r/TheBoys • u/MrSluagh • Jul 22 '24

Butcher was right. Season 4

Hughie had it backwards. It's the desensitization that made him sympathize with Victoria Neumann. Someone who has murder victims at least in the double digits, very conservatively counting only on-screen killings. And most of those were cold-blooded and for Machiavellian reasons. She had an understandable point of view, and deserves more sympathy than Homelander, who deserves more than none. Sure, she was manipulated, but there was no sign she wouldn't kill more innocent people given a reason. There isn't room in the world for a bulletproof blood-Magneto, unless maybe she's been conditioned from childhood to abhor all violence and devoted her life to medicine. If you had a good opportunity to kill Victoria Neumann, that would be the ethical thing to do.

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u/I_might_be_weasel Jul 22 '24

I think they covered that pretty well already with Hughie forgiving A-Train. 

And I believe Sun Tzu said something pretty applicable here, something along the lines of if you want your enemy to retreat, build them a golden bridge. As in, if Neuman/ A-Train wants to stop fighting you, let them stop fighting you. 

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u/RanRanBobanis Jul 23 '24

The problem with that is she might change her mind if a better opportunity comes along. Butcher's way ensures she's not going be fighting or popping anyone's heads ever again, and that's just swell.

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u/I_might_be_weasel Jul 23 '24

If that's the case he should have killed Zoe too. And locked up Ryan. And killed Homelander with Soldier Boy when he had the chance.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

He shouldn’t have locked up Ryan because homelander would’ve killed a million people to get him back. Zoe maybe and he definitely should’ve killed homelander with soldier boy

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u/I_might_be_weasel Jul 23 '24

Sounds like he's got to kill Ryan too.

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u/Timely-Use2919 Jul 23 '24

I think he just wants to kill homelander to prevent Ryan from having too much

1

u/YeylorSwift Jul 23 '24

looks to me like he knows that

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u/hillswalker87 Jul 23 '24

if Zoe knows what her mom has done she might not be so apt to follow in her footsteps.

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u/Athuanar Jul 23 '24

Not so sure on that one. The ease with which Zoe killed those CIA agents in the first ep of S4 made clear that she had been trained to do so and had enough experience with killing to be desensitized to it. That girl has killed a lot of people herself.

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u/RanRanBobanis Jul 23 '24

Yes, mistakes were made.

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u/lensandscope Jul 23 '24

Butcher wasn’t resolute with his decision until Ryan killed Grace. So your idea doesn’t work.

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u/JSevatar Jul 23 '24

This is correct. She will do whatever is most beneficial for her and her daughter, and as one of the most deadliest supes who can single handedly kill the whole team-- she needed to go.

She is too powerful and too unpredictable

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u/ScorpionTDC Jul 24 '24

That’s obviously an issue, but Butcher’s “plan” objectives played right into Sage’s, gave Homelander complete control over America, and fucked everyone over with Hughie, MM, and Frenchie all being kidnapped. Unless someone is the single most short-sighted human being on the planet who thinks concerns begin and end with “Neuman is dead,” there is no universe where Butcher murdering Neuman was anything other than a short-sighted rage-induced disaster that fucked everyone over.

I’m sure the country and some characters will be somewhat untucked come S5 because the show won’t end with Sage and Homelander winning, but that’s because it’s a TV Show

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u/RanRanBobanis Jul 24 '24

I disagree. Had Neuman stayed alive and went against Homelander, she could've been easily removed from office on account of her being a serial killer who popped heads in Congress. As far as taking Vought and Homelander down, she had nothing to offer, the whole tried blackmail thing doesn't work on him. They still have the plane video, and won't use it for that reason.