White Canary, according to the TV series, is the alter-ego of Sara Lance, daughter of Quentin Lance and Dinah Lance. She was also the sister of the late Laurel Lance.
The Canaries were people who took the law under their hand and brought about justice as they knew that the existing governmental structure would never allow peace to be restored.
Laurel Lance was the original Canary, The Black Canary. When she died, even her last words stated that she did not want the Canary culture to end.
“Please… please don’t let me be the last Canary. That way, a part of me will always be out there with you.”
She said to her ex-boyfriend Oliver Queen.
Following her sister’s death, Sara realizes that despite being the less rebellious one of the two, Laurel was the braver one. She finally sees how her sister always lets her win to keep her happy and she eventually becomes the White Canary.
But her whole history is different in the comics.
White Canary was so minor a character that her real name was never released and she only appeared in six editions of Birds of Prey.
According to the comics, she was born into a conservative psychopathic family where the father killed all the girls that were born. When she turned out to be a girl, the father ordered her to be murdered as well but when the maid took her out to be drowned, she was struck by lightning.
This gave that father a heads up and he proceeded to raise his daughter away from the sons alone.
Over the years, the girl learned a lot of fighting skills. But when her brothers were sent on a mission to take out the Black Canary, they failed. Infuriated by their failure, she hunts down every single one of her brothers and kills them.
Then she eventually faces the Black Canary and obviously fails. In one of her encounters, the Black Canary calls the girl a White Canary, and the name gets stuck.
In the end, the White Canary leaves her enemy by assuring that she would eventually seek revenge, never to be seen again.
Well, that’s the end. I’m pretty sure many of you are sighing with relief that a stupid girl who wanted to uphold patriarchy did not end up on our TV screens.
