#Barrisco

[shrinkthisviolet]

im curious. why do you ship flashvibe. i see them as just best 100% platonic bros and i cant imagine them romantic

Ooh this would be a better question for @alittleflashvibe (who can absolutely feel free to hop in with reblogs or comments or whatever, really 👀) but I will take a crack at it myself:

So first of all, let me preface by saying, none of this is going to be me going “see?? No platonic explanation!!” because that’s a) canonically false and b) nonsense. Barrisco, for all that I do ship them, is canonically a friendship, and I value that highly. You can absolutely choose to interpret this all as solely platonic, and that’s totally fine! Their relationship is strong either way, and it’s not “better” or “worse” from either perspective. So just keep that in mind.

Second of all, I’ll assume you’re someone who’s open to shipping Barry with guys (otherwise this discussion is sorta pointless 😅).

Third of all, this will include comparisons to Westallen because...duh, they're canonically romantic, and I need a point of comparison. I love both ships, mind you, this is simply for academic purposes.

With all that said, let’s begin! And since this got long, the rest is below the cut :) enjoy!

Heart Eyes:

Okay so we know Barry does this a lot, right? Almost exclusively with Iris (his canon best-friend-who-he-has-a-crush-on -> girlfriend/fiancée -> wife)…and with Cisco. Cisco, too, does this a lot. Observe, if you will:

This post by the amazing @icedteaandoldlace (who can also hop in if so inclined), compares the Westallen proposal and the "the unvierse wants us to be bros" speech. No, seriously. Look at how alike the scenes are. Barry's heart eyes in those scenes...IMMACULATE! He doesn't give those heart eyes to anyone else

Bonus: notice Cisco’s reactions when we do see them. Earnestly hanging on Barry’s words…and Barry’s encouragement gets him to smile 🥰 just like Iris whenever Barry encourages her (see: the s4 scene when he encourages her as Team Leader and she smiles sincerely through her tears)!

Also...this parallel: "You've always been my hero" ~Barry to Cisco as he's walking toward sort-of-death + "The Flash may be the city's hero, but you, Barry Allen, you're my hero." ~Iris to Barry in her vows

Physical Touch:

Physical touch is canonically the way Barry shows his affection/love (“we all know touch is your love language” is a canon line of dialogue). He does it with Joe, Henry, Iris…and a lot with Cisco, who constantly touches/hugs Barry too:

Something interesting about that last one…I feel like I’ve seen that one somewhere before:

(I made that gif :D)

Oh and uh...remember when I said we'd get back to talking about Cisco doing something risky to save his life? Let's talk about that for a second.

Let's talk about how Iris and Cisco react to losing/the prospect of losing Barry post-s3/s4 and s6:

Post-s3:

Iris: Quits her job, becomes Team Leader in Barry's absence so she can use her skills to help out, wanting to honor Barry's words ("keep growing, keep loving, keep running, for me") and knowing Cisco can't lead the Team alone because he's strung out. Argues with Cisco about getting Barry back, because she is understandably worried that it'll make things worse, cost them someone else...and/or Barry will either already be dead, or will die as a result of their actions (i.e. she fears losing Barry all over again)

Cisco: Hyperfocuses on saving Barry ("quits his job", so to speak, because he's not being Team Leader as Barry intended), uses his skills to help out by building a Quark sphere to save Barry, goes forward with his plan despite Iris's misgivings so he can honor Barry's words ("he also said that everyone would look to me after he was gone. So look to me."). In the aftermath, modifies the suit extensively because he fears losing Barry all over again)

s6:

Iris: Is distraught and horrified at how easily Barry accepts his death, tries to talk him out of it. She takes up the charge of recruiting Ryan Choi, Paragon of Humanity, empathizes with him about his fear, draws on their similarities to convince him.

(She does not pull risky manuevers here, since it's E90 Barry who saves our Barry, but she did back in s3, when she shot Savitar, a speedster and her almost-killer (and also a future version of Barry), to save Barry's life)

Cisco: Makes a risky call to try and save Barry's life, defends himself fiercely when Barry gets upset about it, is distraught and horrified at how easily Barry accepts his death

Bonus:

it's relief in Barry's eyes there, and worry. Barry was mad at Cisco earlier in the episode, but...in this moment, none of that matters. Cisco's doing something risky to save his life (as he canonically does often) and Barry's relieved but also terrified it might go sour. And...well, you saw from one of the gifs earlier how enthusiastic he was once this rescue succeeded - he beamed up at him, all "you've always been my hero" (canon quote) and took his hand to be helped up, just like in a fairytale.

Just a couple of guys nerding out together 🥰

Barry using a shared memory to prove he's not an imposter 👀

Iris and Cisco teaming up to pull Barry out of the Speed Force! Note that Cisco almost succeeds at this 👀 he only fails because Barry is not yet ready to leave - by the time Iris tries, Barry is ready. I've always thought Cisco could've pulled Barry out of the Speed Force too, lightning-rod style.

This post compares some Westallen and Barrisco moments! Specifically, some Iris and Cisco reactions to Barry (very similar, you'll note!)

