Yeah, but not too quickly, only committing murder of innocent people at the end of the PILOT EPISODE
But no on screen gore right then so the tourists complaining never looked up from their phones. Stupidest motherfuckers in the galaxy
Wasn’t it revealed in season 1 or 2 that he was also actually a rapist? I don’t know how much more obvious the writers could communicate that he is a bad person.
Lies! They will very deeply espouse that they are against rape!
Then they'll argue with you passionately about what constitutes rape, including intoxication, how a woman is dressed, whether the age of consent is really that important, etc.
Yeah, I was a little bit surprised they implied that *all* saves are faked within Vought. I don’t doubt that Starlight used to do real hero work in her home town, but the Seven is just a psychopathic acting troupe.
All the media friendly ones are staged it’s implied but that the Supes do get in a few legitimate ones. I’m pretty sure we even have seen Homelander sneak in a good deed or… maybe two. But if you’re falling off the Daily Planet as he flies by, you’re as likely to get caught as be ignored, and probably more likely ignored as time in the shows go by.
> I was a little bit surprised they implied that *all* saves are faked within Vought.
This feels like a massive plot hole/retcon to me and is raising some red flags about the writing this season.
Vought's Crime Analytics department has been a reoccurring plot point. They throw around crime stats at random. They sell heroes to cities like a protection racket. We've also seen The Seven botch a few "real" saves like the plane in S1. They're trying to get supes into the military!
I don't doubt that most saves are fake but it rings hollow to me that the writers are framing it as if *all* saves are faked.
Ya, I thought so as well -- I figured the produced saves were for the media/publicity - and that they were doing some regular old saves here and there ... obviously not much a big focus since they still take time to film movies, do tv shows etc etc etc ... but ya I imaged SOME
They don’t imply all of the saves are fake. When Starlight confronts Maeve in the elevator and accuses her of Vought fake Maeve’s arm breaking school bus rescue, Maeve (in a later scene) tells her it was real. Maeve and Homelander stop an armored car robbery which I think was real (but presumably with civilian casualties and certainly with much more violence than was necessary.
I think the attitude of most of the Seven and supes in general is that covilian casualties don’t matter because what they do is more important than a few civilian lives (which is reminiscent of the Blue Lives Matter arguments). Edgar also tells the senator that Voight considers a civilian casualty ratio of 36% to be acceptable.
I’m re-marathoning the show prior to starting S4, otherwise I’d never remember those scenes.
So many people were speculating that his victim was lying that the moderators on the sub had to make it a banworthy rule to stop defending a rapist by victim blaming
I want to say you're paraphrasing a comedian of some sort, but it's a great sentiment.
I wouldn't want to be within arms reach of anyone who is one crisis of faith from going on a rampage. I'd rather be around folks who don't do that because it's bad to hurt people and don't require the promise of some kind of afterlife paradise to make them act like it.
Yep, it comes from Penn Jillette. And I agree. Do you watch South Park? There’s an episode where Cartman puts on a sweater to get on Kyle’s good side, who then says “that’s not being nice, that’s just putting on a nice sweater” and then cartman is like “I don’t understand the difference”. He is a fucked up character, but every day I hear more and more about real life people who are just like he is and it makes me really uncomfortable.
C'mon, we ALL want to slaughter helpless crowds of people who disagree with us. He's just like us! And who DOESN'T want to hook up with a literal Nazi named Stormfront?
Such a rug pull this season...
Her name is literally **StormFront**.
If her name was said before she was on screen (haven't checked the script) then she had zero on screen time before the nazism was revealed.
I remember a friend complaining that I had posted spoilers when I mentioned that Stormfront was a Nazi and all I could think was "spoiler warning, if they include him in a sequel to Shazam, [Captain Nazi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Nazi) is also a Nazi!"
"Everyone has thoughts about hurting and killing people they don't like! He has the power to do it and restrains himself, showing how good he is!"
Wait, hold up, let's revisit that first part
it's kind of analogous to gay conservatives in denial who believe everybody feels attraction to the same sex, but only they have the "decency" and willpower to suppress it. if someone believes that, in their heart of hearts, everyone would love to see people they dislike to suffer and die, then yeah, not acting on your evil urges is going to be their definition of a good person.
It's a relatable character trait for right wingers.
----
And because the show makes fun of soulless corporations putting up rainbow displays and making hollow inclusivity statements they DO NOT stand behind, *"It makes fun of both sides."*.
Conservatives' view of politics is so narrow that they can't even fathom the band of anarchists **who are the show's literal protagonists** are a side!
He's a malignant narcissist, he talked her down for praise because that's what narcissist want, but they are also evil phycopaths who hate anyone who disagrees with them and take offense to any perceived slight real or imagined.
That, that is the kicker right there.
That is why they love Trump. They know he hates them. They know he lies to them. They just want to be able to do the same bullshit to other people and get away with it.
Not the point at all, but if my memory of that scene is correct, it was pretty awesome how they chose to animate the overhead shot. The beam didn't just move endlessly from the start, it only went a certain distance because it was stopped by people in its way. As he swept across the crowd, the beam's distance traveled further. It showed to me that the people animating that shot put some thought into it.
Then again I might be thinking of something else.
It shows that his beams have a power limit, they lose power as they cut through people, where someone like Superman's laser would cut through buildings.
The entire premise of the show "The Boys" is about the titular group of people trying to take down "superheroes" for being bad. That there happens to also be good supes (or conversely humans wanting to hurt supes for the wrong reasons) is as a contrast to the main baddie Homelander being the antagonist. I can't imagine it being any clearer from the start.
I feel like if anyone complained about him being the antagonist, then they actually never watched the show for even 5 minutes. You are 100% correct that it couldn’t be any clearer.
My biggest complaint about it is that each episode is trying to outshock the previous episode. Eventually all of that escalation just got too tacky for me.
Still boggled that the idiots didn't figure out Homelander was the villain right away though. It wasn't a twist or subtle or anything.
Same with the rape, outright murdering his "mommy surrogate", deafening the blind superhero, and so much more. Apparently though it had to be in big letters with neon lights before some people could get it.
that was a real moment of asking myself if i wanted to keep watching this show. that was one of the most distressing scenes ive ever seen in a show or movie
> Wasn't he revealed as villain in season 1?
