#Iris West Defense Squad

[shrinkthisviolet]

Iris West for the character bingo?

SCREAMINGGG I LOVE IRIS WEST-ALLEN 🥰 and I always will, and nothing will ever change my mind about that

send me a character, and I’ll fill out the bingo!

[hitchell-mope]

Timeline differences in season three of the My Universe au.

For starters. Because Mon El never left. Kara’s happy at the start of the season. She does get an official warning from Cat afte they’re found in Kara’s office TogetherTM. But apart from that there’s no angst. At least. Not yet.

With regard to Imra and Brainy. They still show up to save Kara after the Christmas fight with Reign. And Imra tells them that Mon El needs to go to the future and marry her because Politics. And naturally. Both Kara and Mon El are HIGHLY opposed to it. So you see? ANGST!!!!

With Reign. Poor Samantha still believes that Lena can help her. So Lena still exploits Samantha’s nosocomephobia and still uses the synthesised kryptonite on her. Which still doesn’t fucking work. And this time. Lena is assisted by Maxwell Lord. And yes. It’s her romance plot. A match made in petty villainous hell. Don’t you think?

On a somewhat brighter side. Mon El drives Kara and Alex to Midvale after Alex and Maggie break up. Don’t worry. Kenny’s still in the flashbacks. Because in this au. None of the men get treated like shit. Except for Lex and Maxwell of course

Morgan Edge is NOT a run of the mill chauvinist in this. If you would like some more specifics then please refer to this post for details: https://www.tumblr.com/hitchell-mope/748460767729287169/morgan-edge-in-the-my-universe-au

Lucy comes back as the DEO’s official military liaison. And she reconnects with James and gives him some pointers on stealth, techniques and the like for his Guardian identity. Which brings them even closer and they start dating again. So no unholy character assassination here writers. You dumbasses.

On a more angsty note. The prospect of Mon El having to go to the future weighs heavily on the both of them. So when they cross dimensions and go to westallen’s wedding, but before the Nazi duplicates show up, so like the day before when they’re all prepping, like, just before Alex and Sarah hookup, Kara asks Barry for some advice and Mon El asks Iris for some advice. Because westallen have more experience with the spacetime continuum than most couples do.

Ruby eventually finds out about Reign. She panics and thinks it’s her fault because Brainy lets slip that Ruby being born postponed the worldkiller programming. Mon El runs damage control and tells Ruby that her being born allowed The Hyde to lay dormant until Samantha could meet supergirl and the team who could help her. Of course Ruby’s a teenager so this doesn’t work quite as well as intended. But still. Ruby greatly appreciates Mon El’s (or “Uncle Mike’s”) help.

They end up being able to save Samantha from Lena and Maxwell’s experimentation and both her and Ruby are put under the DEO’s protection. While there. Winn and Samantha strike up a connection and Ruby and Carter become friends.

When M'yrnn’s telepathy goes haywire it’s Mon El who loses it and yells at Imra and Brainy for expecting him to leave Kara, their friends and their entire life together behind in the name of so called duty. It only makes Kara love him more.

Sadly. Samantha does get briefly taken over by Reign, the brief time travel thing still happens and Kara does get cloned like in canon. Except. Brainy and Winn are able to use Legion technology, as well as M’gann’s Martian powers to quell and rejoin the two halves of Samantha’s psyche and save everyone. Good old sci-fi mumbo jumbo really. A little bit cliche. But it works 99.9% of the time. So it’s fine.

When everything’s over. Imra finally gets it that Mon El has a life of his own and with the blight vanquished and Samantha in full control of the Reign persona there’s no need to stay. So she goes back home to 30th Century alone.

Before she leaves. She asks Brainy to stay in the 21st Century and keep an eye on Samantha. Just in case. Winn also stays and asks Samantha out to dinner. To his happy surprise the accepts. Plus. Winn gives Mon El his supersuit. Same as in canon. Except this time. Winn’s included the House Of El insignia. Karamel love it.

Brainy also gives Mon El a Legion ring. In the event that he changes his mind. Mon El uses the ring to propose to Kara. And she accepts. Just in time for angst in season 4.

[doublel27]

My friend - I am here to be a distraction!

🔪 What character are you defending with your life?

⛰️What’s one hill you’ll die on regarding this show? (the more trivial, the better)

🤡 What’s your biggest clown moment in the fandom? Or what are you clowning over that you know will never happen?

Hello friend! 💜💜

🔪: Oh TK and Carlos respectively. Look, the way both of my boys get some very pointed hate whenever one of them doesn’t act exactly like people want them to or is less than perfect and I will be on my: they’re both a mess but different types AND they are doing their best and learn and grow and apologize and do better mantra until the end of time. They are good boys doing their best but they’re human.

