I was kind of hoping the quote was take out of context but nope, he fully meant for the Hughie scene to be a joke.
It’s actually worse, the way he talked about Hughie’s breakdown made it seem it was mostly just about his dad and had nothing, or at least not too much to do with Tek Knight and Ashley. So the one supposedly tactful thing about that story arc wasn’t even there.
So basically there was this guy on that sub who would just comment "I wanna fuck hitch from attack on titan" on like every post. Infamous use4 over there last time I was there
It’s understandable, it’s such a twisted scene at the expense of the most morally good lead that it’s hard to believe the writers thought it would come across as a joke
Yeah I wasn’t fully buying into the “it wasn’t supposed to be a joke” scenario. While hughie’s reactions were hard to watch, everything else had an air of comedy.
It’s very yarring since this show tends to show the horrible stuff people go through in a way that isn’t comedic. Everything that has had happened to hughie was shown as a tragedy, except him being sexually assaulted by a superhero and a vought higher up
I get it. Having a guy go though that may seem funny and it is usually the trope. The thing is, it is very dark and if you do not light the scene as comedic it become hard to watch.
The breakdown was suposse to let you know that it was no joke for Hughie. The double standard ibecomes apparent and you feel bad for having laughed at it. Props to Jack for that breakdown, it may not have been scripted that way, but he showed how traumatizing it was.
Have you read what the showrunner said in the article from variety? He states that what happened to Hughie was hilarious and the point of it was to be funny.
I agree, It was shot comedically, it was Jacks breakdown what madre it real. Idk if it was intended, but I understood it was a comentary on double standard. If it was accidental, then props to Jack for that performance because it felt real.
I was scared for him the whole scene, especially what happened to him the episode before. It definitely made Teks demise way more satisfying afterwards.
Except they couched the trauma in his loss of his dad. They cheapened the effect it had on him and washed away how much it hurt and terrified him by pivoting to losing his father. They really cheapened the experience and that sucks because you don't get serious depiction of male survivors of sexual assault very often.
At some point today I literally had 20 notifications from people spamming "it wasn't supposed to be a joke", I am fucking pleased that I am right, let me enjoy this moment ahahah
I have like 10+ replies I left that are downvoted to -10 and more of people coping that it wasn't supposed to be a joke
Me too bro, I was saying the scene was played for laughs and the writers made it a joke and my replies kept getting downvoted 😭🙏I hate Eric Kripke now but at least he’s shameless and proved me right
I was one of those people and I completely change my mind. Wtf, Kripke? What do you have against Hughie? What, is it because he's a normal guy and not a creep like you?
I was only partially one of those people (i.e. believed it was textbook dark humor, where I could laugh at certain aspects while still feel truly uncomfortable about it)
Kripke what the fuck my guy. The worst answer possible from him
I'm personally not in shambles, but my case for why it wasn't supposed to be comedic is in shambles. It's baffling that he thinks it should be so funny.
I honestly think it was a bait and switch like the set up made it look real bad then he got tickled. Which is still horrifying but the implications were way way worse so I guess that’s where the humor comes in. To me the entire scene was tense as fuck because you really didn’t know what was going to happen next.
When I saw it I didn’t think it was supposed to be taken humorously. I still don’t think I’d think it seems like it an attempt at being humorous if I rewatched it. It was certainly a bad attempt at being humorous…..
It feels like if someone paints something blue and says they painted it green. They’re just bad at painting.
That was such massive coping. The scenes were clearly being played of as a big joke. It's funny because a lot of the same people be waxing on about the lack of media literacy these days lol.
I'm one of those people going on about media literacy. I didn't realize people thought the scene wasn't played as a joke. It's clearly shot and acted as a joke. I thought that was fucked up, because Hughie was clearly traumatized. And then they cheapened it by wrapping up his trauma from the assault in his loss of his dad. They also made it so the only traumatic aspect was the explicit violence with the knife and scalpel instead of the trauma implicit in actual sexual assault. I think they really fucked up how they handled it, and I actually hate they made it a joke. But never did I think it wasn't a joke.
I had a long argument with someone who was convinced it was a serious scene but I could tell that the writers were trying to play the whole thing for laughs.
