Dissertations Galore- When your Eobard 101 post turns into grad level studies

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The very first thing I want to be clear about during my The Flash rewatch review is that I'm only reviewing the Arrowverse film version. The second thing I want to express is that it's nearly impossible (for me) to simply review this without recognizing a few background sources that further explain story history, since there are so many nods in the TV show to past storyline incarnations, not to mention that they plunk us unawares right into the middle of Eobard's timeline already in progress because the show is filmed from Barry's point of view.

For instance, this fingersnap you see in the show alludes back to a whole story arc about being able to create shockwaves, essentially making Eobard as powerful as a bomb being detonated.

That being said, if you are completely new to The Flash, the TV series does very well as a standalone story arc, and that is what I'm looking at. Also, that being said, once you get curious and ask something as benign as What about Eobard's original origin before all the timelines started changing?, like I did, don't worry, I'll be linking you up because this guy is so messed up there is no way anyone can NOT get lost in that little trail down the ultimate rabbit hole. This is what happens when a show opens up with such a complex character with so much history but not explaining any of it, although, to be fair, this TV series does just fine with it if you don't ask.

I've been #TeamWells from the gitgo, but I need to clarify that as well. I was more like #TeamEvilWells but I just didn't know back then I'd need to differentiate from more Wells incarnations showing up. 😂 So basically at the core, I'm a Thawne fan (I always seem to root for the baddies) even before I knew that was actually Thawne. More precisely, I'm an Eobard Thawne fan and I stuck to it once it all sorted out, except that never showed up in hashtags. While other fans went meme crazy, I went into a deprivation tank to think it through.

click meme for fun

Anyway, once you start in on this particular character history, you almost need to precision pinpoint what actual incarnation you make camp with because the fanbase has so incorporated the broad spectrum of Eobards and Thawnes popping up like Gremlins. And now that being said, I don't care what form Eobard is in, I'm a fan. Thawne is Thawne is Thawne. And that is where #TeamWells got a little murky, because dang it, they just kept showing up. I just shook my head and walked off from that one and then came back to it later because I liked Harry being grumpy, but that's off the subject now.

  

                                         

And THAT being said (omg where does this stop), one thing we eventually come to realize (or find out if you catch the crossovers) is that Eobard literally absorbed all of original Harrison Wells' memories and education when he hijacked his DNA structure, jacking up his own already very high IQ, so as evil geniuses go, this one is practically unstoppable, and he's easily bored enough to make things very difficult for a great many people when he's not busy obsessing over the Flash.

Why in the world is he so obsessed? Where did this even start? (I know right, I can't help it.)

You will get absolutely dizzy reading all this. Basically, between all the Eobard origin rewrites over the years and the countless timeline changes, canon is pretty shredded. 

Eobard Thawne wikipedia

Eobard Thawne in the DC Database

Eobard Thawne comic book on TV Tropes

Eobard Thawne (Arrowverse) on wikipedia

Eobard Thawne Arrowverse wiki

So, Imma let Eobard-in-Wells sum up the very scant information we can still go with in the show.

And if that "it doesn't matter" is still leaving you throwing things at walls, here is a very cool easy to take in origin synopsis from Nerdgasm for those of us who just can't let it go. This will save your sanity. You're welcome.

Getting back to the TV series, those of us tweeting along with the scheduled live events as they rolled out were in for shockers, reveals, and surprises, and we were definitely not expecting Wells to be Thawne. I mean, we started catching on, yeah, but I don't think anyone really guessed that during the very first couple of episodes. Wells wasn't in the original comics and seemed like a sidebar, so once the hints started leaking out, we got those arm hair goosebumps and I gotta say, it was very tense by the time Barry arrived to the reveal. I was super tense.

click for article
not the original reveal 👆

So let's talk about Eobard Thawne from the TV series perspective, since we can't really nail down a whole lot on his motivation. Who is this guy? Aside from finding out later on that he's a psychotic body snatcher obsessed with the Flash, he seems like a pretty normal guy. We know he is a scientist who owns a particle accelerator that backfired into his ruin when a pipeline explosion killed a few people and likely beset agencies of every kind onto S.T.A.R. Labs and the accelerator beneath it being labeled a hazardous site. (If you're curious about what that might entail, you can wander off into hazard classification, like I did.) Dr. Wells didn't earn that hazard designation lightly, and as I've hinted before, Eeobard likely planned that out so he could use a locked down 'useless' building as a lair while he trained Barry to be the Flash.

Part of the reveals are very quietly done, like if you are paying attention, you catch on to the clues. One dot-connect you kind of figure out on your own later is that one of the reasons Dr. Wells (Eobard) doesn't socialize or hang out on any level beyond actual work is because too many clues could be given away. For instance, I had written 

His focus is so intent that he doesn't make friends or have a social life, and everyone is surprised when he knows which wing of the mall the Big Belly Burger is in. I get the idea that he lurks alone and everyone is so used to it that he comes and goes whenever without question.

