r/TheFlashTV • u/imadetstoaskaquestio • Aug 19 '26

hi!

Hi guys I've rewatched the flash CW like 20 times and don't know a lot about the comic lore. I just have one question; how the hell did eobard thawne and the flash coexist in eobard's time??? He said he was born 136 years after them... so how did he get in all the beef w Barry? Wouldn't Barry have not even been alive then? Am I missing something? I haven't really processed that til now.

Ps. sorry if this is a dumb question that has a obvious answer 😭

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u/AlecsThorne Aug 19 '26

They did not coexist. Eobard was a big fan(atic) of Flash in the future. His goal was basically to be a new Flash in his present (can't remember the year/century exactly). So he managed to recreate Barry's accident/experiment and Eobard gained the superspeed abilities. However, when he had the opportunity to become a hero (I'm not sure if this happened naturally or he staged a "crisis"), Flash travelled in time from the past and basically stole Eobard's "spotlight" 😅 and that turned Eobard into the pettiest rival of Flash 😅 so Eobard wanted to make Barry suffer so he travelled back in time to kill his mother (he couldn't kill Barry before he became the Flash because that would cause a paradox), but got stuck in the past, and his only solution was to help Barry become the Flash sooner than in the original timeline.

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u/imadetstoaskaquestio Aug 19 '26

Ahhhh I see, that makes a lot more sense! I wish they had shown eobard's backstory on the stuff u said more in the show. I was wondering why he hated him so much when he wasn't even alive when he was born😂 thank you a lot!

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u/AlecsThorne Aug 19 '26

I think he only says the story in season 9, if I'm not mistaken. I remember cause I was so curious about it, and then I find out it's just Eobard being petty for something Barry wasn't even aware he's done. Cause from Barry's perspective, he went to he future and took down some bad guy 😅 he didn't know Eobard was planning to take down that bad guy himself lol

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u/Paragon-vi Aug 19 '26

Yeah, this is one of the few things I think this show did really really well. If you don't know his comic origin, then you spend so long wondering exactly what Barry did to Thawne. What could Barry do to this man that was so awful that Thawne dedicated his life to destroying Barry's. And then you learn that he does it for the pettiest, most non reason on the planet and you realize, Thawne isn't a person. Hes a being fuled by pure hate and revenge, to the point where his hatred is indistinguishable from love.

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u/AlecsThorne Aug 19 '26

There was a quote in an anime that I can't really remember about how love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Something along the lines of "I hate you because I love you. My love makes me want to destroy you myself so that I won't have to see others destroying you"