#the boys critical

[laf-outloud]

https://www.tumblr.com/laf-outloud/731654919176732672/anyway-regardless-you-are-correct-that-however

I think these all really good points about why TB is not really culturally relevant and probably won’t hold up in years from now. I’d also like to add that them parodying very current events is also off-putting to me as a viewer because I don’t watch tv to wallow in the mess that is today’s world, rather I watch shows or movies to have some time not to think about it.

I also think shows that have the best fan retention are have a big focus on relationships and characters you care about. I think both Rory and Lorelei on GG are insufferable, especially Rory, but they are "quirky" people love their mother-daughter bond and get invested in their love interests. Friends is abiut friends who can be snarky but care about each other (until later seasons when half of them just because dicks), Supernatural was never huge, but it keeps getting new fans even now and has incredible staying power because it mostly doesn’t get that political, and of course because it focuses on these brothers who love each other so damn much that they’ll do anything for each other. These are the things that make people get attached to a show, stay with a show, and rewatch a show. They want to turn in to watch people they can relate to, want to be like, or have something they value in life.

In TB almost every character is a psycho with little to no redeeming qualities. Yes, there are some nice relationships, but most of the characters are (after Season 3) massive hypocrites, assholes, racists, murderers, just plain dicks, or pathetic. Yes, there are amusing moments and shocking moments, but once you've seen them, you’ve seen them. I have no desire to sit down and watch the show on repeat because the characters aren’t truly likable, and their relationships can thus only interest me so much. When you rely heavily on shock value, you automatically lose some people after because once they’ve seen it, they don’t need to see it again.

Kripke needs to get his head out of his ass and remember what worked about shows like supernatural and stop relying on simply being as violent and disgusting as possible if he wants people to rewatch his shows.

I suppose if the story is good enough, watching a show filled with unlikeable characters is okay, but you're right, it's the relationships that really draw people in and make them care about what happens next.

As for Kripke, he got incredibly lucky with Jared and Jensen and the work they did to create Sam and Dean's dynamic because I don't think he originally planned on the brother's relationship being at the core of the series. That came later as he and the other writers/producers saw what a goldmine they hit with J2.

#ask box #the boys critical #anti eric kripke

[hologramcowboy]

Do you follow The Boys cast on IG or Twitter? What is your opinion about them “shooting the bird” in almost every picture? I get that they’re branding themselves as edgy and hardcore for the sake of the show but…IMO, it’s overkill at this point.

I get that they were trying to be on brand for the show but they failed miserably in having social awareness and emotional intelligence. The thing about negative body language is that at a subconscious level everyone registers it as if it is directed at them so constantly flipping the bird became like a micro aggression that they kept on perpetuating until it started erroding their image. It's brilliant to be on brand but it must be done very carefully without compromising the image of the actors involved and without going against their own brand. They each need to find the right balance for their type and, even if they do, I'd recommend staying away from obscene gestures, aggressive expressions, downsided smirks etc because of what they signal, like it or not, it does affect the perception people have of said individual. It's very important to maintain an authentic, trustworthy image and over displaying negative stances tends to counteract positive perceptions. That's my way of saying, yes, it definitely is overkill.

#The Boys critical

[brsb4hls]

K, watched "The Boys" 3 up to ep 5 and I gotta say it definitely lost it's glamour.

It's still exploding people, d*ck jokes, d*ck adjacent jokes, more exploding people and Homelander still being a narcissistic sociopath.

And Butcher and Hughie shooting v is about as interesting as Riley's vamp addiction in Buffy season 4.

#the boys #the boys 3 #the boys critical #the boys spoilers #anti the boys #like it's still entertaining enough to watch til the end #but getting a bit tiresome #only decent storyline is A Train's #that was so cynical it felt like a gut punch #in a good way #also Kripke's got issues #galore #what's with women all having k*nks while almost virginal starlight gets vanilla missionary? #also serious p*gging f*tish detected #I dread herogasm #for the portrayal of women in that scenario #Kripke never made it past puberty #don't get me wrong that can be funny but it's a bit much

[khentkawes]

Spoilers: The Boys season 3

Warning: rant on new fandom in-coming (don't worry, this fandom is not going to become a mainstay on this blog).

