The Boys - An Amazon Prime adaptation of the Ennis comic series

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Sunny Side Up said:
It also makes no sense to portray Soldier Boy as being some virulent racist when earlier in the season he brought up Bill Cosby as being an example of a "real man" and "America's dad" completely unprompted. It caught me off guard when MM called him a racist and I figured that I must have missed something, but I guess it's just poor writing.
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Exactly. This so-called racist toxic alpha male considered a black man to be the nation's dad, and even praised him, saying that he wouldn't be caught wearing "pussy gear." How would he be racist against blacks, when he considered a black man to be America's Pater Patriae?

SiggerNlayer said:
Yeah this whole season seems like the writers werent even talking to eachother. I was genuinely confused when M.M. called Soldier Boy a racist, moreover M.M. comes off as a complete retard for most the season, yelling "YE FUCK YO SHIELD BITCH" when Soldier Boy's shield is broken instead of charging at him or shooting him faster, having his cool backstory from the comics replaced with "Ye nigga I punched out my racist ass Commanding Officer in da army" and getting absolutely buck broken by the Toddster for no reason. Some people in /tv/ dug up some tweet where Kripke admitted that one of the 2 script writers for the finale wrote the finale as his first ever script in his career.
Season 4 will be damage control. I think someone made an emergency call to have Soldier Boy remain alive in a coma in the writing room so they might somehow salvage what they built up.
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They don't realize that by throwing the "racist" accusation left and right, they're making it worth less and less. Eventually, it might as well be translated out to "jerk" when they call some asshole who's just an asshole a racist.
 
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Sunny Side Up said:
It also makes no sense to portray Soldier Boy as being some virulent racist when earlier in the season he brought up Bill Cosby as being an example of a "real man" and "America's dad" completely unprompted. It caught me off guard when MM called him a racist and I figured that I must have missed something, but I guess it's just poor writing.
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It's to do with the lefts obsession with there being only two sets of beliefs in the entire world so if you aren't woke then you are clearly a racist, sexist transphobe. No evidence needed.

No character in most mainstream TV shows can have any real depth because they have to either be all one way or all the other.
 
So... How are they going to get Boys and/or Homelander and co to defeat that Headpopper lady? Conveniently forgot her power or what?
 
Aib Ld said:
So... How are they going to get Boys and/or Homelander and co to defeat that Headpopper lady? Conveniently forgot her power or what?
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if we use the comic as indicators for things, there will be a jan 6th like event in the later episodes of season 4 where i assume thats what they do
or headpopper chick decides to set it off if they lose the election or whatever
 
I came across two videos arguing for which one is better: the comic or the TV show:



Having seen enough of both, even with how preachy the show gets, it's still somewhat better than the comic. The TV show is interesting but gets preachy, the comic just shows an utter disdain towards superheroes and makes them all die like chumps.

Deadwaste said:
if we use the comic as indicators for things, there will be a jan 6th like event in the later episodes of season 4 where i assume thats what they do
or headpopper chick decides to set it off if they lose the election or whatever
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More likely, Vought under Homelander will do some behind-the-scenes stuff to ensure Headpopper girl becomes VP, then she pops the president's head and says it was some guy with a gun who killed the president, then Homelander would control the country through Victoria once she assumes the presidency.

The Supe revolution was one of the worst plotlines from the comic. The superheroes seize control of the capital, but then get annihilated by military grunts. It's Order 66 for edgy assholes who hate superheroes.

At least Order 66 had some subtlety to it. The Jedi learn to trust the clone soldiers with their life, and they get tired and weary from the war, perfect victims for Order 66 when the clones turn on them. In the Boys comic, the supes take control of the capital, and get annihilated within moments by the military when they arrive. The supes didn't even bother setting up a proper perimeter or defenses, nor did they assign which supes will use their powers when the military shows up. They just get annihilated like punks.

It kinda destroys the threat factor of these supes, when a bunch of grunts put them down like they're nothing. It also makes me wonder why they needed supes to begin with, if the military was just that much stronger.
 
