Arrowverse: Iris West-Allen / Characters

Iris Ann West-Allen

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"I'm gonna be right there with you to the very end, okay? Because the only thing more inevitable than Crisis is us."

^{Click here to see Iris as "The Flash".}

Species: Human^notebriefly a Metahuman during March 2018

Known Aliases: The Flash (temporarily)

Affiliations: Team Flash, Central City Citizen

Played By: Candice Patton, Amina Elkatib (young, Seasons 1-2), Sasha Rojen (young, Seasons 3-), Tom Cavanagh (as "H.R. Wells")

Voiced By: Annie Rojas (Latin-American Spanish dub), Tomo Muranaka (Japanese dub)

First Appearance: "Pilot" (The Flash 1x1)

Appearances: The Flash | Flash vs. Arrow!^note(The Flash) | Heroes Join Forces^note(The Flash) | Invasion!^note(The Flash) | Crisis on Earth-X ^note | Elseworlds ^note(The Flash) | Crisis on Infinite Earths ^note(Supergirl | Batwoman | (The Flash'')

"Think about your best friend. It could be your wife, your father, maybe someone you grew up with. It's the person you can't wait to talk to at the end of the day. The person that knows everything about you, who roots for you. Now imagine your best friend had a secret. No, not a secret. A universe of secrets. Would you confront him? Would you stay silent? Either way, you know nothing will ever be the same again."

Barry Allen's wife, the daughter of Joe and Francine West and older sister of Wally West, Iris has been Barry's dearest friend for all of his life, never knowing or recognizing his romantic intentions, and remaining oblivious to her own reciprocating feelings for him. When first introduced she is a waitress at CC Jitters and a graduate student studying criminal psychology.

A sweet and fun loving individual, her life was turned upside down after Barry was struck by lightning, leaving her nearly broken for the nine months he was in a coma. Still in that time she formed a relationship with her father's partner, Detective Eddie Thawne, a fact she keeps secret from Joe. Overjoyed with Barry's recovery, she quickly becomes friends with the scientists, "Dr. Harrison Wells" (actually Eobard Thawne in disguise), Cisco Ramon and Dr. Caitlin Snow, that saved his life.

Around this time, after several encounters and meetings with the mysterious meta hero "The Streak," whom she later renamed "The Flash," she started a blog and online metahuman database, chronicling the strange going ons in the post Particle Accelerator Central City. This gained the attention of Central City Picture News, and she was offered a job as a reporter. Now she has been tasked with uncovering the secret of her new friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, though Iris has no idea that Barry her best friend is at the heart of it, and that one day, she would be too.

Not unlike Barry, Iris goes through many ordeals. She's dealt with the loss of her fiancé Eddie, met with her long-lost brother, nearly died at the hands of her future husband's time remnant, had her wedding interrupted by Nazis from another earth, took care of and subsequently lost her and Barry's child from the future, and spent several months trapped in an alternate dimension. However, also like her husband, she takes it in stride and keeps fighting.

see the Arrowverse: Future Characters page for her possible future versions

see the DCEU Other Americans page for the post-Crisis Earth-1 character who bears her name and background

see the Arrowverse: Earth-2 page for her Earth-2 counterpart

see the The Flash (1990) page for the Earth-90 character who bears her name and background