And there you go! As mentioned, none of this is me going "AHA see, Barrisco is definitely romantic", but moreso pointing out why I ship them via their parallels to Westallen (which is widely considered one of the It Ships of DC in general, especially for Barry). Hopefully this changed your mind, and if not, hopefully you enjoyed the ride anyway!

(and I meant what I said: @alittleflashvibe and @icedteaandoldlace, feel free to weigh in. Same for any other Barrisco shippers! I'm sure I didn't get everything, though I did try to hit the major highlights)

[kathrahender]

A man and a woman share romantic themed scenes and other wholesome moments.

Everyone: Omg they're an awesome couple! They belong together! They're beautiful and perfect! They're my OTP 😆😆❤️❤️

Two men/two women sharing literally the same scenes or even more emotional/romantic themed scenes than the main canon straight couple has.

Everyone: They're just friends/rivals. They have a platonic relationship. Why do you ship them? Why can't two men/two women be just friends???? Why they have to be boyfriends/girlfriends????? 😭😭😭

Don't make excuses. Just say you're homophobic. And if you really aren't homophobic, if you don't like the ship for other reasons, not because they are two men/two women, just directly say "I don't like them because X" but don't use those arguments because if you do I'm just gonna assume you're queerphobic. I don't know, use the "I don't like the trope of their relaitonship" "I prefer another couple". But don't use the "they're just friends" because that argument is so overused.

[purplecyborgnewt]

[vexic929]

Barry Allen deserves all the partners get this man more boyfriends and girlfriends

[biologyologyy]

[icedteaandoldlace]

Same energy ✨

[arrow-v-flash-polls]

Which of these two highest ships for Cisco is your favourite?

(based on amount of ao3 fics)

[chadrickmd]

The Flash

I'mma be honest, I wish Iris wasn't Barry's love interest. First, I always found the foster sibling thing weird, not that it's always bad, just they always felt more like siblings than lovers. Second, the writers just sucked, and once they were together, completely ruined Iris.

Eddie should have lived, and literally anyone else (Caitlin, Leonard, Cisco, etc.) for Barry.

[roboticnebula]

Fake Fic asks: 🐝 Refraction

🐝 send me a fake fic title, and I’ll make up a summary for it!

Cisco doesn't know why he keeps dreaming of Barry - their patient in Star labs. Sure, it could be the guilt for what happened to him, and he's been spending a lot of his waking hours looking him up and talking to the man's family.

Barry sounds exactly like the sort of person Cisco would love to hang out with, but it doesn't explain why Cisco has such specific dreams of the two of them watching Star Trek and placing bets on who can eat the most Belly Burger nuggets (spoiler alert for himself: Barry always wins, the man is a bottomless pit).

It gets very worrying when the dreams slowly grow into strange, waking visions of Barry moving at superspeed, fighting a man in yellow, and into very creepy flashes of Doctor Wells standing over Barry's comatose body.

Cisco can't explain it, but he knows Barry is in very grave danger at Star labs and he's determined to save his future best-friend-maybe-something-else. He also really hopes Barry wakes up soon, because this will all be a lot to explain.

(In which Cisco gets his vibe powers before Barry wakes up from his coma. Set in the CW Flash show.)

(Fake fic ask game!)

[shrinkthisviolet]

trick or treat! :) 🧡🧡🎃

A little Barrisco ficlet for you (3 sentences? What's that?):

“So I was thinking.” “Dangerous.” Cisco teased. Admittedly, though, he wasn’t paying a lot of attention, focused on getting the pancake batter right. Barry was usually the one who made pancakes for them both, but Cisco had insisted today. “Christmas has mistletoe." “It does,” Cisco agreed. “Time-honored tradition. We’ve gotten some good use out of that.” “Yeah. We sure have.” Cisco looked away from the pancakes to see Barry smiling at him, dreamlike and blushing. “Would you be averse to…expanding that tradition?” Cisco tilted his head, smiling in amusement. “Expanding it how?”

“Well…I was thinking…like this.” Barry took out a sprig of mistletoe and held it out to Cisco, blushing. “It’s not really in the spirit of Halloween, I know, but—” Cisco laughed. “You know you don’t need to bait me with a plant to kiss me, right?” “Oh come on!” Barry huffed. “I’m trying to shake things up here! And all I get is bullied by the love of my life.” “Yeah…sorta part of the deal, Barr. But if it means so much to you…” Cisco took hold of Barry’s arm and raised it above his own head. “What are you waiting for?” Barry grinned, leaning down to kiss Cisco soundly, pulling him closer. Cisco, as he eagerly reciprocated, decided that making this a biannual tradition was a fantastic idea. Especially if it meant getting kissed like this.

trick or treat ask game!

[kathrahender]

Please can the male character of a fantasy show/shonen anime not end with a female character for once? Stop with the heteronormativity dear God.

