| “ | If you had the strength to end my life, you would have done it in the future. But Barry Allen doesn't kill, he's the good guy. The boy Joe raised, the man Iris loves. You have everything and deserve none of it! But I'm going to destroy this city like I did in the future so you can see the truth, Barry, and then you'll treat me like a god! | „ |
| ~ Savitar after escaping his prison in the Speed Force. |
| “ | I was broken and alone. I wanted the pain to end and that's when I realized the truth Barry; God feels no pain! All I had to do was become one! | „ |
| ~ Savitar revealing his origins. |
| “ | Like I told you from the beginning...I am the Future Flash! | „ |
| ~ Savitar revealing his true identity, and his most famous line. |
Savitar, also referred to as Alchemy and the Future Flash, is the self-proclaimed God of Speed and the main antagonist of the third season of the CW's The Flash TV series. He is a time remnant of the series protagonist Barry Allen/The Flash that was created in the future.
Rejected by his friends after his failure to help Team Flash defeat Savitar and for not being "the true Barry Allen", the time remnant traveled to ancient times to obtain the Philosopher's Stone and become Savitar himself, creating the false legend of Savitar being the first Speedster.
He was voiced by the legendary actor, Tobin Bell, who also portrayed Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. In his human form, he is portrayed by starring cast member Grant Gustin, and was portrayed via motion-capture in his metallic suit by stuntman Andre Tricoteux.
Overview
Created by Barry Allen/The Flash to battle Savitar after the creation of Flashpoint, Barry's time remnants were all killed by the armored villain, save for one. This remaining remnant, shunned by Team Flash due to not being their Barry despite knowing everything that he does and feeling everything that he once felt, was left broken and alone until he decided to take revenge on "the real Barry" by any means necessary. To this end, he created his own futuristic armor and became Savitar, the very villain that indirectly created himself. After several battles with Barry, Savitar was imprisoned in the Speed Force by Tracy Brand, a scientist who developed a "Speed Force bazooka". However, before his imprisonment, Savitar manages to split up Team Flash and kill Iris West, thus making him a more personal foe to Barry than some of his other foes.
Savitar returns to Central City in 2016 to take revenge on Barry and the entire Team Flash, whom he holds responsible for his banishment. Savitar also intends to stop Barry before he can imprison him in the future, while also recreating the circumstances that led to his creation. As his imprisonment prevents him from arriving on Earth-1 in the flesh, Savitar uses the Philosopher's Stone, to which he is bound, to take control over Julian Albert, creating the split personality Alchemy in the man.
Through Albert, Savitar sets in motion an elaborate plan to escape the Speed Force. After Barry Allen, the Flash, has reset the Flashpoint timeline, Savitar starts handing meta-human powers to those who had it during Flashpoint. One of the recipients is Wally West who, by taking Savitar's gift, creates a special connection to Savitar.
Although Albert is eventually cured, severing Savitar from his proxy and thus his influence on Earth, Savitar starts appearing to Wally through the connection between the two. Furthermore, Barry and his team manage to contact Savitar in the Speed Force using Julian as a medium. From Savitar, they learn that he deeply despises all of them for what they will do to him in the future. He makes a prophecy regarding the fate of the team, claiming that in the events that lead up to the future creation of Savitar and Savitar's imprisonment, one team member will betray the team, one will fall, one will suffer a fate worse than death. In addition to Savitar's prophecy, Barry has to fight off the impending danger of Iris West's death, because he saw Savitar murder her when he accidentally raced to the future.
From his Speed Force banishment, Savitar uses Wally's youth and ego to his own advantage, eventually manipulating the young Wally into opening a breach into the Speed Force under the pretext to throw the Philosopher's Stone into it. Although Wally believes that this prevents Savitar from returning, it in truth gives Savitar everything he needs to leave the Speed Force. Savitar emerges on Earth-1 and, in return, Wally is dragged into the Speed Force to take Savitar's place. Free at last, Savitar is now able to shape the events to lead to the future he foresaw, including the death of Iris and Savitar's creation. He claims to have big plans for Jesse Quick, and has managed to convince Killer Frost to side with him. After Barry figures out who Savitar is, he confronts him, thus leading to Savitar taking his armor off and explaining who he is and how he came to be.
Eventually, the time came that he would kill Iris in front of Barry; however, he discovers that he actually killed H.R. (Earth-19 Harrison Wells) using light-refraction technology to disguise himself. Knowing that he would be erased from existence any minute, he initiated his plan to spread himself across time and rule the world as a god. After a battle with Barry, Wally and Jay, Savitar's armor is destroyed. Just as he is defeated, Savitar runs at Barry, ready to kill him, only to be shot in the back by Iris, killing him and allowing the paradox to erase him from existence.
