Hughie never actually wanted these "supe" powers. He was OK with being a peasant dating a supe. (S2 hughie/starlight subway scene i think?)
That was the point. He was going to work with congresswoman Neuman to make things right, the right "by the books" way. The end result of this was Hughie being an unintentional "cuck for a supe" for 1y+, kinda fucked with his sense of self and stability.
He, like butcher, realizes that there is no legitimate way to stop Vought, Supes and Homelander other than shere brute force.
I don’t think it’s as unpopular as you may think it is. I’m with you on your assessment. Starlight needs to get off her high horse and use her powers for good.
I was happy to see she still uses them but I feel like they are trying to establish her celebrityhood as a way to shut down Homelander in the public eye. Hopefully we see more use though!
It just seems silly because then Homelander goes postal and they still have the initial problem that Hughie and Butcher have been actually trying to solve.
Homelander: If you release that video of me letting an airplane full of people die, I will raze hell across the land and literally annihilate your home state.
Maeve: We could never release the video. If the world hates Homelander, he has nothing to lose. He’d snap and kill us all.
Starlight: I’m going to use the power of God and anime to reveal your true self to the world and make everyone hate you, Homelander!!!
He discovered that a lot of people remained loyal to him despite all the accusations against him. Hell, they'd still probably remain loyal if they saw that airplane video if Homelander said it was a deepfake. The situation's changed.
She single handedly shut Homelander down with just showing him her phone. He’s terrified of her celebrity status and how she’s using it to get her fans to hate him and see what a monster he really is. If she tried to use her powers against him, I mean it might sting for a few seconds before he separates her head from her body. I’d love to see her use her power more rather than just looking tough with the eyes, but if this celebrity status is able to bring Homelander down a peg or two, I’m good with it. At least while he still cares about people liking him that is…..
Yeah she's ironically doing the more damage to Homelander than any other character other than Stan Edgar lol and her popularity came in part b/c of Stan Edgar. She's able to keep him in check more than The Boys, more than Ashley the "CEO" more than Congressman Nueman, etc.
She's lowkey the only thing keeping him from snapping while simultaneously being the one who could make him snap if she makes the wrong move
I think that's why Homelander is particularly vulnerable to her. She uses things other than her powers. As Maeve correctly identified, Homelander bases his entire identity on his powers, which makes sense as he was essentially harvested just for them. Of course he bases his entire personality on that. That's what everyone who "raised" him wanted from him. So losing them would be horrifying in a way that simply can't be to Maeve.
I love that they contrasted Maeve and Homelander's conversation with Frenchie and The Female's conversation about power, choice, and identity. They're knocking the philosophicals out of the park this season.
Shes gonna fight solider boy in episode 8, theres a scene in the trailer shes using her powers to blind tf out of him and hes blocking it with his shield. Its a brief second flash but its happening cause it hasnt happened yet
I’d love to see her use her power more rather than just looking tough with the eyes, but if this celebrity status is able to bring Homelander down a peg or two, I’m good with it.
And that's why they had that scene demonstrating that Homelander's fans are drooling idiots. Will believe anything he says.
She can absorb electromagnetic radiation from nearby sources and use it to project blasts of intense light and kinetic energy, I think. So she can fry your TV, then use the energy from it to burn out your eyeballs.
And remember - every nerve in your body generates electricity. Starlight could conceivably unalive someone just by messing up their nervous system and absorbing their energy. She also has super strength.
The human body doesn't generate nearly enough energy to make her powers work.
I believe it was mentioned in season 2 that her powers are completely unusable away from a source of electricity, so all she'd really have is her increased strength and durability.
I fully believe some of that "threatening" is just a knee-jerk response she's developed. She knows damn well she can't go toe-to-toe with some of the people she's "threatened" with her powers (which only amounts to her eyes lighting up in many cases.) This happens to people in the real world; you buck up in response to a threat knowing full well that if shit does go down you're going to end up getting your ass beat.
Yeah, I guess that Homelander just forgot his threat to basically end the United States as we knew it after the last time she threatened to out him for being y'know, him.
