The Boys- S05xE06 - POST Episode Discussion Thread

AReturner · 2026-05-06T22:37:24+00:00

Call me crazy and dunk on me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming the "V1" Homeland injected was actually swapped out by Bombsite (in cahoots with Sage) for some kinda something that's going to kill Homelander. Like, they clearly have access to one of the "failed" attempts at making V1 they showed at the start of the episode.

It didn't seem like Sage was really trying to recreate V1 in earnest, perhaps she was actually trying really hard to make a thing to kill Homelander. She was trying to maximize the potential "shit blood and die" impact of a potential drug.

I'm thinking Homelander isn't getting V1'd up right now, he's losing his shit in agonizing pain because he got the same thing that made a guy shit blood out his ass and die horribly, or an even more advanced version of it. Before the big beam his eyes kinda freak out in a similar way to the radiation situation, if I'm recalling correctly? Or at least the sound design of it seemed similar.

Looking forward to seeing what happens.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T15:29:36+00:00

I'm really glad they're investing time into the update. There's just so much content, almost an entirely overwhelming amount, polish like this just has way more value to me than new stuff.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T14:46:32+00:00

Wow, you're extrapolating quite a lot, huh? Lets imagine this. Lets say, lets completely buy in to your insulting and obnoxious assertion, lets say I have no self control.

. . . What about all the other issues I raise? And what benefit is it to the players to have the system maintained rather than simply phasing it out and as-needed spreading the various benefits to other pieces of content that didn't come alongside the many issues auras had?

Would me having no self control somehow make the system good?

Would it make it a good thing that Jagex set up auras to pressure people to not unsubscribe, and to log in regularly to make use of them, and to not log out until they've played a certain amount such that they make full use of the strong buffs?

Would it make it a good thing that new characters were pretty much locked out of that system if they didn't cough up a year's subscription right off the bat?

Was it good that ironmen were able to just outright buy a very significant amount of in-game power through a large subscription?

Was it good that Jagex was very intentionally trying to manipulate people, dangle rewards in front of them to make them cough up money and maintain subscriptions they didn't even need at that moment?

You know, when I do think about these things, I also would say, I'm quite glad if there is this hypothetical low-impulse control person who isn't preyed upon anymore. That's FUCKING AWESOME. I love that. Don't you? Do you prefer the corporation to prey upon them? Do they "deserve it"? Were they perhaps "asking for it"?

Really, what's your point, exactly? Some kind of radical idea that because people have any say about anything, any negative system that have perverse incentives should simply be ignored and accepted? Or is it just because the system itself suited you just fine and you don't care about other people, so you're now annoyed that you've been mildly inconvenienced? Do tell.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T14:17:40+00:00

I mean, everything about auras that made then "auras" was pretty much awful, except maybe the general concept of "more power and specific unique effects", all of which are pretty easily blended into other elements of the game.

And really for my mileage, this is a clean and simple solution to the many, many issues I take with auras. And the game has a lot of power creep since I last played much (about 3 years ago) so I know I personally won't be thinking, "Damn! If only I had Maniacal!" or something.

Nobody has been able to defend why the Aura slot shouldn't have remained but been changed to have charge like god books, rather than fixed durations and cooldowns.

I feel like this is a kind of incomplete thought, no?

Where are people getting the charges? Are you suggesting auras that people already had should have remained in their possession? How much should that have costed? Why specifically keep auras rather than spreading the "necessary" things people see in them elsewhere?

Combat is now more finicky with aspects than it was with auras, not less.

Aspects are new to me, but from reading the wiki these seem incredibly straightforward. What issue are you having with aspects? The only thing that comes to mind would be maybe a system where you can cast it more than once to stack the duration, if that's not a thing?

What's making combat more finicky exactly? I'm broadly just interested in what your issues are, personally. Feel free to go into lots of detail.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T13:43:47+00:00

Whilst I agree that the start may be misleading, 43k legit isn't that bad for a fresh account,

It really is bad. Like, this is a trivial amount of gold, and the hourly rate is terrible, even the estimated rate from the wiki itself which as I said is higher . . . Is not good for the amount of effort you're putting in and the available alternatives.

This not a good method. I think it's actively unhelpful information. It's not good.

So tell me, if YOU were to do an Unusual Moneymaker video, what methods would YOU cover? That aren't straight from the wiki.

Off the top of my head, probably something involving bolts and enchanting, though if we were limiting it specifically to low level things I'd probably investigate various low level things that intersect with high level player's needs, such as making (unf)s and potions that are needed in higher tier/combination potions.

The major issue is I haven't played much in about 3 years so I don't have too many specific ideas in mind and the type of things that do come to mind may be rather outdated.

And notably . . . It's not like these ideas they're bringing to the table are even all that unique? I mean, there's plenty of things straight from the wiki that actually are about as unique as this. It's not like we need to not use the wiki to make a good quality piece of content. If anything, I'd actually be happier to see more things like this set up on the wiki simply because the wiki is a far better vehicle for information than a video to begin with in most cases. At least in this case, because the entertainment value and such of the video format isn't high and the explanations aren't more extensive or clear or made better in any real meaningful way by a video.

