Labor Day 2016: Writing fail.

{ Draft written 5-Sept-2016, primarily. }

Ooooh, let's discuss Idiot Ball, shall we?

One of the things making me crazy watching The Flash season 2... was the idiot ball plot breakdowns.  Sometimes it was so bad they were idiot plots too.  8(

Character acts out of character, i.e., irredeemably stupid?  Guess who's got the idiot ball tonight!

Worst is when said character had said in a past ep why s/he wouldn't do that thing, only to decide to do it in this ep.

Specifics follow.  Also SPOILERS.  

Skip this if you have not seen the The Flash s2.





So the ep that really made me crazy in this respect... was on Earth-2.

Killer Frost tells Caitlin Snow that her captor must have not harmed her "because I resemble you" -- and then, when Caitlin frees her, the idiot ball drops.

Frost kills Caitlin.  Frost is the same character who didn't try to kill the Flash because her boss would freak out and kill her.  This is why she is alive and her compatriots are not.  They were stupid.

They paid the stupid tax:  if you do not listen to your homicidal boss's strictures, he will kill you.  He promised to if disobeyed, and he did it.  Just as advertised.

Now Frost deliberately kills her own doppelganger for no reason -- sealing her own fate, and being slain for it.  This is stupid and out of character.

If he'd shown up and killed Frost for almost escaping, that'd be one thing.  If he'd believed that Frost was really going to help Caitlin escape, sure!  But seriously, the idiot ball was glued to Killer Frost in that ep.


Mind you, I like The Flash.  A lot.  It's why we binge-watched our way through both seasons so quickly.

But there's been way too many writing fails.  Character will not tell another character something important for no reason?  (Except that it's in the script, and so being out of character, acting stupid, and/or deliberately hiding info makes the idiot plot go 'round!)


{ Appended, 2-March-2017 }

I HATE idiot plots.  Hate hate hate.  I was so wroth from this ep, it made me steam and growl for too long.  Just thinking about it now [lo, months later!] makes me go tense, trying to not gnash my teeth.

I'm failing, by the bye.

I want to go whack The Flash writers with some really big sticks, I can tell you.  Maybe it'd improve things.  :b  (Alex, I'll take superpowered writing for one billion dollars, please, and ship it straight to the CW, that'd be a great kindness.)  YES, comic books were full of crappy writing -- but really?  REALLY?  What did we ever do to you???

Can't you people read TV Tropes and try to skip the really awful cliches, instead of continually repeating 'em?  PLEASE.  For the fans.  For the heroes.  For everyone, heaven help us all.

Dedicated to Sarah, because we sucked you into the CW.  Shared agony -- it's what friends do.  ;D