Myrelle

My guess is you will either get your wish/preference or Ryan will be depowered and his powers not restored by choice. No way is Kripke going to allow Ryan to be killed or to turn into Homelander II as an end point to the storyline.

Count on it.

You and me both! 🤞

Yes, but this is Kripke's usual MO. Then we get the "twist" ending as described above. I'll take any further discussion to the spoilers and spec thread as soon as I can.

Honestly? This is what I would consider predictable in the end.

Oh Karl, nothing is more predictable than the Ryan storyline. As for getting there in a "surprising" way, not gonna happen. The only thing that would be surprising now, IMO, would be Ryan actually becoming the upgrade of both Homelander and Soldier Boy as far as powers are concerned, and as such, needing to be taken out and down as much as, or even more than, either of those characters needed to be taken down or out. So Ryan in a box, right next to his grandad, could be surprising(at least for a time) but Kripke and his "feels" as the answer to all the dilemmas he's ever created has always and ever been the greatest weakness and downfall of his writing/showrunning, AFAIC; and it's also what makes it, again, just so predictable. And sadly, nothing in this video makes me feel as if that might change. I'm seeing an ending to this show as saccharine as Hughie and Starlight have now become after this season. Wish I felt differently, but that finale and the "explanation" of it in this video just doesn't leave me much hope for anything truly surprising, tbh. Oh well. Such is the way of things in the Kripkeverse. I'm sure that he will still surprise some.

IA with this. IMO Kripke, first and foremost, wrote Soldier Boy as the poster boy for toxic masculinity-in his(Kripke's) mind, that is. He did, however, know that Jensen would most certainly imbue the character with so much more than just that. That said, I also feel that the character was indeed very much underwritten for that very reason(among others, not the least being that he had to cater to some of the actors/characters and their fans that he started out with 2 seasons ago). Jensen said at the last con, that he felt Butcher was more like the Dean Winchester that Kripke would have wanted to write if he hadn't had to worry about answering to the standards and practices people at the network. I also agree with that assessment, so I think a more apropos question might be how do we think Jensen would have handled playing Butcher as he's been written on this show, but only if he had never played Dean first. Personally speaking, I think Karl Urban has done a more than commendable job as Butcher and he most certainly has his fans, but if Jensen had been given that role even without ever having played Dean, I have little doubt that he would have been my favorite character on The Boys even above Homelander who was my favorite character before Soldier Boy(even with the limited writing attention that he was afforded) came onto the show. Needless to say, I can no longer imagine myself watching this show with the same level of excitement that I watched it this season if Soldier Boy isn't in some significant way a part of S4 too. I've already decided to wait to binge it next season if the buzz warrants it to me. And that's a big IF because the fight for Ryan's soul does not interest me in the least unless they decide to bring SB back as part and parcel of it too. Not surprisingly to me, Kripke really did a number(and not in a good way AFAIC)on most of his original characters with that finale and I doubt that he sees it that way considering all the kudos he's still getting over S3. I just hope that he's noticing that a huge part of those kudos are coming his way directly because of the addition of Jensen's Soldier Boy-who I do believe-and again even with the very limited amount and type of writing he was given-now rivals Homelander as the most popular character on the show. And that right there, IMO, shows you The Power of The Ackting.

Yeah all it really showed was that without Dean there was no story. The thing that made Supernatural most itself, was Dean Winchester. Supernatural came to life the minute Dean showed up in Sam's apartment in the pilot and it died when Dean died. This is how it was for me. That's for sure. I'm watching S2 on TNT now and I will forever be thankful for the first 4 seasons of this show and to those running things back then because they truly knew the value of both the character AND the actor who portrayed him. There were still many awesome Dean episodes after the episode The End, but to me it seemed as if a giant Stop sign was put up to/for any writers who saw Dean as a main character on the same level as Sam and Jensen as a co-lead on the same level as Jared. BUT thankfully, those first four plus seasons could never be erased from anyone's mind and the mold had already been set in stone by that point, IMO and in that way Dean became the de facto POV character for too many Supernatural fans for them to in any way be able to backtrack and give that singular distinction to Sam. They could say that the myth arc storyline, itself, centered on Sam and Sam alone(up until the end of 7 and going on into 8, that is), but I would say that by the end of S1, Jensen had already cemented Dean as the POV character for most of the viewing audience-something that I believe held, again for most of the viewing audience, even through Andre Badd's writing reign of terror wherein he tried with everything he had to give the long held by Dean singular distinction of audience POV character to Sam-something that I believe that the other showrunners from end of S5 Kripke and Gamble on down had also tried numerous times w/o much success either. I can't watch the series finale ever again. Once was enough for me to see what Dabb tried to do to this once great show(before he became the showrunner) and it's, IMO, most popular character/actor. He killed Dean off before the halfway point of the season finale and that's when the show died for me, in all honesty, and I truly believe that was the case for no few others out there. And I further believe that Jensen won the Critics' Choice Award that year because Jensen, through all those years, had triumphed in that way and this, in spite of most of the writing that he'd been given-and not in any way because of it.

