#the fact that thad is the first clone but is named ''the second'' has destroyed any hope i couldve had of this being simple and easy

[cryptocism]

OK so I just found your comics. I'm not the biggest DC fan but I know a bit so I get most of it. But can you please explain the og thads (1+2 and maybe any others u didn't make for ur too many Thad's au?) Im very confused and Google won't help =[ its fine if u choose not too, I'm just curious

ok yes absolutely here we go ive made some flow charts with visual cues so hopefully this AU will make more sense. consider this the masterpost:

Within DC canon: Barry Allen is Bart's grandfather on his fathers side, President Thaddeus Thawne is Bart's grandfather on his mothers side. After some failed attempts to get Bart to join the Thawne side of the family in all their evildoing, President Thawne created a clone of Bart, tweaked the genes a lil bit, and then named that clone after himself.

Thad Thawne the Second/Inertia is the first clone of Bart to ever be made, and also the one who appears in the pages of Impulse 1998.

Where the Too Many Thad's AU diverges from canon is by deciding that the Inertia who appears after the events of Impulse #65, (causing various random acts of evil before being revenge-murdered in The Flash #760,) was in fact a different person altogether and an entirely separate clone.

This is all the stuff that's been added with the AU:

Three and Four (Thaddeus' the Third and Fourth) were created as backup clones in the event that Thad II botched his mission. (which he did, after he ran off into the speedforce after the events of Mercury Falling and CRAYDL presumed him dead)

The whole "backup clones" concept makes for a nice explanation as to why Thad/Inertia's motivations and behaviors don't align with where he actually left off. Also as an explanation for why Thad didn't know that there even were backup clones: the only reason Three and Four would need to be woken up is in the event of Thad's death. He wouldn't have needed to know.

Where this whole AU goes uhhh off the rails is that after Four gets revenge-murdered, Three proceeds with the plan: continue making more clones. (the idea being "Inertia" is just this terminator-like figure in Bart's life who always comes back no matter how many times he dies)

Unbeknownst to Three, CRAYDL was messing with the cloning equipment long beforehand when they secretly created Eight and Nine, so the whole process is unstable as hell and results in Five - who has to be sprung from stasis early to deal with some Rapid Aging issues, and Six - who seems pretty gung ho about the whole "Inertia" thing until he tries to fight the Teen Titans and gets his shit rocked big time. (this ties into canon in issues #98-100 of Teen Titans, wherein a new Inertia shows up but is never explained lmao)

Afterwards, Six starts focusing instead on timeline manipulation rather than anything to do with President Thawne, Inertia, or Impulse. He also does some Weird Science with the speedforce and basically controls a small facet of the speedforce by binding it to a physical form (this is Seven).

Eight and Nine are the only clones who experienced regular aging and a semi-regular childhood. CRAYDL didn't raise them with an Allen/Thawne Family Obsession, and gave them each their own names so they could forge their own identities outside of being a clone.

Once Three finds out about them that all goes out the window though; he downloads CRAYDL's memories of Eight and Nine and puts those memories on a hard drive, which he keeps as leverage so that they do what he says. (it's a big ol YIKES of a situation)

Actually I guess this means Eight and Nine would be chronologically the 4th and 5th clones of Bart that were made, since they technically were created before Five and Six. But this is confusing enough so I'm going to stop there lmao

#asks #anonymous #too many thads au #the fact that thad is the first clone but is named ''the second'' has destroyed any hope i couldve had of this being simple and easy #so fuck it eight and nine are technically older than five and six this is just HOW IT IS