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A-D

The Ace: She's a beautiful, kind, intelligent, well respected journalist, happily married to the handsome love of her life, who just happens to be Earth 1's greatest super human, and on that note she is a competent fighter, and has a dead aim with a gun, and alongside Barry she is co-leaders of one of the Multiverse's most elite crime fighting teams.
Act of True Love: Iris stabs herself with Marlize's katana in order to save Barry (and Caitlin and Cisco), who are trapped in De Voe's lair. She also jumps off of a building, without a moment's hesitation, to save Barry, who was shoved off of the same building while wearing cuffs which dampened his powers.
Iris: I remember you asking me what I was willing to for my husband. How about I show you?
Action Girl:
- In The Flash is Born, she's the one that lays out the Villain of the Week when he tries to get up after the Flash hits him with a Supersonic Punch. In Power Outage, she rescues herself after being taken hostage by Clock King by surprise-shooting him with Eddie's gun.
- Demonstrated again in "Rogue Air," when she knocks out Peek-A-Boo when she is about to murder Caitlin.
- A third time in "The Darkness and the Light", where she pulled off a (nonlethal) headshot on Dr. Light.
- And a fourth time in "Finish Line," when she saves Barry from Savitar by shooting the latter.
  Iris: All this time you were trying to save me; look at that, I saved you!
- In The Flash portion of Crisis on Earth-X, Iris leads Felicity Smoak through the vents of S.T.A.R. Labs to the pipeline and manages to disarm two Nazis who pursue them.
- In "Lose Yourself," Iris reveals that she had Cisco create earrings which contain explosives for her; she subsequently uses the earring to break Joe, Harry, and herself out of the speed lab where DeVoe trapped them. Subsequently, she non-lethally stabs herself with Marlize's katana, in order to use DeVoe's chair to get Marlize out of the S.T.A.R. Labs Cortex and to safely return Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin to S.T.A.R. Labs.
- In "Goldfaced," Cicada attacks her, armed with his dagger, but she utilizes her pepper spray and subsequently stabs him with her pen in the place he is already injured in his chest, thereby saving herself and discovering his weakness in the process.
Action Mom: She's a competent Action Girl and has begun building Central City Citizen, her newspaper. With the arrival of Nora and eventually Bart, she has seamlessly adapted into motherhood.
Barry: [in response to Iris teaching Nora how to ice-skate] Look at you two! You're such a mom.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Her comic counterpart is a redhead. Became a brunette for the show to accommodate her Race Lift.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: She caresses Savitar's face when he's considering Barry's plan to save him in exchange for Cisco and Caitlin's return.
Age Lift: In accordance with this version of Barry being younger than most depictions, Iris West, being Barry's love interest, is also a fair bit younger than usual.
All-Loving Hero: One of Iris's defining virtues is her incredibly selfless nature and her inherent nobility, most pointedly demonstrated during the "Save Iris" arc, in which on multiple occasions Barry was willing to endanger Central City or kill to alter the timeline, Iris would often point out Barry's selfishness, reinstating her life wasn't important enough for him to sacrifice his morals as a superhero. She also continuously reminds Team Flash to also focus on helping Caitlin with her frosty future. One of the main reasons Killer Frost was able to fall for H.R's ploy, was his spot on impression of her/his begging for Iris/H.R's life offering to go with her in exchange. Also much like the majority of team, she is very willing to see the good in people, even when they themselves cannot. Particularly, Iris is the one who is able to convince a remorseful Marlize to join the fight against Marlize's husband, Clifford DeVoe. Barry even says outright that her love for him and vice versa is the reason he's the Paragon of Love.
Iris: [towards Marlize] You asked me what I was willing to do for my husband. Now I am asking you, what are you willing to do for the world?
And I Must Scream: Iris is trapped in a Mirror at the end of "Marathon," and we see her screaming Barry's name desperately to no avail in both "Love is a Battlefield" and "A Girl Named Sue." She cannot communicate with her husband, her father, or any of her friends, and to make matters worse, an imposter with her face is walking around, having taken over her life.
Arch-Enemy:
- Averted with regards to arguably her most intense personal rival, Marlize DeVoe. It is true that Marlize DeVoe's character exhibits traits that might make her The Dragon of season 4, and she is a partial Evil Counterpart to Iris. It is also true that both women have had a few epic showdowns, including an extensive hand-to-hand duel. But Marlize leaves Clifford DeVoe of her own accord, and Iris later appeals to the young, idealistic Marlize that existed before she met DeVoe, and this convinces a remorseful Marlize to join the fight against her husband. After Team Flash defeats DeVoe, with Nora's help, Iris and Marlize even hug, before Marlize departs.
- Eva McCulloch, her Evil Counterpart in season 6, given the fact that Eva trapped Iris in a mirror and created a reflection of Iris, which she controls, and which took over Iris's life for a period of time. After Iris learns the truth about Eva, Eva ties Iris's hands to a chair and cruelly forces Iris to watch Mirror Iris batter Barry repeatedly and then taunt him about how they shared a bed for weeks.
  Iris: [to Eva] I'm going to kill you.
Ascended Fanboy: She went from writing a blog about The Flash and promoting popularity towards him to joining his team and marrying him.
Babies Ever After: In the series finale, Iris gives birth to Nora, and Barry and Iris welcome Baby Nora home.
Badass Adorable: Iris is adorable, sweet, and one of the nicest characters on the show. She has also knocked out Girder, Peek-A-Boo and an Alchemy influenced Wally, plus Joe taught her how to use a gun, which she used to shoot the Clock King and Dr. Light, holstered one on Zoom and saved Barry and the others from Savitar by delivering the kill shot.
Iris: A girl's gotta be her own hero now and again.
Badass Bookworm: Iris's intelligence lies mostly in her journalistic abilities, strategising and leadership skills, but Joe also taught her combat skills, and she's been shown to be proficient at using handguns.
Badass in Distress: Despite her impressive ability to defend herself, she knows her limits and will not hesitate to call Barry, or activate Cisco's app, for help when she gets in over her head.
Badass Normal: Evident, given that she is one of the members of the West family. Furthermore, despite not having any meta-human abilities, Iris never hesitates to join the super-powered team out in the field, often going out armed with a gun and her sheer bravery.
- In "All Doll'd Up," Ralph and Iris team up to save Barry, who has been kidnapped by Peter Merkel. When they arrive, Merkel forces Iris to put her gun down, threatening to kill Barry, who is in meta-human cuffs, if she does not disarm herself. He then shoves Barry off of a building, and Iris nose dives off of the same building, despite not having any harness or superpowers, without a moment's hesitation, and when she gets to Barry, she unlocks his cuffs, mid-air, and he is then able to speed the both of them to safety.
  Nora: Mom, holy schrap! You just threw yourself off of a building to save Dad? That was beyond schway.
  Barry: [to Iris] You're crazy.
  Iris: I am.
  Barry: Thank you. I love you.
  Iris: I love you.
Battle Couple: She occasionally joins her boyfriend and later husband Barry in the field and she has some fighting skills.
Believing Their Own Lies: A minor, non-antagonistic example, regarding her feelings for Barry. Iris tried to tell people she only saw Barry as a friend, but the only person she was fooling was herself — everyone, including her father, her boyfriend Eddie, and Barry himself (thanks to Time Travel shenanigans) knew the truth. It took Eddie's death and learning of Barry's experiences on Earth-2 with their married doppelgängers for her to finally accept that she was in denial about what was really going on between them. Even before, she never denied that she loved Barry after being confronted by him, but due to her loyalty to Eddie, she refused to allow herself to fully embrace her feelings for Barry.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's as sweet as honey, and there are very few people kinder than she in the entirety of the Arrowverse, but if you really want to see her bad side, try threatening her boyfriend/husband, her daughter, her family or her team and see what happens.
- While trapped in Nora's memories in "Memorabilia," Barry and Iris encounter Nora's defense mechanism in the Hall of Villains in the Flash Museum: her defense mechanism is the Reverse Flash suit, which attacks them. The Reverse Flash suit has Barry in a chokehold and taunts him, but Iris uses the Thinker's chair to blast Reverse Flash and save Barry.
  Reverse Flash: [to Barry] Another broken family. This is the legacy I gave you.
  Iris: Nobody breaks up my family, you son of a bitch.
- Family members aren't spared either if she feels they've crossed the line or tested her patience to its limit. Joe, Francine, and Barry have all earned spots on her shit-list at various points: Joe for his overbearing protectiveness and keeping her in the dark about Barry being the Flash, Francine for her Parental Abandonment while she was pregnant with Wally, and Barry for how he handled the whole "our daughter has been working with my mother's killer" situation with Nora.
- In a deleted scene, she is raging after Ralph accidentally presses emergency buttons. It was a Rage Breaking Point after having passed through multiple difficulties during her marriage to Barry.
- When meeting Nash Wells, she greets him in a friendly manner while at the same times she threatens to use a taser with him if he still tries to get too close to her.
The Big Damn Kiss: Finally kisses Barry when they try to rescue Joe, but Barry's discovery of time travel at the end of the episode erases this.
Big Sister Instinct: After she learns of Wally's existence, she grows into this overtime. She specifically forbid him from training and only relented when she realized there was no talking him out of it.
Braids of Action: In "King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd," Iris unusually has her hair in a tight, neat braid, because she boxes, indicating her Action Girl status.
Brainy Brunette: While her intelligence doesn't lie in science like a few other members of Team Flash, Iris is incredibly sharp. Not only is she a graduate in criminal psychology, but she started the metahuman blog that everyone in the Arrowverse uses, got herself a job at Central City Picture News, and managed to figure out the connection between Thawne's accelerator and metahumans despite being Locked Out of the Loop for most of the first season.
- Like any good investigative journalist, Iris has strong memory recall when it comes to details, and she is able to use this to build larger solutions to big problems in highly stressful situations. Thus, in "Enter Flashtime," she draws upon her ability to stay calm in high-stress environments and her journalistic ability to piece together past details to come up with solutions to help Barry save Central City from a nuclear bomb that has already been detonated.
  Iris: When you went into the Speed Force, the lightning from the storm...
  Barry: One of those bolts would be more than enough, but I can't... how could I draw that out?
  Iris: No listen, when we freed you, Cisco and Caitlin, they used a quark sphere programmed with your genetic marker to trick the Speed Force into thinking that you're still in there.
  Barry: I just need to get that sphere. The storm will chase me.
  Iris: It's like you said: a lightning rod to bring out the lightning.
