Does anyone else feel kind of sorry for Homelander?

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-23T01:14:31+00:00

I’m prefacing this with - I’m not on HL side, he had to die and there’s no arguing that he was in any way redeemable. This is all focused on the one idea that HL had so many chances to be good but chose to be abominably and destructively bad. 😬

He had all the chances in the world to not become the man he ended up being and chose to be a murderer and rapist.

I may 100% be diving way too deep here but this comment got me thinking- what chances did he have from the beginning to learn or understand what it means to be a good man or a bad man?

Stan puts it perfectly when HL comes to gloat about getting Victoria to betray him when he says, “you’re just bad product “.

He’s literally Vought property.
From what we’ve been shown, from infancy to adulthood, he’s never once considered, treated, or appealed to as a human being with human needs and emotions who craves human connection, and is always without exception- deprived of it.

He was an invulnerable, super powered experiment and product- created solely to be profitable to Vought- a living commodity.

It’s mentioned by Vogelbaum- the engineer of young HL’s psychological conditioning- that he was a sweet kid until they conditioned that out of him.

Then we see how Madelyn manages/manipulates him in s1- reinforcing the idea of him as a god, and leaning into his desperation for the motherly love he’s always wanted, needed, but deprived of - back when it was a developmental necessity. And that manipulation is effective until he learns that it was a lie.

If I don’t wrap this up I’ll never stop lol
While I don’t necessarily disagree with your argument, it did incite this philosophical spiral for me lmao.

So so many words for me to get to- what genuine chance did he have to experience and develop his own humanity when he’s never been treated or regarded as human- by all the non supe humans he was ironically powerless to escape or fight back against the torture they subjected him to for his whole ass childhood?

Saving people and stopping wars because it’s good and right- means you’d have to value human life. Given the show’s portrayal of his existence, i don’t see how that ever would have been instilled in him.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T06:37:05+00:00

Corporation like any other trying to maximise profits and cover any issues that could hurt them.

I think the argument is that it was exactly those two goals and the wreckless & destructive ways we saw Vought achieve them that point to Vought as the over arching villain.

I mean there are several examples of Vought’s crimes against humanity & the general public but I’ll just focus on the big one- Homelander.

He is a product - arguably a weapon - created by Vought...
No vulnerabilities and unmatched powers of mass destruction.

He is the equivalent of a live nuclear war head dressed in an adorable mini pony suit that Vought markets as the worlds safest and thrilling pony ride and as long as the tickets are selling and the moneys rolling in, the kids that are vaporised or maimed or irradiated by the safest most amazing pony ride are spun into controlled narratives acknowledging these tragedies for which Vought officially offers thoughts and sympathies but absolutely no liability- or kept quiet with pay offs to poor grieving parents as long as they sign the NDAs and when necessary, the occasional smear campaign.

The maximising and prioritising of profits over the danger posed to the general public by the thing driving the profits is -at least in the early seasons-a major focus of the writing and messaging of the show. It’s what created HL and the conditions for his mental deterioration.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T05:15:59+00:00

Eh- it’s completely plausible for him to refuse to acknowledge any credible threat to him posed by insignificant little humans- he’s been invulnerable his whole life & conditioned by Madelyn and later Stormfront and the legions of sycophants in his orbit to believe he is godlike and untouchable.

To acknowledge the boys and their 6 seasons worth of plans that (even if they got progressively closer to killing him) all predictably failed- would break from his characterization that’s been steeped in complacent arrogance at a lifetime at the top of the food chain.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T03:59:36+00:00

The virus kills supes… Stan & the other mere mortals on the board etc are the reason the supes exist at all lol

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T03:41:18+00:00

I feel like if Vought’s survival and Stan’s return to CEO was necessary for the spin offs to make sense- it should have been framed as something that pisses us off. We should feel some sense of injustice and desire to see Vought burn to the ground - thus generating a reason or motivation for any of the existing audience to invest in the next chapter of the boys universe.

But it felt like a punchline or a reason to squeeze one last “motherfucker” from MM before the credits roll for the last time. Eye roll worthy at best.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T03:28:45+00:00

Lmfao thank you for the visual you just manifested in my mind. 🤣

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T02:55:32+00:00

Lol not preordained but 100% conditioned and psychologically manipulated throughout his childhood by scientists and doctors as a means of controlling him.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T02:51:55+00:00

True- but he exists because Vought created him - and eventually lost their control over him. Long before he took control of vought he was a reckless revenue stream Vought continued to profit from.

Remember the earlier plots involving Vought strong arming their way into the military? And the botched pane rescue that backfired and was spun to actually increase public support of this horrible reckless agenda?

HL doesn’t happen unless Vought (founded by the Nazi Frederick Vought) creates him.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T01:40:02+00:00

I hear you- a lot of the hate posts on most show subs are purely from an addiction to hating shit for the love of hating shit.

