The bandwagon hate that Iris West-Allen stills gets today from antis, over two years after CW’s The Flash ended, directly stems from the fact that the character antis actually want to be mad at, but can’t be, is Barry Allen, and the reason they’re so mad is that Barry Allen spends all nine seasons of CW’s The Flash completely and utterly in love with Iris. Like it’s not just that The Flash is nine seasons of Westallen’s love story, it’s that Barry Allen does not waver an ounce from his love for Iris. He is in love with her before the show’s timeline even begins, and he falls more deeply in love with her for the show’s duration. But these racist antis cannot possibly be angry with the titular lead, on whom they try to project their own feelings that don’t even remotely align with the way in which the titular lead is written, so of course they project all their hate and anger onto Iris, when what is at the root of their hate is that the show right from the beginning clearly established that Barry is in love with Iris, and then enforcing that this is the case each and every season. It’s the sheer strength of Barry’s love for Iris and the unequivocal fact that his love for her never wavers. Antis still cling to Patty Spivot, a character that briefly dated Barry and whom he forgot seconds after she left, while completely ignoring that Barry treated her poorly during the actual relationship, because for him, it’s always Iris, and it’s always going to be Iris.
When Iris fans point out that the root of the hate towards her character is not the bs “bad writing” excuse, but misogynoir, antis always throw a fit, and yet generally the only supposed piece of bad writing they regurgitate all their time is *checks notes* “We are the Flash,” a line that they continue to take completely out of context, while ignoring all the times that Barry said the same exact thing to Iris. (Also, never mind the fact Iris says, “We are the Flash,” to invoke the metaphor that she shares Barry’s burdens, as that is partnership and marriage.)
How do I know ”bad writing” is just a pathetic excuse? Because when actually analyzing the show objectively, Iris is the most consistently written character on the show, besides Barry, in terms of her character’s arc and trajectory. She has clear goals, personal and professional. At the end of season 9, Iris has been married to Barry for several years, and they have continued to build and cultivate a supportive, beautiful, and healthy marriage where they continue to fall in love with each other each and every day. Iris has built Central City Citizen Media, her flourishing multimedia news agency. She has mentored many reporters, including her daughter, Nora West-Allen, who chose to follow in her mom’s footsteps. She has two beautiful children with Barry (Nora and Bart). She cultivated her own sense of leadership, strengthened by her partnership with Barry, just as he cultivated his own sense of leadership, strengthened by his partnership with Iris. And we see her growth, personally and professionally, throughout the show’s nine seasons.
The fact remains that racist antis still scream and whine and spew vitriolic hate at Iris, even today, but these antis are actually really mad at Barry Allen, because he only ever wanted Iris and fell more and more deeply in love with her as the show progressed season to season. It’s just that they cannot actually admit that that’s their problem, so they incessantly hate on Iris.
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