Give the main male character more female friends instead of giving him female love interests. Male characters deserve to have female friends. They don't have to be always romantically involved! I'm tired of people always wanting to ship a girl and a boy without any other option. They could be just friends! (and this feels very close to me because I had a best male friend in high school and people ALWAYS saw us as lovers and it WASN'T true at all! It was so irritating I swear. "You look good together" "You are a good couple" "Are you two together?" Why can't you leave us alone??? He was just my friend). Because YES, a girl and a boy can be friends without feeling romantic love for each other.

Annabeth could have been Percy Jackson's first female friend and she could have been the first girl who cared about him, just like a "female version of Grover" and just a friend- but no, they had to end up together because God forbid a main male character not being the boyfriend of a girl (and the same happens with Hiccstrid, Jlaire and Anidala, they could also just have been friends)

Naruto and Hinata could have been besties instead of lovers but no- they had to make Hinata a girl whose life was only centered in "How do I make Naruto-kun love me?" (and the same happened to Iris West. She could have been more important to the plot and Barry's best female friend- but instead she was just his love interests and her development was null. And the same happened with Allura. At first she was a good character, but then she was only there to be Lance love interest, what he should have been overcome. And btw Allura's romantic love towards Lance felt very rushed. As well as Hinny was so bad developed in the movies and Ginny's development didn't exist).

Seriously people stop with these things. Stop reducing a female character to a love interest. Don't make the main male character end up with a female character because that "it's better for the plot" "it's better for the world" "people won't accept the male character dating another male character" "people won't accept the male character not dating anyone". Not everything has to be a straight couple. Actually, not everything has to be a couple! All relationships in the book/show/movie/anime could be platonic and it wouldn't be a big deal! (Although personally I like romance, but aroace people also exist and they deserve to be represented in media).

[purplecyborgnewt]

[vexic929]

Cisco Ramon is the biggest hype-man and the most encouraging person anyone could have on their team in this essay I will

[kitkatt0430]

49, 51 and 60 for Barrisco, please please please?

49.) Does either of them have a hard time being away from the other?

It definitely depends on the circumstances. They both get a little antsy when the other is away for too long, but it never verges into separation anxiety territory... unless one of them is off hero-ing without the other.

Cisco likes being the voice in Barry's ear, the person Barry can depend on to give good advice and direct him from a big picture vantage point. And who can breach to Barry in a second if things go wrong. So when Barry goes to team up with Team Arrow or the Superfriends and Cisco is not the voice in his ear, it makes him super nervous and fretful because what if Barry needs him?

Caitlin and Iris (and eventually Frost) get pretty good at distracting an anxious Cisco.

Cisco is less likely to leave Central City for team ups without Barry going with him, though. He is more likely to be heroing without Barry when Barry's access to his powers is blocked or Barry's out of town, however, and it does make Barry anxious for Cisco in those circumstances. Especially when Wally leaves. If something goes wrong, will Frost or Ralph be able to get to Cisco in time? It's at it's worst when Barry is cut off from the speed force because he feels so slow and helpless when Cisco is in trouble. He's not really, because Barry can absolutely pick up a gun and go be badass still, but a lot of Barry's self confidence only really built up after he got his powers, so losing his powers can trigger those feelings of self doubt very easily.

51.) What’s a non verbal way they say I love you?

They're very touchy-feely with each other, so they definitely have a whole range of non verbal communication going on.

When Barry inspires Cisco for something tech related - especially if it's the answer to their latest villain problem - Cisco will kiss Barry on the mouth before running off to implement whatever brilliant idea he's had. Leaves Barry standing their grinning because he likes being Cisco's muse, especially when he gets kissed like that. Of course sometimes Cisco gives Barry the insight he needs for a breakthrough in a case for work or something they've been struggling to understand about a meta's motivations for causing trouble and he'll do very much the same. Cisco likes the warmth Barry leaves lingering on his arms when they kiss like that.

If something dangerous is going on and they're having to split up to deal with it - whether it's one of them staying behind to run comms or them both running into danger in different places - one of them will put a hand on the other's shoulder or run their hand gently along the back of the other's neck. And they just look at each other and they know.

60.) Who pulls the other closer when they’re sleeping?

Barry's an octopus when he sleeps and he latches onto Cisco if they don't go to sleep tucked together already. If Barry's asleep and Cisco gets into bed afterwards? Barry immediately gravitates to him and snuggles up super close. Which can be just a little bit annoying if Cisco is still too close to the edge of the bed.

If Cisco's asleep first and Barry joins the bed later than Barry will snuggle right up as he gets comfy. At first he was probably a bit wary about waking Cisco up, but as they got more comfortable in their relationship Barry stopped worrying so much.

That said, Cisco is quite the snuggler too and when he's holding Barry at night he will absolutely pull Barry closer if at all possible and if Barry stays up reading for a bit while Cisco falls asleep, Barry may find a Cisco snuffling against his side before he's ready to call it a night.

[icedteaandoldlace]

Can't spell BARRY without... (5/5)

[arrow-v-flash-polls]

The two have a strong bond from the start of the show and faced some challanges. Do you prefer the pairing together romantically, see them more platonically or dont like to see the two togehter at all?