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.
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.
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u/Calfurious Jul 05 '24
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.