The Boys angered all the right people

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]quote by a forest ranger at Yusede National Park on why it is hard to design the perfect garbage bin to keep bears from breaking into it. There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists. Hey folks, every year, year and a half or so, for a while now, we've collectively experienced a cycle that goes something like this. New season of The Boys releases to record numbers. Conservative viewers get offended, claim all previous seasons were good and based, but this new season is woke and bad. Conservative viewers pledge to never watch the show again and then the next season releases to record numbers, rinse and repeat. Two years ago on this channel, we watched The Quartering and The Critical Drinker proclaimed the show's fans were leaving in droves after season 4 was just too political now, only for season 5 to be the most viewed in franchise history. Go woke, go broke, except, you know, all of the times that the exact opposite happens. In any event, The Boys is over now. And while I'm fairly excited to see how they translate the show's vibe into a mid-century setting in Vault Rising, the primary dynamic driving my and I suspect many others interest in this universe has now come to an end. That of course being the relationship between Homelander and and oh boy, what an ending it was. A lot of people have had a lot to say about the fifth and final season. I count myself among them. And while I seem to have enjoyed it more than most other people on my feed, I am not ignorant of its flaws. That said, I feel confident in saying that Krypkkey and Co absolutely stuck the landing, both in the story department and indeed the satire department. Not just any show can leave the richest man on earth crashing out on his own website because it made fun of him and his favorite pedophile.

[00:01:38]Regardless, I'd like to take a look at what some people have said about the finale and how it seems that this writing team has had to seriously wrestle with the fact that no matter how [ __ ] obvious they make this [ __ ] a certain portion of their audience cannot grasp extremely simple concepts like man strong physically but weak emotionally.

[00:01:55]I sincerely do not envy the folks who wrote an entire season of television in which a man with god-like powers in the adoration of millions of people spends an inordinate amount of his time beefing with an actual baby only for viewers to be shocked when people call him a loser.

[00:02:09]I started following the boy's meme page on Instagram about five or six years ago that's been crashing out recently about how much he hated the finale with the ultimate cherry on top being his declaration that he no longer considers anything after season 1 to be canon which to me is kind of the perfect encapsulation of the right-wingers in this fandom. Y'all missed the satire in season 1 somehow and then spent the following six years fuming as each subsequent season continued to reiterate the same points. And yet, at no point did any of these people consider simply watching something else. To me, that says something very special about this show. Even the people who hate it can't stop watching it. They spent over 80% of the show's existence continuing to watch despite outwardly pretending they couldn't stand it. I can't really think of higher praise to be honest with you, which feels weird cuz The Boys is far from my favorite show, but even I can't argue with results. To start this critique properly, let's look at a tweet by acclaimed screenwriter Mer, who somehow manages to [ __ ] up his commentary in almost the first line. And sorry, I am not doing a Mer voice. My throat cannot take it. My skin didn't char, but I was screaming in agony. My tears just sizzled away. Homelander has a few moments that give us insight into his relationship with pain. It defined his life, and yet he has grown numb to it. The idea that Homelander at any point has grown numb to pain is [ __ ] baffling to me, to be quite honest with you. As we're going to see shortly, Mer is struggling to differentiate between physical and emotional pain. But no matter how you slice it, this sentiment is utterly ridiculous. Jon's life is not defined by physical pain. And you can see that even from the very scene Mer is misquing here in the scene. This is pulled from, Homelander is tormenting the VA researchers who experimented on him as a child. And the underlying point of the scene is very obviously not Homelander's childhood sucked because he experienced physical pain. It's Jon's childhood sucked because the adults who were supposed to protect him from pain did the exact opposite of that. Further, Homelander has not grown numb to emotional pain. At every possible turn, he demonstrates his inability to cope with others lack of respect for him and on a deeper level, his lack of respect for himself. He lives in constant fear of the Flight 37 video being released.

