- For other uses of the name "Nora", see Nora (disambiguation).
- "Schway!"
- —Nora West-Allen[src]
Nora West-Allen, nicknamed XS by Iris West-Allen, is a meta-human speedster and a time traveler, as well as the daughter of Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen from the future.[1] After going back to the past to finally meet her father, Nora joined Team Flash. Unbeknownst to the rest of her team, however, she is seemingly working with Eobard Thawne, imprisoned in the year 2049. According to a version of Thawne that changed Flash's fate in the year 2000, her name was supposed to be Dawn, presumably in a previous timeline or maybe Dawn was a sister of Nora.[2]
Biography
Previous timeline
According to Eobard Thawne, the daughter of Barry Allen and Iris West was supposed to be named Dawn. Meeting Nora herself in 2015, Eobard realized that she's supposed to be Barry's daughter and asked if her name was Dawn. When she corrected him, Thawne realized, that his actions in the year 2000 has changed the timeline, inspiring the West-Allen couple to name their daughter after Barry's late mother.[2]
Early life
Nora West-Allen was born to Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen sometime between 2018 and 2024, and was named in honor of her late paternal grandmother, Nora Allen.
In 2024, Barry disappeared after a battle with the Reverse-Flash and never returned, leaving Nora to be raised solely by her mother. As she grew up, Nora was given the nickname "XS" by Iris due to the former's tendency to do things in excess.[1] Sometime after Barry's disappearance, Iris secretly had a power-dampening chip implanted in Nora to keep her inherited powers hidden for unknown reasons. As a result, Nora remained unaware of her meta-human abilities.[3]
While Nora didn't remember her father, she nonetheless idolized Barry. Nora often visited the Flash Museum, where she studied her father's adventures.[1] In 2032, when she was a child, Nora visited the Hall of Villains in the museum for the first time. One of the villains mentioned was Cicada, a meta-human serial killer who both Team Flash and their allies failed to capture. Upon learning this, Nora grew very terrified of Cicada, even more so than any other villain in the Flash Museum.[4]
After her father's disappearance, Nora's relationship with her mother became tense as Iris struggled in the aftermath of losing Barry and refused to talk with Nora about her father or their past.[5]
Nora graduated from Central City University with a 5.6 GPA and became a forensic scientist.[1]
At some point in her adulthood, Nora found out through an unknown individual (presumably Eobard Thawne) about the power-dampening chip her mother implanted in her. As a result, Nora grew estranged from her mother, feeling that Iris took away her choice to be a hero like her father.[3] After learning she was a speedster, Nora honed her speedster powers like Barry's. She became known as the "Fastest Woman Alive", a homage to her missing father.[1]
Visit to the past
Six months later,[3] Nora time-traveled 30 years into the past to late 2017. She awkwardly greeted her father at his wedding to her mother. Nora informed him that she felt the wedding would be "one for the ages". Barry asked if they knew each other, to which Nora quickly replied that they didn't and that she was no one special. Before walking away, Nora told Barry to make sure to say "I do".[6]
Nora reappeared sometime later in CC Jitters, after the defeat of the Trickster and Prank, and excitedly paid for Ralph Dibny and Cisco Ramon's drinks whilst babbling intellectually about helping others, much to their confusion. Afterward, Nora wrote in a journal, using the same symbols that Barry used when he returned from the Speed Force.[7]
Nora later returned to Jitters to meet Harrison Wells and Caitlin Snow, unbeknownst to them. She knocked her drink over near them on purpose and immediately apologized. Caitlin reassured Nora that it was fine before she and Harry left.[8]
Nora later appeared as a delivery girl at Barry and Iris' apartment where her Papa Joe West and Mama Cecille Horton were having their baby shower. She told Cecille that the baby was due in 21 days and gave her and Joe a diaper bag, claiming it was a gift from "someone who cares". After giving them the gift, Nora spotted her mother and disappeared. She then ran away at super-speed.[9]
Afterwards Nora planned to assist her father in destroying the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite on the day of the Enlightenment. She traveled to 2018 and altered the timeline, making sure the satellite was properly destroyed.[10] After helping her father, Nora saved Spencer Young from falling debris. Spencer then tried to ask her for a selfie, but Nora sped off.[3] The next day, Nora went to the West house, where she introduced herself to Team Flash, revealed she was Barry and Iris' daughter from the future and claimed she made a mistake.[10]
Helping Barry