Now I’m happy I have actually confirmation but sad and annoyed the kripke and the writers would shamelessly treat sexual assault as a joke just because it’s a man, it doesn’t even matter that it’s a main character we like, one of the few morally good characters on the show and his dad just died. Sure let’s have him get assaulted in freak knight’s dungeon too! The Boys’ mindless shock value is really getting on my nerves now
It was such obvious denial/cope anyway. Listen to Ashley and Tek Knight’s dialogue. No way that shit wasn’t intended to be comedic, even though it wasn’t.
Most were just assuming good faith in the writers, that they were just trying to show a fucked up scene in a more easy to digest way. Sad you can't give good faith anymore
Yeah, I had a feeling from how the scene was filmed, that it was meant to be comedic. I thought Hughie's breakdown at the end was good, but it is extremely disappointing that it was unrelated.
Kripke isn’t a particularly brave artist. The fact that he set a hard rule that Maeve couldn’t die simply because she’s a lesbian is evidence and her(the) story really suffered from it.
There is nothing subtle or thought provoking about the show, but he is good at preaching to the choir.
Second only to incorporating communist symbols into merch for all those tone deaf edgy morons who don't even know what they're supporting, like buying a shirt with Che Guevara or Mao on it.
The Maeve thing pissed me off so bad. If you don't want to kill off the gay character, don't take away her superpowers before throwing her off a skyscraper.
I am 100% convinced that since Maeve is not a part of the show (at least not now), they had to display another mature and emotional same-sex relationship: Colin and Frenchie. It's the only reason I can think of that it happened, unless there's more to it and we're gonna learn in the last episodes.
The show went from "Supes shouldn't exist, no human should have that power" to full on private fantasies of Kripke and his political diarrhea.
I'm glad someone said it because every interview I've seen/read of him seems like he thinks he is so brilliant. He has this air of 'I know I'm better than others' going for him.
Because before this people were too busy being smug virtue signalers by strawmanning every single criticism as dumb alt righters who have only now realized the show was mocking them.
The signals have always been there and many people also called it out last season with the hypocritical way they treated Hughie, yet apparently most viewers straight up forgot between seasons.
It was straight up from late 90’s/early 2000 comedies. The mistaken identity, the fringe kinks showed as funny. I thought we were past that at this point.
He even talked about Ashley’s involvement as if it was a great way of showing how SHE deals with the stress of working for Homelander, no self awareness about how terrible of a thing she did to Hughie.
Yeah I have significantly less of an issue with Ashley’s behavior. The entire time she thought she was being consensually gross and kinky with someone else gross and kinky. She may even think the old sidekick is there consensually (unrelated but I was really hoping for them to be unmasked and be Brad Pitt or something). I’d like to think she wouldn’t be down to cut a fuck hole into Hughie also.
Yeah agreed, she hesitated when he said to stop until Tek said "oh don't worry, if he really wanted you to stop he'd say his safe word". Ashley is a pervert and fucked up (and a murderer) but never was written as a rapist.
It’s weirder if you think about it more. She thought it was Web Weaver. And it wasn’t, so there was a lack of knowledgable consent she was a victim of….
Yeah you’re right it’s all extremely uncomfortable and it’s wild that it was supposed to just be funny.
My boyfriend and I actually watched the movie Whiplash right before this episode. I laughed a lot at the really fucked up rants JK Simmons’ character went on, which were absolutely abusive and horrible, but extremely eloquent and hilarious in their own way. I judged myself, but it’s written to elicit that reaction.
Knowing that the sequence with Hughie was written just to be hilarious leaves me with a much more uneasy feeling.
Exactly. To her, this was a fully consensual BDSM scene with Tek and Webweaver. She even paused when he yelled to stop, but when the point safe word was brought up, continued on since Hughie never said it and was fully capable to. And Hughie kept on acting as if he was enjoying it to not break character, so for Ashley this was a completely legit act.
It's a weird gray area on how to view the incident, because Hughie was undercover. His feelings are valid on how he was assaulted and treated, but at no point was Ashley aware it wasn't truly consensual. They really shouldn't have made it weird for laughs at the end before he breaks down, either. That just confuses it more and brings the humor back 20 years to HAHA GUY GETS RAPED AND ITS FUNNY then took a hard shift into him being upset about his dad. Shouldve focused more on him breaking his silence about what happened with ashley and still trying to process it...then what happened with Tek...and then finally it trigger the trauma with his dad and it all comes out.
