It's the fourth season of The Flash and the main villain is finally not a speedster. For better or for worse, the writers on The Flash decided to go with the Thinker for the big bad of the fourth season. So, unlike the first three seasons, this year Barry won't be facing yet another man who's faster than him -- even though Barry is supposed to be fastest man alive. However, in the past three years the show introduced us to a significant number of speedsters including three main villains, Kid Flash and Jesse Quick. The words "Speed Force" and super speed are uttered quite commonly on The Flash, which given it's a show about the Flash shouldn't come as a surprise.
Yet, there is such a thing as too much speedsters. A great number of fans seem to think the show is stuck in a rut. Ironically, for a show about the fastest man alive, The Flash can't seem to move forward past the idea of Barry racing an evil speedster. All these speedsters have inspired fans to create countless memes, mostly at the expense of poor Barry who just can't seem to catch a break. So, let us take a look at 19 hilarious Arrowverse speedster memes.
19 DÉJÀ VU
Either we're having a very serious case of déjà vu or the writing on The Flash has become pretty repetitive. Seems like every season must have Barry being beaten to death and dragged all around Central City by a speedster much faster than him. The speedsters of course got faster, stronger and scarier as the show went on, but we still can't help but feel a bit cheated. Season one was a hit, but it doesn't mean that the basic concept should be recycled continuously.
A lot of fans have noticed this unpopular trend on the show and decided to say something about it the best way they know how -- through memes. This particular meme pretty much sums up everyone's frustration with the show.
18 IT'S IN THE DETAILS
Poor Barry, not only are his villains faster than him, now he has to deal with his sidekick being faster than him. At the start of the show, Barry believed he was the only speedster. He believed he was the fastest man alive. However, that belief has been tested time and time again. First, there was the Reverse-Flash who could run circles around Barry. Then, there was Zoom who wiped the floor with Barry. And finally, there was Savitar who was a self-proclaimed God of Speed -- enough said.
However, we're willing to bet that the defeat that hurt Barry the most is losing to his young apprentice Kid Flash. Wally's speed developed much faster than Barry's and suddenly Barry was no longer the fastest man alive. So, what does he do then? Well, you can always get nitty-gritty about it.
17 BE COOL GUYS
"My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive." Words we all know so well thanks to Mr. Allen who insists on repeating them at the beginning of every episode for almost four seasons. But as we all know, these words -- no matter how many times Barry repeats them -- aren't exactly true. Over the years, a number of speedsters have put Barry's super speed to shame. So why does Barry still insist on calling himself the fastest man alive?
Well, if this meme is to be trusted, Barry just likes bragging about his super speed in public and his friends are instructed not to say anything. Way to act cool guys, just let him have it. It is his show after all.
16 ARROW TO THE KNEE
And you thought this meme was dead. Well, think again. While the"I Took An Arrow To The Knee" meme has certainly burned out its lifespan, every now and then someone feels the need to revive it. The meme originated from the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, in which this stock line was often repeated. The quote inspired the creation of way too many memes and was at the time the most popular meme on the internet.
Although, all of us are pretty much sick of seeing this meme over and over again, we have to admit this one made us laugh. While Thawne losing his speed wasn't caused by an arrow and Oliver didn't exactly shoot Thawne in the knee, it's still a clever idea.
15 SLOWEST SPEEDSTER ALIVE
Oh Barry, you poor poor soul. Every episode you tell us that you're the fastest man alive and yet somehow every season the show introduces at least one character that's faster than you. Hardly seems fair. It almost feels like the show itself is hell-bent on making fun of poor Barry Allen. The guy just wants to be the fastest man alive and protect his city from metahumans and other threats. Can't we give him that?
Well, the writers on The Flash apparently think Barry doesn't quite deserve the status of the fastest man alive. It sucks when you're supposed to be the main speedster of the show and yet you're the slowest speedster on the show. No wonder Barry went nuts and messed everything up.
14 THEY'RE EVERYWHERE
We get that it's a show about the Flash and that it's only natural to introduce other speedsters such as Reverse-Flash and Zoom, but at times it feels as though The Flash has a tendency to go overboard with speedsters. The three main villains from season one through three were speedsters, three generations of the Flash were all introduced as well as other speedsters such as Jesse Quick and the Rival.
