Just getting my thoughts out there. Feel free to add yours
spoilers for The Boys
I am so glad Maeve didn't die in the comics. You don't see her actually die in the comics either. You just see her head fall off the side of the building. Also lol at Maeve training with a sword in her montages only to fight Homelander barehanded. There's no reason for not to bring a weapon to the fight. Get an adamantium baseball bat. I don't care. You fucking fight dirty if you're fighting to the death. It wouldn't be as cool looking or choreographed, but it didn't feel like a fight to the death.
I am also glad that A-Train got his brother calling out his shit. However, his brother of course went lib and complained that he didn't do a cool thing killing Bluehawk. "I wanted his face on the news." I get in the series, that it would have more impact to get the guy's face on the news given that it's about supes especially with all the shit ramping up on the show. But when I heard that, my knee jerk was 'look what that's doing about cop violence.' the real world messaging felt dissonant to me. Idk
On that note, a bizarre thought I had was that it would be cool if Butcher recruited A-Train's brother to The Boys. I mean he's a perfect person to have join on. Severely harmed by a supe. Knowledge about training and working with a supe. And fitting in what I think is crucial messaging about The Boys.* I'll come back to this
I'm glad Annie's arc looks to be shaping up. I wish she would drop the holier than thou vibes, though. The people willingly working at Vought and covering up shit are culpable too and far worse as villains than Homelander. He's just the symptom of the real thing that needs to die. Anyway I also liked the dynamic between her and Hughie improved. He considers using the temp v but tries trusting in her instead and working with her powers. It showed them actually working together.
I don't know what Frenchy's actor did, but they're just demolishing his character. I don't like how they're depicting his addiction issues and his rant just felt cartoony. Also kinda oooof that complaining about workplace rights was lampooned like that by an Amazon property. I feel like Frenchy is losing what characterization he had.
Kimiko, no notes. Love everything Karen Fukuhara does. I'm loving her friendship with starlight and low-key hope that they hook up. They both deserve better.
Hughie is eh. But I feel weird how much they're treating him like a child. He's fucking thirty. Stop it. Black kids get mistaken for adults so much that it affects police statistics. I think we could have a little honesty with how much he's responsible for? He has been a huge dick with power and control issues since the first season. I feel like Robin being a forgotten character is a missed opportunity. They could've shown some of Hughie's issues through how he treated his former girlfriend in the relationship. Also it would've done good to see how a lib couple moved through the world of supes.
*It's something that really bugged me. The Boys 's about bringing people together to stop an oppressive threat. It's cool that Butcher did that, but why didn't others? Why aren't there other cells out there also working to bring down supes? The general population is so stupid and helpless. Why aren't there other serious groups trying to bring down supes? I get that most people would fall into easily managed opposition like online protests and peaceful in person protests, but out of almost four hundred million people, some of whom supes, only like seven people are a serious threat to vought?
I'll add comments as I think on more things.
coming out of my lurking quarantine to comment on this episode/season:
Things I liked:
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Character development as a whole was pretty decent. They touched a lot on toxic masculinity. I like that Hughie seems to have learned that he doesn't need to be physically strong to support the ones he loves and that sometimes it's okay to just be there for people in other ways, like his father was for him. I like that Butcher finally put other people above his own personal interests (but I will come back to this). I like that MM seems to have let go of his grudge and opened up to his daughter. Frenchie stood up to Butcher (I hate how they made it a joke, but that's Amazon). Ashley's quiet protest by deleting the Maeve footage was nice, too. Annie using her platform/voice instead of physical strength. I obviously think force is useful when necessary, but there's something to be said about standing up for things even when you physically can't.
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The continued paralleling to real world politics has been amusing. Homelander having his 'I could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue' moment. Soldier Boy being a walking propaganda piece much like the Model GIs of the 40s. Todd being your typical suburban lib-turned-chud because he feels like Homelander is speaking to him, yet Homelander would find him disgusting and unworthy of his attention, which mirrors the relationship between politicians and their supporters, though specifically Trump.
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Kimiko embracing her powers. This one is admittedly a little selfish. A depowered Kimiko running off with Frenchie and getting a happy ending would be nice, but I love Karen Fukuhara and I want her to stick around, and I think her getting her powers back was the only way for this to be feasible.
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A-Train getting put in his place by both Ashley, and his brother. Character is a real piece of shit.
