title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: There is an underlying pattern of Latin American history in "One Hundred Years of Solitude". It has been said that the novel is one of a number of texts that "Latin American culture has created to understand itself." In this sense, the novel can be conceived as a linear archive that narrates the story of a Latin America discovered by European explorers, which had its historical entity developed by the printing press. The Archive is a symbol of the literature that is the foundation of Latin American history and also a decoding instrument. Melquíades, the keeper of the archive, represents both the whimsical and the literary. Finally, "the world of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a place where beliefs and metaphors become forms of fact, and where more ordinary facts become uncertain."


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The use of particular historic events and characters renders "One Hundred Years of Solitude" an exemplary work of magical realism, wherein the novel compresses centuries of cause and effect whilst telling an interesting story.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: José Arcadio Buendía is the patriarch of the Buendía family and the founder of Macondo. Buendía leaves his hometown in Riohacha Municipality, Colombia, along with his wife Úrsula Iguarán after being haunted by the corpse of Prudencio Aguilar (a man Buendía killed in a duel), who constantly bleeds from his wound and tries to wash it. One night while camping at the side of a river, Buendía dreams of a city of mirrors named Macondo and decides to establish the town in this location. José Arcadio Buendía is an introspective and inquisitive man of massive strength and energy who spends more time on his scientific pursuits than with his family. He flirts with alchemy and astronomy and becomes increasingly withdrawn from his family and community. He eventually goes insane and is tied to a chestnut tree until his death.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Úrsula Iguarán is the matriarch of the Buendía family and is wife and cousin to José Arcadio Buendía. She lives to be well over 100 years old and she oversees the Buendía household through six of the seven generations documented in the novel. She has a business of making candy animals and pastries which she continues until the arrival of Fernanda. She exhibits a very strong character and often succeeds where the men of her family fail, for example finding a route to the outside world from Macondo. She deeply fears her family resuming their incestuous practices as her inbred relatives tended to have animalistic features. From a strong and active matriarch, Úrsula is reduced to a plaything for Amaranta Úrsula and Aureliano in her last years and shrinks to the size of a newborn baby when she finally dies.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: José Arcadio Buendía's firstborn son, José Arcadio seems to have inherited his father's headstrong, impulsive mannerisms. He eventually leaves the family to chase a Gypsy girl and unexpectedly returns many years later as an enormous man covered in tattoos, claiming that he has sailed the seas of the world. He marries his adopted sister Rebeca, causing his banishment from the mansion, and he dies from a mysterious gunshot wound, days after saving his brother from execution.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: José Arcadio Buendía's second son and the first person to be born in Macondo. He was thought to have premonitions because everything he said came true. He represents not only a warrior figure but also an artist due to his ability to write poetry and create finely crafted golden fish. During the wars he fathered 17 sons by unknown women, all named Aureliano. Four of them later begin to live in Macondo, and in the span of several weeks all of them but one (including those who chose not to remain in Macondo) are murdered by unknown assassins, before any of them had reached thirty-five years of age.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Remedios was the youngest daughter of the town's Conservative administrator, Don Apolinar Moscote. Her most striking physical features are her beautiful skin and her emerald-green eyes. The future Colonel Aureliano falls in love with her, despite her extreme youth. She dies shortly after the marriage from a blood poisoning illness during her pregnancy. It is implied Amaranta accidentally poisoned her. Until soon before the Colonel's death, her dolls are displayed in his bedroom.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The third child of José Arcadio Buendía, Amaranta grows up as a companion of her adopted sister Rebeca. However, her feelings toward Rebeca turn sour over Pietro Crespi, whom both sisters intensely desire in their teenage years. Amaranta does everything she can to prevent Rebeca and Pietro marrying, even attempting to murder Rebeca. Amaranta dies a lonely and virginal spinster, but comfortable in her existence after having finally accepted what she had become.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Rebeca is the second cousin of Úrsula Iguarán and the orphaned child of Nicanor Ulloa and his wife Rebeca Montiel. At first she is extremely timid, refuses to speak, and has the habits of eating earth and whitewash from the walls of the house, a condition known as pica. She arrives carrying a canvas bag containing her parents' bones and seems not to understand or speak Spanish. However, she responds to questions asked by Visitación and Cataure in the Guajiro or Wayuu language. She falls in love with and marries her adoptive brother José Arcadio after his return from traveling the world. After his mysterious and untimely death, she lives in seclusion for the rest of her life.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Arcadio is José Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera, although he never learns about his origins. He is a schoolteacher who assumes leadership of Macondo after Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves. He becomes a tyrannical dictator and uses his schoolchildren as his personal army and Macondo soon becomes subject to his whims. When the Liberal forces in Macondo fall, Arcadio is shot by a Conservative firing squad.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Aureliano José is the illegitimate son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía and Pilar Ternera. He joins his father in several wars before deserting to return to Macondo upon hearing that it is possible to marry one's aunt. Aureliano José is obsessed with his aunt, Amaranta, who raised him since birth and who categorically rejects his advances. He is eventually shot to death by a Conservative captain midway through the wars.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Santa Sofía is a beautiful virgin girl and the daughter of a shopkeeper. She is hired by Pilar Ternera to have sex with her son Arcadio, her eventual husband. She is taken in along with her children by the Buendías after Arcadio's execution. After Úrsula's death she leaves unexpectedly, not knowing her destination.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: During his 32 civil war campaigns, Colonel Aureliano Buendía has 17 sons by 17 different women, each named after their father. Four of these Aurelianos (A. Triste, A. Serrador, A. Arcaya and A. Centeno) stay in Macondo and become a permanent part of the family. Eventually, as revenge against the Colonel, all are assassinated by unknown assailants, who identified them by the mysteriously permanent Ash Wednesday cross on their foreheads. The only survivor of the massacre is A. Amador, who escapes into the jungle only to be assassinated at the doorstep of his father's house many years later.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Remedios the BeautyRemedios the Beauty is Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child. It is said she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, and unintentionally causes the deaths of several men who love or lust over her. She appears to most of the town as naively innocent, and some come to think that she is mentally delayed. However, Colonel Aureliano Buendía believes she has inherited great lucidity: "It is as if she's come back from twenty years of war," he said. She rejects clothing and beauty which has the opposite effect and makes her more beautiful. Too beautiful and, arguably, too wise for the world, Remedios ascends to heaven one afternoon, while folding Fernanda's white sheet.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: José Arcadio Segundo is the twin brother of Aureliano Segundo, the children of Arcadio and Santa Sofía. Úrsula believes that the two were switched in their childhood, as José Arcadio begins to show the characteristics of the family's Aurelianos, growing up to be pensive and quiet. He plays a major role in the banana worker strike, and is the only survivor when the company massacres the striking workers. Afterward, he spends the rest of his days studying the parchments of Melquíades, and tutoring the young Aureliano. He dies at the exact instant that his twin does.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Of the two brothers, Aureliano Segundo is the more boisterous and impulsive, much like the José Arcadios of the family. He takes his first girlfriend Petra Cotes as his mistress during his marriage to the beautiful and bitter Fernanda del Carpio. When living with Petra, his livestock propagate wildly, and he indulges in unrestrained revelry. After the long rains, his fortune dries up, and the Buendías are left almost penniless. He turns to a search for a buried treasure, which nearly drives him to insanity. He dies of an unknown throat illness at the same moment as his twin. During the confusion at the funeral, the bodies are switched, and each is buried in the other's grave (highlighting Úrsula's earlier comment that they had been switched at birth).


