The Flash has just been renewed for yet another season on The CW and fans are already excited to see what kind of villains Barry will be facing. As season 8 comes to a close in just a few weeks, fans can re-watch their favourite episodes until season 9 begins later in the year. In rewatching the older episodes, fans may come across some consistent themes in the show which the internet fandom has done its usual meme-treatment for.
Iris claims that “We are The Flash,” Barry’s love of changing the timeline and, at times, his slightly inconsistent speed, there have been certain plot points throughout the show that have made fans laugh, question logic, and love the characters even more. As long as there are fans of The Flash TV show, they can expect to see more of these tropes from the show.
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The Real Heartbreakers
Sadly, with each season, it is becoming more apparent how much fans dislike Iris West Allen as a character when compared to the earlier seasons of the show. Way back in season 3, Barry attempted to stop Savitar from killing Iris only to find out that HR took her place.
When fans found out early on in the season that she was going to die, they largely felt sorry for Barry as opposed to being worried about losing the character of Iris. However, this meme (created by GA_Unleashed) sums up fans’ feelings when HR died, and how many of them shed a tear for another great Flash character that Tom Cavanaugh brought to the show.
Run Barry…Run.
“Run Barry…Run” was an iconic line that the show has used on many occasions, especially in the earlier seasons to serve as the final line of motivation that Barry has needed to run faster than ever before. With his core power being super speed, and every other power the viewers have seen being branches of that power, it’s unclear as to why Barry gets confused at what he needs to do to stop each villain.
This meme from BlerdVision sums up that every time Barry needs to stop a villain, he just needs to do one thing, run. Sometimes run faster than before but it always takes a motivational speech for him to realize how fast he can run.
Indirect Running Routes
This meme that was uploaded to 9gag sums this up by using the classic poster. Some of the ariel shots of the city where fans can see Barry’s lightning streak run through the city, have shown him dart around streets when he could have taken a far more direct route and saved time.
Granted, time is one thing that Barry does more than anyone else, and who knows, perhaps he needs to be that thorough when checking the entire city, scouring for his enemies’ whereabouts.
The Timeline Is Always The Answer
Barry loves a messed-up timeline. From all the way back in the show’s first year when Barry created Flashpoint, the timeline and Barry’s meddling have been brought up time and time again. Rathaway, Vandal Savage, Savitar and the disappearance of Nora have all involved Barry changing the timeline in some way.
This meme that was uploaded by u/Nikolas9516 toys with how Barry constantly used the timeline as a way to solve his problems. Sometimes, there has been more of a focus on the impacts than others. For example, when Randal Savage killed Oliver, Barry ran back in time to save everyone, but this seemed to have no implications compared to when he did the same to save his mother, (one of Barry’s worst and most selfish decisions in the context of the show due to its repercussions).
Iris Knows Best
More often than not, it took Iris and a motivational speech to give Barry the extra push he needed to save the day. Granted there have been times when he needed Caitlyn and Cisco to tell him a more scientific solution to the problem, but in case of emergencies, Iris always gave the final word.
This tumblr meme (that was created by @adrianchaseofficial) sums up how Iris, arguably the least scientific of the characters, is trusted by Barry more than the scientists are. That being said, it’s clear how much Barry loves Iris, and vice versa, and sometimes it can take that one person to spur you on in a way that no one else can.
Barry Is Always The Cause
One of Barry’s character traits is sometimes using his heart more than his head to make decisions. This is obviously one of the hardest parts of being a hero, being able to balance logical decisions with those more difficult choices that involve people you love.
However, this meme (which was created by Instagram user @scarletspeedster) shows that it has probably hindered Barry more than it has helped him. While the show makes it seem like Barry has made the right decision every time and saved everyone using his heart, it always leads to another catastrophic event for Barry down the line. Perhaps if he took his personal feelings out of the equation it would make his life slightly easier. That being said, it is of course part of the show that Barry has to live with the decisions he makes.
We Are The Flash
As much as Barry wants to believe that he is The Flash, Iris has always been there to remind him that they are The Flash together. Barry has referred to Iris as his lightning Rod numerous times. It could be argued that Barry needing motivation from Iris does grant her a certain right to claim that without her, Barry might not be the level of hero he is when she is there with him.
This meme (taken from TVTime) takes that idea and puts a comical spin on if Barry won millions of dollars. It’s obvious that Barry would split the money anyway as Iris is his wife (unless he found a secret bank account to store the money in) but that doesn’t seem like the kind of thing Barry would do.
Inconsistent Speed
One small detail that fans have picked up on over the years is how inconsistent Barry’s speed has been on different occasions. Sometimes it takes him half a second to run from one side of the city to the other in order to, for example, fetch something that the team needs in order to make more tech, but when it comes to certain villains on The Flash, it has taken Barry at least 4-5 seconds to run a much shorter distance.
This meme from BlerdVision takes the specific example when Barry has been hit and knocked out by blow darts. Barry was also hit with Oliver’s arrows in the annual crossover event. He didn’t see them coming which is an argument in his favor and if he knew where they were being fired from, perhaps he would have moved out the way.
Fastest Man…In Star Labs
In the show’s original seasons the episodes began with “My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive.” However, as fans met Eobard Thawne, Zoom, Godspeed and more this statement became less and less true and now the showrunners have replaced it with a simple ‘The Flash’ title card.
This Reddit meme uploaded by u/phantom-beast adds some specificity to the classic line from the show that is still used today in certain episodes even though it is, and has not been true since season 2’s episode 18. Granted, the new speedsters end up dying allowing Barry to reclaim the title, but how long before another speedster shows up that is, again, faster than Barry?