There's a new season out. So. Time to share my thoughts on season one.
I’m not sure how to feel about The Boys. It is an effective satire of the superhero genre, even if it’s very on the nose and over-the-top for me from time to time. It, however, also features several instances of my least favorite trope, the ‘woman dies to motivate man’ trope (three of those to be exact, which is at least two too many), one of which has a man killing a woman he supposedly loves, which is always icky (*side-eyes GoT*) and more than one instance of sexual assault. So, yeah. Not that great on the woman-front.
What I fell in love with, however, is the soft and tender depiction of Kimiko and Frenchie's relationship that seems at times almost at odds with their surroundings.
Frenchie is a weapon's expert, killer and just basic criminal that gets recruited to try and fight the clearly bad corporation that controls the superheroes in this universe. The superheroes are almost universally terrible and range from kinda questionable to homicidal maniac. So we're on the group's side, even though they're also not really good guys.
Kimiko is a woman who was kidnapped and trained by a terror group in her home country and then kidnapped and drugged by that superhero corporation to make her into a supervillain. Yeah, it’s bad.
The titular Boys, however, find her locked in a cell and in a moment of empathy Frenchie frees her. Kimiko is at this point fully feral and only half-aware of what she is doing. She recognizes those that hurt her and wants to hurt them in turn. Frenchie never stops feeling compassionate towards her. Even when everyone around him is telling him that she’s a dangerous liability, he treats her gently and attempts to talk to her and find out what her story is and what she wants, is vulnerable and open with her and most importantly, lets her choose her own path. Kimiko in turn recognizes him as an ally, seeks him out for comfort and takes care not to hurt him.
At one point he bakes with her in the safe house and it’s just the softest thing.
They both make it through season one and if I care about nothing else in this show, I care about them.
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