[jeyneofpoole]

and i’m still not going to call it the vampire lestat.

[trainbells]

I feel like I need to put a disclaimer whenever I post about hughtrain just to make it clear where I’m operating from...

I’m interested in the dynamic primarily because it highlights the power of restorative justice and putting faith into the concept of a hero even when they’ve let you down in the most unforgivable way possible (and it’s within a show that aims to destruct the notion of Superheroes in the first place)— not because I just like the idea of two men getting together and ignoring the 3 women in their lives and the harm they’ve both implicated to them all (and each other) in different ways.

I actually feel like their relationships w/ Popclaw/Robin/Annie respectively gives their dynamic more weight. The damage always needs to be acknowledged but I feel like narratively their connection asks interesting questions in relation to accountability & redemption — Hughie might’ve forgiven A-Train but if Reggie never forgave himself, what would their relationship look like had he survived into the finale?

There’s also the point (that seems to get brushed over) that despite Hughie being the protagonist & arguably the moral center of the show...he’s still killed plenty of people with little to no remorse on how that could affect their families. Maverick was likely one of the only ones that stuck with him because it was a clear parallel to his headspace in S1 wrt Reggie. He’s sitting within the moral grayness that nearly the entire cast is in and doesn’t have much over Reggie outside of Robin(ie for a selfish reason similar to why Reggie started understanding once his brother was put in harms way).

It is the fact that both of them have saved each other (and A-Train opting to continue saving/helping Hughie after the CPR attempt) in spite of how they met due to the subtext around Hughie’s image of Reggie pre-pilot ep that intrigues me the most about their whole situation — which still feels uncategorizable despite one of them being dead. That’s fascinating!

[trainbells]

big fan of hughtrain turning into The Pale after the finale. how do you even describe that dynamic now without dragging out a whiteboard

[raylangivins]

yasharper // ribs

you're the only friend i need

[obrashir]

first and last time. my god.

[trainbells]

Having to contend with Hughie’s behavior S1-3 being totally recontextualized by his apology to Translucent’s son. It working both as a flimsy apology to Maverick (since his dad was a bad person anyways) and also as a late confession to Reggie. Maverick’s invisibility heightened Hughie projecting how he felt about Reggie because the only thing he could see are his memories. His voice quivering does add to the believability that he is sorry about Translucent, but it ultimately would never serve Maverick because he has the power to avenge his father in a way Hughie never could for Robin.

Hughie’s insecurity around his lack of power having to do less w/ how he feels about Annie being stronger than him, and more about how he felt inadequate to avenge Robin. This doesn’t mean he wasn’t giving off incel-adjacent views. But now it feels like yet another type of projection where his anger towards Reggie manifested in how he interacted w/ Victoria and Annie. It makes sense that a lot of his headspace in those seasons was trying to reconcile his decision to allow Reggie to live — with a total inability to emotionally process it in conjunction with the grief of Robin not being properly addressed.

Now in S5 it feels clear that to a degree — A-Train has always been taking up space in Hughie’s mind & vice-versa. S3 E6 was an inflection point of both of them careening in the direction that the other originally aligned themselves w/ at the start of the show. Reggie becoming more selfless and introspective wrt how he harmed Hughie/H becoming more selfish in fulfilling his personal desires to inflict a similar amount of pain physically onto R.

I don’t know if they’ll fully go there and give Hughie the context surrounding A-Train’s death, but this is one of those relationships that makes me sad that the writers didn’t feel like fleshing out their dynamic more face-to-face. It does make sense that both of them would be too emotional and guarded to really have an honest conversation but I would’ve liked to see it! Overall though this continues to be one of the most compelling dynamics of the show. Of course the two people with the most complicated relationship on a meta/subtextual level is dusted before we get to see them interact in their most evolved forms

[obrashir]

ok so here's how we can make hughtrainannie canon in the last season

[obrashir]

gang stop reminding me of this i will deadass kill myself

[trainbells]

the way i came around on a-train’s arc like this is kind of an everything burger... i’ll give kripke his 7’s i can’t even say he was written poorly — if anything i think that trio (hughie/annie/reggie) should’ve been explored more before he left but nothing felt out of character after the initial grief subsided

[trainbells]

The way they handled A-Train is how I know this season about to be chopped if Marie doesn’t rebalance the scales. That finale has to be everything

[obrashir]

ok boyfriend activities. in my head this is hughie and a-train while spending a romantic holiday in rome <3

[trainbells]

idk if i’ll watch the boys s5 until it’s fully done with these recent interviews tbh

[trainbells]

I understand why people think A-Train is gonna die every season but if he was going to die it would’ve been either in S3 or S4 with Hughie accidentally killing him in a way that honors the comics while not being too OoC for both characters.

Which isn’t to say he won’t die in S5 but I’ve honestly leaned more into the idea that he ends up being one of the last ones standing while also saving Hughie from certain death (again) but with a clear cost (ie another member of The Boys dying instead or being fully depowered before the final battle).

But currently my bets are that Hughie/Annie/Reggie are still alive as they represent a new path forward of imaging Superheroes and Humans co-existing after the destruction of an authoritarian regime

[trainbells]

After watching s4 of Industry the Hughtrain worms woke my system up like a sleeper agent. They’re kind of like yasharper if Yasmin didn’t go off the deep-end and redemption is on the table — I think with Reggie and Annie being closer and on good terms a clear barrier is gone, the new tension is how Hughie navigates being on the same side with his former antagonist. Does he continue to give Reggie the cold shoulder or does he finally break down?

