How The Flash Ruined Barry Allen and Iris West (Character Case) 

The best part of the entire CW is when Oliver straight up laughs in Barry's face when he calls Iris his lightning rod.

It was a really bad idea to have a whole season based on trying to avoid Iris's death when half the audience definitely wants her to die.

They fully ruined Barry's character in the later seasons. He's never right anymore. He's always fucking wrong and Iris is always right, and even when it's the other way round, they never fuckin acknowledge it!

How to fix The Flash: *Hire better writers and fire the old ones.*

Superman & Lois is a better example of a relationship between a superhero and a journalist

Me when Kristen Kramer got more character development than Barry or Godspeed😐

I think the new problem is the fact that they keep introducing new characters with very weak storylines. Barry has no growth and hast to learn a lesson every episode. Iris is shown to be always right about her decisions. In contrast to Superman and Lois show, it has both Clark and Lois complementing each other.

G.I. Gio six months ago: "Flash season 5 is the MOST hated season." Season 7: "I'll be the judge of that!"

iris should be pitching ideas by researching on her own, doing journalism, letting star labs do the science, and letting barry fight crime. NOT TAKING OVER TEAM FLASH WITH NO SCIENCE KNOW-HOW OR ANY POWERS. you can literally drag a kid from the street and they would be equally as good at the job she was doing in season 4.

This is a weird problem I have with the show, but one thing that has bugged me for a while is how the speedsters tend to use lightning more as their power than their speed. The finale of season 7 shows this really evidently imo

Yeah this show has become the anyone but the Flash show... And I'm insulted that they haven't done any character development for Caitlin for SEASONS. Frost sure, but not Caitlin. It's like the writers forgot that they're 2 separate people. They had to dumb down not only Barry, but the entire team when Iris became team leader. Like they were suddenly helpless and didn't know what to do until Iris made a decision.

Just look how Barry treated his dead best friend Oliver. He was willing to make Oliver sacrifice mean nothing just becasue he wanted to keep his children.Another strong example of bad of a character Barry has gotten is when he decided not to show up for Frost trial or help her avoid facing Prison like he did with Caitlin back in season 3.He just left her to dry when she needed him. Also he has been very standoffish with Caitlin,Joe ,Chester,Cecile,along others. It's so ironic that the only two characters(Oliver and Caitlin) that stood by Barry when he created flashpoint,he has disrespect them the most compared to everyone else. Oh how the mightly have fallen.

Barry has more chemistry with Kara in that one episode, than he did with Irisis in the entire show.

They should replace Barry with savitar. He’s independent doesn’t need iris, doesn’t need pep talks and is as strong as he should be. Also we could get snowbarry

Truly amazing how much Eric Wallace is able to ruin and regress without being replaced.

The theme of “family” and the so called “power of love” just absolutely cringed me in this season, especially in the Forces storyline. It really bothered me each time that the New Forces referred each other as siblings and its even worse when they refer Barry and Iris as their “parents”… Like NO stop! Literally three of them were just normal humans born to completely different parents who just happen to come in possession with the new forces that Barry and Iris created with “their love” 🙄. So now automatically they are considered their children?????

I really hope flash revives itself in season 8 but I doubt, season 7 was so bad in almost every way, might be too far to revive this show the writers must be like 10 years old

Trying to make things weird, you can technically say that Barry and Iris can be seen as brother and sister. Since Joe, Iris dad, is Barry's guardian/Foster dad.

Iris felt like she’s a heavyweight that stands in Flash’s character development and plot development of being the best CW superhero that could’ve equate to or surpasses the Arrow.

Remove Iris’s character and there is still a chance that flash becomes one of the best superhero tv show. Because of how annoying her character got (no hate towards the actress though, only the character she plays) I stopped watching the show after crisis on infinite earths.

Iris should have died in season 3. It would have been way more interesting to see Barry try not to become his emo hair future self and then we could finally have seen snowbarry.

Devoe actually did use melting points ability when he transfered fiddlers power to an argus agent and attacked a few agents but other that he never uses it again

With regards to Lois being a grounding force for Superman/Clark, I'd say it's more of a 2-way street. Clark was born with his abilities, he didn't acquire them. While he had to learn how to control them better later in life, he's always used them, they were always a part of him. His parents are what grounded him initially. Lois, on the other hand, would almost certainly get lost in her work if she didn't have Clark to reel her in once in a while. I think it's more that they balance each other out. This is solely based on them without kids, not as they're portrayed on Superman and Lois, which is excellent.

