Why didn't young Barry disappear?

Why didn't young Barry disappear? - Man in Gray Crew Neck T-shirt Sitting on Red Chair

In The Flash S01E15 episode "Fallout" we saw Barry see himself while running. At the end of the episode we saw that Barry accidentally makes a time jump and goes back in time. It becomes clear that it was himself at the beginning whom he saw.

Then it happened. The previous version of Barry vanished or merged or jumped to some other timeline may be. It's not clear what exactly happened with the past Flash. The future Flash who just jumped through time remains and previous one vanished. So I guess only one version is possible in existence at one timeline.

In S01E17 "Tricksters" we saw what happened the night when his mom dies. Flash and Reverse-Flash were there. So when Flash travels back to that night, why didn't young Barry disappear? There should have been only one version of Barry Allen, right? How did they (past, present & future Barry Allens) co-exist and the future flashes did not?



Best Answer

Little Barry didn't disappear because there was no reason for him to.

There is no "law of time" that states that only one person can exist in a timeline at any one time, because time simply doesn't work like that. Time doesn't care if two arbitrary combinations of matter floating through space-time make up what we as humans perceive as the same person.

When Barry travelled back to save his mom, since Barry is able to have very precise control over his location in the multiverse (for lack of a better of term), he was able to travel into his own past and see his younger self. If he had decided to save his mom, he would have made the specific decision to remain travelling on that timeline and travel to the future of that timeline. In the end, that's not what happened and he returned to his own timeline.

The real question should be: "What happened to future Barry?"

Incidentally, in "Out of Time" when Barry time travelled, it's not clear why the other Barry seemed to disappear. That's probably an inconsistency to aid in storytelling, although you could theorize that Barry was still travelling at that time and was "passing through", or maybe because Barry in that instance DID alter the past (by looking at himself), it created a timeline where the other Barry never went back in time, a type of paradox that the universe resolved by eliminating the other Barry. But more likely just an inconsistency.




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Why does the Flash go missing for 25 years?

In the original timeline, the Crisis took place on the night of April 25, 2024, where the Flash fought his nemesis, the Reverse-Flash, with the help of his allies in an extreme street battle in Central City. The fight ended with the speedsters disappearing in an explosion of light.

Why did future flash stop Barry?

The most likely explanation is that future Barry had seen a timeline in which Nora was saved, and the consequences were so dire, he had no choice but to stop himself from changing the course of that fateful night.

What happened to Future Barry?

Nope, Future Flash went back in time chasing Younger Reverse Flash (the 2024 event), to stop him from killing pre-teen barry. AND as seen in the "Fast Enough", Future Flash explicitly tells Present day Flash NOT to save Nora. And most likely, 2024 Barry got sent to the future, 2100-2500 like he did in the comics.

What happened to kid Barry in Flashpoint?

In the "Flashpoint" timeline, 2016-Barry-Allen travels back to 2000 and stops distant-future-Thawne from killing Nora Allen. He then returns back to 2016. In this timeline, young Barry Allen slept through the whole mess, and grows up with both parents, but somehow still has his Speed Force powers by 2016.



Why Didn't You Stop Me?




More answers regarding why didn't young Barry disappear?

Answer 2

we now know what happened to future BA as H.R. calls him he turned to a sad sack because Tracy brand did not build the speed force trap 4 years after iris's death and future Barry explained that even thought you will do everything in your power 2 save iris: you'll go and make time remnants but savitar will kill them, and there is no way to save iris because when he kills her it will feel like an eternity to him because she is the love of his life.

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