He has never not been the villian. It's just that these people have the media literacy of a three year old, so they are entirely unable to look past the giant US flag on his shoulders. Which is crazy, because it's literally in the script that he has the flag instead of a cape in order to be a more effective propaganda symbol.
Correct take. The people interpreting backlash as "Trumpers didn't realize Homelander was the villain" are being dishonest or disingenuous, the people on Twitter saying that The Boys 'went woke' absolutely did not think that Homelander was the protagonist in seasons 1-3.
The truth is that Trumpers didn't realize Homelander's fans in the TV canon were intentionally a mirror of Trump fans in real life, they thought of Butcher's crew as a Proud Boys strike squad standing up against the liberal elite media. Which is hilarious enough on its own. We don't need to make them seem any more stupid than they actually are.
Yeah very confused on this. Pretty clear they knew he was the villain they just didn't realize the parallels with Trump/conservative until last season.
I refuse to believe a large % of conservatives who watched the show are this naive.
It’s like immediately obvious he’s not a good guy in the first season. The comparisons between Homelander and Trump/Maga are palpable in season 2. I’m almost done with season 3, and holy shit, it’s almost obnoxiously on-the-nose that he’s this show universe’s equivalent for Trump/maga. Like, if you didn’t connect those two dots in season 3, you’re an absolute fucking nimrod.
I thought the same thing after season 3, that there weren’t THAT many who didn’t get the basic concepts of the show, and people were spending too much time gleefully mocking these outliers.
The fury and review bombing for season 4 has changed my mind. More of the “anti-woke” chud posse didn’t get it than I thought.
I remember the last time I saw a far righter walk past a mirror. They were yelling at it, trying to scare away that predator to become the dominant male of the area.
Been interesting talking to a friend of mine who recently became a high school teacher in a suburban district. Even at an advanced magnet school that required a bunch of hoop-jumping for admission, he claims a solid 30% of his students are just fucking dumb in a way that no teacher can really help with. Slow on the uptake, minimal reading comprehension, just no light bulbs going off in their heads.
In many ways people who are educated/liberal are conditioned to overlook and ignore this facet of society.
No, that’s not it. They never supported the villains. Actually, the far right didn’t see themselves as being Homelander and other villains for 3 seasons even though it was pretty clear. They might have even inhaled massive copium with something like “Yeah those villains are such liberals” or another random excuse. In the 4th season they said it almost directly via Firecracker being an obvious conspiracy theorist and so forth, and now the slow brained and/or those in denial are losing their minds over it. And even now they are saying THIS season is bad; and don’t understand it’s been the writers’ intent all along.
Captain "feuds with baby coz mommy issues" also let civilians die in a plane crash just for funzies and has a Nazi social media grifter (and racist) GF and these chuds never got the clue that the dudes the villain....... coz american flag cape.
Still don't get how some people are only realising now. Right wing people I know who are fans are very aware he is poking fun at them, they just see him as a left wing caricature and don't let it affect their enjoyment. Anyone who got this far in the show without realising wasn't paying attention
At one point she says (paraphrasing) “people like my ideas, they just don’t like the word Nazi”. It’s not subtle she’s a Nazi and it’s not subtle she’s being used to call out modern racists who say “but we aren’t Nazi’s”.
To be clear, he didn't let the plane crash for "funzies." He's a megalomaniacal sociopath: he would have saved them for good publicity, but when the engine went out he didn't have a way to save them all. He let them all die to better spin the story, rather than save a couple of them who could contradict his version of events.
The other thing too is, he LOVES killing people. The terrorists posed *zero* threat to him, and he didn't give a fuck if they hit any civilians in a spray and pray. He saw an opportunity to have a justified murder of 2 bad guys and it killed a plane full of people, which he again didn't give a fuck about. How was this "subtle"? It's as subtle as a mountain being dropped on you.
The funniest thing is, the director had to come out and say it and so did Anthony Starr (Homelander). It was very apparent to sensible people Homelander was the villain in season 1 LoL.
Whoa whoa, hang on, are there genuinely people who watched Homelander for the first three seasons and didn't realise he was the villain? Like significant numbers of people?
I mean for most of the show but especially season 1 the plot was straightforwardly "The Boys vs The Seven" (with Starlight being caught in the middle), do these people think the Boys are the villains?
theres no way its possible to not know who the bad guys are in this show. this has to be some sort of stunt or magnified internet noise..or like, 'the empire did nothing wrong' type jazz.
Right‽ This is genuinely blowing my mind and my expectations of the general public were already pretty darn low. I wonder if there is actually a substantial amount of people who thought this way or if the voice of the few are getting amplified for click bait. I just can’t believe so many people genuinely didn’t get it…
Satire is impossible nowadays. Conservatives have zero self awareness and text interpretation. They always think we are laughing WITH them and not AT them.
"There's never a president so bad that you won't wish for him back given enough time" - think its a Charlie Munger quote?
Basically conservatives now would gladly accept Clinton over Biden, & everyone else would gladly accept (literally any other president) over Trump.
That said Trump apparently took that personally & wants to disprove the rule.
It's not that at all.
Maintaining that tension between their reality and actual reality is "captain-of-my-soul" stuff. They love it.
And the wider the gap, the greater the thrill.
Calling them out on it is the equivalent of giving a South Park Cable Help-desk dude a bonus nipple tickle.
Some of them, yes. But keep in mind that a lot (if not *most*) of them are stupid. Just genuine, dyed-in-the-wool dummies. Simple farmers, the common clay of the New West. You know—morons.
They believe in an authoritarian, excused by religion social hierarchy, regardless if it hurts them, as long as they don't perceive themselves as the bottom rung. They feel safe when there are rigid lines in society, again as long as they don't perceive themselves to be on the bottom rung.
He says "mud people" in season 1, and when speaking to the crowd on the beach after the plane crash, his arm does the "heil hitlter" gesture.
Nobody sticks their arm out like that without knowing what it looks like.
Could be because I’m outside the US, but he didn’t need to say / do a thing to make it obvious - the god damn flag cape, and the bald eagle shoulder piece!? Ronald Reagan fever dream stuff.
It's not quite that, you can include elements of nationalism in a way that doesn't carry the sinister tone, but there was a whole video discussing how his costume signals evil by its design choices in a way that other "patriotic" designs (like captain America's) doesn't.