Broken Hero: For someone who has faced a great deal of turmoil, and has had the love of her life's future disappearance hanging over her head for years, Iris is surprisingly well-adjusted, optimistic, and humorous. However, she does become a lot more serious as the seasons go on.
- Iris believed her mother to be dead, but it turns out Francine actually went to rehabilitation for drug abuse after passing out and nearly burning the house down, and subsequently never reaches out to Iris. A five-year-old Iris was the only other person in the house, and she called the police, but the trauma of the incident led to a mental block, in which Iris fails to recall the incident. After learning that Joe lied to her about her mother's death, Iris is, before Flashpoint, very understanding as to why her father kept this from her. Eventually, Iris forgives her mother, before Francine dies of cancer.
- Iris witnesses Barry go into a coma, and she sits with him every day, trying to keep spirits up by attempting to be upbeat and voicing how much he means to her. It is indicated that she was talkative with Caitlin and Cisco, during her visits. She also witnesses Barry disintegrate before her eyes in "Rupture," after Harry attempts to recreate the particle accelerator explosion to return Barry his speed, and in the aftermath, despite her grief, she helps out Wally, who was also affected by the explosion, and comes up with the plan to save Central City from a newly resurrected Girder, who is after her.
- She was destined to die at Savitar's hand for the better part of a year and spent much of that time setting aside her own fear and comforting Barry, Joe, and Wally, all of whom became increasingly traumatized by her future death as the fateful day approached.
- In the wake of Eddie's death, Iris chooses to become very active with helping Cisco and Martin Stein protect the city in S.T.A.R. Labs, and she encourages Barry to go to the parade to celebrate the Flash, reminding him that she always believes in him.
- Although Iris becomes more emotionally-withdrawn after Barry's departure into the Speed Force, she puts on a brave face for her father and Team Flash, going so far as to lead the Team in saving the city.
- Her long-awaited wedding ceremony is interrupted by Nazis, but she immediately tells Barry that the important thing is that they are okay and even makes a light-hearted joke that her wedding dress can survive a gun fight.
- After Nora is erased from existence, Iris is very distraught, but assures an equally grieving Barry that he is already everything he has sought to be: A good man, loving husband, and supportive father. She is trying to deal with the possible death of Barry.
- Iris winds up trapped in a mirror, unable to communicate with her friends and her family, while an imposter takes over her life, and she endures an exceptionally traumatic experience for weeks on end. Despite this, she attempts to be optimistic and even smiles tearfully when Wally returns in "Death of the Speed Force," remarking on how happy he is.
  Iris: I've been trapped in here for weeks and losing my sense of time, like I'm in some sort of dream.
- In season 7, Iris develops a Time Sickness that causes her to jump through timelines, unable to stay in her present time. She is temporarily stabilized by Deon at the end of season 7, just in time to meet her future children, Nora and Bart, and renew her vows with Barry, but her sickness gets worse in Season 8, resulting in her Time Sickness becoming so serious that Deathstorm taunts both Barry and Iris of Iris's impending demise. As a result of Iris suffering and jumping through timelines and dimensions, Eobard Thawne and the Negative Forces sacrifice Iris to initiate Thawne's resurrection. Despite this, Iris reignites her spark with Barry and returns to her world alive, while remaining happy and relatively optimistic upon her return.
Calling the Old Man Out:
- When she finally discovers everything, start to finish — Barry being the Flash, Joe and Eddie knowing, the Man in Yellow — Joe finally hears it for every overreach of restriction and/or secrecy he's made in his attempts to keep her safe from the villains' reach.
- And again with Francine West. She tears her apart for leaving, for not contacting Joe for twenty years, and most especially for hiding the fact she was pregnant when she left.
Celeb Crush: She has a huge crush on Oliver Queen. She's absolutely giddy when she sees him as a customer in Jitters and that he’s friends with Barry. Her crush on him grows even bigger when she finds out he's the Green Arrow. Though that crush subsided after both he and Felicity, ruined her and Barry's wedding, making it an unwanted double wedding.
Childhood Friends: With Barry. They have been friends since they were kids.
Childhood Friend Romance:
- Barry has been in love with Iris since "before he knew what the word 'love' meant." We don't know exactly how old they were when they became friends, but he had a crush on her since before his mother died when he was 11. Finally fully realized in season 3 with the two officially dating.
  Barry: Do you remember when I first moved in? Joe brought me to the house after my mom was killed. I looked at you and I said, "My dad didn't do it," and you said...
  Iris: I believe you.
  Barry: You always have.
- In the episode, "Cause and Effect," Iris confirms that she and Barry fell in love the night he came to stay with the Wests after his mother had been killed by the Reverse Flash; they both were eleven years old at the time.
Composite Character:
- As the biological daughter of the West family, Iris takes the place of Ira and Nadine West's stillborn daughter.
- Her suit in Run, Iris, Run is modeled after the costume worn by Jenni Ognats/XS, although it's her future daughter Nora who becomes the show's official version of XS.
- In the comics, Barry had a daughter named Nora with Jessica Cruz, not Iris West.
The Confidant: She is the person Barry confides in about everything. She, in turn, always provides him with the utmost support.
Cool Big Sis: Is becoming one for Wally, and acts this way for pretty much the entire team.
Cope by Pretending: Played with. Although Iris doesn't mask her grief over Nora's death by being overly optimistic and enthusiastic as Barry does and is clearly outwardly struggling to hide her grief, Iris buries her emotions, by clinging to the notion that she and Barry will see Nora again. When she loses her purple jacket, the last tangible thing that she has to honor Nora, to the first black hole, Iris hides her devastation, until Cecile prods her when they go to investigate Chester P. Runk's whereabouts. Later, Iris breaks down to Barry.
Iris: [finally allowing herself to break down] You know why I was at that junkyard? I lost my purple jacket. And I was obsessed with... getting it back, because... you know... in my mind, Nora needs it. You know, she needs it to become XS. And when that thing swallowed it, just... just for like a tiny second, I wanted it to swallow me too.
Cradle of Loneliness: After Nora is erased from existence, Iris finds her daughter's time journal in the S.T.A.R. Labs cortex, which she proceeds to pick up and hug tightly to her chest, as she breaks down in tears.
Crazy-Prepared: Iris is an investigative reporter with a contingency plan.
- When the DeVoes assault S.T.A.R. Labs, she reveals she had Cisco make explosive earrings for an emergency like that one.
- In "Marathon," Iris tricks Kimiyo Hoshi to come to the West House, by producing a hologram of herself, controlled by Kamilla in S.T.A.R. Labs. In the meanwhile, Iris goes to McCulloch Technologies, Inc. to confront Joseph Carver, where she informs him that if he doesn't call off Hoshi from hurting her loved ones, she will automatically release the information she has amassed on Black Hole. Faced with no choice, Carver calls Hoshi off just before she kills Frost, and he drops the defamation lawsuit he had filed on behalf of McCulloch Tech against The Central City Citizen.
Damsel out of Distress: Many times a bad guy has tried to take her hostage. Many times, it didn't turn out quite as they expected.
Dating What Daddy Hates: Initially she wanted to be a cop; her cop father said no, on the grounds that a life in the police force would be too dangerous. During Season 1 she dated Detective Thawne; and initially they kept it a secret from Joe. Notably averted with Barry, who is the only love interest she has ever had that Joe was fully supportive of. Seeing as Barry was basically his son in all but blood, it makes sense he'd be the only man Joe would approve of, as trust is a non-issue for all involved.
Death Is Such an Odd Thing: Iris struggles with how to grieve Nora's death, because she is devastated over losing the Nora that she knew, but feels confused over how much grief she feels, because she knows that she will one day see her daughter again. This leads her to struggling with how to grieve and how to express her grief to those she loves.
Iris: I just miss [Nora] so much. Everyday, every minute. And I know that is selfish, because one day I'm gonna get to see Nora again. But it won't be our Nora, you know, the one that we knew. The one that we have pictures of. The one that we grew to love. That Nora is gone forever. And I guess, because of that, you know, I just... I don't know how I'm supposed to feel.
Cecile: Iris, you do not get to cheat the grieving process just because you know you're gonna see Nora again someday.
Deliberately Distressed Damsel: She intentionally lets herself be kidnapped by the Samuroid in order to give Barry the motivation to get shocked out of his Speed Force induced delusional phase.
Designated Victim:
- Usually averted, despite being Barry's primary love interest, and eventual wife, Iris can handle herself, and eventually the Meta's stop bothering her.
- Despite the above, becomes a central plot point during the latter half of Season 3, in which Barry's main goal is to prevent her death at the hands of Savitar.
- Weaponized in the Season 4 premiere, as she let herself be kidnapped knowing Barry would rescue her.
- She is trapped in the Mirror universe and impersonated by an evil clone.
- Thawne and the Negative Forces offer her as sacrifice for Thawne's resurrection. She later is revealed to be alive and able to return to her world when she reignites her spark with Barry, after she receives guidance from Damien Darhk.
Deuteragonist: She's the female lead, and her storylines either compliment or run parallel to Barry's.
- Showrunner Eric Wallace has stated that because of her leading lady status, Iris is deserving of equal time and equal stories to her male counterpart, Barry.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Basically whenever Iris goes one-on-one with a villainous meta-human.
- Although Barry super-sonic punches Girder, when his skin turns to steel, it's Iris's right hook which knocks Girder out, when his exterior returns to flesh.
- While the super-powered members of Team Flash struggled to attack Orlin Dwyer, due to his dagger removing most members' powers, Iris, armed with her pepper spray, pen, and sheer grit, effectively stabs Dwyer, discovering his weak spot.
- Iris delivers a knock-out round of punches on Ragdoll, while assisted by Joe who holds him back for her.
  Ralph: Have you seen [Iris's] right hook?
Drink-Based Characterization: Coffee. An Americano with an extra shot, to be exact, which is indicative of Iris's easy-going, but determined nature.
Dude Magnet: Barry has been in love with her since they were children, and she was in a relationship with Eddie long enough for him wanting to propose. In season 9, when Eddie is brought back by the Negative Speed Force, he is shown as being obsessive of the life he could have had with Iris. Scott Evans was interested in her not long after he met her. James Jesse made a pass at her during while holding a crowd of people hostage. Tony Woodward had a Villainous Crush on her, to the point that she was the only person he could recognize after his resurrection. Even Savitar is fixated on her, and his plan to murder her, besides his need to preserve himself, is a case of not being able to be with her himself. In the Reverse-Flashpoint timeline, Disturbingly, Eobard Thawne himself used his identity as the Flash to start a relationship with her.

