Analyzing The Abilities Of Characters From The Boys Pt. X

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. X

💎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.

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. XVI

🎙️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.

Aphrodite energy ✨️

rikki!!

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. XII

🚹Jordan🚺

Jordan is, by nature, dichotomous. Their ability is a unique form of gendered shapeshifting which is implied to be a byproduct of their bigender identity. When we first meet Jordan, they’re snippy and selfish, focused solely on getting ahead and being applauded for their good work and impeccable scores. As the story goes on, you begin to reveal layers of insecurity and frustration that the world will only ever see them for their superficial identities.

When first introduced to Jordan, they were relaxed in their female form. Interestingly enough, this was most likely due to the fact that Brink knew Jordan was assigned male at birth, and accepted them regardless as both identities they present as. This, as I mentioned earlier with Dean Shetty’s master manipulation of Cate, was most likely the byproduct of a drawn out control tactic to keep Jordan’s success tethered to GodU, and to give Brink a guard dog in the event of…well, exactly what transpired in the first episode.

As we see while Jordan fights, their female form, the result of their own vulnerability typically used when comfortable or in moments of leisure, has the ability to propel people away with some form of telekinetic blast. This may be due to their own insecurities plaguing them with feelings of inadequacy. That initial desire to push people away manifests itself as the ability to do exactly that.

In their male form, they’re seemingly indestructible and super strong, being capable of being shot at point blank and trading blows with Luke and Sam, affirming that Jordan is both strong and versatile in combat.

When the V most likely kicked in, Jordan was probably going through puberty, as many other supes were when their powers manifested. Imagine recognizing that you were bigender and feeling the need to endure the bigotry of your surroundings in hopes of a better future while simultaneously wishing to shove people away. This dual nature manifested in their ability to visibly shapeshift, and yet their parents treat this as a burden, confused as to why Jordan doesn’t just stay a boy indefinitely.

Jordan’s gendered division is most likely rooted in their feelings of men being tough while women are guarded, but I believe that as Marie shows them that it’s possible to love both sides at once, we might see them use their powers interchangeably or even simultaneously.

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. XV

🐈‍⬛Kimiko🐈‍⬛

Kimiko is one of the core members of “DaBois” and a fan favorite, rightfully so. I imagine she was supposed to be this world’s version of X-23, but with all the charm of America’s favorite terrorist assassin.

Her primary ability is her healing factor, allowing her to regrow limbs, instantly heal wounds, and even revive herself from death. This is coupled with great strength and agility, making her a formidable combatant.

Her origin story paints her as being abducted by a terrorist group that forced her to compete in routine death matches to weed out the weak from the strong. This was most likely what forced her body to adapt a healing factor; Kimiko needed to keep getting back up after every cut, gash, punch, or gunshot, so being able to heal instantaneously would be the most useful adaptation.

I find great tragedy in her character, seeing as how she’s been conditioned into a weapon by Shining Light only to be “freed” by The Boys, and inadvertently groomed into becoming Bitch’s Butcher’s personalized weapon. She openly resents this and shows herself to be miserable at the prospect of having to slaughter more people since being released from her cage, but this reaction seemingly annoys Butcher (one of the many reasons I’m salivating on that man’s death, but whatever).

I enjoy seeing her character finally being able to speak by the end of S4, seeing as how her voice seemed to be a control tactic the show used for her characterization. She was expected to be a silent assassin, which she internalized into being entirely mute to grapple with the monster she believed she had to become. With her finally being allowed to wail out for Frenchie, I wonder in this insinuates that she no longer views herself as a killer, but now as a rightful victim of all the suffering she’s endured. I also think it’s worth noting that this was brought about in a scene that reintroduced Cate, which I found symbolically interesting, seeing as how Cate’s ability is dependent on her verbal communication, so seeing Cate’s entrance into Kimiko’s life eliciting Kimiko’s voice was a fun little detail.