MARVEL started it by making TV and movies interconnected. For a while I could ignore the shows, but then even if you've seen every single MARVEL movie, The Multiverse of Madness' Wanda makes 0 sense unless you've seen Wandavision miniseries (and since MoM was rushed into production, they even contradict each other).
Star Wars did it with the Mandalorian, injecting the Book of Boba Fett between season 2 and 3, and since BoBF's entire second half was pure Mando with huge character developments and big "Star Wars moments" such as Luke training Grogu, Ahsoka meeting Luke and comparing him to his father in a nostalgic way.. then Mando season 3 starts assuming you've seen all of that, the new ship too.
Now, The Boys really pissed me off. Season 4 ended on a HUGE cliffhanger: the US government collapsing as Homelander takes over, the team disbanding and going into hiding, Starlight's huge level up, half the team being kidnapped. I was so excited to start season 5, and s05e01 starts with seemingly all of this ALREADY RESOLVED. They don't even bother explaining what the hell is Kimiko doing in some kid's home, her talking at all, reeducation / concentration camps, references to events characters dominating the first half of the episode that never happened / never appeared in the entire show... because appearantly the plot moved forward with - get this - the SECOND season of a SPINOFF show that was running parallel with The Boys, when it was already in season 3. So I'm supposed to watch The Boys season 1, 2, then 3 and whatever teenager supes spinoff season 1, Boys 4, but only now spinoff season 2 because THAT SHOW WOULDNT MAKE SENSE EITHER without getting to Boys season 4 ending first, and now I lost the f****** plot between season 4 and 5 of the Boys because I ignored the spinoff. The main villain now knows about the secret weapon (yet to be developed) against him? The one an entire season was dedicated to? HOW? WHEN? Things like that.
Please stop doing this. I'll suffer through it to finish the Boys but if there is the slightest sign in anything else, I drop it immediately.
You're really missing extremely little by not watching Gen V. While I noticed one or two references to the show in the first two episodes of the *Boys*, neither seemed very important to the overall plot. Most of what you're criticizing isn't covered in Gen V at all anyway, it just happens offscreen.
If anything, the reverse is more true, where it's harder to fully appreciate the Gen V plot without having watched *The Boys*
13
LuinAelinApr 10, 2026
+5
Yeah. Lots of the stuff the OP is complaining about not even explained in Gen V.
5
Waveshaper21Apr 10, 2026
-3
Well, Ashley is a mind reader somehow and has a Voldemort face on the back of his skull, and I have absolutely 0 explanation for it. She was a normal human being at the end of season 4 with no superpowers whatsoever.
I have no idea how does Homelander know about the virus. That was top secret plan in all of season 4, and nothing so far explained how and why it's a normal thing they know about it.
Last I saw Kimiko she was being taken away by gen V supes / SWAT, yet season 5 starts with her and the random kid gods knows where in the world, and she drops infos like "well I fell out of a plane and took a week regenerate, my a****** was 20 miles away from the rest of me".
There is a year timejump and MM mentions that Starlight has been doing some "dark shit". For a year. While leaving Hughie in a camp. I kind of want to know what she was doing for a YEAR, leaving him there ("it was safer for him there" is not an explanation why a year).
I kind of feel like I missed out on a lot, but I do admit I have no idea if it's in Gen V or not, but I mean.. it has to be SOMEWHERE.
... but, The Boys aside (not really, this counts too to a degree), my point stands for Mandalorian and MARVEL.
-3
IrishfafnirApr 10, 2026
+2
Did you watch season 4 of the boys? It's explained how Ashley gets powers
2
Waveshaper21Apr 10, 2026
-2
Could be my bad then, I watched it all when it was new but that was not recently. I'll look it up, thanks.
-2
ButtersMojitoApr 10, 2026
+16
Kimiko doesn't even appear on Gen V, what are you crying about?
The Boys suck at storytelling but it's not a spin-off issue because the spin-off doesn't matter at all lol
16
jrodfantasticApr 10, 2026
+7
I’ve watched all seasons of The Boys, and both seasons of Gen V a couple times now. I’ve also watched both new episodes of the new season of The Boys.
Almost nothing happens in those two new episodes which is dependent upon watching Gen V. There is a throwaway line about “Marie and her friends off doing something”, and a real quick in-universe news story about Thomas Godolkin. Neither of those impact the plot in any meaningful way that a viewer will be confused or lost.