Characteristics
Personality
As a time remnant of Barry Allen, he was originally just as well-meaning and heroic as his other counterparts. Upon being driven away from his friends and family, derided as a "disposable hero", he decided to cope with his anguish by becoming the very monster that ruined his life, Savitar.
Savitar's strength as a speedster and a force to be reckoned with seems to have given him a God complex, viewing himself as far superior to Barry Allen's other foes. Being extremely authoritative, formidable, and powerful, he looks down on other speedsters as inferior. However, despite his claims, he maintains a constant, compulsive, and pathological desire to prove himself superior to all others, thinking that any speedster with enough power will be able to challenge him and defeat him, making him more unassertive, oblivious, and insecure, compared to other foes Barry has faced. Like many other supervillains in superhero-based media, Savitar's ego appears to be his own worst enemy, as he loathes the idea of anyone becoming more powerful than him, willing to taunt Barry and arrogantly downgrade his many accomplishments and viewing him as selfish due to messing with time and creating Flashpoint. While possessing Julian, he ordered Team Flash to bow before him despite that he was powerless to do anything to make them believe they should. Upon revealing his true identity, he began behaving in an deliberately smug manner, perhaps to rub what he really was in the heroes' faces.
He also seems to be an intolerant stickler to formalities, addressing Wally West as "Wallace" and choosing not to kill Barry immediately after escaping the Speed Force, thinking he should wait until he has finished off Iris right before his eyes. He also addressed H.R. as "the fake Wells", and noted how ironic it was that he would be the one who survives everything, his cowardice being his shield, which Savitar considered to be heartbreaking and pathetic. He is extremely short-tempered, argumentative, and cantankerous, obsessed with making the Flash suffer; Eobard Thawne had also planned this, but unlike Savitar, he rarely lost his temper, remaining calm and collected. Savitar views Barry as the villain due to being imprisoned in the Speed Force, saying that he never sought conflict with him, but he had still lost everything to Barry and wanting to take it all back. His desire to kill Barry is not exactly as simple as he wished it was, instead deciding to kill Iris right before his eyes to give him a taste of how dangerous his actions are, suggesting that, for some reason, he will never kill Barry directly like he wants to.
Though Savitar's hatred for Team Flash in general runs deep, his aforementioned formalities seem to show that he doesn't wish death upon all of Team Flash as he claims. While possessing Julian, he looked to Iris and apologized in advance that he has to kill her. In addition, he tells Barry that he has dealt with pain all his life, as the deaths of his parents had a huge effect on them, and saying that he wouldn't be able to bare what's coming, and that he has apparently been with him from the very beginning. He called Barry selfish for his actions, particularly his creation of Flashpoint, even though he had tried his hardest to fix his mistakes. He commonly regarded Barry as a separate entity from himself, even expressing jealousy of his perfect life; he remembers proposing to Iris and everything, but he ultimately still disliked Barry.
Powers and Abilities
- Mutated Physiology: Upon touching the Philosopher's Stone, he immediately went through a metamorphosis, transforming him into a taller metallic humanoid with immense supernatural powers related to speed and motion. Despite this robot-like appearance, he still remains a man, but the exact metal and composition of his costume has yet to be revealed. He has a sharp blade that can protrude from his arm, which he uses to kill his victims; since it is a part of him, when Barry sawed it off with his powers, Savitar found it too painful to stand, forcing him to flee. It is later discovered that his metal armor is simply armor, and underneath it, he is a normal man.
- Speed Force Connection: Once a human being, Savitar found an ancient supernatural artifact called the Philosopher's Stone. Upon touching it, Savitar gained a very powerful connection to the Speed Force, and has even mastered all of his Speed Force abilities.
- Superhuman Speed: Like all speedsters, Savitar is immensely fast. According to Jay though, Savitar is the fastest speedster of them all.
- Superhuman Reflexes: His perception and reflexes are so advanced that he sees Speedsters, moving at superhuman speeds, as how human beings see normal men running. This allows him to react to them much easily.
- Electrokinesis: He has light-blue lightning coming off him when he runs, similarly to Zoom. However, as shown in "Cause and Effect", his speed lightning is still red, and when he speeds around in his armor, it becomes blue.
- Dimensional Travel: He can travel between dimensions. However, due to being trapped in the Speed Force, he cannot manage this for too long.