I was never a westallen shipper, but I still liked Iris and Barry's characters as individuals until they started dating. In Season 3 I never thought for a second they would actually kill Iris, then at the end of 3x22 I thought "They actually did it, this is surprising and amazing" then they retcon it 10 seconds into the next episode and I started hating both Barry and Iris.

Barry Allen is the slowest man alive that he needs team flash to hold his hand for EVERY villian of the week he faces and its sad too! Not to mention Barry and iris are technically adopted siblings and Barry simps for her 7 seasons straight Barry is a SIMP!

I actually really liked this breakdown. It showed a history or cause for why so many felt season 4 was the split. Really well done, always love your videos!

I miss the days when I finished an episode of the flash excited for the next one😔

I stopped caring about them the minute she said "we are the Flash". Girl, are you good? Do you need a kit kat?

Oh my God Iris is the one ruined whole series... She was bad from the beginning!

I completely agree with all this. The show has spurts of being really good, but it reverts back to Iris being the main character and Barry just happening to be there.

My alternate take: 1. Barry was never gone back in time to save his mother at the end of season 2, however the Savitar storyline continued. 2. S3 ends with Iris dying, so after all the pain that Barry has taken, he realized that he couldn't keep going forward with his life, so he decides to go back in time to save his mother. 3. Flashpoint starts in S4 and it last much longer till the end of the season instead of one single shitty episode, Cisco is replaced by Chester, Caitlin is replaced by Allegra, there's a new Harrison Wells and Max Mercury is The Flash. 4. Savitar is immune to timeline changes, he senses that something went wrong and that captures his attention, so in some way later he's going to be involved again into Flashpoint. 5. At some point of the story, Barry loses his speed and he starts losing more memories of the original timeline, later with the help of Chester and the team, Barry finds a way to regain his powers by recreating the same accident that made him become Flash (basically the Runway Dinosaur episode never happened in S2, so i thought it would be smarter to save it much later for Flashpoint). 6. In the last episode Barry accepts Iris's death and he finally defeats Savitar by also telling him "i'll never let the pain and darkness, determinate who i am, i'll never be like you." 7. After Savitar got defeated, Barry finds out that he secretely planted a powerful unstoppable nuclear bomb strong enough to destroy Central City, Max Mercury tells Barry that he can't do anything about it and he needs to run back in time to fix everything, the two shares an emotional farewell and Barry runs away, the bomb violently explodes erasing Max and everyone in the city, Barry weakened manages to go back in time to stop himself before he saves his mother in order to fix the original timeline. 8. Returned to the original timeline, Barry finds out his lightning changed from yellow to blue and he's worried that he's dying just like Zoom, Cisco is surprised and he funnily explains to Barry that the reason why his lightning changed is because his connection to the Speed-Force increased a lot, which makes him way more powerful and faster than ever before. Cisco then gives to Barry a new suit as a gift, straight from the New 52 comics with the golden boots. 9. After having reunited the team again, later Barry and Caitlin pays homage to his family's grave and Iris in the cemetery: Barry: Joe offered to take me so many times, i always found an excuse to say no *takes the Runaway Dinosaur book* my mom and i read this when i was a little, do you know it? Caitlin: oh that book? Yeah! My mother used to read me that everytime before i go to sleep, i once wanted my father too to read it for me but he never did it.... Barry: why? Caitlin: because....my father was always busy with his work and never cared about me, sometimes he even started a fight with my mother and i had to stay in my bed on my room because i was scared.... Barry: you never told this to anyone ever before? Not even to Ronnie? I'm sorry Caitlin, you must had a rough childhood Caitlin: nah don't worry, that was a long time ago, i stopped seeing my parents since i left the college. And hey....i'm really sorry too for what happened to Iris, she loved you with all his heart, i'm pretty sure she would be proud to see that you didn't still give up Barry: thank you Caitlin, i'm pretty sure Ronnie would think the same about you too : ) Caitlin: so anyway....what are you going to do now? Barry: you know, i learned a very important lesson recently, i'm seeing things differently now. I wasted so much time being angry and sad about what i lost, when i had so much....Cisco, Joe, H.R. and you. The truth is Caitlin, i don't know what this is, what the future holds for me next, all i know is....Iris has been everything to me and she always has been. My memories about her, dad and my mom will always remind me that no matter what, i'll always be here to protect my city and being The Flash, along with my friends and you : ) *Both Barry & Caitlin smiles and hugs each other, the scene slightly teases a possible new romance for the next seasons.* 10. The episode ends with a beautiful montage of Barry racing at Central City with Wally West, the two suddenly hears from Cisco and Caitlin that there's a new dangerous metahuman in the city threatening people's lives, Wally West asks Barry if he comes with him and he says that he has to do something pretty quick, Wally goes while Barry strangely watches something, he's watching the same building where Iris used to work there in CC Jitters, at one moment Iris appears as a vision and she smiles at Barry, Barry then starts running to the place where Wally is headed to. The screen cuts with Barry in slow motion creating an epic sonic boom and remembering the words..... *Run, Barry, run.* N.B. holy shit, so it was ERIC WALLACE all along? Now this explains everything! That man has to be FIRED!

