Sage is hardly a side character shes the secondary antagonist. She's as much a main character as soldier boy or stormfront. Colin is a plot device, Sage is the plot.

I swear I’m gonna be pissed if Colin ends up with Frenchie at the end of this season. I don’t care if the most beautiful woman on the planet fell in love with me, if she murdered my parents and sister I would never want to be with her within a 5 mile radius.

The frenchie storyline reeks of "give a character something to do". I get that the showrunners want to keep the show as an ensamble but sometimes not all the characters should have a c plot in a season, its fine if you sitdown a character for a season.

Sage is a character, Colin is a plot device.

What's sad is that Frenchie in the comics is like Walter White high on meth, coming up with insane solutions or deadly inventions using his chemistry skills to help Butcher and The Boys. In the first two seasons of the show, we kind of see that Frenchie. If the writers wanted the character to be busy with something, Frenchie should have been the one investigating or tinkering with the new deadly virus, as it is currently not strong enough to kill Homelander, instead of his whole character being focused on flirting with Colin.

Colin being intimate with Frenchie multiple times, but not noticing the distinctive scars on his ankle? C'mon...

Frenchie is going through that CW Flash level of self conflict

I mean it probably doesn’t work bc killing a persons family and then having sex with them is one of the most morally reprehensible things in the show and not something I wanted to see one of my favorite characters do💀💀💀

I was legitimately so confused when Colin was introduced. Within 30 mins he and frenchie were sleeping together and talking about how they knew each other. I thought I missed something in the earlier seasons but no. He’s just there.

Im just mad the Colin dude isn't NEARLY as good a actor as Frenchie is. Shit turns into a CW show whenever Colin is on screen. Bro gotta be one of the producers cousins or something. Smh

Because nobody gives a shit about Colin😂😂😂 dude had zero relevant with the storyline this season beside Frenchie's sex partner

I’m sorry 😂 After Colin chokes Frenchie and he’s up against the wall talkin bout “I’ll kill you” was HILARIOUS. Felt like it was out of a low budget indie film 🤣

I feel like a lot of the issue is padding. Like, The Boys main plot is generally pretty good and compelling, but then each season they have a tendency to add on some way less interesting B-plot to give the side characters something to do. Like "Kimiko goes to fight the group who kidnapped her" or "Frenchie has a relationship with a guy who's family he killed". They're not inherently bad plot points but they feel like underdeveloped side plots just tacked on to increase the runtime in execution.

You know, since the main theme of this season is "literally every main character tries to deal with their shitty past that's come back to haunt them for some reason", I feel like there was a missed opportunity to push Frenchie forwards and ahead of everyone else as more of a mentor/support character considering he literally already went through a "remorseful arc" with Mallory's grandkids and Lamplighter... Like, instead of giving him some random B plot with Colin that nobody is fully invested in, there could be a moment where a few members of the Boys like Annie and Kimiko are feeling shitty and expresso depresso together, and Frenchie understands how they feel but tells them that if he can move on from all the blood on his hands, then they can definitely let go of their guilt. Or something like that, idk.

Another possible reason for Colin barely being acknowledged was that his relationship with Frenchie meant severing his romantic potential with Kimiko, something that likely didn’t resonate with a lot of people who were enthralled by their dynamic and how sweet it was. Sacrificing it for a relationship with Colin that gets broken up in the forth episode when Frenchie’s crimes against Colin’s family are revealed makes the creative decision seem a bit pointless, though it’s understandable, as both Frenchie and Kimiko are in their own individual storylines of being confronted with people from their past that were victims of their crimes.

Frenchie could ACTUALLY be of use in the war against supes. He was recruited by Mallory because of his skills as a weapon maker. He created tools to fight supes in specific situations. The problem here is that everytime he tried to do that on screen, his weapons failed. The only true success we saw from him was when he came up with a way to kill translucent but everybody seemingly forgot about it (I think he also made the device to put Soldier boy back to sleep but that wasn't really his idea, he just got the info and then acted on it). I wanna see some anti-supe weapons made by him, I don't care about this stupid drama bs

I literally skipped entire scenes of Frenchie and Colin because their scenes felt like filler. Sage is directly affecting the world of the Boys in a huge way.

