r/TheBoys • u/SnowFrio • 2d ago
Why do some people insist on saying that characters ridiculously weaker than Homelander could fight against him and win? Discussion
it has already been explained several times in the series that the only one who really has the potential to fight and beat Homelander with pure power is Ryan, soldier Boy can take away homelander's powers and thus win, but with brute force it is impossible, I have seen people commenting not ironically that the deep is almost on the same level as Homelander, are we watching the same series?
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u/Flooping_Pigs 2d ago
They made the 3v1 fight specifically so people would stop saying he's weak lol
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u/PurposeLess31 I'm the real hero 2d ago
Because Kripke is a pussy and never makes Homelander kill someone who isn't cannon fodder. Every single time he goes against a main character he is either talked down or made dumber so they can survive. How did he fail to kill Hughie in S4? How did he not see the V and the phone in Starlight's hands in S3? How did he get pinned down by that bus in S2 if he supposedly has superspeed?
Homelander never does anything on-screen to earn the respect of the viewer aside from killing characters that were just introduced to die, and half the time he does that off-screen. Why couldn't we see him fight Supersonic? Clearly he threw hands with him because Supersonic had no wounds related to lasers on him, Homelander just pummeled him. Why couldn't we see it? It's usually "show don't tell" but in The Boys it's more like "tell don't show." We have nothing proving Homelander can't be pinned down by three generic Temp V soldiers and pummeled to death, aside from arbitrary statements by other characters.
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u/RealLameUserName Soldier Boy 2d ago
Well having those scenes would get in the way of the gratuitous and ridiculous sex scenes. Why would they audience want to see Homelander throw down when we can watch a guy eat his own ass 5 times over and watch Hughie get sexually assaulted for 30 minutes?
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u/Ryeguy_626 2d ago
Yeah… love this show and all its content but when the cgi budget goes to sex and nudity instead of a cool fight. Or character development, somethings wrong
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u/Tricky-Platform-9173 1d ago
I’ve never seen a show misunderstand the appeal of its star character so badly as The Boys did with Homelander. In s1 he was iconic, absolutely mesmerising to watch, and while plenty of that came from Starr’s performance it was also how they deployed the character - the mythos they built up around him. He was a soulless, remorseless Superman and it was TERRIFYING. There was no regular Superman here to put him in his place. He was the ultimate power in this world and any time he was onscreen there was a genuine feeling that ANYONE in the room could end up dead with one wrong word, or hell, just because the dude felt like it. That was gripping, spellbinding television.
And then they spent the next 3 seasons just utterly devaluing that screen presence, making him this simple minded, slavering oaf of a caricature. Turns out he’s not the ultimate power in this world, he’s Edgar’s bitch. Turns out he’s not this calculating malicious force, he’s a pathetic manbaby simp. Turns out he’s not so terrifyingly OP compared to the rest, the Boys will elude him like a Scooby Doo villain at every turn, even when he’s literally bearing down on them, and Maeve tag teamed with 1 other high end supe could probably kick his ass. At this point he’s no more threatening or interesting than a villain from some CW superhero show, just grosser.
And before anyone gets on my case I’m aware these were all intentional decisions, Kripke always planned to have HL’s facade slip and for him to become this cartoonish redpill Trumpesque figure over time, I get it. I’m saying it was better the other way. Audiences responded to something about that character initially, like on a mainstream level almost, and it wasn’t because he reminded them of Sneako.
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u/PurposeLess31 I'm the real hero 1d ago
You've just spouted absolute facts for three paragraphs straight. I will co-sign this comment because that was some real shit.
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u/wc8991 1d ago
The only, only disagreement I have with this comment is that Homelander being under Edgar’s thumb is not actually at odds with season 1’s portrayal of him. Two totally different types of power, overwhelming superhuman strength vs. societal control. Though Stan Edgar certainly should have gone the way of Madeline by now.
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u/Tricky-Platform-9173 1d ago
I understand it’s a different type of power, and was in all likelihood an attempt to up the stakes for the sophomore season. Their dynamic is still a large part of what killed that season 1 Homelander aura for me. It’s not so much the development itself that’s an issue, in a vacuum - it’s logical the scientists who created HL would condition him in some way to be obedient to his lessers, makes sense with what we’ve been told about the world, and is essentially a straight adaptation from the comics.
