Lilith Clay and Chief Brave Bow / Raymond Begay are both characters who would normally be dead but whom I've chosen to save.
Lilith, I was inspired to bring back because I wanted to highlight the fact that Roy does have a network of friends beyond Jason and Kori. I also wanted him to have a more reliable and reliably accessible source of counsel than Waylon Jones (Killer Croc). Y'all…I lost it when I first saw the Croc thing in a fic, and then again when I found out it was actually freaking canon from Lobdell's work.
I do actually think I'd like to work with the concept a bit eventually, and it actually does line up with Roy's canon history of being stunningly (and sometimes outright excessively) chill about and forgiving of villains and such, but I expect Lilith to be my go-to instead for most cases.
Now, with Chief Begay, I really wanted Roy to actually still have his father and retain that very definite link to the clan via that relationship, especially given the strained relationship with Ollie. However, there's also a reason Roy hasn't gone back to the Reservation often over the past several years, and why he didn't turn to his father or other family there in his times of need.
I've kept the comics elements of both Chief Begay's having liver cancer and his sending Roy away from the tribe and under Oliver Queen's care when the kid was 13.
The way I've handled keeping Chief Begay alive is that he still had the cancer and sent Roy away, and Roy basically found out about the illness indirectly. Roy was incredibly hurt by this whole series of events, and it basically compounded the sense of rejection and abandonment he already had from being sent away (Firepanda99—whose series here I HIGHLY recommend!—has described Roy as having abandonment issues, and I think that makes a huge amount of sense just based on canon, let alone fanon, and I think some of his other issues we see make sense as being rooted in that. There's arguably a desperation to have a sense of family, home, and belonging, even if the cost is overly high). Roy's view of the situation was basically:
A. You took away the last months I'd ever get with you.
B. You don't even want me around in your time of needing comfort and presumably wanting to be with the people dear to you. You didn't even want me to know so that I could come.
So when Roy does get into trouble, he doesn't reach out both because he doesn't want to burden the man during his illness and then later recovery, and because he thinks that's basically how he's seen: a burden who outstayed his welcome.
And he definitely has a better understanding now that he's both older and has had the chance to have some important conversations with his father, but his dad's actions still caused him a great deal of pain and the wounds have been slow to heal both between them and for Roy on an individual level. The two are rebuilding things at this point in time, and he dearly loves his father, but it's slow going for now.
It's worth noting that, depending on timeline, Roy was about 2 or 3 when Chief Begay took him in and then 12 or 13 when he was sent to stay with Ollie…and 13 for certain when we see him using drugs after being taken in by Oliver. So two big things I extrapolate from that are both that it makes sense for Raymond to be the one Roy always thinks of and remembers as his dad, moreso than Ollie or even his biological father, and that it didn't take long at all for Roy to go very badly downhill after the familial separation. It also shows that Ollie didn't even have him long before showing majorly neglectful and abusive behaviors (it also rather impressively suggests that most of Roy's skills as both an archer and a practitioner of VARIOUS martial arts and weapons skills were likely developed outside of Ollie's relatively brief mentorship).
Oliver…basically ditched Roy and was more concerned with his own love life. And when his azz finally showed up again after not having even seen Roy for a month and found out the kid had begun using drugs for real on an undercover op and gotten hooked…his lovely response was to backhand a neglected (by him…) 13-year-old hard enough to send him flying. AND he kicked him out and told him he wanted nothing more to do with him. It's worth noting here that I don't take exception to the idea of Oliver's being angry and even yelling; I totally get both of those things under the circumstances. But the cruel content of what he actually said, let alone the actual violence he then engaged in, are where he actually did cross the line. It was actually bloody worse than I remembered when I went back and revisited the panels! Even afterwards, I found myself tearing up thinking about the manner in which that kid was just discarded.
I've seen someone claim Oliver didn't kick him out and he was already living elsewhere. It's established in Issue #84, when Oliver and Hal return here, that this place is Oliver and Roy's, and that Roy was even the one to find the apartment.
[Green Lantern (1960) #84]
I don't know how much time passes before Issue #85, but there we find out Oliver has now not seen Roy for a MONTH, and Oliver is at this same apartment.
When we finally see Roy, he's hanging out in the attic of one of his heroin-addicted companions. Olivier and Hal take him home, and it's again made clear that yes, this is supposed to be Roy's home.