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Fernanda del CarpioFernanda comes from a ruined, aristocratic family that kept her isolated from the world. She was chosen as the most beautiful of 5,000 girls. Fernanda is brought to Macondo to compete with Remedios for the title of Queen of the local carnival; however, her appearance turns the carnival into a bloody confrontation. After the fiasco, she marries Aureliano Segundo, who despite this maintains a domestic relation with his concubine, Petra Cotes. Nevertheless, she soon takes the leadership of the family away from the now-frail Úrsula. She manages the Buendía affairs with an iron fist. She has three children by Aureliano Segundo: José Arcadio; Renata Remedios, a.k.a. Meme; and Amaranta Úrsula. She remains in the house after her husband dies, taking care of the household until her death.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Fernanda is never accepted by anyone in the Buendía household for they regard her as an outsider, although none of the Buendías rebel against her inflexible conservatism. Her mental and emotional instability is revealed through her paranoia, her correspondence with the "invisible doctors", and her irrational behavior towards Meme's son Aureliano, whom she tries to isolate from the world.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Renata Remedios, or Meme, is the second child and first daughter of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo. While she doesn't inherit Fernanda's beauty, she does have Aureliano Segundo's love of life and natural charisma. After her mother declares that she is to do nothing but play the clavichord, she is sent to school where she receives her performance degree as well as academic recognition. While she pursues the clavichord with "an inflexible discipline" to placate Fernanda, she also enjoys partying and exhibits the same tendency towards excess as her father.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: José Arcadio, named after his ancestors in the Buendía tradition, is the oldest child of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo and follows the trend of previous Arcadios. He is raised by Úrsula, who intends for him to become Pope. After Fernanda's death, he returns from Rome without having become a priest. He spends his days pining for Amaranta, the object of his obsession. Eventually, he discovers the treasure Úrsula had buried under her bed, which he wastes on lavish parties and escapades with adolescent boys. Later, he begins a tentative friendship with Aureliano Babilonia, his nephew. José Arcadio plans to set Aureliano up in a business and return to Rome, but is murdered in his bath by four of the adolescent boys who ransack his house and steal his gold.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Amaranta Úrsula is the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano. She displays the same characteristics as her namesake who dies when she is only a child. She never knows that the child sent to the Buendía home is her nephew, the illegitimate son of Meme. He becomes her best friend in childhood. She returns home from Europe with an older husband, Gastón, who leaves her when she informs him of her passionate affair with Aureliano. She dies of a hemorrhage after she has given birth to the last of the Buendía line.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Aureliano Babilonia, or Aureliano II, is the illegitimate child of Meme. He is hidden from everyone by his grandmother, Fernanda. He is strikingly similar to his namesake, the Colonel, and has the same character patterns as well. He is taciturn, silent, and emotionally charged. He barely knows Úrsula, who dies during his childhood. He is a friend of José Arcadio Segundo, who explains to him the true story of the banana worker massacre.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Aureliano is the child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula. He is born with a pig's tail, as the eldest and long dead Úrsula had always feared would happen (the parents of the child had never heard of the omen). His mother dies after giving birth to him, and, due to his grief-stricken father's negligence, he is devoured by ants.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Melquíades is one of a band of gypsies who visit Macondo every year in March, displaying amazing items from around the world. Melquíades sells José Arcadio Buendía several new inventions including a pair of magnets and an alchemist's lab. Later, the gypsies report that Melquíades died in Singapore, but he, nonetheless, returns to live with the Buendía family, stating he could not bear the solitude of death. He stays with the Buendías and begins to write the mysterious parchments, which are eventually translated by Aureliano Babilonia, and prophesy the House of Buendía's end. Melquíades dies a second time from drowning in the river near Macondo and, following a grand ceremony organized by the Buendías, is the first individual buried in Macondo. His name echoes Melchizedek in the Old Testament, whose source of authority as a high priest was mysterious.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Pilar is a local woman who arrived to Macondo to escape the man who raped her as a teenager. She sleeps with the brothers Aureliano and José Arcadio. She becomes the mother of their sons, Aureliano José and Arcadio respectively. Pilar reads the future with cards, and every so often makes an accurate, though vague, prediction. She has close ties with the Buendías throughout the whole novel, helping them with her card predictions. She dies some time after she turns 145 years old (she had eventually stopped counting), surviving until the last days of Macondo.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Pietro is a very handsome and polite Italian musician who runs a music school. He installs the pianola in the Buendía house. He becomes engaged to Rebeca, but Amaranta, who also loves him, manages to delay the wedding for years. When José Arcadio and Rebeca agree to be married, Pietro begins to woo Amaranta, who is so embittered that she cruelly rejects him. Despondent over the loss of both sisters, he kills himself.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Petra is a dark-skinned mulatto woman with gold-brown eyes similar to those of a panther. She is Aureliano Segundo's mistress and the love of his life. She arrives in Macondo as a teenager with her first husband. After her husband dies, she begins a relationship with José Arcadio Segundo. When she meets Aureliano Segundo, she begins a relationship with him as well, not knowing they are two different men. After José Arcadio decides to leave her, Aureliano Segundo gets her forgiveness and remains by her side. He continues to see her, even after his marriage. He eventually lives with her, which greatly embitters his wife, Fernanda del Carpio. When Aureliano and Petra make love, their animals reproduce at an amazing rate, but their livestock is wiped out during the four years of rain. Petra makes money by keeping the lottery alive and provides food baskets for Fernanda and her family after the death of Aureliano Segundo.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Mr. Herbert is a gringo who showed up at the Buendía house for lunch one day. After tasting the local bananas for the first time, he arranges for a banana company to set up a plantation in Macondo. The plantation is run by the dictatorial Jack Brown. When José Arcadio Segundo helps arrange a workers' strike on the plantation, the company traps the more than three thousand strikers and machine guns them down in the town square. The banana company and the government completely cover up the event. José Arcadio is the only one who remembers the slaughter. The company arranges for the army to kill off any resistance, then leaves Macondo for good. That event is likely based on the Banana massacre, that took place in Ciénaga, Magdalena in 1928.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Mauricio is a brutally honest, generous and handsome mechanic for the banana company. He is said to be a descendant of the gypsies who visit Macondo in the early days. He has the unusual characteristic of being constantly swarmed by yellow butterflies, which follow even his lover for a time. Mauricio begins a romantic affair with Meme until Fernanda discovers them and tries to end it. When Mauricio continues to sneak into the house to see her, Fernanda has him shot, claiming he is a chicken thief. Paralyzed and bedridden, he spends the rest of his long life in solitude.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Gastón is Amaranta Úrsula's wealthy, Belgian husband. She marries him in Europe and returns to Macondo leading him on a silk leash. Gastón is about fifteen years older than his wife. He is an aviator and an adventurer. When he moves with Amaranta Ursula to Macondo he thinks it is only a matter of time before she realizes that her European ways are out of place, causing her to want to move back to Europe. However, when he realizes his wife intends to stay in Macondo, he arranges for his airplane to be shipped over so he can start an airmail service. The plane is shipped to Africa by mistake. When he travels there to claim it, Amaranta writes him of her love for Aureliano Babilonia Buendía. Gastón takes the news in stride, only asking that they ship him his velocipede.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Gabriel García Márquez is only a minor character in the novel but he has the distinction of bearing the same name as the author. He is the great-great-grandson of Colonel Gerineldo Márquez. He and Aureliano Babilonia are close friends because they know the history of the town, which no one else believes. He leaves for Paris after winning a contest and decides to stay there, selling old newspapers and empty bottles. He is one of the few who is able to leave Macondo before the town is wiped out entirely.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Critics often cite certain works by García Márquez, such as "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude", as exemplary of magic realism, a style of writing in which the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary. The term was coined by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The novel presents a fictional story in a fictional setting. The extraordinary events and characters are fabricated. However, the message that García Márquez intends to deliver explains a true history. García Márquez uses his fantastic story as an expression of reality. "In "One Hundred Years of Solitude" myth and history overlap. The myth acts as a vehicle to transmit history to the reader. García Márquez's novel can furthermore be referred to as anthropology, where truth is found in language and myth. What is real and what is fiction are indistinguishable. There are three main mythical elements of the novel: classical stories alluding to foundations and origins, characters resembling mythical heroes, and supernatural elements."


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Magic realism is inherent in the novel—achieved by the constant intertwining of the ordinary with the extraordinary. This magic realism strikes at one's traditional sense of naturalistic fiction. There is something clearly magical about the world of Macondo. It is a state of mind as much as, or more than, a geographical place. For example, one learns very little about its actual physical layout. Furthermore, once in it, the reader must be prepared to meet whatever the imagination of the author presents to him or her.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: García Márquez blends the real with the magical through the use of tone and narration. By maintaining the same tone throughout the novel, García Márquez makes the extraordinary blend with the ordinary. His condensation of and lackadaisical manner in describing events causes the extraordinary to seem less remarkable than it actually is, thereby perfectly blending the real with the magical. Reinforcing this effect is the unastonished tone in which the book is written. This tone restricts the ability of the reader to question the events of the novel. However, it also causes the reader to call into question the limits of reality. Furthermore, maintaining the same narrator throughout the novel familiarizes the reader with his voice and causes him or her to become accustomed to the extraordinary events in the novel.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Throughout the novel, García Márquez is said to have a gift for blending the everyday with the miraculous, the historical with the fabulous, and psychological realism with surreal flights of fancy. It is a revolutionary novel that provides a looking glass into the thoughts and beliefs of its author, who chose to give a literary voice to Latin America: "A Latin America which neither wants, nor has any reason, to be a pawn without a will of its own; nor is it merely wishful thinking that its quest for independence and originality should become a Western aspiration."


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Although we are faced with a very convoluted narrative, García Márquez is able to define clear themes while maintaining individual character identities, and using different narrative techniques such as third-person narrators, specific point of view narrators, and streams of consciousness. Cinematographic techniques are also employed in the novel, with the idea of the montage and the close-up, which effectively combine the comic and grotesque with the dramatic and tragic. Furthermore, political and historical realities are combined with the mythical and magical Latin American world. Lastly, through human comedy the problems of a family, a town, and a country are unveiled. This is all presented through García Márquez's unique form of narration, which causes the novel to never cease being at its most interesting point.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The characters in the novel are never defined; they are not created from a mold. Instead, they are developed and formed throughout the novel. All characters are individualized, with many characteristics that differentiate them from others. Ultimately, the novel has a rich imagination achieved by its rhythmic tone, narrative technique, and fascinating character creation, making it a thematic quarry, where the trivial and anecdotal and the historic and political are combined.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Perhaps the most dominant theme in the book is that of solitude. Macondo was founded in the remote jungles of the Colombian rainforest. The solitude of the town is representative of the colonial period in Latin American history, where outposts and colonies were, for all intents and purposes, not interconnected. Isolated from the rest of the world, the Buendías grow to be increasingly solitary and selfish. With every member of the family living only for him or her self, the Buendías become representative of the aristocratic, land-owning elite who came to dominate Latin America in keeping with the sense of Latin American history symbolized in the novel. This egocentricity is embodied, especially, in the characters of Aureliano, who lives in a private world of his own, and Remedios the Beauty, who innocently destroys the lives of four men enamored by her unbelievable beauty, because she is living in a different reality due to what some see as autism. Throughout the novel it seems as if no character can find true love or escape the destructiveness of their own egocentricity.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The selfishness of the Buendía family is eventually broken by the once superficial Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes, who discover a sense of mutual solidarity and the joy of helping others in need during Macondo's economic crisis. The pair even find love, and their pattern is repeated by Aureliano Babilonia and Amaranta Úrsula. Eventually, Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula have a child, and the latter is convinced that it will represent a fresh start for the once-conceited Buendía family. However, the child turns out to be the perpetually feared monster with the pig's tail.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Nonetheless, the appearance of love represents a shift in Macondo, albeit one that leads to its destruction. "The emergence of love in the novel to displace the traditional egoism of the Buendías reflects the emergence of socialist values as a political force in Latin America, a force that will sweep away the Buendías and the order they represent." The ending to "One Hundred Years of Solitude" could be a wishful prediction by García Márquez, a well-known socialist, regarding the future of Latin America.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" contains several ideas concerning time. Although the story can be read as a linear progression of events, both when considering individual lives and Macondo's history, García Márquez allows room for several other interpretations of time:


