Board Thread:The Flash discussions/@comment-13895380-20160824190348/@comment-13895380-20160827002531

Kaestal wrote: I thought RFR Eobard hadn't ever actually fought Flash before, he only knew he was destined to be his villain due to time traveling, which we have seen has the potential to show one's entire life.

Barry was running as fast as he could to catch RFR Eobard during that scene, Eobard was just capable of going that much faster than Barry (Who could only move at Mach 2, maybe Mach 3 for a brief moment) He had to had fought future Flash before and many times, because that was the moment when he found out Flash's identity.

RF (esisode 1 x 23): What matters is that neither of us were strong enough to defeat the other...until I learned your secret. I learned your name.

So yeah, this was an experienced RF who future Flash couldn't beat. It's possible (and probable) that Barry's shortcut allowed him to catch RF and while that doesn't show that Barry is faster than RF, it does show that he was at least fast enough such that RF couldn't dodge Barry in time, recover fast enough, nor dodge the rest of Barry's blows.

Again, Barry couldn't catch Zoom no matter how hard he tried after Zoom killed his dad. He came close to RF (within an arm reach) without even getting his power boost yet, but still couldn't catch Zoom. At that time Barry and Zoom were about the same speed. When Barry almost caught (arm reach) and then tackled RF, he wasn't nearly as fast as Zoom.

Basically what I'm trying to say is...Zoom and post-speed-force-experience Barry are probably faster than pre-learning-Barry's-identity RF. :P For future (Nora-Killer) RF to be faster than them, RF had to have gotten much faster when he initially returned to his timeline. He knew about Tachyons but maybe he didn't know how to use them to enhance his own speed until after he returned to his timeline in 2x17. Maybe after learning this, he used Tachyons so many times that he did become "as fast as he wants"-level like future Flash did and he did gain enough speed force to go back far enough to Barry's childhood, but the amount of speed force manipulation it took was finally too fatiguing for his connection, and thus he lost most of his connection (as in season 1). How's that theory? :P