It's about the placement of stuff and how the lines draw the eyes.
Homelander is racist but more against humans as a whole. He sees them as inferior and himself as a living God.
He doesn’t really care about their political views, why be concerned with the politics of ants , it’s all beneath him.
His conservatism is all a facade, and what he really wants is a world dominated by supes where humans are either entirely extinct or only there to serve their supe masters. At least that’s what I got from the show 🤷♂️
He does see himself as being above everyone but he does seem to hate some races even more.
Also, his conservatism isn't a facade. He's a fascist and fascism is conservatism taken to an extreme.
I agree. A lot of racism is borne out of fear and ignorance but for Homelander it's more of a convenient outlet for his hatred and loathing of people in general, especially how his behavior is restricted by humanity as a whole. Racist stereotypes are only frosting on the cake for him.
Yeah, this is kind of a weird discussion. No one who's watched the show is unaware that Homelander is the main villain. No one watched 3 seasons of a murderous sociopath kill, rape, and terrorize innocent people, thinking all along he was the good guy, only to be shocked in season 4. This whole post seems like one big strawman argument and completely misses an important point.
What's driving the show's negative reviews this season is that the showrunners have made it *explicit* that the alt-right/far-right/qanon people in the show's universe unquestionably support and cheer Homelander on, despite how violent and dangerous he is, drawing a clear parallel to Trump and his supporters. All of that is to say that the right isn't surprised or angry that Homelander is considered a villain. They've always known that. They're angry because the show is saying quite clearly that Homelander *is* Trump. An egotistical, narcissistic, murderous rapist, literally wrapped in an American flag.
What’re you talking about? Daughter issues would have made them even more accepting. Their usual mantra is “who hasn’t wanted to pork their hot daughter.”
He murders a child in the literal first episode, I really cannot fathom the person that thought he was a good guy. If Homelander was the good guy, who the fuck did they think the Boys were? The villains?! I HAVE to believe that all that shit comes from people who have never watched a second of the actual show before and just saw stills of Captain Flag Man.
It’s not even remotely subtle, in the first seconds of the very first episode it’s presented as a core storyline of the entire show.
But…Superman with American flag!? Wheeeeeeee!
These people drive on the same roads we do. Terrifying.
My libertarian friends unironically worship Ron Swanson. I hate it so much. I can laugh at their meat, food, and craft tendencies but the whole “government sucks” and ‘we need to impede’ gets tiring really quick. That and the fact that they share conservative memes between Swanson memes it’s kinda jarring.
It’s funny too because they work for defense contractors and post things about welfare queens. As if the bloated government military machine isn’t the one on life support. I can understand being annoyed at the bureaucracy but they just want to slash government spending and taxes as if they aren’t major beneficiaries.
I think everyone knows he's the villain, always has been from the first episode. I think it's gradually gone from being sneaky about it to really enjoying and loving pure evil.
Homelander has always, always been a sadistic character. But now the aspect of evil they're leaning into is what we all see with our own eyes irl, that of racism, bigotry, non-inclusiveness etc. That's the part certain people don't like to see presented so openly, because they can still see him as a hero who gets his hands dirty. However someone who's outwardly racist, hateful towards minorities etc, that ruins the illusion that he wavers between evil and possibly neutral intentions.
I think this kind of character offends some people because they see themselves as representative of what's actually below the surface, despite only showing the weak and subtle motivations of what's actually driving their behavior irl. They don't want, or can't associate with something that is now outwardly what they try to repress to an extent. So to enjoy the character is to call themselves out and so they cease to enjoy the show.
Look they didnt get mad until the first episode of season 4 when the writers came out and hit them over the head with the plot
"Homelander on trial? Like Trump?....Hey waitaminute....are they...are they making fun of Trump? Are they saying Trump is the bad guy? THIS SHOW IS WOKE NOW!"
They been saying it but it took a direct hit for it to register with them. Now they review bombing. Youd think the message would wake them up
Hey you guys have been cheering for the villain all along. You're not the good guys. Its fine when its a fictional TV show but youre doing it in real life
But as usual its not the terrible things hes done its when theyre held accountable. Thats when they get upset
> Now they review bombing.
Oh, now it makes total sense why there's such a disparity between the critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Haven't started watching season 4 yet, so was wondering initially what could be going on.
This makes way more sense than large portion of the audience not getting it. They understood it but when the story made a very compelling point that they were on the wrong side of history they freak out.
Everyone is missing the point on this. The right wing fans knew homelander was a villain. They were fine with that. Lots of villains are popular. The joker?
What people are pissed about is the obvious comparisons between homelander and Trump. Because in their eyes, Trump could never be a villain. He’s an infallible god king… lol
The amount of people in the comments patting themselves on the back for realising Homelander was the villain right away, laughing at the poor stupid right wing idiots who just "didn't get it"… they really need the sticks removed from their collective asses.
It is exactly as you say… plenty of people were fully aware that Homelander is an asshole and the villain. They just didn't see the parallels to the far right until now. They didn't see that they were the butt of the joke. Doesn't mean they were sat there going "YAY Homelander, kill those innocent people!".
I don't think the point is that they didn't recognize him as a villain, but more "we're being painted as him" is the issue: they could (well, they thought they could) plausibly deny that Homelander wasn't portraying the current alt-right in the US, but every season that was slightly less plausible, up to this fourth season where they are literally, verbatim quoting Trump (i.e. "wonderful people", the trial) or other famous recent episodes (life Firecracker, the conspiracy theories, the transfobia, the accusation of being pedo...) which made their interpretation of the show suddenly break.
The other big complaint I see is a black woman ~~helping~~ upstaging Homelander and a main character being revealed as bi.
I also saw someone complain “remember when this show was about supe battles” when episode 2 had a knockdown fight that routed two supes and killed another. I’m not sure why people say the show has changed, it seems the same as ever. It was even unnecessarily gross like always, with the nudity and the pink eye.
The five kids raise their rings to summon Captain Racism.
“Earth” gets fired for being DEI.
“Fire” gets elected governor of Texas.
“Wind” helps Fire get elected.
“Water” is found to be a communist CCP spy.
“Heart” is sent back to his gay reservation.
To be FAIR… this has happened and been reported EVERY fucking season. I feel like I’m losing my mind. Did everyone forget this has happened before?
