Why The Boys Finale Disappointed - The Psychology of Expectation

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]I am the Lord, your savior.

[00:00:06]I am your God.

[00:00:09]And as such, I'm going to usher this world into a new golden dawn.

[00:00:13]>> I think that probably for many of us, we have now seen the season and show finale of The Boys. So, I thought that it would be interesting instead of doing the psychology of the characters that we watch, but us watching these characters and what happens when we feel like we've been shortch changed on a finale that we were expecting to be bang and it ends up bust. I think that there might be some people that really loved the ending and thought that it gave them exactly what they wanted. I would love to know your reasons. You can put them in the comments below. Now, I for one think that this show started off like >> the godamn [ __ ] Spice Girls.

[00:00:50]>> But I think that it ended up being a sad, poorly done parody band of themselves. Not so much so that I'm even angry, just disappointed. And I think in a lot of ways that's worse. The show when its writing was so rich, when its cinematography was beautiful, when the characters had so many layers to who they were, being able to go through that and get to know them causes this feeling of expectational debt that we expect the writing for the final season. I get there's going to be some filler episodes, but we expect that the writing, the show, the shock value will stay or at least at the ending end on that same note. we end up with this contract, this social contract with the show that we put in the time and effort to be able to do that. And we hope that the level that we care will be the same level that the people that are doing the writing and creating of the show will put in as well. Yes, we can say it that fans can be really difficult and demanding, especially when they feel like they also have ownership to the characters and the show. So I think that that kind of pressure can sometimes make creating something really difficult because that fear of failure or disappointing people can be really great. And because of that you can end up with an avoidance factor which means that you are not going to want to put something out. I'm looking at you George RR Martin. Because of that, the pressure is so great that you're just not going to do it. Because that hurts less than putting something out and have it be trashed on, to have yourself be hated on, and then to have all of the adoration. Because if someone can love you a lot, they can also hate you a lot.

[00:02:30]That is another very strong emotion that can be difficult to carry, especially when you've created these beloved characters. What you do with them when you send them out into the world is that they're no longer just yours. Now we end up with this parasocial relationship.

[00:02:44]And I think that that's the other piece.

[00:02:46]Character integrity matters. When you are breaking the rules of the character, when characters, which bothers me as someone that studies the psychology of characters, when you are not following the rules that you've set out for a character, cuz people really are patternoriented machines. We do things in specific ways and we follow certain rules. And when you break those rules because you need to fit something into a plot, I think that that is something that people can get really upset over.

[00:03:15]And this scene, I think, exemplifies that so very strongly.

[00:03:19]>> I Serge Amelia Lant declare this my last will and testament. Though I have no worldly possessions to bequeath, I do have something to give you. The knowledge that I have seen each and every one of your >> Excuse me.

[00:03:33]>> Yeah, I'm going to go back. This reminds me of Game of Thrones when everything was a penis or butt joke where the writing used to be still have rude things happening in it. That doesn't bother me at all. I can enjoy it like everyone else. But this instead had characters just talking about that where it lays flat and they go on for too long and it just doesn't make sense to Frenchie. He just didn't seem like a person that was constantly would do this for something that really matters to him. Especially when this is the last episode where time really matters. Why go through with this that doesn't even talk about the gravity of the situation?

[00:04:14]And I found that to be actually insulting to the viewers. I'm not a writer and I can see that people would say that writing is a really difficult thing, but it doesn't keep to the character's integrity. That's not really something that he was all about. And maybe if he was, that would make more sense and this would be more touching or funny or shocking. I was just bored and wanted this to be over with. And I shouldn't be feeling this for the season finale, the show finale of a show that I love. When I was making this video, there were so many amazing scenes from season 1 and season 2. Amazing dialogue that's well written, thoughtful, and funny at the same time. but having these funny episodes, funny scenes, but have really deep contextual backgrounds to them. And I love characters that are multi-layered, that are shades of gray, that even when someone does something horrible, they are not without any redeeming or character traits that can make you feel for them and understand them a little bit better.

