For anyone who still claims not to see how The Boys is intentionally political with a message completely crafted against the Right, here are some details for you.
How The Boys Season 2 Critiques Far-Right Politics
The Boys season 2 has been a raucous affair touching on some serious issues, but now makes its boldest political statement yet against the far-right.
The latest episode of The Boys season 2 is the most politically charged yet, offering a scathing critique of the far-right. On the surface, Amazon's The Boys is a subversive, witty and shocking superhero series that mocks genre conventions, paints the heroes as the villains, and will wrap a massive penis around a man's neck in the name of gross-out humor. But The Boys has always hit on a deeper level too. Even in the original comic book series by Garth Ennis, The Boys tackled (albeit with mixed results) homophobia, capitalism, religion and political corruption, among other innocuous dinner table topics. Adapted by Eric Kripke, The Boys continues the comics' rebellious spirit, updating the subject matter for a modern audience.
The Boys season 1 took inspiration from the #MeToo movement in adapting Starlight's comic story. After being sexually assaulted by The Deep, Starlight speaks out against her attacker and the aquatic superhero is forced to publicly face the consequences of his actions. There was also plenty of commentary and subtext on commercial cynicism and corporate injustice, with Vought paying off Hughie after his girlfriend's death and taking a deeply unethical approach with their superhero marketing.
Prior to the premiere of The Boys season 2, Kripke revealed that the new season would go after white supremacy, and he certainly wasn't exaggerating.
The Boys season 2 introduces Stormfront, a Nazi superhero who still holds the disturbing, racist values of her motherland. Despite presenting a friendly, modern figure to the public, Stormfront holds non-white races as inferior, and has killed innocents based purely on their skin color while Vought protect her image with cover stories. The more The Boys season 2 reveals about Stormfront, the more sinister her designs become, and the villain now has Homelander wrapped around her little finger too, using his innate America-first patriotism to tap into a even wider demographic. With "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker," however,
The Boys brings its political stance to the fore, drawing parallels with the far-right that hit depressingly close to home.
"Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" begins with a jarring cold open that reveals the effect of Stormfront's media blitz on a ground level. The sequence introduces a regular guy - a fan of Stormfront, with posters all over his bedroom. This lonely young man goes about his everyday life while TV and radio personalities speak of super-terrorists "invading America" and "illegal immigrants pouring into this country." The student kisses his mother goodbye, goes to class, visits the same store with the same clerk, and repeats the cycle ad nauseam until, one day, he starts to suspect the store worker is a supe terrorist. Driven by Stormfront's call to action, the young misfit visits his store and guns down the same friendly clerk who served him every morning, firmly in the belief that he was doing his country a service.
This introduction is a harrowing depiction of extremist indoctrination that shares important parallels with real life. One purpose of this scene is to highlight how the deluge of constant media messaging can have a major influence on a person's decision making. From the moment this unnamed character wakes up, he's absorbing Stormfront's barrage of memes and warnings. It's on the radio while he's getting ready for school, blaring from TVs both in his front room and at the store, and then he's scrolling through more posts in his spare time at home. As the online messaging becomes more direct, and takes up more of this man's time, he builds towards the eventual murder.
This is obviously an extreme example, but the darker side of social media is a concerning reality, especially when it comes to spreading political ideas
It's coldly intentional that The Boys presents this character as a regular person. The public consciousness holds a certain image of what a shooter, a terrorist or a murderer might look like, but this culprit is an everyday geeky student, socially awkward and lonely perhaps, but showing none of the obvious red flags one might expect from a future killer. With this deliberate choice,
The Boys sends a message that even the most normal of folk can be indoctrinated with this extremist barrage of racist political messaging, and that to dismiss agents of politically-motivated violence as one-off loose cannons willfully ignores the process of indoctrination playing out on social media.
It's impossible not to draw comparisons between the rally Stormfront and Homelander hold and the rallies of Donald Trump. The crowd signs are visually similar to those from the "Make America Great Again" campaign, and carry the same nationalist messaging with liberal use of the world "freedom." Stormfront begins by offering her "thoughts and prayers" to the family of the murdered store clerk, and this line grimly parodies the hollow condolences offered in the wake of public tragedies when no substantial action is forthcoming. Homelander follows up by asking where America went wrong, regaling the assembled fans with a tale of how America was once a "beautiful country" that lost its way.
Once again, this nostalgic tactic mirrors the emphasis of the "Make America Great Again" message. Homelander goes on to invoke Christianity and the will of God to support his political beliefs - something far-right politicians across the world lean on heavily.
As with the introductory killing,
Stormfront and Homelander's rally is a clear fictional take on racially-charged anti-immigration rhetoric in the real world, with Homelander using phrases such as "pouring across our borders" to conjure images of a threatening outsider force looking to invade and pillage our fair land. Continuing the tone of her interviews,
Stormfront refers to a prominent liberal politician as a "social justice warrior," and much like the snowflake example previously, this term is traditionally leveled at those speaking out in support of equality in an attempt to dismiss their argument.
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