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The Deep doing something useful for the first time in ages. I hate this character, he's a disgusting sex pest and a rapist, and deserves to get murdered, and the comic relief aspect is wearing thin with the octopus gag. But if they're going to keep him around, at least have him do things that advance the plot.
There's probably more, but this is getting longwinded and I haven't even gotten to....
The things I didn't like:
- Butcher might have had a growth moment, but it was shortsighted. Homelander is an existential threat and should be treated as such. Scorched earth means scorched earth.
- Black Noir finally getting character development, only to have him unceremoniously killed. The character is a mess and not a good person, but it just felt kind of wasted to not at least have a Soldier Boy confrontation.
- Soldier Boy's arc felt kind of like a pointless circle. They didn't really accomplish anything with him, and the most redeeming aspect is that Jensen Ackles playing an asshole was fun to watch. But he's ultimately right back to where he began and it feels like a somewhat lazy 'in case of emergency, break glass' moment.
- The classic trope of hot headed characters doing something stupid instead of just talking. If Butcher had told Soldier Boy about Becca/Ryan and such, there's at least a chance he'd be like "Alright I won't bash the brats brains in" and they could've done their fucking job and killed the genocidal maniac.
- The absolutely wild inconsistencies in Homelander's strength. We've seen the man move so fast he was able to save Butcher from an explosion. They've mentioned him being unable to be killed even with nukes. Yet Hughie on Temp V was able to throw him, and Maeve beat the shit out of him. With the Soldier Boy MacGuffin on ice, I really don't know how they're going to tackle him in the end.
- Maeve throwing the deadliest neurotoxin in the planet into the middle of downtown Manhattan without consequence. I won't be as mad if this actually gets brought up next season, but I feel like it'll be forgotten.
- We spent like 2 minutes watching Starlight power up just so she could accomplish what Maeve or Butcher would've accomplished with one good shove. I know she's not supposed to be incredibly powerful, but that moment could've been handled much better. If it was what broke Soldier Boy's shield, or if he actually got knocked down long enough for people to make it over and gas him, it would've looked way less pathetic.
Mostly I just felt like this season did very little to advance the plot. Homelander has Ryan, Maeve is depowered, Starlight is out of the Seven, and Noir is (allegedly) dead. But really, it feels like they're back to square one with an increasingly unhinged Homelander and no way to deal with him.
But really, it feels like they’re back to square one with an increasingly unhinged Homelander and no way to deal with him.
I think this is where we are supposed to be at, but they are just going about this in a bumbling way.
Like, alot of this is really on the nose lampooning of the current moment; the dang cheeto was voted out of the white house but shit keeps getting worse and the chuds are still winning with no (perceivable civil liberal) way to stop them.
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I loved the touch on toxic masculinity too. I wish it wasn't wrapped up in the Lib politics that Starlight is pursuing though. I liked Hughie realizing he can help without Temp V too. Ashley deleting the footage was the most humane thing she's done in the show and I lover her actor. I felt so bad for the wig scene. It felt pointlessly cruel even if the actor really sold that pain. But why did they have to throw in that helicopter scene in? It felt a little inconsistent with the building frustration, fear and resentment she has towards Vought.
I loved Annie using the live stream footage multiple times to get a political edge over Homelander. I can appreciate that she may not be strong enough to 1v1 Homelander in a direct fight, but I'm glad she's using what power she does have.
And I too loved Kimiko embracing her powers. I love her actor too. The wordless communication she does is phenomenal. Like the scene from the earlier season where she stumbled in high heels felt amazingly relatable. Her actually using her powers to do something instead of resenting them made it cool. And I'm she got to choose her powers this time. It's something a lot of supes don't get. And to that end, I'm glad Maeve looks to be getting out.
A-Train got chewed out in just the right way, I just wish his brother wasn't doing it because he was a cop killer. I think this could've been saved a little if his brother made it clear that they'll just send in another super chud. This is also a reason I don't like Homelander's supes vs human supremacy shit. It takes away the real-world implications of a white supremacist country having a monopoly on super-violence.
I'm glad that the Deep is doing something too. I was annoyed with how they're making him comic relief when a lot of his actions could've been done by other better characters up to that point. It's like they're trying to get as close as they can to giving him a redemption arc by just having him suffer humiliation. As though enough of it would allow him back into anyone's good graces. I can see people sympathizing with Deep because of this. Like he's a serial assaulter and making people laugh at his behavior or explain away his harmful behavior as an understandable reaction to being othered, diminishes a lot of harm that rape culture perpetuates.