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: A recurring theme in "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is the Buendía family's propensity toward incest. The patriarch of the family, Jose Arcadio Buendía, is the first of numerous Buendías to intermarry when he marries his first cousin, Úrsula. Furthermore, the fact that "throughout the novel the family is haunted by the fear of punishment in the form of the birth of a monstrous child with a pig's tail" can be attributed to this initial act and the recurring acts of incest among the Buendías.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: A theme throughout "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is the elitism of the Buendía family. Gabriel García Márquez shows his criticism of the Latin American elite through the stories of the members a high-status family who are essentially in love with themselves, to the point of being unable to understand the mistakes of their past and learn from them. The Buendía family's literal loving of themselves through incest not only shows how elites consider themselves to be above the law, but also reveals how little they learn from their history. José Arcadio Buendía and Ursula fear that since their relationship is incestuous, their child will have animalistic features; even though theirs does not, the final child of the Buendía line, Aureliano of Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula, has the tail of a pig, and because they do not know their history, they do not know that this fear has materialized before, nor do they know that, had the child lived, removing the tail would have resulted in his death. This speaks to how elites in Latin America do not pass down history that remembers them in a negative manner. The Buendía family further cannot move beyond giving tribute to themselves in the form of naming their children the same names over and over again. “José Arcadio” appears four times in the family tree, “Aureliano” appears 22 times, “Remedios” appears three times and “Amaranta” and “Ursula” appear twice. The continual references to the sprawling Buendía house call to mind the idea of a Big House, or "hacienda," a large land holding in which elite families lived and managed their lands and laborers. In Colombia, where the novel takes place, a Big House was known for being a grand one-story dwelling with many bedrooms, parlors, a kitchen, a pantry and a veranda, all areas of the Buendía household mentioned throughout the book. The book focuses squarely on one family in the midst of the many residents of Macondo as a representation of how the poorest of Latin American villages have been subjugated and forgotten throughout the course of Latin American history.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" has received universal recognition. The novel has been awarded Italy's Chianciano Award, France's Prix de Meilleur Livre Etranger, Venezuela's Rómulo Gallegos Prize, and the United States' Books Abroad/Neustadt International Prize for Literature. García Márquez also received an honorary LL.D. from Columbia University in New York City. These awards set the stage for García Márquez's 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature. The novel topped the list of books that have most shaped world literature over the last 25 years, according to a survey of international writers commissioned by the global literary journal "Wasafiri" as a part of its 25-anniversary celebration.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The superlatives from reviewers and readers alike display the resounding praise which the novel has received. Chilean poet and Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda called it "the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since "Don Quixote" of Cervantes", while John Leonard in "The New York Times" wrote that "with a single bound, Gabriel García Márquez leaps onto the stage with Günter Grass and Vladimir Nabokov."


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: According to Antonio Sacoto, professor at the City College of the City University of New York, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is considered one of the five key novels in Hispanic American literature (together with "El Señor Presidente", "Pedro Páramo", "La Muerte de Artemio Cruz", and "La ciudad y los perros"). These novels, representative of the boom allowed Hispanic American literature to reach the quality of North American and European literature in terms of technical quality, rich themes, and linguistic innovations, among other attributes.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, García Márquez addressed the significance of his writing and proposed its role to be more than just literary expression:


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Harold Bloom remarked, "My primary impression, in the act of rereading "One Hundred Years of Solitude", is a kind of aesthetic battle fatigue, since every page is rammed full of life beyond the capacity of any single reader to absorb... There are no wasted sentences, no mere transitions, in this novel, and you must notice everything at the moment you read it." David Haberly has argued that García Márquez may have borrowed themes from several works, such as William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, Virginia Woolf's "", Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year", and Chateaubriand's "Atala", in an example of intertextuality.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: As a metaphoric, critical interpretation of Colombian history, from foundation to contemporary nation, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" presents different national myths through the story of the Buendía family, whose spirit of adventure places them amidst the important actions of Colombian historical events. These events include the inclusion of the Roma "Gypsies", the Liberal political reformation of a colonial way of life, and the 19th-century arguments for and against it; the arrival of the railway to a mountainous country; the Thousand Days' War (Guerra de los Mil Días, 1899–1902); the corporate hegemony of the United Fruit Company ("American Fruit Company" in the story); the cinema; the automobile; and the military massacre of striking workers as government–labour relations policy.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: According to Hazel Marsh, a Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of East Anglia, it is estimated that 8,000 Roma live in Colombia today. However, “most South American history books...exclude the presence of the Roma.” "One Hundred Years of Solitude" differs from this tendency by including the traveling Roma throughout the story. Led by a man named Melquíades, the Roma bring new discoveries and technology to the isolated village of Macondo, often inciting the curiosity of José Arcadio Buendía.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The Thousand Days War in Colombia was fought between Liberals and Conservatives between 1899 - 1902. The Conservatives had been "in control more or less constantly since 1867," and the Liberals, mainly coffee plantation owners and workers who had been excluded from representation, sparked a revolution in October 1899. The fighting continued for a few years, and it is estimated that over 130,000 lives were lost.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: In Chapters 5 and 6 of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", the Conservative Army has invaded the town of Macondo leading Aureliano to eventually lead a rebellion. The rebellion is successful - the Conservative Army falls - and afterward, Aureliano, now 'Colonel Aureliano Buendía' decides to continue fighting. He departs Macondo with the band of people who helped him oust the Conservative Army to go continue fighting elsewhere for the Liberal side.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Because Macondo is a fictional town created by Gabriel García Márquez, the exact events of the Thousand Days' War as they occurred in the book are fictional. However, these events are widely considered to be metaphorical for the Thousand Days War as experienced by the entire country of Colombia.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: The “Banana Massacre” occurred between December 5 and 6 of 1928 in Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia. Banana plantation workers had been striking against the United Fruit Company to earn better labor conditions when members of the local military fired guns into crowds.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: This event, which occurs in Chapter 15 of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", was depicted with relative accuracy, minus a false sense of certainty about the specific facts surrounding the events. For instance, although Garcia Marquez writes that there must have been “three thousand...dead,” the true number of victims is unknown. However, the number likely was not far off, because it is considered that the “number of killings was over a thousand,” according to Dr. Jorge Enrique Elias Caro and Dr. Antonino Vidal Ortega. The lack of information surrounding the “Banana Massacre” is thought to be largely due to the “manipulation of the information as registered by the Colombian Government and the United Fruit Company.”


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: In the novel's account of the civil war and subsequent peace, there are numerous mentions of the pensions not arriving for the veterans, a reference to one of García Márquez's earlier works, "El coronel no tiene quien le escriba". In the novel's final chapter, García Márquez refers to the novel "Hopscotch" (Spanish: "Rayuela") by Julio Cortázar in the following line: "...in the room that smelled of boiled cauliflower where Rocamadour was to die" (p. 412). Rocamadour is a fictional character in "Hopscotch" who indeed dies in the room described. He also refers to two other major works by Latin American writers in the novel: "The Death of Artemio Cruz" (Spanish: "La Muerte de Artemio Cruz") by Carlos Fuentes and "Explosion in a Cathedral" (Spanish: "El siglo de las luces") by Alejo Carpentier.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: While "One Hundred Years of Solitude" has had a large effect on the literary world and is the author's best-selling and most translated work, there have been no movies produced of it as García Márquez never agreed to sell the rights to produce such a film. On March 6, 2019, García Márquez's son Rodrigo García Barcha, announced that Netflix was developing a series based upon the book with a set release in 2020. Development was delayed but is ongoing as of December 2021.


title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

text: Shuji Terayama's play "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (百年の孤独, originally performed by the Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe) and his film "Farewell to the Ark" (さらば箱舟) are loose (and not officially authorized) adaptations of the novel by García Márquez transplanted into the realm of Japanese culture and history.


title: Mark Salling

text: Mark Wayne Salling (; August 17, 1982 – January 30, 2018) was an American actor and musician known for his role as Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the television series "Glee".


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling studied at the Los Angeles College of Music before working as a guitar teacher. He also worked as an occasional actor, appearing in "" (1996) and "The Graveyard" (2006) before gaining a recurring role in "Glee" in 2009. Initially a regular character, from the fifth season he was reduced to a recurring guest star role. On the show, he soloed and dueted on cover versions of various songs. Pursuing a music career, he established his own label, Pipe Dreams Records, in partnership with Fontana Distribution. On this label he released an album, "Pipe Dreams", in 2010.


title: Mark Salling

text: In 2015, Salling was arrested for the possession of child pornography. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to the charges as part of a plea deal. He died by suicide on January 30, 2018, before a sentencing hearing scheduled for March 7.


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling was born in Dallas, Texas, the younger of two children to John Robert Salling Jr., an accountant, and Condy Sue Salling (née Wherry), a school secretary. He was home-schooled at an early age. He attended, but did not graduate from, Culver Military Academy and later graduated from Lake Highlands High School in 2001. While in high school, he was a member of the school wrestling team. After graduating from high school, Salling attended the Los Angeles Music Academy College of Music in Pasadena, California and began studying guitar, giving guitar lessons to make a living.