E-N

Earn Your Happy Ending: Not an exact ending per se, but after everything she and Barry have been through and everything they've had to overcome, by the end of Crisis on Earth-X the two can finally refer to one another as husband and wife.
Eating the Eye Candy:
- In the Flash vs. Arrow crossover, she gushes and crushes on Oliver Queen when she sees him as a customer in CC Jitters. She even goes as far as to tell Barry that she’s willing to cheat on Eddie with him.
- When the team sees a photo of Ralph Dibny, she and Caitlin compare him to Oliver Queen.
- Later on, when she assists Clark and Lois in tracking down the Paragon of Truth in the multiverse, while also trying to saving the other Clarks from Lex Luthor, both she and Lois can't help but oggle all the hunky Supermen they encounter.
Empowered Badass Normal: Already a competent Action Girl, she briefly became a speedster in The Flash Season 4, and still has the Speedforce in her, which when allowed, she can tap into.
Everyone Can See It: Much like Barry's affections for her, Iris's feelings for Barry were prominent enough that even her season one boyfriend Eddie Thawne took notice. The only person oblivious to them was Iris herself, though after Barry confessed it gradually slid from obliviousness and into straight up denial. Her love for Barry was so obvious that it actually factored into Joe invoking the Parental Marriage Veto card when Eddie asked for his blessing to ask Iris marry him, and Eddie briefly breaking up with her. Even Barry knew (thanks to Time Travel), and even called her out for lying to him and to herself.
Evil Doppelgänger: Iris ends up trapped in a Mirror at the end of "Marathon," and the Mirror produces a duplicate, sinister version of Iris, who immediately impersonates our Iris and takes over our Iris's life. Unlike our Iris, "Mirror" Iris can speak Italian, bashes men over the heads with glass bottles, and can even make perfect pancakes. "Mirror" Iris is also emotionally distant with Barry, yells at Joe, and is cunningly cold towards our Iris, as she holds Barry in her arms, while looking straight at our Iris through the Mirror. It's safe to say "Mirror" Iris is the opposite of Iris.
- In "Grodd Friended Me," it is revealed that Eva is putting on an act of being innocent and broken to Iris and that she is working with "Mirror" Iris. It also appears that Eva and "Mirror" Iris are physically linked, because when Eva induces burns on her arms, the burns appear on "Mirror" Iris's arms.
- In "Liberation," Iris verbally confronts Eva about the fact that Eva still loves her husband, Joseph Carver. Eva becomes agitated and, as a result, begins to lose control of Mirror Iris. Here, Barry appeals to Mirror Iris's desire to be alive and her own person, and Mirror Iris is able to break free of Eva's control. She tells Barry to go find and save Iris. Eva is devastated and infuriated that she lost control of Mirror Iris, so she destroys Mirror Iris, as a result.
The Face: Was her main role on the team, as a journalist, is to raise and maintain the public's support for The Flash. This is seen most prominently when she convinces "Jay Garrick" to briefly retake the mantle while Barry is on Earth 2, to keep her new boss from slamming the Flash, for not taking on the current Meta-Human. She later uses this to gather intel for Team Flash by conducting interviews.
Face Death with Dignity: She is understandably frightened, but aside from a worried look towards Clark, she and the other final five survivors of the Multiverse, Clark, Nash, Jefferson, Diggle and Ralph, stand in defiance towards the Anti-Monitor, asserting that the Paragons will stop him, before she is erased by the antimatter.
Failed a Spot Check: She mentions to Eva that her husband is the Flash. However, as Eva has been stuck in the mirror-world since the night of the particle accelerator explosion, she shouldn't know who or what the Flash is. However, Eva doesn't inquire about this, showing that she has more knowledge of the real world than she should.
Fan Disillusionment: She initially shows some interest on Oliver Queen due to his attractiveness, but she outgrows this due to seeing him as having too much darkness inside him.
Fire-Forged Friends: This is the dynamic she and the Mechanic, Marlize DeVoe, eventually develop. Despite their intense rivalry during season 4, and particularly despite Iris's rage towards Marlize for the latter's part in Barry's prison sentence and Marlize being the reason Iris ends up with a massive stabbing wound, Iris is able to eventually get through to Marlize to aid in the fight against DeVoe. In the season 4 finale, the two women say goodbye to one another as friends.
First Love: Barry's, and unarguably the love of his life.
Genki Girl: Iris comes off as a bit on the bubbly, enthusiastic and hyper side.
Girly Bruiser: She is traditionally feminine in her attitudes and her clothing, but she will defend herself or her friends if needed.
Giver of Lame Names: Iris will apparently be the one to dub Nora "XS," since she does everything "in excess." Cisco is dismissive of the name, but Nora seems to like it.
Good Is Not Soft: She is an incredibly kind and loving young woman, but she will not hesitate to shoot, and in Savitar's case, kill in defense of herself, her loved ones and her friends.
Good Parents: She and Barry are loving and supportive parents to Nora and Bart.
Green-Eyed Monster: She's shown to be put off by other women, like Linda Park and Becky Cooper, expressing interest in Barry, however she was fully on board with Felicity and Patty.
Happily Married: As of the fourth annual crossover, Crisis on Earth-X, to Barry.
The Heart: As the co-leader and most encouraging member of the team, but more specifically she is Barry's. Whenever he needs to be boosted up, Iris is there. Whenever he needs someone to point out when he's in the wrong, Iris is there. Whenever he needs to be supported emotionally and/or physically, Iris is there. Even long before she knew his secret, long before she was his girl, she was supporting the Flash, and Barry will in turn always let her know just how much her help means to him.
Barry: I couldn't do this without you!
Iris: That's not true.
Barry: It is true — whether you realize it or not, there is no Flash without Iris West.
- She's also instrumental in convincing Ryan Choi to come with them as the seventh Paragon and help save the multiverse.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the season 6 finale, "Success is Assured," Iris pushes herself to locate and save David Singh, in the Mirror World, despite her neural dissonance becoming progressively worse. Just as she locates Singh, after pushing herself to the brink, her neural dissonance becomes unbearable and she vanishes before Kamilla Hwang's eyes.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: A more mild example, as Iris is generally quite confident in herself. However, she tends to seriously downplay her achievements, often becoming shy when praised, or playing it off as nothing, while magnifying and internalizing what she views as her short-comings.
- In "Run Iris Run," Iris vocalizes to Barry that the reason she is so set on saving the day by herself when she acquires his powers is due to a great deal of self-doubt which she has internalized, namely that she lost her fearlessness, since she quit her job at CCPN to run Team Flash full-time, after Savitar attempted to murder her and Barry departed into the Speed Force. Barry dispels this, while coaching her out in the field, by telling her that she is the bravest person he knows.
- In "Enter Flashtime," Iris praises Barry, Jay, and Jesse's incredible efforts to save Central City, but does not mention her huge contribution to saving the day.
  Iris: If it wasn't for [Barry and Jay] and Jesse, it'd be a completely different story in the news right now.
  Jay: You were a big part of that, Iris. Credit where credit is due.
  Barry: My sentiments exactly.
- In "All Doll'd Up," Iris becomes very demure under the praise showered on her by Team Flash after she jumped off a building without hesitation to save Barry. When Nora, who is utterly in awe of her mother at the moment, asks her what was going through her head when she jumped, Iris makes light of her own heroism by making a joke.
  Nora: What was going through your mind?
  Iris: Uh, "please, god, don't let me drop this key".
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Felicity. She and Caitlin also eventually develop this dynamic.
Hidden Depths: While technically not as scientifically intelligent as her husband and friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, she is still able to grasp an understanding of the more technical sciences and even explain them in layman's terms. She is also tech savvy enough to properly function as The Team's Mission Control.
- Particularly, she is able to quickly deduce solutions based on a set of facts, which often helps Barry when he is out in the field.
  Sherloque Wells: [Amazo] is a robot that has replicated [Barry, Oliver, Kara, and Clark's] super strengths and thus now it is impenetrable, so you cannot put the virus inside of it. That's not great.
  Ralph: Okay, so what do we do?
  Iris: Look, if Amazo inherited all of their strengths, then maybe he inherited their weaknesses too.
- Iris is constantly coming up with solutions in high stress situations, by drawing upon the knowledge she has accumulated over the years. In "A Girl Named Sue," she urges Eva to use Liquid Nitrogen to attempt to freeze the mirror to get them out of the Mirror World. While that doesn't work, Iris later quickly deduces that Eva has powers which are similar to Sam Scudder's, thereby realizing that they might be able to use Eva's abilities to leave the Mirror World.
