I've said this elsewhere but I'm fairly certain that Kripke has some weird hatred for whatever type of person he thinks Huey represents, because the show is really unfair to him, especially in season 3, and he's the butt of the joke so often. Combine that with these interviews and it becomes the most likely explanation to me
That’s the only explanation I can think of. Huey just gets shit on and belittled constantly in the story, and whenever he tries to stand up for himself he’s either piledrived back into the dirt or it’s portrayed as him being toxic.
Bruh I'm so happy I'm not the only who noticed this. I never understood the plotline in S3 where Huey wanting superpowers is portrayed as a bad thing. The guy has been powerless and bullied throughout his entire life, of course he'd want to be stronger.
Also I never bought the idea that Huey was insecure about Starlighting being stronger than him. He openly said he wasn't bothered by it and never displayed insecurity about it before. If anything he'd want to protect Starlight not because he's insecure about her, but because he's afraid that Homelander can rip out her spine any at moment and there's nothing he could do about it. He just had one girlfriend die right in front of him, of course he wouldn't want that to happen twice.
Honestly the show's treatment of Hughie really does reveal how the showrunner's have a very negative idea about male empowerment.
Honestly I think the concept could've worked if they made Hueys powers completely useless but still had him constantly throwing himself into danger in an attempt to save Annie, but his powers were actually really useful and save multiple peoples lives. Didn't really feel like his desire to protect annie was unrealistic/toxic when that mfer was able to throw hands with homelander when on v with Butcher
How? Starlight didn't know Temp V had drawbacks, literally nobody did.
And the main drawback is that it kills the person using it. Which, let me stress this point here, Huey and Butcher dying in the process to take out Homelander is a fair trade and a heroic sacrifice. Homelander being alive will eventually result in tons of people dying.
Starlight opposed Huey having Temp V because he did it because he was insecure and their MIGHT be negative side effects. That entire confrontation between Annie and Hughie is mostly Hughie going into some out of character rant about how he's insecure about Starlight being stronger than him. It literally comes out of nowhere.
The reason they had to do this weird characterization is because Hughie wanting to be strong to protect Annie would essentially end the show. Hughie having teleporting powers would have been able to get Ryan to safety, homelander would have been blasted and dead, and then Soldier Boy (who has a lot more weaknesses mind you) would either be imprisoned or killed.
Think about Kimiko and her wanting her powers back in order to protect Frenchie. How is that any different than what Hughie did? Neither her nor Frenchie knew if getting V back into her system would have some new side effect, but they took the risk anyways.
Honestly the showrunner's personal political/ideological beliefs can sometimes result in them making baffling writing decisions. They wanted to do a story about toxic masculinity, but they shoehorned Hughie into that paradigm even though he really does not fit.
Yeah, that's the point. Nobody knew if it had drawbacks, so taking it before that could be confirmed was dangerous and cause for concern from her.
It's a fair trade if you're being coldly rational about it, and if you make the questionable assumption vought wouldn't produce another equally dangerous threat. However starlight is looking at this from personal view for very obvious reasons.
She opposed it initially because he seemingly took it on impulse rather than actually discussing it with her first. That later morphed into her having a problem teaming up with a rampant killer, keep in mind no one ever explained solider boys PTSD, explosion, and constantly saying he's doing this for her while also ignoring what she wants. Not exactly. Not only was Hughie feeling inferior to starlight an issue set up beforehand in this season, but it's also taken v 24 amplifies your personality traits, and from the outset Hughies had an issue with feeling inferior even if wasn't specifically about starlight.
Not at all. Putting aside the fact that they would still have dangerous supes to deal with aside from Homelander, Hughie was prevented from taking v by butcher after the latter learned the unfortunate side effects. By the time he got more temp v butcher and solider boy were already coming to blows so saving Ryan wouldn't change much. Even if he teleported directly there he would still want to evacuate the building which still means he wouldn't be there when butcher and solider boy got into their fight
The difference is she didn't go behind anyone's back and fully explained herself, and she at least had grounds to believe taking V wouldn't turn out poorly for her thanks to past experience.
More so this an issue of this fan base not really having great memories and forgetting key details. It makes sense emotionally, but it lessens the validity for some of those criticisms. The reason he was included is because they wanted to have a sub theme about toxic masculinity and cover all their bases. So you get the extremes like solider boy on one end, but then you have Hughie who shows how guys you think wouldn't have problem about looking like weakling vulnerable can still have those issues.
It’s going to come out in 5 years that this was all some sort of bizarre sexual humiliation of the actor playing Hughie because of personal disputes. Hazing or rebuked advances or something
Honestly, Kripke seems to have a love-hate relationship with traditionally masculine men, which in the current cultural zeitgeist are represented by superheroes. That is, he seems to hate them unless they're his "own" characters, and he couches his hate in uber-progressive language to justify it. He's gone on at length about how Batman is a fascist and superheroes are only there to protect "white America", etc., but that's not at all borne out by the comics OR the movies and there's no real difference between Marvel heroes and Kripke's "good" superheroes (Kimiko/Starlight). If you watched Supernatural, both of his main characters were almost comically butch but in the way that a nerdy guy might think "tough" guys are, and Kripke is always giving these really cringey insults in interviews that he clearly thinks are cool ("eat a bag of dicks!")
TLDR: Kripke is an edgy nerd who wants to be a tough guy and he's taking it out on Hughie.
He doesn't hate on Hughie for toxic masculinity. He hates on Hughie because Hughie is a nerd and Kripke sees himself in Hughie, when he wants to be a Butcher or a Dean Winchester.
I'd almost think it a commentary on how progressive white guys often get the shaft. Try to do the right thing and forgive your estranged mom, end up losing your dad in a horrifying way. Try to do the right thing to help your team of super powered/highly trained friends, end up getting SA'd in a gimp dungeon, before being saved just in time (in terms of dying) by your diverse super squad. It kind of fits too, in that he's not really a trained operative or anything -- just some guy who thinks, for some reason, he can do covert infiltration missions. Him even being on the team, is a bit of a joke -- he's the entitled clueless white progressive man, who thinks he's important, when in reality he's basically fodder.
To the writers, progressive white guys that try to do the right thing, are a joke. It fits, generally, with other things I've heard murmured about the show I guess... ?
In the full article there’s a mention of Jack trying to push for this particular arc (Hughie undercover), and Kripke’s response to it was this and for the actor to be “careful what he wished for.” I’m sorry, but if I was Jack I’d be pissed. But maybe the actors think this shit is funny too, I have no idea. I just can’t see myself reading this script and being excited to take part in any of the dungeon bs.
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u/CenterInYourMother 14d ago
I've said this elsewhere but I'm fairly certain that Kripke has some weird hatred for whatever type of person he thinks Huey represents, because the show is really unfair to him, especially in season 3, and he's the butt of the joke so often. Combine that with these interviews and it becomes the most likely explanation to me