That doesn't explain it either.
I dunno, the lead up to finale (with Bombsite) was pretty darn convoluted (but there are comparisons to Dexter's final season).
I never treated this show as being anything other than a satirical action comedy, and never really felt invested in any of the characters. I liked the show fine, but it was never meant to be anything other than what we got. I think people expected something that the show never really was.
The Boys Seasons 4 & 5 didn't have quite the same tension and energy of Seasons 1 to 3, but we had pivotal character deaths, a fetch quest, Homelander's personal spiralling, and Bombsite that gave Season 5 more momentum than Season 4.
I will confidently say the "Scorched Carpet" finale in a convincing enough White House set would be very grand for any N. American television show produced from roughly 1990-ish to 2005-ish, I also think the expected budget extravagance of the 2010s/early 2020s streaming shows may have caught up with The Boys, and everything is more visibly stagnating or declining in production scope (I think Rings Of Power put them off being too big budget).
I was invested in the characters but never took the stories or social commentary that serious because it was always played for laughs. Except for a few exceptions. Homelander needed to become more drunk with power and The Boys did need a credible way of getting ride of him despite how powerful he was.
Out of all the issues of the final episode my biggest one comes down to Homelander not being allowed to truly let go of the last bit of him holding himself back in order to make people love him. Once people reject you as not being GOD their is no place else to go other than Pure Beast Mode.
They should have saved enough money in the budget to at least let him go scorched earth before finally being killed. I can't help but compare it to the level of destruction on Earth we saw done by the Viltrumites on "Invincible."
He and Oh Father (plus hundreds of 'supes) launch a political coup on Washington DC, sail into the White House, massacring all of its occupants in a very violent, visceral way (including the President, which Homelander decapitates).
Then the US Military kills all of Homelander's assembled henchmen with V1 targeted munitions, Homelander and Butcher are confronted by an unmasked Black Noir (an even more evil duplicate of Homelander all along), Noir wins the fight against Homelander, dragging Homelander's severed remains across the White House lawn (but Noir's a mangled mess himself), and finally Noir gets shot to pieces by the Army & Marines assembled outside the White House.
Butcher then goes up to Noir's still writhing remains and with a crowbar splits open Black Noir's skull to expose his brains (like in the TV show).
This pretty much sums up my feelings. Wasn't perfect but wasn't terrible either and I've still enjoyed this season despite the wheel spinning.
I did expect Homelander not to die but be left mortal and humiliated but in hindsight that would never work because you'd always have the fear of someone giving him another dose of Compound V.
One thing I do like about this ending is that it's not really the happy ending it appears to be on the surface. Yes, Homelander and the rest of the Seven are dealt with and those left among the Boys appear to be moving on to their happily ever after, or as close to it as they can get in light of how things ended with some of them. But one thing Butcher was right about was his assessment of the future. It's only a matter of time before Vought elevates another team of superheroes and eventually they'll get drunk on power and celebrity status giving them essentially carte blanche as far as bad behavior goes. So when you think about it, nothing has really changed. Vought is still around, Supes are still around. In the short term they will have greater government oversight less influence and autonomy than they have had, but in the long term there's nothing really preventing something like this from happening again. Maybe not exactly like this, but there will be Supes who engage in all sorts of horrible shit getting a free pass just because of their status in society and pop culture. At most Homelander will just become a cautionary tale. Supes will probably continue to live a decadent and hedonistic lifestyle as self absorbed jerks, they just won't crave political power or the desire to be God believing that will just lead to their undoing like it did Homelander.
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Personally I think Vought International is busted as a megacorporation - Homelander fired, harassed, or even murdered a lot Vought employees - and alongside VernonCorp was the main participant in a brutal dictatorship that had tore the country apart.
And besides which the Singer Presidency is aiming at taking no prisoners, the Vought brand has been tarnished, their business interests are collapsing (the oil pipeline, etc), and why would the remaining supes at Vought Tower take orders from a deposed, disgraced CEO and had more in common with Homelander?