Imagine being able to conjure lightning instantaneously and being faster than the villain but still letting him get away-------- Yea the ending of s7 was shit

I'm just happy others are feeling this way about the show. I honestly thought they started ruining the show by not killing iris at some point after season 3. And the season with the thinker was the hardest season of any show I have ever had to watch

I gave up when the second siceda came after they defeated the first

This show has become the same level of quality has Supergirl or even worse. On the first half why da fuck is Barry treating the Speed Force has a human? and why does the Speed Force behave like a human? It's so ridiculous seeing Barry having lunch with the Speed Force. Also why is him and Iris treating grown up strangers like family? Has I recall they only created the forces not the people which the force is attached to right? Then on the second half of the season Barry just knows how to conjure lightning from seeing Godspeed do it...and was it just me that didn't understand why was godspeed with amnesia and how was he able to Turn himself into Multiple Godspeeds with different faces? Instead of developing him when he is free of his memories and make him likable, they almost don't show him at all and without hesitation he accepts getting his evil memories back... They wasted so much potencial. He could have not wanted his memories back but then he ultimately has to to save Someone. Another thing, what was up with the music choice for some fight scenes. It didn't feel like the flash at all just like the scenes between killerfrost and that other guy which I forgot the name of. Lastly, fuck Allegra...no Cares about her or her sister ( Allegra's actress is not very good either). The characters seem totally different. It's not the Flash anymore...I'm sad to say this but I want it to end. EDIT: Somethings I forgot to metion is like how giving iris speed is helpful in a fight? she's suppose to be a beginner with the Speed Force. The other thing is like the real Barry would never bring back the Reverse Flash. He shits on his daughter for working with Thon and then he does the same... why would anyone bring back one of the most smart, impredictable and sycopathic person that flash knows, and the person he hates the most, when he also knows at least 4 real hero speedsters who could help him (Wally, his two sons and Jay Gerrick) even though he's faster then all of them and could easily defeat Godspeed by himself...and if he can ask the Speed Force to bring a speedster back to life why not jessie quick? She's a hero not fucking Reverse flash and then let him run away? to just kill more people? wtf? A thing that also bugs me is the fact not only iris but most of team flash knows it all except barry... Most of team flash characters stopped being likable to me because of this. One more thing, there was barely space on this season for barry to shine and then they decide to do a separate story line with kramer that doesn't even connect with the main one... really?

The entire relationship was weird from the start since the established a sibling type relationship. After season 4 it was a complete and utter trainreck

The goal was for the viewers to love and worship Iris but.....they only made us hate her even more

They changed Oliver's main romance from Laurel to Felicity, never understood why Barry couldn't end up with Caitlin or Patty, fans overall seem to like those 2 more than Iris (at least the Arrowverse Iris). Barry had better chemistry with the other 2 as well, such a shame

The funny thing is that Eric Wallace said that next season they want to make Barry a more confident and smarter. Waited long enough🙁

24:28 "Who's been messing up everything? It's been Iris all along." When you make the hero's love interest more hated than any of its villains you've gone wrong somewhere.