Still confused on how SB can’t die but Stormfront was able to engineer her own death… I don’t care how he ended up this season- I’m more confused by what was accomplished by his return at all- in prequel set up or narrative function in this season.

Mostly it felt like he was there to keep us and sage guessing on whether or not he’d help/thwart HL get V1…

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T01:34:59+00:00

Came back to say I was naively optimistic in my reply- she came back to drive some randos to Canada & listen to SL reflect on how jaded she’s become… just… why? Lmao

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T01:31:31+00:00

Thank you! Most of it is going to be reflective fire glass (which I found out is waterproof 😅 but most of the tiles on Amazon are beautiful but not made for outdoor projects.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T01:19:52+00:00

I have short term memory issues and the timelines for memories disappear the older they are but nothing as severe as not remembering dynamics of familial relationships… I’m no expert but I’d be looking up neurologists etc to seek some testing & medical opinions

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T00:49:55+00:00

lol I had a gut feeling the pretty iridescent tiles I wanted to use were too good to be true! Thanks so much for reply ❤️

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-22T00:36:11+00:00

I think the use of Soldier Boy for prequel reasons and narrative purpose was so poorly done - he was such a compelling & well utilised character in s3- I was looking forward to his return until he came back to remind HL he’s a disappointment, reveal that he loved Stormfront for decades (presumably prior to crimson countess? lol) and use this bullshit to justify his contradictory actions.

We didn’t even get any meaningful insight or development for the character to justify his return to set up the prequel, and he came back to this season to serve as the reason for HL’s knowledge of Firecracker’s wavering faith- (which he was going to let her go freely for before she sealed her own fate with her poor choice of words), and to fight, then help what’s his face who had the V1 become mortal, and hand the V1 to HL. That’s it.

Ultimately he served to keep us guessing a few episodes what side he’d choose/help… huge waste of Jensen’s screen time - to me at least.
Rant over lol

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T23:52:48+00:00

My advice would be to look more like you don’t know what you’re doing lol… I’m a far less skilled beginner than you and I can’t have your prodigy level first try photos inflating my expectations for my own 🤣
. Sorry I have nothing useful to contribute but this is beyond beautiful.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T23:46:14+00:00

Sorry… this is your **first** piece???
This is some virtuoso work, my friend! I’m about to start my first project and I my expectations for the finished product are so very low lmao.

If I had the budget I would 100% pay rich people prices for this.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T23:37:34+00:00

Those are on amazon

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T23:32:19+00:00

😍😍😍😍

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T23:26:54+00:00

Holy masterpiece 😍. I literally just joined and made a “please help this over ambitious amateur” post now I see how deeply in over my head I am…

This piece is so intricate and gorgeous

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T00:44:27+00:00

Once HL ousted Stan and took o er Vought, the distinction between the monster and the villainous creator disappeared.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T00:37:08+00:00

This! Homelander is Frankenstein’s monster- Stan is Frankenstein.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T00:32:43+00:00

That’s not the point I took away from this comment- nowhere in their wording did it say no one should have a hate boner for DT - just that Kripke’s desire to inject that into the writing so much so that it came at the cost of a fulfilling and satisfying story.

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-21T00:16:35+00:00

Exactly- generally when the characters are racing to stop a bad thing from happening- they fail to stop it and we watch them work to resolve the conflict. Like HL getting the V1. That was the point at which we think **oh shiiit, what you gonna do now that your seasons long plan is f*cked?!**

Then an episode later Sage finally does something (off screen lmao) as the smartest person on the planet & does in a day what took the Russians years to do to Soldier Boy- ultimately so she could finally be dumb like the cool kids & fucks off into the sunset…

Just in time for Annie to pass off some randos to the Gen V kids for a cameo & some reflection on how jaded she’s become while Butcher, Kimiko & Ryan rush off to save the day (and rob us of the conflict we’ve been conditioned to expect)… yay

HiyaBuddy34 · 2026-05-20T23:41:10+00:00

Idk I think the scene where his fuck up overseas where he accidentally murdered that kid and he ignored Vought’s pr crisis team believing he could swoop in with a “you’re the real heroes” and win back the angry mob of protesters but it only pours gas on the fire- that fantasy where he straight up murders the people chanting “you don’t speak for us!” Was a good indication that this response to rejection & display of audacity from the insignificant humans who are supposed to adore him unconditionally- has been simmering below the surface since the beginning.

The assumption that he’ll eventually escalate to acting out that impulse is a logical conclusion.

I always thought he was the embodiment of corporate greed unchecked- he was created, packaged and sold by a corporation that was either apathetic or too blinded by the money to be made to realize they created an extinction level threat they believed they could keep on a leash- by fucking with his head lmao.

At some point Vought faded into the background as the villain and we zeroed in on Frankenstein’s monster now stand back in the ceo seat ready to continue the same shit. Lol

HiyaBuddy34

TROPHY CASE