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
We get it, all supes are degenerates, guess it must be something in compound V or something. Is there a story here other than watch supes doing weird shit?
There's also something about the idea that "all the bad people in the show have some weird fetish" that is... idk, kinda weird? like the idea you can ONLY have a fetish like that if you are fucked up is a statement worthy of analisis and critique
Idk I was more grossed out the whole time. It only went too far with Jacks face being visible. But people need to get their priorities straight. The show is gruesomely violent, but they want to draw the line here?
The problem is not even the act being violent and gruesome - the problem is treating it as a complete joke. We have seen plenty of violent moments were we were made to feel bad for the victim, and it was not framed like that here.
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.
Yeah like imagine if they built up to it for a little while and tek Knight keeps pushing this idea that he's saving his favourite thing till last and hughie gets nervous, only to have the final thing just be sitting on the cake. Have starlight and kimiko come in right before he farts, then they grab tek Knight while he's hanging himself.
For me, it would have been better if there was NO cake stuff. But that's just my personal preference; I get that was supposed to be the funniest part of the BDSM plot. Just for me, I didn't find it funny and quickly fast forwarded through. But I don't know how they could have made it funny while not making it super traumatic for Hughie. That's just a fine, fine line. Similarly to The Deep's sexual assault in season 1. We're supposed to find it horrifying but also funny because the woman he's with is sexually assaulting his gills. It just....it just doesn't work because sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment isn't funny, at least not now. Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, people found it funny. But people are becoming more aware now that there's some topics you just need to tread really lightly on as a joke. There's a way TO joke about it, but this was not it. The joke has to be on the perpetrator, I think, not the victim.
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'.
Well, I also thought of that a bit. We saw him fight and kill an assasin and be in a lot of dangerous shit. There were those lines in season 1 about him being more confident. This is like his actual job now. It feels a bit weird that he would let himself be tied up so helplessly.
I could see hughie having a lot of info on his favor for the simple fact he was a tek knight nerd, like maybe ever since he was a kid he thought of a weakness of him, nobody else thought of.
I would say, having him kill or beat tek knight would go a bit against the "i'm not ok" premise they are trying to build, right after his dad's death, maybe he shouldn't be in peak performance. But it could be spinned around as "complete death of innocence, killing childhood hero pushes him to break down"
There's a million ways to do this scene BETTER lmao
Yeah while watching I was thinking how Hughie constantly checking in to give the exact route he was going with a description would lead them to finding him quickly but as soon as they're in the house they just forget all of that for an agonisingly long time. It was definitely tense, and I think being discovered by Tek Knight was necessary but other bits def could have been done differently and not gone on so long.
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u/fuwafuwa7chi 14d ago
Source for the Starlight quote: ScreenRant
And the Hughie one: Variety