[00:04:15]He uses his physical power and status to intimidate low-level VA employees when they don't immediately respect him. He takes valuable time out of his day, I must remind you, to be jealous of a baby. No read of this opening line actually maps onto the text of the show, no matter which season you're looking at. To be quite frank, pain has defined his life, and yet he has grown numb to it. Reads like, "Baby's first attempt at philosophizing." Something that sounds vaguely profound while making absolutely no sense in context. He responds with anger in almost every instance of challenge. But that's not because of the pain. It's the sheer desire for vengeance on a world that created him to receive and perform every torture and manipulation. Homelander took on three soups at once. Got beaten, tossed around, and nearly killed. He was inches from losing everything, but he didn't even hint at begging. He simply got more and more furious. Watch his fight with Mave in season 3. She can and does make him bleed, but he goes for vengeance and immediately takes her eye. We'll talk about the revenge stuff shortly, but let's think critically for a moment.

[00:05:12]What is the difference between the scenes Mer references Homelander fights in season 3 and the scene in which he ultimately dies? I'll give you a hint.

[00:05:21]It's incredibly [ __ ] obvious. It's the one trait which has defined people's view of Homelander and subsequently his view of himself since literally before his birth. When he's fighting with Soldier Boy or Mave or any other superpowered entity, he's got god-like powers on his side. People love and adore him because of his powers. VA experimented on him because of his powers. He builds his entire identity around having his powers. And perhaps this is surprising to some people. His powers are actually a really effective counter to almost dying. In all those previous scenes, Homelander never had to drop the facade because he always had a pretty serious card he could play. Even when fighting Soldier Boy, he only ever almost lost his powers. It never actually happened to him. In his final moments, that card is gone. The thing he allowed to define him and the only thing he has to protect him is gone. His entire worldview is shattered. He doesn't know how to fight. He's never needed to. His spirit is utterly broken.

[00:06:14]And so, what does he have left? The only thing he knows, the same desperation he felt in the oven. The same begging and graveling he's watched others directed him for decades. It feels almost embarrassing to bring this up. Like, how could someone not understand that when faced with a crowbar, the permeability of your skin might actually affect how you act? And yet, Mueller has clearly tripped over this hurdle. It does not, however, for many in the audience, feel like the ending for Homelander, a broken monster losing the only avenue of enacting vengeance on a terrible world that he always wanted approval from. I would have perhaps expected him to see red, to enter an impotent rage, unable to do the damage he's desperate to achieve, only to receive a despondent end, knowing he is now incapable of taking that revenge and has to simply deal with his psychopathy. I'm not sure how else to say this. Homelander's primary motivation has not and has never been vengeance. neither vengeance on the world nor on the people who created him.

[00:07:08]And once again, this is, I think, incredibly obvious to anyone who's paying attention to the things happening on their screen. If Homelander primarily wanted revenge, he'd have killed Stan Edgar and Dr. Voglebomb a long time ago.

[00:07:20]Two men who callously oversaw his abuse and mistreatment for years. But he doesn't kill either of them because he's still in the mindset of that little kid who thinks it's somehow his fault his dad is abusive. He wants these men to love him for the horrible things they did to him to have meaning. But of course they never will. What Homelander wants more than anything, certainly more than revenge, is to feel good inside. I know that's kind of a copout answer.

[00:07:43]That's what everyone wants. But for Homelander, the path to get there is obscured. He tries to achieve happiness and inner peace in multiple ways, but the one he comes back to the most is narrative. Homelander views the world as existing to serve him and his story, his exaltation. Uh, you can see this in his treatment of Butcher in particular, a rival he could have killed dozens of times over if all he wanted was revenge for past transgressions. But he doesn't do that because Butcher is a character in Homelander's personal fable. He gives Homelander's life meaning. To draw a comparison, Homelander's relationship with Butcher and Co. is a lot like Megamind's relationship with Metro Man.

[00:08:18]It's not really about the destination.

