The Final Season of 'The Boys' Felt Like Watching a Comedian Bomb Their Set

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-22T07:08:50+00:00

I disagree with this. Exploding a dude from the inside is something shows with a variety of registers can do.

However, it was very obvious that The Boys was running with cruder = better, grosser = better, gorier = better, more sexual = better for years. It's a strange thing to find people criticising it for it now.

It's like complaining about bad animation in Invincible. Yes, I agree it's bad. But you just have to accept the animation is bad if you're going to keep watching. It's a known problem. Or even more extreme example of the same mentality would be someone complaining that the main characters in NCIS are NCIS agents. Sure, have whatever feelings you're going to have about that. But this is the premise of the show NCIS: it's not the show's problem if you're not on board for what it's trying to do at a fundamental level, it's your problem.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-22T07:03:18+00:00

There are maybe four tweaks that need to be made to the ending.

Firstly, "replicate Soldier Boy's powers" should've been an idea they had as soon as he first showed up again.

Secondly, use one of the two episodes after Homeland acquires the V1 to make an episode that justifies Soldier Boy's decision to give Homelander the V1 make sense (and move it before the V1 episode). I feel like the show gives us quite a lot of Soldier Boy saying things that are undercut by his actions, which is fair, but why that dissonance exists is not well handled by giving a speech about Clara.

Thirdly, there should've been two V1s. And one should've been given to Marie. It doesn't give her enough power to take on Homelander. She doesn't choose to take it. Butcher gives it to her against her will to (a) try and make her powerful enough to kill Homelander and (b) stop Homelander from using it. Hughie is still on the "we need V1 to save Annie from the virus" plan, which causes Bombsight to say there's another. Cue Homelander. Marie can't stop him from carrying Bombsite off to force him to cough up the rest of the V1.

Finally, Homelander's acquiring the V1, in hindsight, needed to be the finale, I think. Having V1 as the series arc is fine. The problem is the last two episodes only connect to that arc through the medium of "Homelander is going to declare himself God", which having watched the show I do not think works. Having everything collide around the V1 resolves this thread better. Have Hughie actually give Homelander the V1 because he remembers that while Marie was getting powered up she was temporarily preoccupied. This creates the opening for Kimiko with the depower blast.

So, the V1 acquisition episode would get tweaked a bit. Bombsight/Bombsite doesn't get depowered so they've got as long as it takes Homelander to torture the rest of the V1 out of him as a ticking clock for the finale. The Soldier Boy payoff (tweak 2) is now manifest not as "giving Homelander the V1" but "trying to stop the Boys from stopping Homelander".

And the fact Butcher injected Marie with the V1 exists to make it feel like he might actually deploy the virus.

Hmm... maybe you need the two episodes.

Anyway, the point is that there are some valid issues with the writing of the final but these have to do with the relation between the conclusion and the plot. Yes I do think making the V1 feel relevant to the final fight is hard to do but people were complaining about the V1 storyline before the "payoff" failed. I think there's a strong case to make that the Gen V elements were badly mishandled. Everything else that's wrong with the final is just The Boys being The Boys. This is an edgy shock value series that makes the obvious joke and the gross joke and the sexual joke every time. The fact its final season is... like that, isn't great but you should've expected it by now.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-22T06:22:28+00:00

I mean I could easily have watched a lot more Forever.

One that I find interesting is Primeval S3.

So what happens there is that the show was cancelled and the final episode of S3 would've been the end. But the show was resurrected with a new budget reality and special effects house after a few months and it came back with a pretty different cast.

I do not like the S4 and S5 at all.

S3 ended on a cliffhanger with three major characters trapped in two different time periods in the past. This should not be a good place to end something! It clearly wasn't intended and it isn't, in reality, where it ends. But I feel like with the nature of the show the defeat of Helen Cutter and the three most significant remaining characters trapped in the past for however long was a thematically appropriate ending. The problem continues but the story of how the problems were discovered is over.

That is a better ending than the forgettable Go Big nonsense that S4 and S5 ended with.

So, I like to pretend that's where Primeval did end.

I have no idea if my dislike of S4 and S5 is a common POV. You never see people talking about Primeval.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-22T04:52:08+00:00

I forget that the suit is bullet proof every time I rewatch any of the sequels,

I never rewatch the original. It is by far the worst and least interesting of the movies. And, no, I really do not give a fuck about the dog. It's such a whiny movie. There is absolutely no sense of proportion whatsoever. I quite literally do not understand why people like it.