Aib Ld said:
So... How are they going to get Boys and/or Homelander and co to defeat that Headpopper lady? Conveniently forgot her power or what?
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she needs a few seconds of line of sight to pop them heads, and she has no real defenses like Homelander or Soldier Boy (indestructible body) as far as we know. literally she is the easiest "villain" to kill, A-Train could run through her, Homelander could zap her from a distance, cuckHughie could teleport her into the air and let her drop, really she is only alive until the writers decide she isn't and then she dies quickly.

I think the worst part of season 3 is they introduce this whole "Soldier Boy can depower ANY supe by burning the compound V out of their body!" and it ends up being utterly unimportant except to temporarily depower kimiko for a few episodes. I think it'll come back in the final season as the government has perfected a ray or something to do the same thing, so regular soldiers can kill supes with ease, but I wish it was better integrated into the show. I bet it won't be a plot point at all for season 4..
 
skippy said:
she needs a few seconds of line of sight to pop them heads, and she has no real defenses like Homelander or Soldier Boy (indestructible body) as far as we know. literally she is the easiest "villain" to kill, A-Train could run through her, Homelander could zap her from a distance, cuckHughie could teleport her into the air and let her drop, really she is only alive until the writers decide she isn't and then she dies quickly.

I think the worst part of season 3 is they introduce this whole "Soldier Boy can depower ANY supe by burning the compound V out of their body!" and it ends up being utterly unimportant except to temporarily depower kimiko for a few episodes. I think it'll come back in the final season as the government has perfected a ray or something to do the same thing, so regular soldiers can kill supes with ease, but I wish it was better integrated into the show. I bet it won't be a plot point at all for season 4..
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They went nowhere with that whole Soldier Boy thing. Even though the obvious choice would have been to make Soldier Boy Homelander's ally, which would give him superiority in the next season, as well as a massive propaganda win and maybe even get supes in the army again now that SB is back on Vought's side. Now, all we have to look forward to in Season 4 is head-popper girl and Homelander.

We've seen Homelander bleed and nearly get killed, so his threat level isn't that high anymore. As I said before, just get a dozen Starlight fans to train in CQC and give them one dose of V24; they can take out Homelander rather easily. And Victoria Neuman needs to see her victims to kill them; a talented sniper (or 3) can take her out rather easily. Or maybe just place a bomb in her workplace or car. It's not that hard to kill them, which really doesn't do much for the hype for Season 4. Just more Homelander, his puppet VP, and his corrupted brat. Dude's been carrying the show for 3 seasons straight, it's beginning to wear out, now that we've seen him be vulnerable and nearly killed.

The only reason why they went with Soldier Boy being Homelander's dad, and why they humanized Soldier Boy by making him a victim of a toxic father, is to whine about toxic fatherhood and how it passes down. Which is kind of ironic, since fatherhood humanized Homelander, and being a father is one of the few genuinely good things about Homelander as a person. He forgives Ryan for what happened, consoles him and tells him that their powers can cause accidents to happen, and even tries to defend him from Soldier Boy's assault. It sends mixed messages all over the place, causing people to sympathize with a character the author wants people to hate.

Are we meant to sympathize with Homelander and his attempts to have a normal family? Or are we meant to cheer for Homelander's destruction? If the latter is true, why didn't they just have Maeve or Butcher grab the kid while SB turns Homelander into Homelander Soup? SB was willing to stick to the plan, to kill his own kid, his own blood, just to honor a deal he made, and yet they turn on him instead of just getting Ryan out of the way and letting SB work his magic with his son.

Again, there's only a Season 4 because the good guys are just THAT incompetent.
 
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LORD IMPERATOR said:
I came across two videos arguing for which one is better: the comic or the TV show:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=g09OnlEU2Fs
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JyKliIF49JQ
Having seen enough of both, even with how preachy the show gets, it's still somewhat better than the comic. The TV show is interesting but gets preachy, the comic just shows an utter disdain towards superheroes and makes them all die like chumps.


More likely, Vought under Homelander will do some behind-the-scenes stuff to ensure Headpopper girl becomes VP, then she pops the president's head and says it was some guy with a gun who killed the president, then Homelander would control the country through Victoria once she assumes the presidency.