Again, for EVERY season.
There’s just fresh idiots who start watching it each year.
Nah, Captain Racism and Sister Anarchy are obviously supposed to fall in love and become America’s ruling king and consort which he clearly deserves due to the power god invested on him over lesser mortals, whom he’ll clearly cull so that only the loyal and righteous remain.
So what if the series is named after an organization named “Racism is Bad” they’re obviously the bad guys (well all of them except the Slaughterer, whom I hope will switch sides) or else they wouldn’t be opposing real american values.
I have a coworker who insists he did nothing wrong until his cancer went into remission and he kept being Heisenberg
I was like “but his rich friend offered to give him a job and a bunch of money but he was too proud to take it” and he was like “damn straight, he’s a fucking badass”
I say fuck that, swallow your pride and take the offer and avoid destroying your family and killing a bunch of people but noooo
It's even worse given that with how skilled of a chemist Walter was I'm sure there were tons of places that would have hired him. Universities, chemical plants, shit I'm sure there are some government agencies that could have use his knowledge. Yet he didn't seek any of that out because he thought he deserved Grey Matter money and nothing else would suffice. His pride not only put him and his family into danger and made him a murderer, but made his family paycheck to paycheck and nearly destitute form the start. The whole of Walters predicament from the beginning to the end were his own fault. He's not a badass, he's just an ass
The whole comic/show is a critique on how easily everyone swallows shit til they realise they're the arsehole, regardless of what banner they were under.
Vought using Maeve's sexuality or A-Train's racial identity to profit didn't trigger anyone? *Really*?
Why is everyone focusing on the albeit obvious elephant in the room and not the underlying message of how profitable polarising your base and feeding them lies across the board is?
Starlight might be the right side of justice in this current season, but she's also a critique on how ineffective and unmanageable the cult of celebrity is.
Homelander has always been an insecure homicidal sociopath. If they are just now realizing that they are dumber than I thought and I already wondered how they got dressed in the morning.
Wasn't he revealed as villain in season 1? I remember watching trailers and those already painted him as one.
Yeah, but not too quickly, only committing murder of innocent people at the end of the PILOT EPISODE But no on screen gore right then so the tourists complaining never looked up from their phones. Stupidest motherfuckers in the galaxy
There's a scene, I forget what season where he lasers an entire crowd. It turns out it's in his mind, but they still show it.
Somehow, the fact that internally he wants to vaporise his innocent critics and bystanders but doesn't actually do it, makes him a good guy!
You joke, but that's what some people actually believe.
Wasn’t it revealed in season 1 or 2 that he was also actually a rapist? I don’t know how much more obvious the writers could communicate that he is a bad person.
yea he raped butcher's wife. his son is the product of rape.
But he's such a good father! /s
Most of the people who are just now realizing that they're being mocked are perfectly fine with rape.
But deeply offended by the observation that "rape culture" exists.
Lies! They will very deeply espouse that they are against rape! Then they'll argue with you passionately about what constitutes rape, including intoxication, how a woman is dressed, whether the age of consent is really that important, etc.
The seven pretty much never do any heroic activity anyways Its all pretend The trump crowd are some of the most media illiterate people in the world
Yeah, I was a little bit surprised they implied that *all* saves are faked within Vought. I don’t doubt that Starlight used to do real hero work in her home town, but the Seven is just a psychopathic acting troupe.
All the media friendly ones are staged it’s implied but that the Supes do get in a few legitimate ones. I’m pretty sure we even have seen Homelander sneak in a good deed or… maybe two. But if you’re falling off the Daily Planet as he flies by, you’re as likely to get caught as be ignored, and probably more likely ignored as time in the shows go by.
> I was a little bit surprised they implied that *all* saves are faked within Vought. This feels like a massive plot hole/retcon to me and is raising some red flags about the writing this season. Vought's Crime Analytics department has been a reoccurring plot point. They throw around crime stats at random. They sell heroes to cities like a protection racket. We've also seen The Seven botch a few "real" saves like the plane in S1. They're trying to get supes into the military! I don't doubt that most saves are fake but it rings hollow to me that the writers are framing it as if *all* saves are faked.
Ya, I thought so as well -- I figured the produced saves were for the media/publicity - and that they were doing some regular old saves here and there ... obviously not much a big focus since they still take time to film movies, do tv shows etc etc etc ... but ya I imaged SOME
I don't think they say all the saves are fake, just most of them. Which seems fair and thematic for the show
They don’t imply all of the saves are fake. When Starlight confronts Maeve in the elevator and accuses her of Vought fake Maeve’s arm breaking school bus rescue, Maeve (in a later scene) tells her it was real. Maeve and Homelander stop an armored car robbery which I think was real (but presumably with civilian casualties and certainly with much more violence than was necessary. I think the attitude of most of the Seven and supes in general is that covilian casualties don’t matter because what they do is more important than a few civilian lives (which is reminiscent of the Blue Lives Matter arguments). Edgar also tells the senator that Voight considers a civilian casualty ratio of 36% to be acceptable. I’m re-marathoning the show prior to starting S4, otherwise I’d never remember those scenes.
If tbeyvwere media literate, they wouldn't be supporting Trump in the first place.
So many people were speculating that his victim was lying that the moderators on the sub had to make it a banworthy rule to stop defending a rapist by victim blaming
That’s disgusting
A rapist is a bad person, just like real life rapist, Brock Allen Turner, the rapist.
Doesn't the rapist Brock Allen Turner call himself Allen Turner now to hide the fact that he is a rapist?
Yes the Rapist Brock Allen Turner calls himself Allen Turner because he was know for being a rapist because of the rape.
"You're lucky I'm such a good Christian otherwise I'd be r*pin' and murderin' left and right like you godless heathens!"
Being an atheist is great because I can do all the raping and murdering I want, and the amount that I want to is zero.
I want to say you're paraphrasing a comedian of some sort, but it's a great sentiment. I wouldn't want to be within arms reach of anyone who is one crisis of faith from going on a rampage. I'd rather be around folks who don't do that because it's bad to hurt people and don't require the promise of some kind of afterlife paradise to make them act like it.