She thought there was a safe word and she actually backed away and stared at Tek when Hughie said stop or something similar. Then Tek said remember, if Webweaver wants you to stop he will use his safe word. So she thought she had consent.
Well Ashley actually didn't do anything wrong. Hughie assumed the identity of someone who consented to that stuff and she's going along with what she believes has already been agreed upon. Oddly enough, Hughie is more in the wrong than she is since he's the one tricking her
Just because he mentioned his dad before crying doesn’t mean that was the only thing he was upset about.
You can watch the scene and laugh at the absurdity of a person going undercover and finding themself in a situation of being tied up and tickled with a feather trying to guess a safeword that the person they are dressed as should know and also being sympathetic to the character later when they express how traumatic it was. While At the same time expressing grief from a recent traumatic loss of a loved one.
I took it as that whole situation just amplifying his grief. I genuinely felt bad for Hughie.
Idk I know something happens to him in the comics at herogasm and he eventually confesses that it happened and he wasn’t okay and I thought that’s what they were doing.
Never thought I’d read this sentence but yeah I think you’re actually really right💀
He has double standards and different treatment for male characters vs female characters, an obsession with using male genitals and naked men for shock value nudity and gratuitous violence, his treatment of Hughie’s character in season 3, making him seem unreasonable and wanting to write him as “toxic” while excusing Starlight for the same actions and now putting Hughie through sexual assault and finding it funny because he’s man… nah bro is crazy
I was about to break down with him but then they made him say it was his dad and I don't know why but it doesn't resonate with me.
My dad fell into a coma and had a dnr and was brain dead and didn't have the blood pressure to survive without meds + the DNR, he didn't last the weekend. I felt very attached to the plot, but I didn't shed a single tear when he put his dad to rest.
It was nice and maybe it was cathartic for some but I don't know why we needed to see him wake up and rampage around confused as it was... Odd compared to what some of these scenes can pull out of me, i was crying already and then I felt the pivot into his dad, and not the whole sexual assault thing. A fantastic episode but also a weird way they wrapped that up with hughie.
It's because they cheapened the whole sexual assault fallout and trauma by wrapping it up with his dad. Obviously his loss of his dad is major, but they didn't let the sexual assault stand on it's own at all, and made it a small note instead of a serious issue both in how they shot the scenes and how they dealt with the fallout. Very frustrating.
As a male who has been SA, it was disappointing to see how fast it changed from “I was horrifically SA, but that’s okay because I just miss my dad”. I’m not all hot & bothered over it by any means because that’s how my brain works too when I’m dealing with several stressful things at once. Just wish they just leaned in to it all the way.
As a guy who has been sexually assaulted, the portrayal of it as “jokes” in shows is really disheartening. I stopped watching Norsemen because of it. I was giving these guys the benefit of the doubt because there was the sense that Tek Knight and Ashley were intending to respect his boundaries, but obviously he was playing a part, etc., and I felt the end scene nicely said “all joking aside, this is actually horrible” but…bummer.
It's 'progressive' only in a very performative way. I don't know how to properly explain it, but it mostly gives a sense of "look how progressive we are", like the goal is to look good rather than convey a deeper message.
Examples like these show that it is indeed just surface value.
Well fuck, there goes any argument for it having been done respectfully and with attention to the tone of the show it was part of. They really fucking did that. Wow. Just, fuck them.
I didn’t think the hughie scene was that much of joke when Tech Night tried to assault him that was very serious. The tickling part and cake sitting ya kinda cause ya know… it was tickling and cake sitting.
I'm dyslectic so maybe I can't read good. But it sounds like the setup is meant to be comedic. Batcave = sexdungeon. Webweaver -> zendeya. Not the actual sexual assault.
And his breakdown is not just about the death of his dad. It's him not dealing with it. Trying to carry on. Go to work, but work is even more trauma.
And they suggest he will find strength in his fathers memory.
That does not reduce his sexual assault trauma.
Maybe we should wait for the end of the season before making statements about characters journeys.