The Supe revolution was one of the worst plotlines from the comic. The superheroes seize control of the capital, but then get annihilated by military grunts. It's Order 66 for edgy assholes who hate superheroes.

At least Order 66 had some subtlety to it. The Jedi learn to trust the clone soldiers with their life, and they get tired and weary from the war, perfect victims for Order 66 when the clones turn on them. In the Boys comic, the supes take control of the capital, and get annihilated within moments by the military when they arrive. The supes didn't even bother setting up a proper perimeter or defenses, nor did they assign which supes will use their powers when the military shows up. They just get annihilated like punks.

It kinda destroys the threat factor of these supes, when a bunch of grunts put them down like they're nothing. It also makes me wonder why they needed supes to begin with, if the military was just that much stronger.
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I read the comic up until around issue 22 or so before putting it down. Garth Ennis is a hack but the comic had some interesting ideas. The show distils a lot of the crap from the comics until something that resembles greatness but often falls short.

I think everyone can agree the first season is the best but it's still watchable now. Does that excuse bad writing? No. But I'd rather have a show that is interesting and at time super entertaining than no show at all. Settling for less if you will. Now watch season 4 is the worst season.
 
I always find it funny how TheBoys sub treats Homelander. In one breath they'll praise how he's a nuanced character who can generate pity and understanding despite how fucked up a guy he is, and then in the next will declare that all nuance Homelander has is actually him just lying and manipulating everyone and he really is just a one dimensional born evil bastard.
 
TheAmbiguousLurker said:
I always find it funny how TheBoys sub treats Homelander. In one breath they'll praise how he's a nuanced character who can generate pity and understanding despite how fucked up a guy he is, and then in the next will declare that all nuance Homelander has is actually him just lying and manipulating everyone and he really is just a one dimensional born evil bastard.
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There are two Homelander characters. There is the one in universe that is Homelander, John, son of Soldier Boy, product of Vought, and all of that. Then there is Donald Trump 2.0 version of Homelander which plot wise and character wise has almost no relation to the other Homelander. Because they are written by different writers. So there is no continuity. This is what happens when a story is written by committee.

Soldier Boy is written to be racist on the show. He is supposed to come across as racist to the audience. The problem is that the writers who wrote him as racist never checked the dialog that the other writers had him say. So he has lines like "Bill Cosby is America's dad" which is a dark joke about Cosby being a rapist and keeping it silent for decades. But it also has the effect of making Soldier Boy not racist.

This is why characters behave so idiotically on this show or so inconsistently. Too many different writers and agendas and plots going in different directions. The third season finale was the epitome of that overloaded style of writing where the plot threads get tangled into a mess. Where alliances are broken and forged in spans of seconds and suddenly Butcher is working with Homelander.
 
BrunoMattei said:
I read the comic up until around issue 22 or so before putting it down. Garth Ennis is a hack but the comic had some interesting ideas. The show distils a lot of the crap from the comics until something that resembles greatness but often falls short.

I think everyone can agree the first season is the best but it's still watchable now. Does that excuse bad writing? No. But I'd rather have a show that is interesting and at time super entertaining than no show at all. Settling for less if you will. Now watch season 4 is the worst season.
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The comics are basically just shock value for its own sake, which isn't really that good, since all it does is the same thing a jumpscare in a horror movie does; once it wears off, there's nothing of substance. And the message against superheroes just feels like shallow hatred at best. I'm not the biggest fan of supes, I'm more into sci-fi, fantasy, and history, but even they deserve better than to be shat upon like that.
 
LORD IMPERATOR said:
And the message against superheroes just feels like shallow hatred at best. I'm not the biggest fan of supes, I'm more into sci-fi, fantasy, and history, but even they deserve better than to be shat upon like that.
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Yeah imagine if the writer of The Boys hated Star Wars. So he made 'The Jedi" or some takeoff on Star Wars. And made every single Jedi or Force user like a serial rapist or baby cannibal. Where it was just a galaxy of rapists and pedophiles and serial killers who all have lightsabers. Luke Skywalker just endlessly raping children and burning people alive for a goof.

