Eo!Wells, season one
Jul. 11th, 2017 05:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI finished watching the first season of The Flash.
... I did not want to because I am not in a mood to find Eobard Thawne screaming and dying a happy ending. Deserve isn't the point. There's a lot of bad packed in to that one moment, and suffering.
One way to read Eobard Thawne is to assume he's basically a creep, the kind of guy who lashes out in a temper, the guy who can't bear to see his enemy say his life is good.
He's wrong in the head for sure. I had to pause the dvd and lol when he apologised to Cisco so sincerely and then was all "Not for killing you, I'm sure I had a good reason." I mean, classic bad guy logic, delivered like it's perfectly reasonable. He can look people in the eye and say he loves them and kill them and find that perfectly internally consistent. Kind of a problem.
He says he's living among the dead, that they've all been dead to him for centuries. ... he also has a tendency to round up, fifteen years becoming two decades, 136 becoming centuries. And we know he's a time traveller, and the degree of disconnect that all the timeline changes can cause has to be wild. Hell, he might not even have the same set of memories all the time, if what he's doing is effecting his own personal past. There's a lot to mess him up.
But he's still wrong in the head.
Thing is, this time of viewing, I'm not sure if temper is the right read on it. Almost every time we see him kill he's been calm and reasoned and given them a chance to speak... and then really seemed to enjoy the killing part, so, wrong in the head again. Only two times he could be said to lash out, the two paradoxes. Nora Allem, interrupting his own lineage. And threatening Barry Allen and everything he loves, interrupting his own ancestry.
... You know, if you want to read it for ways that whole scene might not be what it seems, there's ways. I mean canon has been pretty clear on the whole fatal paradox nature of that moment. But that doesn't explain Eo!Wells gloating to his ancestor and calling him his insurance. Unless all he wanted was Barry running circles while Eddie stayed strapped to a chair, which he could have done without talking to him at all. Since when does he make a plan and not use it? And okay, he did interrupt a proposal that would also break his own ancestry, could be a complete reason. But you could spin an extra layer of plan where it isn't Eddie he's descended from, and he is a good enough manipulator to expect Eddie to do what he did, and get everyone's attention, and...
well, shenanigans that canon didn't do.
Eddie killed himself to stop Eobard from ever being born. Thus also killing a who line of 136 years of descendants. Even if only one name carrying son per generation, still a lot of people for one bullet.
... I kind of hate how personal to Barry all the arguments about changing time were in season one, but, it was season one. They've rather elaborated on them since then.
Ways Eobard Thawne makes sense: everything he does is because of twin poles of hating and needing the Flash.
He gave an explanation for why he killed Nora, and it makes a kind of sense, if he believes time is better off without the Flash.
But then at the other end when he gets grandfather paradoxed, he just forgot there were more than two players on the board. I'm sure he hates and is angry at the Flash, again, he has a lot of run up on those feelings. But Barry just told him he wouldn't change time because he's too happy here. So he doesn't just need the Flash fast, he needs him miserable.
Because he needs him to change time back.
I don't think he ever outright stated that. He's going to get everything that was taken from him back. He's going to use the sphere and go home. I don't think he ever just said home wasn't there any more.
But it logically follows.
And it explains why he didn't travel the instant he got access. He waited for a sign. So he was still there when Barry got back, and that was when he got really upset, that he hadn't changed anything.
... I don't know why team good guy let him out of his cell. Sure, they could open a wormhole through time, but why let him take it? Barry got his part already.
... they're being good guys about deals, aren't they?
*sigh*
After this failed attempt, Eo knows he needs Barry a certain amount of unhappy before he'll change anything. And then he leaves that 'after death' message to explain how Barry will never be happy. ... if you want signs of shenanigans.
And yeah, he looks like Wells still, but if the falling apart thing was a hologram again?
... nobody wants those plot bunnies.
But if I was designing this show the first and last seasons would be Reverse Flash. Because to start with you can't imagine any reason to hate the Flash. Hell, even Eo!Wells ends up loving him. He is a sunshine puppy. Who can and will punch people at super speed and lock them in solitary in his private prison.
... I've seen people assume that sending his Rogues with Argus is something he could get them *back* from. And, no? That isn't how it works. They'd come back with a bomb in their neck or after they spent significant time with the Squad. It wouldn't be just another prisoner transfer. Argus would have too many uses for them.
Season one Barry is asked what the difference is between him and the bad guys and he's really confident that he and his team only break the rules to help people. He's going to look at Reverse Flash and see something very simple, the bad guy.
But since then they've been elaborating on a theme, and we might have accumulated some reasons to doubt Barry's decision making, and others to understand why someone might even hate him. Someone who time travels, and knows what they've lost.
So if I was wrapping Barry's arc in a neat bow, he'd end it under red skies, after the epic street battle with Reverse Flash the newspaper promised, and this time RF would air his grievances. Give names and dates to things this Barry has in fact done. Explain his hate.
And Barry? Would have to prove the difference.
... if I was writing this would somehow involve Eo!Wells and full knowledge of both their timelines and RF finally being won over, so they finally run together, and then tragically Barry would vanish fixing his universe's Crisis, and then... well, obviously epic quest to restore him, led by time's magnificent bastard, who has his world of nor Flash right when he doesn't want it.
... but I understand there's a very limited audience for that one
and a lot of Thawne I haven't seen yet
that will inevitably put him in a worse light
and he's probably just a dick who blames other people and lashes out.
... but what if he wasn't?
If Barry in some future episode can persuade even his worst enemy he's a real and true hero, acted correctly, no reason to hate this version of him
well that's a pretty big heroic win
especially if he wins over his enemy so now there's even more speedsters.
But canon doesn't prioritise like that.
... probably.
ugh, who'd be a villain fan, so seldom the directions we'd want...