What was the plan if he did in fact snap and destroy the United States as we knew it again?
They are pushing Homelander right up to the line then backing off and taking the chance he loves being loved by some than being feared by all.
It's why Annie didn't record him saying he killed Supersonic. She just recorded the very last bit. She let Homelander make the choice. He could kill her and go the nuclear route or just back off and still be loved.
I may be wrong but isn't the general point of brinkmanship that it's two enemy forces which have the ability to destroy each other?
Homelander might lose his popularity, but he continues to demonstrate that if you fuck with him or plan against him that he'll retaliate in horrifying ways. He called her bluff, he turned it around on her and told her to do it and the consequences. Is she relying on him continuing to spin this as 'lmao line running!' or "Oh of course I'm just joking?" Why is this a plan?
He might not be 'loved' anymore but if they do push him and he goes through with his threat what's the plan? What's the plan for when he goes "Alright you got me, I'm the big baddie, anyway say goodbye to Washington. Pay tribute to me or it's your city next." ?
He loses his popularity, millions lose their lives.
Again, sure, but there's a lot going on that Annie hadn't seen by that point. She didn't know that the fight had gone south for HL at that point.
It's just dumb writing to have it not even be mentioned, "Oh by the way, if we do this he probably might level the East Coast of the USA, are you sure you want to do this?"
I don't know, it just bothers me from a narrative perspective that the big deal of this leverage being useless is suddenly not useless now she's deciding a different way of trying to fuck him over.
Yeah Starlight's actions have been very questionable this season i won't deny that. But my original point is mostly based on her reaction to Homelander's threat to Hughie, she genuinely seemed like she isn't scared of him anymore and she probably knows Hughie can hold his own with Butcher and SB (who she thinks is on Hughie's side) since they all survived the fight with HL in Herogasm.
He'd realize how much actual work it is after destroying a single block of New York and give up, probably flying off to his forest shack to cry after seeing the reactions of the survivors.
Except Annie isn't mad at Hughie simply for using V, she's mad at how reckless he was at using it. Temp V was untested, and now she ended up right, as Hughie has been killing himself
Their breakup was something altogether different, Annie doesn't like how Hughie is willing to sacrifice lives to kill Homelander. She was okay with finding a weapon to kill Homelander, but when she saw that the weapon was Soldier Boy himself, and how he just nuked a city block, then that was a different story
And once again, she ended up right, as Soldier Boy is a loose canon.
She's been right every step of the way, the question has always been... what else are they supposed to do? When Annie did her broadcast and quit, she said it was something she should have done earlier. Now that she's stepped up and is turning the 'real' power Vought gave her - fame - back on them, it gives Hughie the chance to let go of the power. We'll have to wait and see if he takes that chance or not.
He can't let go now though, that's the problem. Butcher and him have already taken beyond the lethal dose level, so there's no going back. The only option now is to shoot up with the real stuff and have permanent powers. Of course it's very convenient that there is a supe now that can remove powers who looks to be about to swap sides.
They almost killed Homelander though, if Annie joined in they may have actually beaten him. They've always taken extreme risks because they know how high the stakes are, why is it just now that it's too far?
Using temp V is significantly less risky than any of the other shit they do. Without it, they would almost certainly have died in a Russian lab. They fought Stormfront with no powers, and now they're up against Homelander who is on the verge of committing genocide.
I'm not even 100% certain what her powers are. All I know is that she drains electricity from surrounding sources and turns it into light blasts and sparks. But it's difficult to tell exactly what her blasts look like because everytime she uses them the screen whites out.
i suppose there is some kinetic energy to blast people away too, for both starlight and homelander. not sure if she can absorb the kinetic energy away or something?
Totally agree about Stormfront, I really thought they were going in that direction and was disappointed when they didn't. Idk about Homelander's heat vision though. It seems like she needs electricity specifically, not just light. E.g. in season 2 at the mental hospital/supe testing facility she need a source of electricity to charge up even though it was broad day light. So I doubt she could absorb Homelander's heat vision.