Nora recognized the team members before stating that her mistake was helping to destroy the satellite, which somehow kept her from going fast enough to open a time portal and that they were the only ones who could help her. She was brought to S.T.A.R. Labs where she ran in the speed lab before awkwardly starting to talk about the future to her parents—right before they stop her. Caitlin then took a sample of Nora's blood while Cisco put a device on her to test her connection to the Speed Force, and she continued to run in the speed lab. A little after that, Nora ran to the Central City Police Department to see what her father was up to. Noticing how behind he was on his CSI work, she offered to help him look at the cases. Although he was doubtful, she began to work on a case, much to his annoyance. The case she had then caused Barry to bring up ice cream, which caused Nora to start describing the ice cream made at Happy Harbor in Rhode Island. They both noted that it's their favorite dessert. Right after Barry tells her to not mess with the timeline, a radio then alerted them of a meta-human attack, and Nora went to Cisco's apartment and grabbed the original Flash suit for Barry to wear. She tried to tag along but is told to stay. Nora ran after him anyway with the intention to watch and excitedly sees Gridlock. Though she just decided to watch, she ended up distracting Barry, and he is sent flying into the air. Nora runs after him where he lands in some water and she expresses she's sorry. They returned to S.T.A.R. Labs and Nora believes her parents to be mad at her and begs Iris to not say disappointed. When Caitlin asked how she knew who Gridlock was, Nora talks about the Flash Museum which listed all the fights the Flash had and that she studied all of it. Nora then went with Iris to Jitters with the former commenting on how much cooler Barry's lightning bolt is than Lightning Lad's and wondering when he'll be back. Iris told her not to worry and that in the meantime, she's gonna try to get to know her daughter. Iris began asking questions about Nora and their family with Nora revealing she's a CSI and that they don't spend a lot of family time. Nora then asked if Cisco and Caitlin needed help and they both returned to S.T.A.R. Labs where she was excitedly commenting on wearing the tachyon prototype Barry used to when he first met Supergirl. Nora later helped Barry and Wally phase an airplane that was about to crash because of Gridlock. Nora bonded with his father as days past and both became close. She somehow also became Barry's trainee for she wanted to become a great speedster like her father.[1]
She often helped Barry stop meta-humans to impress him. They both apprehended Block, a meta-human stealing high-tech weapons. When Team Flash first encountered Cicada, Barry, Ralph, and Cisco tried to stop him but he overpowered the trio. Barry was almost killed but thanks to Nora, who shouted "Dad!", seemingly affected Cicada's emotions, which stopped him from killing Barry and later disappeared.[11]
Back at S.T.A.R Labs, Nora explains that Team Flash never catches Cicada not even Green Arrow, Supergirl, the Legends, and the league captured him for the future was altered when Nora helped her father destroy the satellite Cicada's hunt for the meta-humans raged on, as he became more dangerous for Team Flash to handle for he wanted to kill Vibe. His hunt for Vibe became very threatening when he tortured Joe for the information about Vibe. At last, Vibe stood against Cicada and were both transported into a snowy forest. Barry immediately ran to aid a wounded Cisco, whose powers were dampened by Cicada's dagger. But when Barry came close to Cicada his powers were also negated. Barry fought Cicada in hand-to-hand combat but lost again. In S.T.A.R. Labs, Nora used the speed force to figure out how to protect Cisco from Cicada. She headed to the battlefield and threw a reactor to Cisco to throw at Cicada but it reflected back to Cisco, which made a huge explosion. Fulfilled, Cicada instantly flew away, while Barry, who thought that Cisco was dead, mourned his friend's death but a minute later a breach appeared. Cisco came out of the breach, exhausted while Barry hugged him. Cisco thanked Nora for saving him from Cicada.[4]
Barry and Iris' parenting becomes harder when Nora reveals the truth of why she hates her mother. Team Flash battles Spin, who is a blogger that wants to become famous by hypnotizing The Flash and XS. Barry and Iris assign Nora to spy and investigate her but it ends up in a bad way, when Nora started to flirt with her after Spencer comments nicely on Nora. Spencer then took her leave, leaving a blushing Nora looking expectantly at her mother, obviously eager to ask for Iris' blessing in going out with Spencer, which Iris flusteredly denies. She traps Flash and XS in a stadium, where she hypnotizes XS to The Flash. Iris comes to Barry's aid by knocking out XS with her gun. Barry quickly gets up and captures Spin, who was discovered using her phone to hypnotize anyone. The team later realized that Spin's phone was created during the destruction of the Enlightenment. They dubbed Spin's phone as meta-tech. Nora's relationship with Iris becomes worse when her mother tries to apologize to her, which she doesn't accept for she put a power dampening chip in Nora's chest. Their argument gets Barry's attention, but he still sided with Iris, as he believed that Iris does everything for her family's protection. This argument makes Nora move from her parents' apartment to Joe's house.[3]
Personality
- "It looks like it's a gift from someone who wanted you both to know how special you are. Someone who understands that time is precious and right now is all we've got. Relatively speaking."
