If I'd still been following the show at that point I would feel embarrassed for having watched it until then. What a stupid, caricatured, childlike portrayal of intellect. I've seen reviewers mention that this motivation felt poorly introduced or contrived, but people have yet to acknowledge just how... monumentally stupid this is. A fucking elementary schooler would come up with this. Really? And if you loathe humanity so goddamn much, what excites you about the prospect of reading its literature or history? Like it genuinely fascinates me that this explanation passed through the myriad filters between the writer's room and film set. What. The. Fuck.
Sage already had what she wanted before Homelander showed up. She was sitting in some dump reading books. For that to be her ultimate goal made zero sense. It would've made better sense if she was a true believer in Supe Supremacy and sought to use Homelander as a tool to usher that in. Throw that in with her manipulating Homelander and Soldier Boy against each other, then releasing a version of Compound V to the public that's safe for consumption for all humans, and she'd checkmate Butcher to the point where he cannot release the Supe-killing virus without killing all of mankind.
It would have been better off if Starr had full control over the writing, period. Unironically. There's no way someone that invested in the believable portrayal of his character's inner life would be indifferent to the rest of the script if it became his responsibility. And while the man isn't a professional writer, I highly doubt he would come up with anything worse than the abysmal rendering of Sister Sage.
Basically, the Boys' inherent value was the foundation set in Season 1, as well as the performances of actors like Karl Urban, Anthony Starr, Jensen Ackles, among others. Starr would've at least made sure his most memorable role went down fighting, or at least, with something memorable in a positive way that'd endear him to future great roles.
Casting Trump as an inept side character like Musk or, better yet, the comics' Vic the veep, would likely have irritated him far more than the grandeur of an overwrought parallel with genZ's most beloved villain anyway. And if it was satire they were going for, portraying him as an empty-headed avatar of corporate power would be more poignant (and accurate) than this trite cult motif they resorted to instead.
My point exactly. Make Homelander be his own villain, and have the Trump expy just be a side plot that would, in turn, lead to Homelander killing the president. Since Trump's actual policies in real life, like tariff wars and mass deportations, would fuck over a company like Vought, especially when the latter obviously engages in international trade and no doubt would have wage-slave immigrant labor, a Trump expy would naturally be a target for Homelander, who at this point, owns Vought. You can even have both the Vought shareholders and concerned politicians approach Homelander and push him and Soldier Boy to kill the Trump expy, to save Vought's bottom line AND the nation's prestige overseas. That would then lead to Vought putting someone like Vic the veep in charge as the new president.
Then, like I said, you'd have mixed reactions from the Boys. MM and Butcher, who are laser-focused on their hatred of Homelander and Soldier Boy, would be horrified that a sitting president was ousted by Vought superheroes and replaced with a Vought toady, but the more liberal members like Hughie and Annie would actually have mixed feelings, seeing as how they'd probably think the Trump expy is a monster, and maybe this is the one time they'd recognize that what Soldier Boy and Homelander did was positive.
I wouldn't say they don't believe in the very concept of good. I think The Boys was going for a nihilistic fun house reflection of the modern west's most grotesque cultural vices, a la the GTA series; the podcast, the tiktoks, etc. The key difference that makes The Boys tonally inconsistent, however, is that its group of characters do not succumb to the world they inhabit in the same way GTA's protagonists do, and instead try - successfully - to effect change. As a result the show also vacillates very awkwardly between detached irony and mawkish sentimentalism, going from typical "hopeless clown world" commentary to played-out revenge narrative to a "the power of love conquers all!" scene in the finale.
It's inconsistent because Season 1 did a more realistic job of exploring the world while Seasons 2-5 became political satire. Then of course, Kripke has to rely on the very same power of love trope for the heroes to win, when in reality, it should've ended like Man of Steel where a V1-powered Homelander would go full General Zod on DC before going down, making it more like a tragedy. That this sweet, innocent boy became a murderous, egotistical monster, and taking him down decimated the nation's capital. And the real villain should always be the Vought machine, because that machine farted out Homelander to begin with, and Stan Edgar was the one who approved of the operation to replace Soldier Boy with Homelander.
We need Anthony Starr in other series asap, else that is all he will be remembered for.
Hopefully he gets cast as Albert Wesker in some Resident Evil thing.
I watched the Vought Rising trailer: Plot will be that vought experiments on niggers with V and that's bad and racism. That's it, that's the whole plot. Calling it now, put me down as betting it all.
I can already picture it.
-African American "volunteers" are forced to take V, most of them die in horrific agony.
-One or two survive, angry that they were used as guniea pigs. Basically the Boys' answer to Invincible's Angstrom Levy.
-Becomes a villain who wants to burn the world down, and Soldier Boy/the other V1 heroes have to take him down.
I think we are supposed to assume his tumor was zapped away, which raises several questions (where did the tendrils go? why is he still desperate if he's no longer near death? can Kimiko just cure cancer now?), but
Uroboros Butcher is poorly handled overall. The Jeffrey Morgan hallucination disappeared, he didn't commit to finally going rogue, his power level bounced around from sub-Soldier Boy tier to trading blows with Homelander, it's not clear if the mutation even counts as a supe, and the whole subplot only spawned so Starcunt could be right about toxic Hughie.
Where the fuck did Butcher's laser vision go? Why the hell did it disappear, but he became a Supe anyways? Wouldn't he be a bigger threat against Homelander if he had both the tentacle hentai powers AND laser-eyes?
Hell, they could've worked that in the ending where the tumor slowly takes him over, and he becomes more monster than man, which would necessitate Hughie killing him as some kind of Euthanasia operation.
The Boys writers could have only dreamed of writing a plot in the same galaxy as AoT and having a Protag-villain as good as Eren Yeager.
Anime will always win out over Hollywood's attempts at grimdark works.
Mostly because the former respects their audience, while giving them what they wanted.
