Flash and Arrow are the exact same show and use the same story beats/character arcs. CW Writers lack any creativity.

I love the Arrowverse, but recently I realized that the writers have been mirroring the same story beats every season, especially in regards to season-wide villains. Off of the top of my head, this is what I could come up with:

Season 1: Malcolm Merlyn vs The Reverse Flash

• The villains are the character's most well-known archnemesis from the comics with the same abilities as the hero (archery and super-speed)

• The main villain has an estranged family member (a character original to the show) who is in a love triangle with the hero and the hero's comic book love interest. The family member's name is meant to be a red herring (Tommy Merlyn and Eddie Thawne).

• It is revealed via flashback that the main villain is responsible for the death of the hero's parent (Robert and Nora), thus setting the hero's origin story into motion.

• The main villain inadvertently kills his estranged family member.

• The Season ends with the main villain seemingly dying, but ends up returning at least once per season

Season 2: Deathstroke vs Zoom

• The main villain of this season is the leader of an army of metahumans, making superpowers a citywide phenomenon rather than a few isolated incidents (the Mirikuru soldiers and the Earth-Two army)

• Before they are revealed to be the villain, the hero believes to see the villain die before their eyes (Oliver driving an arrow through Slade's eye in the flashback, and the Jay Garrick time remnant is stabbed by "Zoom"

• The villain murders the hero's living parent, who over the course of the series was recently released from jail.

• The hero refuses to kill the villain despite their goading; the villain ends up imprisoned by a third party

Season 3: Ra's al Ghul vs Savitar

• The villain this season is the immortal leader of a cult

• Despite the grandiose beliefs spouted by their followers, the villain's only goal in this season is to get the main hero to become them. (Ra's wants Oliver to become head of the demon; Savitar wants to close the loop and ensure his own creation.)

• The three seasons- long will-they-won't-they between the hero and the main love interest is finally resolved. (Spoiler alert: they will.)

• By the end of this season, pretty much every main character is a part of the superhero team.

• The hero's comic book sidekick finally gets a costume (Kid Flash and Arsenal).

• There is an extended arc in which the hero and his best friend have a falling out due to the hero's ill-conceived plan harming a family member. (Diggle gets mad at Oliver for kidnapping Lyla and Sarah as Al-Sa-Him, while Cisco holds a grudge for Flashpoint resulting in Dante's death).

• At some point, the hero "dies" in the fight against the villain (Oliver on the mountain, Barry in the speed force), and we see Team Flash/Team Arrow cope without their leader.

Season 4: Damien Darhk vs Clifford Devoe

• After the previous season showed the heroes at their bleakest, the writers attempt to infuse a lighter tone into the series, with the hero coming back from their respective exiles (Ivy Town & the Speed Force) with a burden lifted off of their shoulders.

• The villain was name-dropped at the end of the previous season.

• The villain is part of a villainous husband/wife duo (Ruvé and Marlize), one wife stands by her husband until the end, while the other ultimately defects.

• The writers shake up their villains, making them more powerful than previous villains (Flash's villain is no longer a speedster; Arrow's villain possesses magic).

• Unlike in previous season's, where the main. villain's identity is a surprise reveal about midway through the season, in this season both Oliver and Barry learn of the villain's existence within the first few episodes.

• As a result of their earlier knowledge of the villain, the heroes have more one on one showdowns with this main villain than in previous seasons, usually resulting in the villain easily besting the hero because of their superpowers.

• The villain becomes more powerful the more victims he kills (Damien through his totems, while Devoe steals the powers of his victims through body swapping).

• A Nuclear bomb explodes (Enter Flashtime and Monument Point). In the Flash, the team stops the nuke, but in Arrow, it destroys a city. (Felicity felt bad about it though, so that makes it okay.)

• While previous villains were motivated by a personal agenda with the heroes, and/or their plots rarely took place outside of the hero's city, this season shows the first main antagonists bent on world domination.

