#MAYBE a scene for a supe antagonist to Homelander

[teastainedprose]

In A Crowd of Thousands

He stands straight as a king, expression jovial as he waves to the fervent public chanting his name. The crowd is full of smiling faces. All beaming sunflowers turned towards the sun that is Homelander. The shining beacon of the American spirit. Chosen by God. Vought's golden boy. Everyone beams up at him. Faces full of adoration and cheer.

All except yours. You don't smile. Your expression is cold with dead eyes and gaze level. It makes Homelander recall the first time he'd spotted William in a crowd after all those years. He had the same hardened look. A look that said, I know who you really are.

Inwardly, he scoffs. No one knows the real him.

Idly, Homelander wonders who he killed to earn him such a look from you. He makes certain to meet your eyes as his charismatic smile twists to a smirk. 

You notice. He can see how your chest tightens with the sudden inhale you take, even from his spot on stage. Homelander inclines his head as you step back, melting into that sea of adoring fans.

He blinks, losing track of you in the sea of swimming faces. Another blink and its skeletons with his x-ray vision, but that's more confusing with such a crowd. Homelander shifts, turning his gaze to another section of the crowd as he waves. His smile is fixed in place.

He knows your face and that will have to do for now.

[zepskies]

The Boys S4: Is it just me or...

Okay, anyone who knows me knows I love this show. And I don't mean to be overly critical, but...there's something missing for me in season 4. 🤔

Episode 4 brought me back in a bit more this week, but I have thoughts and just wanted to get them out. Which of course you don't have to agree with, if you so choose to dive below the cut. 😂

So here we go! Highlights and lowlights (and **spoilers**): ⤵️

Sorry in advance for my slightly stream of conscious-style thought process.

Lowlights (so far):

Kimiko x Frenchie: Violently pushing down something you built up for 2.75 seasons? Because "being more than that/family" can also be romantic? Why do you hate the fans, Kripke? 😂

The political "satire" is getting a bit old for me. A lot of the same jokes over and over. However, the problem of taking out Victoria Neuman is a very intriguing conundrum (and Bob Singer sweating over it while trying to keep supes out of the military/law enforcement is keeping me hooked).

THAT Rob scene: lmfao come on now. This was for gross shock value and nothing else. Even the exploding dick and Love Sausage in S3 served a narrative purpose. (But I enjoyed the footnote commentary while watching it on Prime: Rob B. apparently wants to remind everyone that he's a Shakespearean-trained actor. 🤣) I’m actually more disappointed that he didn’t have a more meaningful role in the show, because he really is a fantastic actor and I was looking forward to seeing what his character would bring. (Not that lmao.)

Overall, the season just feels...emptier than seasons 1-3? Maybe that has to do with the lack of Soldier Boy's gravitas as a new antagonist, and connecting the entire narrative and various conflicts of the season -- all while shedding light on the grisly past of Payback, Grace Mallory, and Stan Edgar. Stormfront also brought that ante up in season 2 in a similar way, all while shedding light on Vought's sordid history with the creation of Compound V.

We're missing the layers here in season 4. Now, this could just be because we haven't seen the full season yet as well, but that's what I see so far.

I think it also has to do with the odd dynamic the boys side is in right now. With Butcher on the fringe of the group, and the others splintered off on their own side plots, it feels like the supes' side of things are more...for lack of a better term, "unified" in the narrative.

Which I realize is probably to reverse parallel the state of each side in season 3. But it just feels "off" to me somehow, since we're supposed to be just as invested in the boys side lol.

Highlights:

Butcher and Ryan: Butcher's doing his best there now, and it soothes my heart.

Ryan's slowly seeing the consequences of his choice to join Homelander. In fact, I'm wondering where Ryan is in episode 4. Hiding in his room?

