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“She didn’t need to be saved. She needed to be found and appreciated for exactly who she was.”

— j. iron word

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“Spider-Man: No Way Home” was basically a high-budget Flash episode:

1) Right before everyone’s memories are wiped, MJ tells Peter to find her (something something you’re my lightning rod Iris). Also, just saying, how many times have we seen Iris getting her memory tampered with, affecting her relationship with Barry?

2) The doppelgangers with Tobey and Andrew.

3) Peter loses his aunt to a crazy murderer from another universe. That’s essentially what happened with Zoom and Henry Allen.

4) Nerdy white boy main character falls for intelligent, headstrong black woman. Also, the main character has a tech expert who serves as the comic relief of the movie.

5) The other Marvel property that was airing alongside NWH was a show about an angsty, morally grey, brooding archer who used to kill criminals while dressed as a hooded vigilante.

6) Lab scenes with Team Spider-Man.

7) Peter Parker and friends were capturing villains and putting them in a pipeline-style prison (the STAR Labs particle accelerator holding cells).

8) Strong emphasis on the main hero not wanting to kill the villains, no matter how bad they are. In fact, Peter wants to “help” the villains before sending them back, which feels in line with what Barry wanted to do with the metahumans he fought. 

9) Peter Parker got framed for murder, which also happened to Barry Allen in season 4. 

10) This didn’t happen in the movie but Peter DID suggest using time travel to undo Mysterio’s actions in Far From Home. So, Peter is definitely Barry Allen in his pre-Flashpoint Paradox phase.

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Thawne’s different engagement speeches

So upon rewatch you will see that Thawne’s speeches in 8x03 vs 8x04 are similar but have important differences:

In 8x03 (which presumably is from Barry’s perspective), the speech is much longer and Tom takes more dramatic pauses.  Of course, there’s the whole part about electricity pulsing through his veins and being part of something bigger, which is taken directly from season one and is an important part of Barry’s trajectory.  To use that speech and apply it to Iris is just another gut punch to Barry.  Like, way to really shit on him with his soulmate, no less. Also, in this version after Thawne says “To Iris West, the love of my life,” he also adds “and to our future together.” Like dude is long-term scheming.

But in 8x04, where Barry is the villain and a party crasher, the speech is much lighter and also shorter.  The season one lines are not there and no mention of Iris and their “future.”  Instead Thawne talks about their “magical,” “wonderful,” “beautiful” and “surprising” relationship.  He’s like, aw, shucks.  I’m soooo lucky.  And Iris even giggles at some point.  No mention about the future though.  (Maybe Thawne knows he really can’t pull this off)

I must say, I think the writer’s really thought this whole thing through and added so many details and Easter eggs.

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Did you also notice that Thawne’s speeches are different from 8x03 to 8x04 at the engagement party?  He’s a dick in the first one and more humble (relatively speaking) in the second version.  I think that cold open is supposed to be from his POV where Barry is the villain.

I’m rewatching 8x04, and I didn’t notice this on my first watch, but in Thawne’s manipulated, alternate future, Barry has his wedding ring on in the scene when he goes to visit Iris in the loft and to tell her that he loves her. It’s like he cannot be without that wedding ring on his finger… he’s not complete without this symbolic representation of his and Iris’s love and marriage, but where did he find it to put it on in this alternate future? I’m so curious about this subtle detail now: how and where did he find the wedding ring. Imo, from a subtle directorial or production POV, this detail is added as another indication of Barry and Iris’s love breaking through the alternate reality. 

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We’re loving the love for Candice

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This is beautiful!  Plus I’ve been meaning to point out that in this timeline Iris says that she loves Barry in the same spot where she tells him that their destiny is to be together in the OG timeline.  Which I think is ALSO the spot where OG Barry proposed to her the second time.  

So the Barry Allen we know never existed in the timeline Thawne and Iris get together, but Iris senses that Barry is in fact her husband and the love of her life.

I love this couple. That’s so romantic. It really makes the scene where Barry goes back to their home for a second time more impactful for me. She really didn’t know him as her best friend or the boy she grew up with, but could pick up on Barry’s genuineness and ultimately their connection.

I have so many head canons of that timeline now. Like what if Thawne and Iris go looking for homes and she picks that one because something feels right about it. And Thawne is worried, but he goes along with it to not upset her.

Or maybe she picks the place by herself and it’s just hers. Then she shows Thawne the place that “feels like home” and his fears creep in.

I know everyone wants to have Thawne “the whole mastermind” thing but it’s boring to me.

I really like thinking Thawne has little control and he’s aware of that. That Thawne can never have what he truly wants as long as Barry is alive.

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@fyeahgrantgust: so did we get to see this moment that Barry returns to in the other episodes?  I can’t remember now . . . 

I missed you so much

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We absolutely positively could have done without Frost and Chillblaine.  

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I’mma sleep gooood tonight, fam.

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Got damn.  That was epic.

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*vomiting*

I wanted the angst. I wanted the pain. I now immediately regret wanting both of those things.

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This sounds GREAT.

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All this sounds like a win to us.

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Candice via her ig story

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“For women, only one standard of female beauty is sanctioned: the girl. The great advantage men have is that our culture allows two standards of male beauty: the boy and the man. The beauty of a boy resembles the beauty of a girl. In both sexes it is a fragile kind of beauty and flourishes naturally only in the early part of the life-cycle. Happily, men are able to accept themselves under another standard of good looks — heavier, rougher, more thickly built. A man does not grieve when he loses the smooth, unlined, hairless skin of a boy. For he has only exchanged one form of attractiveness for another: the darker skin of a man’s face, roughened by daily shaving, showing the marks of emotion and the normal lines of age. There is no equivalent of this second standard for women. The single standard of beauty for women dictates that they must go on having clear skin. Every wrinkle, every line, every gray hair, is a defeat. No wonder that no boy minds becoming a man, while even the passage from girlhood to early womanhood is experienced by many women as their downfall, for all women are trained to continue wanting to look like girls.”

— Susan Sontag, “The Double Standard of Aging”

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It’s okay not to be okay.

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But did you see Thawne’s car though?  Same coloring.  It’s parked outside of the venue when Barry first arrives in 2031. 

I like the detail with Iris's ring. She has a big yellow stone whoch I assume represents Eobard's colors

I must say Thawne has unique taste in jewelery. Only the best for Iris 😁

I mean, the ring isn’t to my taste, but hey he definitely pulled out all the stops, lmao. It’s so petty of him to give her a ring representing his colors. His attention to detail when it comes to his pettiness is on a whole other level.