*mention of Marie’s self harm, she’s the second section*
🤯Victoria Neuman🤯
“Diva Down” was the cry I bellowed at the S4 finale. One of my favorite characters gone by the hands of a pesky man. Please pause for a moment of silence.
Victoria’s ability to manipulate blood was tethered to her vision, which is the main part I’ll be focusing on. While she can make people’s heads explode, she must see her targets clearly in order to be able to do so. This ironically stems from her general “blindness” in terms of the consequences of her actions. As I previously berated her for, her careless injection of Compound V into her daughter came at a price she could have avoided had she not been so proud.
Additionally, her murdering congressmen and ultimately threatening and killing anyone and everyone who stood in her way made her a true loose cannon, especially since The Boys now have nothing on her. With her secret out, it was only a matter of time before she popped someone’s head in that room, and Butcher still defended his team, regardless of the symbiote situation he has going on.
Vicky’s bloodlust and situational blindness prove to be the main reason why her abilities manifested the way they did.
🩸Marie Moreau🩸
Another one of my favorites who possesses a similar ability to Vicky, Marie proved that with the right cultivation, she can be far more powerful than people give her credit for.
Marie’s abilities seem to be the result of her resentment of and mourning of her own familial structure. She feels like she “lost her blood” in losing her family, so she’s now able to manipulate the blood of others, along with blood letting/self harming in order to create tendrils of blood. While she reasons that this practice is “just her power”, it’s evident she uses this as an outlet to express her perceived powerlessness in the world. Despite a kickass power, she’s been at the mercy of Red River, GodU, Vought, and every government system her whole life. Marie’s a girl who needs release, and she turns to a literal shedding of her familial tethers by releasing her blood.
Both Marie and Vicky have great durability and a wide range of abilities, but while Victoria settled on her explosive, immediate power to put an end to her opponents, Marie opts to perform more invasive and creative maneuvers, insinuating that while they could have done the same things, Vicky was “blinded” by the immediate gratification of success, while Marie willfully seeks out solutions to a wider range of issues, this cementing her as the hero in the end.
💎Cate Dunlap💎
Cate’s one of my favorite onscreen villains, seeing as how she takes the whole Queen of Mean trope and gives an audience something to worry about.
Cate’s ability is a tactile form of mind control, along with a seemingly unstable form of telepathy. While she can read minds, she seems to have difficulty fully controlling the individual thoughts she wants to pay attention to. I’m assuming this is from her relying on power suppressants which made her rusty at mind reading, especially since she seems to be off the pills and completely fine now.
I would imagine that at the point of the V in her system giving her this ability, she would have just been coming into her own as a woman in a world that tells young girls to hyper-obsess about their social impact on the world around them. Imagine if you shot a young Regina George up with Compound V. Wouldn’t having the ability to read the minds of her teenage subjects and force them to think, believe, and do whatever she wants by placing a guiding hand on their shoulder be a perfect mutation for her body to produce?
Having the ability to command people to do her dirty work based solely on touch, Cate relies on the fact that her beauty and unassuming nature would allow her to get close enough to touch any potential opponent. This way of thinking reminds me of Glimmer from “The Hunger Games”, seeing as how in the books, she attempted to sneak in a diamond ring that, upon unscrewing the jewel, revealed a poisoned spike. A weapon like that wielded in a battle royale style death match is unimaginably arrogant and short sighted. While it may seem cunning, her entire battle strategy hinged on her beauty and ability to draw close enough to another tribute while their guard was down to prick them with a mini spike. Cate, regardless of her own agency in the matter, shares a similar viewpoint. It wasn’t until Marie blew up her arm that she was forced to confront the fact that, when her reach is snubbed by a legitimately strong influence, she’s ultimately powerless.
The ultimate tragedy of her character is a lack of true intimacy. After she unwittingly compelled her little brother to disappear in a forest and “get lost”, to which his body was never found, her parents were horrified to do so much as touch their own daughter. When she was with Luke she repeatedly mind controlled him, and she ended up doing the same to Andre. Anyone and everyone she gets close to will inevitably fear that the ungloved intimacy they share with her is inauthentic, which creates a cruel cycle of her feeling the need to compel the people around her to forget all of the horrible things she’s done.
This is the exact play that Dean Shetty makes on her. Understanding and even aiding to curate Cate fears of her powers and whether the only reason people would ever love her is because she’s making them do so, Shetty is one of the few characters to consistently touch Cate. This shifts the dynamic between the two of them, and while it initially seemed to be done out of kindness, you very quickly understand that Shetty’s touch was equally manipulative as Cate’s.
Cate’s seemingly a pathological liar and manipulator, appearing unable to discern her own lies from Vought’s narrative. She’s both a pawn and a player, but I believe this next season will prove her to come out as a hero and unlikely ally to Marie and the true Guardians of Godolkin.
Florence Welch, 2023 🧜🏻♀️
🎙️Supersonic🎙️
Alex/Supersonic was a painfully irrelevant character who was introduced and briefly killed off all in S3. While his time on the show was short, his had his license to drive his way into all of our hearts…
Alex’s abilities are actually never shown in the show whatsoever. It is mentioned that he has the ability to generate a sonic boom by clapping his hands, but we unfortunately never get to see this before his life is cut short by Homelander.
I find Alex’s role significant, not because of his weird faux love triangle with Annie, but because of the nature of “sound” throughout the series. Alex proves himself to be an ally, and to align himself with Annie on her journey to take down Vought. He gives us valuable insight into how not every supe is brainwashed and radicalized, and yet, we watch as his advocacy goes unnoticed and still punished.
He was a child star, a musician, and a true hero, but his power wasn’t in the limelight like Annie’s. Despite the obvious fame he had, he was supposed to be an encouraging voice in Annie’s head telling her that she’s not alone, and he served that purpose exactly.
Like literally every character we see get killed in this show, I just pretend they’re not actually dead and we’re going to get a Dawn of The Seven style “Avengers Assemble” moment for the finale, but yeah no, this flop’s dead.
The moon will sing a song for me
I loved you like the sun
Bore the shadows that you made
With no light of my own
I shine only with the light you gave me
I shine only with the light you gave me
Okay this is what I’m talking about with my girl Louise. She only would have had one chance to give up her tail, but that was 50 years ago when Gracie gave hers up, and as we saw from that scene, and based on the fact that Louise and Julia both kept their lockets as reminders of what once was/the truth of what they are, both Julia and Louise were mermaids up until the end. As a kid I remembered her losing her tail/simply not having it anymore, but whenever I rewatch I love the subtle, unspoken detail that she never once touches water. Yes, she’s more comfortable being near water, but one of the first times she’s introduced she’s holding her hand just above the water at the Marine Park, insinuating that she still can’t get wet, and that she’s still very much so a mermaid.
this is why i always believe ms chatham got her tail back bc to believe anything else is too depressing
rikki!!
i sing to thee, poseidon — o lord of the everdark waters — to him who moves the earth, who feeds from the fruitless sea, o savior, helper, destroyer, & god — i sing to thee. give me the heart to look upon the storm ; give grace to my feet, let me step through upon unbroken water & let the earth tremble with your strength. lord of the sea — vast and endless is your glory as radiant as sunlight through gentle tides ; bless me to be as foam upon the waters — spray upon the wind — my boat unshattered and constantly sailing towards your sharp horizons —
Aglaïa kids 💎Carefree 💎Masters of constructive feedback 💎Brazen 💎Liked it before it was cool
No Cabin Assigned Yet Link in bio for more Aglaïa info 💎