Robin’s death as a narrative device hasn’t fully been resolved in a way that settles their relationship because of the diversion from the comics. Hughie likely won’t kill A-Train for personal catharsis given how OoC it’d be based on their relationship in S4, so I’n personally hedging bets on then having a devastating conversation that’s like the opposite of Destiel before Cas got sent to superhell.

They whiplashed Hughie through a gauntlet of various new traumas in S4 but Robin is a character who I still don’t believe Hughie’s fully processed. I don’t trust Eric Kripke to really do any potentially gay pairings justice but for sone reason this is the one ship on The Boys that’s been under discussed.

Hughtrain works for so many reasons but the one I’ll talk about now is that both characters are defined by their performance of masculinity—whether through literal power or how they’re sexualized. It’s not a coincidence that Hughie, a character who has faced sexual assault and had his body constantly on display, is the one navigating the latter expression of being a “man” despite having little to no actual strength; there’s a thread here about bodily autonomy and power that makes their tension much more compelling than a standard hero/villain arc esp when we consider Reggie having body issues and being treated as Homelander’s (and by extension Vought) personal pawn & solider.

In comparison to something like B*tchlander, Hughtrain’s ending feels nore positive than total destruction/annihilation. I think the latter ship works better and is more textually interesting because the complications and holdouts for a friendship (or something more) only increase/decrease as both have less animosity towards each other. It’s clear that both are using each other for personal reasons (Hughie needs A-Train for tactical information/favors while A-Train has to validate himself through performing what a “hero” would actually do for a fan). But as they begin to change through this mutual exchange...is it genuine? We have to consider that The Boys (specifically Annie/Hughie/MM) would likely be Reggie’s first real friends outside of his family. I’ve rambled too long and it probably doesn’t make much sense but if you are a Hughtrain ticket holder. STAY. IN. LINE!

[trainbells]

I feel a little bad I haven’t talked about The Boys recently but this season of Industry has been so captivating and interesting on all aspects to me

[trainbells]

lowkey thinking about industry and pluribus bc i kinda tuckered out with hughtrain LOL

[trainbells]

hughtrain edit to ethel cain is in the works…

[trainbells]

The Boys Rambling

Honestly, I’ve started feeling like Starbell shouldn’t be as rock-solid as the show depicts after Season 4. Hughie’s emotional arc was basically flattened after Season 3 — the only times we see him vulnerable are in moments of crisis — and on rewatch, I’m not sure the show has meaningfully acknowledged Annie’s trauma either. A single tough-love speech from Maeve and beating up The Deep (without killing him) three seasons later doesn’t feel like real processing or closure. Both Annie and Hughie come off emotionally hardened in a way that feels more like they’re drifting toward Butcher’s worldview, yet Season 4 frames them as the righteous good guys pushing back against fascism by applying a human touch.

On paper, two characters who’ve both experienced sexual assault should have deep empathy for one another if theyre in a romantic partnership. Had they been written better, I think the eventual marriage would hit harder. But during the Shifter storyline, their reactions towards each other felt weirdly limited and unbalanced. I honestly don’t think S1–S2 Annie would have treated Hughie that way, given her own history. It’s why I’m nervous for Season 5 — The Boys (minus Butcher, and now plus A-Train) should logically recognize that sometimes controlled violence is necessary, especially with the massive power imbalance between humans and supes. You’d expect them to offer each other more grace when wrestling with impossible choices.

To reiterate — Annie had an abortion and her mother shamed her for it, she has consistent bouts of depression and anxiety due to her new status as a symbol for resistance, she was sexually coerced hours after joining The Seven, Homelander, had childhood friends killed in front of her as a form of punishment , abducted and impersonated with her memories being wielded against her, forced to kill her captor after injuring herself to free captivity…and ultimately ends with a throwaway sex joke.

The Tek Knight plot and honestly even the short scene in S2 where Hughie is in a fugue state in a whale’s carcass show a similar pattern — trauma is only validated when someone else comments on it, not when the survivor processes it.

Neither Hughie nor Annie fully shows up for the other after their worst experiences. Hughie could’ve been catastrophically damaged if he’d known about the Shifter sooner. Annie had a life milestone stolen from her and barely gets comfort. Hughie had to limp on a broken ankle at night with his Dad being all but dead to forgive A-Train, who also didn’t acknowledge the gravity of that or his injury (but their history is so emotionally charged/heartbreaking I can’t imagine Kripke writing him touching on it anyways). It feels like the show only doles out emotional support when trauma is stacked to a breaking point. Only Ashley even acknowledge what happened to A-Train’s brother and that’s only because she was the head of Vought. Hughie only fully understands the reality of what A-Train meant in his apology in S3 after witnessing Nathan & Reggie in the park.

Do you know how wild it is to have a character be so emotionally isolated and pent up that him being vulnerable and honest with a person he wronged in the past alluding to his brother being hate-crimed.. and is met with a punch in the face and backhanded advice before literally dying at the end of the episode. Like I understand the list of Reggie’s mistakes but he really does have to live at the end of this for his character to be handled well. Like

I think what’s really getting me(and my main point aside from my thoughts on Starbell) is that while The Boys are filled with people from different backgrounds/moral stances/attitudes/etc. they SHOULD be more compassionate and graceful towards each other, but it feels like instead it’s all fractured and inconsistent depending on who’s being written and the context around them. the concept of butcher never having a scene with Reggie despite them both having complicated relationships with their brothers that cloud them with guilt and hughie being the bridge for both of them in terms of personal redemption. he should’ve had a scene with vicky too!!