i.

but i've probably vented all my frustrations about it, what remains is sadness that the incredible tragedy of a character like homelander was squandered so badly. unbelievable fumble

i understand the instinct to strip homelander of all machismo in his final moments, it is fitting, but a better writer could have written it as a moment of pathos rather than funny -- although the blowjob offer was never going to land with the show's existing sexual politics

finale kicked my ass because in my fears for the tonal confusion of homelander's death i had armed myself at worst for uncomplicated celebration representing defeat of all evil while vought persisted. we got that, but the HUMOUR has been upsetting in a way i hadn't prepared for

i've never seen someone being murdered but i imagine it intensifies that fear, dread, pain, anguish, loneliness. for someone facing the futility of their life for the first time in their final moments, i imagine it's worse still. but well this is The Point of the boys' climax

there is nothing dignified about death. even for people who have lived long lives & found contentment, who have had months to ready themselves, who are surrounded by loved ones as they go

(wokely) to not be nonchalant in the face of death is right-wing

you could have made a tiktok of a bunch of people kicking an effigy of trump in the nuts, the scene has equivalent artistic integrity

if you always intended for the character's conclusion to be like this derisively gleeful moment of catharsis because of the politics contrivedly transplanted on to him then why bother writing a fleshed out character at all. what were the 5 seasons for

the boys is so occupied with deconstructing toxic masculinity & it is always vacuous dogshit because eric kripke has the same view on masculinity as elon musk; that a man desperately pleading for his life is "pathetic" & thus worthy of contempt & mockery, rather than tragic

@Liseran23 while a literal upper level member of the us govt reacts w shock & terror... it's all very silly like who r we critiquing again

@Liseran23 i've never read the comics but the boys has this exact issue... at the end of s1 homelander completes a targeted operation & soldiers witness it w horror; at the start of s2 edgar cites a pretty conservative civilian:combatant casualty estimate for supe-led operations

unironically i think a huge problem with the boys (that has been alluded to w people pointing out keeping on tomer & glaring refusal to mention the foreign policy issue of the moment) is that the writing team has never been sufficiently leftist enough for Trumplander to work

@reuelgomezbaez nor do they really adequately remind us that there is like a political dilemma. it's sort of like well there's stan & vought again. it feels much more like a staging for butcher's death than something of serious consequence to the world

@reuelgomezbaez sad man who must be put down, after which no characters afford any consideration to what it means for the world for vought to endure -- with the same leader at its center, no less! they can choose a smaller happiness, it can be bleak, i just don't think the show delivers tonally

it's not that i think butcher's methodology was correct but it is kind of nuts that the boys saw stan edgar resume vought operations & nobody except butcher could be assed to do a thing about it. i have to hand it to him he's the only one thinking systematically here!