Hope Is Scary: The reason she was reluctant about the plans to get Barry back was her fear of the attempts failing.
Hypocrite:
- She chewed out Barry and Joe for not telling her Barry was the Flash. While she did have a right to be upset, she never shared the revelation that she has a brother for weeks, and when she shares her secret it leaves Joe hurt she kept it from him. She does acknowledge the hypocrisy of this to Barry in "Running To Stand Still."
- She takes a dim view of people that do not consult their significant others before taking a big decision, but she herself has done it. She proviously condemned Oliver for rejecting a deal without consulting Felicity and rebuked Barry over banishing Nora without consulting with her, but she still tries to go after her daughter Nora without discussing it with Barry first.
Hypocrite Has a Point:
- She was hiding the existence of Wally West from Joe and Barry, but she was right at telling them that keeping her out of the loop about the Flash was not protecting her, and she was more upset at the fact that Joe specifically instructed people not to tell her.
- One of the major plots of the episode "Snow Pack" is centered on this: Iris is rightful to condemn Barry's disregard for her input before taking a major decision, but tries to solve the problem without Barry to no avail. The experience makes her learn that this problem needs that both be united as a couple to fight.
Iconic Sequel Character: While she was introduced at the series premiere of The Flash (2014), she was technically only introduced during the third year of the Arrowverse.
I Have No Daughter!: In the post-Flashpoint timeline, Joe disowned her after she takes her mother's side once she discovers that her the latter is still alive, even going as far as Unpersonning her. They eventually got better. Before the Cosmic Retcon, she has an Undying Loyalty to her father and didn't forgive her mother until her last days.
Imperiled in Pregnancy: In season 9, Iris falls into a Dream Scape with Nia Nal, while pregnant, leaving Barry to worry incessantly about about her and their baby. Ramsey Rosso also threatens Iris while pregnant, although her baby helps heal her from the womb. Additionally, the Negative Speed Force targets Iris just as she is about to go into labor, as the Negative Speed Force is set on wiping out Barry, Iris, and the entire Allen family.
Negative Speed Force, through Mark as conduit: I am going to gut you like a fish and your little baby too.
Innocent Bystander: Subverted. This is what Joe and Barry see her as and the reason they refuse to let her in on the secret, but Iris has shown herself quite capable of handling several dire situations, and is more than willing to dive into the thick of things in order to get a story or find out what's really going on.
In Spite of a Nail: She still ended up as Barry's wife, much like their Earth-2 counterparts.
Intrepid Reporter: She may rival Lois Lane in this department.
- When she gets a job at Picture News, she agrees to look into the going-ons of her friends at S.T.A.R. Labs. When she becomes a member of Team Flash, she uses this role to help out occasionally as an informant to Barry on the recent Meta-Human influenced happenings. She resigned in favor of being a mission control to Team Flash, after the trauma of Savitar nearly murdering her and of Barry entering the Speed Force at the end of season 3, yet partially returns mid Season 4, by restarting her blog, after rediscovering her passion for journalism during her brief stint as a speedster. Her blog proves important in the fight against De Voe, as she arms the citizens of Central City with information, who in turn comment on her posts about sightings of De Voe and Marlize. In season 6, she has a fully realized newspaper, after having hired Kamilla Hwang as a photographer and Allegra Garcia as a reporting intern. Cecile Horton serves as legal counsel for the Central City Citizen.
- In "Memorabilia", Iris starts considering expanding her blog, but is hesitant when she learns that the only potential newspaper title she can register is The Central City Citizen, the title of the newspaper in which she writes the infamous article about Barry's disappearance. Barry coaxes her to realize the importance of her dreams and to not give them up in an attempt to change the future. Her fears are assuaged a bit after she witnesses her future self and Nora in the Flash Museum and comes to learn that she is a very kind and loving mother, but that Nora's anger about her father's disappearance clouded her memories of her mother. Office space opens up in the building where Ralph has his office, and Iris decides to utilize it for her paper.
- In "Goldfaced", Iris has officially launched The Central City Citizen, but finds herself struggling to find readers. She decides to start writing about Cicada and begins investigating his whereabouts. Her investigation leads her to Orlin Dwyer's home, where she comes to face to face with him. He attempts to impale her with his dagger, but she stabs him with her pen in the area in his chest where he is already injured. In doing so, Iris informs Barry, Ralph, and Killer Frost that she has found a way to administer the meta-human cure to Dwyer, namely in the place where he is injured in his chest.
- In "Marathon," Iris publishes an explosive piece in The Citizen, exposing the human trafficking and weapons trafficking syndicate, Black Hole, which brings her into the crossfire of Joseph Carver, Chief Executive Officer of McCulloch technologies, and the mastermind behind Black Hole. While investigating a lead on Carver's presumed to be dead wife, Eva McCulloch, Iris is snatched into a mirror, and a duplicate, sinister version of herself is produced and who promptly impersonates Iris and takes over her life. Meanwhile, Iris finds herself trapped in the mirror and encounters Eva who claims to have been trapped in the mirror for six years. Iris quickly deduces that Eva has powers similar to Sam Scudder, a fact which Eva is seemingly unaware of.
It's All About Me: It's usually played for laughs, but Iris can sometimes be self-centered. She has a bit of a Self-Serving Memory, as mentioned below. Furthermore, in Luck Be A Lady, she's happy that she and Barry got the wedding venue they wanted, because another couple broke up. Later in the episode, she tells the priest officiating her and Barry's wedding to just "walk off" his allergies.
- In "Memorabilia," she's happy to hear that Ralph's neighbor died, since it means his huge loft is now available.
- "Mixed Signals" has Iris reveal that she's angry at Barry for going into the Speed Force at the end of Season 3 and leaving her possibly forever, never mind that he only did so in order to save the planet.
It's All My Fault: After escaping the Mirrorverse, she begins expressing regret for not knowing Eva's true colors sooner and being able to help stop her.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While she does gradually come to realize she does have feelings for Barry, since she is still dealing with the loss of Eddie, she openly supports his relationship with Patty.
I Will Find You: Iris makes this very vow to Barry in "Liberation," despite the fact that Barry can't hear or see her, because she is trapped in a different dimension in the Mirror World. Barry is on the other side of the mirror, where he makes the same promise to Iris, despite the fact that she also can't see or hear him.
Iris: I'm going to find Kamilla, and I'm going to find Singh. But most of all, I'm going to find my way back to you.
I Will Wait for You: Makes this promise to Barry, when he tells her he has to go away to try and fix himself so that he could be worthy of being in a relationship with her. However after going back in time and causing Flashpoint, this event was erased from the timeline.
Jerkass Has a Point: In the season 4 premiere, she is considerably colder than usual due to her grief of losing Barry. When the rest of the team expresses a plan to release Barry, Iris objects by reminding them of the risk of unleashing a storm from the Speed Force. Despite the Jerkass Ball, her concern about this is very important, especially because the aftermath of Cisco releasing Barry from the Speed Force involves the creation of new metas, all of whom are targeted and eventually killed by DeVoe.
Just Friends: Proclaimed she and Barry were this throughout her relationship with Eddie Thawne. It takes a while for her to accept that they were never "just friends", even when she was with Eddie.
Lady in Red: When Iris makes an entrance, she is usually seen in red. Most notably in "All Doll'd Up," where Iris wears a long red gown to Theresa Merkel's fundraiser. She also wore a fitted red dress to a journalism event in "Tricksters," and a red jumpsuit to the failed S.T.A.R. Labs Museum opening in "Borrowing Problems from the Future." Arguably, her affinity for red is clearly related to red being Barry's color.
The Leader:
- Co-leaders with her husband, though obviously he still leads the other heroes in the field, Iris can be a mixture of all four types. However, while she has come up with plans of action for the team, she is typically the level-headed and headstrong type, as her strengths lie in motivating the team and keeping it together, as well as caring for the individual members.
