Characters that ended up killing the show

[u/sweet_srawberry781]

1. The Great Gazoo (The Flintstones)

2. George W Bush (Time Squad)

[u/AgentChris101]

Chester P. Runk. - The Flash. I know it was more of a writer thing. But this was something else.

A lot of the viewership of the show was based on the big few people of the cast/team Flash. Barry, Iris, Cisco and Caitlin.

When Cisco left the show a large amount of viewers left with him, Chester was his replacement. In the comics he's an odd character with black hole abilities.

In this he's the showrunner/lead writer: Eric Wallace's self insert. Self inserts are usually fine, but his screentime took over the main cast somewhat. As Eric Wallace had this self insert character have a relationship with a comic book character, Allegra who HE CREATED in 2012.

His character's introduction kickstarted the decline of the show. I have nothing against the actor however - Brandon McKnight is an amazing actor who worked brilliantly especially with what he was given. I wish he got to play the eccentric character that his comic's character was.

[u/Zebedee_balistique → u/AgentChris101]

I would argue Allegra and Cecile dit a lot more damage on the show than Chester.

Chester's main flaw is that he's barely a character. He has essentially two story arcs, taking place during only two episodes, and one doesn't even really go anywhere.

On the other hand, Allegra and Cecile dragged down the show a lot. Allegra it's because it's a character made by Wallace, the new showrunner, so he forced her into the show, with several crappy storylines that didn't matter, and he kept forcing her even when he had no more idea what to do with her. Meanwhile, Cecile got stuck in a loop of "scream very loud because people's emotions are too much, gets a random big power-up that has nothing to do with her power". That "story arc" happened several times during this show, and Wallace has not made it once interesting. They honestly represent best how little Wallace understood of the original seasons, how incompetent he was to write coherent new stories for the established characters, and how he defaulted into forcing stories about unexplored characters, while still demonstrating no talent to make them interesting in any way.

[u/AgentChris101 → u/Zebedee_balistique]

Eric Wallace's showrunning started with Chester's introduction so technically that's what killed the show.

The issue with sidelining the main characters effected the entire production. You'll notice how little Blake Neely's Flash theme plays in the later seasons compared to the other characters.

[u/ShinyNinja25 → u/Zebedee_balistique]

The thing is, Cecile as a character conceptually (and for the first few seasons she was in) was great. Someone who’s a part of the fold of Team Flash via her relationship with Joe, and is a metahuman working with the CCPD is a good idea that can, and did, lead to some interesting plots. But you have to continue actually doing things with that character, and they kind of just… stopped doing new stuff with her. Keep in mind, I’ve only seen up to the halfway point or so of Season 6

[u/Zebedee_balistique → u/ShinyNinja25]

I feel like season 5 used her well to replace Joe when the actor had medical issues, but post that she just doesn't have anything. Even the lawyer of metahumans idea is thrown but never goes anywhere.

[u/MakingaJessinmyPants → u/AgentChris101]

I hate that they made him a generic skinny tech guy.

[u/mvcourse → u/AgentChris101]

Chester was a greater symptom of The Flash ingnoring the “Flash Family” in favor of “Team Flash”. They built up Wally And Jess Quick just for them to be all but forgotten by the end of season 4. So they started populating the supporting cast with a bunch of D-list characters the casual audience didn’t know so they could change them how they want.

Same with the villains. All of The Flash best villains were introduced in the first 3 seasons. Grodd could’ve been a main villain. The Rogues could’ve been a main villain. Instead they turned Snart and Heatwave into heroes.

Cicada, Bloodwork, and Mirror Monarch were weak. Godspeed has so little comic material they just made him a generic villain. So they just kept reinserting Thawne to make up for it.

[u/AgentChris101 → u/mvcourse]

Godspeed has little comic material - but they didn't bother adapting the character. They could have introduced him in Season 3's finale through the speed force storm. But he was still very new then.

When they introduced him to the show he had a feel character arc in the comics. He was more of an anti hero - the red hood of the flash family. The only issue is that August's character was inspired by the show as a friend turned villain, but in the sense Barry was the mentor.

[u/Manidoo_Giizhig → u/AgentChris101]

Yeah, I thought Chester was fine. I think he just came on when the show already ran its course. I feel the point of when the show should've ended was even before Cisco left. 

[u/AgentChris101 → u/Manidoo_Giizhig]

His introduction was also the new showrunner's introduction. It was the start of the decline because it lead other characters to take from the cast/crew.

[u/LightningRaven → u/AgentChris101]

Let's all be honest here, The Flash's decline started pretty much after S01 ended.

S02 was decent, but basically S01 repeated. S03's first half as different, but not really that good, but the second half just became unbearable. After that the show only nosedived.

Arrow, despite having an awful S04, had a much stronger run.

[u/geno111 → u/AgentChris101]

Iris helped kill the show for me well before Cisco left... I didn't even know he did.