I've been watching The Boys over the past few weeks, largely because I had heard The Boys was a good deconstruction of the superhero genre. And on the one hand, it is. But season 3 is increasingly making me kind of uncomfortable with the way that deconstruction is also just reinforcing the glorification of vigilantism, which is the bread and butter of the superhero genre. It's one of those cases where they are deconstruction the genre so thoroughly that they've looped back around to just reinforcing all of the same tropes they were deconstructing/critiquing in the first place.

Like... okay, vigilantism is appealing in theory, but you have to have the critical awareness to realize that "the heroic vigilante" is just a myth. It's a re-purposing of the Robin Hood legend. It gives us a single "good guy" who will stand up to the "the man" or "the system," and if he's a "noble thief," then the vigilantism becomes a good thing. It's not the bug, it's the feature. But the problem is that the myth of the "noble vigilante" is not real and it's not possible in real life. There is no case when it is good for one person to operate above and beyond the law just because "they mean well" or they make the case that they are best suited to handle tough situations (Cap's "the safest hands are our own" mantra is bullshit. It's appealing bullshit, but it's still bullshit). In real life, we need accountability. We need equal justice under the law (and yes I am well aware of how flawed the justice system is, thank you, but that doesn't mean we just throw the entire legal system out the window. We still need laws. We still need to strive for a more just society). Vigilantism is the antithesis of all of that.

But now here we are in season 3 of The Boys, and... we're rooting for the vigilantes again. Butcher and Hughie going off the reservation and teaming up with Solider Boy is exciting because we have seen over and over again that working within the system will never work, so obviously we are hoping that working outside the system and doing "whatever it takes" will prove successful. But... damn, that's dangerous. And I'm not sure if the show is self-aware enough to know that this is what it's doing.

On the one hand, sure, they've made it clear that Butcher and Homelander are the same in some ways, that they are mirrors for each other and both have the same core of ruthlessness and hate (although... do they? They are both ruthless, yes, but Homeland is driven by ego, a yearning chasm of insecurity, and an unquenchable lust for recognition; while Butcher is driven by the deep pain of loss, feelings of rage at his own helplessness, and an incessant fear that he is, in fact, that monster that he is fighting, the same monster that his father was. But I'm getting off track...). While in some ways, we know that Butcher isn't "right," that what he is doing is incredibly sketchy and far too similar to the worst of the Supes misdeeds... and while we do have Annie and M.M. both standing up to Hughie and Butcher to say, "yeah, this isn't the right way to do this, I'm not on board here, you're wrong and messed up to think this is all okay." But while the narrative tells us all of that, I think the vast majority of the audience feels that Annie and M.M. are right, but also that they're too naive. There is always a part of us, as viewers, that is going to be hoping Butcher will win, that he'll get to rip Homelander apart and put an end to this by killing all (or most) of the Supes. Right? It's not just me, right? I think we are still on Butcher's side, more or less. (Side note: I have no intention of reading the comics, but I have heard that Butcher is the final villain in the comics... but I don't believe that's where the show is going, not least of all because Karl Urban has succeeded in making Butcher sympathetic far too often for that to work).

So I can't decide if the show is just undercutting its entire point about the way power corrupts and we need oversight / accountability... or if it is intentionally playing with the idea that part of us wants to see the vigilante win and defy all of the rules, even while we know that it's wrong. Is the show that self-aware? I'm not sure. When I heard the premise of the show, it seemed obvious to me that this was a "Team Iron Man" philosophy that says no one should have unchecked power. But now... it seems to also be saying, "well, since the people/agencies that should be a check on power are all corrupt, the only way to stop those with unchecked power is to exercise that power ourselves." In essence... "the safest hands are still are own." And yeah, that's not it, my dudes. Whatever you think you're advocating for, this ain't the moral highground you're looking for. It's just leading us back to the simplistic glorification of the vigilante.

On another note...

I heard so many people call season 3 "a masterpiece" and I'm like... really? It's addictive, I'll give it that. And there are some pretty amazing moments of pathos where the actors manage to convey a lot with very little. It seems to be relying less on spectacle (with some exceptions) and giving the characters moments of quiet emotion. So there's a lot that's good here.

