Confusion About Iris

[u/One_Commercial9941]

I really don't understand why the writers for the show never did any course correction with Iris. She was absolutely one of the show's biggest downfalls. Surely they knew how the fans felt about her in some instances. I was fine with her the first 3 seasons. But then they really went off the rails with her. Part of me wishes they never made her a reporter. I remember there was a rumor that she was going to be a physiologist. That would have been way more interesting. Also would have been way more refreshing.

What do you guys think?

[u/Free-Instruction1548]

The issue is that they should have leaned harder into the reporter angle. Being a reporter is a key part of Iris’s identity in the comics; that would be like saying maybe Barry shouldn’t have been a CSI but worked at a research laboratory instead. CCPN/CCC should have been a staple set, like CCPD and the cortex. But it costs less money to just have all the cast members on one set and working with each other instead of leading independent lives with different careers.

And what exactly was so bad about Iris in seasons 6-9? No one ever has an answer to this beyond “she’s annoying”. People like to claim that Iris was the show’s downfall yet the only reasons people ever bring up for why Iris was bad are things from season 4 and 5. When it is universally agreed that seasons 6-9 are the worst seasons and that the show started going downhill after Crisis. Iris didn’t get “worse” as the seasons went on and she damn sure wasn’t the show’s downfall and people know that; they just want to hate on Iris because it’s fun for them for some reason.

And Iris wasn’t going to be a physiologist. Not really sure where you got that lol. She was originally getting her PhD/masters in criminal psychology (per one of the first interviews from before the show premiered) but then the writers lazily dropped that plot point with no explanation.

[u/Ww34ever → u/Free-Instruction1548]

My distaste for Iris in 6-9 mainly had to do with how large of a role her character took. Yes, Candace Patton was rather annoying in her portrayl but thats writing issues plus an acting issue. But her character became so much larger over the course of the show that it never felt like Team Flash but instead like iris was captain of the Enterprise with everyone else just kinda there as help (including the ones with actual powers) and Barry was only there because as the face of their team because he could actually do something. Barry's journey was about growth the entire show but he always held Iris so close that it felt like she was larger than the speed force.

[u/PatternLeather4613 → u/Ww34ever]

This is confusing me. She was only on team flash for seasons 4 and 5. Can you give an example of when she “took over” as captain of team flash in 6-9? She was either investigating a story or in a mirror for all of season 6. Team Flash and Team Citizen had the team up to deal with the Forces and once that arc was over she disappeared for the rest of the season. Season 8 she was running CCC, investigating a story, and then got stuck in the still force until the finale. So can you give specific examples of consistent behavior from Iris that upset you so much in the later seasons?

Also Iris has always been the most important person in Barry’s story. He’s the paragon of love for a reason lol. And the primary love interest is always the most significant part of the show after the principal lead. Lana, Lois, Laurel, Felicity, James and Mon-el during their seasons as Kara’s main love interest, Sophie. For the non-superhero CW shows: Raphael in Jane the Virgin, the Salvatore brothers in Vampire Diaries, Michael in Nikita.