Thoughts on the Flash

Oodles of spoilers on Flash, up to the last episode (17, I believe it was.) My head was on fire (not LITERALLY. I'm not RONNIE) but I had to get this stuff down or risk a dark matter explosion all over the wall (hee hee.)






























SPOILER LINE

My thoughts on Harrison Wells...Eobard Thawne...whatever.

He is patient. Oh, is he patient. He's one of the most patient villains I've ever seen (Voldemort was mist for 14 years and unable to kill Harry, so that doesn't count.)

Anyone who goes back 500 years to kill someone and is stuck in what to us would be the Renaissance for 15 years would have to be obsessed and extremely patient.

Read any account of Thawne online (Wikipedia makes it so easy to get a biography of a comic book character, even with all the retconning) and these things become clear: Thawne is an obsessed fan of the Flash's work. He knows everything about him-ran the Flash Museum in one timeline. Then, in the comics anyway, he found the old Flash treadmill in a shop, bought it, traveled back in time, found out he was going to be Professor Zoom, went psycho, and started believing he WAS the Flash and followed Wally (one of Flash's descendants) around. Wally sent him back in time to his own world, powerless. Thawne now carries a deep and bitter hatred for the Flash.

But in this version of the story, (since we do not yet have an in-story history for Eobard Thawne before he lands in Central City in the past) his original plan to kill Barry failed spectacularly. Remember Thawne-as-Wells saying that time has a way of getting back at those who mess with it in Episode 16? (I paraphrase, but you get my point.) He’s speaking from experience: This guy wound up setting up Barry Allen's life so that he would become the Flash. He created his own enemy, same as Voldemort did. I assume he killed Barry's mother (because Henry didn't, little Barry didn't, and big Barry probably didn't), thereby setting up a chain of events that would cause Henry to be jailed, Barry to move in with Joe and Iris, cause Barry to go to college to study forensic science and physics, and eventually become a CSI in Central City (possibly Thawne-as-Wells manipulated that, too? Not unlikely.) Barry studies what he does and takes this career so he can eventually capture the man who killed his mother and exonerate his father.

Meanwhile, Eobard Thawne takes advantage of his time, since he's stuck here. He kills Tess Morgan and Harrison Wells, steals Harrison Wells’ entire life, and opens Star Labs so that he can build a particle accelerator...so that it will fail. He fires Hartley Rathaway purely because Hartley was smart enough to see the deliberate mistake installed in the accelerator. That accelerator was set to fail on PURPOSE. Thawne-as-Wells is 500 years ahead of us. He knew how to build the accelerator, and he knew what mistake to put where so that the accident would occur as it was supposed to. Recall he was watching Barry before the lightning struck. He knew exactly what was going to happen.

He built an entire particle accelerator, at immense cost and time, to turn Barry Allen into the Flash.

But Thawne-as-Wells didn't stop there. He then begged Joe and Iris to hand over a comatose Barry to him so that he could help get his heartrate under control. He trained him and pushed him to be faster. He killed people to protect him (or manipulated people to kill/die for him so that Barry would be safe.) He almost bit Cisco's head off when he found out about the cold gun.

Holy whoa. That is one obsessed fan/villain. To deliberately set things in time and create the man whom you want to kill…that’s dedication.

Thawne-as-Wells went back in time to kill Barry...and wound up making him exactly what he is now and setting him on a path to go back in time and try to save his mother from the man who created him.

My conclusion: Thawne doesn't want a half-assed hero to kick around like a football. He wants a challenge. If he had just wanted to kill Barry outright, he's had his opportunities: he could have done it when he was a child, or when he was comatose, or one of the three thousand times he's been alone with Barry in a room (or even when he was beating him up in the stadium.) He wants an equal when the battle arrives. He wants a Barry Allen who can meet him head-to-head...and he has waited a long time to do it. Oh, he’s going to try to kill Barry, just like he tried to do 15 years before…but will it go the way Wells thinks it will?