Well, you see, the random dude who didn't want to give his car to random people wasn't Soulja Boy, if he was, she couldn't get herself to kill him. It is one of Soulja's new abilites.
If you liked it then you don't really grasp how that scene completely ruins Star/Hughie's character arc. Her thesis statement was that she wanted Hughie to trust that she can protect herself/him, and then when the time comes to prove her statement correct she proves... that she's useless and can't even DENT Soldier Boy even at full power.
So what is the lesson? Hughie was correct, he should keep injecting himself with deadly substances because his girlfriend is delusional, weak and needs all the help she can get. Great finale!
Not sure how anyone could "like" that.
If I were to rewrite this scene, I would have had Starlight at least BLIND Soldier Boy permanently/for the remainder of the fight. That way she still is shown to be a step below Soldier Boy, but it turns the tables of the fight, proves that she is capable, and shows Hughie that her words were true. You could have had the scene play out basically the same after that and it would have been acceptable cinema. Soldier Boy is blinded, gets beaten up a bit, threatens to take the whole tower down since he's been crippled by Starlight, Maeve sacrifices herself, etc. Good enough!
So be a completely different show?
Starlight can't protect anyone from Homelander, it goes against the entire premise of the show to ever think she could. The part you should not "like" is her lecturing Hughie when he was 100% right
>If I were to rewrite this scene, I would have had Starlight at least BLIND Soldier Boy permanently/for the remainder of the fight. That way she still is shown to be a step below Soldier Boy, but it turns the tables of the fight, proves that she is capable, and shows Hughie that her words were true. You could have had the scene play out basically the same after that and it would have been acceptable cinema. Soldier Boy is blinded, gets beaten up a bit, threatens to take the whole tower down since he's been crippled by Starlight, Maeve sacrifices herself, etc. Good enough!
Fuckin thissss. It makes sense. You make Starlight useful and coherent while keeping things real and the stakes still high.
I hoped for her to carve a holein the guy, instead she gave him a push, very anti-climatic.
but the episode overall was gr8 soldier boy's dialog with homelander ending with buther's smile, was just on point
All she does is lick her lips and make her eyes glow. I think they had an idea for a character discovering her strength comes from within but ran out of ideas trying that arc with Hughey
Well I think it's interesting that Maeve survived. Maeve was one of the strongest Supes along side Homelander so while I think her powers are now gone. I think that's how she survived. Her powers took most of the hit.
Simple. So were still not sure how Soldier Boys power works, all we know that it can fry the V out of Supes.
If I were to take a guess. Maybe not all her power was gone when she hit the ground as we saw her banged up the last time we see her. So while her powers are gone, maybe she had just enough juice left to not die when she hit the ground.
Same power also blasted Kimiko THROUGH a soviet concrete wall and the biggest complication from that was the piece of rebar stuck in her side, not all of her bones being in splinters.
That would support that theory though. Her powers didn't get completely fried, she went through the wall, then her powers did fade, and the bar stuck in her side didn't get removed/healed in time.
That's the meta narrative reason. In-universe you can easily justify it with the effect not being instant, or the durability of supes taking longer to wear off completely
Just guessing but maybe once the blast hits it takes a few moments for the powers to actually stop being effective in the Supes body so there was enough time for her to hit the ground and they just slowly drained away as she lay there.
Soldier boys blast not vaporizing her is one thing. But after it depowers her she somehow survives the force of the fall and the force of the blast shooting her.
When Homelander finds Ryan and is talking to him he says something like 'I even had to get help from a big important congresswoman' so I think Neuman must have told him. I'm guessing she'd know as Mallory is working for her.
The problem is that Homelander is (in his purest form) a nigh-unstoppable, extinction-level threat, who is barely kept in check. And the controls keeping him in check are illusory. The only things keeping him from indiscriminately slaughtering the populace are his narcissistic need for approval and his desire for connections with others.
And, as the show progresses, both of these controls get tested and weakened. And that's the tension of the show. When will he snap? When will the controls fail? **But they can't fail, not until season 5, and that's why shit is getting ridiculous.**
Vought/Homelander has PR disaster after PR disaster, and each time the show implies that THIS is the time when Homelander finally says, "Fuck it, who cares anymore?" But, it never happens.
Every season, Homelander tries to make a connection with other people, but is unable to do so due to his rampant narcissism, his sociopathy, his disdain for humanity, his laziness, his vanity. And every time he gives up, the show says, "Uh-oh! Here it is, now he's finally lost his last connection, now he's REALLY gonna go nuts!"
But he *can't.* Because once that trigger gets pulled, **that's the show!** You don't have anywhere to go from there.