Frenchie shouldve had a side plot where hes desperately trying to find a way to finally kill the Top level supes, Him figuring out how to kill translucent was without a doubt his Most interesting moment as a character. For example he could engineer Terrible/Evil Methods and the conflict is in how he's going to practice/Test out his methods.

Is this a fair comparison? Sage is not a side character, she is one of the main antagonists of the show second to Homelander with a lot of s reentine. Frenchie is usually, on his own, the secondary B plot character. While I agree that Colin is underdeveloped I don't see how he would ever get the same screen time than Sage.

Sage is the scary one. Smart, dangerous, and access to Vought secrets.

I've watched the show and my first thought was 'Is Colin a side character in past seasons?'

When Kimiko initially stated "You and I aren't happening" my initial reaction was ".....why?" It genuinely felt like I missed a scene or an episode that gave a valid reason for them not being together like that

I'm fine with Frenchie's storyline. But I do wish that it had been set up sooner than this. There was an emotional moment this episode, but it just didn't hit as much as it should have if there were more history between these characters.

Colin got introduced so quickly and was embedded in Frenchie's storyline so immediately that I wondered if I had missed something from prior seasons. Or if he got introduced in Gen V (which I haven't watched and don't plan to). That's how out of left field he is. Sage's introduction on its face makes a ton of sense; the Seven has been looking for more supes to fill its ranks literally since this show started haha. But given where the story is headed this season, her inclusion is intriguing and driving a lot of the plot.

I think that it's a way of giving frenchie more screen time before he is ultimately killed off later in the season. Him and A-Train both have that same feeling when it comes to how much development and screen time they're getting.

I may have missed something but how the hell are we supposed to sympathize with Frenchie if he commits one of the most fucked up acts in The Boys verse, by knowingly screwing the man he orphaned.

Savage books, more like swollen books. Damn bro you hella jacked

On an unrelated note, that Homelander scene “I got you everything that *I* ever wanted” was perfect. It encapsulates the character in as short a moment as possible. There’s no place for others in his heart, even when it is his son.

The Colin situation is ridiculously contrived and makes Frenchie extra horrible for this purely selfish physical relationship with a dude whose family he killed. And coming clean is an extra, pointless violation of Colin. I want to fast forward through all the Frenchie Colin stuff.

I feel like Frenchie’s side stories have been getting worse each season. Like they really don’t know what to do with him, so they throw in some other character from his past we never established before.

Sage addition to the show makes totally sense for the plot and brings something new. Her relationship with Homelander is very interesting. Same for Firecracker her presence has a purpose. Collin and Frenchie storyline in contrary so far seems to be out of place and is not interesting comparing to the others.

S1 had Stan Edgar S2 had Stormfront S3 had Soldier Boy I thought S4 would be dominated by Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character, but in fact, it is Sister Sage.

The issue with Collin is what you have to give up to be invested in his story. You have to give up on Frenchie and Kimiko so that he can hook up with Collin and you have to give uo the progress he made with Little Nina and Mallory so he can deal woth being a murderer all over again.

I skipped Frenchie and Colin's scenes this past episode. So. Much. Melodrama. You really nailed it :')

Sage moves the plot by helping Homelander plan a coup. Colin stalls it by keeping Kimiko and Frenchie apart.

Every time the show cuts to Frenchie's side plot I am yelling "no one fucking cares" at my TV screen lol

Honestly Kimiko's reaction is probably the most interesting part of Colin/Frenchie's plotline to me because that's a relationship they've built over 4 seasons and now both of them are going through past trauma without each other except Kimiko's has been established way earlier.

Only reason I even slightly cared about the Colin is because I love Frenchie, give it to hughie, starlight, etc. and I would barely pay attention when he was on screen, even still I’m hoping they find a way to make him interesting so all his screen time wasn’t just a waste

Frenchies conflict resonates with all the other group members for this season as we are seeing remnants of all their pasts come in to play, and try to see how’re they’re going to overcome them.

Sage is better than EVERYONE LOL😅😂😂. I'm sooo wondering what she's really capable of.

