Spoilers The Flash - Season 5

[dahj]

Except that the show literally has a smart phone as a sponsor. Don’t know if Nora happened to be using the same model, but the point is that the show wouldn’t bad-mouth smart phones if they have a smart phone company as a sponsor.

Smartphones are an ubiquitous item these days so having one on the show is no more advertising all smartphones than having a car on the show is advertising all cars.

I really don't think there's any stealth marketing going on here, the writers just used an extremely common item to evilize.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Smartphones are an ubiquitous item these days so having one on the show is no more advertising all smartphones than having a car on the show is advertising all cars.

Whether or not they're doing product placement on the show is NOT my point. My point is that they wouldn't have a character aim criticism at something that might upset one of their sponsors. This is a very common practice, including in journalism. "We can't run this story, because it could upset Sponsor X."

The meta-powered smartphone being used by a villain is also completely beside the point, as equating that with aiming criticism at the device in general and/or its current role in our society would be a Ralph-worthy reach.

 

[Christopher]

Mixer, I honestly don't get why you're so offended by the fact that Nora got a phone. I mean, we already established that she's been in our time for nearly a year, so your original objection that she shouldn't have known how to use a smartphone has already been debunked. Beyond that, I don't see what there is for you to be upset by, or why this utterly inconsequential element of the episode is literally the only thing you've talked about for the past five pages' worth of posts. I mean, did you even watch the rest of the episode?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Mixer, I honestly don't get why you're so offended by the fact that Nora got a phone.

Did I say I was offended?

Beyond that, I don't see what there is for you to be upset by, or why this utterly inconsequential element of the episode is literally the only thing you've talked about for the past five pages' worth of posts. I mean, did you even watch the rest of the episode?

I'd have let it go a while back, but people keep bringing it back up, quoting me and debating my points...including you. So it's disingenuous to accuse me of going on about it for five pages like I've been ranting about it in a vacuum.

Now's the part where you post three paragraphs about how this is a discussion board and we're here to discuss things, and my response is yeah, that's what I've been doing.

I'm surprised by how much resistance there is here to the simple and seemingly intuitive notion that today's tech will seem laughably outdated in 30 years.

 

[Christopher]

I'm just wondering if you have any other thoughts about, you know, literally any other aspect of the episode.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Well, I was noticing what look like bags of coffee on the shelf behind the bar in the new lounge, and wondering if they're from the outside or a STAR Labs house blend.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Wally and Iris are young parents, from the "modern" world.

Buying their kid their first cellphone is like buying a second hand car for your kid in the 1950s.

It's a right of passage?

Which is weird, and probably not true, since children don't get their first phone as they become an adult any more, 4 year olds have smartphones, because it is becoming increasing difficult to live in the "modern" world without a tiny computer connected to the internet, in your pocket.

(Cough -parental-leash- cough.)

 

[Awesome Possum]

I wonder if we're going to end up with some sort if predestination loop in which Iris disables Nora's powers because she knows it will lead to exactly these circumstances (including, eventually, Nora saving Barry).

Although, predestination aside, it makes a lot of sense to disable powers until a person fully reaches adulthood. I'm not sure what to make of Nora feeling that her sense of identity had been violated, though. Does she have a point, or is she just blaming Iris for a somewhat normal sense of teenage isolation or lack of belonging?

She likely sees her powers as part of who she is, her legacy from the father she never knew. I can see how having something so important not only kept a secret, but blocked from you, would cause some resentment.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I think Iris took the blame for Barry doing it, because of how Nora idolized her dad.

 

[dahj]

I'm surprised by how much resistance there is here to the simple and seemingly intuitive notion that today's tech will seem laughably outdated in 30 years.

It's the argument that sponsor concerns are the only reason Nora doesn't laugh at the obsolescence of smartphones that I don't agree with, if anything smartphone manufacturers would want her to laugh at how obsolete the current one is because they're already trying their hardest to convince people they need a new model every year...

 

[Tom Hendricks]

My 9 year old son loves to play 80s video games, PacMan, Galaga, Space Invaders. He doesn’t laugh at them, he plays them earnestly.

 

[Romulan_spy]

It's the argument that sponsor concerns are the only reason Nora doesn't laugh at the obsolescence of smartphones that I don't agree with, if anything smartphone manufacturers would want her to laugh at how obsolete the current one is because they're already trying their hardest to convince people they need a new model every year...

I could see it being a problem for sponsors if Nora had criticized a specific brand or model of smart phone or criticized all smart phones as useless since that could be interpreted at discouraging sales of either a specific brand or smart phones in general. But if Nora had simply remarked that the smartphones of her era are much better than the smartphones of Barry and Iris' time, I don't see how that would be a problem. It's just a commentary on how tech gets better.

 

[Christopher]

My 9 year old son loves to play 80s video games, PacMan, Galaga, Space Invaders. He doesn’t laugh at them, he plays them earnestly.

Good point. And Nora's a museum buff, at least where the Flash is concerned. She probably thinks retro tech is cool.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'd have let it go a while back, but people keep bringing it back up

See what I mean?

 

[Morpheus 02]

Have you guys ever thought...that maybe since she has been without a phone the whole time (for whatever reason...how has she lived in our time before joining Team Flash?) ... That even a primitive phone is better than no phone. I imagine they still have a lot of the same functions 30 years out...just be better set up to NOT give you carpel tunnel, butt dialing or issues with fingers.

The phone makes her feel a bit more at home...and feels like any teenager deprived of a phone for more than a couple hours

Also a part of me ( the "logical" part) says that Nora shouldn't be here all season..but Jessica Parker Kennedy is such a great, completely believable as a child and Iris and Barry..and has a kid vibe (pun intended)...she is a great fit for the show

 

[Guy Gardener]

I could see it being a problem for sponsors if Nora had criticized a specific brand or model of smart phone or criticized all smart phones as useless since that could be interpreted at discouraging sales of either a specific brand or smart phones in general. But if Nora had simply remarked that the smartphones of her era are much better than the smartphones of Barry and Iris' time, I don't see how that would be a problem. It's just a commentary on how tech gets better.

Nora "No WayneTech Phones please, Batman loads that stuff full of spyware to listen in on the bad guys.

Iris "Who's "Batman"?"

 

[jbny67]

You don't think that, 30 years from now, kids will look upon modern cell phones like these kids do this phone?

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[Guy Gardener]

That kid is stumped by shirts.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I have been thinking about who put the inhibitor thing inside Nora and I’m more than convinced that it was Barry. Think about how Iris was kept in the dark and how upset she was about it. Then how she became the biggest supporter of Barry as Flash. There is no way Iris is putting that device into Nora.

I may not have the correct person who does but I’m pretty sure that Iris didn’t do it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Super speed embryo.

Iris is dead.

If the embryo was aging super fast (which is something that happened to Impulse in the comics) the rate of growth would drain Iris of resources, and grow way too quickly. She would be sucked into a raisin-like state, harden, and then explode as the embryo grows ten sizes in 30 seconds.

Or imagine if a 3 week old spends 300 relative years in Flash-Time? She isn't getting any older, so her brain is under developed, but emotionally Nora would be wrecked.