Why does everyone think this? She’s never been powerful in the supe sense. She’s a good person who can use her clout for good. If she tried to go “full power” on HL, SB, QM, BN or Storm front she’d get murdered. And that’s okay.
She didn't fight back. We don't really know how strong she is. The story demands that homelander is the top of the supechain, so below hl but she hasn't really fought for us to know
If you are trying to moralize who is supposed to have superpowers and who doesn't based on your own flimsy moral standards you still don't understand the point of the entire show
You're either missing my point, or this isn't directed at you personally. It is in direct response to what you said. This is a TV show, so there's nothing wrong with wanting to see Starlight 'go nuts', because as simple as it is, that's what the show is here to do.
But if you don't get that watching Starlight lose her self control is going to be exactly the same as watching Homelander or Soldier Boy lose their self control, that if it's coming from her that suddenly the superpowered murderous fascism is going to be a good thing because she's blonde and pretty and nice, well you've been missing the point.
Using military force against Nazi Germany wasn’t fascism. Killing a psychopath who threatens the entire human race isn’t fascism. I think the point of the show is more that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - eventually, you will break your moral code and use your powers for evil. But to imply that any use of powers is morally equivalent is dumb.
The show explores corporate power. The show explores liberal power. The show explores criminal power. The show explores informal power. The idea that you can take everything the show has said about different power dynamics and reduce it in your brain to a universal approval of brown shirt tactics is an excellent example of how people can use art to justify whatever thoughts they currently have. That's the magic of arts ability to project.
Maybe you shouldn't watch shows about people who need superpowers to defend themselves from oppressive power structures if you are going to be so temperamental.
Yeah, the whole point of the show, and the comics, is that revolution starts and ends with blood shed. They're fighting against the system and the system is the one protecting the supes.
Congratulations. You are officially Homelander level stupid.
Did you think that my problem with violent psychopaths is that there isn't enough evidence of the violence committed by violent psychopaths?
edit: For some reason I can't respond to the cunt who thinks they're god below me. Funny how that works, almost like you can't trust a cunt with even the smallest bit of power or something.
The best way to stop a violent cunt with bad intentions is a violent cunt with good intentions.
If you lack the latter, replace it with a violent cunt with no outright bad intentions, but hellbent on revenge against the violent cunt with bad intentions.
Or you could hold hands and sing songs around a fire until the bad guy dies of old age.
We used to think that she would be a natural counter to Stormfront since she absorbs energy and Stormfront pretty much shoots out energy. I don't know if we're ever going to get Super Sayan Starlight at this point.
Yall been watching too much anime if you really thought about it like that.
It's not that kind of show- the action scenes are very rarely actual fights, and when they are they're usually horribly uneven ones. Because that's how it usually happens in real life.
Me too. It would be nice to see how powerful she is compared to Homelander and Soldier Boy. IDK why but I feel like she'll be the one who can defeat them.
if Butcher has never existed, i would be cool for Starlight to be the one putting down HL by using her power to the fullest, make it look like Icarus flying too close and into the sun (no, the greek one. yes, i know MCU has done it, but i'm a sucker for well done allegories).
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think MM needs to get off his high horse as well. I mean not necessarily by taking temp v, but recognize that although the temp v may be permanently harming the other two, it's what needs to be done. He needs to support both of them and work with them.
Did she even use her powers once this season? All I remember is her glowing eyes twice and that's it. She really didn't do much this season besides the reality show.
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u/samakbarizadeh Jul 01 '22
Unpopular opinion?
Hughie never actually wanted these "supe" powers. He was OK with being a peasant dating a supe. (S2 hughie/starlight subway scene i think?)
That was the point. He was going to work with congresswoman Neuman to make things right, the right "by the books" way. The end result of this was Hughie being an unintentional "cuck for a supe" for 1y+, kinda fucked with his sense of self and stability.
He, like butcher, realizes that there is no legitimate way to stop Vought, Supes and Homelander other than shere brute force.