User blog comment:TheDoctor230/Barry Hasn't Defeated a Big Bad Yet (Technically)/@comment-26537965-20180110135435/@comment-24152851-20180116010106

Yes he's real in the sense that he's a physical person that exists, but he's not exactly the same as the original Barry. All time remnants prior to Savitar were treated as expendable kamikazes who are created only to sacrifice themselves, so it's not that much of a surprise why Team Flash would think otherwise. I still don't get why they didn't just tell Savitar to run back to where Barry took him from though.