- She becomes the leader of The Central City Citizen, currently consisting of Camilla, Cecile, and Allegra.
Leap of Faith: When Iris is the target of gunmen during an investigation early on in her career as a journalist, she jumps out of a window to escape, per Barry's instructions, trusting that he will speed over in time to catch her (which he does).
Leeroy Jenkins: Iris sometimes has a reckless approach to taking actions against villains and often jumps into danger without seeing the possible consequences first.
Lethal Chef: While her food tends to be edible enough, she tends to burn the food she is preparing, including toast. Nora's completely unsurprised reaction makes it clear she never improves. She often settles for giving Barry a banana. Her mirror copy being a fantastic cook is one of the many clues that tips Barry off to the realization that she isn't the real Iris.
- Surprisingly enough, Season 1 seems to imply she was actually a pretty good cook, as she would often be over at the West household to cook one of Grandma Esther's recipes for Joe and Barry's dinner.
Locked Out of the Loop:
- Joe made Barry promise that he wouldn't tell Iris about his powers, something he's not very happy about. She finally finds out in the episode, "The Trap."
- In the episode "Grodd Lives," virtually everything she says to both Barry and her father revolves around everything wrong with this trope.
- She was also this in regards to Barry's feelings for her, as just about everyone except her knew that Barry was in love with her for the first nine episodes of Season 1 — even Barry's father knew, and he was in prison for most of his son's life.
Longing Look: After Barry's confession in Season 1, she can be seen giving him a few of these, most notably in Revenge of the Rogues and Rogue Time.
The Lost Lenore:
- Eddie's death devastated Iris, and a year later she was still mourning him.
- She was so broken by Barry's departure that she couldn't even bring herself to sleep in their bed, staying on the couch instead, or look at any photos of Barry, turning the picture frames down, and shut herself off from her friends and family emotionally.
Loves My Alter Ego: Averted, when Harry formulates a risky procedure to help him regain his powers, Iris assures Barry that whether or not he chooses to become The Flash again, it's the Man that she loves not the Super Hero. She later amends this in that she loves them both, Barry, her boyfriend and The Flash, her protector. Furthermore, in the wedding vows she tells Barry that while The Flash is Central City's hero, Barry is her hero.
Loving a Shadow: Her relationship with Eddie Thawne. While Iris did love Eddie, it's fairly obvious that the main reason why their relationship even got as far as it did was because Barry missed the beginning of it, thanks to being in a coma, and Iris was emotionally vulnerable due to his missing presence. Barry was even the reason they started dating — Eddie covered for Joe's shifts at the precinct so both he and Iris could be there for Barry while he was at the hospital, Iris decided to get him a cup of coffee to thank him, and things just spiraled from there. While telling Iris why he's breaking up with her, Eddie points out that their relationship has always had three people in it: him, her, and Barry. And as much as it pains him to admit, no matter how much he loves her, Iris will always choose Barry over him.
- In "A New World, Part Three," a resurrected Eddie, who is being affected by the Negative Speed Force asks Iris to marry him in 2049. Iris rejects him and informs him that he had originally been right when he said there were always three people in their relationship, and that for her, it was always Barry, even when she had not realized it.
Mama Bear: Woe behold you if you make any threat against her husband, daughter or son.
Iris: (to a future Death Row bound Thawne) I'm only going to say this once. You do not get to comment on my family! You stay the hell out of our business, or you won't even make it to the end of that timer!!!
Maybe Ever After: The show teases her and Barry's future together, but it isn't cemented until season 3.
Missing Mom: Her mother is not a part of her life at all, which is significant because her father is a major character. Flashbacks show that this was the case back when she was eleven. It's implied in "The Man In The Yellow Suit" that Iris's mother is dead when Barry gives Iris replicas of her mother's wedding bands that Iris lost as a child. In Season 2, however, we learn that her mother was a drug addict who left her family, and Joe had lied and claimed she died to keep Iris from developing abandonment issues.
- Iris's fears about motherhood when Nora arrives from the future and is clearly upset with her also stem from the fact that she never got to properly reconcile with Francine.
  Iris: Just because I can protect [Nora], doesn't mean I'm a good mom.
  Barry: This isn't like what happened with Francine.
  Iris: [very softly and tearfully] Isn't it?
Mission Control: Her eventual main role. Takes over the running of S.T.A.R. Labs/Team Flash in Barry's stead. Even with his return she continues to manage The Team while Barry does the heavy lifting.
Morality Chain: Barry's. While there is no doubt that Barry is a kind, just and overall good person, he often straddles the line between the right and wrong choice, with Iris always keeping him on the path to be a hero. Most especially demonstrated in the "Save Iris" arc, Barry often comes across choices that could change the timeline to their benefit, but at cost of endangering Central City, with Iris pushing him to do the right thing, even if it leads to her death at Savitar's hands. And as seen in the bad future, where Savitar wins, without Iris, Barry isolates himself inside S.T.A.R. Labs, shirking his responsibilities as Central City's hero, to mourn and pine for her the rest of his days, while the city is ravaged by Metas. It takes the present day Barry reminding him of their promise to Iris to keep fighting the good fight for the innocent, that he finally re-dons the suit, stepping up to honor her.
Most Common Super Power: She briefly becomes a speedster in Season 4, ahough it's not obvious from her costume, she's a well-stacked.
Motor Mouth: Has her moments.
"Wells": She [Iris] came to see you [Barry] quite often.
Caitlin: She talks a lot.
Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed. She is beautiful and some of her clothing is mildly provocative, without being overly revealing.
Murder by Inaction: Averted. Iris, Barry, and Caitlin first agree to allow Thawne’s latest Ret-Gone to catch up to him and erase himself from existence, but after Joe issues Barry and Iris an ultimatum, they end up saving Thawne by draining his speed.
My Beloved Smother:
- Nora claimed a few times that Iris can be overly controlling, and even in the present Iris goes to some extremes in an attempt to be close to her. Turns out that Iris implanted Nora with a power-suppression chip so she wouldn't realize she was a speedster. Nora found out only a few months before she came back in time, and was not happy. This likely stems from Iris' own estranged relationship with her late mother.
- Subverted with regards to present Iris, when Iris tells Nora that she wants Nora to live her life in "All Doll'd Up".
  Iris: It's so silly.
  Nora: No it's not, it's your life. I mean, editor of the school newspaper by age 11. Exposing a corrupt school teacher at the age of 15. I mean, you never talk about this stuff... in the future, I mean. It's one of your off-limits topics. I'm not allowed to ask about it.
  Iris: Nora, I'm not that person in the future. And nothing is off-limits to me, okay? I'm not gonna sit behind a desk and say 'no'. I want you to live your life. And I want you to be a part of mine. No secrets, no lies, just us being who we are today.
- Averted in the new post-Crisis timeline, where Barry lives in the future. Iris and Barry raise Bart and Nora without the same baggage that Iris carried when raising Nora in the previous timeline.
Nice Girl: For the most part, she's pretty sweet, caring and forgiving.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her attempts to localize David Singh in the Mirrorverse worsen the mind damage she has been suffering.
No Sense of Personal Space: With Barry. This is often a problem for their love interests.
Not So Above It All: As sweet as she is and how graciously she allowed it to happen, she isn't above throwing some shade at Felicity and Oliver for stealing her's and Barry's spotlight during their wedding.
Number Two: Because Iris is frequently the Only Sane Man whenever wacky situations arise, that combined with her status as The Heart make her this when Barry is out of commission or can't lead for whatever reason. Usually shares this role with Cisco.
- Season 4 sees her becoming this for real as she handles the running of the team, while Barry and sometimes others, performs the heroics.
- This is perhaps seen most prominently in 4x02, "Mixed nSignals," when Iris advises Barry to throw a lightning bolt at himself, to short out his suit, which, due to a Meta taking advantage of the amount of technology Cisco placed into it, is about to explode.
- Later demonstrated once again when after Caitlin is kidnapped by Amunet, and Barry is captured by DeVoe, Harry informs her she must decide who Team Flash will save, as S.T.A.R. Labs does not have enough resources to rescue both.
  - Proving herself the capable leader in Barry absence, she chooses to save Caitlin, as between the two, she's the most vulnerable, while knowing her husband can handle himself.

