When the series first started out, I thought she was just fine. Sure, I wasn't the biggest fan of the concept of her having been raised as Barry's foster sister, but I thought she at least came off as a good friend for him.
It's how Iris has been portrayed post Barry's love confession that I found myself slowly becoming irritable with her character.
Maybe if she were allowed to have an arc of her own that wasn't related to Barry or romantic drama, but still relevant to the overall story, then I would probably see her in a better light.
But they've been shoving down her pairing with Barry non-stop since then. And this doesn't even include the fact on how bad she's been portrayed as a romantic interest.
I mean do the producers really think that having a female character, who goes around actively flirting with a costumed hero while involved in a serious relationship with someone else, sabotaging Barry's relationship with Linda because it makes her feel uncomfortable, and then telling her boyfriend about Barry's 2nd confession is really someone that audiences will enjoy seeing?
She makes Lana Lang look like the saint that Clark saw her as back in the earlier days of Smallville. It's been almost a universal perception from fans that Barry has had better romantic chemistry with the likes of Felicity and Caitlin over his supposed future wife as well.
You know, if you're going to have your protagonist be madly in love with a character, then at least justify to the audience on why that character is so great. Otherwise you end up getting the same situation that people got with Mary Jane from Raimi's films.
Normally, I wouldn't care this much if Barry's judgment wasn't affected as much by Iris's character but it is and the plot itself takes up too much valuable screen time as well.
