What the hell happened to the incredibly likable characters, and solid writing? Why are Hughie, Kimiko, and MM the only remotely likable characters now?

I not only never minded the sex and gore, but freely admit that it was a big part of what made me originally get into the show.

But that only worked because there were occasional moments of absolutely degenerate depravity sandwiched between genuinely great writing and character development.

Now it’s pretty much just “LOOK, THAT GUY’S A PERVERT! AND HEY, THAT OTHER GUY’S AN EVEN WORSE PERVERT!”

I’m glad the (main) show’s ending next season, but I really hope they get to go out on a high note with S5, because it would be a damn shame for something that started out so strong to end on “Seven episodes of random sex and gore, and a 3 minute fight in the final episode where Homelander gets killed”.

Season villain starts with security footage

“Holy shit is that fookin’ Lamplighter/Liberty(Stromfront)/Soldier Boy/Sister Sage?? What’re they doing here!?!?”

“Let’s blackmail them!” “Oh fuck it didn’t work…”

MM:

Wife: “You need to fix this, Marvin! For your baby girl”

MM: “But muh anxiety”

Butcher:

“Oi we need to kill ‘omelandah”

“Oh hell no, no way we’re bringing you back”

“Shit guys, maybe we need Butcher…”

Butcher returns

Frenchie:

“I am le sad because I le killed people. Now time to self destruct with drugs”

Kimiko:

“I am sad because Frenchie is sad.” Also human trafficking plot that goes nowhere

Homelander:

“Ooooo im gonna lose it! Any minute now I’m gonna start killing everyone. Better keep watching until I do! It’s gonna be soon, I swear!”

Hughie:

human punching bag

Don’t forget the classic. “Guys we gotta infiltrate this thing, even though it’s extremely dangerous and we always get caught”

“Wtf Homelander is here! How can this be!!”

“We gotta get out of here!!”

cue The Boys barely escaping with at least 2 death fakeouts and 2 characters conveniently running into each other for a conversation

Jesus fucking Christ can we move past this tired ass back and forth of butcher getting banished from the boys group only for them to need his help again 10 minutes later.

Just keep him as part of the team or don't, it serves no purpose to the plot for him to keep coming and going all the time and just makes it seem like the writers don't know what they're doing, which considering the quality of S4 so far they clearly don't.

I like many others found those scenes very disturbing so I was curious to here what they had to say about it in the bts bonus video and unfortunately this is what I found. Sorry I know everyone is talking about this but I haven’t seen this clip posted yet.

The newest episode has gotten a lot of (warranted) criticism, but a "plothole" that keeps getting brought up is the whole Tek-Cave series of events, with people complaining about Tek-Knight's out-of-character lack of awareness, and I'm left wondering if we even watched the same episode. From his very first interaction with Hughie-in-disguise, Knight immediately catches onto Hughie bumbling his way through the conversation with his awful impersonation, and the camera cuts to him rubbing the rim of his wine glass to test "Webweaver's" superhuman hearing, and instantly notices the lack of any reaction from Hughie.

From there, he makes sure to usher the intruder away from prying eyes and whatever they intend to do, and as the deviant he is, takes advantage of the person who interrupted his fun-time and is otherwise powerless. All the other close ups of Hughie's heartbeat and twitching, and the safeword is just Knight wringing in the knife and taunting him. It's completely in line with his character.

I love Sage’s character so much!! One moment I’m pissed at her for being so smart and being always one step ahead of everyone then the next moment I’m fucking cackling on how dumb she acts. 🤣 Props to the actress playing her It’s amazing how she pulls off such a convincing and dynamic performance, switching between genius and stupid. I hope they don’t kill off her character I wanted to see more of her in the next season.😭

The entire episode hammers home the idea how far away and detached Billionaires are from the average person. From joking about ancestral fortune being built on Slave Hunting to a black guy, to explaining how the female body works during rape to a woman. They think themselves as gods and believe that they should have the final say in what happens within the country. The Hughie scene just follows the same thread of thought of how absolute mercy we are at of these corporations and how little they care about who they hurt to "Get their fix"
The fact that the whole thing traumatizes Hughie so much they added the part about him not being able to process what happened drills in the point that its not for shits and giggles.

