• Archangel@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    I was actually really surprised during the last season, when conservatives all got their panties in a twist over the show, “going woke” all of a sudden.

    It was like they didn’t realize Homelander was the bad guy up until then, despite him raping Butcher’s wife, melting his “mommy fetish” boss-lady’s face in, getting into a romantic relationship with a literal Nazi, and murdering an entire plane full of people.

    Like, how did they not see this?

    • mriswith@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Like, how did they not see this?

      It’s about 50/50 between:

      • They don’t see anything wrong with the things he did.

      • They haven’t watched the show and have only heard that he’s disliked by “liberals”, and assumed he’s great.

    • tatann@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      I haven’t seen the show and barely know the Marvel character, but even as a violent killer/vigilante, he’s far from the monster Homelander is, right ?

      Or did they make him racist/homophobic/patriot/etc to appeal the “alt-right” viewers ?

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        Or did they make him racist/homophobic/patriot/etc to appeal the “alt-right” viewers ?

        He is none of those things, and fairly antithetical to them, so alt-right viewers love him anyways because they have no media literacy

      • lime!@feddit.nu
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        1 day ago

        as far as i remember the punisher is basically a violent anarchist vigilante who kills anyone he deems a criminal, including corrupt politicians and cops. so basically they missed the point of the character.

        • dukeofdummies@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Yeah, his targets are usually so vile that nobody questions his methods.

          For anybody that wants to be the punisher though… like honestly if the punisher has gotten pulled into a problem he’s less an angel descending from heaven and more of a fire burning through absolutely everything.

          Like everything needs to be in a state of fucked for him to get involved. Absolutely fucked. Isn’t it better to avoid that in the first place?

        • Saganaki@lemmy.one
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          1 day ago

          In the new Daredevil, Punisher is captured by MAGA cops (effectively) and he just scoffs at them.

        • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          They are very different, one is completely self serving and the other is self sacrificing. They both kill, one indescriminately and the other very descriminately. Punisher also doesnt seem to enjoy it, but feels it is what needs to be done.

        • Stern@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          Funnily enough, there was a multiverse thing called 2099 with a bunch of characters in it but like cyberfuture or whatever, had Spiderman 2099, Hulk 2099, and Punisher 2099, among others. Punisher 2099 kills (and tortures) criminals, absolutely refuses to fire on cops, and when Doom 2099 takes over the country, becomes his flunky and starts using thought crime devices.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punisher_2099

    • stray@pawb.social
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      21 hours ago

      Maybe if literacy were actually taught instead of being sabotaged by what I can only assume is a plot to increase the pool of incarcerated slave labor we could then move on to more advanced forms of literacy.

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        a plot to increase the pool of incarcerated slave labor

        It’s not just that; it’s also a plot to increase Republican voters

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    We all love to dunk on reactionaries, but there is no final right way to interpret media.

    According to “death of the author” literary theory, any reading that can be backed up with the text is valid. These valid theories may contradict each other and even the author of the work. (please don’t confuse multiple valid readings with silly relativism that any reading is as good as any other, that’s a straw-person argument).

    Death of the author is valuable and useful. This is how many classic media have been reinterpreted to take on queer readings for example.

  • Jake Farm@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    I doubt anyone actually thinks he is a hero, they just like seeing the world burn.

  • Guidy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    That’s why you don’t make these kinds of shows.

    No, seriously - do you think Antony Starr “knocking down” some fans is going to have the slightest impact or change anyone’s mind?

    It won’t. People are awful and you’ve given some of them a hero. Congrats.

    • Ricky Rigatoni@lemm.ee
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      10 hours ago

      It’s like what that one dude said about it being impossible to make an anti-war film that works because depicting war will almost always look cool to the masses. Or some shit like that I’m not a scholar.

    • terabytes@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      I don’t agree that just not making these kinds of shows is somehow the solution. How is not having a conversation about such a character at all a net improvement?

      It’s not the fault of the show, which has done everything it can to depict Homelander in the worst light, if certain people deliberately ignore or misconstrue the narrative because the character validates their awful world view. To say that is to say that humans cannot be trusted with the privilege of thought.

      The sort of people who romanticize Homelander would still be there without him, and would pick other characters from history or fiction to idolize instead (if they don’t already idolize those characters in addition to him.) This only reveals a societal issue that we’ve known about for roughly a century, now.

    • Zorque@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      They didn’t need the “hero” to glorify this kind of behavior. It’s an excuse, not a cause.