Rather, it’s the effect it had on viewers’ perception of Homelander that makes me believe it was a bad choice. Edgar is cunning, intelligent and played with tons of gravitas, don’t get me wrong, but the moment they showed a physically average, unpowered man talking down to this corrupted god they threw out a lot of what made HL such a fearsome, uncanny presence in the first place. In season 1 we were always a little anxious when he was around, because there was a feeling he could just snap and splatter whoever he wanted all over the wall whenever he felt like it. Meeting Edgar told us… nah, not so much. From a narrative perspective our brains understand that if one major character can get away with talking to Homelander this way they pretty much all can. Between subtle decisions like that and how much they started laser focusing on his degenerate manchild tendencies I felt the character had already lost a lot of shine by the time s2 ended, and it really only got worse from there.
(I get he’s equally pathetic in the comics too, but ofc they shot for a different tone entirely, and Ennis was able to depict many more acts of barbarism and cruelty to make sure we still felt uneasy every time his HL showed up.)
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u/wc8991 1d ago
Mmm, I’m almost with you. I certainly agree that the ridiculous reveal in S4 that he’s been “conditioned” to seek out love is absurd and ruins so much of his mystique. But I don’t know, I’m not sure I got the impression from Edgar’s introduction in season 2 that Homelander could be talked down to like that by anyone. We already saw how he treated people who tried to control him in season 1 with Vogelbaum and Madeline. If anything, it just made me think that the world spins around no matter what Homelander does to people.
Of course, this is also back when The Boys had slightly more biting satire instead of the weak shit they’ve been on since then.
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u/Tricky-Platform-9173 22h ago
Yeah, I think I can agree that in a vacuum it shouldn’t have been a problem and set Edgar up as an effective presence in his own right. My gripe more arose when everyone suddenly started being immune from consequence to pissing HL off in-person so soon after that dynamic was introduced ig
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u/po3smith 1d ago
Bro I see the point you're trying to make but you need to tone it down a little bit. It's a television show that's why! It's the same reason why the flagship of the Federation always manages to get its ass kicked or it's shields go down after literally one or two hits from the enemy vessel. Should the Enterprise be able to put up more of a fight? Of course it fucking should! But if it won every time it wouldn't be a show now would it? I agree that the balancing act between Homelander would be rather difficult for writers etc. due to the fact that he is OP but at the same time we do need to show to progress but I can't believe you don't realize that man.
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u/PurposeLess31 I'm the real hero 1d ago
I can give you a million examples right now. Think of the first two Raimi Spidey movies. Both Green Goblin and Doc Ock kicked absolute ass and then got defeated in a believable way. How about Darth Vader? Or Thanos? Villains can be written well and then get beaten anyway. Kripke just decided not to do that.
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u/HorizonStarLight 2d ago
Because half of the Fandom watches the show through TikTok, YouTube shorts, Reddit edits, and podcasts.
I wish I could tell you I was joking, but I'm not. You've surely heard the line, "Don't mess with us Boys fans, we don't even watch our own show".
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u/Nigh_Sass 2d ago
The peak is like god tier power compared to everyone else on the show even homelander and could also outsmart essentially everyone. Guy can swim in the Mariana’s trench, beach whales, and even has the looks and game to get with octopuses!!, which are of course the smartest animal in the world so they know how to pick em! Only person that could hold a candle to him strength and looks wise would probably be Gecko but he’s a distant second
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u/PrincessOfGlower 2d ago
This comment was made just moments before the Vought superhero, The Deep, allegedly punched a hole through Mr. Nigh_Sass.
The Deep has not been available to comment.
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u/ForeskinGaming2009 2d ago
It’s not a power scaling type of show its political satire using super heroes, the power of each character is whatever the plot needs it to be
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u/MountainNegotiation 2d ago
Homelander has strength and power but he doesn't have wisdom or any true fighting style, plus his psychological vulnerabilities make him easier to manipulate then others.