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling sang, wrote, and produced his own music under the name Jericho. He also played the piano, guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Jericho's debut album "Smoke Signals" was released on February 8, 2008 by Jericho Records. On October 25, 2010, Salling released a rock/jazz album, "Pipe Dreams", which was inspired by Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock. It was released by Pipe Dreams Records, Salling's own label, in partnership with Fontana Distribution. He was the composer, performer, and producer of each track. The first single, "Higher Power", premiered on August 10, 2010.


title: Mark Salling

text: On the television show "Glee", he soloed and dueted on cover versions of various songs, including "Sweet Caroline", "Only the Good Die Young", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Run Joey Run", "Beth", "Just Give Me a Reason", "Good Vibrations", and "Fat Bottomed Girls". During filming, Salling paid tribute to the cast of "Glee" by writing a song and creating a video titled "Chillin' on Glee'", which featured various cast and crew members.


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling acted in "" (1996) and "The Graveyard" (2006). In 2008, he was cast as Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the Fox series "Glee". On June 28, 2013, it was reported that Salling would not be returning as a regular on "Glee" fifth season, but would instead be a recurring guest star on the series.


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling dated "Glee" co-star Naya Rivera from 2007 to 2010, and "Playboy" model DJ Roxanne Dawn from 2010 to 2011. He resided in Shadow Hills, Los Angeles, California.


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling was a long-time member of the Echo Park Ornithology Club in Los Angeles, and even penned their theme song. The president and founder of the organization said that Salling "really enjoyed birdwatching a lot, and he really cared about birds... he had a lot of animals at his house and he worked at an animal rescue when I knew him. We went birdwatching together."


title: Mark Salling

text: In January 2013, Salling's ex-girlfriend Roxanne Gorzela accused him of committing sexual battery on March 25, 2011, by having unprotected sex without knowledge that it was unprotected. He denied the charges and filed a counter-suit for defamation of character. In March 2015, Salling settled with Gorzela out of court and agreed to pay her $2.7 million.


title: Mark Salling

text: On December 29, 2015, Salling was arrested at his Los Angeles home on suspicion of possessing several thousand photos and videos depicting child pornography, following a tip-off to the police from one of his ex-girlfriends. He was released later on $20,000 bail, but a search warrant found more than 50,000 images of child pornography, downloaded between April and December 2015, on his computer and USB flash drives.


title: Mark Salling

text: On May 27, 2016, he was charged with receiving and possessing child pornography. As a result of the charges, Salling was removed from the cast of Adi Shankar's film "Gods and Secrets".


title: Mark Salling

text: On September 30, 2017, he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, which was expected to result in Salling being sentenced to four to seven years in jail, in addition to registering as a sex offender and entering a treatment program, among other conditions. The guilty plea was formalized on December 18, 2017, and Salling's sentencing date was set for March 7, 2018.