O-Z

Oblivious to Love: Because Iris has never known a version of Barry that wasn't in love with her, she doesn't realize that's what is going on until he tells her. It's also interesting that she keeps talking about how no other woman seems to be able to see how amazing he is, which means she might be oblivious to her own feelings. This was confirmed in the Season 1 episode "Out of Time", where Iris finally realizes her feelings for Barry, and its second part "Rogue Time", where those events are negated thanks to Time Travel and Iris rejects him because she had yet to realize the truth — though it's less "oblivious" and more "denial" by this point.
Odd Friendship:
- The pretty and outgoing reporter spends most of her time hanging out with the somewhat awkward members of S.T.A.R. Labs, and later becomes a full member of the Team.
- Not to mention that she was implied to be one of the popular girls in school, and yet her best friend was one of the nerds.
Official Couple: With Barry. They clearly love and support each other and are essentially the Arrowverse's flagship super-couple.
One True Love: Barry outright states that she is the love of his life. Iris herself has only had one other major love interest, Eddie Thawne, and an episode in Season One confirms that when it came down to it, she loved Barry more than she did him. This is confirmed again in season 3, when she tells Barry that she has always been his. Right before Barry departs to the Speed Force in the Season 3 finale, he tells her that she has always been "Iris West-Allen" and that she always will be, and in just the scene before, she had told him the same thing (though see Self-Serving Memory).
Out of Focus: In Season 8. Iris is suffering from a Time Sickness which results in her jumping through timelines and dimensions. Thus, she is mostly figuring out how to get better with Sue Dearbon, and when her Time Sickness worsens, she disappears entirely for several episodes, where she is not present onscreen. When she reappears onscreen, she appears in 2049, where she is aided by her children, Nora and Bart, and by Joan Garrick, but they are unable to stabilize her and she is then sacrificed by Thawne and the Negative Forces. After Iris is revealed to still be alive at the end of Season 8, she is back in action in season 9.
Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In contrast to other Team Flash members, she tends to fail to recognize movie references.
Power of Love: Essentially her superpower, if Barry needs a confidence/power boost or some mental affliction broken, Iris is the girl to do it, usually only with her voice.
Iris: [to a telepathically paralyzed Barry when face Grodd] ...Barry do it for me!
[Barry's eyes regain its twinkle]
Barry: Iris!
[Barry jumps to his feet and rushes Grodd]
Power of Trust: Iris is the only person to believe that a part of Barry still exists after Ramsey Rosso takes control of Barry and turns him into Dark Flash to do Rosso's bidding. She trusts that her husband is still in there, even when Ramsey tries to force this Dark Flash to kill Iris; as it turns out, she's right, and Barry had been attempting to fight to regain control of his mind and body and was working to clue Cisco and Iris in to this fact.
Plucky Girl: She continued to keep up her blog and investigate S.T.A.R. Labs, even though the men in her life have gaslighted and lied to her for months.
Pregnant Badass: In season 9, Iris and Barry are expecting, but while pregnant, Iris is able to fight her way out of a Dream Scape with Nia Nal, work with Barry to defeat Lady Chronos, and continues her work at Central City Citizen.
Purple Is Powerful: When she became a speedster for a day, she's wearing a purple costume and emits purple lightning.
Race Lift: She's Caucasian in the comics, but African-American in the show.
Rebuilt Pedestal: Her future daughter Nora does not think highly of her after realizing she had powers and that the Iris of her timeline put a dampening chip on her body. However, after learning of Iris's support to Barry back when both were children and seeing her jumping off a building to save him, Nora's opinion of Iris improves greatly.
Nora: Mom, um, I'm sorry.
Iris: Sorry for what, Nora?
Nora: For not giving you a chance to show me how great you are. This year I'm just really thankful to get to know you. The real you.
Related in the Adaptation: Her father Joe is Barry's most prominent father-figure, even though they aren't blood related.
Related Differently in the Adaptation: Her ties with Wally West was remixed as she is now her long lost sister instead of aunt.
Sanity Slippage: Iris has begun experiencing the same neurological dissonance which plagued Eva, due to her prolonged time in the Mirror. Iris has begun to experience tremors and mind warps, and she relays her fears to Kamilla in "Pay the Piper."
Screw Destiny:
- "Rogue Air" shows that she strongly believes this when Eddie tells her the reason he is breaking up with her is because he was told by Eobard Thawne that Barry gets married to Iris and there is nothing he can do to stop this from happening.
- Likewise, she doesn't care what the article from the future says about Barry disappearing and never returning. As far as she's concerned Team Flash has changed the future before, they'll do it again.
- In "Wednesday Ever After," Iris does not want her future written in a book and carves her own path by rejecting Cat Co's offer to buy The CC Citizen, instead choosing to work with Sue and buy The Coast City Gazette, thereby expanding her media empire on her own terms.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: After Barry leaves Nora in the future without consulting her or even giving her the chance to say goodbye to Nora, Iris makes the decision to travel to the future through the timesphere in the S.T.A.R. Labs archives to save their daughter.
Secret-Keeper: After an entire season of being Locked Out of the Loop, she is now a part of The Flash's inner circle, as well as Barry's most trusted confidante. She is also a secret keeper of the identities of the Team Arrow members.
Seers: Of a sort, not to the same extent as Cisco's vibing, but because of her Time Sickness, she can sometimes see distortions in the timeline.
Selective Obliviousness: Iris was almost in complete denial about her feelings for Barry during the second half of Season One, to the point that Barry called her out on it. Her relationship with Eddie was the only thing really stopping her from acknowledging them, but a stressful enough situation is enough for them to come to the forefront, as, when it comes down to it, Iris ultimately loved Barry more than she ever did Eddie. After Eddie's death, Iris was too busy mourning him for a relationship to happen, hence why Barry (almost) successfully moved on from her with Patty Spivot.
Self-Serving Memory:
- She initially claims that she didn't have romantic feelings for Barry, but later seasons show that not only did she actually fall in love with Barry when he first came to her house, but that they had a pretend wedding when they were young.
- On the other hand, she later claims to him that she "has always been Iris West-Allen." Despite the fact that she was literally just about to accept Eddie's proposal when Reverse-Flash kidnapped him, and afterwards even tried to encourage him to stay with her when he decided to let her be with Barry.
- She says a few times that Barry abandoned her to go into the Speed Force, when in fact he did so because the world was under the threat of destruction if he didn't. This lapse stems from the depression she suffered after he left and the sheer surreality of the event.
Shipper on Deck:
- Initially for Barry and Felicity. Which is amusing, because Felicity is this for Iris and Barry.
- Likewise, she is very fond of Patty and openly pushes Barry to pursue her.
- Like Barry and Wally, she is supportive of the romance between her father and Cecile Horton.
Shipping Torpedo:
- She was not supportive of Barry's romances with Becky Cooper and Linda Park.
- When Nora is too attracted to Spencer Young, Iris tries to dissuade Nora from pursuing any romance with her due to Spencer being an Immoral Journalist.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man:
- The only two men she ever showed serious interest in were Barry Allen and Eddie Thawne, who were both Nice Guys. When Tony Woodward showed up, she was immediately repulsed by his advances.
- This is Played for Drama in Elseworlds (2018), since Barry is starting to take Oliver's dark personality and Iris prefers Barry's kindness.
Sixth Ranger: She's the final member of Team Flash to join them in season 1.
So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Her stunning good looks have caught the eye of a few super villains, most pointedly Tony/Girder, who commits crimes with the intention of hopefully catching her eye.
Stepford Smiler: She attempts to put on a strong face after spending several months in the Mirrorverse, but her friends and family let her know it's okay to deal with her trauma.
The Strategist: Iris's intelligence lies mostly in her journalistic abilities and leadership skills, but she's also shown to be a skilled strategist and uses her smarts to help the team come up with plans. While Barry was in the Speed Force the first time, she formed and led a plan to stop Girder from attacking everyone, putting herself in harm's way in the process.
Superpowers For A Day: In "Run, Iris, Run" a meta with the power to swap powers gives her Barry's speed, temporarily turning her into a speedster.
Swapped Roles: Matthew Kim transfers Barry's speedster abilities to Iris in "Run, Iris, Run," resulting in Iris's brief stint as the Flash, with Barry coaching her over the comms and being her inspiration to run.
Sweet Tooth: If there's a brownie in her vicinity, she is sure to snatch it up before anyone else can. She also loves mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Team Mom: Because she helped Barry in recreating the Speedforce, the Forces sometimes refer to her as Mother.
This Is Unforgivable!:
- She had a fallout with Joe about him hiding her mother from her and lying that she's still alive in the post-Flashpoint timeline before mending fences. Before the Cosmic Retcon, she took Joe's side and no such issues occur.
- She is so enraged with Barry for abandoning Nora in the future without even letting her know, she begins penning him a letter, stating that she is unsure if she can forgive him for this ever, but never completes it, because Ralph interrupts her, and she decides to travel to the future on her own accord.
Temporal Sickness: Averted. While Iris suffers a Time Sickness, this is not caused by Time Travel. Rather, her sickness causes her to jump through timelines and dimensions, resulting in her unable to remain in her present timeline.
Took a Level in Cynic: A very minor version, but after Eddie's death, she shows a more serious personality than she had in the first season. Goes full cynic during the six months that Barry is gone.
Trapped in Another World: Iris winds up trapped in the Mirror World, without any way to communicate with Barry or anyone else. Her being trapped is one of the driving arcs of the second half of season 6.
Uncanny Atmosphere: In "Armageddon Part 4," Iris is about to be married to Eobard Thawne, who created a timeline in which he is the Flash, while tricking the world into believing that Barry is the Reverse Flash. After Iris meets Barry face to face, she slowly begins to doubt the world that she is living in to the point that she voices her concerns to Ryan Wilder. Eventually, she shoots Thawne to save Barry and assists Barry in reversing Thawne's Reverse Flashpoint.
Undying Loyalty: To Barry. Always.
- In "Paradox," after the Team learns about Flashpoint, Iris comes to Barry's defense and explains why he made the heart-wrenching choice in an effort to get them to see what he was going through.
- During Elseworlds (2018), even after Barry and Oliver swapped lives via Cosmic Retcon, she eventually came to trust that "Oliver" was in fact the man she loved.
- In "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Part 2," Iris is adamant about going to meet Dark Flash, after he has been taken over by Ramsey, because she believes her husband is still somewhere buried beneath Ramsey's control, despite the obvious risks that Ramsey will infect her as well or otherwise kill her.
  Cisco: Iris. That is not Barry. It may sound like him; it may look like him. But that is Dark Flash.
  Iris: You don't know that. What if Barry is still alive in there?
  Cisco: What if it's a trap, alright? We don't even have comms! It's too risky!
  Iris: Listen to me, I just need to look him in his eyes...
  Cisco: If the emitter does not work on Ramsey, I get to come back and try something else, but if you go out there and that's not Barry, you could get infected or worse.
  Iris: [right before she uses the extrapolator to go meet Dark Flash] In sickness and in health.
- In "A Girl Named Sue," despite being the one who is trapped and who is struggling to get out, Iris immediately reassures Barry that she is still with him, from the other side of the Mirror, even though he can't hear her, because she wants him to know that she is always with him, no matter where she goes. Barry, for his part, can seemingly sense that something is up with the Mirror.
  Iris: [to Barry, despite the fact that he can't hear her, because she's trapped in another dimension] I'm still with you.
- In "Liberation," despite the fact that they cannot hear or see one another, because they are physically separated dimensionally, Iris vows that she will find her way back to Barry.
  Iris: [to Barry through the mirror] I love you, and that love is constant.
Unrequited Love Switcheroo:
- During Barry's relationship with Linda Park, Iris clearly did not enjoy seeing them together. When she causes them to break up by telling Linda about Barry's unrequited feelings for her, Barry confronts her about it and point-blank tells her that he was no longer in love with her. Iris is visibly stunned and took a moment too long to respond to that declaration.
- Averted during Barry's relationship with Patty Spivot. While Iris did love Barry, she was still mourning Eddie's death at the time and wasn't ready to start a new relationship, especially with the best friend that her deceased fiance once broke up with her over because he knew she had feelings for him. Her thought-to-be-dead mother and previously unknown biological brother also served as suitable distractions. Hence, unlike with Linda, she showed little to no signs of being jealous of Patty.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Barry. Barry and Iris had been dancing around each other practically all their lives, and the only people who didn't see what was going on was them. Iris remained oblivious to the entire dynamic, while Barry knew he was in love with Iris but missed the obvious signs that she felt the same way, at least subconsciously. Even after becoming aware that their relationship had always ran deeper than friendship, it took until Season 3 for them to finally get together.
Unwitting Muggle Friend: Spends the majority of Season 1 being this to Barry, something that significantly pisses her off when she finally learns who he has been the entire time.
Iris: Tell me how the person I'm supposed to know better than anyone else in my life could keep secrets from me? Big, life changing secrets. You're supposed to be my Best Friend, Barry!
Barry: I am your best friend!
Iris: How can you say that, when the most important things in your life, you kept all of them from me?!
Violently Protective Girlfriend: If Barry is in danger, Iris will not hesitate to attack, or in Savitar's case, kill to protect him.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Her and Cisco, they are the two most likely to snark and clash with one another, but make no mistake, the two are family.
Weirdness Magnet: She attracts a lot of the super villains in the show for some reason. Ironically when she's finally let in on Barry's alter-ego, Metas hardly bother her at all anymore.
What the Hell, Hero?:
- Delivers a blistering one to both Barry and Joe and their attempts at protecting her by withholding Barry's identity, only kept her in even more danger.
- She is of course understanding of his anger, given their history with Thawne but she is irked when Barry locks Nora in the Pipeline without giving her a chance to explain or defend herself, and absolutely livid when Barry banishes their daughter to the future, without even consulting Iris, or allowing her to say goodbye.
Wrong Guy First:
- Joe believes Eddie isn't the right guy for her, and is afraid both of them will end up hurt when they realize it. Eddie himself after learning the future from Eobard, comes to realize this as well, and admits to Iris while he's breaking up with her, that he always suspected that she was actually in love with Barry all along, even if she didn't know it herself. Considering a Season 1 episode confirmed this to be the truth, Joe may have had a point.
- She in turn responds to him, with a Screw Destiny, that even if she may unwittingly love Barry, she wants to be with Eddie. Unfortunately, it becomes a moot point since Eddie ends up committing a Heroic Suicide at the end of Season 1.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- Iris receives this from Barry in "Run, Iris, Run," when she is feeling extremely inadequate after having quit her job at Central City Picture News to support Team Flash as Mission Control, because she no longer sees herself as fearless, and she feels awful about the Team going into the field, while she aids them in the cortex, even though she has never hesitated to join them in the field. Thus, Barry delivers a heart-felt speech to Iris, similar to the ones she has given him aplenty when he feels vastly inadequate, and she is able to create a tidal wave to save Central City. This restores Iris's faith in herself, and she feels confident to return to her journalistic passions.
  Barry: [over the comms to Iris] You told me that you used to be fearless. I know that you still are. You're the bravest person that I know. You can do this; I know you can. We all do. Now, run, Iris, run.
- Iris frequently delivers these to Barry. From telling him that she knows how strong he is and that he can defeat Grodd to reminding him that he cannot constantly burden himself with the butterfly effects of Flashpoint, Iris has constantly gotten through to Barry when he is at his lowest.
  Barry: I never knew I was even capable of caring for someone as much as I care about Nora.
  Iris: I did. I don't know anyone with a bigger heart than you, Barry. So it's no surprise to me that you're a fantastic father, just like you're a fantastic husband.