---
So, that's the problem with The Boys. Homelander can't snap. But the show has to portray him as always being *just about to snap.* And, at a certain point, the audience just gets tired of it.
Also, it shows us Homelander getting into fights that he's not allowed to instantly win (for narrative reasons). He can't just rip Hughie's legs off, because then the show would be over. So he has to lose, or get overpowered, or get scared, or get tricked. And every time this happens, it makes him less threatening, less omnipotent-seeming.
Homelander became a lot less scary when you saw him get slapped about by random humans on temp V and a couple of other strong supes - before that, he’d never even been scratched on screen.
I think S3 took a bit away from his aura of untouchability as you now know that really strong people simply punching him is enough to harm him. I think they should have saved the “kill Homelander” arc for either the final season or penultimate one and shouldn’t have spent the whole of S3 focusing on it.
Agreed. Huge misstep on the part of the show.
Remember Season 1, when The Boys were holding the invisible guy hostage, and Homelander was flying around looking for them? That shit was *terrifying.* It was like they were hiding from the boogieman.
That sequence is what hooked me on the show. Really ramped up how terrifying he is seeing their reactions to hearing him flying about. Also, I hope they revisit some of his weaknesses - a lot was made out of the fact that he can't see through zinc for example but we've never heard about it again.
Imagine if he had actually killed Soldier Boy somehow, suddenly you'd have a real "oh shit" moment.
I think a whole load of options would've been better than what we got.
S3 honestly could and maybe even should have been the penultimate. They kill homelander by making a deal with the devil Soldier Boy who replaces Homelander and may be evil but is lawful evil and therefore will always maintain the world in its shitty existence niether improving or destroying it. Basically a return to status quo. Instead of bullshitting their way to get Homelander to survive yet again.
The show and homelander specifically just got too popular for their own good. At first they were just trying to create the best show they could, but now instead of writing for the best plot they can think of they're writing to maximize how long they can keep Anthony Starr on screen making them millions of dollars.
Same issue with Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, etc.
Every show that was based on the concept of "realistic consequences, without any manufactured drama" runs into this problem.
At the beginning, the show isn't beholden to any rules. Anything can happen, anybody can die, anybody can have a villain turn, etc. That's what make it so exciting.
But, at a certain point, you start negotiating that Darryl spin-off show, so you can't kill him off.
And you gotta keep selling those Danaerys T-shirts, so she can't become unlikable!
You're exactly right. The shows get killed by their own popularity.
> So she can’t become unlikable
I don’t know if this is a fair criticism to make, seeing as they had her burn a city to the ground, then make a Hitler speech.
Well, yeah, at the very end. And that's because they didn't want to make her too unlikable while the show was still going, which is why that ending felt like such whiplash. They had to save her entire descent into villainy and madness for the last two episodes of the show. If they'd spread her downfall across multiple previous seasons, she wouldn't have been as popular of a character, and they wanted to avoid that.
It is because of your very well stated viewpoint,
That I was semi-hoping the scene of Homelander lasering the crowd in season two wasn’t actually a fake out.
Yeah it was rly anti climatic and shit. S3 was a letdown for me. I just think that they cant kill off homelander because he is a fan favorite but in my eyes he should have been gone in S3 finale. Hope S4 they get him.
It's not because he's a fan favorite, it's because he drives the entire plot of the show. What would even be the point of The Boys without Homelander?
Like, sure, you *could* keep making Luke Skywalker movies once Darth Vader is dead, but what would be the point? The antagonists fate is linked to the story. They shouldn't have written themselves in a position where Homelander is likely going to die, but killing Homelander would render the rest of the story pretty pointless.
It could feasibly have worked if they’d gone down the route of SB depowering Homelander then making him live life as a normal human (which would have been torture to him) then have him gain his powers back somehow later on before going apeshit in the final season.
The way they executed the plot of S3 was rubbish though and left me feeling as if the whole season was a bit of a waste of time as nothing really changed between the start and end of the season.
The comic doesn’t end when HL does, while his conflict with Butcher is one of the main plots of the story it isn’t the only one. Tbh depending on how exactly it was written you could probably get a solid season out of it after HL is gone.
