The Flash

What makes you think Thawne can change time without consequence?

Without consequences? Probably not. But killing Wells wasn't that dramatic a change because he replaced him, he didn't just remove him outright. Also, being from 500 years in the future maybe they have grasped a few of the theoretical basics of time travel and paradoxes where he came from and he has that going for him? Or, having been a speedster for much longer than Barry, maybe he had some time to practice tinkering with time and has the experience to change things without causing major blowback. Barry's clumsiness with time travel is what caused the whole Flashpoint crisis.

damn gavin, you gotta stop mentioning flashpoint. i had to watch the movie again. its so cool.

I guess saying "without consequence" is too general a statement. I'm referring to negative consequences that could/would lead to Thawne not existing due to his actions.

Thawnes seemingly reckless abandon for changing the past leads me to think there aren't any consequences for him changing it. It's also possible there are bad consequences but his existence isn't threatened so he doesn't care.

You make a good point Gavinmad, I had a different take on the importance of Wells death.

Sure he replaced Wells but he didn't act exactly how Wells would have. If there was any truth to what he told Barry about how time travelers should repeat events exactly as they were before I would think finishing the particle accelerator (7 years?) in advance would have changed things dramatically enough. This is assuming proximity to the incident mattered for all meta-humans to get their powers. Sure, not every meta-human would be important in the long run but I would think interactions (also interactions that didn't take place) because things happened 7 years sooner would have created quite the butterfly effect.

Time travel theory can get so convoluted so quickly.

To rephrase my original point to Column's post: I'm fine with there not being repercussions for Barry time meddling because time has already been meddled with by Thawne.

slippery_sl said:

What do you mean no consequences. They've had him checking the future timeline plenty of times in the show to make sure shit is right.

Click to expand...

I only remember him checking the future after he found out Barry time traveled to make sure Barry didn't screw up the future he wanted and that Barry was still missing. Presumably because he killed him to take his speed force to travel back to his own time.

Did I miss something where he was checking the future after he did something himself?

we know that Barry doesnt time travel to save his mom, but i think he saves Harrison Wells from being killed by Thawne. when Barry returns to this timeline, things are not exactly the same, but close enough so that he is still the flash and events such as the explosion have still happened. next week they discover the real Wells body remains. i wonder if they will have the second F v RF showdown in the stadium in the finale.

For starters, I'm pretty sure Barry travels back in time to save himself, not to save his mother. Didn't RF say when he was talking to Cisco that he went there to kill Barry, not to kill Nora? We just don't know exactly which Barry goes back to that night, we just know it's 'Adult Barry'. Adult Barry could be current Barry, or Barry from several years in the future.

I guess they could just fudge it, but if they do save Wells, I don't see how he could possibly have a deep enough understanding of particle physics to still get the accelerator constructed 10 years early, which means if they save Wells Barry won't be the Flash yet in the new timeline.

maybe its like a voldemort thing. barry saves wells just as RF is zapping the life out of wells and when barry breaks the connection some of RF's knowledge zaps into wells. thus leading to more advances knowledge and maybe some insight into how to deal with RF in future episodes.

So in the a preview from a while back it shows barry fighting himself, is it the shapeshifting metahuman, Wally West, or Barry stopping himself from changing the timeline?

Its also heavily been hinted Wally West is going to make an appearance

I have to ask, I like the series but

I'm not sure why that was in spoilers since it doesn't spoil anything and is several episodes old at this point. Anyway, I don't remember the episode very well but wasn't there some kind of hostage situation going on while Heatwave and Captain cold were to be killed their hostage (Caitlin?) would suffer?

never sure where folks are at in the series so if they're hanging out here no need for me to discuss something they have not watched. I do not think so (regarding the hostages) I believe it was a general "we're going to cause havoc if you don't show" type threat. they were both captured but SWAT should have just blown them both away. Same as when they tried to rob the mob and for some reason 5 guys in the back of van firing off machine guns couldn't seem to stop three idiots on motorcycles because they had "special guns" drove me insane.

Greyform_sl said:

never sure where folks are at in the series so if they're hanging out here no need for me to discuss something they have not watched. I do not think so (regarding the hostages) I believe it was a general "we're going to cause havoc if you don't show" type threat. they were both captured but SWAT should have just blown them both away. Same as when they tried to rob the mob and for some reason 5 guys in the back of van firing off machine guns couldn't seem to stop three idiots on motorcycles because they had "special guns" drove me insane.

Click to expand...

because this is a comic book show and its also a bit more lighthearted than arrow they are keeping the executions of famous supervillains down to a minimum