[00:08:19]It's about the back and forth, the will they, won't they. The moment Metro Man actually seemingly dies, Megamind's life falls apart. It was the one consistent dynamic he could always rely on to keep him going. The boys will try to kill Homelander or otherwise inconvenience him. They'll get some good licks in, but mostly fail, and Homelander will escape, largely restoring the status quo. It's a dynamic that Homelander relies on to the bitter end where he learns the hard way that this was a one-way relationship.

[00:08:44]While Homelander enjoyed the game and honestly seems to have had a certain fondness for him, Butcher just wanted him [ __ ] dead. You owe me all the times I could have killed you and I didn't. I let you live.

[00:08:58]>> John doesn't just lose his powers in the Oval Office. He loses the only real relationship he's had for years at this point. His personal fable is what fuels his relationship with Edgar and VA. The idea that one day he'll be so great that everyone who ever doubted him will see the error of their ways and praise him instead. It's why he can't kill Soulja Boy or Ryan despite having no moral qualms with that kind of murder. They're extensions of him and people who will love him if he just homelanders hard enough. It's why he often kills people who meaningfully challenge his self-image like Firecracker, doppelganger or train, but spares people who reinforce it like Butcher, the Legend, or the Deep. I could probably spend a long time explaining why each of these characters are spared or killed by Homelander, but I we're already all over the place. But suffice to say, I think that the way that Stan Edgar challenges Homelander self-image is substantively different from the way that Firecracker challenges it. The Personal Fable is also why, oh yeah, in the final season, he turns his internal monologue into religious cannon. Now, the story that's exists inside his head is a story everyone must pantomime for fear of death. He's not trying to get revenge on the world. He's trying to create the story that's been in his head for his entire life. The one thing he never tries in his quest for personal fulfillment is genuine effort, which makes sense. His entire life has been organized around things just happening to him. At very few points in his life prior to the events of this show has Homelander ever had to make actual decisions for himself. I I don't know if this is like a controversial read or anything, but I genuinely consider Flight 37 to be kind of the pivotal scene for Homelander's character or at least within the events of the show. Um, had he chosen to put in a modicum of effort and actually save the lives of the people on board and experience their love and appreciation untainted by Vots meddling, I I think it's plausible that he could have gone down a different path. I don't don't get me wrong, like he's still done unforgivable should spend life in prison things by this point. But by TV standards, he still had the potential for some kind of redemption arc here, especially given his upbringing. It's kind of the arc that Ara went through. Maybe we've gotten off topic by now, but the point is, in no way is Homelander largely driven by revenge. He's tried revenge as one possible way of attaining fulfillment, but it's not the main weapon in his arsenal by a long shot.

[00:11:10]Mueller, of course, continues, but his foundation is built on a complete misunderstanding of what makes this character tick. A misunderstanding which requires ignoring most of the show's content to maintain. He speculates on whether the writers used his humiliating death as some kind of personal power fantasy. And while I'm sure that Krypy felt some amount of catharsis in writing that ending, uh, I don't know how to engage with a person that watched Homelander crumble to the point of public masturbation and didn't think that his final moments would be similarly pathetic. I also think this analysis fails to account for the contents of the very season he's complaining about. If the writers just hated Homelander, they wouldn't have included scenes of him genuinely heartbroken over the apparent death of his father or sparing an enemy's life because they showed him a degree of genuine humanto human respect. Yes, his death was cathartic and enjoyable on some level. But this season, like every season prior, does not forget that at his core, Homelander is a tragic character. A monster, yes, but a monster that you can't help but pity. Don't get me wrong, uh, Mueller is far from the only person to misunderstand Homelander as a character, which under normal circumstances would give me pause. Like, if so many people are misunderstanding this show, is it possible that the writers are at fault for failing to communicate essential information? But much like with Mer's need to ignore the context of the very scenes he cites as evidence, these people frequently seem to have simply not watched the show. For an alternative perspective, let's ask the rat king himself, Asmin Gold, who had this to say about the boys finale.

