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| “ | It's my choice. People hurt me! Yeah, I didn't ask for you to rescue me, Emma. You did that for you. And you never asked what do I want. You just came in, and, "F*cking Sam, do this." I'm normal, Emma! This is what normal looks like when you've had my f*cking life! You know, while you were worrying about, oh, maybe starring in a reality TV show, I was having a needle shoved up my f*cking spine. You want what is best... for you. Emma, you would do anything for everyone to like you. You're not a hero. | „ |
| ~ Sam to Emma Meyer. |
Sam Riordan is a major character in Season 1 of the 2023 Amazon Prime TV Series, Gen V and a minor antagonist in Season 4 of its 2019 parent series, The Boys.
He is a powerful teenage Supe, and the mentally ill brother of Golden Boy, and while not initially a villain, Sam eventually develops resentment towards non-powered individuals after being a test subject at the Woods and patient at Sage Grove Center. His resentment escalates to a riot against innocent non-supes with Cate Dunlap. He has superhuman strength and superhuman durability.
He is portrayed by Asa Germann, while his young version was portrayed by Cameron Nicoll.
History[]
Gen V[]
Like most supes, Sam was injected with Compound V when he was still an infant on behalf of Vought International with the permission of his parents, who were very likely compensated monetarily.
At some point, Indira Shetty and Richard Brinkerhoff began secret experiments at Godolkin Umiveristy, attempting to transfer the powers from Sam onto his brother Luke, the Golden Boy, which caused immense physical and psychological distress to the both of them, and Luke's girlfriend Cate Dunlap erased his mind after each experiment.
Eventually, Sam was rescued by Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre. United, they decide to confront Shetty for her crimes and invade her house, while Cate uses her powers to order Shetty to be honest with them. At this point, Sam and Cate want to kill Shetty, but their friends disagree. Cate ignores them and slits Shetty's throat. Shetty dies, and her friends disavow Cate and Sam for their actions. Now radicalized, Sam and Cate decide all humans deserve to pay for mistreating them.
From the torture Sam endured during the experiments to Cate's 9-year-long isolation forced upon her by her human parents, they decide to free all the supes currently contained inside of The Woods, killing all of the guards guarding them and releasing all of them into the university, at which point they beg for a massacre of any humans they find. Vought International then frames the massacre on Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre while saying that Sam and Cate stopped them, thus being framed as the heroes, the "Guardians of Godolkin".
The Boys[]
Season 4[]
Sam and Cate had evidently halted their planned genocide of humanity to obey Homelander's specific means towards conquest. They are among the group of supes gathered in the Seven's meeting room to hear Homelander's declaration that they will eventually rise from superheroes into gods.
Another gathering has Homelander ordered his subordinates to murder Vought propagandist Cameron Cole, due to him being framed as the leak, who was actually A-Train. Along with the others, Sam bashed Cole until he died.
When the Boys separate for safety, so they can regroup later, Vought - likely via Sister Sage - orchestrated multiple ambush teams to capture the vigilantes. Cate and Sam, along with a support of black op troops, are sent after Frenchie and Kimiko. Cate used her power of mind-control to force Frenchie to follow her to be detained without resistance, while Sam used his super strength to overpower Kimiko, to prevent her from helping her best friend-turned-boyfriend.
Personality[]
| “ | You always do that. W-Why do you always do that? (Whenever I say something nice, your voice gets all twisty, like it isn't true. I'm not the best judge for what's humiliating. I used to put stuff up my butt for money. I'm kidding. Yeah, no, it wasn't for money. And honestly, after what you did for me, I would, uh, eat your puke. | „ |
| ~ Sam to Emma Meyers. |
To be added
Powers and Abilities[]
- Superhuman Strength: Although not as strong as Homelander or Soldier Boy, Sam possesses tremendous physical strength, as he did appear capable of overpowering Kimiko despite her own great might. With Queen Maeve being depowered and Sam possessing strength equivalent to her’s, Sam can be argued as either the third or fourth most physically powerful Supe in the world; as it is unknown how he would fare against Ryan Butcher.
- Super Leap: Sam is able to jump several feet off the ground in a single bound without having to fly, and leave massive craters in the ground where he lands.
- Superhuman Durability: Sam possesses extraordinary physical durability, with bullets simply ricocheting whenever they come into contact with his skin.
- Superhuman Hearing: Like many supes, he can hear better than average humans.
Weakness[]
- Severe PTSD: Due to his repeated torture in the Woods, Sam's mental and emotional faculties were left permanently unstable. This instability was further aggravated by Cate's mind-control and memory manipulation. His psychological development became stunted to the point where he is almost a child, since he displayed impatience, gullibility, and inability or refusal to accept explanations that would help clarify narrow perspectives he held. He often suffered from hallucinations, such as imagining his dead brother or seeing people but perceiving them to look like puppets. His suffering made him extremely vengeful and misguided, since he opted to exterminate humans as a species, rather than focusing on the ones that actually enacted his torment. Unlike other manifestations, it seemed like Luke was the personification of his conscience, thus when he had Cate remove his emotions, Luke vanished. His intense trauma could also cause him to be unduly cruel, as when Emma - the first person who showed him compassion, other than his brother, saved him from the Woods, and became intimate with him - attempted to dissuade his decision to slaughter humans, he rejected her plea, while also insulting and degrading her in a manner that was oddly adult, and thoroughly heartless (even before he surrendered his heart).
Quotes[]
| “ | I did rip an entire person in half. I mean, in my defense, he was a puppet at the time, so... | „ |
| ~ Sam to Emma. |
| “ | We're better than humans. | „ |
| ~ Sam |
| “ | Yeah? But you said you were me. And trust me... I hate myself. | „ |
| ~ Sam to a hallucination of Luke. |
| “ | I feel so empty. It feels good. | „ |
| ~ Sam after being made to feel nothing by Cate |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- According to Asa Germann, Sam's fatal punch to a Sage Grove security guard takes inspiration from Hughie's killing of The Blarney Cock from The Boys comics.
External Link[]
- Sam Riordan on the Boys Wiki.
