Hartley Rathaway

**Hartley Rathaway**, also known as **Pied Piper,** is a recurring character in the *Arrowverse*, serving as a supporting antagonist in Season 1, a minor character in Season 2, and a supporting character in Season 6 of *The Flash.* He was the former protege of Harrison Wells who had discovered there was a chance the particle accelerator would explode and warned Wells about the risk, only to be fired in return. Following the particle accelerator explosion and suffering severe head trauma, he would seek revenge on Harrison Wells and Team Flash who sought to protect him, but would eventually become an occasional ally of Team Flash.

## What Makes Him Magnificent?

* He has a tragic backstory as he was disowned for being gay by his parents and taken under the wing of Harrison Wells, (really Eobard Thawne), who became his only friend. However, when he discovered the risk of the particle accelerator exploding and warned Wells, he was fired and blackmailed into remaining quiet and on the night of the explosion, he suffered severe head trauma that permanently damaged his hearing and forced him to wear specialized devices in order to resist immense pain which made him understandably swear vengeance on Wells for what had happened.
* He is one of the most brilliant minds Thawne had ever met, which considering Thawne is a time-traveler from the future is really saying something. To drive it home further, he is a literal chess master.
* He was the only person intelligent enough to discover that there was a risk in the particle accelerator exploding.
* While he initially seemed like a cold jerk towards his colleagues, he would reveal himself to genuinely care about their lives and the lives of Central City when he warned "Wells" about how he was risking the lives at everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs and the city with the particle accelerator exploding, showing how he really did care about the lives of others even if he didn't seem to show it.
* He invented his own specialized hearing devices to control his hearing after it became extremely sensitive following his exposure to dark matter and created his own gauntlets to project sonic blasts to prepare to get his revenge on Wells.
* He deduced using an algorithm to track his movements that the Flash worked with S.T.A.R Labs.
* He figured out the location of Wells' mansion and shut down the power and ambushed him with a sonic attack to shatter all his windows, with Wells' only getting out unscathed because he was secretly a speedster.
* He attacked his parent's company building to draw out the Flash and intentionally get himself arrested, figuring out that the Flash was on comms with Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco.
* He is quite witty and sarcastic and fond of using chess references and puns.
* He used EMP bombs that he secretly planted in his hearing device to blow up the pipeline, becoming the first person ever to escape it and easily defeated Team Flash to recover his gauntlets and steal data on the Flash's biometric scans, which was his plan all along, being long gone before the Flash arrived, having completely outplayed the heroes.
* He stages an attack on a bridge to challenge the Flash to a fight and allows the Flash to disarm him to activate his trap of his gauntlets tuning into the Flash's frequency to kill him, which he had revealed was an idea he came up with on the fly after seeing the Flash and Wells chit-chat over the comms. The Flash was only saved due to a last-minute intervention by Wells.
* He used the info he had about what happened to Ronnie and Dr. Stein to manipulate Cisco into freeing him so he could show Cisco what happened to them, demonstrating respect for Cisco's ruthlessness to save them which he admitted he didn't think he had in him, and later destroying Cisco's controller on his hearing and defeating him after honoring the deal, pointing out Cisco couldn't really blame him and that they were now even, before escaping scot-free as a Karma Houdini in the original timeline.
* In the altered timeline when a past Barry Allen accidentally traveled back to his fight with Hartley and was pursued by a Time Wraith, he came up with a clever method to defeat the Time Wraith by tuning into its frequency to force it to retreat, saving Cisco and Caitlin. In the present, he would save Barry from certain death and destroy the Time Wraith, revealing he had redeemed himself and become a friendly ally of Team Flash.
* Following the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths which erased the events of the altered timeline and the change where he had a crew during the battle of the bridge, after his boyfriend and right-hand man Roderick's molecules were accidentally destabilized by the Flash, he tried to save Roderick himself and when he couldn't, got him sent to Mercury Labs for treatment, secretly blaming himself for not being able to save Roderick.
* He successfully robbed countless jewelry stores and when confronted and disarmed by the Flash at one, he revealed his ability to project sonic blasts from his mouth and flew away scot-free.
* He agreed to help the Flash stop Godspeed when the Flash stated he had a way to save Roderick and revealed at S.T.A.R. Labs that he had deduced Barry Allen was the Flash and Cisco was Vibe years prior.
* Despite Team Flash failing to save Roderick, he ultimately redeemed himself and saved Barry from falling to his death and came up with a successful plan to defeat Godspeed by combining Barry's lightning and his sonic blasts to recreate what happened to Roderick and take Godspeed down.
* After Team Flash cured Roderick, he happily reunited with him and thanked Barry for his help, jokingly stating he couldn't promise to keep out of jewelry stores and reminding Barry with some advice on his own that it wasn't just that you had to forgive yourself, but that you had to believe your world could change for the better, thanking Barry for making him remember that and assuring Barry he would get Iris and his friends back from Eva, departing his former enemy on good terms.

## What Makes Him a Baddie?

* He risked the lives of several people on the bridge by throwing their cars off to distract the Flash and nearly succeeded in painfully killing him.
* He robbed several jewelry stores.

## Trivia

* He is the first and only version of the Pied Piper to be a MB.

## Navigation

*Franchise-Wide*
Eobard Thawne (Flashpoint)

*Arrow*
Tommy Merlyn (Earth-2)

*The Flash*
Goldface

*Supergirl*
Rick Malverne