Black Noir's death was utterly pointless and his backstory didn't really do much to explain his character or characterization. I get that he can't speak and he's had a lot of trauma and damage done to him, but having cartoon character hallucinations and an inability to clearly write felt a bit uncomfortable to me. At least in how nobody remarks on it.
Soldier Boy ultimately added nothing to the plot and just putting him on ice instead of killing him outright was a waste. If they killed Soldier Boy it could serve as a clue in how to defeat Homelander. That is if they actually considered Homelander the apocalyptic threat that he is.
And yeah, I get Butcher is an asshole, but that doesn't mean that he's unable to communicate and use leverage to accomplish his goals. If he communicated with Soldier Boy beforehand about Ryan, then at least he can have a contingency plan if Ryan did show up. Ryan doesn't even need powers to complicate the situation. He's such a dangerous factor in the equation and Butcher ignoring possible outcomes for him in the situation felt short-sighted of Buthcer. He's been waiting years for the chance to get Homelander and he's going to fuck up that bad? I get he's going through shit, but come on.
Homelander is such an inconsistently powerful character. Like I appreciate showing Butcher getting bloodied up by Homelander, and Homelander's uncreative use of his powers, but there should have been no excuse for the nerf he got this season. He literally eviscerated Supersonic. Like come on.
And they really did Starlight dirty. When I saw Hughie powering up the electronics equipment, I hoped the blast would do something at least. Break the skin at least. It was so dumb that it knocked him down at the least convenient time. I though Maeve's comment about Starlight being able to fly might prove to be the direction the story goes to. A #girlboss victory instead of the Boys using their human skills and know-how to beat Homelander. An aside theory they could go with is that Starlight doesn't actually use her electricity absorbing power to amplify her strength or durability. That would be a cool direction. Her light blasts are an incredibly inefficient use of her powers if you think about it. It just lets her shove someone from twenty feet away and that's it. I'm hoping that she's just not using her powers right if that's the case. I know it would be a lib victory, but it would be more satisfying than her being able to make a beam strong enough to kill Homelander or something derivative like that.
Yet Hughie on Temp V was able to throw him, and Maeve beat the shit out of him.
I didn't think Hughie shoving Homelander really showed either's strength, Homelander just got caught off guard and it seems like all supes might just weight as much as regular people. I don't know if it was ever explained, hinted at, or if I just made it up in my headcanon however I was under the impression that there are different tiers of supes and that Maeve, Homelander, Soldier Boy, and maybe Noir are similar in terms of strength and durability. Maeve threw the perfume bottle in the same manner that Homelander and Ryan threw baseballs as well. Homelander also doesn't seem capable of
fighting at allwell if he can't overpower them overwhelmingly. He fought against Maeve a bit and in the 3v1 he didn't do that bad actually, but when he was fighting just Butcher he kind of got owned so idk he does seem kind of inconsistentStarlight did knock Soldier Boy down hard enough for him to be gassed after she and Kimiko grabbed his arms allowing MM to jump on SB's back. It seems like her powered up blasts were stronger since it knocked the wind out of Soldier boy but yeah it didn't look too good. They should've made him go flying and have a bunch of burns or something. I'm hoping in the next season she gets batteries on her back or travels with some around so she actually uses her powers more.
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From a reddit comment on the post-season: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBoys/comments/vuen6e/the_boys_postseason_3_discussion_thread/ifdapxu/
Homelander is an existential threat to humanity and none of the main characters act like it.
The Boys know that:
Homelander has no known weaknesses, save for a coordinated attack by teams put together specifically to kill him. Homelander can fly at mach speeds. Homelander can slaughter people and destroy infrastructure with ease. Homelander is capable of obliterating western civilization in a few days, he knows this, and he's threatened to do it once already. Homelander is unpredictable, unhinged, and teetering on the brink of insanity. Put all that together? He's an existential threat. It's only a matter of time until he snaps and when he does he can't be stopped. Vought / the Government may have countermeasures... but The Boys have no evidence of this and no reason to believe either Vought or the Government have things under control.