They've been building up Kimiko and Frenchie's relationship and then season 4 starts and he's now with some boring guy.

Since The Boys has a huge cast I think it would work better to do it Game of Thrones style where we don’t see every character in every episode. That way the episodes can focus on fewer plot points and trim the fat.

I think Sage is going to be to the Boys what Ozymadiz was to Watchmen. Smartest person on earth with their own endgame.

8:47. This is completely unrelated to the video at hand. This scene with homelander was one of my favorites by encapsulating just how homelander thinks. He says “I have given you everything that ‘I’ ever wanted” normally a person would say “that you ever wanted” but homelander is so egotistical that his desires are the only thing he understands, he doesn’t fundamentally get why a person would want anything but what he wants

They really needed to develop more on the tension with Collin before just having it all fall apart literally so soon.

I don't even remember Colin from previous seasons. I didn't have any idea who he was when he showed up in the riot episode this season. Also, it's very unlikely Frenchie will get so close to someone whose family he killed. In addition I thought Frenchie and Kimiko were a couple. This side story makes no sense and doesn't resonate.

As a writer I never thought about how side characters change main characters. Thank you for the deep thought.

The whole time I'm waiting for Colin to actually be a supe. Seeing his family die, he somehow gets V to avenge them or thinking maybe he's the new Noir. But the fact he's just there to be there is so damn annoying when other parts of the story deserve more focus.

For me its how they go about everything with the colin plot, its all exposition and sex that's it, not to mention when frenchie finally tells him in ep 4 the actor looks like he's meant to be crying but actually isn't, i have actually noticed some of the acting this season has been sub par and you can tell theyre acting

What’s the point of calling someone My Heart if it wasn’t leading somewhere romantic ? I thought the whole point of Frenchie and Kimiko was that these vulnerable and damaged people finally get a healthy loving relationship even if it does take years to get there

I have a sneaking suspicion the Colin side plot functions exclusively to bring kimiko and Frenchie closer together. this season has also introduce the shining light girl who kimiko lured into the organization in the past. kimiko and Frenchie both ruined the lives of people through the organizations they were affiliated with and are struggling with how their past effects them in the present. I have other thoughts about it, but that's really the main one honestly it's been a minute since I watched season 3 so I was genuinely so confused when Colin popped up. I still have no idea if I missed something, the writers really just dropped him into the story randomly, or if I actually just forgot about him 😭😭

The one thing i find so puzzling about The Boys is The Deep because we are made to hate him for good reason, and yet they do a redemption arc that doesnt actually solve anything but I love the character? Like how? He didn't even change

Honestly I automatically tune out mentally a bit whenever Colin shows up. Sage is actually really interesting though.

Although i have absolutely no problem with Frenchie being gay throwing away his romantic relationship with kimiko and THEN randomly putting a side character with little to no discernible or likable personality traits felt horrendous and just made me more and more irritated as the shows been going on

Pretty sure I speak for all of us when saying we would have rather seen kimiko and frenchie instead of bringing in a 3rd wheel.

The gay Frenchie and Starlight abortion plot points made me roll my eyes. At this point, I only care about Homelander and Butcher.

Seriously, if they continued Frenchie and Kimiko being together that can show that they are human and not animals exploited to sex and violence, the season would be more interesting

God, I love your voice man. I swear, you sound like the voice-over for the Extra Credits channel.

Frenchie and Kimiko’s comic inspired and heavily built up relationship just for kimiko to say “I love you but you should go be gay” comes out of nowhere

Bros been getting buff🔥. Keep working hard and God bless you! Thank you for making awesome content that helps me write!

I dont give a fuck about collin, it came SO OUT OF NOWHERE. All of a sudden Frenchie tells him and then its done... I hope it stays done cos i dont care

SPOILER: When Colin finds out Frenchie murdered TF out of his family I had ZERO interest or immersion in that storyline. Like it came out of nowhere and if we had seen this family being murdered beforehand then it would make sense but making that reveal in the same episode where we see what happens is kinda lame. Sucks that Frenchie loses a love interest but he’ll get over it or he’ll have some “awww nobody love me cuz I am Le Monster oui oui” moment.