Sometimes it really does seem like the majority of The Flash's world is made up of speedsters. Don't get us wrong, we love seeing these awesome comic book characters come to life, but at the rate the show's going they're gonna run out of speedsters, and fast. Besides, it's nice to see a non-speedster hero or villain every once in a while.
13 WAY TO GO BARRY
For almost three whole seasons Barry kept telling us that he is the fastest man alive. However, speedsters way faster than him kept popping up and we started to question whether there was truth to these words we hear every time we tune into our favorite show. Jokes on Barry's account have become common occurrence and even Barry began doubting his status as the fastest man alive.
However, by episode 20 of season three we found out that the so-called God of Speed, Savitar, is in fact Barry. Well, a version of Barry, in any case. And just like that we were forced to swallow our words and acknowledge Barry as the fastest man alive. Congratulations Barry, you finally did it. It certainly came at a high price, but you proved that you are indeed the fastest man alive.
12 NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT
Every time travel story worth its salt will probably include dozens of subtle and not-so-subtle warnings about the dangerous consequences of messing with time. The protagonist, of course, will turn a blind eye and go about his business as planned -- whether it's necessary or not. The Scarlet Speedster isn't above falling into this endless circle of suffering. First, he traveled back in time a few times to watch his mother die at the hands of a speedster. Then, as if that wasn't enough, he traveled into the future to watch his girlfriend being killed by a speedster.
A lot has been said on the issue of Barry's time-travelling shenanigans, but the answer seems to be simple here -- stop travelling through time! You can do plenty in the present, Barry. No need to go back and forth at all costs.
11 THE BLUR
Before Barry got his cool superhero name, his now-wife and then-unrequited-crush Iris West, dubbed him the Streak for... well, obvious reasons. Luckily though, Iris is not in charge of giving cute nicknames to Central City heroes and villains, so Barry soon became the Flash. Although, at this point, we wouldn't put it past the show to actually pull a fast one on us and give Iris and even bigger role.
But let's get back on track, shall we. When Barry visited Kara on her Earth, Cat Grant had a different name in mind for the newest hero in National City. The head of Cat-Co wanted to call Barry the Blur, which of course was Clark Kent's superhero nickname on Smallville. A reference that didn't even get over Captain America's head.
10 DEGREES OF VILLAINY
In season one of The Flash we were introduced to Barry's arch nemesis -- the Reverse-Flash. At the time, this speed demon was the worst imaginable villain and we were all pretty freaked out by his presence. Then season two came around and Zoom put the Reverse-Flash to shame -- both in speed and scary appearance. And by the time the show started its third season we were wondering if it was even possible to make a villain scarier than Zoom. Our minds were put at ease the moment we laid eyes on Savitar.
The self-proclaimed God of Speed may not have been the most compelling Flash villain, but he certainly did put the fear of god into Barry, as well as us as the audience. Clearly, someone notice this trend on the show and made an awesome meme about it.
9 RUN BARRY, RUN
Every season Barry faces a new challenge and inevitably turns to a version of Harrison Wells for help. Ever since season one, when Dr. Wells became Barry's mentor and encouraged him in his fight against Reverse-Flash, aka Wells himself, Barry has been asking a Wells for help. Every time Barry finds himself in a tough spot he would turn to Wells for advice. As a man of few words Dr. Wells would speak his trademark line and inspire Barry to keep on fighting the good fight.
However, it appears as if Harrison Wells grew tired of giving Barry the same piece of advice over and over again. And seriously Barry, how many times do you need to told this? You're a speedster, running is all you do.
8 JUST ACT SURPRISED
We've all been there when we're well aware of a certain fact but our clueless friend is late to the party and wants to make a big announcement so we just decide to play along. The best course of action is to quote Phoebe Buffay and be all like: "that is brand new information!" Just look at how Wally and Jesse perfected their surprised faces for Barry's big reveal.
Of course, by the time the truth had hit Barry everyone and their mother was aware of the fact that Barry isn't exactly the fastest man alive. So, when he decided to share his epiphany with the rest of the team, his friends indulged him as always. Good job guys, that's what's friends are for.
7 THE SPEED FORCE SURE IS GENEROUS
Over the first three seasons, The Flash had developed a speedster problem. Essentially, the show engaged in what can only be described as mass-production of speedsters, both good and bad. This practice has resulted in characters like Kid Flash and the Rival being horribly wasted. The internet of course had a field day with The Flash's speedster exploits and tones of memes were created poking fun at the sheer amount of speedsters the show introduced in such a short time.