Which means, The Boys should want to kill Homelander because he's a threat to human civilization. All other reasons to kill him are just bonuses. He has to die, for the safety of everyone else on the planet. And yet:
Butcher decides it's not okay to kill Homelander in front of Ryan. Starlight doesn't seem to think they should kill Homelander at all, because heroes wouldn't do that. M.M. would rather get revenge on Soldier Boy for killing his family than... allowing Soldier Boy to kill the existential threat, and then trying to get the revenge afterward? Hughie seemed to understand the importance of the mission to kill Homelander. Until he decided that it was more important to save Butcher? It's incredibly frustrating. Nobody is safe until Homelander is dead, and yet our characters pick stupid and selfish reasons to not kill him.
Not really liking this liberal turn where The Boys gang feels they can reform Vought, stop Homelander in an honest fashion, or MM placing his own (justified) grudge before the collective safety of all of humanity. He could easily wait until Homelander had been slain.
Jensen really did well as Solder Boy though. I'm hopeful he gets out of the CW Supernatural typecast.
My thing is they want a conflict to keep brewing for more seasons obviously. I feel like they already drove it home that it was a bad idea now that fascists are encouraging him
I guess I expected different from Kripke since he bailed after 5 seasons of Supernatural for other projects; he knows how to tell a story and tell it well.
I didn't think dragging it out was really his thing, to be honest.
I'm glad you mentioned the justified grudge. It's so frustrating to act like people can't hold onto two feelings at once.
That's it exactly. They've seen that Homelander is the bigger threat than Soldier Boy and they blew their chance at it because what? I get not wanting to have the Fight at Vought Tower, but what are they supposed to do. And I hate that Starlight thinks arresting Homelander is an option.
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*It’s something that really bugged me. The Boys 's about bringing people together to stop an oppressive threat. It’s cool that Butcher did that, but why didn’t others?
Cause Butcher is/was a spook. Literally CIA funded.
I mean he's good at it, but there's not a single other group that poses a threat to Vought? I think they could handily address this if they show examples of Vought stopping cells like this. For example, there's a leftist gathering to stop Vought and they get taken out by Black Noir in a quick scene. Or they could acknowledge that Butcher's CIA shit is the only reason he isn't dead yet. I get Grace and others helping, but jeez. I just want to see it, you know? Make it clear that they're not as special as they're made out to be. Just the ones most useful to the Intelligence Agencies of the US.
I thought it was good but also
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Humanizing Homelander, while interesting almost feels like it's going to just make chuds love him more and that scene where Butcher and he both laser eyes soldier boy and share that little nod made me extremely angry. If they try to redeem him somehow it would ruin all they have built up to
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That was also :yikes: for me too. 'Oh man he's like me. My dad says I'm a disappointment too. And I really just need love.'
I'll say though that his killing of the protestor was a chillingly accurate depiction of how brazen fascists will get with their use of violence. I just hope they manage to connect the two. That utter selfishness and being a total dick is why he's not loved, ya dips.
I'm also bothered by the oversimplification they're doing with his character. Him making a super supremacist just feels so out of left field. He's a selfish child who only cares about how immediate gratification. It just feels like a Saturday morning cartoon plot. Just make him stronger and go on a giant temper tantrum.
But I'm interested in how he's using the human chuds to advance his power. I don't necessarily feel like it's in character for homelander, but I do think it's an interesting exploration of power in the media interactions.
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I saw killing the protester as another direct Trump reference
:homelander: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, ok? It’s, like, incredible.”
Oh shit that's right. I'm sure glad The Boys isn't political or it'd be really saying something about fascism that fascists wouldn't like.
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If they're basing it on trump it sorta makes sense right, he's the head of a fascist movement but thinks the actual fascist are losers? He wants to hang out with cool people who are on tv.
Exactly
The scene with :reddit-logo: and :homelander: where she's talking about creating a master race summed it up perfectly
:trump-anguish: : "No I'm the master race!"
That actually makes a lot of sense. His own inferiority is driving him to feel superior somewhere.
That was also for me too. ‘Oh man he’s like me. My dad says I’m a disappointment too. And I really just need love.’
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I haven't seen the newest episode yet, but I thought in the last one they were heavily leading you to believe Butcher's daddy issue is that he knows he's his dad and hates himself for it.
Is it necessarily humanizing to show the contradictions that created his psychopathic nature?