[00:12:34]>> So, what what the [ __ ] happened with the boys? So, holy [ __ ] the boy's finale was garbage. Not a single second of Homelander going scorched earth. If you were honestly waiting for that, you can skip the episode. So, this guy, the boy creator tells toxic fans to Dude, this was in 2022. Eat a bag of dicks and [ __ ] off to the sun. I feel like every time that I hear somebody that says that, I feel like it never turns out to be well.

[00:13:00]>> A lot's been said about this whole go woke, go broke mantra. Hell, I've already mentioned it in this very video, but it takes a special kind of idiot to look at a headline from four years ago, use it to predict not even the future, just the present, and somehow still be wrong. If Krypky's statements from four years ago were going to [ __ ] up the show's numbers, you'd think that would have happened by now.

[00:13:22]>> Anthony Star's goal was never to create Homelander as a Donald Trump parody. I totally understand Ant's point of view.

[00:13:29]He's like, I'm not doing a caricature.

[00:13:31]>> Wait a minute. So they wanted Homelander to be Donald Trump, but then the actor was like, "That's cringe. I'm not going to do it." So they tried to pressure this guy. And again, this is such a great like everybody knows this guy for this role. That's not his name, but I think it's endlessly interesting that these right-wing streamers will show on screen the proof that they're lying as they tell the lie, and somehow their audience still believes it. The statement from Krykkey, and I'll link the article below for any interested parties, reads as him allowing the parody to go too far, Anthony Star correctly identifying that there needs to be a clear internal logic to Homelander's character, and Krypkkey agreeing with this suggestion and modifying his pro approach accordingly.

[00:14:13]Zach wants you to think that the boy's writers were pressuring their actors into doing this over-the-top political parody when not only does the cited article refute that, noting that they actively moved away from Trump comparisons in later seasons, the very quote onscreen says the exact opposite of what he's telling you. He goes on further to say it's disrespectful to the actor to force him to pantomime this anti-Trump character, which beyond ignoring everything that's been said thus far about how that's not at all what happened. Um, is something that Star clearly signed up for on some level from the beginning, it's ridiculous how much coddling these people demand for people who aren't even asking for it.

[00:14:50]Anyhow, uh, to those of you who have asked me to respond to Asminold, there you go. That's probably the most time I've spent listening to him in my life.

[00:14:58]I don't know how much substance I expected. Uh, but I still feel disappointed. And now I get to say without a trace of irony in my voice, let's listen to someone more interesting. Nerdroic. I know I'm as surprised as you are. Gary's video is titled Everyone Hates The Boys Finale, which makes sense given his entire project relies on you assuming everyone already agrees with the anti-woke opinion, regardless of whether they actually do. But it's especially funny in this case given the discourse surrounding this finale has been extremely mixed, which is to say not even close to exclusively negative.

[00:15:28]>> Just over a month ago, The Boys creator, Eric Krypkkey, told the Hollywood Reporter that he was anxious about the fan reaction to the final episode. And now we all know why that anxiety was justified.

[00:15:39]>> A lot of shows outsmart themselves and they say, you know, the audience really wants this, so we're not going to give it to them. and you know, and then everyone ends up super disappointed and uh I live in terror of that.

[00:15:50]>> There's this incredibly frustrating tendency among online media commentators, and I'm not excusing liberals or leftists when I say this, we absolutely do this too, of narrativizing incredibly normal comments by people in the entertainment industry. Any showrunner who gave a [ __ ] about their work would feel nervous producing the final season of one of the most successful series on streaming. The people working on The Boys and Eric Krykkey in particular have tended towards above average transparency when talking about the show. Uh that's why we have examples of Kryky frankly discussing his own flaws as a writer and why it's not very hard to find members of the cast disagreeing with certain decisions on the show. Um sometimes that leads to feet ending up in mouse like Crypty's less than stellar explanation for season 4's sexual abuse scenes, but on the whole it's relatively refreshing to see. Nonetheless, Nerd Rotic wants you to think that there's something nefarious going on here, like the writers knew the show was bad, a fact he's taken for granted, or worse, that they made the show bad on purpose. Or perhaps more likely, a guy in a high pressure position got a bit nervous.

