselves capable of having survived it.
The man who went under five years earlier was a purposeless heir; the one who climbed out already knew, before his feet ever touched Starling City soil again, that a list of names was now all the direction he needed.
Oliver Queen never set out to be admired. He simply decided a well-placed arrow beat a trial no one would ever bring.
Valenwood knows nothing of Lian Yu, but its forests have always carried the same quiet certainty: the Bosmer's Green Pact never flinches from a necessary kill, only from one that isn't. Without knowing it, Oliver would have found something almost obvious there, a place where the bow never had to apologize for existing.
Here as in Starling City, the drawn string answers the same silent question: how much longer until justice is finally served, one arrow at a time.