title: Mark Salling

text: Salling died by suicide by hanging on January 30, 2018, near his home in the Sunland area of Los Angeles. His body was found six hours after he was reported missing. The manner of his death was confirmed by the Los Angeles coroner's office, and death ruled a suicide.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "Crisis on Infinite Earths" is the sixth Arrowverse crossover event, featuring episodes of the television series "Supergirl", "Batwoman", "The Flash", "Arrow", and "Legends of Tomorrow" on The CW. The "Supergirl", "Batwoman", and "The Flash" episodes aired in December 2019 while the "Arrow" and "Legends of Tomorrow" episodes aired in January 2020. The events of the "Black Lightning" episode "" (which aired between "Batwoman" and "The Flash") and a two-issue comic book with characters and concepts unused in the live-action episodes also tied into the event.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "Crisis on Infinite Earths", inspired by the comic of the same name, continues plotlines established in the previous crossover, "Elseworlds". The preceding episodes of "Arrow" season eight and much of "The Flash" season six serve as a prelude to the crossover. In "Crisis", the Monitor gathers Green Arrow, the Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, and several others from throughout the multiverse to stop the Anti-Monitor from destroying reality. The crossover's events result in the Arrowverse being rebooted, affecting all of the series.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Initial references to the crossover began in 2014 with "The Flash"s pilot episode. The adaptation began in earnest during the development of "Elseworlds", and the crossover's title was revealed at the end of "Elseworlds" in December 2018. Casting was announced in mid-2019 and included actors who previously portrayed DC characters in other media, such as Burt Ward and Kevin Conroy. Cress Williams from The CW series "Black Lightning" crossed over with the Arrowverse for the first time, and other actors reprised their roles from various DC film and television series. The event was filmed from the end of September to the beginning of November 2019.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was critically praised for its scope, ambition, and the many cameos, though the fate of Oliver Queen had a mixed reception. The crossover proved popular, as each episode gave season-high ratings to its corresponding series. A two-episode aftershow, "Crisis Aftermath" hosted by Kevin Smith, aired after parts one and three to explore the crossover's events. "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was intended to be followed by a crossover between "Batwoman" and "Superman & Lois" in 2021, but this did not occur because of the COVID-19 pandemic, being replaced informally by David Ramsey appearing as John Diggle on multiple Arrowverse series. The next crossover, "Armageddon", occurs over the first five episodes of the eighth season of "The Flash" in November and December 2021.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: To prepare for the coming crisis, the Monitor recruits Oliver Queen and Martian Manhunter and sends the former on missions to collect a variety of items, while he retrieves the body of Lex Luthor and revives him. Meanwhile, Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen learn that the crisis date has moved up to December 2019 and that the Flash must die to save billions of lives. Barry travels to Earth-3 to see Jay Garrick and Joan Williams, who have been tracking antimatter signatures across the multiverse, to learn more about what happens to him. They send Barry's mind forward in time, making him see billions of timelines where the multiverse is destroyed and one where he dies saving it.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: While on a mission, Oliver witnesses the destruction of Earth-2 from an antimatter wave. In Star City, William Clayton, Connor Hawke, and Mia Smoak time-travel from 2040 to the present, while Oliver and John Diggle learn that Lyla Michaels has been working with the Monitor. Moments before the crisis begins, Nash Wells is pulled into a chamber under Central City after he is promised a new life. As the crisis starts, the sky over Central City and Lian Yu turns red. Lyla, now a "harbinger of things to come", collects Oliver and Mia on Lian Yu.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: On an unspecified Earth, the sky also turns red over Freeland and adversely reacts to Jennifer Pierce's powers, tearing her between her Earth and those of two of her doppelgängers. As the Pierce family and Peter Gambi try to bring her back, the antimatter wave overtakes them while Jefferson Pierce is transported away.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Having already destroyed countless parallel universes, the antimatter wave makes its way to Earth-38. Brainiac 5 detects the wave approaching Argo City, prompting Kara Danvers to warn her mother Alura Zor-El, her cousin Clark Kent, and his wife Lois Lane. Clark and Lois send their son, Jonathan, off in an escape pod just before the wave hits. Harbinger brings Oliver, Mia, Barry, Kate Kane, Sara Lance, and Ray Palmer to Earth-38 and rescues the Kents from Argo. As Harbinger briefs the heroes on the situation, the Monitor raises a tower to impede the wave while the DEO and Lena Luthor evacuate Earth-38's inhabitants. Brainy finds Jonathan's pod on Earth-16, so he, Lois, and Sara leave to retrieve him while the others fight the Anti-Monitor's forces. Preparing to die, Oliver passes the Green Arrow mantle to Mia. When he learns that Barry is fated to die, however, he argues with the Monitor about their deal. The heroes fight a demonic army until the Monitor breaches them off-world. Refusing to leave, Oliver nullifies the Monitor and stays behind to protect the exodus. Lois' team returns to Earth-1 with Jonathan just as the Monitor brings a dying Oliver to say goodbye. Nash, now a "Pariah" for releasing the Anti-Monitor, announces that events have changed and all is lost.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Harbinger recruits Earth-74's Mick Rory so the heroes can use his "Waverider" as their headquarters. Following Oliver's death, the Monitor consults the Book of Destiny and learns about four of seven Paragons: Hope (Kara); Destiny (Sara); Truth (a Superman who has suffered "more than any mortal man"); and Courage (the "Bat of the Future"). Clark, Lois, and Iris locate the second Superman on Earth-96, where Lex uses the Book of Destiny to brainwash that Earth's Clark until Lois knocks Lex out. Kara and Kate travel to Earth-99, but fail to recruit its Batman after discovering he murdered his world's Superman while Sara, Barry, Mia, and John Constantine take Oliver to a Lazarus Pit on Earth-18 in an attempt to resurrect him, only to learn his soul is missing. On the "Waverider", the Monitor has Ray build a "Paragon Detector", which identifies Kate as the Paragon of Courage. Elsewhere, Harbinger is secretly contacted by the Anti-Monitor.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The Paragon detector identifies Barry as the Paragon of Love, J'onn J'onzz as the Paragon of Honor, and Ivy Town scientist Ryan Choi as the Paragon of Humanity; Iris, Ray, and Ralph Dibny leave to recruit Choi. After the Monitor restores Cisco Ramon's powers, he, Barry, and Caitlin Snow meet Pariah in the Anti-Monitor's chamber and find an anti-matter cannon powered by Earth-90's Flash. When Cisco frees Barry-90, the cannon goes critical, so Pariah recruits Jefferson from his recently destroyed Earth to contain its energy. Barry-1 volunteers to destroy it, but Barry-90 stops him, saying that the Monitor did not specify which Flash would die, and sacrifices himself in his place. Meanwhile, Constantine, Mia, and Diggle visit Lucifer on Earth-666 for help entering purgatory and retrieving Oliver's soul. Before they can leave, a Spectre named Jim Corrigan appears and beckons Oliver to come with him, forcing Constantine's team to return to the "Waverider" without him. Suddenly, the Anti-Monitor sends a brainwashed Harbinger to kill the Monitor so he can absorb his power and finish destroying the multiverse. Before he is killed, Pariah sends the Paragons to the Vanishing Point, where they witness Lex replace Superman-96 with himself using a Book of Destiny page.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: On the planet Maltus 10,000 years earlier, Mar Novu attempts to see the birth of the universe, only to end up in the antimatter universe and reveal the multiverse's existence to the Anti-Monitor. Back in the present, following the multiverse's destruction, the Paragons struggle to survive at the Vanishing Point. Once Corrigan teaches him to how use the Spectre's power, Oliver goes to the Vanishing Point to rescue the Paragons and strengthen Barry. Barry drops off Kara, Choi, and Lex on Maltus, but temporarily loses everyone else in the Speed Force after an encounter with the Anti-Monitor. Kara and Choi convince Novu not to implement his plans before Barry takes them and the other Paragons to the dawn of time. There, they learn that the Anti-Monitor will always learn about the multiverse's existence because they only stopped one version of Novu. The Paragons battle the Anti-Monitor and his shadow demons until Oliver uses the Spectre's power to restore the multiverse while the Paragons provide help via Lex's page. Despite succeeding, Oliver dies once more, with Barry and Sara at his side.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: In the recreated universe, the Paragons discover only they remember the crisis and that Earth-1, Earth-38, and Jefferson's Earth were merged into Earth-Prime. J'onn uses his psionic powers to restore their allies' memories while Sara tries to find Oliver. When the Paragons are attacked by demons, a restored Nash discovers that the Anti-Monitor is still alive and plans to resume destroying the multiverse. Nash, Ray, Barry, and Choi develop a bomb to shrink the Anti-Monitor and send him to the microverse. Barry, Kara, Sara, Kate, Clark, J'onn, and Jefferson hold a memorial service for Oliver and agree to protect their new world in his memory.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was first hinted at in the Arrowverse in the pilot episode of "The Flash". In September 2018, three months before the release of "Elseworlds" (the Arrowverse crossover in the 2018–19 television season), "Legends of Tomorrow" executive producer Phil Klemmer said that the next crossover had "a loose shape". In early December 2018, a week before the airing of "Elseworlds", "Arrow" showrunner Beth Schwartz said that the producers of all the series "already know a lot about what's going on in next year's crossover"; according to Marc Guggenheim, "Elseworlds" would "lay the groundwork" for it. The end of "Elseworlds" revealed the crossover title and premise as "Crisis on Infinite Earths", adapting the story from the comic of the same name. "Elseworlds" introduced the characters Mar Novu / Monitor and Psycho-Pirate, and alluded to an impending "crisis".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: In January 2019, "The Flash" showrunner Todd Helbing said that the remainder of the fifth season would contain elements of the upcoming crossover. The CW president Mark Pedowitz called the crossover "the biggest, the most complicated one" to date, and was hopeful that "Legends of Tomorrow" (which did not participate in "Elseworlds" because of production complications) would be part of "Crisis". In May 2019, Pedowitz announced at The CW's upfront presentation that the crossover would include "The Flash", "Arrow", "Supergirl", "Legends of Tomorrow", and "Batwoman" in a five-episode event spanning late 2019 and early 2020. The crossover occurred in the ninth episodes of "Supergirl"s fifth season, "Batwoman"s first season, and "The Flash"s sixth season, in the eighth episode of "Arrow"s eighth season, and as a special episode of "Legends of Tomorrow"s fifth season which had not yet begun airing; this episode is not considered the series' season premiere. Guggenheim said that when they first presented the crossover to the studio and network, the creators stressed that they did not want the event to be "Crisis on CW Earths" but "to touch as many strands of the DC tapestry as possible." About the crossover's comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "" (2019), Guggenheim said "for Barry and Oliver, there is an emotional denouement that is reminiscent of "Endgame" ... "Endgame" is an exclamation point. 'Crisis' is a semicolon".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The May 2019 season finales of "The Flash", "Arrow", "Supergirl", and "Legends of Tomorrow" contained hints of the upcoming crossover, with the Monitor appearing in all series except "The Flash". "The Flash" season six showrunner Eric Wallace said that when all the series' showrunners discussed plans for their series before the crossover, "all of this synergy started to happen" with "a lot of cross collaboration" in service to the crossover's events. Wallace felt the themes of grief, death, and the end of all worlds in "Crisis" worked with the story they were trying to tell in season six of "The Flash" of villain Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork, "who is facing the end of his own world". This allowed the season's start to help set up the crossover.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Most of "Arrow"s eighth season is a prelude to the crossover. The "Arrow" writers consulted with their counterparts on "The Flash" about the destruction of Earth-2 in "Starling City" to ensure that they could destroy this Earth. On "Supergirl", co-showrunner Robert Rovner said that the season would tease the crossover "in our way, which is a little bit different from the way "Arrow" and "The Flash" are doing it". Rovner cited the return of Malefic (J'onn J'onzz's brother) as a major plot thread leading to the crossover, calling it "a gauntlet for J'onn". LaMonica Garrett, who portrays the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor, said before the crossover that the Anti-Monitor's "presence [would] be felt before you physically see him ... You see just enough of him to know this guy means business, but it's not in your face in every scene leading up to" the crossover. The preceding episodes of "Batwoman", "Supergirl", "The Flash", and "Arrow" contained a tag scene of Nash Wells accessing a chamber under Central City.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The "Black Lightning" episode "" tied in to "Crisis on Infinite Earths" before Jefferson Pierce first appeared in the crossover's "Flash" episode. In the "Black Lightning" episode, a red sky covers Freeland before anti-matter strikes Jennifer Pierce and sends her to a void where she finds her Earth-1 and 2 counterparts. An anti-matter wave wipes them and her Earth out, except for Jefferson, who is transported to an unknown location.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The crossover story was expanded in a two-issue comics series "Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant", written by Marv Wolfman (who wrote the original 1985 series) and Guggenheim, and illustrated by Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, John Kalisz, Andy Owens, Hi-Fi, Tom Grummett, Danny Miki, and Chris Sotomayor. The series reprinted material from the original "Crisis on Infinite Earths" comic, and its second issue included material from "DC Universe: Legacies" #6 (2010). About the series, Guggenheim said that its concept "came pretty early on in the process" when it was realized that the story's scope would exceed the five episodes. By creating the comics, it allowed the producers to utilize "all of the characters that we don't have in the crossover proper for logistical reasons, or financial reasons, or creative reasons... [The comic series] allows us to tell a major piece of the story that we're designing, with characters and concepts that we couldn't achieve in live -action". Its four main characters are Felicity Smoak, the Ray, Nyssa al Ghul, and Wally West, in addition to appearances by Atom, Sara Lance, Batwoman, the Flash, the Monitor, Lex Luthor, and others. Serious consideration was given to the Huntress, but Guggenheim opted for Nyssa al Ghul because "we had done that bridged seasons two and three of "Arrow" and [Huntress] had featured prominently in that, so Nyssa had not yet had her chance to be immortalized that way". Wolfman added that the comics were "created to tie in perfectly with The CW shows" so it felt like a main part of the story and not ancillary: "This is integral to the entire storyline." The first comic debuted at Walmart on December 15, 2019, with the second releasing on January 19, 2020; both were released in comic stores the following month. The series is set during the first part of the crossover's "Batwoman" episode. Its stories and behind-the-scenes extra content was published in a deluxe hardcover edition on July 7, 2020.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The "Supergirl" episode was written by Derek Simon and Jay Faerber, with Robert Rovner and Guggenheim contributing to the story; Don Whitehead and Holly Henderson wrote the "Batwoman" episode; and Lauren Certo and Sterling Gates wrote "The Flash" episode, based on a story by Eric Wallace. The "Arrow" episode was co-written by Wolfman and Guggenheim, and the "Legends of Tomorrow" episode was written by Keto Shimizu and Ubah Mohamed.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The writers gathered for a two-week session to work on the crossover. Guggenheim, who was the overall creative for "Crisis on Infinite Earths", began by creating "a series of big tentpole beats that could happen in each of the five hours". These moments were designed to be modular and could be moved throughout the episodes depending on each series' creative needs, actor availability, and other factors, while also determining episode order. Guggenheim's initial template had "Arrow" as the fourth hour and "Legends of Tomorrow" the fifth, "because in crossovers past, "Legends" has always been the finale of the crossover". The CW requested that "The Flash" be the third hour and after working "out those tentpoles, for a variety of different plot reasons, it made a lot of sense for the first hour to be "Supergirl"". "Batwoman" was the second hour. Certain characters were considered "integral", while others would make cameo appearances, depending on actor availability.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: With the large moments determined, the writers separated to write each episode. The group reconvened to review the whole, making adjustments as necessary. Each series' writers would work on its title character's scenes, to ensure consistency. For scenes set in Gotham City, "Batwoman" showrunner Caroline Dries retained the series' grounded tone because it was "not normal for [the characters of "Batwoman"] to interact with aliens and travel to different universes". Although the crossover is considered "a five-hour epic", the title character of each series and characters appropriate in those worlds (such as Barry Allen of Earth-90 appearing on "The Flash") are highlighted. The episode scripts were completed by early September 2019.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The original comic was created to help with DC Comics' continuity problems; since the Arrowverse does not have those, however, the crossover allowed its creators to focus on the characters and their interactions. Supergirl and Batwoman's relationship was developed, after it was seen at the end of "Elseworlds" that "those two characters [are] supporting each other much in the same way that Barry and Oliver have been supporting each other in previous crossovers". This version of the Anti-Monitor was inspired by the character's appearance in the New 52 "Darkseid Wars" storyline. Sara Lance is the focus of the "Legends of Tomorrow" characters, with the crossover "kick[ing] off Sara's emotional journey for season 5 of "Legends"" and giving Sara "a different perspective on things".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Guggenheim said that the crossover would try to incorporate "seminal moments" from the comic book, opening with a similar destruction of parallel universes. Regarding the deaths of Supergirl and the Flash in the comic storyline, Wallace conceded that the writers "can't just kill all of our number ones on our shows", but a proper balance was found in killing some. Although it was revealed in "Elseworlds" that Oliver would die in the crossover (which, Guggenheim felt, "spoiled our own story"), his death in the first hour was an attempt to "surprise the audience" who may have expected him to die in the fifth; it also "establish[ed] the stakes going into the next four hours". The third-hour death of Barry Allen from Earth-90 was "a way to honor what was said [by] the Monitor ... saying the Flash must die", without killing Grant Gustin's character. According to Wallace, this gave "it a nice story twist, [to] get in some emotion" while "complet[ing] a 30-year arc" for John Wesley Shipp's character. The flashback scene from the 1990 "Flash" television series was added while editing the episode "to give a little bit of his life flashing before his eyes". Oliver dies a second time at the end of the "Arrow" episode. Guggenheim said that it was also done to "[surprise] the audience with the unexpected" ... "I think <nowiki>[</nowiki>Stephen Amell<nowiki>]</nowiki> enjoyed A) the opportunity to play two death scenes and B) the creative sleight of hand in terms of surprising the audience."