7
TeknostrichApr 10, 2026
+6
I watch the Gen Z and The Boys season 5 premiere, the plot critical stuff didn't happen on screen in Gen Z either. My partner who only watches The Boys felt like she missed nothing. This isn't a Mando situation.
The only stuff really from Gen Z were references and name drops, that being said Gen Z characters should become extremely important.
This is the result of shows being show expensive, having so few episodes and seasons coming out every second year. It keeps people engaged in the IP but can be cancelled.
6
MayorofTromavilleApr 10, 2026
+6
None of this was resolved or happened in Gen V, what are you talking about?
Sounds like the show realized it wrote itself into a corner and did a flash-forward from last season's finale.
6
brimur123Apr 10, 2026
+11
Maybe I'm misremembering but I actually don't recall much of any of what you've listed here being explained in Gen V. The Kimiko part especially threw me for a loop.
11
thatshygirl06Apr 10, 2026
+2
You're not misremembering, op is complaining about something thst didnt happen.
2
Salarian_AmericanApr 10, 2026
+11
That sounds very frustrating.
I can't really relate because I actually like the Marvel stuff, and the Star Wars stuff, so I'm watching all of it anyway. It doesn't feel like homework to me at all.
11
Wrong-Vermicelli4723Apr 10, 2026
+5
lol the boys doesn’t belong here. Gen V isn’t relevant at all. You do not need to watch it to understand The Boys
5
I-Have-MonoApr 10, 2026
+4
Wow, I didn’t know my 8 year old was on Listnook.
4
tucklyjones7Apr 10, 2026
+3
I love it. Most of the shows are staggared, one ends another begins. If you like the boys why wouldnt you watch gen v, if you were going to see muktiverse of madness why wouldnt you watch wandavision. Makes the world feel alive, gives the story more depth.
3
felttheneedtosayApr 10, 2026
+1
Greys Anatomy also did this to an extent with Station 19 (and vice versa); recently encountered the same with Fire Country and Sheriff County. I don't like when they do this either.
Just started The Testaments too, I don't know how much sense it would make to anyone who has not watched The Handmaid's Tale.
1
thatshygirl06Apr 10, 2026
+1
What are you talking about?? None of what you mentioned is in gen v. You do not have to watch it to understand season 5.
1
Reasonable-Turn-5940Apr 10, 2026
+1
I loved Wandavision, but not even Raimi watched it before making MoM and you can tell. The movie shits all over it. Other than 'Wanda wants her kids back' it barely references it. Agatha isn't mentioned and Vision gets one name drop as "Vis". Watching Wandavision sort of ruins the movie IMO as it resolves nothing from it.
1
Waveshaper21Apr 11, 2026
+2
Thats not on him. The production ran parallel for the show and the movie, and it is a 100% on Disney fir rushing content.
2
ShiftyShankertonApr 11, 2026
+1
I honestly didn't really like any of the Marvel TV shows. I just honestly don't give a c***. All of them could have just been a movie and moved on. But they had to drag them out as dumb shows. I didn't even watch most of them. Same with the starwars shows. I just dont really care. I watched the mandalorian obi wan and that pirate one that I barely remember.
If you like shows like that, then it's whatever. I just never really cared.
1
StepjamApr 10, 2026
+1
I was already done with MCU overall after Endgame because that was just a satisfying stopping point. But the big branch of interconnecting shows and stuff made it even less appealing for me.
I'll probably see the new Spiderman because I like Holland's spidey, but I just don't care about the universe at large. I'm definitely not interested in the next Avengers
1
MasterOfManyWorldsApr 10, 2026
+1
I stopped watching everything Marvel because of this.
1
Waveshaper21Apr 10, 2026
+1
Oh I just wanted to say Endgame is great and treat Spiderman 1-2 as an epilogue, and hopefully 3 joins that list. And Loki was pretty good too as an Epilogue.
Here is where it spirals out of control.
But!
Spiderman 3 will bring in Jon Bernthal (love the guy) as the Punisher. Now, the Punisher had his own series, and assuming we ignore season 2 it was a pretty f****** good show as a finished story in season 1.
But!
Punisher season 1 is actually not the introduction point of the character. Jon Bernthal played some of the best scenes in his life as the Punisher of a rooftop and in a graveyard... in Daredevil season 2, where he was introduced.
But!
For Daredevil season 2 to make sense, you have to watch Daredevil season 1.
But!
