A (Not Quite) Perfect Finale | The Boys S3 Final Confrontation - Video Essay 

Indeed. The Boys does a great job reflecting so many human flaws and failings in these insanely over-the-top characters

I think he did it simply because Black Noir kept his past with Soldier Boy a secret from him.

@@idreadFell365 that’s pretty much what the oh comment said…

i’ve never thought about it that way but you are so right! especially since Black Noir was INCREDIBLY loyal to Homelander. Everyone else was always scheming or working against him in one way or another, Black Noir’s only failure was lying about his dad, which we could argue he only really did to try and protect Homelander.

It was more for the betrayal of Noir keeping that from him.

Agreed, I did enjoy their use of it for Ashley. Not only shows her character growth, but shows us the beginnings of Edgar's predictions for Homelander coming true.

Exactly!! It was such a small yet solidly stoically epically beautiful- and she did in front of Other Ashley too lol, so it was like a literal promise to herself to be a better person- there's even a witness to prove it!! And hold her too it gigglesnort...but poor Ashley, talk about being caught between a (golden) rock and a (helpless) hard place, it must be terrible to go into work everyday with that much stress, that much physical threat and emotional/psychological fear at being powerless amongst the powerful, knowing that she was choosing to, knowing she had no real choice...at least Madeline had her ambition as a reason and a shield, whereas Ashley had to grow into her powerbitch role- she still had enough humanity left within her that seeing her "turn evil" actually hurt to watch, at least that's how it was for me, it was like she was debasing herself, and for what?! S&M sex with a lobbyist/politician guy and a used strapon dildo??! Cos you know Ashley would be the type to have been into 50Shades- all 3 movies AND the book!! She be taking bloody notes...Lol yes, it was all just brilliantly brilliantly done- now THAT'S how they should have approached Khaleesi's character turn in Game of Thrones!! lol lol awww I've made myself sad😂😂😭💔

Agreed. I loved that Ashley deleted the video almost a quickly as she saw it. She knew Maeve would never have been safe and she protected her.

Yeah, narratively, I don't so much mind her getting de-powered as a "little death" instead of actually dying. It's just that, while I don't generally don't mind plot holes, this was just disproportionate to the logical and physical setup, to me. Also, I think I read that the showrunners hope to bring Maeve back some day so fingers crossed it's either, A) Your cameo idea, or B) A very thoughtful return that we haven't dreamed up.

@@StoryArk Kimiko getting her powers back in this season really opens a whole pandora's box of ethical questions. Obviously the boys themselves shouldnt want to have powers of their own (that's the point of the Temp V arc) but Kimiko, Maeve, and Annie were exempt from this because they already had powers and it wasn't in their control. Now Kimiko wants hers back, and I suppose it's okay because she had them before, but where's the line then? How are we as an audience supposed to feel about super heroes morally if compound v is held to a double standard that the show doesn't acknowledge. It feels like if anything, Butcher should WANT permanent V now, because we know that's an option that works and maybe it would stave off his degenerative brain disease. Besides, if he's only got months left, why not go all out? The show's answer is "it makes us no better than them" and "how would we know to draw the line?" but then why is Kimiko so exempt from those moral standards?

@@alexhirsch5738 Butcher was willing to do anything to fight he didn't care about the V it was the others.

@@alexhirsch5738 well, kimiko said it - she thought V was evil but learned it is just a tool. Also, what do you mean double standard? Compund V is bad for sociaty, yes, but it is complicated on an individual level because you can basically only kill a supe WITH a supe. Also, The Boys ARENT the good guys at any point in the show so their standards (aka hatred of supes) arent "ethical", they dont set the ethics in the show, they are anti-heroes and Butcher is a second villain (if they follow any of his "arch" in the comics) or simply a guy who is a little better than Supes but a bad guy overall. (maybe he'll get a redeem story but he is basically a bad guy ocasionally trying to be good). There is no confusion morally - they are all bad, the boys are a necessary evil not the good guys. And compund V isnt good or evil, it is a chemical that is too powerful to exist but can make good Supes or bad Supes. At the end of the show, I'm not sure how they'll excuse Supes not being genocided (as they pose a risk by existing) but at this time in the show it makes sense for Kimiko and Hughie and more to have perm V, Butcher probably wont because he simply hates Supes and wants to kill them all no matter good or evil (yes, Kimiko, Annie and Maeve too if she gets powers back). But Kimiko has different motivations, Hughie too (if he takes it in the future). ANd it isnt show's answer "it makes us no better if we take V" it is all BUTCHER. Kimiko straight up said "it isnt good or bad, it depends on the person", Hughie straight up WANTS V for the same reason (and excuses it similarly) but he has no access (Annie would have to give him V and she wont) so he took temp V that he HAD ACCESS TO, Butcher hates anything to do with supes so of course he says all supes are evil and the boys "would be just as bad" with V. But the show doesnt say it at all, especially if we add Gen V into equasion (which is a part of The Boys canon)

Agreed, the idea that it was ever going to come down to a father-son fist fight was always a pretty weak theory. It'd definitely going to be ideological, whether it's Ryan maintaining and extending his goodness to Homelander, or some other combination of characters. I'm hesitant to think the writers will ever have Homelander change so much that he could be called reformed, but I do think the changes he undergoes - and the ones he rejects - will help lead to his downfall.