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The inclusion of Clark Kent and Lois Lane from "Smallville" in the crossover explored the characters after "Smallville" ended. "Smallville Season Eleven", a 2012-2015 comic book series, had previously explored Clark's adventures after the show's final season, and Guggenheim confirmed that while not directly referenced, the events from the comic series were considered canonical for the crossover. Erica Durance, who portrayed that series' Lois Lane, said: "It's a little bit of a look into their future and the different choices they've made to be together. It's a full-circle moment that's really nice." The "Batwoman" episode in which the characters appear was written by former "Smallville" writers, allowing Guggenheim to "[step] aside and let them speak to where things were headed. As a fan of the show, it answered a lot of questions that I had. It provided a lot of closure, I think, in a really nice way." The removal of this Clark's powers was a reference to "Superman II", where Christopher Reeve's Superman temporarily surrenders his powers. Although the details of how "Smallville" Clark lost his powers are not explored, "the idea that Clark would give up his powers in order to have this kind of life, that really resonated with all of" the writers and Tom Welling. "Daily Planet" articles written by Lois were shown "to make it very clear" to the audience "that he did become Superman, that he did have all these adventures, but they are left to your imagination". "Smallville" co-creator Alfred Gough was informed about the "Smallville" scenes before filming began. The three actors who portrayed Clark Kent / Superman in the crossover did not have a scene written containing all three. The writers wanted a clear distinction between Welling's character at the Kent Farm and Routh's character at the "Daily Planet". Guggenheim said, "The desire to have multiple Supermen [together] is what inspired the backup story" in the comic tie-in. Appearing as Bruce Wayne in live-action for the first time allowed Kevin Conroy to "explore a lot of [the] dark corners" of the character in a different way than when he voiced an older version of the character in the animated series, "Batman Beyond".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Lucifer Morningstar's appearance was considered to be five years before the events of "Lucifer", according to actor Tom Ellis: "This is him in his proper playboy, don't-give-a-damn-about-anything stage in his life. He is very irreverent with our characters when they turn up in the scene and obviously, with Constantine, there is some history there." His scene, written by Certo (a "Lucifer" fan), was sent to that series' creative team for their feedback. "Lucifer" co-showrunner Joe Henderson suggested Lucifer's flirting joke, and Ellis contributed his pronunciation of Constantine as "Constantyne". Henderson called Lucifer's appearance "the coolest thing" since he had wanted to participate in the crossover when he learned that it was adapting "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Black Lightning's inclusion was decided "very late in the game", according to Guggenheim. He worked closely with "Black Lightning" showrunner Salim Akil to incorporate the character not as a cameo but "in a way that feels significant". Once the logistics and creative elements were solved, Black Lightning "elevated the crossover to another level". Actor Cress Williams said that the character enters "in a very surprising way. He's not prepared for it. So, he doesn't know these people." Because of this, there is "some conflict early on when he's trying to figure out, who are you people and why am I here?".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Barry's journey through the Speed Force in the "Arrow" hour was an opportunity for the writers to "revisit a series 'greatest hits' for Oliver, key moments in terms of his relationships... it's a little bit of a 'Before you die, your life flashes before your eyes' kind of feel"; they wanted to "look backwards before Oliver's death". Oliver and Diggle's fight in the "Arrow" season-six episode "Brothers in Arms" was originally planned for Kate's scene in the Speed Force in which she helps break up the fight. Since the writers considered season six "relatively recent", they chose "Suicidal Tendencies" from season three. This episode (one of Guggenheim's favorites) and the argument between Oliver and Ray helped show "how much all of the shows have evolved and relationships between the characters have evolved". The other moments in the Speed Force were based on "showing how far the characters have come". In the Speed Force, Barry encounters Ezra Miller's Barry Allen from the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Guggenheim worked with DC Comics chief creative officer Jim Lee and DC Entertainment film vice president Adam Schlagman on the scene to ensure that it would not conflict with their planned "Flash" film (2023), which also deals with the multiverse. Much of the dialogue between Gustin and Miller was improvised. Miller's Allen, who had not yet gone by the moniker "The Flash", is given the name by Grant's Allen in the scene.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The glimpse of Stargirl and the Justice Society of America on Earth-2 from "Stargirl" was not originally intended. "Stargirl" creator Geoff Johns said that production of that series had completed, and Pedowitz advocated its inclusion after seeing footage of the series. Johns continued, "I was incredibly excited about the opportunity for that because it just meant more people would see it. And [tonally], Stargirl and the show has always been for everybody. Anyone can watch it. So it fits in nicely to that world." The end of the crossover sees Barry converting the old S.T.A.R. Labs hangar from the "Invasion!" crossover into a spot where the heroes could gather, along with hinting at a possible introduction of Gleek and the Wonder Twins. These hints were a "fun bit" for the writers to end the crossover, since an early version of the script had the Wonder Twins making an appearance.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Although early allusions to "Crisis" on "The Flash" mentioned the Reverse-Flash, and Tom Cavanagh was said to be reprising his role in the crossover, the character did not appear. Guggenheim did not want to be beholden to this, pointing out that the newspaper headline mentioning him had been created by executives no longer involved with the series or this crossover. The character had also already featured prominently in previous crossovers. Psycho-Pirate, included in "Elseworlds", also appeared in early versions of the crossover. Guggenheim said that he was not included because "given the story we were telling, the only reason we were having him in there was because he was in the original comic". Guggenheim had tried to have Swamp Thing appear to interact with Constantine, given their history and relationship in the comics. Although Guggenheim considered it "a really important inclusion", "for a variety of different reasons" it did not happen.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: LaMonica Garrett was upgraded to series regular on all the series (receiving credit in the episodes he appeared in before the crossover) to ensure that he would be available for "Crisis" and its lead-up. Casting was announced at the July 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. They included: Tyler Hoechlin, reprising his role as Superman, while Brandon Routh, who portrays Ray Palmer / Atom in the Arrowverse, would reprise his role as Superman from "Superman Returns" (2006) in "an older, more world-weary" version inspired by the comics' "Kingdom Come" Superman; Tom Cavanagh also portraying Pariah in addition to Nash Wells; Burt Ward, who portrayed Dick Grayson / Robin in the 1966 "Batman" television series, was cast in an undisclosed role; Amell would portray several versions of Oliver Queen; Jon Cryer would reprise his role as Lex Luthor; and Garrett would portray the Anti-Monitor and the Monitor. Luthor was not originally intended to appear, but Cryer talked to Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth about the character's prominence in the original comic to lobby for his inclusion. Shortly afterwards, Elizabeth Tulloch was confirmed to be reprising her role as Lois Lane.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Pedowitz announced at the Television Critics Association press tour the following month that cast members from "Black Lightning" would appear (previously hinted at by Cress Williams), and Kevin Conroy would portray an elderly Bruce Wayne after voicing the character in multiple animated media. Conroy "jumped at" the opportunity to portray Bruce in live-action for the first time, saying that it would satisfy the "loyal" fanbase of "". Guggenheim said that although the producers discussed with DC and Warner Bros. the possibility of Lynda Carter reprising her role as Wonder Woman from the 1975 television series, they felt that it was unlikely. Guggenheim was initially hesistant in asking Ward if he was interested in returning after the idea of bringing Ward back was brought up in the crossover's writers room, but "The Flash" line producer Joseph Patrick Finn convinced him under the logical pretext that if he didn't ask, he wouldn't get Ward in case he was interested; Ward gladly accepted to return, though the crew made sure his character wasn't identified onscreen but just hint at his identity.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Johnathon Schaech was confirmed as reprising his role as Jonah Hex in September 2019, and John Wesley Shipp was cast in an undisclosed role shortly afterwards. Around this time, Tom Ellis was approached to appear as Lucifer Morningstar from the series "Lucifer". Ellis had "talked over the years about Lucifer being a DC character and 'Is there any chance of this happening?'", saying that "Crisis" was a good chance to explore that connection. In mid-September, it was announced that Tom Welling and Erica Durance would reprise their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively, from "Smallville"; Durance would also reprise her Arrowverse role as Alura Zor-El. Michael Rosenbaum, who portrayed Lex Luthor on "Smallville", said that he declined Warner Bros. and the producers' offer to reprise the role in "Crisis". Alan Ritchson, who portrayed Arthur Curry/Aquaman on "Smallville", also declined an offer to reprise his role in the crossover due to scheduling conflicts with "Titans"; however, he appeared in archive footage as Hank Hall / Hawk alongside Curran Walters as Jason Todd / Robin / Red Hood from "Titans". Osric Chau was cast as Ryan Choi later in the month, and Ashley Scott was confirmed as reprising her role as Helena Kyle / Huntress from "Birds of Prey".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: At the beginning of October, Audrey Marie Anderson was announced as reprising her role as Lyla Michaels, while also taking on the Harbinger persona from the comics; Lyla previously used "Harbinger" as her A.R.G.U.S. codename. That month, Stephen Lobo was cast as Jim Corrigan. By that time, the producers approached Nicolas Cage, who had been attached to portray Superman in Tim Burton's planned "Superman Lives" film. Guggenheim later regretted mentioning Cage, and tried to refrain from hinting at other actors' involvement because he did not want fans "blowing up" their Twitter feeds with questions about why they did not appear. At the end of November, it was reported that Brec Bassinger would appear in the crossover as Courtney Whitmore / Stargirl before the release of her DC Universe series later in 2020. Robert Wuhl reprised his role as the "Gotham Globe" reporter Alexander Knox from "Batman" (1989) in a quick cameo appearance. Wuhl, who had longed to reprise his role as Knox since his conspicuous absence in "Batman Returns" (1992), readily accepted the offer to return for just a single take of the crossover upon being approached by the executives.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Ezra Miller appeared in the "Arrow" episode reprising their DCEU role as Barry Allen. During development discussions for "The Flash" film, it was suggested that Miller appear in the crossover, and Miller immediately agreed since they "[understand] the importance of the Flash and [the character's] role in the multiverse". Roth then spoke to Guggenheim about including Miller and Guggenheim approached Gustin to see if he would be "on-board" with Miller appearing, and Gustin "was incredibly enthusiastic" about the idea; Guggenheim called Jim Lee "instrumental in making [the cameo] happen".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: A number of other actors were considered and approached for cameos. There were "a whole host of reasons why" certain cameos did not occur, according to Guggenheim, as some actors were busy with other projects, some were uninterested in the crossover, and others requested more money than the budget permitted. Cameron Cuffe, who starred as Seg-El on "Krypton", was approached to appear as a holographic Kryptonian elder when Argo City was evacuated. Although Cuffe said that he "wanted to make [the cameo] happen", he had committed to another project.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Production of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" began on September 24, 2019. Filming at the farmhouse for the Kent family farm was done at the end of the month; the farmhouse had previously appeared in the "Elseworlds" crossover and on "Smallville". Production of the "Legends of Tomorrow" episode began on October 4. Williams took a break from filming "Black Lightning" in Atlanta to spend a week filming his parts of the crossover in Vancouver. His scenes were reviewed by the crew of "Black Lightning" to ensure that his characterization was consistent with the series. While on Vancouver, Wuhl arrived during one afternoon to shoot his cameo seven or eight hours later. Primary filming was completed by November 8, with re-shoots and minor filming finished by December 19. When Miller's cameo was finalized, a small crew from "The Flash" filmed it since the "Arrow" crew had already wrapped on the series and was no longer around.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Directors of the crossover included Jesse Warn ("Supergirl"), Laura Belsey ("Batwoman"), David McWhirter ("The Flash"), Glen Winter ("Arrow"), and Gregory Smith ("Legends of Tomorrow"). They were hired specifically for the crossover, because of their previous experience working in the Arrowverse, allowing them (and their directors of photography) to create a unified look. "Batwoman", which is normally filmed with a different aspect ratio from the other series, used the same ratio as the other series for consistency. A number of stunt scenes, particularly in the "Supergirl" and "Arrow" episodes, were filmed with drones.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Blake Neely and collaborators Nathaniel Blume, Sherri Chung, and Daniel Chan, began work on the crossover on November 20, 2019, and the score was recorded by an orchestra on December 2. Tony Kanal and Stephen Perkins were featured performers on the score. Neely incorporated a number of musical Easter eggs into the score, some of which were "cues the production has attempted to obtain the rights to for years"; cues included the 1960s "Batman" television-series theme, the 1989 "Batman" film theme, "hints" of the "" theme, the march theme and "Can You Read My Mind?" from the 1978 "Superman" film, the 1990s "Flash" television series theme, and the "Super Friends" theme.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Before the crossover, Guggenheim told each of the series' showrunners that "there's an opportunity here to introduce some major status quo shift[s]" if they desired; this was embraced by each. He described it as not "so much a burden of fixing something, it was the freedom of being able to change whatever we wanted to change". Guggenheim added that each series would be affected except for "Legends of Tomorrow", since "the crossover launches much of that season" and there would be "one rather big ramification". After the crossover, Dries wanted to "make Kate's life a little bit more integrated with all of this madness of sci-fi and aliens, and the dense mythology between" the other series, but still keep the grounding established earlier in "Batwoman"s season. However, this was "a little tricky because our characters aren't yet exposed to this notion of multiple universes, superheroes, powers, and stuff". An action by Barry would have ramifications for the rest of "The Flash"s season. The goal of the crossover for Wallace was to "tap into that feeling that the readers in 1985 would have had, when reading that story, with the tectonic shifts in the comic world, underneath". He called the Arrowverse ending a "game-changer" which "opens up to a whole new world".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: By the end of the crossover, the universe was rebooted, with all of The CW series airing at the time"Arrow", "The Flash", "Supergirl", "Legends of Tomorrow", "Batwoman", and "Black Lightning"existing on the new Earth-Prime; this was decided going into the crossover. A new multiverse was also created, with six of its Earths revealed. Although Guggenheim had wanted a single Earth-Prime, the crossover would not have been able to visit the worlds of other DC properties had that been done. A compromise was reached in which these properties were returned to different Earths in the multiverse, and the Arrowverse series were combined in a single Earth. The Arrowverse characters are oblivious to the newly formed multiverse.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Guggenheim said that "there is an opportunity going forward after "Crisis" to slowly reveal all of the weird changes," with each series "get[ting] the chance to tell a piece of that story". Changes include John Diggle and Lyla Michaels' daughter, Sara, returning to the timeline after her change in Flashpoint, and Lex Luthor having more heroic qualities. Returning baby Sara was "very important" to Guggenheim and Schwartz to accomplish in "Crisis" after they almost did so in "Elseworlds"; it was held off until this crossover because they "thought it had more punch if it was a part of the universal reboot". "Supergirl" showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller came to Guggenheim with the idea to alter Lex Luthor, something they "were all really excited about". In "Batwoman", Kate's sister Beth returns as a separate person from the season's antagonist Alice; Dries called this a "shocking resonance" for the series.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The inclusion of Miller's Barry Allen from the DCEU opened up more possibilities for crossovers between the DC films and Arrowverse. DC Films president Walter Hamada revealed prior to "Crisis", DC had been structured in a way that the television division had to clear the use of characters with the film division. Now, the company could "really lean into this idea of [the multiverse] and acknowledge the fact there can be a Flash on TV and one in the movies, and you don't have to pick one or the other, and they both exist in this multiverse". Berlanti agreed, feeling that "moving forward, there's more opportunity to do more things like this".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Boost Mobile was a promotional partner for the event. The first teaser for the crossover was released on November 10, 2019. On November 15, The CW released a series of show-specific teasers. A week later, the event's poster was released. A full trailer was released on November 24, followed by additional trailers on December 3 and 6.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: When the initial trailers were released in November, a logo with the lead character of each series (except Oliver Queen) was also released. Guggenheim said that at that time, legal and financial considerations prevented the inclusion of Amell's character in the logo. With the release of the full trailer the following month, Oliver was included in the logo. According to Guggenheim, this was due to "the creativity of a lot of very smart people" and "a loophole". He had been told that "only actors appearing in all five hours could be in the main title card", and Amell does not appear in the fifth episode, though he lends his voice for the episode's ending.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: A week before the last two episodes aired, a second poster for the crossover was released. Russ Burlingame of "Comicbook.com" said that the poster was "a mirror to the first "Crisis" poster, but centering on darkness rather than light", with different taglines used, and "the Anti-Monitor standing with his hands raised up and pointed down, whereas The Monitor had stood with his palms up and arms at his sides." Blair Marnell from "SuperHero Hype" noted the "prominent" placement of Supergirl and Batwoman in the poster, but pointed out both the Supermen of Earths-38 and 96 were "noticeably absent". "/Film"s Amelia Emberwing felt there was "a lot going on" with the new poster, saying "some of it’s mundane, but other parts of it tell a story". She also noted the prominent placement of Supergirl and Batwoman, but for the other Paragons "there’s not a whole lot to be told from their inclusion". Other parts Emberwing focused on was Nash Wells no longer in his Pariah costume, and John Diggle in an outfit with "a whole lot of green", hoping that meant there would be a Green Lantern nod as had been teased in the past for the character. Andy Behbakht at "Screen Rant" was drawn to the reveal of Oliver as the Spectre, saying the look was "heavily influenced by Oliver's latest Green Arrow costume while including the iconic cape that the Spectre wears in the comics". Writing for "Inverse", Eric Francisco called out Ryan Choi's placement next to Ray Palmer, "which heavily suggests Choi will take over as the new Atom after Ray Palmer" and Black Lightning being one of the larger focuses of the poster implied his "appearance in "Part 3" was not a one-off deal".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: On January 10, 2020, Amell released a trailer for the event's last two episodes. A behind-the-scenes panel moderated by Guggenheim and featuring "The Flash" first assistant director Phil Chipera, "Batwoman" costume designer Maya Mani, "Legends of Tomorrow" property master Lynda Chapple, and Arrowverse senior visual effects supervisor Armen Kevorkian, was part of DC FanDome in September 2020. The panel was originally supposed to feature a deleted scene from the crossover, which was ultimately not shown.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "Crisis on Infinite Earths" began with "Supergirl" on December 8, 2019, continuing with "Batwoman" and "The Flash" on December 9 and 10, respectively. The crossover concluded with "Arrow" and "Legends of Tomorrow" on January 14, 2020. The December 9, 2019 episode of "Black Lightning" tied into the event. "Crisis Management", a behind-the-scenes feature, was released on January 16, 2020, with the purchase of a digital season pass to any of the series. In the United Kingdom, Sky One aired the first part and third through fifth episodes daily between March 30 and April 2, 2020. E4, who acquired the rights to "Batwoman" in January 2020, aired the second part on August 9, 2020, as the final episode of the "Batwoman" season for the UK broadcast. The network chose to move the crossover episode to the end of the season instead of airing it as the original ninth episode of the season, in order to not interrupt the season story arc and confuse viewers who might not have been up to date on the other Arrowverse series.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: All five episodes of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" were included on the Blu-ray release of "Arrow" eighth season. Additionally, a DVD of the crossover was released in Region 2 on May 25, 2020.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "Supergirl"s ratings were a season high for the series, with the rating and share on par with the first episode of "Elseworlds". "Batwoman" had its highest viewership since its premiere, and a season-high rating and share. "The Flash" also had season-high viewership, its highest since February 11, 2019, while also matching its season high rating and share. "Arrow" had season-high viewership and rating and share (the series' best since "Elseworlds"), and the "Legends of Tomorrow" episode was well above its season-four averages of 0.95 million viewers and 0.3 rating/share.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 8.97/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "TV's biggest crossover manages to tie these different universes together, offering plenty of cameos, dramatic moments, and surprising twists that will shake the Arrowverse forever."