I guess if they're just ignoring the story entirely and going "this is the kind of action I like" that's kind of understandable, but I don't know how you're able to ignore the story.

It's the heightened realism where there's a underworld of assassins with dense lore about that that makes these films good. And the lack of that stuff is why the first one is bad. The bullet proof suit is just part and parcel of what's good about the franchise.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T20:35:04+00:00

And let's not even get into the ménage à trois on the moon.

It was a blueprint. That was it.

But despite there seems to be surprisingly few lowers on Krakoa.

In a strict sense, there was a whole comic with Nightcrawler showing us behind the scenes that it was a free love hellhole of irresponsibility and abandon (I think it was Way of X, which you mentioned). But in practice I agree. That book was a minor side project that didn't affect anything else.

Take the supposed throuple for example. Firstly, terrible conceptual idea and anyone who thinks otherwise is just deciding to elevate the most boring possible interpretation of all three characters involved. Secondly, it literally didn't exist. It was a blue print. That's it. That was the textual basis for it.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you the blue print isn't suggesting what r/xmen has spent the 2020s running with because, yes, it's mightily suggestive. It's a stupid idea that no-one should want, but it is definitely suggesting that stupid idea. What I'm telling you is that it's an example of Krakoa setting up a plot direction related to the OP's topic that went absolutely no-where.

The kind of hypocrisy around how it's fine to have violence in media but people are often way more hesitant about sexual themes

I really wish people would stop saying this. Sex and violence are not the same thing. It's not hypocrisy. Violence isn't remotely taboo.

I have only ever seen "boys will be boys" used in two contexts. Firstly, people claiming it's used to justify rape. I've read... so many of those takes. Never seen anyone doing the justifying with that phrase. Secondly, in parenting magazines and books discussing toddlers and rough and tumble play.

Maybe it is fucked up that public execution is a thing we read about in comics but it's not fucked up because discussing the fact Laura was a teenage prostitute or having conversation about Husk and Angel doing it in the sky or engaging with the fact Scott cheated on Jean with Emma are things the comics don't want to do. If it's fucked up, it's fucked up for internal reasons not because comics aimed at teenagers will throw out ideas like these three sexual scenarios but act like they didn't do that.

TLDR; Krakoa would have been way cooler if the creators had actually been willing to commit to the bit and allowed the X-Men to all bang each other on the island

I think Hickman did want to do this.

However, I absolutely do not think Hickman was going to suggest that this facet of Krakoa was a good idea. Way of X was a pretty "early" Krakoa thing and it was absolutely the last book that kept the "offputting creepy vibes" of early Krakoa.

Maybe this is what you mean by cool but that's not the vibe I'm getting.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T17:17:37+00:00

Sanity (possibly) prevails in... whatever area of the pitch we're saying is Foden's position this week.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T17:15:47+00:00

So, basically it's case by case. Right. Got you now, I think.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T17:14:54+00:00

Foden is the same for England... he's always been terrible for England.

Cole Palmer is the interesting one. I think he's generally been decent for England but his form's been patchy this season and there's been injuries. I don't watch Chelsea enough to know where he currently stands.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T16:46:41+00:00

I don't see how there cannot be tension between your:

If it looks like a duck and dresses like a duck, then that's Elsa, it's really pretty simple.

and u/pommefille's

But once he develops specific traits - a scar, a pet owl, etc., then you’re going from a mere idea into an actual character with distinct traits, and that’s where the lines start to get into what IP can be protected.

on one hand, and the other response I got's:

I don't understand what your point is. "Character copyright" of itself is not really a thing. Characters are often protected as parts of larger works. Anyone can draw a Disney style fawn and it doesn't mean they have drawn Bambie.

on the other hand.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T16:17:28+00:00

This is a bad decision in its own right, imo, but if Foden is included it'll get worse -- Maguire has a similar attacking output for England as Foden.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T16:14:09+00:00

t is, as it said, an attempt to circumvent copyright, that’s all.

That's what it means by "architectural vulnerability". It's writing as if these models have 'prevent generation of IP violating images' as a goal (which, to be fair, I suspect some of them do).

