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Jul. 9th, 2017 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThe problem with Reverse Flash - not that there aren't a lot of problems, but the problem for him achieving his goals his way even - is summed up by him saying he's out to get back everything that was taken from him.
Because nobody took it from him. In the timeline as it exists in season one, nobody but him took it from him. He lashed out and trashed the foundations of his reality, and lo, his reality was indeed trashed.
The thought that could have saved him - at any time - is 'oh, hey, my bad, I did that'.
If he never has that thought, he's trying to fix the wrong problem, and it doesn't matter if he's a super powered genius if he can't see that.
And that is what is so frustrating, because he so very nearly has a point, but he fucks it up right there.
Which is pretty classic abuser stuff. Being a twisty manipulative asshole who never saw a problem he couldn't pin on someone else. It's always someone else's fault, and then he sets out to destroy the someone else.
And he will forever wonder why it never makes his problems go away.
Even though he's had fifteen years of evidence that the Flash was not the problem, because without the Flash, oh hey, everything is worse.
... to be fair, from what I've heard of future seasons, Barry trashes the foundations of his own reality too.
But Barry is very much a guy who will think 'it's my fault' from a standing start, so he is very much ready to take responsibility there.
His misattribution is that victim blaming thing he only does to himself, where everything a villain does against him is somehow Barry's fault, even when he was a small child and logically not really responsible for much of anything. It's a weird way of feeling in control. But it seems like it's part of why he keeps reaching out to his villains, because if they're his fault, they can be his fixing too.
... but that part won't work until he can see their real motives straight either.
Flawed characters, the makings of tragedy.
... even when the tragedy is they stay assholes...
Because nobody took it from him. In the timeline as it exists in season one, nobody but him took it from him. He lashed out and trashed the foundations of his reality, and lo, his reality was indeed trashed.
The thought that could have saved him - at any time - is 'oh, hey, my bad, I did that'.
If he never has that thought, he's trying to fix the wrong problem, and it doesn't matter if he's a super powered genius if he can't see that.
And that is what is so frustrating, because he so very nearly has a point, but he fucks it up right there.
Which is pretty classic abuser stuff. Being a twisty manipulative asshole who never saw a problem he couldn't pin on someone else. It's always someone else's fault, and then he sets out to destroy the someone else.
And he will forever wonder why it never makes his problems go away.
Even though he's had fifteen years of evidence that the Flash was not the problem, because without the Flash, oh hey, everything is worse.
... to be fair, from what I've heard of future seasons, Barry trashes the foundations of his own reality too.
But Barry is very much a guy who will think 'it's my fault' from a standing start, so he is very much ready to take responsibility there.
His misattribution is that victim blaming thing he only does to himself, where everything a villain does against him is somehow Barry's fault, even when he was a small child and logically not really responsible for much of anything. It's a weird way of feeling in control. But it seems like it's part of why he keeps reaching out to his villains, because if they're his fault, they can be his fixing too.
... but that part won't work until he can see their real motives straight either.
Flawed characters, the makings of tragedy.
... even when the tragedy is they stay assholes...
no subject
Date: 2017-07-10 04:12 am (UTC)You know, it's funny. You're absolutely right, but in the end, they get to the same place.
Barry figures it's all his fault, so it's all his responsibility, and the end result is he has a bad habit of thinking it's his right and duty to make the choices for everybody, without giving them a chance to weigh in. (End result? Secret private prison.)
RF figures it's not his fault, he can do no wrong - so he also believes it's his right to make the choices for everybody. He's the one who introduced Barry to the secret private prison concept.