#I really appreciate Williamson having read every single Flash comic in existence and being able to pull subtle shit like this

[zeroducks-2]

speaking of august vs thawne I felt like those two were being petty towards each other when barry forced the 3 of them to work together. I remember at some point august pointed out how he's better than thawne cause he's actually willing to change hence why he gets to be part of barry's life. personally I felt like that struck a nerve in thawne and that's probably one of the reason he killed him lol. "you thought you'd get to be with barry? guess again!" moment

The thing about Eobard (and this is something that drives me insane in a very good way) is that his actions look pretty much nonsensical when you look at them without context.

Why did he kill August at the end of The Flash Age, after everything had gone SO WELL?

Barry trusted him, Eobard did the right thing. They easily fell into the right rhythm, they helped each other no strings attached, and not only that - after saving Chris, Eobard went back to Barry and August to save them too.

He could have very well left them to die, and if you think about it, he can just walk into the Speed Force and pluck Barry out like he did in the Rebirth Mini. So it was really just a plain good action.

But then he goes and pulls August's neck like a chicken's? Why TF Eobard? Barry doesn't understand it, and since we don't get Eobard's POV, we don't see what's in his head when it happens. But if you know enough Flash lore, it's possible to piece together what went down.

First of all, and this is very important to consider, Eobard was walking away. It's August who physically stops him.

August grabs his arm, and Eobard immediately understands what this is about. August wants him to go back to prison. The fact that his response is about trust, and the defeated look on his face, make the feeling of betrayal pretty evident.

(also what in the FUCK you think you're doing August, this is a whole ass tiger not a kitten you can scruff oh my god. anyways)

Now, the reason why Eobard immediately assumes (correctly) that August wants him back behind bars, is because this exact same thing happened to him so many times, and it's basically a trauma so big he would rather take his own life over going to prison.

Back to his time of origin in the 25th century, he would stay locked up in the most inhumane conditions (total isolation, sensory deprivation, no human contact to the point where they fed him using radiations so that no one would approach and talk to him), and the only way he had to get out for a very limited amount of time, was when the good law abiding citizens needed a hero to fight some kind of superpowered foe.

Because in the 25th century superheroes are illegal, when something too dangerous comes up, the only way to fight it off is to use a criminal. And who better than Professor Zoom, the "sociopathic knock-off" of the now defunct hero the Flash, who'd do anything for a scrap of freedom and two minutes of leniency - especially because for all his life Eobard has desired being a hero and help people, so he'd never refuse such an offer.

Page from The Flash #147. The Flash in question is Wally in one of his timetraveling adventures.

So Eobard helped, everyone cheered, and then locked him back in prison.

We see this *in The Flash Age* as well. It's what happened when he had to fight Paradox the first time - he was pulled out of prison and he not only fought of Paradox, he also saved the survivors, rebuilt Central City and the Flash Museum with it.

Now of course August couldn't possibly know all of this, but what August knows is that Eobard, when he was locked up in Iron Heights, was in this condition:

So what he's doing is in fact demand that Eobard, in order to actually gain their trust and proceed on his "road to redemption", willingly goes back to that BDSM contraption thing in sensory deprivation and with a muzzle in his mouth.

After this man went back in time to specifically save August's ass from a world eroding from under his feet.

Eobard is openly terrified at the idea of going back to prison, by the way. Many times he very clearly tells Barry that he'll die before going back to the situation described above. Or to this:

Or this:

Or this:

And I could go on but you get the picture.

August basically put his whole foot into an open wound and twisted. The idea of going back to jail after his five minutes of leniency had to be so upsetting that I'm surprised Eobard JUST broke August's neck, and didn't like, gut him up while he was still alive.

It's understandable that people would think that he killed August out of jealousy, or that he somehow cringed at the good action that he did and had to sort of compensate with a bad one. But it's actually way more complicated. And the saddest part is that he assumed that Barry was on August's side, wanting to put him back to jail, because he's traumatized as fuck and will always assume the worst possible scenario.