But in my person option I just want too see him (Homelander) fight like correct me if I am wrong but did Homelander fight anyone in season 4 or just stand, sit and easily kill people.
Season 3 wasn't great but it was cool to actually get some fight scenes in it
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u/DaemonBlackfyre515 2d ago
The lack of fighting skill excuse went out of the window when he beats Soldier Boy, a maybe WW2 vet and definite black ops vet, 1v1...and then holds his own against former Royal Marine Butcher.
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u/MountainNegotiation 1d ago
Did he though? I mean Homelander has the benefit of flight and heat-vision which is why he was able to over power Solider Boy and I would argue he only held his own against Butcher cause he enjoys being hit (or the writers don't know how to implement true solider fighting styles/defence)
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u/EmsStuffs 2d ago
Because it would piss him off and he can’t do anything about it to us cuz we’re real
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u/Generny2001 2d ago
My interpretation of “the rules” of the series is that Homelander is, by far, the strongest of all the supes.
However, he isn’t entirely invulnerable. A strong enough supe can stand toe to toe with him in a fight. However, they’d still ultimately lose because Homelander is the strongest character on the show.
For example, Maeve was able to fight him one on one. By the end of that fight, he overpowers her as he shifts his focus from fighting Maeve to saving Ryan.
He was on his way to beating Solder Boy when Butcher and then Hughie show up to help. Even when they were able to pin him down, he was still strong enough to break free and escape.
In my opinion from watching the show since it premiered, there isn’t a single Supe that could beat Homelander.
However, if several of the more powerful ones were to work together, he can be beaten. The problem is that if they were to fail, 100% he straight up kills them all. So, it’s a high risk/high reward type of scenario.
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u/GoodCode2015 2d ago
Maeve saved Ryan in S3 finale, not Homelander. She stabbed HL in the ear, he was bleeding & disoriented with no clue that Soldier Boy was about to depower everyone and blow up the building. He is strong, but he lacks real fighting skills because he’s lazy & overconfident. And he depends too much on his lasers, which barely had any effect on her.
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u/yobaby123 1d ago
It’s because some like Maeve are capable of harming him depending on the circumstances.
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u/Garfield977 1d ago
because for some reason this subreddit's hate boner for homelander extends to pretending like he is actually weak as hell somehow
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u/Remarkable-Cabinet85 Supe 2d ago
Because in general those characters have far more experience in fighting against superpowered opponents.
John with all his power could have been a decent hero if he actually trained and gotten stronger but he likes to play God because he realised he's at top of the food chain.
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u/Radaistarion 2d ago
Because powers and their capabilities are horribly conveyed on the show. They are inconsistent, unclear, and all over the place.
This -very understandably so- confuses people and makes them ask for contrived situations that not even the cunts that call themselves writers could answer.
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u/Away-Librarian-1028 1d ago
It’s mostly because Homelander is unskilled and unused to fighting anyone who is an actual threat.
In-universe Homelander can actually just later every threat he encounters to death. None of the Vought-Supes can mess with him strength-wise. Homelander has therefore no reason to train, let alone preparing for a real fight.
In the 1 vs 3 he did admirably well and I must admit he wasn’t half bad when he fought against them. But he still choose to flee instead of using his abilities creatively and therefore actually having to put into any effort to defeat his enemies.
Homelander lacks skill. As much as a meme it is, the death battle between him and Omni-man demonstrates how outclassed he is by some other fictional characters. And since Homelander is such a despicable person it is fun to imagine him getting owned by those he could normally defeat.
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u/Alert-Artichoke-2743 1d ago
I've seen no posts that anybody in-universe can take Homelander. Omni-Man or Superman, Goku, Saitama, other OP characters from separate works of fiction maybe.
I'm of the belief that A Train can outmaneuver Homelander in close quarters, but not outspeed him over long distances or harm him at all. Kind of like when a human is trying to swat a fly, the fly is quicker than the swatter but it's not gonna win.
I'm not sure if Sam is weaker than Homelander. He can't fly or shoot lasers, but he might have equal or greater strength and durability. I could see Homelander needing to fight him from range.
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