- —Nora West-Allen to Cecille Horton and Joe West[src]
Like her father, Barry Allen, Nora is a brilliant forensic scientist with an aptitude for science and is a bubbly, excitable and enthusiastic young woman. She highly idolizes her father and aspires to be just like him.
Nora was deeply impacted by Barry's absence throughout her life and struggles with the idea of going back to her time period, where he is not there. She even hindered Team Flash's efforts to send her back home by using negative tachyons so she could spend more time with her dad. Having a lot in common with her father, Nora is a notorious daddy's girl.
However, Nora grew to have bitter hatred towards her mother, Iris West, upon finding out that Iris placed a power-dampening chip inside her so she couldn't use her speed, leaving her feeling angered and betrayed. Nora retained her frostiness towards her mother when meeting her in the past (despite the fact that past Iris hadn't make that decision yet); she didn't want to let Iris see her at Jenna West's baby shower, was not receptive when her mother tried to bond with her at CC Jitters, didn't hug Iris as she did with Barry when being sent back to her own time and refused to give her mother her new phone number when Barry bought Nora a cellphone so she could easily stay in contact with everyone else on Team Flash. Nora even frequently subtly insulted Iris' blog and lack of cooking skills, hinting she doesn't even have any respect for her mother anymore. Nora's anger towards her mother also blinds her to reason, as she refused to believe Iris' warnings that Spencer Young was dangerous, which turned out to be true.
Despite the troublesome relationship she has with her mother and the non-existent relationship she has with her (missing) father, Nora is shown to have close familial ties to each member of her family, including Team Flash. She appears especially close to Cecille, her grandfather Joe, and her uncle Wally.
However, after learning more about Iris from Cecille, including her accomplishments as a journalist, Nora began to realize her mother was a good person deserving of her admiration. Upon seeing Iris jump over a roof without second thought to unlock a falling Barry's power-dampening cuffs, Nora was in awe of her mother's selfless act. Realizing how unfair it was to blame her mother for a decision she hasn't made yet, Nora apologized to Iris for her initial harsh demeanor and began to make amends with her mom. Nora has begun to bond with Iris, with the two developing a more positive working relationship.
Nora is keen to keep Barry safe and secure so he cannot disappear in 2024 therefore letting Nora grow up with her father. She was even mad at her father for disappearing despite not knowing him as a child, and wanted to do everything she could to stop that, even begging him to quit being the Flash. His absence has lead Nora to want to learn everything she can about not only Barry but also Iris as well, with things that the Flash Museum cannot tell her. Her trip into the past to defeat Cicada made Nora learn about Barry's potential future as Savitar, who, when is shot by Iris, horrifies Nora. This made Nora realize that she just "wants to know her father" more and not keep secrets or hidden truths between them.
Nora is, at least, attracted to women, although it is unknown whether she is a lesbian or bi/pansexual. This is seen when she expressed an attraction towards Spencer and even flirted with her.[3]
Powers and abilities
Nora proceeding to run away, emanating multi-colored electricity.