The Khan Worm that appears to be inside Butcher is both frightening and intriguing. I wonder if this is the key to saving his life? Or just another lovely side effect of taking V24 long term. 🐛

JDM (Joe) and Butcher: All their scenes were golden. And that subtle John Winchester reference? Being willing to train up his son to be a killer? Being able to grieve at his son's funeral, knowing he "saved the world?" *Chef's kiss* 🤌🏽

(And if Butcher or Joe end up being the one to break Soldier Boy out of his cryo coffin, my fangirl heart will freak TF out. 🤣)

The way that Homelander is noticing his age is fucking hilarious. Bet you wish you had that life longevity from your father/sperm donor, dont'cha? 😂

But also the way Homelander "confronted" his past in E4 had some truly WTF/Holy Shit™️ moments, in a good way. As in, I'm once again afraid of this unhinged psychopath--kind of way. 😅

A-Train continuing to struggle internally with the place he's fought so hard to keep in the Seven, versus recognizing the evil around him, his own complicity, wanting forgiveness from Hughie, and wanting a true connection with others (namely his family).

It's interesting that Hughie's mom is being brought back in at this time. And even MORE interesting that she seems to be the one who gave her ex-husband Compound V. Her story of why she left her family seemed so normal that I actually got a little suspicious of her. But now, even more so. 🤨

M.M. doing his fucking best. (Except for the way he suddenly had a change of heart about Butcher in E4. Not sure about that one.)

Tilda effing Swinton voicing Ambrosius. PLEASE. My Queen. 😭🤣🤣

I actually had more lowlights before I watched episode 4. There were some really interesting moments that literally had me gasping in shock (this time in a good way), more so than in the first 3 episodes. However, I still think seasons 1-3 were stronger from the get-go.

But even with my lingering reservations, now I'm actually more so looking forward to getting into the meat of the season in this second-half coming up. 👏🏽

[justjensenanddean]

Hell-raisers: The Boys season 3 shakes up prestige TV with superhero debauchery

EW.com

What is interesting about Soldier Boy as an antagonist is he's like this walking, talking figure of macho American history," Kripke explains. "The figures that they're using to create fear and panic and to manipulate and control the population are other Americans."

So, what happens when two of these guys, Homelander and Soldier Boy, are put together in the same room? "It doesn't go well," Kripke teases. "When you have two alpha males who both consider themselves the most powerful, most famous person on the planet, that gets to conflict pretty quickly."

Soldier Boy led the first team of heroes who were operating during World War II. Known as Payback, Kripke describes them as the Seven before the Seven. "They were the biggest stars in the world at one time," he adds. Now, in the present day, they are "the has-beens" who are "trying to hold on to some little bit of the spotlight." Payback's members include Crimson Countess (The Walking Dead veteran Laurie Holden), Gunpowder (The Boondock Saints' Sean Patrick Flannery), and others like the TNT Twins and Mindstorm. But Soldier Boy, really, is a piece of work.

From Supernatural to supe

"It's Captain America on his a--," says Ackles. "It's as if Captain America gave up superheroism and was just your drunk and inappropriate uncle." More than that, this super-soldier emits toxic masculinity like it's exhaust — another concept at the forefront of season 3. "It's mind-blowing how the most powerful white dudes in the world are the ones that are first to claim that they're being victimized and disenfranchised and persecuted," Kripke elaborates. "We're trying to call attention to what bulls--- that is."

Ackles recalls how Kripke would actively try to push the limits of what you could show on screen during their days working on the WB/CW's Supernatural. The showrunner felt like a caged lion at the time — or at least a lion caged by Standards and Practices censors. To some extent, Ackles knew what he was getting into when, after Supernatural's conclusion in 2020, the pair decided to work together again on The Boys, this time with the narrative liberties that come with making a show for a subscription streaming platform. Still, Kripke managed to push the actor to the edge.

Ackles was game for just about everything season 3 had to throw at him, except for one part of the Soldier Boy arc. The actor called up Kripke after reading the scripts and, based on the pair's accounts of that call, the conversation went something like this: "As a father of three, and a son and a husband and a self-respecting human being, I can't do this. I didn't know where my line was, but you found it." For now, they both decline to say what this scene entailed exactly, but Kripke admits to laughing when he got Ackles' call. Not that he found the situation funny. It was more the thought that maybe they had finally pushed the TV limits too far. "We worked out a compromise where I got what I needed without him destroying his soul," Kripke says.