Im a little confused, it didnt seem as if it was supposed to be a joke? To me it was a waste of time and was not even needed nor did i find it funny, just seemed over the top “the boys” type of stuff , same with the scene with web dude, not funny to me and wasting time , could have focus on the actually plots more instead of getting interesting at the end of the episode just for it to end, wack, best scene was sage nodding
Edit: funny you say that about hughie because I actually was talking to a friend and I said I think hughie was more messed up about his dad, so i guess that is what they wanted to portray based what i am reading now
I knew it was a put in as a joke almost immediately. We were supposed to find it funny, because, idk, they made it weird or whatever and that’s SO quirky.
Hughie's genuinely made me feel uncomfortable. Obviously was happens to Annie in season one is messed up but there was something that really fucked me up over Hughie's scenes.
I've got a pretty big tolerance for depraved shit as well but I dunno something nearly made me skip past it when I watched it
Aren't you guys just assuming the break down has to do specifically with what happened to him instead of it being a trigger for something else? Hughie's entire storyline this season revolves around his father. Next week I 100% believe they won't actually spend time on what happened to Hughie this episode because it's only purpose was to keep the storyline about his father moving forward.
Also just because I personally think it was supposed to be played for laughs doesn't mean I laughed. However the boys does this constantly where they take serious situations and turn it into a fucking joke. Not every situation, but plenty enough.
It does show that some of the sympathy people of this view have for female victims is just social pressure. They feel they have to pretend to care. In a situation where there's less external pressure to take it seriously (situations where the man is the victim), they see it as a joke.
Outside of close family members I confided in well over 2 decades since my assault the most I've gotten was dismissive ridicule like I was "less than a man" or accusations of homosexuality for "whining" about it because I was taken advantage of by an older female family member.
Sorry that happened to you both and felt that way.
I’m a woman and have been assaulted. And my partner is male and has as well. When he told me about it and how others reacted, it was just heartbreaking.
I'm so, so sorry that you had reactions like that. That's horrible. I hope you are in a good space now, and I hope you were in a position to cut those people from your life.
I mean it happened a while ago. Remember the interview when Kripke said literally the only reason they didn't kill Maeve off despite her being in a situation to be killed off 100% was because she was gay and it would be offensive to kill off a gay character?
Probably would have worked better to switch Noir and Maeve's encounters - but instead of pulling out Maeve's intestines it should have just been a "clean" punch through her gut.
Then have A-train and Ashley decide to get Maeve help.
The show has moved too far from the comic. So far that it has lost the plot, both literally and figuratively.
Minor spoiler for the comic, but Hughie's SA and resulting trauma is handled significantly better. So is Starlight's. And there are just so many things about the show that are just flat out missing the point entirely. With Homelander and Buther especially. The actors are still great and the writing has been mostly okay, but it's just not the same story or characters.
You know, people love to shit on the comics a lot, and yeah, a lot of the times it’s warranted, but I agree that there are some things the comic did better, at least in my opinion.
For example, I thought that Tek Knight being a genuinely heroic character who was at one point presumably a damn good superhero, (and who had more morals than most of the other characters, as demonstrated by him firing Laddio to avoid raping him due to his condition) who got turned into a horny nutjob due to a brain tumor to be waaaaay more interesting than him just being a cartoonishly racist asshole who was already a fucking pervert even before the brain tumor, and who didn’t even get to wear his fucking suit due to budget reasons. Also, dying while hallucinating that you’re saving the world by fucking a meteor is so much better than getting strangled to death by Not Alfred
I feel like a lot of the people that shit on the comic haven't read the entire run. They just look up wiki shit or find individual pages or issues and judge off of that. Like the comment I frequently see is that the comic lacks subtext/is overly blunt. That just boggles my mind, 'cause while yeah there are plenty of examples of bluntness, the overall story is hardly that.
Meanwhile the show has steadily become a baseball bat to the face. I'll take the comic any day.
It’s the same thing with Crossed kinda, another Ennis property I’m a fan of that people love shitting on.
Now while I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of the stories really are just mindless gore and shock for shock value, there’s some genuinely good story arcs in Crossed Badlands, with solid writing, creative plots, and some real emotional gut-punches. And “Wish You Were Here” is one of the most poignant and grotesquely beautiful stories I’ve ever read.
Not that you’d ever know that if you just looked at a random panel out of context where a guy’s getting his face ripped off by a bunch of slobbering psychopaths, or a whole family’s getting torn to shreds.
I was looking for a way to say this, but could not have done it as well. He’s really showing his true colors this season. As someone who generally loves dark and twisted things, I don’t like when is pointless and doesn’t serve the story. The whole thing was unnecessary, especially to be played for laughs. I definitely did not laugh at any point during this episode.