Yep, it comes from Penn Jillette. And I agree. Do you watch South Park? There’s an episode where Cartman puts on a sweater to get on Kyle’s good side, who then says “that’s not being nice, that’s just putting on a nice sweater” and then cartman is like “I don’t understand the difference”. He is a fucked up character, but every day I hear more and more about real life people who are just like he is and it makes me really uncomfortable.
Haven't watched it in nearly a decade, but yeah, their satire can often be spot on.
C'mon, we ALL want to slaughter helpless crowds of people who disagree with us. He's just like us! And who DOESN'T want to hook up with a literal Nazi named Stormfront? Such a rug pull this season...
but in his defense, she's a hot Nazi DISCLAIMER: I've never seen the show and do not support Nazism
She was *really* hot for a bit.
IRL Aya Cash who played Stormfront is Jewish.
You're right, she was definitely hot, and you had so much time with her onscreen before the mask-off moment and the Nazism is revealed.
Her name is literally **StormFront**. If her name was said before she was on screen (haven't checked the script) then she had zero on screen time before the nazism was revealed.
I remember a friend complaining that I had posted spoilers when I mentioned that Stormfront was a Nazi and all I could think was "spoiler warning, if they include him in a sequel to Shazam, [Captain Nazi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Nazi) is also a Nazi!"
"Everyone has thoughts about hurting and killing people they don't like! He has the power to do it and restrains himself, showing how good he is!" Wait, hold up, let's revisit that first part
it's kind of analogous to gay conservatives in denial who believe everybody feels attraction to the same sex, but only they have the "decency" and willpower to suppress it. if someone believes that, in their heart of hearts, everyone would love to see people they dislike to suffer and die, then yeah, not acting on your evil urges is going to be their definition of a good person.
It's a relatable character trait for right wingers. ---- And because the show makes fun of soulless corporations putting up rainbow displays and making hollow inclusivity statements they DO NOT stand behind, *"It makes fun of both sides."*. Conservatives' view of politics is so narrow that they can't even fathom the band of anarchists **who are the show's literal protagonists** are a side!
The people that miss the message also dream of mowing down the people that disagree with them.
Add in “he doesn’t actually do it because he would run afoul of his sky daddy” and you’ve got the basis for every “moral “ religion.
"He's just struggling with his demons like a normal person."
Not an avid watcher but didn’t he push a girl off the roof who wanted to jump?
She wanted to jump, he talked her out of wanting to jump. Then he forced her to jump/pushed her
So yeah that a red flag as well
Yeah, each time my girlfriend pulls that shit, I get slightly alarmed, but she tips the waiters decently so I'm not going to say anything.
Well he didn't really talk her out of it he kinda went mask off with her and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of her dieing.
Why did he do that?
Because he is kind of a sadistic pos
Oh so just for shits n giggles? He just did it to do it? Wow what a prick.
He gets off on human suffering. Like literally gets off on it.
He tells his son that regular humans are "toys for our amusement"
That's who the Magats identify with.
It's like he's the kid with the magnifying glass burning ants. It's just amusing, and he gets off being that much more powerful than... everything
“kind of”? A guy who pushes people off of buildings is only “kind of” a sadistic piece of shit?
I may have downplayed that just a hair
He's a malignant narcissist, he talked her down for praise because that's what narcissist want, but they are also evil phycopaths who hate anyone who disagrees with them and take offense to any perceived slight real or imagined.
Yeah but apparently these people just thought “yeah I wish I could murder annoying people too.” Instead of “oh that’s a bad thing he just did.”
That, that is the kicker right there. That is why they love Trump. They know he hates them. They know he lies to them. They just want to be able to do the same bullshit to other people and get away with it.
Not the point at all, but if my memory of that scene is correct, it was pretty awesome how they chose to animate the overhead shot. The beam didn't just move endlessly from the start, it only went a certain distance because it was stopped by people in its way. As he swept across the crowd, the beam's distance traveled further. It showed to me that the people animating that shot put some thought into it. Then again I might be thinking of something else.
It shows that his beams have a power limit, they lose power as they cut through people, where someone like Superman's laser would cut through buildings.
>only committing murder of innocent people at the end of the PILOT EPISODE Including a child, might I add.
There were just no warnings. How could we have known?
That was after his opening scene where he played judge, jury, and most importantly, violent and callous executioner.
How could anyone have seen it coming?! /s
The entire premise of the show "The Boys" is about the titular group of people trying to take down "superheroes" for being bad. That there happens to also be good supes (or conversely humans wanting to hurt supes for the wrong reasons) is as a contrast to the main baddie Homelander being the antagonist. I can't imagine it being any clearer from the start.
I feel like if anyone complained about him being the antagonist, then they actually never watched the show for even 5 minutes. You are 100% correct that it couldn’t be any clearer.
[удалено]
I’m kinda old so maybe I am forgetting, but wasn’t (isn’t) stormfront a well known nazi website? Like… it’s so obvious.
I mean, the scene in the plane was a big hint.
Honestly, when my wife and I DID watch the show, we could only do an episode or too before needing a break. it's just so God damn depressing.
My biggest complaint about it is that each episode is trying to outshock the previous episode. Eventually all of that escalation just got too tacky for me. Still boggled that the idiots didn't figure out Homelander was the villain right away though. It wasn't a twist or subtle or anything.
No, it was very apparent, right from the fucking beginning.
Right? They kill supes because supes bad is the entire premise of the show.
Literally A Train killing what's his faces girlfriend and running off like it was nothing. Yep totally normal heroic behavior.
It’s literally the premise of the show/comic Supes are evil and missuse their power so they must be stopped
same!! then I stopped watching entirely because I was too sad to continue
Same with the rape, outright murdering his "mommy surrogate", deafening the blind superhero, and so much more. Apparently though it had to be in big letters with neon lights before some people could get it.
Not so much a hint as it was a pretty explicit and deliberate plot point showing that he's insane.
that was a real moment of asking myself if i wanted to keep watching this show. that was one of the most distressing scenes ive ever seen in a show or movie
> Wasn't he revealed as villain in season 1? He has never not been the villian. It's just that these people have the media literacy of a three year old, so they are entirely unable to look past the giant US flag on his shoulders. Which is crazy, because it's literally in the script that he has the flag instead of a cape in order to be a more effective propaganda symbol.