However the thousands of supes aren't going nowhere and will likely form up into roving independent bands of mercenaries, gangsters, and vigilantes (when Stan Edgar hits problems trying to turn a sinking ship around; he's a capable technocrar, not a wizard).
Even if Vought as a company dissolves or shrinks into irrelevancy, their legacy with their laboratories, strains of Compound V, and secret programmes will likely live on (falling into the hands of crime syndicates, terrorists, spy agencies, dictatorships, and rival corporations).
And besides which the Singer Presidency is aiming at taking no prisoners, the Vought brand has been tarnished, their business interests are collapsing (the oil pipeline, etc), and why would the remaining supes at Vought Tower take orders from a deposed, disgraced CEO and had more in common with Homelander?
However the thousands of supes aren't going nowhere and will likely form up into roving independent bands of mercenaries, gangsters, and vigilantes (when Stan Edgar hits problems trying to turn a sinking ship around; he's a capable technocrar, not a wizard).
Even if Vought as a company dissolves or shrinks into irrelevancy, their legacy with their laboratories, strains of Compound V, and secret programmes will likely live on (falling into the hands of crime syndicates, terrorists, spy agencies, dictatorships, and rival corporations).
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I think Vought is to big to fail. They aren't just a big megacorporation but seem to be the biggest of them all. Plus with Homelander dead they can put all the blame on him and the other dead people. Ashley is impeached so she is another fall guy.
I think Vought International was survivable until Season 4 and then Homelander ran it completely and abjectly into the ground, plus there's the opportunism and greed of other corporations in wanting strip the beached Vought carcass (and with no Homelander, Ashley, and Sage at the wheel, Vought International was left far too hollow and brittle to stand, too late for Edgar to repair, and so the company likely collapses amid low level US civil war conditions).
Did Deep ever get any scenes of character development this final season or was he just kind of there? Even Black Noir #2 got his stage acting episode.
Still think Black Noir #2 should've woken up from that pool of blood with everyone thinking he had died because of his narcolepsy.
Still think Black Noir #2 should've woken up from that pool of blood with everyone thinking he had died because of his narcolepsy.
More less this. When you get down to it, Vought is the leading pharmaceutical company in the world at the cutting edge of a lot of scientific advances. Supes aren't just going to go away either, even if their law enforcement authority is severely scaled back in light of what has happened, they still have their status as actors and entertainers, with their own movies and TV shows and whatnot generating revenue. And that's before you get into the fact that Vought seems to have a presence in practically every conceivable market. Even if the aftermath of Homelander's grab for godhood takes a turn for the worse for Vought on the stock market, this will likely lead to some other hungry corporation entering into a merger with Vought. Vought gets to survive, the other corporation gets access to all of Vought's revenue. Maybe remove Stan Edgar and put someone new in charge and it gives the appearance reforms are underway. It's all just short term fixes without any real long term changes.
You know what I am curious about. What is the world going to think about all these popular movies they have made starring the likes of Homelander and The Deep and so forth. It would sort of be like people trying to still enjoy the MCU movies right after Robert Downey Jr gained powers, announced he was a GOD and was going to kill all those who don't believe. Not sure it would be easy to enjoy "Iron Man" movies anymore after that.
Not only that it seems like Hollywood lost lots of talent over the past year. Their world no longer has a Seth Rogan,Bill Hader etc. You also know Will Ferrell is going to be cancelled after working with A-Train who is still likely seen as a bad guy to most of the public.
Not only that it seems like Hollywood lost lots of talent over the past year. Their world no longer has a Seth Rogan,Bill Hader etc. You also know Will Ferrell is going to be cancelled after working with A-Train who is still likely seen as a bad guy to most of the public.
They'd have their Vought World equivalent of MAGA fans and ultra-conservatives. Homelander might even become a right wing martyr like Charlie Kirk. But the majority of films would receive the same treatment as The Cosby Show or similar in our world.
At least with the Cosby Show that was something that was a big deal in the 80's but not really relevant to the present day. Not sure many people was still watching the show in the present day. The stuff with Homelander were active and ongoing franchises. I think maybe closest equivalent would be "House of Cards' trying to do a final season without Kevin Spacey.
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