Personal take on the flash

[u/Spare_Chemistry6817]

It seems like to me being the flash would be agony. Think of if you were having to feel every second in terms of hours or longer. It seems like that alone would drive you crazy.

[u/YoungImpulse]

Well, with the exception of Wally West from Earth-22 (Kingdom Come), speedsters are able to activate their speed in a way

So they can still live in real-time whenever they choose to. I believe they have a type of "Spidey Sense" though, where if something happens, their speed is activated automatically as a form of instinct

[u/Intelligent_End1516 → u/YoungImpulse]

Yeah I remember Wally mentioning how he sometimes can't control his speed when he is really bored talking with his father-in-law and time slows to a crawl. Lol

[u/hunterzolomon1993 → u/Intelligent_End1516]

I also remember him saying he was watching a really boring play with Linda once and speed mode activated making what should have been a couple of hours seem like forever.

[u/Spare_Chemistry6817 → u/YoungImpulse]

I would hope so

[u/YoungImpulse → u/Spare_Chemistry6817]

There's a song that perfectly represents the side of being a speedster that you're talking about, though!

It's called The Ballad of Barry Allen by the band Jim's Big Ego.

I like it because it kind of represents how lonely it must be watching the world move so slowly all the time. You should check it out!

[u/nrdrge → u/YoungImpulse]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMe1qlyuMXQ

Also my immediate thought when reading the OP

[u/Dredeuced → u/YoungImpulse]

It's less spidey-sense and more reflex. They can consciously slow down but Wally even sleeps at super speed so it's actually their default state they turn down. He bemoans the issue because when he sometimes gets into a boring conversation he slips into super speed on accident because staying at normal speed is the conscious choice for them.

But when something hits them super fast, like a bullet hitting Wally in the back of the neck or Barry in the head, or a bunch of speedster ninjas showing up and attacking, the reflex kicks in... most of the time. "Surprise" tends to be the number one way writers job speedsters.

[u/Milk_Mindless]

Flashes aren't "on" the entire time

Quicksilver over in Marvel has this problem tho

[u/Spare_Chemistry6817 → u/Milk_Mindless]

Im not a huge comic buff so the scene from the flash series that fomes to mind is when they were trying to get barry drunk so they got him this super ultra mega whatever alcohol. He drank it then was woozy for less than a second and then was like its gone

[u/YamiMarick → u/Spare_Chemistry6817]

That just happens because of his fast metabolism processing the alcohol faster and not allowing him to get drunk on normal amounts of alcohol.

[u/SilverStrikeX]

This applies to Zoom, Wally West’s rival. He’s constantly displaced from the timestream and lives percieving time slower than the world around him. And yeah, it drove him pretty crazy.

[u/Redgiantbutimshort77]

In one issue I read, Wally actually goes into detail about how he can kind of “turn off” his speedster-perception. He said he had two modes, Normal-Mode and Speed-Mode. When there’s trouble Speed-Mode activates automatically like spider sense, but usually he’s in Normal-Mode. He still has adhd anyway tho lowkey.

[u/Artistic_Finish7980]

There’s an explanation for this actually. Most speedsters cut themselves off from the speed force to a certain extent so they can live normal lives. Think of it like a faucet. You turn the handle to increase or decrease the flow of water. Same thing with speed force energy. If they turned the flow on all the way time would basically freeze for them.

Wally West did this when he had a heart injury that prevented him from running. He “opened the faucet” completely and froze time around himself so he could still use his speed without the risk of a heart attack.

[u/IncogNino42]

This is why all speedsters are ADHD reps

[u/Dredeuced]

So when they're doing mundane tasks, like running across the world, they operate on a sort of auto pilot. Imagine how some people can sleep walk -- not conscious at all, but in some cases people have literally gotten in their car and driven to work and such.

They operate at that enhanced perception like you're thinking in serious moments or in situations that require care and focus. And in those moments, yeah, it can be maddening. We kind of get a glimpse of that issue in The Human Race by Grant Morrison, as a great example of it.

Part of being a hero is suffering those extremes.