... but fun to think...
... I did not want to because I am not in a mood to find Eobard Thawne screaming and dying a happy ending. Deserve isn't the point. There's a lot of bad packed in to that one moment, and suffering.
One way to read Eobard Thawne is to assume he's basically a creep, the kind of guy who lashes out in a temper, the guy who can't bear to see his enemy say his life is good.
He's wrong in the head for sure. I had to pause the dvd and lol when he apologised to Cisco so sincerely and then was all "Not for killing you, I'm sure I had a good reason." I mean, classic bad guy logic, delivered like it's perfectly reasonable. He can look people in the eye and say he loves them and kill them and find that perfectly internally consistent. Kind of a problem.
He says he's living among the dead, that they've all been dead to him for centuries. ... he also has a tendency to round up, fifteen years becoming two decades, 136 becoming centuries. And we know he's a time traveller, and the degree of disconnect that all the timeline changes can cause has to be wild. Hell, he might not even have the same set of memories all the time, if what he's doing is effecting his own personal past. There's a lot to mess him up.
But he's still wrong in the head.
Thing is, this time of viewing, I'm not sure if temper is the right read on it. Almost every time we see him kill he's been calm and reasoned and given them a chance to speak... and then really seemed to enjoy the killing part, so, wrong in the head again. Only two times he could be said to lash out, the two paradoxes. Nora Allem, interrupting his own lineage. And threatening Barry Allen and everything he loves, interrupting his own ancestry.
... You know, if you want to read it for ways that whole scene might not be what it seems, there's ways. I mean canon has been pretty clear on the whole fatal paradox nature of that moment. But that doesn't explain Eo!Wells gloating to his ancestor and calling him his insurance. Unless all he wanted was Barry running circles while Eddie stayed strapped to a chair, which he could have done without talking to him at all. Since when does he make a plan and not use it? And okay, he did interrupt a proposal that would also break his own ancestry, could be a complete reason. But you could spin an extra layer of plan where it isn't Eddie he's descended from, and he is a good enough manipulator to expect Eddie to do what he did, and get everyone's attention, and...
well, shenanigans that canon didn't do.
Eddie killed himself to stop Eobard from ever being born. Thus also killing a who line of 136 years of descendants. Even if only one name carrying son per generation, still a lot of people for one bullet.
... I kind of hate how personal to Barry all the arguments about changing time were in season one, but, it was season one. They've rather elaborated on them since then.
Ways Eobard Thawne makes sense: everything he does is because of twin poles of hating and needing the Flash.
He gave an explanation for why he killed Nora, and it makes a kind of sense, if he believes time is better off without the Flash.
But then at the other end when he gets grandfather paradoxed, he just forgot there were more than two players on the board. I'm sure he hates and is angry at the Flash, again, he has a lot of run up on those feelings. But Barry just told him he wouldn't change time because he's too happy here. So he doesn't just need the Flash fast, he needs him miserable.
Because he needs him to change time back.
I don't think he ever outright stated that. He's going to get everything that was taken from him back. He's going to use the sphere and go home. I don't think he ever just said home wasn't there any more.
But it logically follows.
And it explains why he didn't travel the instant he got access. He waited for a sign. So he was still there when Barry got back, and that was when he got really upset, that he hadn't changed anything.
... I don't know why team good guy let him out of his cell. Sure, they could open a wormhole through time, but why let him take it? Barry got his part already.
... they're being good guys about deals, aren't they?
*sigh*
After this failed attempt, Eo knows he needs Barry a certain amount of unhappy before he'll change anything. And then he leaves that 'after death' message to explain how Barry will never be happy. ... if you want signs of shenanigans.
And yeah, he looks like Wells still, but if the falling apart thing was a hologram again?
... nobody wants those plot bunnies.
But if I was designing this show the first and last seasons would be Reverse Flash. Because to start with you can't imagine any reason to hate the Flash. Hell, even Eo!Wells ends up loving him. He is a sunshine puppy. Who can and will punch people at super speed and lock them in solitary in his private prison.
... I've seen people assume that sending his Rogues with Argus is something he could get them *back* from. And, no? That isn't how it works. They'd come back with a bomb in their neck or after they spent significant time with the Squad. It wouldn't be just another prisoner transfer. Argus would have too many uses for them.
Season one Barry is asked what the difference is between him and the bad guys and he's really confident that he and his team only break the rules to help people. He's going to look at Reverse Flash and see something very simple, the bad guy.
But since then they've been elaborating on a theme, and we might have accumulated some reasons to doubt Barry's decision making, and others to understand why someone might even hate him. Someone who time travels, and knows what they've lost.
So if I was wrapping Barry's arc in a neat bow, he'd end it under red skies, after the epic street battle with Reverse Flash the newspaper promised, and this time RF would air his grievances. Give names and dates to things this Barry has in fact done. Explain his hate.
And Barry? Would have to prove the difference.
... if I was writing this would somehow involve Eo!Wells and full knowledge of both their timelines and RF finally being won over, so they finally run together, and then tragically Barry would vanish fixing his universe's Crisis, and then... well, obviously epic quest to restore him, led by time's magnificent bastard, who has his world of nor Flash right when he doesn't want it.
... but I understand there's a very limited audience for that one
and a lot of Thawne I haven't seen yet
that will inevitably put him in a worse light
and he's probably just a dick who blames other people and lashes out.
... but what if he wasn't?
If Barry in some future episode can persuade even his worst enemy he's a real and true hero, acted correctly, no reason to hate this version of him
well that's a pretty big heroic win
especially if he wins over his enemy so now there's even more speedsters.
But canon doesn't prioritise like that.
... probably.
ugh, who'd be a villain fan, so seldom the directions we'd want...
... but fun to think...