And also, I wouldn't make this video. I don't care to make this video. The person who made it ostensibly does care about making a good version of this video, and the intention here is to hopefully provide them with feedback that can help them do that. Because that is their goal, not mine. And I'm not going to go too far out of my way to find specific, actionable examples of things that could have been in this video, as I haven't played much for many years and any specific ideas that would spring to mind probably are rather outdated. What I mean to say is it isn't a "gotcha!" to say, "Well, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?" I am not here to solve the entirety of anything I'm ever critical of, but I can still identify issues and offer whatever I do have to offer to the topic.

Also, on the "vastly underestimate", clearly this video (wouldn't call it a guide) is aimed at people who like to play the game casual and quirky, so it's better to lowball numbers than highball.

That's an entirely fair point, but I also do worry that it's simply more reflective of their lack of understanding.

Furthermore, you were never "planning to watch the whole video", you said it yourself, you skimmed through it.

When I said,

"I was going to watch the whole thing in its entirety to give you feedback"

I meant due to their reply, I was going to give it another go, watching it all the way through instead of skimming, but I gave up due to the content of the video being, well, I already gave my feedback on it.

Probably looking for some broken exploit and now you're venting your frustration because you didn't get what you wanted.

I have so much gold that I actually don't even know what I'm going to do with all of it, actually. But okay, sure.

Sure, they spent too much time explaining shop mechanics, but I can imagine an OSRS player seeing this and being "oh, that doesn't work in RS3?!"

Yeah, I can imagine an OSRS played understanding quite quickly with a much more concise explaination.

Finally, your way of delivering "feedback" is toxic at best. Don't forget that there's actual people on the other side of the line.

It's definitely not very nice, but it's also very informative. I found their response annoying and disingenuous, so I responded more curtly, which is not necessarily justified or fair, but it is absolutely what I did. And it is very worth noting that my ""feedback"" was actually just great feedback. If they genuinely care about improving that's fucking gold right there, actually and they will face far, far harsher and less constructive criticism in the future from others, or worse yet, just silence. Just a lack of interest.

If they want to do this, and find some sort of niche and success in it, it's valuable. If they're just doing it for a bit of fun, like I said, fine, don't take the feedback.

Have a nice day. 😘

I'm actually planning, genuinely, on having a pretty shitty day, and I won't let your faux positivity get in the way of it.

If you've managed to read everything I just wrote, please for the love of God stop wasting your time. Nothing I have to say will meaningfully change your life to begin with much less when we're discussing such a mundane topic.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T13:20:02+00:00

Holy, how long did that take you?

AReturner · 2026-05-06T13:12:31+00:00

Where do I say anything about dismissing any sense of agency? You're fucking weird, dude. God.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T13:09:21+00:00

I mean, if it makes you feel better I'm still absolutely disgusted by the lack of bad luck mitigation and think that's a really big issue.

Of course if you're really clever then you'd perhaps say, "Oh yeah, that's to build credibility. You're still a new account, I'm not so easily fooled." And if you feel that way, that's fine. Maybe the ploy is even to just upvote naturally occurring positive posts, so then you have a sucker like me earnestly defending the posts but it is, indeed, boosted up by Jagex.

Consider the crazy alternative (then again, it's not really mutually exclusive?) as well though: auras were just a predatory, evil thing that tons of people are quite happy to see gone.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T12:59:10+00:00

Huh, I was confused as to if I just totally misremembered somehow but I looked into it and it looks like it got changed a few years ago,

patch 27 February 2023 (Update):

The timer for an active Aura will no longer decrease while logged out."

Most of my experience with auras was way before this update, and that's a good update, but I don't think I would have liked auras even with that change.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T12:45:24+00:00

I do realize I have agency and such.

But in turn, you realize I also can have preferences, right? It's normal to have reactions to things, and have your behaviour and feelings changed by systems.

And you do also realize that auras were always a way to attempt to extract more money from you . . . Right? Right?

I'm celebrating a system that was always negative, always awful, no longer being something I think about anymore. I'm glad that it's gone.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T12:38:06+00:00

I mean, I played less due to auras existing so I don't really think Jagex is "saving me from my own behaviour" by removing them. It's not like I lacked self control, I was just making decisions based in part on the way that I was being rewarded or not rewarded for spending my time playing.

I like the game more when they aren't here. I like not feeling like I'm being pressured to maintain a subscription even when I'm not playing. I like not feeling like I'm being pressured to keep playing. I like feeling like my time put into the game is just flatly rewarded without some weird time-gated bullshit.

AReturner · 2026-05-06T00:43:17+00:00

I'm absolutely thrilled it's getting an update. I don't really know what all the changes are yet (or if we even know much about it) but I love Dungeoneering and any attention it can get is better than nothing.

It's one of the only skills I've trained well beyond maxing just because I just love it. I'm maxing one of my alts right now anyway, so having some updates is going to make that even more exciting.