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I don't even think homelander can be considered as person morally. He's so outside what people experience.
He’s so outside what people experience.
I've known living breathing human beings that have a very similar psychological profile, but fortunately without any superpowers. They exist, and they're terrifying.
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Oh shit, I forgot about the little nod. I get not wanting Ryan to get hurt, but this the man who ruined your wife's life right here. The guy who ruined your life. I think you could get Ryan out of there without it complicating things in the fight with Homelander. When would you get another chance like that? Like what kind of lib bullshit is that to make Butcher and Homelander fight side by side, if even for a little bit? Over some little shitty kid. I get Ryan is innocent in all this, but again it just seems like they're playing different rules.
I would be so fucking mad if they redeem Homelander or have Butcher give him some 'good game' respect nod lib shit.
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I personally think the fact that CHUDs idolized such a clearly loathsome character in the first place shows that their responses probably shouldn't be the determining factor of where the writers take things. If they can co-opt one of the biggest piece of shit tv villains to exist in a painfully obviously left leaning show for their vile movement then nothing is off limits for them, and trying to preempt that wld limit what art can be to a suffocating degree. And I feel like it usually deepens a work to show why an evil person ended up the way they are, while trusting the audience to still understand that they're evil through their clearly destructive action. Though yeah if they try to redeem him that would be full on 🤢 but I trust them not to take the show in that direction, if anything he's primed to get worse since they are setting him up as the leader of a fascist movement.
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I hope you're right. I think the treatment of A-Train being criticized promises to really deliver something even more powerful once Homelander is brought to a position where he has to hear his reality check. I think Stanley Edgar is an interesting character, but I hope he isn't the one responsible for Homelander's defeat.
Kripke might be under contractual obligation to run the show 4-5 seasons. I could go another season, maybe 2. But if he is not dead by S5, I'll throw in the towel.
There is still a lot to explore within the Boys. The soon decaying american govt and threat of other supes with vought collapsing - and the economic recession that might go with it. A parody of Jan 6, or the total capitulation of American govt to a Supe Coup next season (honestly think how fucking funny it would be).
I agree with a lot of the points on this thread. I was hoping the stab into the brain would cause at least a small lobotomy.
I think they are setting up Ryan to be the ultimate Homelander killer, I don't know how they are gonna manage that, but I sincerely hope he gets to take the reins and kill his fascist dad.
I hope that you're right about the fifth season being the last one.
And I'm hoping that Ryan isn't the hero killer actually. I'd like him to help, but not the one to deal the finishing blow. Homelander deserves the ultimate humiliation of being killed by a human without powers.
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The last scene with Ryan and HL really seemed to cement that Ryan was going down the pipeline for now. I think they can easily turn that around in the next season. It could even be a funny bit like even this kid can see through HL's BS after seeing his behavior over a longer timeline. But I feel like most likely that will just become an over-long arc to keep the drama trickling along.
I'd be pretty disappointed if they make 2 more seasons, as it seems like there's already too much filler going in. Maybe they can use some of that extra time to fill in more of the world building, but not too hopeful it'll be worth it.
eugh im pretty done with this show just finished it cause im in a covid quarantine rn.
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it doesn't feel like its going anywhere, working toward anything. theres a trope of super long "serious" TV that takes forever to get anywhere and they're really filling it out. 2 times they've now seriously tried to kill the Big Bad and walked away from it. introduced a macguffin-man to kill him and just put that back on ice because i guess we can't have an actual tool to kill the big bad guy floating around cause then the show might eventually end :biden-troll:
the meta-point is that they can't get rid of homelander from a selling-the-show POV so everythings getting contrived to keep it that way, much the way no capitalists can genuinely oppose real life fascism without compromising their bottom line. this show is never gonna put the fascists in the ground, so honestly fuck it im not going to watch a cheap current affairs gag-reel orbiting 1-2 bit characters who treat each other like shit most the time
That's a very understandable point. I want to see how this story ends so I can use it as fodder for talking about and understanding fascism. I think being able to point those out can work for some people who understand politics through a media lens. I dunno though. I'm expecting disappointment even though I see how the show can still be good if they just o the right things.