The greatest scene

Yep, would have been nice to feel the weight of it more.

If you watch any shonen anime, this was a glaring admission. We watch Superman and Wonder Women fight from different sides, and the building remained in tact. Naw

Agreed! Perfect casting choice

I don't really get this complaint, sure no-one died but the character's are definitely in a different place by the end of the season compared to the start, at the start. Butcher pushed away Ryan and is now living on borrowed time, Homelander now has full control of Vought had begun to corrupt Ryan and formed a devoted fanbase that have made it so he now doesn't need to worry about PR, Starlight now isn't part of the seven and with Maeve also gone now the boys have no inside person in Vought, pretty universally the situation has gotten much worse for the boys compared to the start of the season

@@rennythespaceguy7285 Yeah but at the end of the day Butcher has all the more incentive to kill Homelander with his diagnosis and with starlight on the boys then they are a bigger threat than before I'd say at the moment she is the second strongest of the characters in the seven who are left. And it will be interesting to see what they do w A train but even w him Frenchie has all sorts of shit that he's been working on for years to try and take these guys out it's not too hard to stop alot of the supes that are in the seven besides Homelander so he and Neuman are the biggest threats and Starlight has basically neumans weakness. So it's really about taking out Homelander which I hope happens. I have heard rumors of Noir returning tho so it'll be interesting what they do w him. I liked what you said though def made me think a bit about the finale in a different way.

Agreed, on all points. Personally, I don't mind so much that Maeve didn't die - she has a good arc and sendoff - it just bothered me the way they went about that fake out. The Boys are absolutely worse off than they were at the start of the season, while the antagonists have gained incredible ground.

Very curious to see what happens with the Noir rumors, too. Feels like either a bait and switch with a "new" Noir, or a cyborg situation. Personally, cyborg Noir feels a little more interesting to me. Talk about a sympathetic antagonist if that happens. (Heck, antagonist almost feels too strong a word for Noir at this point.)

@@StoryArk Somewhat yes but I mean Starlight left the seven and if you match up the supes you have Starlight, Kimiko vs Neuman, A train and Homelander and Neuman cannot get into battle as the VP I don't think we will even see her fight as that wouldn't fly anywhere at all lol. Idk maybe I'm wrong. It will be hard either way though you are right. There is also the fact that The Boys have the videos of Neumans head popping and the flight 37 video. That is valuable when she is the VP. Not to mention Ashley has now acted against Homelander in the interest of the greater good so if she could be manipulated it would be huge. All in all though man awesome video and great points sorry if I went on too long🤦‍♂️.

I get where you're coming from with Butcher's back and forth, it's not perfectly executed, but I personally like watching him struggle with his own morality. I'm also curious to see where they take A-Train after his literal change of heart. It could easily be botched, but it's got the potential to be an interesting case study on how much of his "redemption" was real or not. I'm also pretty confident the Black Noir we knew is not coming back. I think the moniker will return, but it's going to be someone else under the mask. Narratively, they don't have much choice - Homelander can literally see if the guy he killed is walking around again. And I agree, it also would have made more sense for Maeve to die. That one's going to bug me for a while. Starlight taking Soldier Boy out would have been interesting, but I think it would have had a lot of us scratching our heads, personally. They spent a lot of time talking about how near-impossible it is to put him or Homelander down, so for her to do it just because she's empowered by some set lights might have felt odd. Though, I bet Erian Moriarty's reaction as Starlight to kicking Soldier Boy's butt would have been amazing. And hey, thanks for watching the video!

his switching values makes it difficult to keep immersed. him being a jerk resonates with me more and is more believable. sometimes i think writers force values just to make it ''deep and interesting'' ''wounded men'' is the shows theme. its forced for me, so i dont believe it. him protecting the kid, who just turned dark side, did no one a favor except homelander. usually he wants to kill supes but he protects 2 bad ones. perhaps he is becoming what he hates the most. right about a train im sure black noir will be back. i actually felt kinda bad for him. but arent voughts supes all pretty corrupt? like SBs old team. they try to make you feel bad for them but they were really just corrupted vaughts soldiers. right about maeve but they couldnt bury a gay. if noir can come back, maeve will somehow get her powers back too that scene with starlight was terrible. i strangely feel like SB should not have tried to kill her because he saw she couldnt hurt him at all. i feel like his ''current'' character would give less f*cks. that he'd just walk away. like when MM tried to challenge him. he didnt give a crap and he knew he could beat mm easily. but they just have make drama for the finale. now they need another weapon against homelander for season 4. i cant take it seriously. they already had one.