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Jesse Schedeen of IGN rated the first hour a 9 out of 10. Schedeen called the episode "accessible" to viewers, and said that it did not "lose sight of the personal and emotional stakes of this conflict". He felt that the "Supergirl" supporting cast was "utilized well" and called the episode "very critical" for fans of "Arrow", given Oliver's death, although he regretted Barry's small role. Grading the episode an "A−", "Entertainment Weekly"s Sara Netzley said that "no amount of watching, reading, and speculating [could] truly [prepare] us for the heroism, the tears, the sacrifice, and the cameos". "The A.V. Club"s Caroline Siede called the episode's opening "some of the most exhilarating superhero TV I've ever seen". According to Siede, "Crisis" was the first Arrowverse crossover "to deliver an episode that feels like a meaningful part of the crossover a meaningful part of "Supergirl" as well." Noting that the scene between Kara and Clark discussing Argo City's destruction felt "like "" and its 'Asgard is not a place, it's a people' ethos", she gave the episode a "B+". Giving the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars, Kayti Burt of "Den of Geek" called Oliver's death "a massively gutsy storytelling move"; the episode "set the stakes for the crossover journey to come." About the cast, Burt said: "By keeping the ensemble in this part of the story relatively small, we were able to spend more time with all of them, not to mention check in with the characters who are "Supergirl"-specific"; "one of the best scenes" was between Alex and Lena.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 7.69/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Part two of DC's ambitious crossover is just as relentless as the first installment, if even smoother around the edges, masterfully juggling many characters, emotions, and Easter eggs to a satisfying result."


