#doomworld

So, Thawne frames Barry for some pretty awful murders. A Lot of them (probably in the hundreds. Speedster ya know, can get a lot done fast). (And he does it while wearing Barry’s face and mimicking his lightning color too (…yeah it’s what Armageddon did ik. It makes sense though!)). Anyways there’s a few ~specific~ kills that will come into play later.

Since Eobard has his usual red lightning and the murders were clearly committed by someone with yellow, it rules him out as a suspect and makes it easy for him to play the hero and ‘catch’ Barry in the act. Now. Could he just be thrown in prison? Sure. But I’m already onboard my Make It Worse train so choo choo motherfuckers we’re making the whump public.

Legally speaking who knows how this works but hey. Doomworld sucks so anything goes.

As far as everyone in the city knows, it’s a dangerous serial killer who’s trapped in a cage with transparent walls, kept on display in a public square. Sure he’s literally tortured sometimes, but why would anyone care when it’s just an awful person being punished for his crimes? And if anyone does have an issue with it, perhaps even suspect they got the wrong guy… Well they can take it up with Thawne! Oopsies their body will never be found. ANYWAYS. So Barry’s been kept like this for a while, but till let’s say the Doomworld episode, he’s just Barry Allen, a speedster but never The Flash— then our Barry’s mind and memories are essentially dropped into him (quick tangent— this is an implication of time fuckery that we never talk about. Post-Flashpoint, for example? The Barry everyone knew in that timeline is just Gone. The one who refused to save Dante for Cisco, probably had conversations with Iris about her anger with Joe, did and said some other things we couldn’t even know about— by time traveling with memories from a different timeline, Barry essentially erased this new timeline’s version of himself and replaced him. And this is NEVER ADDRESSED (I mean ofc it’s not. It’s really fucked up and the writers wouldn’t want to deal with it (…but frankly neither do I. It’s just something that occurred to me while making this post. ANYWAYS). So our Barry essentially replaces the other Barry, and he has no idea what the fuck is going on. One second he’s doing whatever he was doing at that point in Flash season 3; then the next he’s here, injured and trapped. He has his speed but he still can’t get out of the box. Anyone he asks for help, or even why he’s in there, gives him disgusted and angry looks, with no real answers.

And honestly, maybe Thawne doesn’t even stop by. He knows it’s his Barry now, he’s the one who chose that with the spear after all. So maybe he just lets him sit and wonder who did this to him, and why.

So Barry’s already asked random people for help. He’s probably increasingly desperate in this situation, even just for an explanation. Just imagine how he’ll react when he sees one of his loved ones walk by. And please now remember what I said about some specific murders that might come into play later… Can you hear my evil laughter from here?

Imagine he sees, let’s say, Iris. And he’s so SO relieved to see a familiar face, and of everyone who’s scorned him so far— She wouldn’t, right? She’d help him, right? Can you see his heart shatter when she looks at him with such intense hatred in her eyes, and walks past him without a second glance. And that hatred would be justified, if he actually did kill her father like she thinks he did.

And this repeats, when he inevitably sees his other loved ones look at him with that same hatred. Because Thawne killed people close to all of them intentionally. Except Cisco. But unfortunately not for any good reason.

There’s some things even the spear can’t modify, and Cisco’s powers appeared to be one of them. Eobard found out he still could vibe after killing Dante, and decided to kill Cisco too. He certainly didn’t want to (1x15 ya know), but the ability to vibe made Cisco too much of a threat. (Fun bonus of this is that he killed Cisco with Barry’s face. So when the timeline is put back to normal, Cisco may get some vibes of that death :) Just for funsies).

For the love of every god I went way off track too many times I’m so sorry. Also quick note that I probably don’t need to say but brain’s making me; as he did with all the Legends in the episode, Thawne definitely fucked with Team Flash’s heads and morals to make them ok with this whole situation. Pipeline-prison hell aside, this is obviously out of character and that’s part of the point.

Anyways back to the Barry suffering. He does figure out what happened eventually, and makes the connection that Thawne’s definitely the one who framed him. But what does it matter when no one will believe him? It’s like he’s 11 again except somehow worse. My braincells are running out but mix some classic Barry Allen Guilt Complex, 24/7 captivity, torture, everyone against him, and the fact that this is Season 3 Barry— and you get some inevitable thoughts about how, while he didn’t do anything to anyone in this timeline, he has hurt people, and killed people… Yeah this whole situation’s gonna get to him eventually.

Which I think is the perfect time for the Legends to rescue him. And he gets the desperate relief of someone believing and helping him. Plus, luckily everything’s gonna be fixed anyways so it’s fineeeeeeeee