[00:05:21]>> So good. The entire thing is so good. I get chills still watching this scene.

[00:05:28]Like you feel like you feel the gravity of the choice of the risk of the sacrifice of the reasons for why they are doing that. You can live vicariously through everyone's arc of their story. But instead we ended up with forever.

[00:05:56]>> Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm [ __ ] I'm so sorry.

[00:06:00]>> I'm saying I love I love Samuel Jackson as the shark.

[00:06:03]>> Oh god, son. You're dead. WE'RE GOING TO KILL YOU. You understand? You dumb.

[00:06:09]>> You knew what was going to happen right away when she brought him to water. It also ruins character integrity.

[00:06:16]Starlight knows that his power is the water. Did she know that all of the fish hated him? No, probably not. So why in the world would you bring someone that you are trying to get rid of to their power source? It just makes no logical sense. She knew that all the fish were angry and she just like flew them down and dropped them into the water. That would make logical sense. But she didn't do that. So then she didn't know.

[00:06:42]>> Rage is not what makes you strong. It has never been Mona.

[00:06:49]It has always been yours.

[00:06:57]And for me, the reason that this doesn't work is that the pacing is wrong. It becomes this sweet moment. And I'm not even saying that I disagree with the words that they used. Having this loving moment in the middle of what you expect to be an action scene brought down the emotional gravity of the situation too quickly and left it off.

[00:07:34]And I think that Anthony Star is an absolutely phenomenal actor and he did a great job as Homelander, but I know that we're probably supposed to feel angered towards him and want him to feel humiliated. That's what it seemed like for this scene, but it just didn't seem fulfilling or even satisfactory to the ending of the ark.

[00:08:00]shareholders need in a time of crisis to start the process of re am I the only one that said tell Starlight she can fly if this is really that important what are you doing running off running to the car you don't tell your girlfriend your superhero girlfriend that hasn't really gotten a scene to shine yet she'd be faster I don't understand the logic behind that and that Really? I think that's insulting to the viewer. It would have been easy to find a little tiny moment that you could do why she couldn't do it.

[00:08:37]>> Where's the virus, Butcher?

[00:08:41]>> I dumped it in the sprinkler tank. All I got to do >> is pull this trigger.

[00:08:46]>> We already won.

[00:08:48]>> No, we just gave him a black eye.

[00:08:51]No.

[00:08:53]>> One, why would you share your plan if you really want to go through with it?

[00:08:57]it too. Why would you place it on the table? You could say that he was emotional. He is instable. He actually wants him to kill him. Those could all be very very possible. But they didn't show that. And I think that they did a lot of exposition of talking about things instead of just showing us that.

[00:09:14]Let us experience it so that we have a certain understanding. Now, this scene in comparison to the ending in season 1, >> I know you can see through the ceiling.

[00:09:29]You try to kill me and my trigger finger goes soft.

[00:09:39]>> Take it easy.

[00:09:40]>> You don't want to upset Teddy, right?

[00:09:43]Butcher has thought this through. So, he already has an idea of what to do so that he can do what he has to do without having someone kill him. Also, Homelander, how brilliant using a baby as a shield so that Butcher doesn't do it in the first place. And that is in stark contrast to Butcher then putting the trigger, knowing what has happened before, and then placing the trigger on the table. He's already created devices like this. he understands what he has to do. It just didn't seem to fit. It just doesn't make sense to me to his character and also to the ending of the show. So, those are some reasons that I think that people were disappointed with the season and show finale of The Boys.

[00:10:27]You can let me know your thoughts. Am I completely wrong? Did I miss some glaring issues that you had with it or some reasons why you thought it was amazing? You can let me know and we can discuss in the comments below. And hopefully I'll see you in the next video. And if you like this video, I would love if you would subscribe. Um, turn on that bell. That would be really appreciated. That's really helpful for my channel. So, thank you to everyone that