You know what I’ve been staring at this scene for a few minutes and some things strike me as odd. Note that I am/was pretty much in agreement with Wally being completely and actually dead as much as it killed me to say but watching this scene closely things make me think.
Wally disintegrates but in the right top panel for a moment he is staring through his own hand. Even when burning up you don’t become translucent. In the right hand panel in the second row Wally flashes between translucency and transparency. When an object burns up or disintegrates they don’t become more then less. And in the same panel Barry is able to stick his hand right through him like he is a ghost and just not there. For the next two panels with him in it he continues to go back and forth. And in the final panel he is still running as he bursts out of existence and all his particles move back in space in the same direction. In fact it looks similar to what happens when planes break the sound barrier, not exact but similar. Greg said there was no Speed Force on Earth-16 but that doesn’t rule out other phenomenon taking place.
The Scarab also says that Kid Flash is acting as an exit valve for the Chrysalis energy. We know that Black Beetle didn’t know how to stop the Chrysalis once activated, and Blue Beetle calls it an “endgame.” No failsafes.
So we have this alien weapon utilizing energy we don’t know anything about. It’s dicking around with the Earth’s magnetic field, which is mysterious enough anyway- I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t scientists only now starting to figure out how magnetism works? The details and exact process?
And then there are the speedsters themselves- they’re generating enough kinetic energy to try and match the Chrysalis energy, and I think it’s a pretty safe bet that the only time anything like that has been tried was when they faced Neutron, but even then there were key differences. The Flash family were trying to create a wind funnel, not utilize their speed trails to counter an unknown alien energy; and Neutron was nowhere near as powerful as the Chrysalis.
There are so many unknowns here that it’s premature, I think, to write Wally off.
Plus the Scarab says “cease,” not “die” or “atomize” or “destroy” or other words that you’d think would be its first choice if Wally was incontrovertibly dead. Scarab also terms Wally an “exit valve”, a notion I find fascinating. You have the Chrysalis energy and then you have the speedsters containing it, and the energy seems to be attracted to Wally in an attempt to stabilize, to find balance. I will freely admit that I suck at chemistry about as much as is humanly possible, and physics is entirely over my head. But you’re dealing with magnetism, immense amounts of energy, and speed- kinetic energy.
I found an interesting quote in my 30 Second Theories book regarding electromagnetism:
The equations, it turned out, required an unexpected factor: the speed of light. This revelation led to the understanding that light and radiant heat can be thought of as moving variations in electromagnetic fields. These moving fields came to be known collectively as radiation. Investigations of radiation led Max Planck to invent quantum theory and Albert Einstein to come up with his concept of relativity. (p. 28)
The equations mentioned “[…] describe the complex interplay of electric and magnetic fields.”
We have mentions here of light and magnetism and radiation and speed… thumbing through the section, I also saw mentions of teleportation and string theory.
String theory! Beetle’s use of the word “failsafe” was extremely deliberate (on Grandon’s part, not his). It’s a hearkening back to Season 1. I think string theory would be another callback for us in Season 3, had Young Justice been renewed (or if it is renewed later).
Brella’s instinct to look at the zeta tubes was spot on.
Just like the show itself, it’s too early to write Wally off. Just like the fandom- he ain’t dead!
#I really wish I actually understood this stuff #It’s fascinating #And can I just say I grow ever more impressed with Brella #In general of course #But with this in particular- how she saw the potential in the zeta tubes #And just how cool is it that this discussion is brought to you by a freaking CARTOON #Fitting that science prodigy and chem whiz Wally is the catalyst for it #LOOK I MADE A SCIENCE JOKE #… did I do it right
wow SHUT UP y’all are the ones with the fascinating theories here!! damn, son.
One other little thing – the energy from the chrysalis was originally using the speed trails left by Barry and Bart as an exit valve, but when Wally appeared, because he was slower, he took the place of these “speed trails.”
AND, it looks like he’s being pushed back by something – some kind of barrier. He seems to be running up against something that’s slowing him down and causing him to disappear, and he doesn’t dissolve or disintegrate or anything of the sort – he starts running up against this invisible field, and that’s what seems to dissolve behind him in the last gif – those particles are in front of him, almost; not a part of him.
Really interesting stuff.
I’d like to add my two cents worth to zeta beam theory. I definitely think Wally is alive, and that the zeta beam radiation plays a part in it.
Wally leaves the watchtower to go help through the Zeta-Tubes. The zeta radiation had probably not worn off YET when Wally got to the North Pole. So whatever the alien energy that disrupts earth’s magnetic fields that fired at Wally PROBABLY mixed with the zeta beam radiation that wally was fresh out of the tubes from. Since this thing messes with Earth’s magnetic field my first guess is that Wally was teleported to another dimension.
Now before someone brings up how the zeta tubes teleportation beams are a yellow/gold color, you’re right. But we’ve also been shown something else that runs on zeta radiation (along with chronotron radiation), the time machine Bart went back to the past in. It’s color is blue when it’s radiation is used.
At the end of Bloodlines when Bart’s time machine leaves the year 2056 to go back in time to 2016, it’s charges up THEN disappears in a bursting flash of light. Similar to THE SAME WAY Wally disappeared in those last two panels above.
Now I don’t know how different forms of radiation works or how they are formed right off the bat. But we do know what elements are in play here:
- We’ve got a zeta radiation covered Wally running probably near the speed of sound.
- We’ve got the kinetic energy generated by the 3 speedsters.
- We’ve got the speed trails formed by the 3 of them.
- We’ve also got the chrysalis energy which messes up the earth’s magnetic field, and it’s firing beams at Wally.
- There’s also the potential possibility of the earth’s magnetic field not fully recovered at that point could allow someone to slip through a dimension.
Now I don’t have a degree in nuclear physics. BUT I would be fully confident in buying that the three things bolded above COULD make some form of radiation and COMBINE itself with the zeta radiation Wally is covered in.
IMO Wally is alive and I believe it is thanks to the fact THAT he traveled through zeta tubes from the watchtower to earth. If zeta beam radiation can be combined with chrontron radiation to go back in time. I DON’T think it’s a bridge too far to buy into the idea that Wally was teleported due to still being covered in zeta radiation combined with the magnetic field disruptors energy.
What does everyone else think?
