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Danscomics wrote:

Webhead wrote:So let me get this straight...

Barry's mom was alive and all was right with the DCU. Then Zoom kills Barry's mom and all is still good with the DCU. Barry goes back in time to stops Zoom from changing the the past and this screws up the DCU and we get the Flashpoint DCU. Now Barry goes back in time and stops himself from stopping Zoom and this screws up the Flashpoint DCU and we get the new DCU.

Shouldn't Barry stopping himself just put everything back to the way it was before?

This is why it was mentioned that there were 3 timelines now and they needed to be consolidated. There was the Barry's Mom Lived without help timeline, the Barry's Mom Died because of Reverse Flash timeline, and the Barry Stopped Reverse Flash timeline.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, it really isn't possible to return time exactly as it was because everytime you play with time it causes an alternate timeline. Now that Barry stopped himself, if it changed the timeline that he was in instead of creating an alternate then you end up with a paradox because he wouldn't have had a reason to go back and stop himself so he wouldn't have so then . . .

I'm actually not sure how I feel about the idea that they found a way to consolidate the three timelines into 1. All in all though I really enjoyed Flashpoint as well, and I also enjoyed most of the tie ins.

I would buy this IF he was going back to the exact moment he stopped Zoom from killing his mom but it clearly showed him appearing behind his previous version still on the cosmic treadmill so it was before he saved his mom. The alternate timeline had not been created yet. Sure if the Flashpoint Flash was traveling into the past to a time after his mom died I would agree that any changes he made would change the universe again and maybe create the DCnU but since he prevented the event that created the alternate time line the old timeline should of been restored.


I know we are talking about time travel which is like trying to figure out why Dr Strange's cloak allows him to levitate but most writers have subscribed to split timeline theory or what I like to call "The Back To The Future" model of time travel. That when you change events from the past you diverte the timeline and create an alternate timeline so to change it back you have to travel back before the event that changed the timeline and stop it from happening.

What I think what would of been better if the Flashpoint Flash had attacked the DCU Flash well he was travelling into the past to save his mom. They both landed in a time before Zoom had killed Barry's mom. They could of had a fast fight (no Pun intended) all the time the could of be arguing about saving Barry's mom. Then Barry's mom could of stopped the fight and instead of having the conversation that she had with The Flashpoint Flash before he went back to stop himself, you could of put it here with young Barry, The Flashpoint Flash and the DCU Flash all argueing with their mom. After they all agree they have to let the death stand they all head back into the future then Zoom appears and kills Barry's mom in front of young Barry.

This would allow for a third timeline to happen without any of the problems I see with issue #5. Since this would of changed Barry this could easily explain any changes that DC would make to Barry's personal history like why he is not married or dating Iris.

I was thinking about the series as whole. At the end of the day, it is a Flash/Batman team-up in the background of an alternative timeline.

Webhead wrote:

Danscomics wrote:

Webhead wrote:So let me get this straight...

Barry's mom was alive and all was right with the DCU. Then Zoom kills Barry's mom and all is still good with the DCU. Barry goes back in time to stops Zoom from changing the the past and this screws up the DCU and we get the Flashpoint DCU. Now Barry goes back in time and stops himself from stopping Zoom and this screws up the Flashpoint DCU and we get the new DCU.

Shouldn't Barry stopping himself just put everything back to the way it was before?

This is why it was mentioned that there were 3 timelines now and they needed to be consolidated. There was the Barry's Mom Lived without help timeline, the Barry's Mom Died because of Reverse Flash timeline, and the Barry Stopped Reverse Flash timeline.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, it really isn't possible to return time exactly as it was because everytime you play with time it causes an alternate timeline. Now that Barry stopped himself, if it changed the timeline that he was in instead of creating an alternate then you end up with a paradox because he wouldn't have had a reason to go back and stop himself so he wouldn't have so then . . .

I'm actually not sure how I feel about the idea that they found a way to consolidate the three timelines into 1. All in all though I really enjoyed Flashpoint as well, and I also enjoyed most of the tie ins.

I would buy this IF he was going back to the exact moment he stopped Zoom from killing his mom but it clearly showed him appearing behind his previous version still on the cosmic treadmill so it was before he saved his mom. The alternate timeline had not been created yet. Sure if the Flashpoint Flash was traveling into the past to a time after his mom died I would agree that any changes he made would change the universe again and maybe create the DCnU but since he prevented the event that created the alternate time line the old timeline should of been restored.

Right, by stopping himself on the treadmill he created a new alternate timeline where the Flashpoint timeline never happened. However he can't change the current timeline that he is in. The reason for this is because if Flashpoint Flash stopped his previous self on the treadmill and the Flashpoint timeline never existed, then Flashpoint Flash would never have existed to stop himself on the treadmill and he would end up creating the Flashpoint timeline meaning that Flashpoint Flash would exist again to stop . . . you end up in a paradox. The creation of an alternate timeline prevents the paradox.

Of course we can go back and forth on this. We could examine the fixed point in time theories that are used for Doctor Who, or discuss the effects of crushing a mosquito in the past and changing the entire future, or any one of dozens of other theories. I only brought up the alternate timelines theory because that seems to be the most popular and the one that DC is working with for Flashpoint.

I think the discussion regarding time travel devolves, as it usually does, into the way everyone theorizes how they think it would work. It's all very interesting but generally just makes my head hurt.

I think it was a good event as events go even if I thought the conclusion and explanation were a bit weak.