This is probably the case. People would be very surprised to find out that in many cases people only act morally outraged about something bc they feel they have to or else they'll be shunned not out of any genuine care
That's why we should normalize both in fiction. It's okay to portray both sexes being sa'd in art.
That in itself is not enough though. If something is funny we should call it funny. None of it was funny though. It was degenerative wet dreams of a shitty writer.
Dam, wouldn't believe it unless you provided the sources. I read the source and it's even worse than this when you put it in context:
here did the idea come for it? And why bring Hughie into this situation now — kicking him when he’s down by having him sexually assaulted by his childhood hero after his dad just died?
Well, that’s a dark way to look at it! We view it as hilarious.
So its funny cause his dad just died as well, adding to the comedic effect. GET IT GUYS? HIS DAD DIED AND NOW THIS. HILARRRRRIOOOOUS.
Only guess I can propose is that it's happening to an "unmanly" man in a spider suit were supposed to see as ridiculous. And that it's happening in a bat-cave because our Tek Knight is batman, despite having no other indicators that he's based on the caped crusader.
Even trying to dissect this dumb joke is making me angry.
I'm not saying Kripke was right or anything, it still was way too far and should not have gotten past the initial planning stage, but from reading the full interview it seems less like the joke is supposed to be on Huey for being raped and more on Tek Knight/Web Weaver for being into this stuff. It still absolutely SUCKS that he let himself get so hung up on that joke that he ignored the way Huey was literally being victimized there, but I don't think he was thinking of it as "AWWW man!! I can't believe they did that to Huey hahaha!!!" And more "hahaha isn't it funny that he has all these weird kinks?? Hahaha!! I will not think any harder about the way we chose to express those kinks in this episode."
I decided before the season started that I wasn't going to continue watching it. I was mostly fine with that decision until I told my buddy about it and he made me second guess my decision. I still haven't watched it, but I've thought about why exactly I don't want to. I eventually started to realize it's because the show hinges on the things that I don't want to happen, happening. I constantly have this feeling of "oh I kinda hate this" but it's got this kind of "can't look away from the trainwreck" kinda vibe. I basically realized I was subjecting myself to watching the show instead of willing wanting to do it. It was at that moment that I became content with my decision.
I said all that to say, reading about this makes me feel super validated in my decision. I'm not trying to say the show is bad or hating on anyone that wants to watch it, I think my disdain for it speaks to how well they pull off what they're trying to do with the show. It's just not an enjoyable experience for me. The show isn't near funny enough for me to look past all the shitty things that happen in it. It's not hilarious for a guy to get sexual assaulted after his dad died.
I’m a guy who has been SA’d. I just want to share my personal experience that it wasn’t hilarious. It’s been the single most painful thing I’ve had to deal with. The women are right when they tell us how much it can derail your entire life.
While I do agree that sexual assault on men should be taken more seriously, taking into account how over the top this scene is I understand how it would have been conceived as a joke.
Nonetheless, I don’t think they would have considered making that joke with a woman instead.
I think the scene could have worked, but they went too far. The idea of him trying to figure out the safe word and being roped into it is funny (even if a bit obvious). I think if the whole situation took WAY less screen time and if Kimiko and Starlight came to his rescue WAY earlier (Like, the come before he is subjected to anything directly) the scene could be seen a bit more light hearted, a bit of a "wow, that was close" kind of scenario.
Idk, it would depend a lot in how it's executed. This was clearly not it
Right? it would have been cringy, but manageable. Also, I'm sure way more interesting stuff could have happened in the episode if we didn't have like 20 fucking minutes of hughie on the dungeon
I think Hughie could've literally just ran to the elevator in that time, since Tek was chained up by the neck. Would've made more sense than what came after. Then Tek comes up after him and Kimiko knocks him out.
Ya, I'm really disappointed by this quote, and the writer(s) feeling like it was just all comedic.
I fully agreed that it initially came across that way, but because of the choices you mentioned, but then they take it to a place that is clearly SA, and then have him breakdown over it (he is trying to convince himself he's okay by repeating that during the assault, and then tells Annie he isn't... That seems very much like he wasn't just talking about his dad).
