The 7 best (and 6 worst) Arrowverse villains

The Forces

The Flash season 7 was a mess. I hate to say that, because it had so much potential, but it all fell apart so darn quickly. Not only was it forced to recycle the whole “Barry Allen has lost his speed” narrative, the creation of the Artificial Speed Force was such an unnecessary and convoluted extension to the already convoluted mythology of the show. And in hindsight, it’s clear that it was a major mistake.

This led to the creation of the Forces of Nature. The Still, Sage, Strength, and new Speed Force, their four avatars were initially enemies for Barry and Iris. Then we learned that they were actually Barry and Iris’ sort-of-but-not-really children as they were born out of the pair’s love (which was awkward because the Speed Force still looked and behaved like Barry’s mother). Then three of them turned against Speed Force Nora, who had lost the plot. And then they all came together out of love to balance the universe which they all knew was their purpose already? Oh yeah, and then there were inherently evil versions called the Negative Forces, too?

The Forces storyline was mercifully short, but it was a major misstep for a great show that had unfortunately started making too many of them. Audiences struggled with these characters, and it isn’t hard to see why when we barely knew them and their shifting allegiances made it hard to like, trust, or care about any of them.

None of it made sense. None of it.

Verdict: WORST