This is a good video with a lot of good points that I agree with however I would rebutle the point of Barry getting arrested as he said ‘don’t run’ as he didn’t want to live a life where we would have to keep running. He wanted to prove his innocence rather than live as a fugitive

I never liked Barry and iris since day one. Since day one I’ve always thought Barry and Caitlin would’ve been the much and far better couple

In general I just like your videos and I dont have a preference as to what kind of video you put out. I am looking out for the season 7 video.

Bro this Character Case series is pretty amazing, I love it. Keep it up bro. And all amazing points in the video.

I feel like it went downhill when Iris said “We are the Flash”

Bruh you’re the perfect flash video essayist I’m happy I found someone who makes some video essays about flash!

Well done Gio, great video as always. Very eloquent, informative and entertaining stuff :) maybe some bits could've been condensed but I could only shave off about 5 minutes of this in my mind. Don't apologise for delay in content - I'd rather wait for the high quality you deliver than the pushed out videos on a schedule from some other channels, (who I can tell have plenty of editing and scripting mistakes!)

why did barry just let thawne run away in the season 7 finale when he was literally faster then him and could lock him up but he did the same thing he did in season 4 in the earth x crossover

Just want to say.... H.R Wells' sacrifice was the saddest thing to me in all of Flash...

Kill off iris. Stop with the obsession with parenthood. Write off every character possible that isn't actually important. Get rid of all the extra speedsters. And then, after that, give Barry his job back and let him be smart. You can make better antagonist and give him some emotional arcs. And hopefully make a better show.

Absolutely loved this video, you were detailed and factual like you always are but more so and so funny 😂👌🏾 10/10

I just discovered you. Your content is AMAZING. I really look forward to your future content.

You deserve my like :) I love the youtubers that actually puts effort into their videos. I always watch these sorts of videos before going to sleep, lots of informatiom while i can rest my eyes :)) Been subbed for a while, but today i am for the first time showing my support in the comments. Keep up the good work my friend and don't ever give up! Alot of would be missing something if you we're not here. Again thanks for the effort you put in.. Here for your journey, so gl!

I have always said this since the end of season 6, that Eric Wallace doesn't know what he's doing with the show and is ruining it. Also, Barry actually did create his own tidal wave in the "Out of Time" episode in Season 1 before the timeline resets.

Just stumbled across your channel, love your style, and your take on things.

The video was great can't wait for upcoming projects🤩🤩

Honestly, I knew I didn’t like Wallace after they fired the actor playing Ralph. Thanks for more reasons

I love that you feel the same way my best friend and I do. We've been watching the show since season 1, and by now it's only because we feel connected to it in a weird way. But to a large extent, watching The Flash is now too much like masochism.

I've been rewatching all of your Flash videos to prepare for your reviews on season 3 and season 7

Just wanted to say I loved the format of this video. The investigation style was a lot of fun.

I always hated that "We are the Flash" line. Plus, how was Iris able to lead Team Flash when she is probably the least qualified character in the series?

What are your thoughts on their argument that they had in season 5 about Nora working with Thawn and Iris being okay with it??? For me as much as I hadn't liked Iris before, that made me absolutely despise her.

This video is INCREDIBLY well done. Just wanna make a small point though, when Devoe breaks into Argus, he DOES use Melting Point’s powers but it’s still difficult to tell admittedly. I saw someone comment on someone’s posting of that scene with a second by second breakdown and there’s a brief second as Devoe goes through the hall, he pulls a soldier up with Null’s powers, and then you see a brief sound wave where he transfers Fiddler’s soundwaves into a guard and you see the effect as he screams. It’s brief so many miss it and even a reply to him said he had good eyes noticing that. Everything else in this video is on point though!

New idea for the video series is awesome. Love it

Your videos are the best! You deserve 1m subscribers.

1:00 I’ll tell you what happened to all the hero shows. Not just Barry and Iris of course. One word to describe this crisis…. WOKE

Found your channel an hour ago, perfect timing!

Wow, it is very cool how you investigate in detail why things happen(no joke), with the culprit or innocent system, you have gained a new subscriber 👍.

The problem with the Flash in the later seasons is that they changed the writers, and the new writers didn't want to use anything from the previous seasons. Basically they went woke trying to make Iris always right and making her more of the main focus of the show.

