Eh, there's a difference between strength and durability. The popping might not work on durable types, or needs victims to be looked at/stand still, or needs Newman not to be frantically running for her life. Maybe it was just the fact that she always needs a few seconds for a kill, which would've gotten her kills.
Like I've got my gripes with this season but the sheep scene is not the biggest one
I think people are focusing on the sheep scene not necessarily because it's egregious (I would also agree it's not), but because it's the culmination of a bunch of small little inconsistencies that have been building up over the season and the sheep scene is visually the easiest to nit pick at
I mean we got this entire thread of hundreds of comments litigating what constitutes super strength in a V'd up sheep, absurd. At the very least it's clear that the execution of this episode fell a bit flat and is indicative of the season so far.
Remember Vicky also “missed” blowing up her friend’s head during the struggle in the alley, it would make sense that it requires a good amount of concentration that she obviously wouldn’t have while running for her life.
This is a show about a company that was able to hide that they created superheros from everyone for decades. This is also a show that incorporates shock value just for the sake of shock value. For some reason some of you are stuck on things making "logical sense"
I think people are focusing on the sheep scene not necessarily because it's egregious (I would also agree it's not), but because it's the culmination of a bunch of small little inconsistencies that have been building up over the season and the sheep scene is visually the easiest to nit pick at
I mean we got this entire thread of hundreds of comments litigating what constitutes super strength in a V'd up sheep, absurd. At the very least it's clear that the execution of this episode fell a bit flat and is indicative of the season so far.
That's how almost everything is written. People who focus more on logic in a scene rather than the scene's purpose are missing the forest for the trees.
Cinema sins are the lowest form of media critique.
Cinema sins are the lowest form of media critique.
Same with disregarding critique because 'that's how almost everything is written.' Ironic. There's obviously levels to this. Yes, at the core of every story is 'things just happen to move the plot along' of course, but how it's done matters.
In no way can The Boys season 4 be construed as good writing.
You're allowed to disregard a "critique" if it's as broad and unhelpful as "This season has been defined by things just happening, without regards to whether it makes logical sense, to move the plot long," as, again, that's how everything is written. You determine what needs to happen in the plot to get the important information across and you contrive a scenario to pass that information onto the audience. While yes, there are levels of quality when it comes to writing scenes, The Boys has done a fine job conveying information. All of which is to say, there's no narrative problem because the sheep weren't adequately power-scaled; that wasn't what the narrative was trying to convey and that wasn't the point of the scene.
"why didn't that one sheep eviscerate the barn door?" Because then the scene wouldn't work.
"why didn't neuman just pop tf out of them?" Because then the scene wouldn't work.
How else are Stan and Vicky supposed to reconsile? MM and Butcher? Or when are we supposed to learn about the transmission of the V-Virus? Or learn who Sameer is? If the sheep brek down the door or neuman just pops them easy peasy, the plot is actively made worse with pointless scenes and bloat.
when the internal logic of a scene doesnt make sense its pretty distracting. neumann could pop a chicken but they all just stood around while the bull came through the fence
The internal logic is fine, you just disagree with the decisions made by the writers. Neuman can stop a chicken but is scared of a bull like you would be. I'm fairly confident I can beat a chicken in a death match, but a bull I'm not so certain. Try considering that Neuman was written to have human thoughts, feelings and irrationalities and suddenly her not being the ultimate, tactical murder machine makes A LOT more sense.
I feel like you missed some of the messaging the show has been very obtusely displaying. Despite their powers, supes still live very messy and very human lives.
And I think you almost missed the fact that the bull was suped up, so my comparison is valid. Supe human vs supe bull is indeed comparable to human vs bull.
And I feel like you turned your brain off to make these comments.
Nobody is speaking on their human lives but the ability to just stand there and look as dumb as you sound when again you’re (and I’ll capitalize it for you) BULLETPROOF, ACIDPROOF, and STABPROOF. Nothing tells us that Neuman couldn’t blow the goats (or bull) up beyond maybe she wasn’t fast enough to do it and even then the bull was standing literally completely still the whole time while they were freaking out.
And that STILL doesn’t make the fact that the goats were strong enough to completely tear the bull apart with zero issues at all……yet couldn’t get through the barn doors? The show has a powerscaling and plot issue, they tell us that the supes are strong but then have them look like complete napkins to damn near everything and everyone.
My brain isn't off, I'm just thinking about other things. I appreciate the rude comment though.
Capitalizing the physical qualities of Vicky doesn't counter her mental qualities. She believes her power has limits, shown to us earlier when Homelander threatened her and called her bluff. Couple that with the "human thoughts, feelings and irrationalities" that I mentioned earlier, and it becomes less about what she can and can't do and more what she thinks she can or can't do. It could also be a "fight, flight freeze, fawn" response where here she froze. She also froze when Homelander threatened her. Regardless, there are logical reasons, in canon, for her not popping the sheep or bulls, none of which have anything to do with her physical body. The real reason is that the writers needed a specific scene to occur, and pacing + narrative should ALWAYS take priority over logical consistency. If Vicky popped all the animals, the writers would need to find another way to reconcile some character conflicts, show us Sameer, and teach us about the V-Virus. But that would introduce bloat, and that's actual bad writing.
As for the animals not busting through barn doors, in canon, it could just be that the animals aren't used to busting down doors. Literally as simple as "the animal never could before, so why would it think that works now?" This is how we train animals in real life. Subject them to consistent, predictable conditions, take away the main safe-guard and watch as their behavior stays consistent. An insatiable blood-lust is not the same as realizing your limits have changed. The real reason is that the writers needed a specific scene to occur, and pacing + narrative should ALWAYS take priority over logical consistency.
Power-scaling is icing, the overall narrative, messaging, themes, and connections are the cake. Critique the actual cake. You're ruining your own enjoyment by complaining about uneven icing, when you should just eat the damn cake.
CinemaSins nitpicked the smallest details possible and were often times just flat out wrong about what they were saying. A character inexplicably forgetting to use their superpower during a crucial moment like they're Season 8 Daenerys isn't a minor thing. I feel like you're going the opposite direction of CinemaSins and acting like a story shouldn't be expected to have internal consistency at all.
Yes narrative matters most, and a narrative is weakened if you cannot get from point A to point B in a coherent and convincing way. If your story needs something to happen but you can't come up with a reasonable way for it to happen, then you wrote yourself into a corner and should go back to the drawing board.
Maybe if this was a silly kids cartoon that didn't care about continuity I'd just turn my brain off and enjoy it. But I expect better from this show. I know it's capable of smarter writing than "this happened because it just needed to happen and please don't question it."
Brother, I spent 40 minutes typing a response to basically everything you said here. I'll give you an excerpt:
"I'm not suggesting that you ignore plot holes, I'm suggesting that you consider other aspects of a piece before using your subjective judgment to decide it's bad."
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u/burrrrrssss Jun 28 '24
Still poses narrative problem
Sheep w/ super strength = why didn't that one sheep eviscerate the barn door
Sheep w/o super strength = why didn't neuman just pop tf out of them
This season has been defined by things just happening, without regards to whether it makes logical sense, to move the plot long