But there are way too many instances where they didn't even bother to write the gags and the supposedly "ironic" moments. They just straight-up ripped stuff out of the real life news. A-Train stars in Kendall Jenner's Pepsi commercial. The Deep tries to pull off the famous "Imagine video" from the early Covid days. The Hawk-whatever guy just parrots every apology we've ever heard from police departments whose officers have killed yet another unarmed black man. Gunpowder repeats straight-up NRA talking points. Homelander tells a female reporter "that's such a nasty question" when she asks a completely valid and innocuous question about what to tell people who feel scared of Covid... I mean, of Supe-terrorists. Like... you've run out of imagination and are now just taking Trump's dialogue from real press conferences and giving it to Homelander? At least last season there was a tiny veneer of distance between Stormfront and the "Stormchasers" and the real life Patriot Prayer/Proud Boys. But now... they're not even trying to make up these moments in the show or use a bit of creativity to reference real world events. We all saw the parallels (they were never terribly subtle) but those parallels worked better when they weren't just... copy-and-pasted from the hellscape that is reality. We've seriously lived this whole Trump-induced wasteland with his botched Covid response and deaming comments about women (and the "only I can save you" BS) and dumbass militias trying to drag us back to the past and racists giving shitty apologies and the celebrities trying to be relatable and failing because they only care about their brand. We don't need you to dramatize exactly the hellish bullshit what we've been living with for the past four years! It's just "change the names" copy-and-paste from real American life, which is occasionally funny, but is quickly becoming tiresome.

And in spite of all of those criticisms, I am still going to go right back to binge-watching the last two episodes today. Because it is addictive, even if the nihilism is definitely fucking with my head at the moment. Should there be a trigger warning for "do not watch this show when your depression is acting up"? Probably. But it's too late now, I'm already hooked, whether I want to be or not.

#the boys #the boys tv #the boys season 3 spoilers #khent's posts #khent rants #khent's tv hour #the boys critical #mcu critical #(yes it's subtle but it's there) #i just really needed to write this out to get my thoughts in order #so yeah... #this post is mostly for me #feel free to ignore if it's not your thing

[proxycrit]

(I point. Gently, in the voice of somebody who’s mind touched by the outer gods, i whisper truth in your ears:

Your honor the horses are now lesbians

(Anyways here’s the designs)

#mlp #based off my mlp redesigns (no i will not be taking criticism) #mlp redesign #fluttershy is now a giant jacked carnivorous shire horse with anxiety #rarity is a trans queen and she’s carrying the plot on her back #applejack’s been bequeethed the oldest child syndrome after the traumatic death of her parents and learned to do taxes at the tender age of #13?? how do horses age #and rainbow dash is both loved and reviled by her pegasi foundry because she has ‘too much gryphon in her’ #(but she FAST AS FUC BOI.) #anyways pinky’s my favorite. we don’t know whats up with pinky but she smiles a lot and the world distorts around her at exactly 1014 am. #twilight is celestia’s favored pupil prophet and is trying her best to figure out what the hell is up with pinkie and failing spectacularly #twilight also hatched a dragon from an inert stone and people have opinions about that #mostly ‘what are you feeding her’ #(holds rarity and applejack) i think they’re neat together #they bond over growing up too quickly and have a vi-caitlynn thing goin on #(squints) didnt draw the cute mark crusaders but they’d be like. the batmen of the town. and it was fun and games until twilight heard #and gave them ACTUAL weapons #rarity #applejack #rainbow dash #twilight sparkle #fluttershy #pinkie pie #spike the dragon #I FORGOT SPIKE #spike’s a stone dragon that hatched from a stone egg. he is not meant to exist. he’s an elderitch horror and a baby boy and we love #and cherish his adorable little face #art #critdraws #Rest your Weary Hooves in our New Found Home

[khruschevshoe]

You know, it's rather interesting to me that Taylor Swift's parasocial relationship with her fans is honestly more akin to a YouTuber than a writer's. When I scroll through her tag on tumblr/Twitter, it's far more regarding the connection to her personal life/relationship developments than the actual metaphors/fictional story she might be telling. Everything comes back to how her songs reflect back on her relationships with Joe/Matty/Travis/Jake/insert ex-boyfriend here. And what fascinates me about it is that even though she complains about it, she leans into that very perception because it strengthens the parasocial bond.