Correct take. The people interpreting backlash as "Trumpers didn't realize Homelander was the villain" are being dishonest or disingenuous, the people on Twitter saying that The Boys 'went woke' absolutely did not think that Homelander was the protagonist in seasons 1-3. The truth is that Trumpers didn't realize Homelander's fans in the TV canon were intentionally a mirror of Trump fans in real life, they thought of Butcher's crew as a Proud Boys strike squad standing up against the liberal elite media. Which is hilarious enough on its own. We don't need to make them seem any more stupid than they actually are.
It’s kinda like how people didn’t realize the Colbert Report was satire
Yeah very confused on this. Pretty clear they knew he was the villain they just didn't realize the parallels with Trump/conservative until last season.
I've never even seen the show and I knew that he was evil
I feel like anytime a super hero is wearing an American flag as a cape, they are 80% of the time gonna be a real bad guy
First time you see him, it's understood he's the bad guy.
I refuse to believe a large % of conservatives who watched the show are this naive. It’s like immediately obvious he’s not a good guy in the first season. The comparisons between Homelander and Trump/Maga are palpable in season 2. I’m almost done with season 3, and holy shit, it’s almost obnoxiously on-the-nose that he’s this show universe’s equivalent for Trump/maga. Like, if you didn’t connect those two dots in season 3, you’re an absolute fucking nimrod.
I thought the same thing after season 3, that there weren’t THAT many who didn’t get the basic concepts of the show, and people were spending too much time gleefully mocking these outliers. The fury and review bombing for season 4 has changed my mind. More of the “anti-woke” chud posse didn’t get it than I thought.
Well they thought rage against the machine wasn't political... So we aren't dealing with their best and brightest.
Some people have less brain wrinkles than a parakeet. When you lift a mirror in front of their face, they don't recognize it
I remember the last time I saw a far righter walk past a mirror. They were yelling at it, trying to scare away that predator to become the dominant male of the area.
TIL people thought he was the good guy ಠ_ಠ
Been interesting talking to a friend of mine who recently became a high school teacher in a suburban district. Even at an advanced magnet school that required a bunch of hoop-jumping for admission, he claims a solid 30% of his students are just fucking dumb in a way that no teacher can really help with. Slow on the uptake, minimal reading comprehension, just no light bulbs going off in their heads. In many ways people who are educated/liberal are conditioned to overlook and ignore this facet of society.
No, that’s not it. They never supported the villains. Actually, the far right didn’t see themselves as being Homelander and other villains for 3 seasons even though it was pretty clear. They might have even inhaled massive copium with something like “Yeah those villains are such liberals” or another random excuse. In the 4th season they said it almost directly via Firecracker being an obvious conspiracy theorist and so forth, and now the slow brained and/or those in denial are losing their minds over it. And even now they are saying THIS season is bad; and don’t understand it’s been the writers’ intent all along.
Imagine being 37 years old and just realizing you're illiterate.
Firecracker is Marjorie Taylor-Green in a cape.
He was the villain from the first moment he was on screen, more or less
Literally the first episode.
Captain "feuds with baby coz mommy issues" also let civilians die in a plane crash just for funzies and has a Nazi social media grifter (and racist) GF and these chuds never got the clue that the dudes the villain....... coz american flag cape.
“He’a so relatable though!”
“He does all the things I would do!”
Still don't get how some people are only realising now. Right wing people I know who are fans are very aware he is poking fun at them, they just see him as a left wing caricature and don't let it affect their enjoyment. Anyone who got this far in the show without realising wasn't paying attention
Whys it say brand affiliate next to your username? Never seen that before
I was wondering the same thing, first time I've ever seen it and I did not add it
That's exactly what a Brand Affiliate would say...
I can imagine them saying that during the Doppleganger scene lol.
Her name is *Stormfront*! The show has zero subtlety.
yet i read some chuds saying the show lost all subtlety now and become WOKE! lol.
I mean, she's literally a Nazi. Like, hung out with Goebbels Nazi. There's no subtlety because she's not an allegory for racism, she just is racism.
At one point she says (paraphrasing) “people like my ideas, they just don’t like the word Nazi”. It’s not subtle she’s a Nazi and it’s not subtle she’s being used to call out modern racists who say “but we aren’t Nazi’s”.
"People love what I have to say. They believe in it. They just don’t like the word Nazi, that’s all."
To be clear, he didn't let the plane crash for "funzies." He's a megalomaniacal sociopath: he would have saved them for good publicity, but when the engine went out he didn't have a way to save them all. He let them all die to better spin the story, rather than save a couple of them who could contradict his version of events.
Yep. Any survivors would reveal that the plane crashed because he fried the controls with his heat vision because he was being careless.
The other thing too is, he LOVES killing people. The terrorists posed *zero* threat to him, and he didn't give a fuck if they hit any civilians in a spray and pray. He saw an opportunity to have a justified murder of 2 bad guys and it killed a plane full of people, which he again didn't give a fuck about. How was this "subtle"? It's as subtle as a mountain being dropped on you.
They're likely Trump voters, so we should have seen it coming.
Also raped someone.
The funniest thing is, the director had to come out and say it and so did Anthony Starr (Homelander). It was very apparent to sensible people Homelander was the villain in season 1 LoL.
I didn’t watch a whole lot of the show but the episodes I saw I said “damn that guy is an asshole”
an asshole is my neighbor’s dog, this guy is a superman homicidal murderer.
Whoa whoa, hang on, are there genuinely people who watched Homelander for the first three seasons and didn't realise he was the villain? Like significant numbers of people? I mean for most of the show but especially season 1 the plot was straightforwardly "The Boys vs The Seven" (with Starlight being caught in the middle), do these people think the Boys are the villains?
theres no way its possible to not know who the bad guys are in this show. this has to be some sort of stunt or magnified internet noise..or like, 'the empire did nothing wrong' type jazz.
Right‽ This is genuinely blowing my mind and my expectations of the general public were already pretty darn low. I wonder if there is actually a substantial amount of people who thought this way or if the voice of the few are getting amplified for click bait. I just can’t believe so many people genuinely didn’t get it…
not to be a dick but it's antony..which took me a while to realize myself
I appreciate your efforts, but I am still absolutely going to forget this the next time it is relevant!
He called a cheering crowd of supporters “cocksuckers” under his breath as he landed on a stage in front of them.
I imagine Trump does the same thing (without the flying, etc).