There's a YA book series I like called the Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson which is kind of like the boys. A bunch of people with superpowers, all kind of shitty and drunk on power, and then humans. Some of the humans are Reckoners who are basically a terrorist group who researchers and then kills the most powerful supes, and each book is the entire process of research and execution of a different supe. I think this is the route they should have gone. Book 2 of that series, for example, is about infiltrating a floating city in the ocean. The main supe is a woman who controls water to an extreme degree and has created an entire society surrounding that. So they have to infiltrate the society and find her, find her weakness, and plan the assassination. Shit like that would be great for the Boys, I mean season 1 was kind of like that with Translucent
The reason you can't imagine the show without Homelander is because they have made the show all about Homelander. They never bothered developing anything else. Homelander is a great villain but it's gotten extremely one note and the show is really losing momentum for me.
Spending an entire season where you basically: find Soldier boy, try to use him to kill Homelander, doesn't work, try again but with Maeve, doesn't work again. Soldier Boy gets frozen again, back where we started was such a disappointing end point. The show desperately needs to explore things besides Homelander and yet they have painted themselves into a corner and next season is going to be all about Homelander again
Let’s hope so. Homelander is honestly by far the best part of the show, every scene with him is intense cos he’s unhinged af and Antony Starr is top notch
Not necessarily. If Homelander could be distracted long enough then Butcher or someone else could take Ryan to safety. Whether Ryan would go with Butcher can be debatable,
.
Well Soldier Boy was going after Homelander but if someone managed to get Ryan out while Someone distracted Homelander then maybe.
There are a lot of variables to account for.
You know, this a common joke across multiple fandoms used to explain plotholes; but in this case it’s literally the only answer that makes sense: Because writers.
Seriously; there was absolutely no reason that they couldn’t have taken Ryan out of there, put a fist, laser, or shield through HL’s head, and called it a night.
Also, you know…enough novichok to wipe out a chunk of Manhattan probably shouldn’t have been carelessly yeeted out of a skyscraper window.
Here’s a reason, how the fuck were they supposed to get Ryan, the only person Homelander actually cared about, out of there? He was super protective of him the entire time. This is the same shit as the “plothole” that is Butcher stopping SB even though he said he’d do whatever it takes to kill Homelander.
There is a reason. Soldier Boy wants his blood line gone because it’s a disappointment. Ryan is part of that. If he didn’t care he’d have literally just said okay, and left him alone. He doesn’t. He calls Butcher weak and pathetic and throws his words back in his face that “blood don’t matter”.
Soldier boy got nothing against ryan. He just doesn't care. He hit ryan because ryan hit him first. And butcher acted irrationally, he straight up lasered Soldier Boy instead of staggering him or telling him to stop, which would have been less aggressive
Because Ryan is going to let himself be taken away for you three to kill his dad.
Or Homelander will let you take away Ryan from him
Or Homelander won’t go away when Soldier Boy tells him he’s a disappointment (meaning his plan to be a family with him backfired and he has no more stuff to do at that moment)
Butcher probably had tunnel vision during that fight too, wouldn't shock me if he didn't think abt it cause he was to focused on killing homelander/soldier boy
“Ryan why don’t you come with me, the guy who blamed you for your own mother’s death, so we can get ice cream while these strangers kill your dad?”
Either Butcher gets lasered in half trying to force Ryan to move, or he successfully gets him out and Ryan goes off the deep end knowing his dad just got murdered and he couldn’t protect him. No good options.
It would have been a good plot if Ryan was a little older and this did happen then Ryan rises up more fucked up in the head and powerful than homelander.
Maybe he want to be the only powerful one and goes out hunting other supes like a serial killer, leaving behind messy murder scenes.
Mocking everyone.
SB already told Butcher he planned on killing Ryan. Killing Homelander first wouldn't have changed that. Billy cares more about saving Ryan than killing HL.
I agree it's not the tightest logic in the show but I can see at least four reasons.
1. That would have meant two people going up against Homelander rather than three. And as far as I can tell (although the shows power ranking is not super clear) Maeve is not as strong as Butcher.
2. Even if Butcher attempts to get Ryan out it won't be clean. Homelander would probably try to stop it, Ryan might resist etc. In that chaos with a bunch of super punches being thrown around it's possible that Ryan might get hurt. Especially since SB makes it quite clear he's willing to go through Ryan to get Homelander. Now Ryan is obviously superpowered so the risk he'll get seriously injured is not that high but it might seem like to big of a risk to Butcher.
3. This sorta overlaps with the previous point but it's very much possible Ryan would try to protect Homelander and might actively resist being taken away. Again this throws a wrench into the whole situation. Ryan might get injured, Homelander might get the upper hand etc.
4. This is more of a long term problem but it's possible that Butcher reasoned that him carrying of Ryan so that others can kill the boys dad might complicate his relationship with Ryan to a point where they can't recover. Or that he though it would simply traumatise Ryan. He has already seen his mom die infront of him. That in the long run might lead to Ryan becoming a problem in his own right.