As this hilarious meme so masterfully portrays, The Flash writers have been giving away super speed like Oprah gives away cars to her audience. We're glad to see them take a different rout in the fourth season. Evil speedsters from alternate universes and futures were getting kind of stale.
6 THE REAL EVIL SPEEDSTER
Given Barry's tendency to travel through time every now and then and screw up the timeline in the process, fans of the show started questioning whether Barry indeed is the hero Central City needs. While the Flash certainly does do a lot of good and he's saved his city countless times, we can't very well ignore the fact that he also destroyed the timeline a couple of times. And while the argument can be made that Barry had good intentions, the consequences of his shenanigans are far too dire to be ignored.
Perhaps this hilarious meme is right and Barry truly is the real evil speedster. Judging by his actions, good ol' Bear seems to be incessant on screwing up the timeline. Compared to that, the Reverse-Flash doesn't sound that scary.
5 SPEEDSTER HEART-TO-HEART
Putting captions on behind the scenes photos can lead to some pretty hilarious memes. After all, it's the characters that hate each other's guts and not the actors who play them. So, while Grant Gustin and Tom Cavanagh were having a pleasant chat someone snapped a photo. Little did they know the photo will become a meme.
An anonymous internet comedian had an idea about what Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne would be discussing at a moment like this. According to this hilarious meme, Thawne just wanted to bury the hatchet and apologize to Barry for killing his mom -- after all he was only after Barry. Even if it is just a meme, it's nice to see these two decided to have a heart-to-heart.
4 BUT FIRST, LET ME TAKE A SELFIE
When "Jay Garrick" first popped up at S.T.A.R. Labs he gave Team Flash a pretty elaborate story about who he is, how he knew who they are and how he -- a speedster from Earth-3 -- ended up on Earth-1. In his story, Jay mentions his fight with the notorious evil speedster Zoom who had attempted to kill him just moments before the breach to Earth-1 opened. The moment looked pretty ridiculous with Zoom gazing up with one hand stretched out towards the sky and naturally someone felt the need to meme about it.
Because the breach caused a flash of light it kind of looked as if Zoom was taking a selfie with the Flash before getting down to the task at hand. Apparently, selfies take priority even over fights between mortal enemies.
3 THE SILVER LINING
Season three of The Flash sure put Barry through the wringer. After travelling back in time and saving his mother, only to create the so-called Flashpoint and screw up the timeline, Barry accidentally travels to the future to see his girlfriend Iris killed by Savitar. And as if life hasn't put him through enough hardship, Barry then finds out that his worst enemy is himself as Savitar is finally revealed to be a version of Barry.
All of this may sound bleak, but leave it to Barry to find something positive even in a predicament like this one. He may have screwed up the timeline, ruined the lives of his friends, and almost lost the love of his life, but hey at least he's finally the fastest man alive.
2 FASTEST HAIR STYLIST ALIVE
When Curtis Holt became Mr. Fantastic the audience was puzzled by the fact that he could a) actually hold his own in hand-to-hand combat and b) braid his hair with such speed when suiting up for battle. In his civilian persona, Curtis sports a full-blown afro, yet once he turns into Mr. Fantastic his hair is neatly composed in cornrows. Now, we all know how much time it takes to braid a full head of hair and it's just not possible to do it in such a short time.
And if you're anything like us, you've been overthinking this issue ever since Mr. Fantastic's debut. The fans have long started theorizing about how Curtis braids his hair, but the answer has been under our noses all this time -- Curtis has super-hair-style-speed.
1 YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME
After three seasons speedster villains kind of got repetitive and the writers decided to mix things up a little. So, in season four we were introduced to a new kind of threat. The current big bad, the Thinker, may have been bound to a wheelchair at the beginning, but he's always relied on his superior intellect rather than physical powers. And while we're glad to see Barry tackle a different type of opponent, we cannot disregard the timing of this sudden turn.
At the end of season three the prophetic words Barry utters at the start of every episode finally came true. Unfortunately though, just when he became the fastest man alive the writers decided to pit him against a villain who's not a speedster. We understand your frustration Barry.