I'd rather Frenchie is still having his beef with Little Nina over going to that Collin dude is. Also, who the fuck is Collin? The fact that they have build up Frenchie and Kimiko for 3 seasons only for him going to some random dude that appeared out of nowhere is weird. What is this? A CW show? For Sister Sage, I don't mind her, she's cool. She's the character that took "Knowledge is Power" as a person. She could also the female version of The Legend from the OG comic book. So, The Legend is basically their own Stan Lee version who knows a lot of knowledge and same as Sister Sage, he's also surrounded with books.

I’d love to see you do a video about character reinvention. Like Kratos from Greek God of War games, and his reinvention for the Norse games. Or even Batman, from 1930s to 1980s (campy, friendly, social), and 1980s onwards (dark, terrifying, introvert)

Frenchie’s plot line is a knockoff of Barry.

I wouldn't compare Colin to Sage. She's a main character in season 4 and a Supe that's in the 7! He's just there for Frenchie's flashback purposes. He's not even as important as one of Hughie's parents.

the season ain’t even done😭

The thing about Frenchie is that he's their chemist, he's a decent fighter, and he was the one who brought Kimiko into the fold. They didn't need to create the sub story with Colin, because Frenchie already had his big story, and even if he's not a big force in the boys, we still care about him. Or at least i do 😊 But i agree, i love sister sage ❤

How have I never seen this amazing channel before.

Okay... PREACH SISTA 😂😂😂 kills me everytime

i’m ngl, that’s how i also felt about the side characters in kimiko’s storyline. after today’s episode, it’s evident that they included it to service frenchie’s plot line but i felt like it was so unnecessary after we had already explored much of kimiko’s backstory. they really did not need this many side plots going on this season

don't normally watch this kind of content necessarily but this was so well done and concise that I had to sub up to see more. good work bro💪💪

This would’ve been better if Frenchi was solely haunted by that night. Like obviously he was taking drugs to avoid remembering all the fucked up things he did to innocent people but if he was seriously haunted by that night and then we got introduced to Colin things would be incredibly different.

Colin just kinda showed up and he's the new lover now. No date or dinner first, no build up at all

This is such a sweet video! Love your analysis here

Two points before watching the video: 1. These characters hold vastly different levels of narrative weight 2. We’re directly in the middle of the season, critique of character arcs is best saved for the end of a season.

Sister Sage is interesting and we don’t know if she’s good or bad. She’s so smart that she wants to nerf herself. And she’s a much better Assistant to the strongest man in the world, the smartest woman. Colin gets in the way of all the Mimiko drama Frenchie and her had.

One thought just came to mind: Frenchie could have become important with the latest episode where Starlights conflict with firecracker reaches it's (current) peak. Because it is similar to what Frenchie had to go through (past makes current life miserable). And he could have helped her go through it (at least a bit).

I agree with you. Although I believe Colin’s lack of story development was intentional. While what happened to him is horrific, the writers were more focused on tying the commonality between the guilt Frenchie and Kimko’s are dealing with and how it affects them. They didn’t need to spend much time or $ developing what amounts to a minor character for a minor storyline.

Man i love this video you express what i feeled but couldn't talk, and add a very good professional perspective in a easy way to understand. This is my first video of this channel, you gain a sub and a fan. Plz continue with this amazing job

Love your work 👍

Before watching this video, me: Who is Colin again?

It would've been waaay better to make frenchie's plot for the season to work with kimiko to take down the rising sun operarions on the US for good (or at least cause as much damage as possible). It would go back to them dealing with the consequences from the past, but this time they would face them TOGETHER (either as a couple or good friends if they really want to go with that route).

Imagine if Colin was the guy Frenchie and his paramour were in a throuple with back in the day, the guy who had an overdose and later died. THERE'S tension.

Im not surprised Frenchie is bi, the dude seems a lil freaky lol but that facet of his character with Colin was needlessly rushed. They really should have showed us that the relationship bw him and Kimiko would not work beyond being friends and slowly built the chemistry with Colin. He def feels like an afterthought.

I love her character, especially once she reveals her more laid pack persona 😂😅 I expected her to seem annoying, but shes the only character I'm not able to predict.

