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Identity and Reverse Flash
Sep. 18th, 2017 12:35 amI was just thinking an aspect of why I get interested in Reverse Flash:
because of paradox and going backwards, he has a whole story telling him who to be. And you can write him as striving to have an individual identity in the face of that imposed story. And that's usually a woman's arc, like struggling to break free of a spy training facility or whatever, the story tells her to be evil and powerful and she just wants room to exist.
That's not the main supported story that Reverse Flash is trying to tell
but I just realised where it fits in my pattern of interests.
He got told who he would grow up to be, and he'll break the universe if he doesn't become that.
Like it or not.
Of course Flash is told who he's going to be, but he keeps phrasing it in terms of future events to happen or not, not straight up identity.
Reverse Flash had his identity defined by his relationship to a guy. Hate hate relationship, at the simplest reading, but still. Usually that happens to characters getting called Lady Whatever because they're standing next to Lord Whatever.
And then to empower Barry - who he hates - Thawne sets aside his names, personal and family, and again lives another man's story. And yeah, saving Barry's destiny is the only way to save his own life, he props Barry up so he can use him, but. It's the story of someone setting aside their own name and career to support someone else, who is going to be seen as greater than them.
When Eobard got his wish in Doomworld he was still running a lab, but as himself, getting awards and recognition in his own name. That's his wish, but he can't have it, because Flash.
Of course all of this is way murdery. He loses his own life because he did a murder. He gets to live in a fancy house and all that rich stuff, this isn't a story of his suffering.
I'm just identifying the trope hooks that make his half of the story more compelling to me.
If you want to tell it that way, there's some very familiar elements.
because of paradox and going backwards, he has a whole story telling him who to be. And you can write him as striving to have an individual identity in the face of that imposed story. And that's usually a woman's arc, like struggling to break free of a spy training facility or whatever, the story tells her to be evil and powerful and she just wants room to exist.
That's not the main supported story that Reverse Flash is trying to tell
but I just realised where it fits in my pattern of interests.
He got told who he would grow up to be, and he'll break the universe if he doesn't become that.
Like it or not.
Of course Flash is told who he's going to be, but he keeps phrasing it in terms of future events to happen or not, not straight up identity.
Reverse Flash had his identity defined by his relationship to a guy. Hate hate relationship, at the simplest reading, but still. Usually that happens to characters getting called Lady Whatever because they're standing next to Lord Whatever.
And then to empower Barry - who he hates - Thawne sets aside his names, personal and family, and again lives another man's story. And yeah, saving Barry's destiny is the only way to save his own life, he props Barry up so he can use him, but. It's the story of someone setting aside their own name and career to support someone else, who is going to be seen as greater than them.
When Eobard got his wish in Doomworld he was still running a lab, but as himself, getting awards and recognition in his own name. That's his wish, but he can't have it, because Flash.
Of course all of this is way murdery. He loses his own life because he did a murder. He gets to live in a fancy house and all that rich stuff, this isn't a story of his suffering.
I'm just identifying the trope hooks that make his half of the story more compelling to me.
If you want to tell it that way, there's some very familiar elements.