⛰️:My hill to die on? Aside from the Tarlos defense squad. In Lone Star? Gwyn and Owen could have been happy if she stayed. I will forever be haunted by the what if. Look, I know how much of the fandom hates Owen, but I find him fascinating and his relationship with Gwyn was something else (also it made my west wing heart happy). Also, Gabriel and Carlos had so much more to mine in their relationship that was not anywhere close to fixed.

Oh, for season 5, Marjan should be Judd’s replacement as right hand because of her capabilities but because she’s as unhinged as Owen I think the team would mutiny…but I think it would be fun.

Mateo is baby. That’s it. (I have a lot of hills)

🤡: Oh my biggest clown moments are 1000% how convinced I was in season four that the writers would not be so ridiculous as to 1. Start the season with Carlos married to Iris and 2. End the season by killing Gabriel. There are metas I wrote on both topics where I had to eat my hat after both and admit I was wrong. As one of my shit posts says: I forgot you were a silly procedural drama on FOX. I thought you were better than this. That’s on me.

Lone Star Asks

[bklynmusicnerd]

Shits on fire again in the Sprina fandom. I tell you just seeing Esme’s face in the previews just sets people off especially when we haven’t seen the chick in ages, we’ve had a Sprina drought and we know Spencer and Trina will be on Monday which probably means she’ll be involved somehow. I think fans patience level with this show is running low again. I say again because this same frustration was expressed when it took decades to get a kiss. Then once we got the kiss it took a minute for the second kiss, then another minute for them to be an official couple. Unsurprisingly they are taking their sweet time with the ILYs and love scenes for them. I’m telling you the most ill advised thing to have in watching this show is expectations 😬

There's a good chance that I just won't be able to answer the rest of these GH asks, and that's because where I think things are headed with this story are very dark and draining. But as someone who survived the Abbie Mills fiasco and was an Iris West Defense Squad member, I do feel like I owe it to those of you who are sticking around to give a little bit of a heads up.

This week's episodes were basically the beginning of a sharp pivot in the story. Trina and Spencer acting either ott or ooc, put into contrived positions that they would never organically be in. And as important as it is to love both sides of your pairing, I need people to really focus in on the positioning of Trina in what is supposed to be her love story. She is being pushed to the side, her connection with and understanding of Spencer is being undermined.

They are trying to lay the groundwork for her to be contrasted with the girl who drugged her. Once again positioned as a romantic rival with Esme, except the optics are more offensive this time because this is now a girl that has fucked Spencer's father raw (with the lasting evidence in the form of an unnecessary baby), revenge porn'ed his friends and drugged and framed Trina. You will never see Dex confiding in another girl besides Joss with his shirt off. This is treatment being exclusively reserved for Trina.

And it becomes a question of, is the rest of the story of Trina and Spencer going to be one where she is degraded, put in positions of being humiliated, established as the perpetual loser? Because if that's the case then what you are dealing with is an Abbie Mills situation. Where tptb both exploit the hype for a black female lead in the center of a narrative and then chip away at her power bit by bit until she is literally shoved in the corner, or in Abbie's case, killed off.

And if that's where things are headed with Trina, which I sadly think is the case. If they have made a calculus that the Esme agenda is more important than anything else, then the fans that intend to stick around are probably going to have to mobilize. Be it some form of "Trina Robinson Deserves Better" or a Trina Robinson Defense Squad.

The same energy that was put into endless free promotion for that show in the name of Sprina, will need to be used to call those in power out (Valentini, Chris & Dan, Korte) for the bait and switch game they are playing. It is actually bigger than Sprina, this is about what they intend to do with Trina, the black heroine that they have been using for positive mainstream promotion for a year. Cause right now the writing is hinting at a weird resentment for the character and her popularity. And when it comes to black female characters, popularity is never the shield people think it is:

I am linking this article again to put in the main tag because I think it is very relevant to the situation that is occurring on GH right now. And in a lot of ways the GH situation is worse because NAC as TA's co-lead has been unwavering in his support of the Trina/Spencer story, he constantly reiterates how central Spencer's love of Trina is to his interpretation of the character.

So if that's still not enough, if there is still a backstage agenda to undermine this popular story? Then, if you are still invested in this, it might be time for not-so-friendly mobilization, with plainspoken language about what's being portrayed on screen (misogynoir, racist optics, white woman victimhood above all).

I'm not saying it will lead to a guaranteed course correct, you can't force them to tell a story they don't want to tell. But at the very least, you can make sure they don't feel overly comfortable doing TA dirty for the rest of her contract.

[xswestallen]

This is the greatest tweet of all time.

[zayray030]

Fandom: Give us healthy straight relationships, please!