[00:16:52]Take your pick.

[00:16:53]>> Let's be real, The Boys hasn't been good since season 1. Now, the point I was out came in season two when they did the girls get it done thing and then went on to do the thing they just mocked. when the girls got it done by beating the crap out of the gender swap from the comic Stormfront because women could be Nazis, too.

[00:17:10]>> It's so revolutionary. It's so bold and so so brilliant.

[00:17:16]>> So much to unpack in this short segment here. At first, there's that this show hasn't been good for four of its five seasons [ __ ] that I know you people don't actually believe or you wouldn't be [ __ ] talking about it. Like, it blows my mind that people can still fall for this because seriously, think about it. If you've spent six out of a show's seven years of existing, hating it, thinking its characters are [ __ ] not being invested in the plot, why on earth would you have even watched far enough to know you don't like the finale? More importantly, why would you have a new take on it? Homelander's apparently been a terrible, botched character for like 6 years now. Why are you acting shocked when he remains consistently the thing you don't like all the way to the end?

[00:17:55]Of course, the reason for this discrepancy is simple and leads into my second point. The idea that The Boys has been bad for six years completely flies in the face of everything the anti-woke crowd has been yelling for the last decade and a half. The allegation is that bad media, particularly bad woke media, is doomed to fail. I won't repeat the slogan a third time for fear of summoning it here. If The Boys were really that bad for its entire duration, season 5 likely would have never happened. Or if it did, it would be the least viewed season of the bunch. But of course, the opposite is true. The Boys has been steadily climbing in viewership for several straight years. So either A this woke broke tendency has terrible predictive power. B the show hasn't been all that bad for the last 6 years. Or C both A and B are true and these people have actually no leg to stand on. Gary even seems to know this because later in his review he does one of those little lies.

[00:18:49]>> Then many of the fans who hung on were calling filler which is an accurate description. Many of the fans who hung on implies that many or most fans had jumped ship by this point and that viewership must be dwindling. But as we've seen, the exact opposite is true.

[00:19:02]If your arguments were correct, you wouldn't have to do this [ __ ] Third, cuz remember, we're still in the same 20 second clip here. Notice how Gary wasn't mad about writing quality when he explained why he disliked season 2.

[00:19:12]>> Now, the point I was out came in season two when they did the girls get it done thing and then went on to do the thing they just mocked. when the girls got it done by beating the crap out of the gender swap from the comic Stormfront because women could be Nazis, too.

[00:19:26]>> It's completely within the realm of good satire to mock a version of an idea and then present a modified version of that idea as a possible replacement. The show criticized faux progressive feminist marketing in superhero films before portraying what it considered to be a more natural presentation of those underlying ideas. Whether it succeeded or failed at this satire is entirely up for discussion, but in Gary's case, no discussion is presented. His goal, I think translucently, is for his viewers to hear feminism buzzwords and shut their brains off. Once he actually gets to talking about the contents of the show, Gary spends a while complaining that this season felt like filler, which while I disagree is a fine enough thing to think. Then he whines about the show having a crass sense of humor and making a lot of sex jokes, which sort of feels like complaining that Friends season 10 specifically has a laugh track, and then takes a quick misogyny break. and an entire season of the audience just trying to figure out what Starlight is saying, that has nothing to do with all the plastic surgery the actress said she didn't have.

[00:20:20]>> Setting aside the fact that we know Aaron Morardi spent this era of the show dealing with a Graves disease diagnosis and thus severe physical health concerns, what does that have to do with anything? I don't just mean because the random time taken to obsess over a woman's appearance is obvious misogynistic [ __ ] I mean, what would that even have to do with anything now? This drama, if you can even call it that, happened in 2024, over two years ago. If this were ever going to be relevant, which it wasn't, it would have been relevant like during season 4. Uh, the reason, of course, that Gary brings it up now is twofold. One, for this content to work, he has to constantly remind you of a woman or a minority to be mad at. And two, he doesn't actually have much of value to say about the finale. We're nearly halfway through this video about the finale. And the only actual substantive critique we've gotten is that the season preceding the finale had a lot of filler and a couple of mcguffins. And we haven't even gotten to Nerd Rotic's trademark bad summary of the plot yet. What I'm saying is this 15-minute video could have been 5 minutes long if I'm being generous.

