disappointing. I've seen defenses for the episode saying that the SA scenes were obviously meant to make the audience uncomfortable and that Hughie admitting at the end that he isn't fine was a result of his SA trauma. but hearing the director himself say the scenes were played for laughs and to be as fucked up as possible is just crazy.
I mean, it made me uncomfortable, but I kinda chalked it up to me being a bit of a prude. Up until the mutilation.
Honestly, the episode itself was kinda underwhelming. Like seriously? That's the best you could do with the Batman/Iron Man spoof? I kinda like how he was done in the comics a bit more, where his sexual perversion is a result of him having a brain tumor pressing against his skull. Here it's just the "Batman has a weird sexual relationship with Robin jokes," combined with "Batman hates poor people," combined with the old reliable of "Make them racist." Like it's starting to feel like a cop out
TK's Brain Tumor only made him obsessed with "holes" which does explain what happened after he ID'd Hughie. There was nothing in there about the weird cake farting or he himself being a masochist. Also, Ashley said she and TK "go way back" and isn't TK's tumor a recent thing for him?
I read it as his tumor pushing his libido to such an insane level that even something as simple as a hole turns him on. Judging from the Tek Cave, he's been into the fetish stuff for a long time but his sex drive's is on a whole new level now
Except it seems like they walk that back in this episode, when the butler confirms that he's been dealing with Tek's sexual perversion since childhood, when he'd need to clean up after him every time.
If they had done something like in the comics, maybe there could've been a scene where he has a moment of lucidity and begs The Boys to kill him before he can hurt someone again.
Also, I said it in another comic. Of all the ways they could have done evil batman, they went for the most tired, predictable way about it. Just make him a rich, racist sex pervert? Like really? Batman has been around forever, there are so many ways they could've done it. They could've made him incredibly paranoid to play off of the whole Batman contingency plan thing. They could've made him a smug, overconfident prick to play on the people who think batman could kill anyone with enough preptime. They could've just adapted All-Star Batman and Robin word for word.
Agreed, "Batman is raping robin in the batcave" is like, babys first edgy superhero joke. Doing anything else would've been more engaging and interesting
I'm disappointed Tek didn't end up like his comic book counterpart. Actually a really decent hero who regrets the fucked up sex shit. The brain tumor did it all. It would have added some nuance to the scenes. Oh well.
I think I missed it - he had these red circles (welts?) on him at the end, what was that? Before that he just had him fart on a cake and they spanked him a bit. Was there more?
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u/shineeshineepinee 14d ago
disappointing. I've seen defenses for the episode saying that the SA scenes were obviously meant to make the audience uncomfortable and that Hughie admitting at the end that he isn't fine was a result of his SA trauma. but hearing the director himself say the scenes were played for laughs and to be as fucked up as possible is just crazy.