Creators: *Procedes to give the fandom a healthy, happy, in love relationship with kids*

Fandom: UGH! WHY ARE ALL THESE RELATIONSHIPS SO STRAIGHT! IT'S CLEAR THAT SHE/HE ARE GAY! WHY ARE YOU FORCING THEM TO BE TOGETHER!

Fandom: Give us male rivalry! Why don't we ever get that!

Creators: *Procedes to give the fandom a toxic ass rivarly where one guy thinks that one guy is a terrorist for an entire year and another guy decides to kill the other guys son and torture him for years on end*

Fandom: Oh my god! They're so in love and are so gay for the other! Don't worry my gay bby's. I'll save you!

Fandom: Give us a strong black female character who can show her emotions as well!

Creators: * Procedes to give the fandom a black woman as a lead character and have her cry when she should be crying and also have her be strong both physically, mentally and emotionally and giving her a realistic background*

Fandom: Ugh! All she does is bitch! Why can't she just understand that the world doesn't revolve around her! And her background is so unrealistic!

Fandom: Give us a strong female friendship!

Creators: *Procedes to give the fandom a female friendship with ups and downs but those two staying loyal as fuck to the other*

Fandom: Yeah but if you make that girl go at it at that girls lover then we can finally have some drama on this fandom!

Fandom: Give us 2 male best friends from childhood!

Creators: *Procedes to give the fandom two best friends from childhood who went to each others weddings as best man's and only see each other as brothers.*

Fandom: Oh my God! Why won't you make them gay! They're so cute together, you heartless monsters.

I can honestly go on but it's too early in the morning. Message me if you want more.

[barrysimpulse]

Soooo this was comment on a video from TikTok. I didn’t make the video but I felt the need to comment on it, and honestly I’m just tired at this point. This basically explains the main reason why I don’t like Snowbarry shippers/iris haters. Its mainly because of this stuff right here. But the fact that he had the audacity to say that just messes with my soul.

[huntingpeople-savingsam]

I found this a while ago but to this day it’s my absolute FAVORITE Westallen fanvid, seriously so good I cry every time lol ❤️❤️❤️

[7holyharpy]

if you don’t like a Black woman character and you are “not sure why” ....... have I got news for you

[alehzoka]

Avalanche / Frost!Iris West-Allen

An AU where Iris is Killer Frost.

inspired by an edit on IG

[shadowandbones]

Give it a few seasons everyone will love or understand Maria more. I was not always a fan of Iris on the flash. I didn’t like her and found her annoying, even though she has always been Barry’s endgame. I shipped him more with Patty (then).

But now I would die for her and I love her so much and I still see the same people who I use to talk to about our dislike of her still hating on her and her relationship with Barry, and I don’t like it or understand it. Because she grew soo much. I don’t regret my annoyance with her in the early seasons. Because it got me to understand her more, so yeah I will keep fighting and protecting Maria. Because the black actors (especially the females) on the CW are so mistreated by the fandoms they are in. They are hated for being badass women on their own. Hated because people may ship their partner with someone else (Caitlin for Barry, Alex for Michael). I see the appeal for both those ships, heck I shipped them too.

[shrinkthisviolet]

All y’all who hate on Iris for her “we are the Flash” (S4) line better save that same energy for Barry.

I’ll remind you that he said “we were all struck by that lightning” to Team Flash in 1x2, and “whether you realize it or not, there is no Flash without Iris West” to Iris in S3 👀

[westallenangels1]

This has been a constant theme in The Flash for several seasons now. But I have to admit when I saw this video (courtesy of iris.wests on IG) it really struck a chord. Iris is constantly alone, with absolutely no one to comfort her (sometimes not even Barry) while usually the other characters have members of the team checking in on them. The “strong black woman troupe” is lazy writing on the part of The Flash and sets a dangerous narrative in place that black women don’t need and in some respects don’t deserve to be cared for, looked after or cherished by family and friends. I really believe that we as a fandom, in a respectful way of course, need to bring this serious issue to Eric and Jess’s attention because we cannot stand for this narrative in season seven.

[literaryspinster]

Truth time...

The Flash has never actually lived up to its full potential in their treatment of Iris/Westallen, not ever

S1: the best season, but still could have been done so much better. I maintain that Iris should have known about Barry's secret from the beginning, or at the very least they could have had her using her investigative skills to uncover his secret on her own. They seemed hell bent on leaving her out of things from the beginning, and Joe's controlling behavior was super gross. It took me forever to fully warm up to him because of that. I'm glad they actually took him to task for it and allowed Iris to confront him and Barry about it, but it was too little too late.

S2: Another good season, but Iris was practically non-existent for the first half while Barry was canoodling with pbp, who got to have more of a pov and emotional support for her own loss than Iris did for hers in 2A. Her mother storyline was also rushed and kind of offensive. Other than that, not too many complaints, the back half did a lot of things right with her, even had Barry give her some closure with Eddie, which I appreciated. They could have given us a bit more of her investigating but we did at least get a little in that area.