Powers
- Speed Force connection/Meta-human physiology: Nora possesses a natural connection to the Speed Force, giving her the powers of incredible speed and superhuman reflexes. While she stated she isn't as experienced as her father Barry, and can only learn so much from her mother Iris and the Flash Museum.
- Electrokinesis: Unlike other speedsters, Nora can produce both yellow and purple electricity from her body, commonly seen when running.[9]
- Bodily vibration: Like most speedsters, Nora can vibrate her body for various effects.
- Intangibility: By vibrating her molecules at the natural frequency of air, Nora can physically pass through solid matter. Whilst only having learned this when she met with her father in the past, with the help of her father and uncle, she vibrated an entire airplane and all of its passengers to keep it from crashing.
- Superhuman durability: Nora possesses inhuman resilience, most commonly seen from being unaffected by momentum build-up. She can take attacks and exertion, even survive impacts that would easily kill normal humans.
- Superhuman speed: Nora can move at such vast speeds, indeterminable to the naked eye. According to herself, she is "The Fastest Woman Alive,"[1] which if true means that her speed already surpasses all other female speedsters, including Jesse Quick and the late Trajectory. [9]
- Superhuman agility: Nora has demonstrated flawless coordination, equilibrium and dexterity. She can change direction with immediate sharp turns without sliding or losing balance and instantly stop running on the spot.
- Superhuman reflexes: Nora’s reaction time is augmented to superhuman levels, allowing her to react to danger and events far faster than normal humans.
- Superhuman momentum: Nora can generate great amounts of physical force through kinetic energy, simulating superhuman strength, even in a stationary position. Even little exertions from this build-up can generate a tremendous amount of force, able to knock a person out.
- Aerokinesis: Nora can use her speed to generate air flows on various levels and for various effects. She can create vortexes to extinguish fires by forming it around them.
- Time travel: The kinetic energy buildup from Nora's speed can allow her to breach the space-time continuum, allowing her to physically enter the Speed Force and travel through time. She first used this ability to travel back to 2017 to meet her father for the first time.
- Reversing time: An ability unique to Nora, she's somehow able to reverse time around her while running at a certain speed, remaining completely unaffected, e.g. when she stopped Barry from destroying the satellite alone[10], and when she caught up with Barry easily by getting him to inadvertently run backward.[3]
- Superhuman stamina: Nora can handle the stresses of extreme racing without noticeable distress, letting her function much longer than normal humans unhindered.
Abilities
- Genius-level intellect: Like her father, Barry Allen, Nora is very intelligent, having graduated from college with a 5.6 GPA. From a young age, Nora was a keen-minded individual, displaying a natural understanding and quick capacity to learn. Like her father Barry, Nora is a highly skilled forensics examiner. From a single glance at the crime scene, she can quickly determine much of the events that transpired. Nora invented the Time Language, used to record events regardless of changes to the timeline, which even the combined efforts of Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow had difficulty deciphering. She's earned praise of her intelligence from both Eobard Thawne and Harrison Sherloque Wells.
- Bilingual: In addition to English, Nora knows the mysterious language that Barry learned when he was trapped in the Speed Force for six months. [7] It was revealed to be known as "Time Language," which she used to communicate through time with the imprisoned Eobard Thawne. When questioned by Sherloque Wells, Nora claimed to have developed the language herself, to Sherloque's distrust.[2]
Weaknesses
- Negative tachyons: Nora used a device pumping negative tachyons into her system, which would slow her down and allow her to pretend like she is unable to travel back to her proper point in the timeline.[1]
- Power-dampening tech: Nora has stated that, in the future, presumably sometime shortly after Barry's disappearance in the Crisis of 2024, Iris had a power-dampening chip surgically implanted into Nora's body. As a result, Nora's meta-human powers were suppressed all her life, and she only learned about them approximately six months before she'd introduced herself to her parents, meaning she'd have only discovered them shortly before she showed up at her parents' wedding.[3]
- Cold temperatures: Because speed is produced by a build-up of heat in the target's atoms, Nora is vulnerable to extremely cold temperatures as shown when in battle with Thomas Snow.[12]
Equipment
- XS suit: Nora wears a protective suit as XS, to hide her identity when fighting crime. It was designed by Cisco Ramon for her mother, Iris when Barry's powers were transferred to Iris but was passed down to Nora when she started her life as a superhero.
