Reminder that Noir 2 was an asshole and deserved his fate
I see many people angry about The Deep killing Noir 2 because The Deep started their beef by gassing him in the car and Noir 2 seemed like the "kind" one of the two
However, let’s remember that Noir 2 was murdering people from day one without any hesitation or remorse. He only asked A-Train if it was a normal thing to do; he was breaking the skulls of civilians in his very first scene. He was purging people in the Vought Tower alongside The Deep and Firecracker, he even killed the wrong Ashley and got an erection from it. He also tried killing Butcher and Starlight at the office, he also killed the starlighter that infiltrated with Starlight on the Vought Tower, tried to kill Starlight again and let's not forget how he brutally murdered Doug and kidnapped Polarity
The worst part is that he isn't doing any of this for a good reason, such as a belief he holds or a lack of critical information. We see in the audition for the role of Black Noir (which isn't in an episode, but in a separate YouTube video uploaded by the Vought channel as promotional material) that he did it for money. He was about to walk off because he didn't like the role, but then they showed him the pay and he was immediately on board
So, he is working with all of these corrupt, awful murderers and he isn't horrified or anything. He is a psycho murderer who is motivated only by the paycheck; that's the only reason he is Noir 2. He wasn't kidnapped or forced into it. Every person he killed, he did it for money. Him becoming an eco-terrorist just to get at The Deep correlates with who he is: he is just like the rest of the evil supes. He will abuse his power and contaminate the sea, killing billions of fish, just to attack his coworker emotionally
Also, the things that concern him aren't about the ethics of the job. It’s as if he adapted normally to the insanity of living at the Vought Tower very quickly. The things that do concern him are related to vanity, like not being able to use his power to fly and having to stay mute in public
Him having a wholesome relationship with Adam Bourke doesn't make him a good person. He is literally the same as all the other supe supremacists that serve Homelander; he just happens to be an actor who had a similar body type to Noir 1, which made him a candidate for a replacement
I do understand that some people are unhappy about how he barely put up a fight against The Deep and didn't even try to fly to save his life. The writers didn't really bring up his narcolepsy in Season 5 (they either forgot or they couldn't fit it into a scene)
Noir 2 wasn't a "wasted" character; we saw perfectly who he was and what he had to offer as a character. He was never implied or shown to be stronger than The Deep. All he did in combat was fight a human Butcher in Season 4, fly a bit and then survive minigun fire. He probably doesn't even know how to fight. I imagine him being in the acting class at Godolkin University that Emma attended in Gen V. We know that the toxic supe-supremacist mentality stems a bit from Godolkin University, but it's later strengthened by how Vought covers for them when they become heroes
TL;DR: Noir 2 was a despicable individual, he killed people knowing very well who the awful people ordering him around were, he wasn't fighting for any good cause, he just did it all for the paycheck and never felt bad about it