- Superhuman Strength: He possesses superhuman strength, enough to toss and lift full-grown and well-built men without any distress at all. Using his speed and strength together, he can create powerful superhuman physical blows. It is unknown whether its strength comes from itself or from his armor.
- Superhuman Stamina: He has an almost limitless amount of stamina and vitality.
- Accelerated Healing: He has regenerative powers, which might be superior to an average Speedster's regenerative prowess. He instantly recovered from a powerful frost bite from Killer Frost, whereas a normal speedster would require a certain amount of time to recover.
- Telepathic Powers: He is mentally connected to the Philosopher's Stone. So if a being comes in contact with it, he is able to create telepathic links with them, as he did with Julian Albert, transforming him into Alchemy. He also seems to be able to prevent Julian Albert from remembering his time as Alchemy whenever he becomes a mere civilian again. He showed that he is capable of controlling his suit even when he is not in it, meaning that he has a telepathic connection to his suit.
- Illusions Projection: He was able to create illusions of Julian Albert's late sister and Cisco's late brother to manipulate them.
- Visions Projection: According to his followers, who have called him the "Dark Lord", he is able to show them the future, allowing one particular follower to point out Killer Frost as being "great" in the future.
Weaknesses
- Philosopher's Stone Connection: His presence on any world is limited, as he is connected to the Philosopher's Stone, the source of his powers. He was trapped in a small stone box for a long time, and was only freed when Julian Albert opened it in 2012. When the Stone is put in the box and closed, he will disappear suddenly, as shown when Barry shut it in "The Present"; Savitar was about to kill Jay Garrick of Earth-3, but he disappears just as the Stone was locked away in the box. As it turns out, he needed the Philosopher's Stone in its entirety to be released from his prison in the Speed Force, and any broken-off piece of the Stone would have to be thrown into the Speed Force too for it to work.
- Speed Force Connection: Despite being the fastest speedster seen so far, he has been unable to project himself physically for too long due to his Speed Force imprisonment, forcing him to rely on Alchemy to carry out his will. He was trapped in the Speed Force by Barry long enough to "lose [his] mind many times over", and every time he manages to get himself on the physical plane of existence, he would just get sucked back into the Speed Force again. However, he has managed to escape this prison by tricking Wally West into taking his place as prisoner, allowing him to stay on the physical plane of existence for as long as he wants.
- Time: Savitar's plan was to cement his place in reality by giving Barry an excuse to create the time remnant that would eventually become him. However, H.R. defied this casual time loop and took Iris' place, thus meaning that Barry never creates Savitar; if he isn't created, then the Speed Force will realize the paradox and erase him from existence, just like what happened to Eobard Thawne.
- Overheat and Static: Tracy Brand theorized the true reason why Savitar wears his armor; his own powers are potentially a ticking time-bomb. Other speedsters wore friction-proof costumes while running in order to prevent a static charge from building up or to prevent overheating. Savitar's armor seems to serve the same purpose, as without it, he could potentially run the risk of damaging his body.
- Extreme Cold: Extremely-cold temperatures can temporarily stun and weaken him, a weakness shared with Barry and other speedsters. Caitlin Snow was able to stun him this way.
Victims
- Eddie Slick/Sand Demon
- Vandal Savage (Alongside; Oliver Queen)
- Edward Clariss/The Rival
- Iris West (Erased timeline)
- H.R. Wells
- Several Central City Police Department officers
- Numerous Barry Allen time remnants (Erased timeline)
Indirectly
- Al Rothstein/Atom-Smasher
- Wally West/Kid Flash (Flashpoint; Presumed)
- Nora Allen
- Dante Ramon
- Hunter Zolomon/Black Flash
Trivia
- This villain is a composite character of two evil speedsters from the comics; Savitar (a cultist that was sealed in the Speed Force) and the Future Flash(a murderous future version of Barry Allen wearing a costume covered in blue lines). He also fills in the role of Alvin Desmond, who could take over an unsuspecting person and force them to play the role of Alchemy.
- Due to a lack of information about Savitar, it was assumed at the time that the initial trailer for Season 3 was released that the Rival was actually Savitar.
- Savitar is the fifth villainous speedster encountered by Barry and his team, before him came Eobard Thawne, Zoom, Trajectory and the Rival. Additionally, Savitar is the third speedster to be the main villain of a season.