I'm with those here who feel that the writing for this last episode pretty much sucked, but episodes 1-7 were pretty damned good as far as the writing went. For me, that falls on the showrunner's shoulders. Sadly, this isn't the first time Kripke has allowed newbie writers to handle very important episodes on his shows, so I'm not really surprised at the weak, mostly tell and little show writing that we got in this episode. And sadly, it has affected my feelings of affection for no few of the main characters still on this show. I will probably wait to binge the show next season instead of watching in real time and get to it when I can. Although I will add that if I hear Soldier Boy(hands down, the best thing about S3 for me)is coming back, that would most definitely change my mind. So here's to hoping that Mallory takes matters into her own hands and decides to wake Soldier Boy up for one more mission after being ignored by Butcher when she really needed him. I've seen so many hilarious comments about this episode, but one of the funniest has to be the one that said when Soldier Boy finally met Homelander, he decided to completely end his entire family line. 🤣

I'm just glad that Soldier Boy truly went out fighting and that his strength and power was not diminished or marginalized within the script so that he could conveniently be taken down by any one other character and honestly, not even by the lot of them-and some with powers of their own. He was a friggin' beast in those fight scenes. They were great. Loved them. So much. And I actually kind of loved that SB became his own father with Homelander, and that the kid didn't really impress him either. And yup, Butcher broke their pact to kill Homelander when the collateral damage became too personal to him. I would rather he'd gotten away, but at least he won't be tortured and there is always the hope that someone will wake him up again now. Man, I can't believe that's it for the season already. It sure was a wild ride though. Again, happy that SB stayed as villainously glorious on his way out of the story as when/how he came in to it.

He hid in the ballpit after paralyzing another kid and yes, then there was the massacre. ITA with all of this concerning Noir. And I want to see Soldier Boy's explosive powers again before they take him down AND I want HIM to take a few out with him too, before he goes down to the stupid nerve gas(the Noir BS and this one are the things that ticked me off about this last episode). Talk about ruining the finale, but Kripke does have a history of that kind of thing. Still hoping for a real surprise, but not counting on it or expecting it after these latest "developments" in ep. 7. 😑

Ugh. Some things about Kripke haven't changed at all in over 10 years and his very overly simplistic views on some things is one of them. It's hard to dislike him(for me), but when he says stuff like this I can't help but 🙄

Very...

Knowing Kripke's writing, these were the two biggest red flags in the episode for me. Two things I've dreaded from the beginning of the Soldier Boy storyline were that Kripke would just simply go back to the same old wells to get rid of him if JA isn't coming back for S4-those being A) he either goes back to the cryo chamber or B)he gets a group stomp down or something similar to what Stormfront was given at the end of S2. I would rather they just kill him off outright rather than either of those two things. The character has been built up to be as strong as Homelander or at least comparable in that regard, so even if everyone and their mother goes up against him in the finale, he better inflict some heavy casualties on them on his way out or the big build up and set up was for nothing, AFAIC, and Kripke remains mediocre in my eyes. The Noir business was the biggest red flag for me. It's like with one scene the full intent was to turn that character into nothing more than just a poor little woobie who SB abused into becoming a heinous monster with apparently no choice in that regard. Bah. I hope Kripke has something better up his sleeve than it feels like to me. The silver lining is that IF Soldier Boy and Homelander do join forces, it should be that much harder to take either one of them down, even singularly.

