YMMV: The Flash and The Iris Situation

[rheasilvia]

So, I am finally watching The Flash - only about 3 years after everyone else. :-) It took me this long because I watched the first ep when the series started, and, well. Did not think it was promising. But since everyone else seems to be enjoying the series so much, I figured it must get better, and have given it another try! I started with ep2

Comments

[dieastra]

It all will be resolved at the end of season 1, as far as I remember. She will get a more active role and be a proper part of the team then. Romantic things are kept to alternative universes, the like. I also am only watching for fun and am not really in the fandom (and haven't started with the recent season yet) but I think this is what I remember

[rheasilvia]

It all will be resolved at the end of season 1, as far as I remember. She will get a more active role and be a proper part of the team then. Romantic things are kept to alternative universes, the like.

That sounds more hopeful than I had feared! Thank you for letting me know - it does help somewhat. :-) The prospect of Barry actually stopping the horrible, grating pining and an actual friendship being shown between him and Iris will let me hang in there with greater confidence...

I guess they had to do the old "kept in the dark" plot as it is such a big part of superhero stuffIt's definitely a time-honored tradition, but I really feel like it's a tradition that no longer works and should be dispensed with. Particularly because I struggle to remember a single instance of "kept in the dark for your own good" that applied to a man, which makes it even more infuriating to me for not only being idiotically counter-productive, but also being grounded in a patronizing male stance that should really be obsolete in this day and age

[dieastra]

That sounds more hopeful than I had feared! Thank you for letting me know - it does help somewhat. :-) The prospect of Barry actually stopping the horrible, grating pining and an actual friendship being shown between him and Iris will let me hang in there with greater confidence...Happy to help! And I would be interested to read your thoughts once you have reached that part

[geekslave]

Honestly, the only problem I have with the trope of superheroes keeping their loved ones in the dark is the lying and secret keeping aspect. Generally, knowing their secret identity doesn't make a character any safer. The whole point of the secret identity thing is so that the bad guys don't know who the real person is and it helps keep their loved ones from being targeted. I can't remember exactly but most of the time in the first season when Iris was in danger it wasn't because she was being targeted by anyone to get to Barry

[rheasilvia]

To me, this feels more like a superhero/person with powers etc trope. It's hard to judge whether it's just a woman thing because there aren't enough female superheroes. That's true, and I feel that this is another consequence of the same basic underlying problem. I think that female superheroes would be far less likely to keep secrets from the men in their lives, and that if one did, it would be far less likely to be depicted as a positive thing (for his own good! knowledge will only endanger him!). But you are right, unless there are a lot more female superheroes with their own shows soon, this is going to have to remain hypothetical

[rheasilvia]

(2/2)

Thank you for letting me know how the situation develops! I am honestly glad to know, and hope that perhaps I will have resigned myself to things somewhat by the time I get to S3. For now, I will look forward to S2. :-) Plus, if the series goes on for several more seasons I am sure they will break up anyway, and depending on audience reaction, perhaps a new love interest for Barry will enter the scene and Iris really can go back to being his friend.

Hope springs eternal. ;-)

[geekslave]

On Supergirl now, there's a situation where Kara is trying to control her guy friends behavior with her reasoning being she's trying to protect them.

I do agree that with Iris already putting herself in harm's way there's less of a reason to keep it a secret from her, but I don't think it's because Iris is a girl. Barry has kept the secret from people other than Iris, including men like Eddie and Barry's father.

I do agree about men and women characters staying friend and that it's frustrating that doesn't happen more often. I find it so refreshing watching a show like "Elementary" that has no interest in even really teasing that. So many shows have ruined friendships just to throw the characters together, though I blame rabid fan bases for that more than anything.

I have hated many a popular pairing and that thought always, well most of the time, gets me through it - knowing they won't be together for too long. I'm sure Barry and Iris will break up sooner or later.

Stacey