[00:21:17]>> One of the biggest of many flaws of this show is Homelander's godhood and actually convincing people to believe it. It may or may not have helped to make him immortal in the first episode instead of him running around with Soulja Boy so you could do a soft pilot for another series.

[00:21:31]>> All right, this is the first actual point of interest here. I think I honestly I don't have a ton to say about the point itself. Um, other than to say that if Gary's video was entirely comprised of arguments like this, it wouldn't be good exactly since he doesn't do anything besides state an opinion he read somewhere without further elaboration. But it would at least be inoffensive fluff for some pretty obvious structural reasons.

[00:21:51]Homelander becoming immortal in episode 1 would have been too quick. But I am sympathetic to the idea that either the show needed a few more episodes for some of these ideas to breathe. I would personally not have complained if we got a few more filler episodes added in, especially to like spend some final slow moments with more characters or that Homelander should have spent more time with his immortality to see how it affected him as a person. I'd say good job, Gary. Uh, but we both know you didn't come up with this complaint yourself. I do want to briefly highlight his commentary on Sage.

[00:22:21]>> And despite all the people she murdered or put in prison camps, she's allowed to walk free because she's a diverse woman in a Hollywood production and we can't have them taking accountability for anything.

[00:22:32]>> Look, this has always been racist [ __ ] but in the context of this show specifically, it's especially hilarious given we've watched women like Stormfront and Crimson Countess get essentially vaporized. This very finale included a black man being comedically murdered with a ball gag. Victoria Newman got torn in half. Also, Ashley got murdered for a joke. At point being, they're playing it safe with the diverse characters. Shtik was already incredibly stupid, but it's exceedingly funny in this particular show where there's absolutely no shortage of non-white male characters suffering horrible fates or white male characters getting happy endings. Now, I'm going to level with you. I was entirely interested in discussing this video because I wanted to see Nerd's head ass misunderstanding of Homelander as a character. And as such, I've been writing this script as I go, only to find out in the 11th hour that he just ripped Mer's opinion.

[00:23:20]>> But the main man who did all the heavy lifting was Anthony Star. And I think my good friend Mer put it best. Anthony Star is the reason the boys survived. He made Krypky's shitty writing feel purposeful. His passion in every scene with every memeworthy expression convinced the audience there was far more substance only for the finale to leave you looking back with near nothing. Excellent actor. Hope he gets better opportunities. Couldn't have said it better myself. That's why I didn't.

[00:23:43]>> So, we've basically already done this then, right? If I were to leave you with any parting words, they'd be these. The Boys is a very messy show to talk about.

[00:23:53]It's deceptively more complex than its over-the-top approach might let on. Uh, but it often allows those more over-the-top elements to cover for the writer's immature or poorly thoughtout satire. Again, return to the weird sexual assault content in season 4 or the boring haha homophobic guy is gay commentary from as early as season 1.

[00:24:11]Uh, the idea that Mer is presenting that this show was completely hollow is ridiculous and will continue to be proven wrong as people further deconstruct these characters and their arcs. I don't know when I'll get around to it, but I'm tentatively pretty excited to start over from the first season with the knowledge of how it all shakes out in mind, which is more than I can say for a lot of finales out there.

[00:24:30]All in all, was it a good show? Yeah, I'd say so. Thanks for watching. You can like this video and subscribe to it as well to help fill the void in my soul where a billion YouTube subscribers should fit. consider joining as a member or a Patreoner where you'll get a few exclusive videos as well as occasional early stuff. Other than all that stuff, I will probably be talking about Mer again pretty soon. Uh, sorry about