Flawed Fairytales

Fairy tales, folklore, myths and morally grey/ evil characters from fiction. Also links to my own ficton and thoughts. 

[lexishoney]

i haven't complained about it before but goddamn i was supposed to have some ashley x a train content this season not a train dying in the first ep and ashley being married to some random guy that looks like a knock off metroman

[vanillyayay]

hello i am 12 years late to the hughtrain party but whatever go my chuds

[azzzryel]

Just A-Train and his supportive malewife

[king-lena]

reggie franklin, the boys // there are no strings on me, pinocchio

[king-lena]

a train smiling, laughing even, in the face of death bc he knows that he did the right thing and that he will be able to leave this world having done some good. he is no longer a pawn in homelander or vaught’s game and he sees homelander for the pathetic insecure bully that he really is and calls him on it. and in that moment he is truly free. he has claimed back his autonomy from vaught. there are no strings on him. reggie franklin, you will always be famous!!

[inthemoodforblastt]

Honestly, at this point in the story, Frenchy’s whole arc made me sad more for Kimiko than for him, because by then I was already kind of indifferent to him. I also felt it was pretty obvious he was probably going to die, so I always had that in the back of my mind. He’s never really been one of my favorite characters either, because he’s always felt kind of weak and pathetic to me. And he’s French, which already doesn’t help.

But one of the very few things from the season that I genuinely loved was that moment when he looks at Homelander and tell him that he probably never have a dance in his life. Because that scene really echoes to me what A-Train says to Homelander before dying too. The deaths are obviously very different but he tells him he’s just a whiny little brat and in the end there was never anything truly worth fearing. He’s just miserable.

And what makes A-Train’s death hit is that by that point he’s already made peace with his family. He finally became the hero he always wanted to be for them. He reconnected with the version of himself he had lost. His older brother —the person he looks up to most— is proud of him again. He knows his mother would’ve been proud of him. He knows his nephew will grow up proud of who his uncle was and how he died. And because of that, he’s no longer afraid. That’s the crucial thing: A-Train understands what actually matters in life, and he also understands Homelander well enough to know that he has none of it. He’s completely alone. Everyone around him fears him. Nobody truly loves him. And that’s pathetic.

And Frenchy’s moment is basically the same idea. He looks at Homelander and says, in essence: “You can think you’re a god. You can kill me. You can kill all of us. But you’ve never actually lived.” You’ve never danced. You’ve never had fun. You’ve never let yourself be human. You’re just a bitter, miserable man who spent his whole life crying in a corner because nobody loves him while simultaneously doing everything possible to make people hate him even more. And that’s what I find so tragic and weirdly poetic about villains like Homelander.

He is desperate to be loved. Desperate for admiration, validation, worship, approval. At his core he’s basically just a terrified child craving affection because nobody ever genuinely loved him and he’s always felt alone. But he’s also so narcissistic, so egocentric, and so emotionally stunted that every single thing he does in pursuit of love comes from a completely selfish place. He doesn’t actually understand human connection. So everything he does to force people to adore him only pushes them further away.

The irony is that Homelander is ultimately responsible for his own isolation. He created it himself. Every decision he’s made has driven people away from him. Absolutely everyone. Even his biological father basically sees him as a freak he wants nothing to do with. Like, “Sure, I’ll acknowledge you because technically you came from my DNA, but leave me alone. You’re weird and I don’t want you near me.”

And then you have people like A-Train laughing in his face, or Frenchy calmly telling him okay maybe I die. But at least I lived. And you never have. That’s what makes those scenes so powerful to me. It’s not really about defeating Homelander physically. It’s about forcing him to confront the fact that despite all his power, despite being practically a god, he fundamentally does not know how to live as a person.

That’s why villains like him are so compelling. The harder they try to control everything and force people to love them, the more isolated they become. The tragedy is entirely self-inflicted. Homelander is alone because, piece by piece, he made himself impossible to love. And that’s his biggest tragedy.

[midexpress]

taking back everything i said about the baby name because now I’m imagining the AU where Reggie survives, and continues the friendship he had established with Annie, and the peace he found with Hughie, and finds out they’re naming the baby Robin. And he has to congratulate them. And he has to look the baby in the eyes. And they have to tell her one day that she’s named after a woman that her dad loved, and that Mommy’s friend, Mr. Reggie, killed and we forgave him. And so should you.

[markhenzel]

You do know Soldier Boy isn't a loyal type guy right? He literally flirt with Mallory infront of Payback team in flashback. It's not a retcon. He romanticizes the idea of Crimson Countess because just like Homelander, he's pathetic when he's helpless. He thought Payback and Vought gonna saved him from the Russian after all the things he did to them. He's clearly delusional. This is why people said "We are The Boys Fans. We don't watch our own show." Because of this. Think for a moment before speak.