The marketing for TTPD so clearly being about Joe Alwyn and the songs to Matty Healy. The marketing/video for Red TV so CLEARLY being about Jake Gyllenhaal, with so many of the new lines in All Too Well specifically being digs at him (I'll get older but your lovers stay my age, casting an actor that looks like him for the video, specific lines in I Bet You Think About Me). The fact that songs like Getaway Car and Bejeweled and Gorgeous and London Boy and Lavender Haze being picked apart at time of release and long after for signs of relationships crumbling. The way she uses surprise songs in relation to her relationship development with Joe/Matty/Travis. The damn TTPD "stages of grief" playlists where she deliberately undid/changed the meanings of old songs just to keep her audience speculating on her love life.

It's not sexist to point out that her wielding her love life is a marketing tool and that the strongest connection to her audience isn't the strength of her writing/the composition of her music- it's her deliberate crafting of a connection between her music and her personal life, leaving the audience invested in her music as an extension of Taylor the Person/Girlfriend rather than Taylor the Artist.

#taylor swift #anti taylor swift #to an extent #i honestly just view this as an analysis of her marketing strategy #like hates off to her for being the best possible microcosm of parasocial capitalism #girlie really knew how to harness the teen girl market and good for her billionaire self #she knows how to exploit the very tabloid culture that once strangled her #how to become the tabloid itself #and wield that against ex-boyfriends too but you didn’t hear that from me #joe alwyn #matty healy #travis kelce #taylor swift critical #ttpd #red tv #i bet you think about me #getaway car #bejeweled #gorgeous #london boy #lavender haze

[sir-ballister-boldheart]

I am glad Nimona was acknowledged yet again but imagine putting Wish on the same pedestal as the fucking Spider-Verse movies and a Miyazaki movie

#nimona #critics choice awards #across the spiderverse #original post #nimona movie #nd stevenson #disney #wish #disney wish #lol #the boy and the heron #hayao miyazaki #ballister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin #ballister x ambrosius #goldenheart #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #queer #ambrosius x ballister #riz ahmed #eugene lee yang #chloe grace moretz #mlm

[skltart]

slooowly pulling down your floating ....friend... to kiss him better

#trying to get over an art block with the boys #dunno if it worked #art #my art #fanart #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #caleb x essek #shadowgast #critical role c2 #also! this is based on the same pose as the shadowgast panel in my lil caleb comic #i thought i could do better than that these days

[avalencias]

“i’m afraid i’m a bad person—imogen—“

“—you’re not a bad person”

i kiss her again

#critical role #cr spoilers #imogen temult #laudna #imodna #my things #hoooo boy guys #it’s sure been a weekend #happy monday I guess 🥴

[ionomycin]

My half of our Essek art trade with the amazing @zmeess ! I've been obsessed with this Aeor outfit they designed for him since forever...♡

#critical role #essek thelyss #everyone's favorite hot boi #go check out zem's art there are so many gorgeous pieces #their essek is the Most Essek of all time for me #i haven't watched any cr in ages now but i still love one elf #the brainrot won't leave me

[autisticrosewilson]

While we're on the topic of De-aging AU's I wanna talk about Jason and Damian if Jason was 14 again real quick.

Do you guys think that Damian looks at this version of Jason, so different from the version he knows, nothing like the person he was told Jason was, and feels uncomfortably seen?

Damian was always told that Jason died because he was reckless, because he disobeyed orders, he was fired as Robin and he got himself killed. A cautionary tale, not a threat to his position. He dismisses Jason because Bruce does, because Dick does, because sometimes even Babs and Alfred do.

That's not the kid that he's looking at now. This Jason is happy, and smart, and full of love that has not yet soured into grief. He hangs on Bruce's every word, trains until his hands bleed and his body gives out to perfect the moves Bruce teaches him. He looks at Bruce with stars in his eyes and he calls him dad.

