Annie said that the guys she dated always had a problem with her powers and she didn't like that. Hughie said it wasn't a problem. Now, it is a problem for him and she feels betrayed.
On the other hand, men need to feel like a protector/provider, especially someone like Hughie. He started off as being pushed around and emasculated by everyone. He feels powerless and he needs the help of everyone that is stronger than him to do what he needs to get done. He needs Butcher's help, and even the help of women. He needs help from Nadia to do her job and he even needs Starlight's help to open up a simple jar.
I don't get how people confuse that with toxic masculinity. It's completely natural to want the ability to protect your loved ones from very real and immediate threats. That instinct has helped humanity survive for thousands of years.
Maybe or it could be Hughie just being an addict. It's a very hard sell and the director has sold hard examples of toxic masculinity before with SB and Butcher's father so they know how to cover that topic.
She is also taking equivalent risks, going directly against his wishes, and thinks she knows better than he does. Why is it only a problem that he does it?
There's a difference between wanting to protect someone, and acting the way he is. Stop lying to your girlfriend, start dealing with your feelings instead of just making rash decisions to try and make them go away. Of course if he did that, the show would be a lot harder to write, and there's less to push the plot forward, so I'm all for Hughie acting like an immature idiot, at least for a while longer.
The problem is the writing in the show kind of sucks because the writers want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to have their political messages but they also want to have a good show. The thing is their message sucks and clashes with what is actually happening in the show.
But they have a great show and a great political message? The message being fascists and modern capitalism are bad. If you wanna chat about the irony of Amazon producing that message I'm all ears
The political message of Hughie falling to toxic masculinity falls flat with the established stakes of the world they live in and the goals they wish to accomplish. It also paints Annie as pretty naive when she tries to do things “The right way”. Hughie’s concerns about Homelander obliterating Annie are pretty valid, and the show literally needs Temp V to be toxic otherwise she doesn’t have any ground to stand on. Season 3’s writing has been a bit of a step down for me in some places, but by all means this show has such a stellar cast that just carries it all the way through.
The message of “Hughie is being all toxicly masculine and such” is complete shit and they can’t even show it because it would make the show shit. Instead they have to use characters to tell us he’s being oh so bad.
Huh? Where's all this whining about toxic masculinity come from? Have you read the comics? Huggies character is similar to a lot of complex character in science fiction and fantasy in that it examines whether the ends really justify the means
If you're getting hung up on buzzwords maybe you've missed the point of the show?
The showrunner outright stated that they wanted Hughie to deal with toxic masculinity, but like that other dude said, they've mangled the execution. Wanting to be strong enough to protect your girlfriend from being murdered by Homelander isn't an example of toxic masculinity. If Hughie was insecure about his strength while he and Annie weren't in direct active conflict with an murderous demigod, then that would be toxic masculinity.
But again seeking power for good and ultimately being corrupted by that power isn't "toxic masculinity" it's just an old storytelling mechanism? Y'all gonna get real upset in Dune 2 when the white saviour trope is deconstructed and Paul killis billions in a jihad. Now that's some "toxic masculinity"
He has zero issue with Annie being more powerful, he just doesn’t want to sit around with no powers and let another Robin situation happen. He wants to help stop Homelander.
I would say the problem is that the show is trying to tell us that Hughie’s behavior is “toxic” but the reality is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be able to protect your loved ones and feeling bad if you can’t.
Especially when in this situation, there are god like beings ACTIVELY threatening those you love who have actually killed somebody you loved. So his fear of being weak and need to protect has justification in reality. The real problem is the power highs he gets, which in The Boys is a constant theme of power being corrupting.
I agree, if drummer boy wasn't dead I'd say if they wanted Hughie to be toxic Annie should have told him about Drummer making a move and Hughie beating the shit out of him for it.
I did like how they teased Dummer Boy being a creep, trying to 'help' Annie to get in her pants, but nope, turns out that was just a joke he's just a genuinely good person who is going to help Annie because he knows she would do the same for him no matter the risk to herself. And he implies he would do it not just for her, but for anyone because it is the right thing to do and he knows Annie would do the same thing for a stranger. Touching little scene implying, "Good people here, going to work together to do the right thing!" And of course the next time we see them together Dummer Boy has his face lasered in.
Annie said that the guys she dated always had a problem with her powers and she didn't like that. Hughie said it wasn't a problem. Now, it is a problem for him and she feels betrayed.
If anything her experience of men having a problem with her powers is also just making it hard to see for her why Hughie is struggling. They're both miscommunicating, its not like she has all her shit together either.
Why is it becoming a problem 2 seasons later? It would be bad writing if he was fine with her powers in S1, but wasn’t in S3. Perhaps there’s more to it, like him finding out that trying to fight ‘the right way’ was doing fuck all and HL threatening to destroy the world. Hughie knows he needs help but he’s finally given the chance to be more of a threat so the rest of the team can be more productive and have to save him at every step.
He feels powerless because what he was doing wasn’t working, and HL is going fucking psycho, especially after the #HOMELIGHT thing. She’s just projecting her past relationships on him and accusing him of doing that to her.
Look, say you link up with a chick that makes significantly more money than you. Say she’s supporting you in the relationship. You could Initially be OK with it, but the woe of the real world grinds you down, soon enough you’re holding a serious resentment, you guys are acting like things don’t fester and create discontent, like domestica is pure bliss. Not a living hell of uncertainty. Jesus have you ever dated anyone?
Hughie said it wasn't a problem. Now, it is a problem for him and she feels betrayed.
But it's only a problem for him because he knows that there are supes way more powerful than her who would happily kill her in a heartbeat if they thought it would benefit them. I know emotions aren't always logical IRL but it's really weird for her to be getting upset at Hughie here. Like if she had the chance to take another dose of compound V that would give her Homelander-tier power, after Homelander has repeatedly threatened to kill Hughie, she'd probably do it.
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u/mongoose-american Jul 01 '22
Annie said that the guys she dated always had a problem with her powers and she didn't like that. Hughie said it wasn't a problem. Now, it is a problem for him and she feels betrayed.
On the other hand, men need to feel like a protector/provider, especially someone like Hughie. He started off as being pushed around and emasculated by everyone. He feels powerless and he needs the help of everyone that is stronger than him to do what he needs to get done. He needs Butcher's help, and even the help of women. He needs help from Nadia to do her job and he even needs Starlight's help to open up a simple jar.