• The villain kills a supporting hero who had been trained by the protagonist (Laurel and Ralph) but thanks to plot convenience both come back in some form (Earth 2 version and taking back control of their bodies)

Season 5: Prometheus and Cicada

• The main villain is a serial killer motivated by the direct actions of the hero in a previous season (Oliver killed Justin Claybourne sometime during the season 1 timeline, and Grace Gibbons was injured by the exploding STAR Labs satellite).

• A running plotline during the season is the hero coping with becoming a father after their grown child they didn't know about enters their lives (William and Nora).

• We see the return of the fan favorite season 1 antagonist who at some point became a mentor

I'll admit, I dropped off of Flash sometime in the middle of season 5, so I don't have as many parallels to draw. I'll admit some of these connections are a bit of a stretch, while others, like the Devoe/Darhk connections, seem incredibly blatant. What do you think?

What do you think of this 10/10 analysis?

Ridiculous

Pretty spot on.

Cisco's pop culture references > Felicity though.

As much as I love Arrow and used to love The Flash (like you, I dropped off roughly halfway through season 5, that show really is unwatchable), I can't deny that this is pretty spot on.

Goddamn

At least post the link of the reddit post you copy pasted this from and not pretend you wrote this.

CW shows usually have a good first season then just absolutley tank into an utter shit feast like Arrow and Flash have become

@rbt: Burn.

@rbt: What if I'm the same user as the one who posted that reddit thread? You dont have any evidence for that. Anyway, at the end I said what do you think of this analysis not my. Too lazy to post the link.

And dont try and shy away from the fact that your precious arrowverse isnt as glorious and creative as you think. You're lucky the guy didnt even go into roasting Supergirl and Legends lol.

@tonymartial:

What if I'm the same user as the one who posted that reddit thread? You dont have any evidence for that. Anyway, at the end I said what do you think of this analysis not my. Too lazy to post the link.

You don't have the mental capacity to write this up. In case you didn't have the mental capacity to understand what I just said, I meant that this post is way too smart for you.

And dont try and shy away from the fact that your precious arrowverse isnt as glorious and creative as you think. You're lucky the guy didnt even go into roasting Supergirl and Legends lol.

Okay?

Aarrowvers officially sucks more then the DCEU now.

Flash is notoriously bad at this

Also the shtick of needing generic pseudo-scientific psychobabble, inventing some stupid maguffin to beat a villain, and incredibly inconsistent performances from Barry make the show really trying to watch

I dropped all of the Arrow shows currently and I'm not sure if i'll return to them

@rbt: More of this cute toxicity because of Supergirls electricity weakness? Yawnnn. You take discord/cv way too seriously, its all just fun and games rbt. Still no evidence tho...

I'm just saying you always shy away from the main topic of the thread

I actually agree with rbt for once

And isn’t plagiarism against the rules?

Seriously though, are you okay? You don't seem okay judging by this reply.

Hell no, this is horrible nitpicking.

@rbt: ? All good mate.

This is a copy paste from Reddit...

https://www.reddit.com/r/flashtv/comments/bsxvt1

@king_hellstorm: I'm doctormisterio19... what more do you want me to say ;)

CW should be shut down lmao, it's garbage. All the dc content on there is garbage. The dceu is hardly better either.

No youre not...

@Wildvine

You on the rag or something, buttercup?

Tony is the GOAT.

@ourmanuel: Hit yourself in the head again?

Don’t you mean *on* the head?

Wonder where you learned grammar like that?

But to answer your question: yes, I did. As would any reasonable person who read that Dead Sea of a post.

I mean, yeah. 90% of all CW shows are trash outside of Doom Patrol. Same goes for Marvel shows outside of Daredevil and Punisher. Legion's the only superhero show worth talking about imo.

@mrmonster: I had to force myself to watch the last 2 episodes. It’s just frustrating watching the flash lose to a villain that they could have easily stopped. Also, the ending of the flash made 0 sense and broke all of their own rules.