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Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

theguardian.com

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Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#21

Post by objectivetruth »

willcipriano wrote: post #18
fsociety wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are unironically proving the point. It means painting yourself as a victim when you are the one with the power. And yes there are plenty of negative generalizations applied to other races.

What's my power exactly? To be held collectively responsible for the actions of a fictional character? > yes there are plenty of negative generalizations applied to other races. Can you find another example of one from the guardian?

Your power is making it all the way to adulthood, literate, apparently aware of the external world and at least some of its history, without ever noticing that you've been "[seeing] other races or genders described in that manner when a individual member of a group acts in a particular way" for your entire life.

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#22

Post by ortusdux »

It reminds me the Watchmen. Alan Moore talked about how he despised the fans that identified with Rorschach :

Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example, but I have people come up to me in the street saying, ‘I am Rorschach! That is my story!’ And I’ll be thinking, ‘Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me and never come anywhere near me again for as long as I live?’”

A few years after this interview he wrote the TV show, where the main antagonists are the Seventh Kavalry, a white supremist group that follows Rorschach's teachings.

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#23

Post by antisthenes »

dredmorbius wrote: post #10

I'm reminded of this HN comment by gwd, specifically: In superhero comic books and movies, the real superpower is certainty. The good guys always know who the bad guys are; it's just a matter of defeating them. In the real world, we have plenty of power to defeat the bad guys; it's just not always clear who the bad guys are. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26619006 It seems as if The Boys is playing with that co…

I think the most pressing concept in The Boys is that power corrupts and the more powerful you are, the more disconnect you feel from the little guy.

We are told that the ends justify the means, but it becomes increasingly obvious that the means are just an arms race between right cunts as Butcher puts it. And not one person in the show with superpowers hesitates for a microsecond to achieve a variety of selfish goals (usually involving revenge/violence), collateral damage be damned in the process, with the slight exception of Starlight.

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#24

Post by IceMetalPunk »

Disclaimer: I don't watch The Boys, and I didn't read the article, but I have to ask, "who cares?" No one needs the support of people who deny others' rights to health, public safety, and love; and who push, explicitly or implicitly, for a theocracy. "Not all right-wingers" -- but enough of them to poison the group.

From what I've read about The Boys and one character's intentional parallels to Trump, it reminds of John Walker in Falcon & Winter Soldier. He was clearly meant to be an example of a terrible person and a murderer, despite the message he wanted to embody, and yet so many people cheered him on, agreed with him, and even praised his anger-fueled, brutal summary execution of someone who was, at worst, guilty by association of the crime he was being murdered for. Too many people in the real world are evil, thinking they are good, which is the worst kind of evil.

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#25

Post by notacoward »

I haven't watched the current season (watched the first and lost interest) but this part caught my eye.

"He’s given an open platform on a rightwing news network. His popularity soars after he starts saying the worst things possible. He becomes the head of an over-reaching corporation and immediately finds himself out of his depth. He’s a self-destructive mixture of professional ambition and personal insecurity."

Doesn't that sound even more like Elon Musk? Either way it sounds like there's a lot that would cause a right-wing fan base to turn on them, but it still seems like an important difference.

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#26

Post by kaihanga »

ortusdux wrote: post #22

It reminds me the Watchmen. Alan Moore talked about how he despised the fans that identified with Rorschach : Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example, but I have people come up to me in the street saying, ‘I am Rorschach! That is my story!’ And I’ll be thinking, ‘Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me and never come anywhere near me again for as long as I live?’”…

Alan Moore's not associated with HBO's Watchmen show. In fact, if you're seeing a version of his work on TV, in movies, or... any other format than his original comic you can be assured not only does he have nothing to do with it but he likely despises it.

I like this quote from Lindelof - the HBO Watchmen showrunner - on Quartz's piece for the show's debut[1], “There is no version of Watchmen I could make that would please him. Not only that, but there’s no version of Watchmen I could make that he would ever watch.”.

Moore's a genius and the HBO Watchmen show's amazing. I adore that both coexist.

1 - https://qz.com/quartzy/1732050/why-alan-moore-wants-nothing-...

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#27

Post by dredmorbius »

krapp wrote: post #19
dredmorbius wrote: post #10

I'm reminded of this HN comment by gwd, specifically: In superhero comic books and movies, the real superpower is certainty. The good guys always know who the bad guys are; it's just a matter of defeating them. In the real world, we have plenty of power to defeat the bad guys; it's just not always clear who the bad guys are. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26619006 It seems as if The Boys is playing with that co…

>It seems as if The Boys is playing with that concept and blowing minds. Yeah, it's crazy. It's almost as if comic books and superhero media hadn't already been playing with that concept for decades.

Providing examples rather than shallow dismissals might be received more positively.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Why superhero satire The Boys turned off its rightwing fanbase

#28

Post by ortusdux »

kaihanga wrote: post #26
ortusdux wrote: post #22

It reminds me the Watchmen. Alan Moore talked about how he despised the fans that identified with Rorschach : Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example, but I have people come up to me in the street saying, ‘I am Rorschach! That is my story!’ And I’ll be thinking, ‘Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me and never come anywhere near me again for as long as I live?’”…

Alan Moore's not associated with HBO's Watchmen show. In fact, if you're seeing a version of his work on TV, in movies, or... any other format than his original comic you can be assured not only does he have nothing to do with it but he likely despises it. I like this quote from Lindelof - the HBO Watchmen showrunner - on Quartz's piece for the show's debut[1], “There is no version of Watchmen I could make that would…

Very interesting! I hadn't seen this. Thanks for posting it. I loved the show.
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