#˗ˏˋ ⋆ wally / character study .

[cybervigilante]

actually, i'm thinking about wally going from being a nerdy little kid who was the only member of the blue valley flash fan club to growing into his features, getting SWOLE, and becoming among the tallest of the titans

[cybervigilante]

bruce wayne,  public enemy #1 in titans tower

[cybervigilante]

talking about wally and roy on main has me thinking about how much wally benefitted from taking up the flash mantel. his early anxieties were always rooted in a weird kind of identity crisis mixed with a dire need for attention and recognition, and while the identity crisis persists even after he becomes the flash iii, what with the comparisons between him and barry just pouring in, once he constructs his own legacy ( founding and establishing the flash family, saving the world a billion times over, becoming the fastest man alive and surpassing barry ( and becoming the speedforce's darling ), being a mainstay in the league for his own capabilities rather than just being a replacement speedster and also finding linda and having the twins. ), he literally becomes less of a jerk and more of the genuinely good, kindhearted, funny hero we all think of when we think of wallace west.

[cybervigilante]

i’m in the extremely privileged position of being able to write meta about how my characters feel about each other so i’d be remiss to not write about how wallace, raised as a midwest conservative and absolutely influenced by barry’s strict moral compass,   has always perceived roy as being a loser at worst,  victim of his own narrative at best.  while most people love to think about the titans supporting roy unconditionally and being all kumbaya about his issues, i know that wallace, with how strangely unyielding he could be about certain things, would find it hardest to completely look past roy's errors. i think he does come around to some distant support, because that's his childhood friend, after all, but this is where that 'he's a victim' narrative forms of roy in wally's head. it's easier to think of him as a someone led astray by the evils of life, and therefore forgive him for that and villainize the substances/influences, than think of Roy as a human who willingly made a mistake and is learning from it.

but this is why it makes my heart warm to know they become so close when they're both in the JLA. like wally, post-jai and irey, softens completely. he becomes more understanding with people he hadn't completely seen eye-to-eye with before ( i.e. patching things up with Bart, becoming more supportive/less critical of him, and becoming closer with Roy ) he starts seeing roy's human value, and how he tries, instead of seeing all the ways he's messed up. and that panel up there is from current canon ( Flash Forward #3 ) but it just captures perfectly the essence of wally's evolution when it comes to Roy.

[cybervigilante]

roy 🤝kory : being ready to kill for donna at any given moment, especially when her physical integrity is threatened @troiyas

[cybervigilante]

blah blah blah i’m obsessed with them blah blah but honestly for him to turn down linda park for LINDA PARK ... i’m gonna scream he wants his linda, he doesn’t want anyone else i @lightsped​

[cybervigilante]

wally pointing and laughing at roy, dick, and garth because he has a completely uncomplicated relationship with his mentor, was treated well and kept safe throughout his time at Barry’s side, and actually had the time of his life as KF

[cybervigilante]

sometimes i remember how in canon wally won the lottery and spent himself into bankruptcy, and also had his 21st birthday celebrated by fidel castro and i just wonder how the hell he was the one out of all the titans to end up the most stable

[cybervigilante]

love how wally just pushes things on jesse without a second's thought