[Green Lantern (1960) #85]
And then in #86, Oliver proceeds to explicitly and unmistakably kick him out. Roy is 13. He already never should have been missing like that with Oliver being casual about having no fvcking idea where he was. And Oliver was his bloody guardian and responsible for his care and housing. Your fellow presumably teenaged addict's attic is not a substitute for that, mate!
And after Roy is kicked out, we see both Hal and Dinah showing far more concern for his wellbeing. Hal goes to look for him at the drug hangout and instead comes across him in an alley in the area, confused and disoriented and withdrawing cold-turkey from heroin.
Consider the sort of schitt that could've happened if Hal hadn't found him and taken him to Dinah's place.
[Green Lantern (1960) #85]
Well, to answer your question, Hal—
[Green Lantern (1960) #86]
At least Roy did manage to return that hit later. Gotta love how confused Ollie is by the fact that Roy would punch him here.
[Green Lantern (1960) #86]
Now…I haven't seen much with Oliver and Roy, but based on what I have seen and others have asserted, I'm actually very willing to go with the idea that for MOST of the comics portrayal, Ollie has actually been a good dad to Roy and the other kids like Mia and Connor. And I can accept the idea of not taking Snowbirds for your representation of Oliver, just as I sure as fvck am not basing my work on Rise of Arsenal stuff, thanks.
Stick Out Your Chin — How bad is Ollie and Roy’s relationship, actually?
https://pluckyredhead.tumblr.com/post/643878018931179520/how-bad-is-ollie-and-roys-relationship-actually/
Regardless of warnings. — question about roy harper: talk about what you...
https://oathkeptroxas.tumblr.com/post/130820158213/question-about-roy-harper-talk-about-what-you/
However, I'm not here for:
A. Either ignoring or minimizing what Oliver did here or its level of impact. He basically was like a combo of the Drakes and BadDad!Bruce—abandonment, neglect, and outright violence.
B. The claim that it wasn't until New 52 that Oliver was portrayed as a schitty excuse for a father or guardian. The stuff with Roy here was done all the way back in the 70s! I will note, though, that this is actually within Green Lantern's run, so perhaps some of the misconceptions I'm seeing are simply from folks' not being aware of the material. Though I do find that idea surprising given how major a part of Roy's history this is. Like if you've extensively read actual comics material with him and Ollie, I'd expect you've seen this as well.
In any case, I will note that what I mentioned about whom Roy regards as his father is just more how I choose to portray and interpret things, and that Roy does call Oliver his father in the comics. But it's also true that their relationship in the comics is also complicated, including even the question of Oliver considering himself a father to the kid.
Honestly I kinda see it as being comparable to—though less close than—Bruce and Dick, where because of both the smaller than normal age gap and the close and positive relationship Dick already had with his prior parents, Bruce is like a mix of father and older brother for him. And in Oliver's case, he was a much more absent guardian, plus Roy had far less time with him in terms of really being like raised and parented.
I've seen it expressed that Oliver was thoughtlessly imitating Bruce's taking in of Grayson, but not really getting or intending the parenting part of Bruce & Dick's dynamic, and honestly that seems very believable. Perhaps it was even a rivalry thing. It's not that I think Bruce himself anticipated what he was getting into either, actually, but I think he had a more serious and deep drive behind it, and was much more committed. Of course, another thing about this is that it was Bruce who wanted to take Dickie in the first place. Oliver was talked into it by Chief Begay.
Anyways, I think it's accurate to say that Roy in not only my version but also canon has a complicated relationship with both of the men who raised him after the death of Roy William Harper, Senior.
Oliver and Lian are grandfather and granddaughter to each other, as with the comics, and while Roy's timeline was daunting for me to contemplate with how compressed everything seems in the comics, in this AU, my basic concept is that Roy actually did move back in with Ollie on a partial sort of basis a while after first getting clean, although he was also back and forth staying elsewhere with friends like the Titans, Hal Jordan, and Dinah Lance. Things weren't really the same for them after that first demonstration of how fragile his support with Ollie could be, so Roy didn't fully put his faith in him after that. But (hello, Abandonment Issues!) he also couldn't bring himself to just stay away when Ollie did show interest. I do think Roy sort of raised himself more than anything else, though.
Probably part of why he's so feral, heh.