Characters / Arrowverse: Iris West-Allen

Iris Ann West-Allen

Species: Human^notebriefly a Metahuman during March 2018

Known Aliases: The Flash (temporarily)

Affiliations: Team Flash, Central City Citizen

Played By: Candice Patton, Amina Elkatib (young, Seasons 1-2), Sasha Rojen (young, Seasons 3-), Tom Cavanagh (as "H.R. Wells")

Voiced By: Annie Rojas (Latin-American Spanish dub), Tomo Muranaka (Japanese dub)

First Appearance: "Pilot" (The Flash 1x1)

Appearances: The Flash | Flash vs. Arrow!^note(The Flash) | Heroes Join Forces^note(The Flash) | Invasion!^note(The Flash) | Crisis on Earth-X ^note | Elseworlds ^note(The Flash) | Crisis on Infinite Earths ^note(Supergirl | Batwoman | (The Flash'')

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Characters / Arrowverse: Iris West-Allen

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Iris Ann West-Allen

Species: Humannote briefly a Metahuman during March 2018

Known Aliases: The Flash (temporarily)

Affiliations: Team Flash, Central City Citizen

Played By: Candice Patton, Amina Elkatib (young, Seasons 1-2), Sasha Rojen (young, Seasons 3-), Tom Cavanagh (as "H.R. Wells")

Voiced By: Annie Rojas (Latin-American Spanish dub), Tomo Muranaka (Japanese dub)

First Appearance: "Pilot" (The Flash 1x1)

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Species: Human^notebriefly a Metahuman during March 2018