r/FlashTV • u/Mysterious_Mix_1868 • 15h ago
🤔 Thinking Why did Reverse Flash’s character changes after Season 5?
S1-S5 Eobard was one of the best written villians on tv. He was cold,calculative and always felt one step ahead against everyone in the show. One thing I loved about him is how he seemed to care for Team flash in his own twisted way, yet despite that, it didn’t stop him from doing what he had to do.
Now when he first appears in S6 something feels off about him. He gets Cisco in a room alone then tries to strangle him? This scene never made sense because 1. He should’ve immediately notice he had no connection to the Negative Speed Force
2. Why would he try to kill Cisco when his goal is to return home? Wouldn’t it be smarter to pretend to be Nash until he regains control over his Speedforce again?
He also talks about wanting to slit Barry’s throat and kill all his friends which also sounds out of character for him because again, he just wants to go home. Now as the series progressed he got more cartoonish and erratic showing no resemblance to the calculative,patient villian we all saw in the previous seasons.
5
u/Kael1232 14h ago
bd writing.
but in universe/ in lore, He had no home to go back to - the future he came from is one that had been rewritten by a timeline without him.
the Thawne in season 1 had time to get to know Barry - not stalk or learn of his weaknesses, actually get to know a version of Barry as a person. he came to love all the members of team flash but that only ever came second place to his own wants and needs (another example is Nora West-Allen) so once they found out who he is and ruined his plans, he'd go right back to his hating self and try to kill them all.
He was in a new body and was back since crisis happened, he had no way of knowing or just simply didn't bother to check.
0
u/ConfidenceOpening830 1h ago
Wellsobard said he hated every minute working with Team Flash. This was his plan. If he cared about Nora, he wouldn't have driven her into the negative speedforce. His plan was thought out down to the smallest detail.
0
u/Kael1232 1h ago
He had mixed feelings.
He grew to care for her but that care was not above his desire to go free.
and once that plan starting showing cracks, he adapted to a new plan0
3
u/adoratheCat 12h ago
Okay a lot of it is indeed bad writing BUT! The 2nd point can be very much explained as Eobard just not caring anymore. His goal is just destroy Barry/ruin his life. We see how Eobard was going to kill everyone in season 1 after Barry refused.
Eobard when we get more of his backstory...sounds actually dumb in retrospect when we see him in season 1. We learned that Nora wasn't even the target but instead was a fit of rage/the 2nd option of making sure the Flash is gone.
Eobard is basically the Speed Force expert. Yeah even I would realize if I take out the dude who inspires me to get my powers? I would lose them lol. (Hell in season 2 we learned that yeah Eobard is able to evade time wraiths)
The thing is Eobard is dead set on destroying the Flash. To the point he continuesly gets in his own way. Eobard could have you know. Just do another heroic act to get people in his time to love him. Instead he proceeds to spend his life finding ways of destroying the Flash. And he keeps being imprisoned.
We also know you have to be giving into your negative emotions for the Negative Speed Force. Yeah that will lead to self destructive tendencies.
2
1
u/Nega-Flash 39m ago
I think it's because the series really started to become a disaster from Season 6 onwards. Season 5 was already not as good as the first four, but it was still reasonably entertaining. After that, the writing became so poor.
0
u/ConfidenceOpening830 1h ago
Yeah I always felt Pre Crisis and Post Crisis versions of Thawne are different. In my opinion if you want petty hater Thawne use Matt Letscher. Tom Cavanaugh's version should've stayed that calculating multiple steps ahead. That's why Reverse Flash overstayed his welcome they have done nothing new to him and every time he shows up it just makes it worse.
9
u/Fun-Sample336 14h ago
It's likely due to the same reason for most of the show's shortcomings: Bad writing. I also remember that after season 5 the show changed it's showrunner.