The Boys has returned to Amazon Prime Video for a second season, and already fans can't get enough of the series that subverts the superhero genre by looking at how the caped crowd would act if given the influence and fame of celebrities. Starlight remains a bright spot in a maelstrom of melodrama, the one superhero in all The Seven who tries to preserve her morals and expose Vought International's lies.
Based on the comic book series by Garth Ennis, there's already been notable differences between the series and its source material, from storylines to character development. Starlight has remained on a transformation from naive ingenue to shrewd spy, but her journey has been fraught with character inconsistencies, some of which have made sense for the adaptation, while others have left fans confused.
Her morality
The Boys focuses on what ordinary people would be like if they had incredible godlike powers and given every advantage in life. Some haven't always known they were once human (Homelander), but some have come to relish their newfound fame and influence (A-Train).
No matter their background, every single one of them chooses the most immoral option when given the choice. Starlight is designated as the "moral" center of the group, but everyone else, from A-Train to The Deep, to even Maeve, never seem to be interested in doing the right thing. Rather than have every character be perfect like Starlight, every single one of them is an amoral sociopath, and it doesn't seem likely.
Her character arc
In the span of a few months, Starlight has gone from being a wide-eyed innocent to having her reality shattered. She's been exposed to the dark sides of heroes she once looked up to, and she's come to realize that the religious organization she was a part of is a scam.
Then she's devastated by Hughie, the only normal aspect of her life, being a liar and part of a group of mercenaries tasked with destroying everyone like her. Despite this, she continues to work with Hughie, and becomes a hardened spy in Vought in what feels like a rapid case of character development.
Her inconsistent abilities
When viewers first meet Starlight, she's undergoing a brutal training scene. She performs a one-armed chin-up that seems to cause her great effort, something she should be able to do without significant over-exertion.
Later, she can be seen punching holes in brick walls and lifting a car. It's not explained that she became stronger the longer she trained, and seems to imply a variety of options, i.e., that parts of her body are denser, or that she was tired of doing chin-ups because she'd been doing them for hours offscreen.
Her relationship with Hughie
Hughie is an ordinary person caught up in extraordinary circumstances, but his situation alone shouldn't be enough to attract someone like Starlight. He's been known to be upstanding and brave, but his team also loses constantly, ensuring that he will mope around the vast majority of the time.
Surely there are superheroes who understand what it's like to have to deal with both the pressure and prestige of being in The Seven that Starlight could go to for moral support, not someone who behaved selfishly after Starlight was rightfully upset they lied to her.
Underestimating Stormfront
According to Amazon's "Vought profiles" on The Seven, Homelander and Starlight are listed as having "superhuman strength", whereas Stormfront is listed as having "super-strength", implying that Stormfront might actually be physically stronger than either of them.
Either this is a character inconsistency that went unnoticed, or it implies that Starlight is underestimating Stormfront's strength, which doesn't seem like something the already paranoid superhero would do. Starlight sucks up to the newest member of The Seven, stating she agrees with her critical views about Vought, despite Stormfront siding with Homelander's line of reasoning on more than one occasion.
Underestimating Homelander
Starlight spent the bulk of Season 1 trying to help The Boys and not get caught by Vought, and especially not by Homelander. However, if A-Train could connect the dots and deduce that Hughie and Starlight were working together, Homelander could as well.
Starlight's continued underestimation of Homelander's powers of observation brought her to the current situation she's in, whereby he won't hesitate to use his authority over her to kill Hughie, and anyone else she cares about at a moment's notice.
Stopping A-Train
Starlight's plan to expose Vought gets made by A-Train in Season 2, who discovers her alliance with The Boys and plans to exploit it. She will divulge to Homelander that he didn't even try to stop her when he knew she had a Compound V sample if he opens his mouth, but the threat doesn't make sense because she lacks leverage.
Why would Homelander kill A-Train, when he's a corporate stooge who will always back Homelander's play, when Starlight proved in Season 1 she has the capacity for betrayal, something which Homelander knows and almost killed her for? Who is he more likely to believe?
Blackmailing Gecko
When Starlight needs a sample of Compound V, she searches for any internal connection she can find with the labs that develop it. She takes a chance and contacts an old Bible Camp friend in the hopes that he'll help her get what she needs to expose and bring Vought down.
They meet at a coffee shop, and their conversation veers from wholesome, to introspective, to dark in a matter of minutes. Starlight blackmails Gecko in a truly uncharacteristic move with a series of revealing pictures, and even after he does what she requests, she still treats him horribly at Vought Headquarters when he delivers the goods.
Her electrical powers
Starlight's most impressive and powerful ability is eletrokinesis, which she uses to devastating effect to both aid The Seven for Vought as well as save Hughie and The Boys on occasion.
The series doesn't delve deeply into the particulars of her power over electricity, but if its infinite why has it never occurred to Starlight to shut down someone's heart or brain? She could ostensibly shut down any organ receiving electrical impulses with her mind, even something in Homelander.
Her near death by Homelander
In the finale of Season 1, Homelander nearly kills Starlight for helping Billy the Butcher, but as for Billy himself, he allows him to live. Homelander treats his teammate demonstrably different than he treats his actual nemesis.