#yes Joe's death devasted me that much l

[evilkaeya]

playing your turn to die now

[ooc-but-stylish]

Future Barry is Savitar? I haven’t seen this episode yet but

MYLONGESTYEAHBOIEVER.MP3

Iris West doesn’t deserve what happens to her (which won’t happen, if the finale photos are any indication), but, let’s be honest Barry has spent the entire three seasons disrespecting Iris whenever he could: lying about his identity; flirting with her while she was with Eddie; beating up Eddie out of jealousy; lying about his identity; taking advantage of knowing she kissed him in one timeline to make moves on her in another; dropping the L-bomb on her on Christmas while she was with Eddie, instead of putting his feelings aside like he should have 10+ years ago and respecting the platonic dynamic of her relationship with him; lying about Mason’s death; lying about his identity; bringing Eddie into the Circle of Liars ( Eddie originally wanted to tell Iris, remember that, you guys ); fucking up so bad against Eobard that Eddie killed himself, depriving Iris of a natural dissolution to her relationship if there even was one; trying to get with another version of Iris while that Iris was unaware that that wasn’t her husband; starting Flashpoint and stalking Iris for three whole months instead of talking to her like a normal person; stealing her wallet from right next to her and convincing her she dropped it, instead of talking to her like a normal person; only helping Joe because he wanted to get with Iris and not a moment sooner; not helping Wally against the Rival when he was right there, resulting in Wally being injured and Iris almost losing her brother; ignoring the fact that Iris and Joe were estranged in post-Flashpoint for a good reason and forcing them to be together for his benefit; proposing to her not out of genuine love but because she was about to die soon and he wanted to “change the future” ( what, did he think Savitar respects honeymoons? was Barry going to use husband-status to convince Iris not to be in the area where she’d die? what? ); getting Wally trapped in the Speedforce via hypocritically being mad about Wally keeping secrets, resulting in Wally experiencing his personal hell for an untold amount of time; and other bullshit with the pretense of “saving Iris” ( almost letting people die, not bothering to apprehend criminals, using his friends as tools when convenient ). I know I’m missing a few instances but that’s off the top of my head. For at least the first two seasons he was running off of the fact that just because the byline on the future newspaper and their lives on Earth-2 said he’s married to her, that he’ll get married to her. Otherwise he’d been acting like a total fuckshit until that point. Last episode established he’s capable of disrespecting her wishes as a person post-mortem. He promised her he’d keep in touch with Joe and the team and not let her death set them apart, and then it turns out he did exactly that because his pain was too great. As if everyone else’s wasnt?

He absolutely deserves this reveal. This is the  most logical conclusion I could think of to “Barry is a total ass to Iris and hurts her, hurts everyone around her using her as an excuse, and continues to do so unchecked, because he sometimes feels bad about it”.  He's spent too much of this season pulling ridiculous stunts for his own benefit, prioritizing his pain over everyone else’s, going back on his word when he promises not to do [insert negative thing], and then feeling sorry for himself afterward when it doesn't work out. "I'm sorry" this and "I'm sorry" that, instead of just not doing the things he was clearly advised not to do, instead of actually caring for people and their issues. Then when he feels bad, there's at least one other character being the Writer's Mouthpiece and caping for him at their own expense, saying "Well, he's the good guy and he's sorry so it's okay, we've all made mistakes too". They forced Iris to be that Mouthpiece, and I’m pretty sure more than once, because Precious Barry Allen can never be called out on anything, and Iris only has negative feelings for One Whole Episode ( at most! ) before needing to forgive him because “true love, OTP”. Remember that ultimatum she put that if he lied to her again, their relationship would be over? That was the beginning of Season 3, IIRC. But even though Barry did lie to Iris between then and episode 16, Iris wasn’t allowed to make through on her words or have any sort of feelings except pro-Barry, so Barry broke up with her, leaving her visibly devastated. And then they didn’t even stay broken up. He just came crawling back with a song and she forgave him, because “true love, OTP”. They broke up for one week.  Episode 19 is the first episode I've seen where Barry actually noticed the damage his self-centered behavior could cause other people. Having the villain be him down a darker path might cement for him the fact that he is constantly screwing things up and needs to stop sooner rather than later. Even his Future Self from 2056 realizes how much of an idiot he was, to have sent that message to the past saying "Hey, guys, don't trust me!" (paraphrasing). You know you fucked up when even your Future Self tells everyone how much of a fuck-up you are. Barry’s Flashpoint antics in particular put the Bad Future of 2046 ( John Diggle's death, etc. ) back on the table, and it brought the attention of the Dominators who tried to set-off the meta bomb, and, you know, that’s all pretty bad. So Barry absolutely deserves this reveal. Otherwise, how much sense does it make that up until now, only the women of the show, or the men of color in this show, were the only ones shown doubting their powers or being told they were better off not having them? Cisco only met Reverb for 10 minutes. Caitlin met E-2 Killer Frost and interacted with her for around the same amount of time. The both of them were immediately worried about whether having powers would make them turn evil just for having them. Despite having no proof that they themselves would lose control of their abilities ( and in Cait’s case, she didn’t even have powers to worry about until, you guessed it, Flashpoint ) they still feared the possibility. Yet Barry encountered 4 evil speedsters across 3 seasons and never once doubted that maybe his powers might make him evil or that he wasn’t meant to have them. Wally and Jesse only got their powers this season, and Jay made his proper debut in the season 2 finale, so it wasn't like their goodness was a balancing force throughout the show. Barry still met more bad guys with his powers than good guys with his powers. If anyone should’ve had the "I'm worried my powers are corrupting me" storyline, it's him.  Wally became a speedster in Flashpoint, then when he knew about it post-FP, every character around him was telling him he didn’t need powers, he was better off without powers, that he’d get hurt, and it’s dangerous, and all this patronizing junk. Jesse got powers, and Harry came all the way from Earth-2 to get someone from Earth-1 to convince her that she didn’t need powers, she was better off without powers, that she’d get hurt, etc. ... Yet Barry lost his powers and his SWM ass got an entire episode dedicated to showing him as absolutely useless without them, and how much he needed to have them, and he was the best version of himself with them, as if he didn’t have other ways to perform good, like through the intellect he’s supposed to have as a CSI. That they all now have powers and act as heroes now isn’t the point. The point was the storyline around it-- the writers chose to write Cisco and Caitlin as “worried about their powers, because potential evil”, or have other characters express their opinions that Wally and Jesse were “good enough/better without powers” while Barry was written as “too good for self-doubt” and “the best with powers”, showing what they really think about a) “powerless” people, and b) anyone that’s not Barry. So, yes. Barry Allen absolutely deserves this reveal.