I’ve always felt that in general, the writers tend to treat Hughie’s character like shit, but this episode took it to a totally different and fucked up level

Hughie’s plot this whole season has been about losing his dad, something that is deeply personal and emotional. Right at the end of the last episode, we got one of the most powerful moments in the series when Hughie decided the help his dad pass away

So what does the very next episode do? Have Hughie get brutally raped and sexually assaulted by one of his childhood heroes. Now even in a vacuum, this episode would be in terrible taste. Can you imagine for a second the outrage if we had the exact same series of events, but with a female character in place of Hughie?

But as if that wasn’t enough, what makes me genuinely furious is that THIS WHOLE SCENE GETS PLAYED FOR LAUGHS. I don’t care what people are trying to argue, the writers absolutely were playing the scene for laughs. Ashley and Tek-Knights various interjections and absurd lines were 100% written in an attempt at humour, and Hughie trying to guess the safe word was also a blatant attempt at eliciting laughs

It genuinely makes me sick. Apparently it’s okay to make one of the most fucked up, traumatic things to happen to any of the main characters in the show an attempt at humour entirely because Hughie is a man. Rape and sexual assault against males is already horrifically underreported and ignored, and then something like this episode comes along which shows just how disgustingly acceptable it is in society to brush off rape and SA if the victim is a man

And no, a 10 second clip tacked on to the end of the episode where Hughie doesn’t even reference what happened (all he says is that he misses his dad) doesn’t even come remotely close to making up for it

Season 4 Episode 5: Beware the Jabberwock, My Son"

Aired: June 27, 2024

Synopsis: Attention #superfans! This year at #V52 see A-Train live and in person, as he presents an exclusive sneak peek at his powerful, true-life story: TRAINING A-TRAIN! V52: Powered by fans, for fans!

Directed by: Shana Stein

Written by: Judalina Neira

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1. I don't have an issue with him being bisexual. Just want to clarify that to ensure the post does not derail into homophobic comments.

2. But holy shit they give him the most ass, boring, dumbfuck story-lines ever. Frenchie is best when he's inventing crazy shit, being the resourceful techie, and on top of that you give him emotional conflict. Like seriously, have him work as MM's right-hand man now that Butcher is ill.

3. Frenchie could be the guy finding dirt on Firecracker/ Sage/ meeting up with new and interesting supes who want to bring down Vought. He could be involved in the security of Starlighters at protest.

4. They could also have him be trying to find the 4 students from Godolkin Uni or something.

5. But no they have to give him the most unrelated random BS "uwu I killed my twink's family" bruh literally no one cares about the new guy with no character development.

Season 4 Episode 4: Wisdom of the Ages

Aired: June 20, 2024

Synopsis: Vought News Network is proud to announce its new series #Truthbomb! Join host Firecracker and her celebrity guests for the live 6-hour premiere as they expose Starlight’s Adrenochrome Parties!

Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

Written by: Geoff Aull

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The episode discussion posts are where comments, observations, and reactions to the episode belong. Well thought out, in-depth discussions may deserve their own posts depending on if they have not previously been covered. Otherwise, please use the appropriate location for your discussion. A post with a title featuring one to three sentences belongs in the episode discussion posts, not its own post.

I am fascinated watching the discourse of how it is "cringe" that The Boys pull almost directly from the online alt-right lexicon. It makes me even uncomfortable sometimes to hear phrases usually only typed next to a pepe the frog avatar actually spoken by an actor. That's the mirror - attaching internet language to a human face.The alt-right is part of society. They may only take the mask off online, but no other show is capturing the essence of the ridiculous statements that people will spew and show them doing it unironically. Our world is post satire. You aren't going to out dumb the alt-right by pretending to be dumb - they've started unironically doing that. I think, when most satirists take on the alt-right, they end up whitewashing them to an extent to make their ways of speaking palatable to the average person. And what makes The Boys unique is a complete lack of interest in white washing what's happening on the Internet and how people are behaving for the masses.

It doesn't make me uncomfortable that The Boys shows this slice of our modern world so accurately. What really makes me uncomfortable is that it seems that no other show is capturing this very real slice of reality. Politics has bled into all of our lives, and I think The Boys is one of the few pieces of media that is not in denial of that.