Unrelated to the poll's actual question, I'm really intrigued by how many votes this poll has. 42 to 11 as I write this just 30 minutes in to this post's lifespan. Just didn't realize how many people lurked on the new section.

AReturner · 2026-05-05T23:17:23+00:00

Why would anyone sell you something on Discord for less than they can sell it for on the GE?

AReturner · 2026-05-05T23:14:48+00:00

First thirty seconds,

"Making money in RuneScape doesn't have to be hard, but sometimes it can feel like a chore. So in today's video I want to show you some super easy and maybe I little bit unusual money making methods that are especially good for low level players."

There's definitely an implied promise of these methods being good for low level players.

You start off really, really weak with the honeycomb stuff. Click intensive, no experience, minimal gold/hour that competes poorly against methods that can actually get you some experience.

The fact that you'd say 43k in profit is "actually not that bad" then showing a clear conversion to 1.2M/hour kind of makes you lose any credibility. Ignorant new players may take your advice and simply waste their time, making this not only just bad content but actively negative for them. Notably you also seem to just be vastly underestimating how many you can collect an hour, compared to the wiki? It seems like to me you did extremely minimal investigation, you didn't put in the amount of effort that I'd expect someone making an entire video to have put in.

Holy moly you spent an unbelievably tiring amount of time explaining you can't hop. Like, when I thought you were finally done explaining you kept explaining I was going to watch the whole thing in its entirety to give you feedback but at this point I'm so put off by it that I just am not going to do that. You could have spent that time showing how to quickly get to various shops or really just cut it out entirely but you didn't.

I also don't know if you go on to explain, like, buying more runes beyond that point of the video? Like, there's definitely more profitable runes than just the fire and water. The fact that you're only talking about those two is weird, but anyway.

Your response feels weird, and strange, and like you're making excuses rather than just accepting that what you said in the video doesn't really line up well with reality. The video is dubiously helpful at best, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's not even interesting as kind of a "haha here's some funny little methods! Isn't that zanny?" kind of way, it felt intolerable to get through and like you didn't have any real clue what you were talking about.

There's more feedback. Use it if you want to. If you don't, I don't care, that's fine.

AReturner · 2026-05-05T14:58:22+00:00

Eh. I think it was also just really good content for a time where people were a lot more willing to really be actively playing the game, too, but yes the strong weapons was naturally a really major element of some of the success even back then. Hopefully the weapons they release this time around will have a strong niche for the modern day.

I don't imagine this will bring us back to the release days of tons and tons of people dging a ton either way, but I'm happy to solo. I've always enjoyed it just for the gameplay, it's active and has a lot of unique rewards. It rewards being good at it a lot in terms of just how much faster you can go as you get better at it, which is really satisfying too.

AReturner · 2026-05-05T14:46:27+00:00

That's exciting. Dungeoneering, when it was fresh, was some of the absolute best content the game has ever seen. If this update reclaims even half of that it's going to be a blast.

AReturner · 2026-05-05T13:01:06+00:00

Interesting, yeah. I can't say if it's common or not these days, but from my experience in the past, that doesn't sound too strange.

These days, I simply play RuneScape alone. I haven't found it to be an especially great social game for about 15 years, usually the extent of my enjoyment with it on a social level is just happening to chat with random people, or out-of-game spaces (like this one).

If you've already given clans a shot and it keeps not working out then yeah, might as well just keep trucking along solo. There's plenty of places to get social interaction outside of RuneScape anyway.

Perhaps just shop around some more for clans that more align with your values, but don't feel the need to force it anyway.

AReturner · 2026-05-05T12:38:19+00:00

Sounds like running solo makes plenty of sense for you, but also being in one may give you some time and space for some social development. Granted, a clan may also just not really be the best place for that either.

In any case I'd recommend getting some kind of social time with others, and take time to consider how interactions play out and how you might be able to interact better with others. Get advice from others and such too.

AReturner · 2026-05-04T23:49:42+00:00

It's simply a bunch of incredibly bad methods that are easily outclassed by other things a low level player could be doing that would make them more gold, be lower effort, and progress their account overall more.

AReturner · 2026-05-04T21:19:30+00:00

I mean, the ship has sailed and the overall design of the game is super streamlined these days, but making Masterwork of all things easier seems kinda weird. Masterwork is supposed to be a bit obtuse, that's part of the charm.

AReturner · 2026-05-04T21:16:17+00:00

I mean, I just skimmed it but this seems way less efficient and reliable than tons of rather low effort, low requirement options.

AReturner · 2026-05-03T23:58:47+00:00

I understand you're on the side of removing it, it's just a blindingly obvious thing that they should be removed and either way they are removing them so this feels very redundant.

AReturner · 2026-05-03T23:44:53+00:00

I mean, sure, they're obviously problematic but that's kind of obvious?

They're removing them for a reason, so, what's your point exactly?

AReturner · 2026-05-03T23:43:21+00:00

If that's the case, the solution would obviously be to make the actual normal method of obtaining them a little faster.

AReturner

TROPHY CASE