It doesn't mean that he is either, though. It is jarring seeing him play someone who seems to be so morally corrupt, but I have to hand it to Mr. Ackles for being brave enough to try his hand at a complete turnaround character from the last one he played and for over 15 years! And the reviews for him seem to indicate he has once again succeeded at capturing some kind of lightning in a bottle already. So more power to him for that. The comic fans seem to have embraced him even more now that there's the connection with Homelander. But I can't get past the feeling that on some level, Soldier Boy likes both Butcher and Hughie even after this episode, so my miniscule hope is that he'll double cross Homelander for Butcher, but it's miniscule because I think it's far more likely that Homelander will double cross his daddy because I still feel that Homelander is relatively worse than his daddy, in most ways. The bolded part rankles because I hoped for more about his childhood/pre compound V days, but with so many characters to write for in just 8 episodes, it doesn't seem likely we'll get that now, nor his POV on what happened in Nicaragua so he's had to do a lot with the character in very little time and with very little fleshing out through the writing. That he might be conpletely losing his mind is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the character for me right now. So I guess this is somewhat how the Homelander fandom feels too. It's all so interesting to me. I just don't see how they're going to let this all go in a truly satisfying manner or way in just one episode. It seems like a cliffhanger is imminent and even called for, IMO. They did a time jump at the beginning of this season though, so we'll see, I guess.

Oh my, I wonder if Soldier Boy is going to learn of his new "grand baby" next episode...🙃

Do we know if Ryan has been given compound V? I can't recall...

I figured that would be it. I mean we're still dealing with Kripke here who I've always felt had trouble sticking the landings on many of his storylines, so there you go. Doesn't leave much hope for a real surprise ending either, but there are a ton of people out there who never saw the SB Homelander Daddy thing coming and they love it. And not only that, they seem to have embraced Jensen Ackles even more than before after watching episode 7. Not used to this, but it sure is refreshing. Still, I have a miniscule hope that Soldier Boy is setting Homelander up for Butcher. Now that would be a surprise ending to me.

Thank you. But if this means that he's going back to the cryo chamber in the end, I'm going to hate that. Still rooting for him to get away. But then again I wanted Walter White/Heisenberg to get away in the end too. Go figure. 🤷‍♀️

I don't know what to think after this one. So Soldier Boy IS Homelander's dad. I know it was specced by no few, but I kind of half thought that it might be too predictable. And now the whole Noir thing makes it seem like Soldier Boy's ending might be predictable too. Hope I'm wrong about that. And I don't know why, but it felt to me like Soldier Boy might have been feeding Homelander a line there when he called him at the end. Probably not though. I'm a little confused as to what Frenchie found out about the vapor from the torture video. I loved that Soldier Boy was right about the priest and the nun. And again all the little things. MM telling Frenchie he's a mess while putting taking 5 minutes to put the joint out. Soldier Boy hearing voices. Is he heading for a psychotic break. He also seems to truly believe that he fought for his country. And *I* believed him too! I wish it were! I still want to root for him even after all these horrible revelations. So everyone just wants to protect their family seems to be an ever on going theme with Kripke's projects. Not sure what to think of Butcher because I think he's got something up his sleeve too where it concerns Hughie. Like maybe he's going to call Starlight or something. But again, probably not. Maybe I'm just looking for conspiracies everywhere because I'm not real thrilled where it looks like things are headed after this one. Homelander's plans for Maeve are pretty awful, but then again, Vought used Soldier Boy similarly. Loved all of this too, and that they were cleaning ladies was Gold. Oh, and the Robe was To. Die. For. And A-Train lives!-but with Blue Hawk's heart. How messed up is that?

I think Edgar could have told him. And he could use the info to ensure that SB won't kill him. SB said that he would let the twins live if they told him who was behind the betrayal; and he might have if the music hadn't set off his PTSD.

Well maybe, we'll find out that it is indeed just temporary through Kimiko's story. I absolutely LOVE! the idea of the reset, but I too would like to see Victoria Newman's power neutralized somehow. She doesn't have to die however, and IMO(I love the gal who plays her and wouldn't want to lose her).

Wow! This sounds great and I read of another further spec that went along with this that I don't even want to utter because it's not mine to spill; and even if it was, I wouldn't want to spoil the shock and surprise that it would undoubtedly engender.

We've always known that he's not a good guy like Hughie or Starlight or anyone of that ilk. The best we can hope for is an anti-hero(a true one-more like Butcher), IMO. But even if he is a villain of Homelander's kind, I still want to see him completely off the chain. I've been waiting for that since we first learned of Jensen Ackles casting in this role.

Nightshifter is a great go to also, DeeDee.