Why Is 'The Boys'' A-Train Breaking Up Happy Couples On TikTok?

The latest season of Amazon Prime's superhero series The Boys recently wrapped up, and based on all the memes coming out of it, people loved it (well, except for maybe the finale). But one of the most recent The Boys memes to blow up is A-Train POV I See a Happy Couple, a TikTok-centric format that's based more on the show's first season than the third — specifically the very first episode where the protagonist named Hughie watches as his girlfriend is turned into a red mist when A-Train accidentally kills her (more on that below).

Basically, the meme is used to joke about extreme reactions to feelings of jealousy, but there's a lot more to it than that. Here's an explainer to break down the fine details of what this latest trend is all about … you could say, "We're even now.."

Where Does "A-Train POV: I See a Happy Couple" Come From?

The joke about A-Train seeing a happy couple stems from the opening scene of the first episode of The Boys. In the first scene of The Boys, the superhero A-Train, who has super speed, accidentally kills a woman (Robin Ward) by running straight through as she's embracing her boyfriend. The scene is extremely graphic, showing the woman burst into a puddle of blood as A-Train zips through her at super speed.

The TikTok meme takes a fan cam edit of A-Train and adds footage of a happy couple before it, captioned, "POV: I see a happy couple." When A-Train pops up, most fans of The Boys will immediately make the association between A-Train killing Robin and the caption, implying that the poster is so jealous they want to kill the woman to split the couple up.

Basically, "if I can't have her nobody can," but in the most extreme (and ironic) way possible.

How Is "A-Train POV" Used In Memes?

The meme is very simple: take a little bit of footage of a couple being visibly happy or showing intimacy, then slap some footage of A-Train looking cool over it. The trend was seemingly started by TikToker @awesomer.thing22 and has inspired hundreds of variations across TikTok at this point, all essentially bubbling down to the same thing. Oh, and don't forget the cool techno music.

The meme became particularly popular on National Girlfriend Day on August 1st, a perfect time for all the single people to vent their anger through A-Train memes. It's pretty self-explanatory why the meme thrived on Girlfriend Day, and it helped the meme spread from TikTok to Twitter. Could this be the new seasonal meme for single people every Girlfriend Day? Only 2023 will tell.

What Are Some Other Recent Memes From "The Boys?"

Soldier Boy Singing "Rapture" By Blondie

Soldier Boy Singing "Rapture" By Blondie refers to a scene from The Boys where the superhero Soldier Boy sings "Rapture" by Blondie during a guest appearance on the 1980s television series Solid Gold. The clip gained viral spread over the following month, also becoming a prevalent original sound on TikTok used in comparison skits where the original version plays followed by Soldier Boy's version.

You're A Fing Disappointment

You're A Fing Disappointment is a line of dialogue spoken by Soldier Boy in season three of The Boys. A captioned screenshot and clip of the scene became a GIF and reaction image, as well as the subject of image macros, that month, typically used to express disappointment toward someone or something.

For the full details on A-Train POV, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.