I just finished watching it, I gotta say, Butcher was 100000000000000000% correct and should have just pulled the trigger (or, more accurately, this is what a deadman's switch is for, if you're waiting to time it to begin with)

the writers are just so not good at writing. like I haven't read for pleasure in years and I haven't practiced writing in even longer but like, jesus christ, god damn, if you're going to have Frenchie's will just be an ode to talking about assholes, like

how hard is it to have at least a single bit of it be actually funny? he said a bit about "I don't know if I've wiped my slate clean enough to enter heaven" and it's like, so obvious, immediately after describing his friends' assholes at great length before saying that, that it should finish with "But I know one thing for certain. None of you wipe clean either, invest in ze bidet!" or something like idk at least that'd get a chuckle out of me instead of just cringing for the entirety of it

also the writers just clearly forget their own show, hardly a mention of Becca while Butcher's Doing His Thing until fucking homelander mentions her first! lol.

Ending it with this soldier boy blast shit was stupid as fucking shit from a storytelling perspective. Again, I'm a pig idiot stupid ignorant person from a "knowing technical knowledge about writing" perspective but like I'm pretty sure the story would have been way better if they just ended the Homelander plotline in season 3 with the Soldier Boy blast then, and then if they had to do more seasons go into the Butcher as ultimate antagonist arc.

Butcher and Ryan losing their powers also introduced the plot hole (see: writers forgetting their own show) of Butcher only really being alive because the sentient mass of cancer inside of him was keeping him alive. So if he's lost his powers, he's now just full of fucking nonsentient cancer that was previously, immediately prior to losing said powers, writhing through his body like a mass of worms. He shouldn't have even been able to kill Homelander, honestly, if he was also depowered

Also I think it would have been a wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better ending from the perspective of getting the audience to hoot and holler and soypoint if after Butcher's funeral they just did like a slooooow pan out to outer space where you get to see the frozen billionaire's languished grimace but maybe that's just me