u/5488h

I think its probably the worst ending i’ve ever seen in a tv show, even above Game of thrones, how i met your mother and Two and a half men.
I’ll explain why.

I think the number one thing in the boys universe since day 1 was its characters. The unique twist of superheroes that we’ve barely ever seen before and the ‘heroes’ being awkward and not having the usual on screen connection we’re used to in the regular superhero media was by far the most interesting thing about the show for me. I never thought the story was extremely compelling or the dialogue was anything that special, it was the character dynamics and trying to figure out what role they would play in such an unpredictable world that made it special.
For me after the start of S4 the show completely lost its charm and most of all its unpredictability.

To give an example, here are the 7 (genuine coincidence) characters that were clearly the most interesting to me and my reasons for being disappointed.

Sage, smartest person in the world. From the first moment she was on screen she kept you guessing, and at some point it even looked like she was the one controlling the uncontrollable and unpredictable homelander, and it seemed like one of his only weaknesses was that he was easily manipulated by someone like Sage. All that buildup just for the smartest person in the show to leave in a ‘funny’ matter and not play any role was my first worrying point in the finale.

Soldier boy, was such an interesting character when he first arrived, just to give him a solid death but then unnecessarily bring him back to not do anything of meaning, then out of nowhere just give Homelander the V1 for no particular reason and leave right before the climax of the show was also to me a clear indication that the show lost its charm and went with the easy ‘Marvel’ way of treating fan favourite characters.

Kimiko, such a complex character at the start, she really made you think about her values and traumas, while at the same time not knowing if you should feel bad for her or be scared of her. Again so much buildup of a well written and interesting character just for her to (literally and figuratively) be completely swallowed by the (shallow) character of Frenchie in the final season. No more character building, no more personal story arcs and it seemed like she was treated more like a love interest than her own character, which to me was just depressing to see. Even when she played it a big role it was because she somehow managed to take of Soldier boys power (which they could have done when Soldier boy was first introduced and made the whole V1 story completely irrelevant)

Homelander, obviously the best character in the show, he was basically the living example of what made the show great. Unpredictable, intense and confident enough to try stuff never seen before. While i really think they mostly gave the character and actor the respect they deserved its just so weird to me that the most influential person in the world gets brutally murdered in the White house on live Tv and the person responsible doesn’t only get away with it, he also gets to freely walk into Vought without his powers and noone gives a single fuck. Also the whole ‘scorched earth’ idea which kept a bunch of people stoked for the finale was thrown into the garbage when they made homelander dying into an ‘i’ll eat your shit on live tv’ joke.

Massive shoutout to Anthony Starr and Jack Quaid tho for genuinely giving consistent incredible performances, if it wasn’t for them i probably would’ve never finished the show.

The Deep, keeping up with the great acting performances, i think if it wasn’t for Chace Crawford the deep would be nowhere near this list for me. I’ll keep this one short, a character we see conflicted and insecure for 5 whole seasons long, building up rage almost every episode and could have been an incredible ‘crash-out villain’ for for example hughie in my opinion; gets thrown into the water by starlight and dies and incredibly unrealistic death to a squid because he fucked over Black Noir. This wouldnt even be that bad of an ending if his ‘beef’ with Noir wasn’t so forced and forgettable.

A-Train, fastest man alive. Got fucked by homelander and died a worthless death while being to most promising character in the show and imo he should have played a much bigger role in the last season. All that character development just for him to have a single actual redeeming moment and then die because he wasnt fast enough, when he could’ve easily played a big part in the final showdown and made a sacrifice there instead of again- half the final season being about the stale and shallow character of Frenchie.

All of Gen-V, Sam, super interesting character. Kate, again had such an interesting story. Jordan had a lot of presence on the screen and was great in every scene. And then there’s Marie. Only the second survivor of project Odessa. Went up against Thomas Godolkin himself and showed why she is easily one of the most powerful supes in the world. I was so excited to at least see them fight some of the stronger supes instead of students but all season long nothing, i cant remember a single peace of dialogue from Maria. An entire show meant absolutely nothing to the story. I dont think i’ll ever understand why they fucked that up so bad.

I did like Hughie tho, his actor and story was great and i think thats the only positive from the final season.
Please let me know ur opinions tho