If you watch Daredevil season 1 and 2, it will end in a major cliffhanger about Elektra being taken away in some giant jar for some supernatural resurrection whatever spell by ninjas and stuff.
BUT!!!!
If you expect that story to continue in Daredevil season 3, you are dead wrong, because Daredevil season 3 completely skips that, because this story continued in the "mini Avangers" series called The Defenders!
BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For the Defenders to make sense, you need to watch f****** Luke Cage (1 season), Jessica Jones (2 seasons but watch at least 1 for the introduction), Iron Fist, AND Daredevil 1 and 2, so when they team up to continue the storyline of Daredevil season 2 you know who is who.
Then you can watch Daredevil season 3, which finishes the storyline between Daredevil and Wilson Fisk, ONLY for Disney to take over the series from Netflix, soft reboot it into She-Marvel and move Fisk into Hawkeye's own series, then start Daredevil Born Again as a new series.
I'm not even going to being to guess how many hours demand is that with often worthless filler content but it's more hours demanded from me than the last 20 years of MARVEL movies combined together.
Oh and Deadpool 3 makes no f****** sense without LOKI, the intro without Logan, and I'm not even going into the popcultural references and previous X-Men movies and first F4 movie, Blade and stuff, the whole movie is obviously 4th wall breaking so I'll forgive it, but the whole TVA/multiverse thing is a pretty huge for the entire post-endgame era of MARVEL.
1
jrodfantasticApr 11, 2026
+1
Marvel movies don’t require homework. There are a couple really huge exceptions (i.e., Infinity War -> Endgame), but otherwise no one needs to watch a prior project before watching the next thing.
1
xantubApr 10, 2026
+1
I find that most of the time it's more a problem with "OCD" people, like they feel they have to watch it all, when in fact it's barely a mention of an event or some name dropped from another show. In reality you don't have to watch the other show at all, but you feel like you have to watch it to feel "complete".
1
ElasticPlatypusApr 10, 2026
It gets worse when they expand from spinoffs and add films to your homework list. The Captain Marvel sequel was soooo bad with this. “This is a movie that’s a sequel to Captain Marvel but also a sequel to Avengers Endgame but also the continuation of seasons 1 of WandaVision AND Ms Marvel. By the way, this somehow all ties into the X-Men. The Fox movies from 20 years ago or the new movies that aren’t out yet? We don’t even know yet. Good luck”
0
Malicious_SmasherApr 10, 2026
-4
honestly I have no issue with spin offs as long as their comparable in quality to the original show
for example Gen v is worse than the boys but better call Saul and breaking bad are similar in quality despite being somewhat different in style and tone
-4
ElasticPlatypusApr 10, 2026
+2
The existence of spinoffs and shared universes are fine, but when major plot developments of Show A happen in Show B then Show A just expects you to understand what’s happening with no explanation when it picks back up, that becomes frustrating
2
LuinAelinApr 10, 2026
+1
Why do they need to be as good and not just enjoyable
1
miggy372Apr 10, 2026
-8
I haven’t started the 5th season of the Boys. Your post is how I found out I’m supposed to watch the stupid teen spinoff I have no interest in. That’s really annoying.
-8
IrishfafnirApr 10, 2026
+5
OP didn't even watch Gen V. Having watched both, you do not need to watch Gen V to understand the plot in *The Boys*, there are a handful of references that aren't critical to the plot that appear but that's largely it.
5
Wrong-Vermicelli4723Apr 10, 2026
+4
Stop believing everything you see on Listnook. Gen V been around for 2 seasons and 4 years. You have never had to watch it to understand The Boys. The characters of Gen V have a blink or you miss it cameo in s4 and Eric already said they won’t be important for season 5.
4
miggy372Apr 10, 2026
-1
Oh, thank God! You’re right, I should stop believing everything people say on Listnook.
…Wait a minute
-1
Wrong-Vermicelli4723Apr 10, 2026
+2
The proof is in the tv show, go watch Boys s4. Characters in Gen V are in it but you won’t even notice. Season 5 of The boys already treating s2 of Gen V like it didn’t matter lol.
2
doofenhurtzApr 10, 2026
-3
Me too. F****** *what*?
I'm just gonna read the synopsis. I have no patience for it
-3
miggy372Apr 10, 2026
-3
I’m gonna try to find a YouTube recap or something. I just wanted to finish the show I started, I’m not watching something else
36 Comments