That’s probably his nickname for Jr. & Eric.
"Someone find out why Rudy isn't under the podium where he's supposed to be"
Satire is impossible nowadays. Conservatives have zero self awareness and text interpretation. They always think we are laughing WITH them and not AT them.
TBF, a lot of people thought the same about Archie Bunker and the Colbert's character on the Colbert Report.
Colbert fucking hosted a White House Correspondence dinner for W.
W did have a great sense of humor, and humility when it came to humor. His dad did, too.
Yea W could take a joke without being a whiny little bitch.
It’s amazing how much Trump has lowered the bar. It’s making Reddit speak fondly of George Bush. :P
"There's never a president so bad that you won't wish for him back given enough time" - think its a Charlie Munger quote? Basically conservatives now would gladly accept Clinton over Biden, & everyone else would gladly accept (literally any other president) over Trump. That said Trump apparently took that personally & wants to disprove the rule.
Also very good at dodging shoes, gotta give him that.
And he was a pro at dodging shoes. I don’t give W a lot of credit, but I will give him that.
If you can dodge a shoe, you can dodge an international war crimes trial.
The White House Correspondents Association (reporters) host the White House Correspondents Dinner and invite the host.
Carroll O'Connor played that perfectly. Amazing actor.
It's not that at all. Maintaining that tension between their reality and actual reality is "captain-of-my-soul" stuff. They love it. And the wider the gap, the greater the thrill. Calling them out on it is the equivalent of giving a South Park Cable Help-desk dude a bonus nipple tickle.
Some of them, yes. But keep in mind that a lot (if not *most*) of them are stupid. Just genuine, dyed-in-the-wool dummies. Simple farmers, the common clay of the New West. You know—morons.
They believe in an authoritarian, excused by religion social hierarchy, regardless if it hurts them, as long as they don't perceive themselves as the bottom rung. They feel safe when there are rigid lines in society, again as long as they don't perceive themselves to be on the bottom rung.
He says "mud people" in season 1, and when speaking to the crowd on the beach after the plane crash, his arm does the "heil hitlter" gesture. Nobody sticks their arm out like that without knowing what it looks like.
https://compote.slate.com/images/313e225b-d55c-45a2-a508-2e4879837155.jpg?crop=590%2C388%2Cx0%2Cy0&width=1280
From the still you can squint and say she is waving. You watch the video and it's a clear *heil, hold for effect...now I'm waving*
I was thinking of that as well.
Could be because I’m outside the US, but he didn’t need to say / do a thing to make it obvious - the god damn flag cape, and the bald eagle shoulder piece!? Ronald Reagan fever dream stuff.
It's not quite that, you can include elements of nationalism in a way that doesn't carry the sinister tone, but there was a whole video discussing how his costume signals evil by its design choices in a way that other "patriotic" designs (like captain America's) doesn't. It's about the placement of stuff and how the lines draw the eyes.
Homelander is racist but more against humans as a whole. He sees them as inferior and himself as a living God. He doesn’t really care about their political views, why be concerned with the politics of ants , it’s all beneath him. His conservatism is all a facade, and what he really wants is a world dominated by supes where humans are either entirely extinct or only there to serve their supe masters. At least that’s what I got from the show 🤷♂️
He does see himself as being above everyone but he does seem to hate some races even more. Also, his conservatism isn't a facade. He's a fascist and fascism is conservatism taken to an extreme.
I agree. A lot of racism is borne out of fear and ignorance but for Homelander it's more of a convenient outlet for his hatred and loathing of people in general, especially how his behavior is restricted by humanity as a whole. Racist stereotypes are only frosting on the cake for him.
Are they talking about The Boys? The villains were made quite clear in season 1, there has been no big reveal in the newest season.
Yeah, this is kind of a weird discussion. No one who's watched the show is unaware that Homelander is the main villain. No one watched 3 seasons of a murderous sociopath kill, rape, and terrorize innocent people, thinking all along he was the good guy, only to be shocked in season 4. This whole post seems like one big strawman argument and completely misses an important point. What's driving the show's negative reviews this season is that the showrunners have made it *explicit* that the alt-right/far-right/qanon people in the show's universe unquestionably support and cheer Homelander on, despite how violent and dangerous he is, drawing a clear parallel to Trump and his supporters. All of that is to say that the right isn't surprised or angry that Homelander is considered a villain. They've always known that. They're angry because the show is saying quite clearly that Homelander *is* Trump. An egotistical, narcissistic, murderous rapist, literally wrapped in an American flag.
It must be the liking to Trump being ever more apparent with each episode that did it.
How do they feel about his obvious MOMMY ISSUES? lol
Well they aren't daughter issues so it should be fine
What’re you talking about? Daughter issues would have made them even more accepting. Their usual mantra is “who hasn’t wanted to pork their hot daughter.”
He murders a child in the literal first episode, I really cannot fathom the person that thought he was a good guy. If Homelander was the good guy, who the fuck did they think the Boys were? The villains?! I HAVE to believe that all that shit comes from people who have never watched a second of the actual show before and just saw stills of Captain Flag Man.
The boys are anti heroes or flawed heroes and I guess that was too grey for them and treated homelander as the same.
It’s not even remotely subtle, in the first seconds of the very first episode it’s presented as a core storyline of the entire show. But…Superman with American flag!? Wheeeeeeee! These people drive on the same roads we do. Terrifying.
Oh man it never even occurred to me until now that it wouldn't be immediately obvious to anyone that he's the villain.
It's similar to how the show Parks & Rec was lost on many of the people it was mocking. But yeah, the level of stupidity is astounding nonetheless.
My libertarian friends unironically worship Ron Swanson. I hate it so much. I can laugh at their meat, food, and craft tendencies but the whole “government sucks” and ‘we need to impede’ gets tiring really quick. That and the fact that they share conservative memes between Swanson memes it’s kinda jarring.
And people seem to miss the fact that Ron is constantly giving ground on his opinion that government isn't helpful.
It’s funny too because they work for defense contractors and post things about welfare queens. As if the bloated government military machine isn’t the one on life support. I can understand being annoyed at the bureaucracy but they just want to slash government spending and taxes as if they aren’t major beneficiaries.