I hate how many people are acting like frenchies arc makes no sense. it’s being reused sure but realistically that’s not a bad thing. I think people downplay his past too much. You don’t expect a veteran to just come to terms with their experience. While I will say that’s exactly how they portrayed it in earlier seasons, I don’t believe season 4 was properly planned out yet. In my experience, when I “come to terms” the trauma almost always comes back. Now considering the amount of murder, drugs, and whatever else crimes he committed those dreams aren’t going away. Now idk about you but a single seasons isn’t handling all that comes with that trauma.

So glad I found your channel. Love your explanations!

With them ending the show next season, I have a feeling major characters are going to start dying off in ways we haven’t seen yet in the boys. I expect Colin to somehow be involved in Frenchie or Kimiko’s death this season. It’s the only explanation for introducing such a bland and uninteresting character- nobody would care if Collin died right now. BUT, he could be used as a plot device to kill off someone we WOULD care about.

Thank you for your analysis. This critique is very interesting as I don't agree that this season is on par with the 1st two (I feel the overall story isn't made for 5+ seasons). However, Homelander's arc (and actor portrayal) is of higher quality than the source material - while the other characters seem to be running out of steam, in comparison.

Frenchie and Kimiko’s side plots are conceptually interesting but are so disconnected. I need Shining Light and Colin/Little Nina to have some connection to Vought or Victoria Neuman in order for me to get more invested.

I wish the story was a little tighter.. I have a lot less tolerance for the Frenchie storyline because he was already doing his own thing disconnected from the main plot the entirety if last season, too. If he's not gonna do anything important just let him sit on the sideline rather than taking time from the main storyline. It's starting to feel like a drama rather than a tight story with themes that's trying to say something. For Sage, I'm not really a fan of her either.. We keep being *told* she's mega smart but I don't feel like she's really pulled off anything that genius yet? I just don't feel it's earned.. hopefully only so far? I wanna like her but is her power being omniscient or just big brained? If she's supposed to be this puppermaster I'm not really feeling it ig Edit: also I'm tired of smart characters being smart bcs they're mean to everyone, she just reminds me of Gregory House or Sherlock, but at least i knew where their strengths were, with Sage I so far feel like she just knows whatever info she needs.. unlees *that* is her superpower? I dunno

I dont need Huey or Frenchie's stories this season. They are both redundant (as of episode 4) and reductive to their characters. Neither needed another spotlight after season 3. Sage is a great addition (though the repetitive scene of her self lobotomy in ep 4 was not needed) I would have loved more depth in the first half of S04 with JDM's character, and Ryan.

Sage = A fleshed out character Colin = A throw away character that people don't like because gay

show: builds up romantic (at least heavily intimate) relationship between 2 of the deepest characters in the show over the span of 5 years also show: randomly jams in brand new character with little to no personality and immediately makes said brand new character share the same level of intimacy with the first character with no build up bro can kimiko and frenchie just go to marseille and live their lives happily already

This season ruined frenchie for me. We knew about his past and how fcked up it was and how it haunted him. There was no need to make him an *ss who decides to have sex and seek a relatioship with the person whos family he murdered and then not even take that secret to the grave, but tell him. So now Colin not only has to live knowing his family was murderend basically in front of him, but also that he banged the murdered AND that when he found out who the murderer was, he wasnt able to kill him. LEAVE THIS MAN ALONE FRENCHIE. ANd i get that maybe frenchie and kimiko wouldnt work because of their trauma and stuff, but this "separation" sucks

sister sage is cool af imo the one that came out of no where for me was colin and frenchie being gay especially since i thought he would fs be with kimiko

An insightful video, as always! However, as you ran through different storylines, I realized how Hughie’s mother’s introduction was a much closer parallel to Colin than Sister Sage. She is introduced to create a conflict only localized to one character - Hughie and that’s pretty much all her interactions. I feel like that comparison would be fairer, though I can see how having cross purpose comparisons could let us discuss side characters that influence the main plot arc vs side characters involved in a specific main character arc.

I think static characters can be fine. There just has to be a purpose. Basically they can become part of the setting. My take.

A-Train has apologized to Hughie for Robin 4 times now.. 😂