And Damian can't help but think, that this is the perfect Robin. The perfect son. And if Jason - sweet, loving, strong, Jason - can be fired, can die and have his room locked away and his pictures torn down, can have his last memory as Robin be as A Good Soldier, how could the rest of them ever compete? What could Damian do to stand a chance?

Jason will never grow out of the shadow of Robin, like the rest of them did. As long as Bruce, and Dick, and Babs, and Alfred look at him and see a dead kid who came back wrong, he will never get to be anything else. He will not get to be looked at through who he is now without the shadow of a dead boy looming over him.

And the worst part? Jason is exactly the same person he was back then. Bitter, sure, angry, justifiably, but he is still the boy with too much love in his heart and righteous fury festering in his gut. He is exactly the same boy who threw himself in front of an explosion to save his mother.

(The lines between the mother that betrayed him and the father that disgraced him are so very blurred. Fire or blade or crowbars or fists it does not matter. It ends the same way it always does because Jason Todd always dies, in every universe, in every timeline, Jason dies and crawls out only to be killed again and again and again.)

#dc #jason todd #damian wayne #de aging #I personally am obsessed with the headcanon that they met in the league which lends it's own sense of tragedy #but this is a more canon take on it #Bruce Wayne critical #do you guys think he watched Jason fall back into old routines and is so unbelievably angry because none of it matters #do you think he listens to Jason talk about homework and his grades and his clubs and the colleges he wants to go to #and all he can think of is how unfair it is #that Jason never gets it. That everything about who he was got distorted and exaggerated and there was nothing left of this boy #that the love and blood and late nights never mean anything because this is a ghost walking the halls disproving all the legends #what is the prodigal son to do when he comes home but the locks have changed

[laf-outloud]

Amazon seems determined to make The Boys universe into a cultural phenomenon, but it's not working. I don't know anyone who talks about the show, and it doesn't have any water cooler moments.

Amazon as a whole doesn't have any shows that get everyone talking. They push new content all the time, but it still doesn't have the impact of say Netflix or Disney. Jeff Bezos can throw money at it all he likes, but it's going to take something special to hit the jackpot.

The Boys and Eric Kripke is not the basket I'd be putting all my eggs in.

They are niche shows on a platform that's more of an afterthought than a selling point. They'll be popular while airing, but dropped from minds once they're done.

Frankly, I think Amazon should get out of the streaming/show creation business and spend more energy focusing on their original purpose of being an online marketplace. (There are certainly enough issues there that need addressing.)

#ask box #amazon critical #the boys critical

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

The Boy and the Heron How Do You Live? (2023) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

#my real thoughts on the film are still Cooking but i felt compelled to make this. #also i might fuck around and retag my posts about it with the original title after all bc let's face it: it's just better #the boy and the heron #how do you live? #studio ghibli #hayao miyazaki #my edits #highly recommend david ehrlich's review. i don't always agree w/his critiques but he Gets miyazaki in a way that many other critics don't

[playerkingsley]

polymorph therapy isn't for everyone

#sometimes I queue my silly posts & sometimes I draw them immediately—there is no in between #anyway here's caleb 'shows every ounce of affection with tactile animal forms' widogast & essek '?!?!' thelyss #critical role #critical role fanart #cr fanart #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #shadowgast #dancy draws #the mighty nein #also this is unofficially a tribute to reaching an insane and also visually pleasing follower count. boy there are a lot of you

[heythere-mel]

The way the greys are just showin OUT. 🤍

#I feel like I won here 🥹 #the way everything ties in together #the glasses #the wavesss 😍 #the outfit #beautiful beautiful boy #pedro pascal #critics choice awards

[takethistoyourstardust]

every wound can be forgotten in the right light…

patrick stump tweet from 10/10/2015 || 6/30/2023 tourdust show || 3/1/2024 2ourdust show || 3/16/2024 2ourdust show || 3/26/2024 2ourdust show || 3/30/2024 2ourdust show || 4/2/2024 2ourdust show || patrick stump's in-ear monitors with the soul punk logo 3/30/2024 || spotlight (oh nostalgia) lyrics

#the Mage rambles #fall out boy #fob #patrick stump #soul punk #sp era #fababoi #I AM CAUSING CRITICAL DAMAGE TO MYSELF!!!!!!!