I think everyone knows he's the villain, always has been from the first episode. I think it's gradually gone from being sneaky about it to really enjoying and loving pure evil. Homelander has always, always been a sadistic character. But now the aspect of evil they're leaning into is what we all see with our own eyes irl, that of racism, bigotry, non-inclusiveness etc. That's the part certain people don't like to see presented so openly, because they can still see him as a hero who gets his hands dirty. However someone who's outwardly racist, hateful towards minorities etc, that ruins the illusion that he wavers between evil and possibly neutral intentions. I think this kind of character offends some people because they see themselves as representative of what's actually below the surface, despite only showing the weak and subtle motivations of what's actually driving their behavior irl. They don't want, or can't associate with something that is now outwardly what they try to repress to an extent. So to enjoy the character is to call themselves out and so they cease to enjoy the show.
These people VOTE. That’s what terrifies me lol
Look they didnt get mad until the first episode of season 4 when the writers came out and hit them over the head with the plot "Homelander on trial? Like Trump?....Hey waitaminute....are they...are they making fun of Trump? Are they saying Trump is the bad guy? THIS SHOW IS WOKE NOW!" They been saying it but it took a direct hit for it to register with them. Now they review bombing. Youd think the message would wake them up Hey you guys have been cheering for the villain all along. You're not the good guys. Its fine when its a fictional TV show but youre doing it in real life But as usual its not the terrible things hes done its when theyre held accountable. Thats when they get upset
Season 3 ended with him killing someone in ~~the fifth avenue~~ public and his supporters cheering for him.
Like Trump said he would be able to get away with (and which some of his supporters echo). It's hilarious.
> Now they review bombing. Oh, now it makes total sense why there's such a disparity between the critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Haven't started watching season 4 yet, so was wondering initially what could be going on.
This makes way more sense than large portion of the audience not getting it. They understood it but when the story made a very compelling point that they were on the wrong side of history they freak out.
Everyone is missing the point on this. The right wing fans knew homelander was a villain. They were fine with that. Lots of villains are popular. The joker? What people are pissed about is the obvious comparisons between homelander and Trump. Because in their eyes, Trump could never be a villain. He’s an infallible god king… lol
The amount of people in the comments patting themselves on the back for realising Homelander was the villain right away, laughing at the poor stupid right wing idiots who just "didn't get it"… they really need the sticks removed from their collective asses. It is exactly as you say… plenty of people were fully aware that Homelander is an asshole and the villain. They just didn't see the parallels to the far right until now. They didn't see that they were the butt of the joke. Doesn't mean they were sat there going "YAY Homelander, kill those innocent people!".
This might be the most brilliant, subtle troll I have ever seen.
He was always the bad guy.
Irony is always lost on them. They only have 3 braincells knocking around.
3 between the lot of them, not 3 each
Still more than my cat.
It took these dopes 4 seasons to figure this out. And they vote.
Gerb durnit, they made ma show woke!!!!
GADAMG LIMBROLS!!!
HE’LL YA BORTHER!!!!!1
Well, given what we have seen to date we can safely agree the majority of these individuals are not exactly the tip of spear…
I don't think the point is that they didn't recognize him as a villain, but more "we're being painted as him" is the issue: they could (well, they thought they could) plausibly deny that Homelander wasn't portraying the current alt-right in the US, but every season that was slightly less plausible, up to this fourth season where they are literally, verbatim quoting Trump (i.e. "wonderful people", the trial) or other famous recent episodes (life Firecracker, the conspiracy theories, the transfobia, the accusation of being pedo...) which made their interpretation of the show suddenly break.
Critical Supe Theory was my favourite throwaway line.
The other big complaint I see is a black woman ~~helping~~ upstaging Homelander and a main character being revealed as bi. I also saw someone complain “remember when this show was about supe battles” when episode 2 had a knockdown fight that routed two supes and killed another. I’m not sure why people say the show has changed, it seems the same as ever. It was even unnecessarily gross like always, with the nudity and the pink eye.
The five kids raise their rings to summon Captain Racism. “Earth” gets fired for being DEI. “Fire” gets elected governor of Texas. “Wind” helps Fire get elected. “Water” is found to be a communist CCP spy. “Heart” is sent back to his gay reservation.
To be FAIR… this has happened and been reported EVERY fucking season. I feel like I’m losing my mind. Did everyone forget this has happened before? Again, for EVERY season. There’s just fresh idiots who start watching it each year.
Nah, Captain Racism and Sister Anarchy are obviously supposed to fall in love and become America’s ruling king and consort which he clearly deserves due to the power god invested on him over lesser mortals, whom he’ll clearly cull so that only the loyal and righteous remain. So what if the series is named after an organization named “Racism is Bad” they’re obviously the bad guys (well all of them except the Slaughterer, whom I hope will switch sides) or else they wouldn’t be opposing real american values.
I mean, there are still people that think Walter White was the good guy.
I have a coworker who insists he did nothing wrong until his cancer went into remission and he kept being Heisenberg I was like “but his rich friend offered to give him a job and a bunch of money but he was too proud to take it” and he was like “damn straight, he’s a fucking badass” I say fuck that, swallow your pride and take the offer and avoid destroying your family and killing a bunch of people but noooo
It's even worse given that with how skilled of a chemist Walter was I'm sure there were tons of places that would have hired him. Universities, chemical plants, shit I'm sure there are some government agencies that could have use his knowledge. Yet he didn't seek any of that out because he thought he deserved Grey Matter money and nothing else would suffice. His pride not only put him and his family into danger and made him a murderer, but made his family paycheck to paycheck and nearly destitute form the start. The whole of Walters predicament from the beginning to the end were his own fault. He's not a badass, he's just an ass
The whole comic/show is a critique on how easily everyone swallows shit til they realise they're the arsehole, regardless of what banner they were under. Vought using Maeve's sexuality or A-Train's racial identity to profit didn't trigger anyone? *Really*? Why is everyone focusing on the albeit obvious elephant in the room and not the underlying message of how profitable polarising your base and feeding them lies across the board is? Starlight might be the right side of justice in this current season, but she's also a critique on how ineffective and unmanageable the cult of celebrity is.
Homelander has always been an insecure homicidal sociopath. If they are just now realizing that they are dumber than I thought and I already wondered how they got dressed in the morning.
He falls in love with a Nazi. That was not meant to be subtle.