This finna be a great vid

really look forward to your superman & lois video! the show needs to be talked about more!

Love the vid man ❤️💪🏽

Bro you just pissed the hardcore West-Allen fans… and I LOVE IT. Everything you’ve said is facts bro. And the most annoying thing is their love isn’t even equal. To me, Barry loves Iris way more than Iris loves him. In season 3, Barry was willing risk heaven and hell to keep Iris alive, while Iris had no problem with their DAUGHTER working with the man who MURDERED HER GRANDMOTHER. But then again, Barry has worked with Thawne now like three times now so this show is fucking dogshit now. I’m so mad too because The Flash was excellent it’s first two seasons. The same thing happened with Arrow.

I love character study videos, so I would love to see more of these

LOVE THIS KEEP IT GOING FOR SURE LOVE THE STYLE OF THIS

Will you ever be doing a video on the crossovers specifically? Cause I would really love to see your thoughts on them individually and apart from the seasons. For example. while season 4 was a shitty season it did have crisis on earth x and same goes for season 5 and elseworlds.

As expected, Eric Wallace need to go and need a new writer for the show.

Superman and Lois is a good show because you know the plot revolves around Superman A and Lois B. But when the show is called The Flash (Barry) and not The Flash and Iris the show no longer makes sense bc The main character always feels sidelined

I can't wait, u got urself a new sub

I know I'm late as hell to this video but I almost threw a my cup of water at the TV screen when "We are the Flash" line came on. I ALMOST LOST IT BRO!

Season 7 is definitely the worst season.

Barry and iris seemed way more in love in the early seasons later it seemed more like they were friends who get along, lack of kisses, lack of intimacy, all plays a part.

Excellent vid.

I stubble upon your channel with your Batwoman video. Lately i have been enjoying this kind of content, where people take deep dive into characters, and story of tv or movies. And point out the flaws in them. I dont have anything more to say that wasnt already said about The Flash. But i'll leave you with this, after Season 7 i'm official done with the show, and you got yourself a new subscriber.

I'm ngl, I stopped watching the flash after crisis on infinite earths. I also missed like half of season 5. The show just wasn't "the flash" anymore. It was the "Iris and Barry" show now. I think a show that did a main romance properly is superman and lois. You would think that the cw learned from the success of superman and lois and put it into the flash but nvm.

And from what I've read it's about to get even worse in Season 8 because the main plot is supposed to be about Iris having a "time sickness" whatever that is. I'm convinced Eric Wallace wants Candice Patton to sleep with him and thinks making Iris the centre of the show will get her into his bed. People watch the show for The Flash not his wife being ill.

I don't know if you done this before, but do a video on BvS. Might be interesting to do....idk

This was cool. New subscriber.

I personally think that iris being pushed into a main character has something to do with race.... hear me out now. I'm no expert and I don't know Eric but the way that iris just goes full on impish character out if nowhere seems to be the whole strong black woman trope, amber from invincible being another example of this. There's no reason that she should not still be a badass journalist who happens to be married to the flash but we have this we are the flash nonsense and yeah. Also b4 I get attacked for this I'm black too so yeha

Really enjoyed the first few seasons and then hung on until they screwed Sawyer over. I haven't given it the time of day since.

Very good video!!!

great video!

11:12 Barry was actually right here because he knew she wasn't good enough yet so he pushed her harder and then they told Barry to stop and then because she wasn't prepared well enough, Devoe got her. So if Barry had pushed her more like he was trying to do, then she could have potenitally survived.

I agree so much dude!

Oh yea. Been waiting for this one

anyone notice how iris the actor has been playing so monotone so emotionless she just doesnt rlly care it seems

I stopped watching Flash after the Crisis. Although I will say one thing that has stayed consistently good in the show even at its worst, is Reverse Flash. I have little to no complaints about him, he is always given great dialogue, his acting has been great (both actors did an awesome job), and he is a fan of the flash like the comics so he references Flash events and Flash characters. The only problem I guess he has is “how the hell is he still around even after the timeline is fixed”, the comics have the same problem, but I digress.

12:35 all they had to do was say that devoe planted a meta dampener which stopped him from moving…. they could have still included that slow motion scene, but instead we would have watched him lose his speed until he left the apartment…

Like the breakdown

Amazing video