The Boys subreddit descends into chaos after fans complain about show's 'politics'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Boys Season 3.

If you ask us, we see no way in which a TV show about an overpowered, sociopathic American eliminating all opposition to them could be interpreted as being even the tiniest bit political or a commentary on real world events.

None whatsoever – a ‘diabolical’ suggestion, one might say.

We are, of course, talking about Amazon’s The Boys.

Based on the successful comic book franchise of the same name, it follows a team of vigilantes helmed by William "Billy" Butcher who hunt down superheroes abusing their powers for greed, corruption and a whole host of terrible behaviour.

The heroes or ‘supes’ are led by one named Homelander, played by Anthony Starr, who is essentially Superman with laser eyes and bulletproof skin, but with an affinity for being an absolute pain in the backside, to put it politely.

With the third series of the satire currently streaming on Prime Video, and the programme boasting a huge following, fans are already at work dissecting the latest plot points – which just a few weeks ago involved a traumatising scene to do with a tiny man and a penis.

And no, that scene warrants no further expansion – pun, we regret to say, most definitely intended.

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However, with recent episodes taking aim at subject matters such as gun crime and ‘All Lives Matter’ supporters, some fans of The Boys over on Reddit are becoming a little bit uncomfortable with the franchise’s ‘politics’.

Under a post titled “Was really liking Blue Hawk until the end of his speech”, one user wrote: “Not surprising since it seems the writers of this show don’t do anything but browse Twitter. But he was extremely based until they took the cliché route.”

To put it briefly so as to avoid spoilers, series three introduces us to Blue Hawk, a white 'supe' accused of racism after over-patrolling Black neighbourhoods and killing an unarmed Black man.

After delivering a half-hearted apology to a community centre following the incident, where one heckler responded with “Black lives matter”, the superhero responded with “all lives matter”, just so you know what we’re dealing with here.

When another user challenged the original poster about his favourable opinion of a character who killed an unarmed man, the OP responded: “Unarmed doesn’t mean not dangerous, and the speech should have been sarcastic because there’s no reason to apologise for helping eliminate criminals.”

Good lord.

In further evidence of the subreddit descending into chaos, another user had their post – in which they argued The Boys “perfectly display[s] what the dictator trap is” - locked for violating the forum’s rules on ‘politics’.

The rule states: “While the show covers many political themes, this is not a political subreddit. Healthy debate is welcomed but all posts must remain civil and relevant to the shows.”

Comments which fail to adhere to the rules may be locked or removed altogether, it goes on to add.

Explaining the dictator trap theory, the poster wrote: “Homelander takes power, removes all the people who know how to do their jobs because they aren’t trustworthy (team players), puts his goons in those positions, refuses to hear criticism or bad news, and becomes increasingly paranoid and unstable.

“The Boys’ political satire is so good.”

Yet, it seems one moderator wasn’t too happy with them stating the obvious, and commented: “Look, we get it, The Boys is a political show, we understand that there are times where there will be strong connections between the current political climate and the show.

“But you need to stay on topic regarding the show, and you need to be polite to your fellow Redditors.”

After journalist Ryan Broderick pointed out the Reddit drama on Twitter last week, a mod announcement clarifying the rules of the forum was made a day later.

User Nciscokid said: “It appears that many of you have taken [the politics rule] to mean that we don’t want you to discuss politics at all. Quite the contrary!

“We understand that The Boys is a very relevant reflection on the current state of politics in America and the world at large.

“However, we also understand that these themes can create raw, emotional reactions, and the best does not necessarily come out in people. That brings us to the purpose of the politics rule.

“While we encourage questions and discussions surrounding the political topics addressed within The Boys, we also strive to prevent this space from becoming overwhelmed by discourse that is not relevant to the show itself.

“In short: political discussion is allowed but must be relevant to the show in some way, and must be civil.”

They concluded by listing some examples, including a focus on Homelander rather than the policies of Donald Trump (we have no idea why those two are at all comparable), and a focus on the fictional politician and secret 'supe' Victoria Neuman rather than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

After all this drama, we can’t help but feel like a minority of people dictating to a wider community how they can discuss a show in which a small number of people control a wider corporation is a little bit ironic.

We also think there is a bigger issues to discuss, such as how self-proclaimed The Boys fan Barack Obama will react to Friday's episode titled “Herogasm”, based on the NSFW comic instalment which deals with exactly what you think it does.

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