This is basically what 'The Boys' comics are. No understanding of the source material being 'deconstructed'. Just "how can I make them rape more babies" shock style writing.
 
TheHarbinger said:
Yeah imagine if the writer of The Boys hated Star Wars. So he made 'The Jedi" or some takeoff on Star Wars. And made every single Jedi or Force user like a serial rapist or baby cannibal. Where it was just a galaxy of rapists and pedophiles and serial killers who all have lightsabers. Luke Skywalker just endlessly raping children and burning people alive for a goof.

This is basically what 'The Boys' comics are. No understanding of the source material being 'deconstructed'. Just "how can I make them rape more babies" shock style writing.
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Basically, yes. Just make them assholes and have them die horribly for both shock value and comedy. It's like how a militant atheist would write a story for a religious society, make the clergy horribly corrupt and have them get killed, just so the author can whine about something. As much as the show's gotten pozzed, it still at least has a message about the hypocrisy and corruption of those who thirst for fame or power.
 
The Boys Comic almost has the same problem as most Young Adult novels, there's not so much a plot as there is 'After the opening mini-arc, Characters kind of just fuck about until the climax arrives'. Most of the comic is plodding along as the Boys go to bump off another Supe who's basically the same as every other Supe they've killed except with a slightly different joke based off of whoever they're spoofing. The most interesting scenes usually revolving around the inbetween moments with Hughie coming to terms with how fucked everything is and even his friends don't take his trauma seriously.
 
TheAmbiguousLurker said:
The Boys Comic almost has the same problem as most Young Adult novels, there's not so much a plot as there is 'After the opening mini-arc, Characters kind of just fuck about until the climax arrives'. Most of the comic is plodding along as the Boys go to bump off another Supe who's basically the same as every other Supe they've killed except with a slightly different joke based off of whoever they're spoofing. The most interesting scenes usually revolving around the inbetween moments with Hughie coming to terms with how fucked everything is and even his friends don't take his trauma seriously.
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To be fair to young adult novels, most of their bad guys aren't always sexual degenerates.

That joke gets really old in the comics. At this point, you might as well spike the water with something that chemically castrates them.
 
All I can say is that I would love to go back to the days where we had corny Dudley Do Right protags as at least the sappiness can be enduring. Content like the Boys, GoT and others just is emotionally draining and makes me wonder how can this much cynical content exist when society while flawed is arguably the safest, most prosperous, and free relative to any other point in history?
 
TheHarbinger said:
Yeah imagine if the writer of The Boys hated Star Wars. So he made 'The Jedi" or some takeoff on Star Wars. And made every single Jedi or Force user like a serial rapist or baby cannibal. Where it was just a galaxy of rapists and pedophiles and serial killers who all have lightsabers. Luke Skywalker just endlessly raping children and burning people alive for a goof.

This is basically what 'The Boys' comics are. No understanding of the source material being 'deconstructed'. Just "how can I make them rape more babies" shock style writing.
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LORD IMPERATOR said:
The comics are basically just shock value for its own sake, which isn't really that good, since all it does is the same thing a jumpscare in a horror movie does; once it wears off, there's nothing of substance. And the message against superheroes just feels like shallow hatred at best. I'm not the biggest fan of supes, I'm more into sci-fi, fantasy, and history, but even they deserve better than to be shat upon like that.
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Much of Garth Ennis' work boils down to him ranting about stuff he hates honestly. Like Preacher existing sometimes to just make Christians mad, Crossed being about him dunking on zombie survivalists by saying 'oh yeah well what if zombies were actually sadistic rape cannibals who kill, rape, and eat you in horrifically disgusting ways what now' and then later writers taking that to make even more degenerate edgy gore porn. It can get tiring and grating but in the case of The Boys there's at least something there to work with; the concept of 'how would superpowered celebrities with even less accountability than the usual rich, powerful and famous actually behave' is inherently at least a little interesting. Of course, it's been squandered by yet another wave of writers obsessed with portraying themselves as subversive underdogs struggling against their warped, exaggerated understanding of Bush's America. Frankly if there's a group that really deserves some vicious mockery it should be these kinds of people but the closest we get is 'corporate types use our noble and righteous causes to make money!'
 
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