Heck literally, LITERALLY all the things came out from his mouth are how many women he been tap over the years. Even the Legend confirmed it. And I think the same delusional Soldier Boy has on Stormfront. You could even see how Soldier Boy in certain scenes realized Stormfront is a weirdo but that delusion is the reason why he gave v1 to Homelander.

[aceblvrd]

ashley you will always be famous. i just finished season 4 of the boys and her and a-train are my favorite characters now i fear. i used to hate them both in the beginning so bad but theyve really grown on me. im gonna start s5 soon AND SHE BETTER LIVE OR ELSE. DO NOT SPOIL ME OR I WILL BLOW YOU UP THANK YOU ❤️

[wannabewriterlol]

I don’t get how Homelander represents if a normal person got powers when he was literally raised in a lab and engineered to have the issues he had. He has none of the experiences of contact most people grow up with be it neighbors or classmates.

[mrmillipede]

im awesome, take caution!!!

[midexpress]

[nortosqq]

3..2..1..we want Hometrain / Homerun

[midexpress]

[the-ice-queen-623]

I thibk what irked me so much about the finale season was that they didnt talk about social politics in any meaningful way.

Like each season before that tackled what being in the spotlight/entertainment industry/kind od polical power does to minorties.

Season 1. Annie sees straight from the get go how corrupt the seven is after The Deep rapes her. How no one will do anything for her. And how they want to sexualize her and turn her into a republican puppet

And Hughie in that season gets to see his heroes the people he looked up to in their real lights. A train killed Robin. And even some heroes he didnt evne like like Pastor dude were lying this whole time.

Season 2. Theres a lot in this season but first the Girls get it done. Like they were working in overdrive to try and make vought look woke when they werent.

Stormfornt and her anti immigrant and racist views how she raised a cult following and how she looked up to Homelander as the perfect human

Also Kimiko and the anti immigrant policy where she did work for a terroist organization but she was a victum of it. She never did anything on her own free will.

Then theres so much to tlak about with Maeve. First of all she was outed on national tv by Homelander and everyone just acts like its fine. Then the company has to take a harsh swing to make it look queer friendly. And when they invitef Elaina to the set they were trying to force her into being more masculine because a more “straight” presenting queer couple is easier for auidences to diguest.

And then the show contiues to show proud maeve logos everywhere like vought (or the writers) want to prove they have a queer character on the show. When Maeve leaves the show in season three and is presumed dead. And in the canon of th boys theres only two more queer ships and one of them is a spin off that broke up and the other one broke up for a hetero ship instead.

ALSO Stormfront was letting her nazi show when Annie was trying to befriend her but Stormfront only wanted to belitle her and victum blame her.

Season 3. Some of the same issues are seen in this season as the last but I’ll talk about the hits.

This starts the A train redemption arc where he starts trying to be a better person for his brother and also to stay in the seven. (Mainly the latter). So he tries to connect to his culture without actually heing a hero to it. But it also talks a lot about how heroes are glorified cops and they hurt black communties in the same way cops do in real life.

That cop allegory is also shown with MM but adding a bit of mental illness. Which I think is so important because men esspiclaly men of color arent supposed to have mental health issues (accoridng to society) and MM struggling with his trauma in this season was just delious.

Theres also some commentary on homelander but I dont think its as important

Season 4.

More race issues dealing wirh A train and how the movie training a train is so racist and trrriblez

Theres also more race stuff with Sage, where she sees how she will never be taken seriously as long as the world is racist and misogynistic. So she aligns herslef witg honelander so that she can actually be heard.

Then theres the abortion stuff where Annie is on blast becaude of her own decision and she has to face her mother and the world because of a PRIVATE medical decision.

Season 5.

First of all they killed A train so no more race arcs. And the mental health stuff with MM is magically cured BY DRUGS.

And the show is so nonchalant about cuasing a genocide. Like the only reason we’re suplosed to not like it is because it woule kill Kimiko and Annie. NOT because thousands of innocent sups would die. And sure in the end Hughie stopped Butcher BUT only because it woule still hurt Annie and Kimiko.

The only part of the show I enjoyed were rhe commentsr on a polical figure trying to appear as god. Like oneshot was a bad ep but the firecracker narrative in it was good.

But then they dishandled it with Honelander just trying to kill everyone it they didnt believe him. Idk it didnt feel realistic (i know its a superhero show) and I think it wa sbadly done.

Idk how I would write it better but I wouldnt have done thatz

Anyways thats just my thoughs on why swason 5 is bad compared to the otyers

[fasterthansound]

Can't stop the A train.

[savethisnewwriter]

The Boys S4

Just the fact that A-Train went into Homelander's rooms for V and came back with life time trauma (graying white pubes and milkie bottles) 😂