I overall like the show but I feel like the whole plot line regarding whether they should use soldier boy to kill homelander felt kind of... incoherent in its point? Like it seemed like the show is siding against Butcher and Hughie because they are doing what they are doing for the wrong reasons, Hughie I guess because he feels too weak and helpless, and Butcher because he's a dick. But I guess in the face of the bigger picture the show presents, who cares? They have been given before them the resources and opportunity to take care of both homelander and soldier boy, ridding the world of two supes that are horrible and also previously thought to be unstoppable. And to me the show's underlying message clearly seems to be that it was wrong to try to do this, because the people who wanted to sink to that level were personally doing so for bad reasons? Maybe I am missing something, but this gives me big lib "Lenin hated the tsar because he killed his brother" energy. I get why they didn't go this direction with the story. For one, it would have been thematically weird to have the character who is basically America today get finally stopped by the character that is basically America in the past. And like what would the next season even be about if they finished off soldier by and homelander in a single episode?
Yeah, it feels like the show is painted into a thematic corner with a lot of its decisions. Using a previous fascist to stop a current fascist is kinda yikes and then also not using the opportunity to kill the two worst supes out there is awkward. I think a lot of it could've been salvaged if they had Butcher make it clear that he was going to use Soldier Boy as long as he can and then kill him. Right now, it's played as half-baked because it is. They're using temp v to stir up shit but they don't seem to really care about the evils of Vought and supes in general.
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MM's character is cool and I'm glad they didn't make him suffer too much for punching a chud. I wish they stopped making him irrationally angry in his encounters. I get that it's his flaw that he's obsessed with getting back at Soldier Boy, but why fucking throw away your life when you're so close to actually getting revenge. Plus how are you going to leave your kid behind like that. I could get it if there was like a chance he'd win, but he wasn't going to survive the fist fight. I do like the agency and focus he's getting as a character.
Being the first one to call out Butcher's apathy. Though I don't get why he wouldn't want to use Temp V at least once. Or even consider it. I get his hate for supes and never wanting to be one* but temporarily having the power to kill your nemesis and then never being a supe again? That would have been his best solution. Though I think his character, a single black father neglecting his family is yikes enough without showing him shooting up too.
*(better than his comic version by far. That version was a child of a supe and got powers/sustained his life on his mother's breast milk. Please ask for clarification if that was a lot to process)
Mediocre ending to a great season. That final fight was so stupid. Butcher could have just moved the kid out of the way and killed Homelander with Soldier Boy. Made no sense.
Seriously. He could have gotten Ryan out of the fight entirely himself and have Maeve + Soldier Boy against Homelander. It would put Starlight in a bad spot, but fuck it. And fuck the people at Vought. Them getting destroyed in a supe fight would have been the most deserved end. Chickens coming home to roost.
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Also, love that AOC is gunning for VP and then President. Far more cut-throat that the real-world version.
I think it's cool that they're showing supes infiltrate, but again it feels like cartoon villain shit. Like the government already had villains in Congress with Vought. They had them doing fucking coups in South America. What the shit dude. This Humans vs Supes thing is distracting from the real capitalism vs humans that's actually happening.
At this point isn't she more of a Kamela stand-in; she was basically a cop all season and now going for VP
I don't see that as being enough for her or homelander once they get to the end. He'll make them drop the pretense.
How long until some techbro billionaire goes full blue curtains and announces his intention to make Vought real? :so-true:
Ultimately I really enjoyed this season, but retroactively like it less because of the finale. Not because it was a particularly bad episode (though it was a lil messy and rough around the edges) but because
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between Soldier Boy and temp V they seemed to be upping the stakes and changing the status quo in a major way, but those two plot developments were kind of put in a box at the end and we went back to square one. Still some intriguing set ups for next season though: Butcher terminally ill (maybe he'll take permanent V to stay alive?), the 7 basically donezo, Homelander primed to lead a fascist movement and probably get his hands more directly into the U.S. govt.
Also the show definitely doesn't know how to handle major set pieces with a bunch of supes/moving parts coming together (as people pointed out with the wildly inconsistent power levels) but this is nothing new. Last season finale Stormfront mildly inconvenienced the boys with attacks that killed the people in the projects she massacred, and she flipped a car full of them resulting in barely a scratch on any of them. Doesn't bother me too much as long as the emotional and thematic core of the show stays sound (I don't come to the show for super internally consistent hard sc-ifi or anything like that) but it's definitely noticeable.
I think I want to know the hard limits of characters because I want to see the Boys making a working strategy against them. But I understand not wanting to see the story told in that way.