S3: Westallen season. This was WA at their best, and the season that really drove home their sweet, quietly passionate chemistry for me... But whoo boy did I still have more than a few issues with this one, I'm going to need a couple of paragraphs here so brace yourself.

I hate hate hated the fact that aside from a couple of episodes, Iris was a passive character in a storyline that should have been all about her. For example, I still don't understand decisions like them having Barry hug and comfort Joe when Barry came back from the future, instead of Iris, and that's just one example of weird moments in that storyline.

I also continue to balk at the choice to bring in HR. I know he's grown on the fandom somewhat but I still resent the hell out of that character for a number of reasons. I hate the fact that he was the one to support Wally in his journey while Iris was saddled with the unsupportive, overprotective Joe 2.0 role, I hate the fact that he was the one to save Iris (after nearly getting her killed) when I can think of a few nifty ways Iris could have used Savitar's affection for her to save herself, and I just despise the fact that we had to spend time with HR at all when more important people deserved more attention.

This was also the season I started to realize how much they prioritized Caitlin's feelings over Iris's. But that was way more of an issue in s4 so I'll address it more there.

In any case, lots of beautiful moments and other good stuff in this season, but a bunch of problems as well.

S4: I was happy with a lot of her development in this season. In spite of much of her journey being undercooked, she still got to have one, which I appreciated. Although she could have had more and sooner development when it came to the transition from journalist to team leader to badass wife and back again, I enjoyed her in all of these roles. One of the things that kept this from being my favorite season for Iris was the absolutely unacceptable placement of Caitlin's feelings above Iris's.

They gave Iris no room to be angry at Caitlin for her misdeeds in s3, not to mention having Caitlin apologize to every character except for Iris even though she was the one harmed the most by her actions aside from HR. Even Barry was right there to insist to Caitlin that she was a good person. And the fact that Iris asked Caitlin to be her damn maid of honor in the same episode where Cait's slave trader bff wrecked her bachelorette party, in spite of Caitlin STILL not apologizing for nearly getting her killed and actually having the audacity to say they weren't really friends will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth.

This was also the first season to give Iris her very own episode, and while it was a great one, I could have done without Ralph talking shit to her the whole time while Barry did nothing. All I'm going to say is, Thank God Ralph got better.

Lastly -- and I don't want to lay the blame on Flash for this, since it happened in another show--Felicity interrupting Iris's wedding, i.e. yet another white girl being centered in a scenario that should be entirely about Iris, is still one of the most wrongheaded things to happen in the history of television and I have no idea what the hell they were thinking to this day.

S5: This was another good season as far as giving Iris a point of view, and yet, they still found a way to fuck things up. I remember how excited I was for Nora, how excited we all were. But once she came along, the writers decided to make Iris the main antagonist in their family story for most of the season.

I do at least understand the reasoning behind this storyline, and if it weren't for the history of disrespect toward Iris in both the fandom and the writer's room, I might have gotten more out of it, as it was it just felt like hours of some bratty woman-child piling onto a character known for being piled on in spite of not doing much of anything wrong.

I was glad that Barry at least supported her through a lot of it, but aside from that, Iris's relationship with Barry in this season was another mark against it. For one, they sort of stopped interacting with each other romantically after episode five, which was certainly... a choice. I mean, I'm a grown woman, I don't need them to be sucking face 24/7 to be happy, but they're newlyweds for eff's sake, why tone down the romance now?

S6: I've only seen the first two episodes, and while they were really enjoyable, I hear things started to get weird again after that. I still want to catch up, as fandom does tend to exaggerate.

In any case, I don't think the fatigue some fans are having with this show is from it declining a bunch in quality, although it kind of has, I think it's because the showrunners keep making the same mistakes over and over, to the point where I figure they must like it that way.

[iris-candice-clemons-west]

Me almost a week later thinking about 6x16 and drinking my hot cocoa my Mom made me:

@ anti westallers tryin it too 

[zayray030]

I was watching a clip on YouTube for when Iris confronts Barry about being the flash and I saw a lot of hate comments towards her so I just need to make it clear on why Iris should have been told first.

This girl was the first and only person to believe him when he said that his dad hadn't killed his mom.

This girl stuck with him through thick and thin when he was getting bullied and was going through serious depression and people not believing him about his mom and his dad being unfairly locked up.

Iris was the one who wrote the blog about the flash because she wanted people to acknowledge the fact that the impossible existed and to help Barry and to find a way to help his dad.

But instead he told Eddie, the guy who tried to get him arrested.

This show treats Iris like shit but the viewers treat her even shittier.