Saturday, May 19, 2018

The Problem with The Thinker: A Look at the Villain of Season 4 of The Flash

 





















---SPOILER WARNING---

So this upcoming Tuesday is the 4th Season Finale of the Flash. Now for those not in the know The Flash is a show currently airing on the CW about the Comic Book of the same name. Back when it started I really enjoyed it but during these last two seasons it's gotten a bit dull. Last season suffered due to the villain (Savitar) who was threatening but his motivation was a bit lacking especially when his identity as a future version of the Flash was revealed which made everything more complicated then it needed to be due to time travel shenanigans. Plus there was the fact he was yet another evil speedster just made the whole season feel a little been their done that.
Still looks like Megatron


















As for this season it's improved a bit some of the episode were really good like "Enter Flashtime" where Barry has to figure out how to stop a nuke and can't stop running or else it will explode. Though it still has problem's such as the good old Meta-of-the-Week formula, and the constant need to have drama which just makes it seem like a 22-minute show that they need to pad out with scenes of people getting upset over trivial things and storming out of rooms for 20 minutes. One thing they dropped that people where complaining about though was this season's main villain isn't another speedster. Clifford DeVoe aka The Thinker has been a pretty good villain all things considered, at the very least he's better the Damien Darhk. However his plot doesn't make much sense when you think about it which is what I'm here to talk about today.

















DeVoe's plan is to enlighten the world by erasing everyone's memory's so that he can teach them the error's of their ways and make the human race smarter. Now I say erasing but it's more like, as he put's it, Rebooting every human's brain on earth. So what this means is essentially everyone will be reduced to what would be the mind of an infant, having to to learn everything they know all over again. Presumably walking and talking as well as proved by Harry Wells who accidentally caused himself to undergo what DeVoe call's the "enlightenment." He keep's tripping up in the cortex and keeps forgetting what people are telling him. What Devoe want's to accomplish with this plan is peace and the removal of pesky things like Emotions. I am not a scientist however even I am able to see there are massive issue with this plan.
No one expects Evil Sugar from the Zone















First off let's deal with the whole getting rid of emotions thing. It's is very clear that DeVoe thinks emotions are a weakness and believe's that he should focus on getting rid of them however that isn't how are brain's work. A common misconception is that are brain's are like computers when in actuality they are much more complicated. You can't just delete things. Getting rid of memory's wouldn't get rid of emotions because emotions aren't learned. Sure some more complicated emotions like Love would be affected due to the fact you wouldn't be able to remember your loved ones but your primal emotions such as Happiness, Sadness, and Anger will be there with or without your memory's. Besides even if you can't remember your loved ones you wouldn't be incapable of falling for the same person again or someone else. We're still human beings with hormones and a desire to procreate that is embedded in our brain chemistry. Remember he isn't altering anyone's brain just their memory's. That's not to mention the people with mental disorders or hormone imbalances, is he just going kill those people? Cause that's alot of people. Speaking of...

















 Now that we established that we would still feel emotions my second point is what make's him think that anyone would listen to a work he says. Think about it even if they do listen what's stopping someone from trying to rebel against him. DeVoe is trying to reestablish humanity's innate curiosity of the unknown however when you erase everyone's mind you get adults with the mind of children only able to comprehend there base survival instincts. Essentially Cavemen, lacking morality and only looking to survive. DeVoe's plan wouldn't cause Enlightenment it would cause Moral Degradation. I wouldn't call this a plot hole though cause it's been established that DeVoe can't comprehend how a person acting purely on emotions instead of logic and rationality would react to any given situation, and that's what all the people who underwent his "Enlightenment" would be.













Plus there can be an argument made for the fact that the people might on some level, Conscious or Unconscious, understand what has happened to them once again like Harry Wells who while getting stupider can still comprehend that he use to be smarter. With that mixed with humanity's ego it wouldn't surprise me if they rebelled against DeVoe. Admittedly though it would be hard to fight DeVoe with all his powers as shown in the beginning of Episode 22. But there are still billions of human's and only one DeVoe. How is he planning to re-educate that may people anyway? He would have to teach them all how to talk, read, and walk all over again. What about people in other countrys? Is he just going to leave them to themselves until he Re-Educates America one town at a time? There is still one episode so maybe they'll address the issues I've brought up but with Flash's track record on explaining some of there more complicated science plots *cough* Savitar *cough* it doesn't look like that's going to be the case. It just bugs me because for someone called the Thinker he really didn't think this one threw.

--The Mystery Theatre
Should of just took Flash's Body



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