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I think I'd like to see Butcher going to desperate measures to heal himself. It could work thematically that he would hate himself for it and have it lead into an ending similar to the graphic novel, but I hope they don't both-sides it and muddy the potential revolutionary message for the show. Kinda like an inverse of Marvel throwing out of character moments to make the villains unsympathetic.
Yeah that makes sense, and fair enough. The "softer" or more inconsistent the power level or rules of the universe, the more any potential plan that undoes the supes feels like an ass pull or otherwise unearned. I guess for me I just watch it more for the interplay of the satire with the more sociological or political dimensions of the world building, and for the characters.
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And yeah, having Butcher (fail to) cope with the self loathing of being a supe could be extremely interesting, and could set up an intense and harrowing end game (I read up on the comics spoilers and I'd be sad if it went in exactly that direction, but I think maintaining the broad strokes could be compelling). Definitely a bit afraid of the show getting more liberal/centrist-y as it goes on. I really do hope they only do 1-2 more seasons.
While I'm glad the show confuses and enrages chuds that identified and stanned with :homelander: , I'm glad I didn't get emotionally invested in it. Like most P R E S T I G E T V, it seems destined to be stuck in a holding pattern to milk as many seasons as it can out of its audience with no clear intention of providing satisfying resolutions to its conflicts.
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I'm so hoping that it's actually planned to end soon. drawing out the conflict is already feeling tired. I thought the season would end in two more episodes and hoped that it would finish there. I remember at the beginning of the season that it looked to be lining up to finish the series, but then it just kept going on and introducing new things like Temp V and shit.
When AoC's friend came up from the past knowing her real identity, I thought her character was revealed to be a part of people affected by Vought's supe fuckery. Like they put Compound V in the water and killed a lot of people and they were part of a group that gathered to get back at Vought. But being disorganized supes, they were easily thwarted by the company. That way, AoC's characterization could have been that she turned on her friends to get spared or a position at Vought. That she made a deal with them to spare her and maybe her child.
I feel so disappointed by her arc and what her backstory could've been. It could've shown how other revolutions were sabotaged by selfishness and greed by individual actors.
drawing out the conflict is already feeling tired.
That gimmick is eternal. I gave up on the Halo series so many years ago because ending on one cliffhanger after another while gradually giving Cortana the Blizzardesque :awooga: and "corruption" treatment made me lose all interest.
As a writer, how do you approach conflict in your spec fic worlds? I want to have a world where stories can continue without it being some drawn out conflict. I see a solution in making new conflicts, but I also want to see a world where they accomplish something closer to a utopia at an end. At least an idea of closure somewhere down the line.
A story ends, but stories continue to happen. That's how my trilogy ends (third book coming soon!). It isn't too much of a spoiler to say that the main conflict in my story does come to an end, and in the epilogue, it is clear that the resolution has lasting significance, but that new stories may now begin.
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Yes, the world begins to finally heal, society is more fair and just, children are born in a world that no longer exploits or preys upon them, giving them the chance to have free and happy childhoods unlike their war-weary parents, and capitalism only persists in tiny stubborn holdouts that are fading away by the end of the book.
That said, I did have potential follow-up ideas for new conflicts with different stakes in the permanently changed world that follows after, but I had a completely different book project coming up first, and I may only revisit my first trilogy's setting if there's sufficient interest later.
In the Mahabharata, it was said that the world that is came from the ashes of the world that was. I take that to heart in my own writing.
I love that. Thanks for your insight. The overarching plots in my writing feel similar to the closure you're describing. That's a relief.
If you're like me, it's because you know it can be good or it's the closest thing on TV to being good
Started it up tonight based off this comment lol. It's a good show. On ep 3. Like really fucking good, also the cast is incredible
Maeve said "LGB" teens came out to protest and im kinda really mad about how much more influence that bullshit has gotten
Is the point that Maeve has terrible politics or was one of the writers a transphobe?
Yeah I think it was just a play on words, idt they were trying to make Maeve a terf.
I hope that's the case and that would make sense. But I think I'm going to watch again with subtitles for peace of mind.
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Oh shit, I didn't catch that. That's fucked up beyond anything else.
They critique bi erasure by having her memorial call her a lesbian and then they turn around and have Maeve be a terf. Fucking gross.