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Schedeen called the episode "a superhero nerd's dream come true", since it "doubles down on the emotional character drama and manages to deliver some of the best live-action Superman moments in a very long time." Although he considered the "Smallville" moments the "epilogue fans deserve", he said that some fans would not enjoy them. Schedeen called Routh "a solid Superman and a downright terrific Clark Kent". He wrote that the second hour was less plot-driven and the crossover could be "moving too slowly for its own good", but preferred "prioritizing the character moments over the plot and spectacle". Schedeen called the Lazarus Pit subplot "an unnecessary addition to an already crowded crossover", and rated the episode an 8.8 out of 10. Chancellor Agard of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the episode a "B+": ""Batwoman"s Part 2 of the crossover succeeds where Part 1 stumbled a bit. Yes, tonight's episode was just as busy (and cameo-filled), but it flowed smoothly and all of the important beats landed." Agard credited the simple task of the heroes searching for the Paragons with why the episode worked so well, and Conroy's appearance was "truly something". Although Agard found the "Smallville" moments a "letdown", they eventually made sense because ""Smallville" was always about Clark Kent [and] his desire to live a normal life despite his powers". Alani Vargas of "The A.V. Club" said that "the writers did a great job of weaving in some of the most famous versions of Superman" into the episode, noting that other characters and elements from "Batwoman" got "the short end of the stick" in the crossover; Vargas graded the episode a "B". "Den of Geek"s Delia Harrington gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating, based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 9.14/10. The website's critical consensus reads:"An emotional episode that packs a surprising punch, 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' sets the stage for a heartbreaking winter premiere."


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Schedeen wrote that "the cracks are definitely starting to show" with "The Flash" episode, highlighting the number of new characters introduced and its wide-ranging plot. He said that Ryan Choi could have been introduced before the crossover to "get some of the backstory out of the way", and the purgatory storyline "deserved far more attention" than the time allowed. According to Schedeen, it was obvious that in some scenes all the actors were not filmed together. However, "this episode never loses sight of the core appeal of Crisis": giving characters "their big moments and celebrating the connections these characters have forged." Schedeen praised the Earth-90 Flash's sacrifice, Black Lightning's introduction to the Arrowverse, Blake Neely's score, and Lucifer's cameo, rating the episode an 8 out of 10. Agard said that the Earth-90 Flash's death was a "clever way to save Grant Gustin from that fate while also wrapping up that thread in a way that was satisfying and didn't feel like a complete cheat". He liked J'onn J'onnz and Iris West having more substantial roles in this crossover than previous ones, in which they were sidelined or underutilized. To Agard, the introduction of Black Lightning was "the definition of delayed gratification. Seeing Cress interact with everyone in this scene was something to behold because we've been waiting for it to happen and, more importantly, the script does a good job of synthesizing who this guy is to non-"Black Lightning" viewers." Grading the episode an "A−", he concluded: "Overall, I kind of loved this episode. Sure, it definitely moved a bit too quickly and I lost track of the story at times. But it had an immense heart to it. Not only that, but it also improved on what Part 2 did."


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: "The A.V. Club"s Scott Von Doviak also awarded the episode an "A−", calling the crossover "a hot mess, there's no question about it. To call it overstuffed would be an understatement... There are five-minute subplots here that could have been entire episodes of the various series making up the Arrowverse, and the whole thing feels like it could fly apart like the Flash on the cosmic treadmill at any moment. But that's what makes it so much fun." Von Doviak called the purgatory subplot rushed, and the killing of Earth-90 Flash made "all the angst of the first half of the ["Flash"] season feel a little cheap". He called the episode's ending "kind of a ripoff of "Avengers: Infinity War" ... but as far as cliffhangers to hold us until after the holidays go, it'll do." Giving the episode 5 out of 5 stars, Mike Cecchini of "Den of Geek" wrote that the crossover and this episode succeeded in "deliver[ing] 100+ episodes worth of emotional and narrative payoff" as "the climax of the single most ambitious crossover in television history".


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: For the "Arrow" episode, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 79% approval rating, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: ""Crisis on Infinite Earths"s fourth installment reshuffles the universe in rousing fashion thanks to "Arrow" himself and a delightful cameo from Ezra Miller, even if repeating the same sacrifice twice dilutes the impact of this farewell to Oliver Queen." It reported a 100% approval rating for the "Legends of Tomorrow" episode, based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 9.84/10.


title: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)

text: Schedeen rated the final two installments a 9 out of 10: "The final two chapters of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" cement this crossover as the most entertaining and most ambitious Arrowverse adventure yet." Concerned that the crossover would buckle under its own weight in part three, Schedeen was glad in the "Arrow" episode that its "consolidating [of] the cast down to a handful of heroes and a few cosmic entities really help[ed] refocus and remind viewers of what's at stake." Although he enjoyed seeing the human side of the Monitor, he could not say the same for the Anti-Monitor, who was just "a faceless threat and an obligatory, all-powerful punching bag in these final two episodes". Schedeen called Oliver's sacrifice "a fitting end" to the character, justifying the decision to resurrect him after his sacrifice in the first part. It did "even more to bring the character full circle and complete his arc. Ollie's story has always been about the sacrifices he makes for the greater good and what better way to end that story than by having the Arrowverse's first hero give his life so that its best heroes can continue the fight?" About the "Legends" episode, he wrote that the "finale manages to deftly balance the whimsical, self-aware tone of "Legends" with the gravitas needed as our heroes confront the Anti-Monitor one last time." Schedeen wrote that part five "manages to juggle its many moving parts elegantly", and he enjoyed the ending scence and the creation of the Arrowverse's version of the Justice League.