- Savitar is the third Arrow-verse villain to be tied directly to a mythological story, the others being Silver Banshee from Supergirl and Vandal Savage from DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
- Savitar has never seemed to cross paths with the Time Wraiths or their new enforcer, the Black Flash, despite that he'd been able to escape the Speed Force and the Time Wraiths exist to prevent such events. Being a time remnant of Barry, Savitar going undetected by them seems more interesting.
- Savitar is similar to the Black Fairy from Once Upon a Time, in that they were both imprisoned in a lifeless, dark void, but they were able to briefly project themselves in the real world long enough to fight others. Also like the Black Fairy, Savitar was able to escape his prison through trickery (the Black Fairy forced Gideon to open a portal for her, and Savitar tricked Wally West into taking his place). They are both resentful of destiny and the future unless it plays into their desires, with the Black Fairy having sought to change her son's fate and Savitar seeking to discourage his past self from continuing his life as the Flash. In the end, however, they both ended up becoming their worst nightmares while trying to prevent their respective fates.
- Savitar, being Barry's darker self, seems to represent how present Barry would've turned out had he somehow lost all his signature optimism and humor; cold, merciless, manipulative and evil. Cisco compared Savitar and Barry's connection to the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within", in which protagonist James Kirk is split into two separate entities; one being the good Kirk and the other being an "evil" Kirk that lacked the restraint that his complete self has.
- Savitar's goal is to recreate the circumstances that led to his own creation and separation from the main Barry Allen, thus creating a time loop; this was also a time-travel rule that was mentioned in the Terminator movies, specifically in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in which the leftover technology from the original T-800 in the first movie would later be used to create Skynet, the AI that created the T-800 and all other Terminators, effectively meaning that Skynet created itself. At the end of the movie, the T-1000 and the reprogrammed T-800 were destroyed to prevent themselves from "creating" Skynet; however, Skynet still existed in the future. In Savitar's case, he says that present Barry killing himself wouldn't have any effect on him, saying that the more someone time-travels, the less "the rules" apply to them.
- In Season 1 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Mick Rory, due to a time loop and also being shunned by his teammates for his actions, was cast out, leading to him becoming the time-traveling bounty hunter Chronos. He was able to track the team because he remembered where they ventured to during their mission.
- Savitar is the fourth villain in the Arrow-verse that is fought by more than two heroes at once, having fought off Barry, Jay Garrick and Wally West in "The Present" and then again in "Finish Line"; Eobard Thawne was the first, (defeated by Barry, the Green Arrow and Firestorm), the second was Vandal Savage, (defeated by Barry, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, then later again by the Legends team), and the third was the Dominators, defeated by Team Arrow, Team Flash, the Legends and Supergirl of Earth-38 all teaming up. However, Savitar was able to beat the three speedsters himself. In "Finish Line", he is defeated by the speedsters and killed by Iris West.
- Savitar also seems to be similar to Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as both are manipulative, black-haired, messy and somewhat-insane villains with God complexes. They mainly felt jealousy for the protagonist of their respective stories (Thor and Barry, respectively) and were defeated by the combined forces of multiple characters working as a team (Team Flash and the Avengers, respectively). Both also held their enemies responsible for being dropped into a cosmic prison (Thanos' domain and the Speed Force, respectively) and used blue mystical artifacts (the Mind Stone and the Philosopher's Stone, respectively) as weapons against their enemies.
- Savitar has been met with mixed reception from fans and critics alike. Most of the criticism has been directed towards his visual appearance. He has also been noted for having many traits in common with Zoom (as mentioned above) and Reverse-Flash, and isn't very distinct from either villains. The producers have also been criticized for using another speedster as the primary villain of the third season, after already using speedsters as the primary villains of the first two seasons.
- While other speedsters such as Reverse-Flash and Zoom are significantly faster than Barry, Savitar is only interested in targeting Barry, for in the future, he will one day trap him in the Philosopher's Stone.
- The prohecy for Team Flash that Savitar had said to Barry has been revealed:
- "One Shall Betray you" - Caitlin Snow, who kept a small piece of the stone and later becoming Killer Frost and siding with Savitar upon seeing his true identity.
- "One shall fall" - Iris being killed by Savitar, though H.R. took her place.
- "One will suffer a fate far worse then death" - Wally being imprisoned in the Speed Force prison made by future Barry and later having his spine crushed by Savitar, horribly traumatized by this and left unable to speak.
- In his first appearance, Savitar was only in CGI.
- In the season 3 finale, Cisco calls Savitar "Two-Face". It is not revealed whether he says that to reference a movie or comic, or whether a version of the villain actually exists in the Arrowverse.