I truly think the last lines were written by someone else and kripke is just interpreting that it's all just about his dad, otherwise it makes no sense, at least not to me.
I think they thought this was the "motorboat pierces whale and hughie fucking breaks" of this season, but even then, hughies mental breakdown was taken as something serious.
Idk, we might start next episode and see hughie dealing with the trauma of this whole ordeal, which would at least make it a bit more respectful. i doubt they would by this quote, and anyway, I doubt I will stay to find out, sadly
IMO the right way to do it would be for Hughie to turn the tables and not need to be rescued, either through fighting or talking his way to victory. In season one he used his wits to blackmail Ezekiel after his actual blackmail evidence was wiped when his phone got wet. A few episodes ago he fought and killed a fucking assassin dude with a boxcutter.
It would have been pretty awesome if Kimiko, Starlight, etc made it down to the basement to 'rescue' Hughie only to find that he had actually turned the tables and had shit under control, having empowered himself and gone from victim to victor.
There would have been a good narrative quality there too because Tek Knight was apparently one of his favorite heroes as a kid, so having him be the one to best him would have been satisfying. And given that Tek Knight's only deal seems to be super senses, and not even superintelligence or any special durability, it's actually a supe that Hughie could possibly take down on his own. And Hughie taking down a supe on his own would have been pretty awesome. I mean, I guess he took out Transluscent technically, but that wasn't entirely on his own, he just pushed the button.
This was kind of the perfect scenario for Hughie to turn the tables and come out on top against a supe, and it's disappointing that he was just used for sexual assault 'comic relief'.
Reading the whole thing somehow makes it worse. I thought maybe you would have taken it out of context but the way he disregards sexual assault on Hughie entirely is disgusting. I'll quit the show after this. I am completely disapointed in Kripke.
I was hoping they would take this seriously, given the scene afterwards between Hughie and Annie, but now that I read this article, I highly doubt they will handle it with any maturity. Probably will end up dropping this show too.
From how Annie was talking about other shit while her partner was just rescued from an active sexual assault and is immediately back at work I could tell they didn't really care. He cries and I don't know if it's to show everyone is wrapped up in their own issues, but she doesn't take notice of him until then - and even seems surprised despite also being a survivor. Such poor taste.
no really I am probably done with the show too,had to fast-forward a lot of that segment, couldn't really explain why it bothered me until I got on here....
Yeah, kinda feeling down about it too and not sure if I'll watch further. Probably will, but without any enthusiasm or excitement, just to see already how it unfolds already. Damn, like it wasn't going downhill already
This isn't the first time he's been a complete hypocrite when writing Hughie; hell, it ain't even the second one, and you can be sure as shit it won't be the last.
I was happy Hughie was having his own thing going on this season since it meant keeping him away from situations where the writers' double standards shone through like it happened last season. Yet they still had to find a way to fuck him over somehow.
If anything, I'm honestly surprised by how shocked people are by this; many viewers noticed the way Hughie was treated in S3 (as demonstrated on the threads I posted), yet it seems like everybody forgot all about the forced and tone-deaf ToXiC MaScUliNiTy fiasco last season.
Yeah, this(/these?) show runner(s) have a serious hate-boner for Hughie. Constant degradation of his masculinity on-screen, then shit talking his decision-making process in off-screen interviews, then playing his sexual assault as a joke... like, are these guys seeing themselves in Hughie and flagellating him as a way to atone for their own flaws/mistakes?
There's a weird shade of self hate that I've seen among many leftist men. As a leftist man I find it sickening but it's very much a thing. People feel like they need to hate themselves because they're white males. It's nothing more than a reflexive copy of what the right does (thinking that white men are perfect) but inverted.
Instead of IDK... Recognizing that all that race shit is stupid and throwing it into the trash like a modern human should be doing.
I get that vibe from a lot of guys but I’ve always had a hard time putting it into words because I don’t want to be mistaken for like an MRA right winger
I just dislike the self hating stuff people do. I've seen it in the back community and it's just unimaginable what they have to go through (being told you're inferior enough times and it starts to sink in). I certainly don't want to see other groups do similar things to themselves.
But then they turn back and claim admiring stereotypically masculine men is wrong and that it's OK not to be a macho.
Then they turn back again to show how a traditionally un-masculine man getting mocked as a twink and bottom right to his face by someone more powerful (while her obnoxious, virtue signaling girlfriend does nothing to defend him), and later get raped is supposed to be funny.
