The Iris West/Candice Patton Thread - Part 1

One of many casting announcements.



On IMDB

Casting Call:

Dialogue from the Audition Video:
Here on Reddit

 

Whose to say who deserves it?

 

By now, a potted plant is more relevant than Iris.

 

Her last thread hit 100k views. Impressive. I’d say Iris is the most talked about character after Barry Allen, even if most of it is hate. There’s no such thing as bad buzz.

 

I don't understand the hate at all.

 

Well it is the only interesting thing about this version of the character, so that's something. But in a contest of most hated DCCW character, it'd be a tie between her and Felicity.

 

Felicity is still a better character than Iris will ever be.

 

I disagree here. I can't stand Felicity. the character or the way the actress "act".
Iris on the other end, seems to have evolved this season. I find her less empty, I can relate to her choices, it's cool. It's better I'd say. But most of the episodes seem to be better anyway this season. Actors better, plots better, the vilain is amazing.

 

This season has ruined Iris. She was immeasurably better as a reporter. Why in the world you would have her serve as the leader of a team that includes 4 metas, an experienced cop, and some of the brightest minds on two earths is beyond me. She is 100% the least qualified person to be on that team, yet these geniuses allow her to play “boss” and order them around? That’s genuinely stupid.

 

Cisco is an engineering genius, but he's immature at times and clearly not leadership material. Caitlin doesn't trust herself due to her KF personality. Harry has shown flashes of brilliance as a tactician, but his inclination is science, and he's seemingly in a state of constant inner turmoil. Joe would make a natural leader, but he's already got one of the most time-consuming jobs and now he's embarking on fatherhood as a late middle-aged man. None of them are good leadership candidates in Barry's absence. With her understanding of psychology and her investigative skills, Iris is the only one who makes sense under the current circumstances.

 

...this is about Iris West on the CW's Flash. The same Iris who didn't understand why Cisco wanted to bring Barry back or why Caitlin "abandoned" the team, who tagged along with Joe or Barry as THEY did the investigating. What Iris are you talking about?

 

The one who was shown to track down dangerous leads and be a capable at gathering and analyzing evidence. She's got her father's personality in several key ways, including her inclination to act decisively, like when she entered the speed force to retrieve Barry. With Cisco and Caitlin incapable of being in charge while Joe and Harry have too many personal issues to lead the team, Iris is the singular choice right now.

 

You laugh but it's unequivocally true.

 

If Iris is the only choice, then heaven help them. I really liked her character in seasons past, but I feel that by having her be in charge, it’s really a disservice to the character as she doesn’t fit in there.

That said...Go Big Blue!!!

 

How about we start a petition to get Coach Cal a cameo on the Flash? t:

 

Henry came up with the idea and was going to do it until Iris jumped in to grab it for herself. You make it sound like she came up with the idea and was the only one with the guts to do it. And that doesn't even take into account that Cisco already tried it all by himself. I bet you think she really is Flash, too.

Oh! I get it! You're talking about marysue fanfic Iris. Well, we certainly wasted each other's time, didn't we.

 

I'm not watching the show anymore, it is entertaining to still follow this forum, though, and I find it very interesting what they made of Iris this season. Well, to be accurate, I watched episode one and then decided to lay off, but I do occasionally see bits and pieces posted on diverse platforms, so I didn't miss the whole 'We are the Flash' thing and such.

I'm a comic Flash fan; I never got that warm with the show after season one because I honestly think they messed the characters up spectacularly since they seem to lack the understanding of who they are. I'm a big fan of Iris in the comics, well, up until the New52, currently the comics are about as lackluster to me as the tv show is, but until Flashpoint messed everything up, I enjoyed her character.

After Flashpoint, Iris, like so many other characters got into quite the identity crisis of who they are and how the writers should portray them to make them mainstream popular. I think that is the best way to ruin a character and their legacy, but since this is comics, things will probably return to status quo in a couple of years as it is.

This desire to make characters more interesting and 'relatable' to the audience is what probably ruined the show for me, and I think it is also the reason why TV-Iris is so widely disliked. She has never been someone with a constant characterization, she was the adorable, lovable friend/sister at first, then tried her luck with being independent/kicking ass, got reduced to being a damsel in distress again, turned into someone pretty selfish and so on. I think the problem with her is that the writers didn't know from the beginning what to do with her, and that kept showing itself through the first season.

Then, she started to become a little more like her comic counterpart, a reporter and got a little bit more independent, though it really was only a little. She still was the love interest for Barry first and foremost. She kept being that for the next two seasons, and her reporting job started to slip into non-existence once again, which likely was a problem since there was nothing else for the writers to define Iris as other than being the love interest. I guess that is why they now pushed her into the role as a leader, even though she does not fit it and didn't earn it.

She is a means to an end, more or less, she is a 'strong' female character on a show that clearly has troubles to depict any female characters in an interesting/believable way, and she is the anchor to Barry, holding him back and making it easier for the writers to handle an overpowered character like the Flash.

Iris is not any more competent or fit to be a leader than Cisco or Caitlin, on the contrary, she has no powers and doesn't add anything skillwise. Her main task is to keep Barry in check so that the writers don't have to worry about him getting rid of an enemy or solve a problem too quickly since Iris, or more accurately his 'love' for her, will cause him to behave like a dumb-dumb - tho, to be fair, this Barry doesn't need a lot of assistance in that for the most part.

I find Iris is a very interesting character, not a well-written one, but very telling when it comes to the audience. Most hate or love her, few don't care, and her skin color or being a female is often used as a defense against anybody who has anything bad to say about her.

I get the feeling that Iris is alluring to younger girls because she is a little bit of a Mary-Sue, in a way, someone who doesn't bring anything that relevant to the table, but she is still in a position of power and still gets the hero no matter that she did not earn any of it. That is probably very alluring especially to teenagers, who often tend to make do with bad writing and characterization as long as they get their otp.

 

You nailed everything about Iris, especially this:

Iris is a love interest and that's it. The character, and really the show and her fans too, is being called out for not staying in her lane. It's always going to boil down to this: it's The Flash, not The Iris, and there's a reason why Laurel before she became BC, Felicity and Iris are so hated and it's got nothing to do with their physical appearance. This is why it would have been great to see Wally for the 1st half of the season, because that will really show that it's not her race or gender that's the problem, it's that she's not necessary most of the time. Even the season premiere showed this.

 

I think Iris can be more than a simple love interest, she can be Barry's lightening rod, a partner for him, so that they can support each other, but it is something I would like to see portrayed in a believable way. On the show their relationship is very shallow and artificial/forced, I don't know whether it is due to the chemistry between the actors or just their acting and the material they are given, but they don't come over like a healthy, stable couple to me.

I can relate to what you say, I honestly would prefer for the show not to be about the romance-drama and all those side-characters, and more about Barry being the Flash, but it is CW, so we won't get that since they aim for another demographic.

 

Where do I sign???

It’s only fair. After all Ricky P already had a cameo:

 

Candice is one of the most miscast I've seen, she doesn't belong on the show and the writers don't care what to do with her character because they just never had a plan with her from the start.

Her crazy stans claim she needs to be there for representation, well she has no agency. With Black Lightening airing soon with characters of color that have actual arcs there is no need to keep her on the show anymore and her lunatic stans can't use faux racism to inflict fear onto the writers.

 

Poop. My image of a time Wraith and Pitino was deleted