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Okay this might be too soon to ask about the whereabouts of a character of the show which just got premiered and a whole season left to unravel the knot of the Flashpoint plot.

But this seems to me quite weird and intricate as to what happened to the child Barry after the future Barry averted the murder of Nora in the hands of Eobard.

The whole episode evolved in such a way that as if the future Barry is the real Barry of that Flashpoint World.

But what happened to the child Barry?

Future Barry was already grown-up; did he just replace growing up child Barry in an appropriate time to live with his family?

This seems to be sounding messy; but messy is what it is indeed.

In short, what happened to the child Barry?

Was there any indication in the episode that might have given some clue that I have failed to catch?

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I answered a similar question on the sister site, but the really short answer is "The Speed Force" makes everything OK. Because it transcends time itself, a lot of "plot holes" in the story can be explained away as Barry being special because he can access the Speed Force. (The same is true of the comics, for what it's worth.)

The longer answer is: there was only ever one Barry Allen. What changed was Barry Allen's life from 2000 to 2016. There have now been four versions of Barry's life history

  1. In the original original timeline, Barry grew up with a mom and dad, and eventually became the Flash sometime around 2020.
  2. In the Season 1 timeline, distant-future-Thawne travels back to 2000 and kills Barry's mom. He then impersonates Harrison Well's and makes Barry into The Flash in 2014.
  3. In the "Flashpoint" timeline, 2016-Barry-Allen travels back to 2000 and stops distant-future-Thawne from killing Nora Allen. He then returns back to 2016. In this timeline, young Barry Allen slept through the whole mess, and grows up with both parents, but somehow still has his Speed Force powers by 2016.
  4. In the post-"Flashpoint" timeline, 2016-Barry-Allen travels back to 2000 to stop distant-future-Thawne from killing Nora, then travels back a second time to "fix" his mistake. This Barry we know very little about, presumably we'll figure it out as the season unfolds.

Note that 2000 "child" Barry Allen always grows up until 2016 "adult" Barry Allen in every timeline, and he always gets his powers in every timeline. The difference is what his childhood is like during that 16 years.

It's also important to note that, as a Speedster, Barry (and Thawne) have some degree of natural immunity to time paradoxes, because of their access to the Speed Force. This is why, for example, they both remember the previous timeline when no one else does. It also explains how Nora's still alive, if Barry never knew he needed to go back and save her from Thawne, etc.

As far as we are told, young Barry grew up not knowing there was anything odd about his life, right up until he reached the point in the timeline where Season 2 Barry "comes back", and from then forward he has his Season 2 memories. As the episode goes on, it appears as if "new" Barry's memories are starting to replace "previous" Barry's memories. This is the new timeline trying to impose it's will on Barry, again with some vague connection to the Speed Force.

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  • It is noteworthy that Barry faces severe trauma after using his powers; while somehow Eobard Thawne doesn't get affected at all and this surprised Barry too.
    – user33741
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 18:25
  • Thawne explains that... again, the "Speed Force". Barry has used Zoom's speedster cage to dampen Thawne's power, so Thawne can't access the Speed Force. But every time Barry does, he begins to "acclimate" to the new timeline, changing his own memories to those he "should" have instead of the ones he has.
    – KutuluMike
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 18:27
  • Ah... gotcha. Everything can be explained by Speed Force ;)
    – user33741
    Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 18:29
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He grew up - time travel is (to paraphrase) wibbly wobbly and sometimes you just have to go with it. Barry Allen grew up with his own parents in a normal house. It's a common trope that the person who time travels either remembers the 'right' timeline (or in some cases, both of them) as they are the crux of it.

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