When the show spells out how much Barry has to eat as a Speedster so he won't faint all over the place, and then later reveals another speedster, you might think about Thawne lurking around the lab in a wheelchair having to sneak out and eat like Barry does. One of the we've known this guy for years and never knew this dichotomies is that he's never seen eating at Big Belly Burger, yet he knows exactly where it is and everyone is surprised. Eobard probably doesn't dare let anyone get any closer to him socially than actually working or it wouldn't take them long to figure out he's a very unusual person. That lends to all kinds of wondering how one would manage handling that kind of sneaky challenge. Thawne can't just hide food around the lab because they'd find it. Cisco even mentioned doing an inventory at one point. Finding out later how fast Thawne actually was, one has to wonder how he kept up his speed strength without anyone ever noticing. Keep this in the back of your mind.

In episode 1.11 we see Pied Piper attack Dr. Wells in his home. This is the only time we see what we assume to be Harrison Wells' house. It is in title, of course, but it is likely not the original house from before Tess died in the accident. Dr. Wells had told Joe that he couldn't go back to the lab after Tess died and had to start over, so it's a pretty sure bet Thawne also sold off the house and got another one. It's a very nice house, befitting the elite. The details in that home confirm an extremely picky person who doesn't hold back from the very best that he believes he deserves. Does he go home like that a lot? Apparently he's got a life away from S.T.A.R. Labs, and Hartley knew where that house was. No one else ever seems to have bothered to go dig Wells out of his cave and drag him out into the sunlight outside of the lab, so that house is the perfect base to recluse in while he probably secretly speed lurks all over town and beyond, spying on people and getting to know everything about everyone and all their buildings and enterprises and habits. 

So basically, as your basic character goes, Dr. Wells is initially passed off on us as nobody important enough to actually develop through the story, except that lack of development is hiding the biggest reveal in the entire story. We know *nothing* about Dr. Wells excepting through Thawne's narrative of him, a pretend life he's playing out while he very patiently keeps pacing out his goals toward the main goal. The prize.

Thawne wants to go home. Ok, he wants to kill the Flash, too, but he wants to make sure he can get back to his own time and access his own levels of sciency tech again before he does that.

And since I bring up wanting to kill Flash, yes, that's ultimately where this is heading, so I'm about to rip that can of worms open and look closer at Thawne's crazy obsessive mind. Let's think about a few other things besides hiding the amount of food he was eating that Thawne had to stay on top of in order to accomplish the main two goals in his long game besides faking not being able to walk past Dr. Caitlin Snow for years in a close working relationship. Having the super focus to not get caught deviating out of character over every little movement made Thawne especially dangerous. For a genius speedster, having to pretend to be so slow and technologically facepalm with so much riding on staying focused on his hidden purpose for Barry was probably the very fuel that kept his passion alive for so long. He hated every minute of it, and hated Barry all the more for having to go through it.

By the time Eobard Thawne got stuck in Barry Allen's time, he had already been searching for him for years. Let's take a look at that.

• Eobard longs to be as cool as the Flash, to be the Flash. He spends years studying how to be as great as the Flash, to even exceed the Flash.
• Eobard, being both highly gifted and psychotic (unable to empathize), went to great lengths to set up and create situations that allowed him to mimic shining as the Flash. He played a dual role of both mysterious evil and heroic savior.
• Eobard spent years looking for the Flash and fighting with the Flash when he found him in order to prove he was better than the Flash.
• Eobard finally found out Flash's birth name, but when he ran through time to kill him and prevent him from even becoming the Flash at all, he burned out and got stuck and then had to spend 15 years recreating the Flash to help him solve the problem he created for himself.
• After several timeline changes and other adventures, Eobard spent another 15 years in prison, the last minutes of which he figured out how to torture the Flash some more while the Flash was accidentally setting him free, via Flash's daughter.

That is likely at least 40+ years of obsession with the Flash, as Eobard's linear life experience goes. Despite no one else around him having even a fraction of that experience back with him, he knows Flash and his whole network of friends and family and eventually his entire history, to the point of becoming his mentor and even his friend, at least in Barry's eyes. Eobard worked very hard on the dichotomy of being powerful behind seeming harmless.

Hiding who he was through 40 years was second nature to Eobard Thawne. Pretending to be someone he was not is the basis for his entire obsession. Being an imposter is one thing, but obsessively stalking and faking for 40 years with intent to murder is quite another. Since we find out later there are dopplegangers on other Earths in the Multiverse, I'm unclear whether Eobard has dopplegangers or whether he's unique in all the Multiverse, or all the copies of him are created time remnants from timeline changes, both by himself and Barry. If Eobard can cross the Multiverse at will, what would stop him from accessing other Harrison Wells? He could keep ramping up his experiences, memories, and education exponentially. Is he a serial bodysnatcher? I don't think this is ever quite asked (or answered), although possibly touched on in one of the crossovers, "Arrow" Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2.

If Eobard is a serial bodysnatcher, he could be far older than we can imagine, spending even more years running across the Multiverse, and up and down and back and forth through timelines. He can grab fresh Harrison bodies as needed. Why Harrison Wells in particular? Probably because over time, Team Flash had grown fond of Harrisons in general, and Eobard knew it made Flash sick to see him in another Harrison body, meaning he had killed another Harrison Wells to get it. He'd get to see Flash grind his teeth every time he showed up in Harrison's face.

Perhaps the best way to see it all is through Barry's more straightforward in the moment, so I may work on that next. I need way more think time before I try tackling any more Eobard Thawne, because I can't seem to stay in the episodes rolling out without diving back into Thawne history on the webs. In the meantime, if you're looking for tips... 😂 or not.

This is my fave Reverse Flash fanvid ever.