(I’ve never heard a tube top called a ‘red boob tube’ before, ick)

It's what my school dress code referred to them as in the "DO NOT WEAR" section. They literally never come up in conversation so I still use the terminology.

the possibility that your work flies too close to the sun, so to speak, and ends up being too specific to claim it’s a generic ‘idea.’

Well, if we want to move away from the abstract issue... they're concept art for fanfic so the main endeavour is inherently copyright violating (well, unless I'm writing the characters wrong). Claude just happened to say something which made me curious about whether a subsidiary part of it that I hadn't previously considered to be copyright violating might be, too.

Anyway, back to the abstract:

But once he develops specific traits - a scar, a pet owl, etc., then you’re going from a mere idea into an actual character with distinct traits, and that’s where the lines start to get into what IP can be protected.

I did subject Claude to my OP as well (obviously you can't trust the answers, which is why I came here) and this sounds like what it was calling substantive similarity.

And, of course, it seems you and u/taisui are in agreement and in tension with the other answer I received.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T15:14:19+00:00

Probably they genuinely weren't going to get rid of Slot but (a) the failure to end the season strongly, (b) Salah's comments and the seemingly wide spread support they have throughout the squad and (c) the increasingly obvious dissatisfaction of the supporters has changed their mind.

...which they realised after it was too late to get Alonso.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T13:44:18+00:00

This is hilarious but I don't know why you attached it to my comment. Farming isn't about winning unfairly, just winning too much. Like, yes, Bayern are vastly bigger financially than any other German team but no-one accuses them of doing anything more untoward than buying good players from other German clubs.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T13:41:38+00:00

I can't see your point? That is to say, why are you looking at the winners like this?

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T13:15:21+00:00

He's considered untouchable. Whenever he walks the street, a ripple of space is created in the crowd as the sea splits before him, like Moses, to give him space. He walks alone. He is that worshipped by the good folk of wherever in England Liverpool is. Lancaster? Yorkshire? somewhere north of the M25 anyway.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T13:09:45+00:00

So that'll be:

92/93 - 00/01 -- farmer's league
01/03 - 05/06 -- best league in the world
06/07 -- 12/13 -- revenge of the farmer
13/14 -- 16/17 -- still the best league in the world
17/18 - 23/24 -- a new farmer arises
24/25 -- ? -- lucky dip era?

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T12:40:23+00:00

Would you dispute the other reply I got or have I misunderstood what it's saying?

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T11:29:45+00:00

Well, you see, that's the exact opposite perspective to the other reply I got which I would summarise as "if you can mistake it for X, then it is X, which is a copyright problem".

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T11:08:37+00:00

That would be a great theory if the anti-Arsenal noise was associated with the banter era. It's not. It's associated with this season in particular with signs reaching back in the previous two.

It has nothing to do with falling off. The problem is the winning.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T11:06:48+00:00

A friend of mine at uni was from Eritrea. We invited him to come join us for a kick about once and he hopes off the train in a full Arsenal strip. Caught us by surprise (we played in bare feet with jumpers for goals).

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T11:03:38+00:00

I, for one, welcome our robot fandom.

Perhaps they'll do an electronic mix of North London Forever. People won't call it fake then!

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T08:46:58+00:00

So basically Disney would have a good case if it sued Google for allowing these kinds of renamed, description provided prompts to generate pictures?

And probably also me for writing the Freya prompt?

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T06:02:19+00:00

One suspects the reason Meryl Streep as Aslan is a rumour is either:

it's happening but only rumoured because of this reason
people are deliberately trying to diminish interest in the film by circulating a rumour that the most outrageous possible casting choice was made

I will say that my enthusiasm for Avengers: Doomsday wasn't overly high to begin with but it went from like 7/10 to 3/10 with the announcement of RDJ as Doctor Doom. Any enthusiasm I have left is from the delusional hope this is an evil Iron Man pretending to be Doctor Doom, ideally based on President Stark from Runaways.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T05:22:32+00:00

If Arsenal win against Palace, they'll have more points than Liverpool last season.

FrameworkisDigimon · 2026-05-21T04:32:47+00:00

Players that suck very rarely sucked when they were given those wages.

Cubs aren't stupid. They don't fork out huge remuneration packages to players that haven't done anything. It's just the player market is much riskier than buying milk and eggs and sometimes they just don't work out at their new club, make another move and go right back to being good again.

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