Analyzing The Abilities Of Characters From The Boys Pt. XII

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. XII

🚹Jordan🚺

Jordan is, by nature, dichotomous. Their ability is a unique form of gendered shapeshifting which is implied to be a byproduct of their bigender identity. When we first meet Jordan, they’re snippy and selfish, focused solely on getting ahead and being applauded for their good work and impeccable scores. As the story goes on, you begin to reveal layers of insecurity and frustration that the world will only ever see them for their superficial identities.

When first introduced to Jordan, they were relaxed in their female form. Interestingly enough, this was most likely due to the fact that Brink knew Jordan was assigned male at birth, and accepted them regardless as both identities they present as. This, as I mentioned earlier with Dean Shetty’s master manipulation of Cate, was most likely the byproduct of a drawn out control tactic to keep Jordan’s success tethered to GodU, and to give Brink a guard dog in the event of…well, exactly what transpired in the first episode.

As we see while Jordan fights, their female form, the result of their own vulnerability typically used when comfortable or in moments of leisure, has the ability to propel people away with some form of telekinetic blast. This may be due to their own insecurities plaguing them with feelings of inadequacy. That initial desire to push people away manifests itself as the ability to do exactly that.

In their male form, they’re seemingly indestructible and super strong, being capable of being shot at point blank and trading blows with Luke and Sam, affirming that Jordan is both strong and versatile in combat.

When the V most likely kicked in, Jordan was probably going through puberty, as many other supes were when their powers manifested. Imagine recognizing that you were bigender and feeling the need to endure the bigotry of your surroundings in hopes of a better future while simultaneously wishing to shove people away. This dual nature manifested in their ability to visibly shapeshift, and yet their parents treat this as a burden, confused as to why Jordan doesn’t just stay a boy indefinitely.

Jordan’s gendered division is most likely rooted in their feelings of men being tough while women are guarded, but I believe that as Marie shows them that it’s possible to love both sides at once, we might see them use their powers interchangeably or even simultaneously.

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the boys bigender gen v jordan li

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. XI

🦗Emma🦗

Little Cricket, more regularly known as Emma, is a child star turned influencer who’s actress impressed me purely by taking a character I otherwise would roll my eyes at and making me adore and root for her.

Emma’s ability is size manipulation. Much like Alice in Wonderland, when she eats she grows, and when she makes herself vomit she shrinks. This is tethered to an eating disorder that’s been perfectly tailored by her mother’s obsessive hand. Her mother carries a tape measure around to make sure her daughter isn’t too small or too big, which makes for an obvious metaphor for the unloading of generational body image issues.

The most important aspect of Emma’s character is that in the Gen V S1 finale, it’s revealed that she can shrink by simply feeling small after Sam yelled at her. This proves that her ability isn’t truly dependent on food, but rather on the feeling of being too big or too small whenever she binges and purges.

-Psychology Major Moment-

“Killing Us Softly” is a series of documentaries put out by Jean Killbourne about the unsettling and frankly murderous nature of the beauty industry towards young women. Jean said in one of the documentaries something that stuck with me to this day, and reminds me deeply of Emma’s situation. She had said that while men are encouraged to be the largest of them all, the biggest man in every room they walk into, women are taught to be a perfect size 0, or in other words, “to not even exist”. Emma is repulsed by how huge she becomes after saving her friends, and ignores how in her giant form she’s stronger than Sam, capable of pressing him to the ground and holding him there with no obvious effort. She’s been indoctrinated and manipulated into truly believing that being petite is being valuable, and I’m praying that come the end of the show we get to see her become a giant woman yet again.

This whole ordeal reminded me so much of “I Like Giants” by Kimya Dawson, purely because when all is said and done, she’s a kickass hero and devoted best friend to Marie, but even then “all girls feel too big sometimes, regardless of their size”.

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the boys gen v emma meyer killing us softly Jean killbourne I like giants

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harleyxhoward

10 months ago

The sun-eyed witch☀️

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harleyxhoward

10 months ago

Every problem with S4 stems from the decision to make The Boys a 5 Season show, making the writers have to riff for the majority of the season. If they just stayed on schedule all the weird filler would’ve been cut and we’d be gearing up for the series finale.

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the boys the boys season 4 you either die a good show or live long enough to become Riverdale

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harleyxhoward

3 months ago

Love and War 💞❤️‍🔥🕊️

Happy valentines everyone!🥰 Februarys illustration is of Ares and Aphrodite looking very flirty and in love, or at least some form of it.

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harleyxhoward

1 year ago

Nobody ever loved me, ever loved me

Nobody ever loved me

Like she loves me

Nobody ever loved me, ever loved me

Nobody ever loved me

Like she tells me she does

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harleyxhoward

1 year ago

✨Aphrodite Pandêmos✨

"Hail, My Lady, You Who Come Here To This Home. I Will Set Up An Altar, And I Will Perform For You Beautiful

"Hail, my Lady, you who come here to this home. I will set up an altar, and I will perform for you beautiful sacrifices."

– Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite

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harleyxhoward

9 months ago

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. II (Indestructiblity)

⚔️Maeve⚔️

I like to view Queen Maeve as a litmus test for The Boys fans. It’s either you’re a straight man (the target audience) and you kind of hate her, or you’re gay (the unintended yet equally sizable audience) and you adore the mommydom roleplay Dominque was doing with Jack onscreen for the world to see.

Either way, Queen Maeve is indestructible, the opening sequence (as shown above) showing that not even an armored trucked can phase her as her body is used as a shield, cutting through the vehicle without a scratch. All of this is to say that while she’s physically unable to be harmed or bested, even standing up against Homelander in S3, she’s vulnerable in her own ways. For the majority of the show, she was the only member of the Seven who experienced remorse for the things they’d done (outside of Annie of course), which frames her as being more humane than her comrades.

Her fling with Homelander’s equally interesting, implying that while her ability matched him to some degree, it’s that Teflon mentality that drew them together, before she probably understood that he hasn’t caught on that Supes are still people in the end. Ironically, she’s one of the few Supes we meet who doesn’t have a god complex, despite her referencing DC’s resident goddess, Wonder Woman

♟️Black Noir♟️

Black Noir/Erving’s a super soldier. Obedient, silent, lethal, and according to Homelander, one of the captain’s best friends. This all comes at the obvious cost of Noir being an aspiring superhero back in the 1980s who had a fateful mission down in Nicaragua. One thing led to the next and he was severely injured, left with little cognitive functioning. As “The Boys:Diabolical” revealed, it was Noir who taught Homelander the first rule of being a Supe in this world; it doesn’t matter what happened, what matters is what you tell the press.

The characters with indestructibility are jaded, being forced to view the world’s greatest hardships and atrocities only to come out unscathed and progressively unfazed. We never see them get nearly as afraid or uncomfortable as the others, mostly due to this ability. However, we do have evidence that Noir mourned the boy he was with Replacement McDreamy Noir assessing that not only did OG Noir keep files of Buster Beaver (knockoff Chucky Cheese) in his closet, but despite the vague ninja motifs in his branding, he never learned martial arts at all.

With both Maeve and Noir, the issues were seldom physical and always tied back to identity. Maeve’s sexuality being used as a bargaining chip and Noir face/ethnicity not being deemed worthy of confirmation despite Erving’s early wishes. He was trained to view his identity as a burden so that the only person who could truly hurt him outside of Homelander/Soldier Boy would be himself imagining the star he could have been if things turned out slightly differently.

Tags

the boys queen maeve black noir the boys season 4

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