Gallery
Promotional images
Appearances
The Flash
Season 4
Season 5 |
Supergirl
Season 3
The Chronicles of Cisco
- Template:COC
- Template:COC
Trivia
Nora shows a shirt depicting an image from Oregon Trail.
- Nora is a fan of the computer game Oregon Trail.[7]
- Like her father, Nora's favorite dessert is two scoops of cookie dough ice cream with extra sprinkles from the Mason Family Ice Cream Shop in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island.[1]
- Nora has a liking for coffee from CC Jitters because, in her era, a cup of coffee costs $43.[1]
- Nora has double piercings in her right ear and triple piercings in her left ear.
- Nora is unique in that she is the only known speedster to have dual-colored lightning.
- The first reference to Nora's existence came in the shape of two quotes referenced by Barry and Cisco in the Season 4 premiere, "The Flash Reborn". The first was when Barry came out of the Speed Force and was mumbling "Nora shouldn't be here". The second was when Cisco unscrambled the Speed Force code and unveiled the phrase "This house is bitchin'", which was coined by Nora.
- Nora is the eleventh character in the Arrowverse to have an episode named after her in a civilian sense in some way, after Sara Lance, Felicity Smoak, Harrison Wells, Oliver Queen, Alex Danvers, Zari Tomaz, Harry Wells, Iris West, Ava Sharpe and Winn Schott.
- Nora is also the fourth character in the Arrowverse to have an episode title be solely her name, after Sara, Alex, and Zari.
- Nora is the first female and fourth LGBT character on The Flash, with the first LGBT character being David Singh, the second being Hartley Rathaway, and the third being Rob.
- Despite being from 2049, Nora doesn't appear to have any restrictions placed on her vigilante activities by A.R.G.U.S.'s anti-meta-human act, indicating that Zari's future didn't come to pass, doesn't exist in her timeline or for some unexplained reason, Nora is not affected by it.
- It could also be that Nora didn't know about her speedster abilities until adulthood, and thus wouldn't have acted as a vigilante prior to discovering this.[3]
Behind the scenes
- Nora can be seen as a composite character or various characters from the comics:
- In the main DC comics continuity, Nora Allen of the Justice League: Legacy alternate timeline was similarly a time-traveling meta-human speedster, and the daughter of Barry Allen and Green Lantern Jessica Cruz.
- Barry and Iris' daughter in the original timeline, Dawn Allen, is also a speedster and a meta-human from the future.
- This is referenced in the TV series by Eobard Thawne, who in 2015 realizes that Nora is Barry and Iris's daughter, who is supposed to be named Dawn. However, her name changed, presumably due to Eobard's own effect on the timeline in the year 2000.
- XS is a speedster and superhero in the 30th Century, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the daughter of Dawn Allen and granddaughter of Barry and Iris. Her real name is Jenni, which on the show seems to be re-purposed for Joe West's second daughter.
- Nora's personality and motivation for time travel on the show is also similar to that of Impulse, the cousin of XS in the comics who journeyed to the time when Wally West was the Flash to join him as a superhero.
- However, Nora's motivation is more in line with the Young Justice counterpart of Impulse, who traveled back in time to prevent the Flash from going missing/dying prematurely which led to a bad future. Also, both secretly sabotage their supposed return to their own time, preferring to stay in the past for various reasons.
- Nora's catchphrase, "Schway", was first invented in the animated series Batman Beyond and was used by Terry McGinnis, a teenager from the future.
- Nora is the first main character of The Flash who debuted in Supergirl.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Nora"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "What's Past is Prologue"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 "News Flash"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The Death of Vibe"
- ↑ "All Doll'd Up"
- ↑ "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "The Elongated Knight Rises"
- ↑ "Enter Flashtime"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Therefore She Is"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "We Are The Flash"
- ↑ "Blocked"
- ↑ "The Icicle Cometh"