@@GotoMaki4Micah I mean black noir didn't really do anything wrong- he was brutal but that was only on the battlefield, since he doesn't have many powers. I agree with the maeve thing, representation is hard but yeah 100% Billy's pissing me off more and more

It was mentioned in the show that every supe that soldier boy had blasted up untill that point either died or lost their powers so it wasn’t super out of left field

agree, the blast should have killed Maeve considering SB was literally burning because of how hot it was inside of him

I mean he was getting beat on by pretty much everyone in the room so i think it kinda makes sense why he couldnt get the time to fully charge up his blast. It's also possible he wanted to charge it up more than he ever has before since homelander is the strongest supe. But yeah maeve definitely should have died there. Im sure they'll bring soldier boy back too at some point or another fingers crossed

​@@oldenough5424 Soldier Boy is the strongest supe. Homelander wasn't killed in their first encounter because Soldier Boy had just gone nuclear in herogasm house. It is no coincidence Homelander suffered his first bruise only after being around Soldier Boy. And in Vought tower, Homelander's powers had degraded further due to exposure to Soldier Boy. How else do we explain that Queen Maeve was able to rupture his eardrum with a mere metal rod and bloody his nose when before the return of Soldier Boy, Homelander had survived, unscathed, everything that had been thrown at him?

@@cylon5741 Soldier boy is NOT the strongest supe. The whole reason vought got rid of him was because homelander was going to he more powerful. But obviously they're still around the same power level, as butcher said he was ALMOST as strong as homelander in episode 1, and because soldier boy can still bruise him in a fight. But the main reason soldier boy can put up a fight with homelander id say is because he's actually undergone combat training. And guess what? So has Maeve. They literally set it up in the beginning of the season and thats why she was able to fight him like soldier boy did. As for the metal rod bit, i think the fact that she jammed it in using her super strength can believably disorient him for a little while. It didnt even injure him permanently. There's nothing to suggest that homelander's power level dropped due to "exposure" to soldier boy. Soldier boy being able to make supes weaker just by being around them would be pretty useful power that would have been pointed out, just like the fact that homelander is now weaker would be a bit of a big deal, but that isnt the case. So yeah, i still think that the fact that everyone was ganging up on soldier boy is a good enough reason for why he couldnt just charge up his explosion normally.

​@@oldenough5424 Homelander only was bruised on the first exposure to Soldier Boy. By the second encounter, Maeve was able to bloody Homelander's nose. Nothing which had ever been thrown at him before Soldier Boy had in any way harmed Homelander. This includes bullets, tons of concrete smashed into him, bombs, and the vacuum of space. It was even theorized a nuclear bomb would not harm Homelander. We see Maeve's punches are not as powerful as a bomb. Vought lies all the time. Soldier Boy was a "tired" property so it was out with the old, in with the new and flying. Vought lied about Homelander being stronger than Soldier Boy. Stan Edgar will delight in revealing the truth to Homelander in Season 4. Edgar will also hold out the threat of releasing Soldier Boy if Homelander gets out of line--even though Edgar may not have control of the SB property at this point. Ryan had a child's intuition--similar to a woman's intuition--to get Homelander out of Vought tower so Soldier Boy would not kill him. Why was Homelander not able to free himself from Soldier Boy's grip in Vought tower? Why was Homelander bleeding when a year earlier a nuclear bomb blast would not have harmed him in any way? The obvious and only logical conclusion is that Homelander has been degraded by being in proximity to Soldier Boy's radiation--remember Huey using the geiger counter on SB?--no blast necessary. Wait and see, wait and see, yes siree!

"Hard" and "raise" - do I sense some puns here, lol?

@@StoryArk 😏

Right?! Pretty sure the showrunners have said they're bringing back "A" Black Noir, it just may not be the one we had before.

It was such a shock when he died!! Especially with the build up with his animation friends over the last few episodes- lol I was literally speechless and then just started bawling😭😭🤣😭

@@twiceshy9773it was so sad. When the beaver appeared and all of his friends started crying I legitimately teared up

Thanks so much! I've got more videos planned to record soon, and a couple new short films on the horizon. Appreciate you watching and commenting!

Yeah, definitely possible. I think, given the setup and the comic inspiration, it would be reasonable to kill her off without just being chalked up to the “kill your gays” trope. But I can also see them avoiding that perception this way as a precaution.

Maeve should've died because it just weakens soldier boy (although what he did at herogasm was far worse than what he did in the finale)

Amen.

Yup. I really don’t understand the misguided adoration for Soldier Boy. Loving the character/narrative and actor, sure, but admiring and defending his actions? Nah.

@@StoryArk I really like the character. I don't think he is as big of a villain as some make him out to be either. I'd take Soldier Boy over Homelander any day

@@bowhunter8532he’s not a villain in the same way Homelander is. SB obviously has a mean streak but it seems to come from him being socially unaware/lacking self awareness and being somewhat desensitized to violence. Homelander is a sadist