YMMV / Gen V

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In The Stinger of the finale, where Butcher says “What a bunch of cunts” while investigating The Woods. Was he expressing his usual hatred for Supes after their massacre at the campus? Or was he expressing that despite his hatred of Supes, what Shetty and her crew did to them was way over the line? Or was he just referring to all of them?
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Tek Knight's secret that his brain tumor gives him an irresistible urge to fuck inanimate objects is dark and disgusting, but also played for all the Black Comedy that it's worth. Among other things, he gets distracted while filming a spiel by a hole on a tree and Episode 4 ends with him sticking his dick inside a hand dryer.
  • Sam graphically murdering a SWAT team in what could well be the single most violent scene in the entire franchise? Not necessarily funny. Sam hallucinating himself and his victims as puppets throughout the scene? Gutbusting-ly hilarious.
  • During the mayhem on Godolkin's campus, the emergency measures result in the wifi and nearby cellular networks cutting out. While everything around this is played for maximum drama, cut to Justine and Harper panicking in the dorm, not because of the lockdown or the rampage, but because of the lost wifi and cellular signals cutting out their livestreams.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Andre being hit with Your Days Are Numbered just by having identical superpowers as his father, which hits differently after his actor Chance Perdomo tragically died at a young age for real.
• He's Just Hiding: Cate uses her powers to make Shetty kill herself in Season 1, Episode 7. One of the most popular theories following this episode is that she's not actually dead and it was an illusion by Cate.
• Ho Yay: Between Andre and Luke. Before killing himself, Luke tells Andre that he loves him.
• I Am Not Shazam: The main group isn't called "Gen V", nor is there any superhero team called "Gen V".
• I Knew It!:
  • Several people correctly guessed that Emma's Sizeshifter powers allowed her to grow to abnormal size when she binges on food.
  • After the ending of Episode 4, multiple people correctly guessed that Cate was The Mole and was responsible for wiping the memories of the main cast.
  • Many correctly guessed that the mysterious benefactor supporting Marie unbeknownst to her was Congresswoman Victoria Neuman.
• Memetic Loser: Andre has received some flak on social media for the character's ineffectual nature and lacking impact in both the plot and various fight sequences, with the fight against Sam at Dr. Cardosa's house being a particularly glaring example. This has led to hatred of the character, as well as labelling him "useless". Unfortunately, after Chance Perdomo's sudden death in March of 2024, Andre probably might never get a chance to prove himself unless they subvert The Character Died with Him.
• Questionable Casting: A pretty strange example with Jordan, given that the perplexing part is really their parents' casting. Most people would agree that Derek Luh and London Thor were well-chosen as each other's opposite-sex forms, and enjoy their performances. However, they are both biracial (half-white and half-Asian) yet their character's biological parents are both Asian. Additionally, Reina Hardesty was cast as Jordan's female form before she was replaced by Thor, and Hardesty was also biracial, yet the character of Jordan is not.
• Salvaged Story: Its parent show was criticized for its cynical portrayal of superheroes as a carryover from the source material which was much less ambiguous morality-wise, with Starlight and Queen Maeve seeming to be the only major Supes who genuinely wanted to do good. Here, all of the main characters are Supes, and while they're a tad reckless, they are shown to want to be heroes.
• Squick:
  • Marie's superpower is manipulation over her own blood and the fastest way to gain access to it is for her to cut herself. The first time this manifested was during her first period in childhood, and the blood from that was used to kill her mother before she made her mother's blood go off like a grenade to kill her father. Did we mention this is the opening scene of the show?
  • Marie's description of how the sole computer at the Red River Institute was "glazed" by the sheer amount of teenaged boys watching porn on it can be stomach-churning.
  • Tek Knight's brain tumor gives him a compulsion to sexually penetrate anything with a hole. While it's Played for Laughs, among the things he's recorded fucking are donuts and a human skull.
  • There's some pretty unpleasant penis stuff that goes on in this show. First off, we get a scene of Emma getting tiny just so she can jack off some guy's dick—which thanks to a combo of practical and visual effects, is rendered especially unappealing. This is made even more Fan Disservice-y by a later reveal that getting small is a painful transformation for Emma and requires her to purge. And Marie also makes Rufus's dick explode with her superpowers.
  • Victoria Neuman's head-popping is back, and it's just as gross and unpleasantly abrupt as ever before. Episode 7 also features Victoria slicing open her hand in exactly the same fashion as Marie, albeit in a far more controlled and nonchalant fashion.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • How some feel about Tek Knight. The only thing he has in common with the source material is his tumor that makes him stick his penis into anything with a hole. His tech suit was replaced with super perception, which raises the question why he's even called "Tek Knight."
  • The series in general, despite being in the same universe as The Boys, is very tonally different from it, save a thing or two, being more of a young adult drama (akin to a Riverdale with superheroes) than the dark comedy and social satire of the main series, which put off viewers that expected the latter.
• Tear Jerker:
  • What makes Indira Shetty’s use of the virus even more tragic is the test subjects. These aren't the asshole Supes who populate the cast of The Boys. They aren’t the ones killing random civilians and getting away with it. They aren’t murderously crazy like Homelander, sexually exploitative like The Deep, racist like Stormfront, or dangerously careless like A-Train. They aren’t powerful Supes who abuse said power. She picks innocent college students.
  • Even though Sam’s hallucination of Luke nearly convinces him to stop Cate’s plans, he ends up joining her because he admits that he hates himself.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: We don't really get to see much of the life at campus, even though that's how the series originally started and could've made for a good satire of the American college system (The same way The Boys was a satire of mega-corporations and Hollywood), since the plot relating the Woods overshadows the university itself completely. Somewhat justified with the revelation that Godolkin's entire school structure is a front, with The Woods being the true "main" facility.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: Emma is a fun, friendly girl who dresses stylishly and is attractive, but people higher on the social food chain than her constantly condescend to and mistreat her.
• The Woobie:
  • Marie Moreau. The poor girl didn't know she had powers until her first period, and accidentally killed her parents when they manifested. She spent most of her life growing up in an Orphanage of Fear, estranged from her sister, Annabeth ^note Who's implied to be still hating her sister for killing their parents. Her main motivation for joining the Seven is so she can use her position in the team to reconnect with her sister.
  • Jordan Li. Half of their powerset involves being a Sex Shifter, and they have intensely transphobic parents whose father alleges they only take on a female form to piss them off. They were ranked #2 in the whole school before Golden Boy killed Brinkerhoff but were dropped down to #5 by order of Vought, solely because an openly queer Asian supe doesn't test well in areas of the US that are already intensely queerphobic.