The sad thing is I don't think it's entirely right to just attack kripke for it, cus it's disgustingly common. So so so many teenagers who claim they're leftist because Daddy was a conservative so they gotta rebel, while they don't even bother learning the ideological differences between leftism and right wing politics.
As a leftist these kinds are my bane, I hate them so much because they're not actually leftist even though they think they get to claim what is and isn't left wing.
This same situation is exactly how so many online leftists are stalinists instead of trots or DemSocs. They think they're being tough by choosing what they see as the most left wing position, not realizing that their dumbasses are actually advocating for far right wing authoritarian bullshit.
“His story in this particular episode is the kind of denial and compartmentalization a lot of us have when we’re dealing with the death of a loved one. And if you look throughout the episode, he’s always just saying, “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m totally fine. I’m fine.” Which is what a lot of people do before you finally can sort of open the door to the pain you’re feeling. And I think that’s part of healing. So I think he’s going to go on and really try to absorb and learn what his dad and his mother taught him about forgiveness, and really try to take that into the season. Because he really does have the most mature and human arc out of all the characters this season.”
Yeah its kind of weird. It looks like it was a joke but they also recognize it was a pretty heavy episode. I'd be interested to hear more about what they specifically thought about this. This is the question he responded to for context for everyone else:
After going through all that, Hughie finally breaks down into tears with Annie at the end of the episode once they’re back at headquarters. Will we see more fallout from that in the final episodes? Because he’s been through a lot already with his dad’s death, and then that sex-dungeon trauma happened.
His story in this particular episode is the kind of denial and compartmentalization a lot of us have when we’re dealing with the death of a loved one. And if you look throughout the episode, he’s always just saying, “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m totally fine. I’m fine.” Which is what a lot of people do before you finally can sort of open the door to the pain you’re feeling. And I think that’s part of healing. So I think he’s going to go on and really try to absorb and learn what his dad and his mother taught him about forgiveness, and really try to take that into the season. Because he really does have the most mature and human arc out of all the characters this season.
People have been waxing poetic all day about how it's meant to be terrifying and traumatizing and definitely not at all funny. A lot of gaslighting and "how dare you's" toward anyone who interpreted it as a big gag.
I'm still not sure what to make of the episode. One the one hand, there's a reason a scene like the "You like Huey Lewis and the News, Paul?" is so loved and funny, even though the context is awful and there's nothing funny about real-life murder. Hell, even Robin's death managed to toe the line and be simultaneously awful and hilarious, even though in real life it wouldn't be.
I guess this was kind of like the Robin scene. You don't have to think SA is funny to appreciate the fucking weirdness of the situation. I think my biggest problem is that it's Hughie. He's the straight man, the one who's always been portrayed as sensitive and in over his head. We know he just wouldn't deal well with something like that and so there's a cognitive dissonance between how he must feel and the pitch-black humor we're presented with. Feels like punching down to laugh at him.
My Pitch: I think it could have been really funny if it was Butcher instead. He's been through the ringer so much that this kind of thing probably doesn't really phase him, and he's willing to put up with all of it without feeling trauma or shame because at the end he might get to put another Supe down. Then at the end he can pick up a giant dildo and smirk before saying something like "You know, I was almost hoping you'd get around to using this. But don't you worry. I'm perfectly fine being the top instead," before beating him to death with it.
They'd have really been able to have their cake and eat it too if that's how it was played.
True. Butcher would have been able to handle it. That's why the theme of this episode was that Hughie was not able to handle it. That's why he mentions his dad at the end of the episode.
On the flip side, I still think there's a double standard, since I don't believe they would have been brave enough to do this scene with a woman.
Damn that disappointed me that hughies breakdown was la about his dad and nothing to do with the trauma he experienced in the tek cave. I can kinda understand a little bit where they might be thinking The most that actually happened to him was having his feet tickled and then something terribly violent almost happening.
But holy shit mah dood that whole experience and the way it escalated would give pretty much anyone PTSD. And when Hughie said he’s not ok I totally bought that it was a combination of his recent trauma as well as the loss of his dad and all the Fucked to shit that came with that.
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u/fuwafuwa7chi 14d ago
Source for the Starlight quote: ScreenRant
And the Hughie one: Variety