Happy Sunday!

I welcome you to the hardest post I have ever written. This is at least the fourth draft of my The Flash post that I've written today. It's very irritating.

So today I'm just going to ramble and rant a little bit about the mistakes The Flash made - in particular, two very big errors that the writers keep making.

And of course, this will be topped with a healthy dose of Cisco GIFs. Because why not.

Now, I'm not going to tell you to avoid this TV show. The Flash is actually a very enjoyable show with some interesting plot twists and fascinating characters.

But I will give you the brief rundown of what happens in seasons one, two, and three, because the plot twists and spoilers are essential to this post. So, if you wish to avoid spoilers, stop reading this post and watch this show.

okay this is funny in context

Ready? Okay, let's go.


In season 1, we meet Barry Allen, a kind-hearted forensic scientist who is bent on solving his mother's mysterious murder. After a freak explosion ripples through the city, he receives superhuman speed and becomes The Flash, protector of Central City. He meets Cisco and Caitlin, two scientists who help him fight crime from their laboratory. They share a common mentor: Harrison Wells, a brilliant scientist who caused the accident, but says he regrets it.

However, before long, Barry learns that Wells was the one who killed his mother. Wells also has super-speed, comes from the future, and calls himself the Reverse-Flash. In a climactic turn of events, Barry tries to send Wells back to his time, but fails. Barry also goes back in time and attempts to save his mother, but at the last minute, he stops.

Season 2 deals with Barry's guilt over not being able to save everyone - namely, his mother and, more recently, Caitlin's husband Ronnie. Cisco learns that he has cool mind-reading powers from the explosion, but that Wells also wanted him to have those powers. (This leads to one of the best self-doubt episodes ever.) A multiverse is also discovered, and from that multiverse comes another speedster villain, named Zoom. 


Barry is able to defeat Zoom (barely), but he also goes back in time and finally decides to save his mother - much to the annoyance of literally EVERYONE. Why?

Because Barry knew that if he saved his mother, he would completely throw off time and create another timeline - and he did it anyways. Season 3 explores this concept in more detail. Suffice it to say that Barry fixed his mistake, but changed things in his original timeline, like having Cisco's brother die in a car accident. (Oof.)

There's also another speedster villain (Savitar) and a new coworker with a suspicious past (Julian <3) but I don't think we'll need to dwell on that too much.

Now. Into the issues.


Barry, for the most part, has very low self-confidence. In fact, he was the very first character that I have ever seen have self-doubt issues. I very much appreciated that.

However.

Whenever Barry gets down about the slightest thing, someone always goes and has a pep talk with him. And this pep talk always works amazingly well, and he's able to defeat the bad guy.

Every. Single. Episode. Without fail.

Pep talks don't work like that. I'm sorry, but if the only way you can get your characters motivated is for another character to tell them, "You can do it," . . . well, you need to be more creative, because that's just lazy. I'm sorry.

(also the pep talks usually begin with "Hey" and now my family makes fun of it all the time)

probably the writers looking back on these seasons

What can we learn from this?

It takes more than a pep talk to change a character. Instead of having side characters encourage your main character all the time, maybe throw a short scene in where action prompts the main character to change his mind.

Your character's motivation needs to be strong. Whatever your character's goal is, he needs to want it enough to face his fears. If he doesn't care enough to do that, you have bigger issues.


The other major issue of The Flash is that characters do not learn ANYTHING. They repeat the same mistakes over and over and over and over.

For example, throughout all three seasons, the characters hide secrets from each other. Some of them are somewhat warranted, like Barry hiding his identity from Iris, his girlfriend. However, why on Earth would Wally, Iris's brother, hide the fact that he's been seeing the main villain EVERYWHERE?????? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??????

Ahem. Sorry.

Even though in season 3, the characters make a pact to not hide anything from each other, they STILL DO. These secrets nearly get everyone killed at one point or another, yet still they do not learn.

If you don't let your characters learn from mistakes in your writing, not only will your audience roll their eyes in frustration, but it will also stunt character development.

Let me explain.

Season One Barry:

a guy still grieving over his mother's murder --> a guy who, although still sad, has begun to accept that she is gone for good, and even going back in time will never truly make it right.

I thought that this character development was spot-on.

Season Two Barry:

a guy trying to accept his choice to keep the past intact --> a guy not able to accept his choice and changes it

I mean, it was decent development, I guess, although it did cause all the fans to yell at him.

Season Three Barry:

a guy still trying to accept his choice to change the past --> a guy not able to accept his choice and changes it

Are you seeing a pattern?

Barry goes through the exact same character arc in seasons two and three. He doesn't feel like he has changed at all in those seasons. And I understand that his personality involves a lot of self-doubt. However, he does not learn from his mistakes, and he does not listen to his friends. This leads to a LOT of facepalm moments.

(Obviously, this is very dumbed-down. A lot of other stuff happened to cause this. But at his root, Barry doesn't really change, and it's a result of the writers not letting him learn from his mistakes.)

this GIF worked better in my head to be honest

What can we learn from this?

Even if you don't have your characters learn from all their mistakes, at least have them learn from some. Don't have your characters keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. It's very eyeroll-inducing.

Obviously, we're human - we don't always learn immediately, and your characters should be the same. But PLEASE, LET THEM LEARN SOMETHING.

Let your characters change. It's true - some characters will stay stubbornly stuck in their misbeliefs and fears. If that is the point of your story, then that's fine.

...

Wait, what's that I hear?

BONUS ROUND?

totally haven't been watching many TwoSet Charades videos, nope, why would you think that

I'm going to stop bashing on The Flash and instead focus on one character that they actually did CORRECTLY: the one and only Cisco.

(#CiscoRamon4Life fan club, here is our moment. I'm looking at you, Isabel and Sarah.)

Cisco doesn't really have a character arc in season one - which is actually okay. There's way too much other stuff going on during season one for him to become a main focus. We do learn a little bit about his motivations and fears. For instance:

I relate way too much to this statement

At the very end of season one, though, we begin to see the start of his character arc: namely, when he begins to show signs of a superpower. When he tells his evil mentor about it, Cisco is told that he will do great things.

Seeing as that came from Mr. Bad Guy, though, he begins to have serious doubts.

Over the course of season two, we see Cisco get slightly more serious. (Note: slightly. Does he completely sober up? Of course not.) He battles doubts about turning evil, as he meets his doppelgänger from another Earth, who is evil. EPIC scene, by the way.

simultaneously the greatest reference and saddest line ever <333

By the end of the season, Cisco has gone from being uncomfortable in his own skin to owning his ability.

(of course, then season three comes around and kicks his life upside-down again, but you get the point)

*screaming*

Anyways, if you get nothing else out of this post: please, please, please do not have pep talks solve all your problems. It's annoying and I might just chuck your book across the room. XD Just saying.

Also, this is a random question, but how do I make the section that has the search bar up above unsticky? I've been messing around, trying to figure out how to make my navigation bar unsticky. I got my menu underneath the Header, which I wanted, and I made the sticky area transparent somehow, but I don't know how to get it to stay about the header image, and Google isn't helping. XD

I will see you guys in about two weeks! I'm not sure which TV show I'm going to do yet, so it'll be a surprise to both of us! ;)

-Nicole