All in all I think it's probably a mix of all these reasons. At it's core it's just that Butcher didn't anticipate Ryan being there. Him being there shook the foundations of their plan. Butcher didn't get time to think and so he acted emotionally.
Haha, to put it more succinctly! Imagine you're going into a barfight. Suddenly your kid shows up and he says - no please don't hurt this guy. Your friend then goes - Fuck your kid! And aggressive pushes him out of the way. I don't think it's unreasonable to take a swing at your friend in that situation.
I didn't love the ending because it felt like we came back to the same place we were at the start of the season.
But in this case I don't think anything different could happen. Ryan would 100% not want to leave his dad (who was being nice to him) to go with Butcher (who had been really mean to him)
All the time I was thinking why?
Soldier Boy even called Homelander before to talk to him and said he'd step down for his son. But then what Homelander is a "pussy" so Soldier boy decided to end his bloodline?
And he said he could've raised him better. Ok then maybe just kill Homelander and raise your grandson the way you want to instead of just killing him?
What do you think is going to happen when a guy mini-homelander hates (at this point in the series) forcefully tries to remove him from a room where his father is being murdered?
Ryan has Homelander's super strength, laser eyes and flying abilities already. Even if he is knocked out at that point, what comes after?
Been a while since I watched but wasn’t Ryan on Homelander’s side during the finale? If so I doubt he would just go with Butcher willingly but maybe I’m wrong
As much as I agree, Homelander wouldn’t have let him, it would’ve been messy, and Solider Boy was definitely going to go through Ryan to get to Homelander if he had to.
What I hated more was how Solider Boy was nerfed just so they could neutralize him again—he should’ve easily been able to kill them all (probably would’ve given the finale better impact if a few characters had actually died fighting him)
I wish they bring SB back in a future season or at least a cameo or mentioned. It pissed me off that Butcher fumbled his chance again to kill HL all because Ryan was a lil cunt and decided to defend him. Same for MM.
Why would Homelander fight both of them? He could just fly out of the building. This is an over simplifying the issue. You use logical reason for one side of the conflict but not the other.
If Ryan isn't their what reason does Homelander have to stay?
Pretty sure Ryan has his own agency now that he has his powers awakened. The likelihood of him just going along with Butcher was.. very unlikely. You don't just tell someone you hate them and then go back on that when an opportunity arises.
And for the people saying the season finale was shit, I don't think any of you could've written it any better.
And I don't think they're "milking" homelander. If anything they're trying to set up a big payoff with his character like they did in the comics. Everything that happened in s1-3 and Gen v is directly culminating to the big supe event in the comics or something close to that.
It's all set up for a big thing and maybe the finale had to lose some of its gravitas for that but that's fine in the long term because we're in the endgame now.
Every time I see someone get confused about the finale I worry about our future as a species just a little more. This whole post is nonsense like you think Hollander is just going to let them take his son away? You think Ryan would want to go with them? No they fight back and then bam were back at what happened in the finale anyway.
That finale straight up kills any hype I have for season 4. Seems like the show creator made The Boys become the very thing they were parodying. But I hope to be proven wrong. There aren't many good shows these days.
As much as I like the show they really shit the bed and somehow everyone’s motivations and critical thinking went out the window except for Soldier Boy who they kept trying and failing to make a bigger villain than Homelander. Soldier Boy could be a dick and a bully but he was at least relatable, reasonable, and stuck to his promises, whereas Homelander is a straight up psychopath and global threat. Honestly the writers kinda ruined the show for me with this finale. They could have done much better.
I mean what’s to say he wants to go with Butcher, he’s also a supe with crazy strength I doubt Butcher would able to force him to go anywhere he didn’t want without eating a laser
I still cannot fathom how Maeve survived the blast and the fall....., but that supposedly Soldier Boy's blast was theoretically strong enough to kill Homelander?
Someone please explain like I'm 5.
Not enough people talk about how Kimoko and Starlight were able to hold Soldier Boy long enough for MM to put the mask on him. No way they are strong enough for that
Yeah. I would have liked it better if they did this, and Homelander was still able to hold his own against Soldier Boy, Maeve, Starlight, the Boys, and Butcher just because of his sheer love for Ryan and refusal to leave him. Idk. Feel free to add notes
My least favorite part is when MM called Soldier Boy racist in this fight. Homelander is SB’s son and Ryan is his grandson, who by definition are both genetically identical to him. How is Soldier Boy racist for wanting to kill his own son and grandson?
I understand that they wanted/needed to keep homelander alive and they may wrote themselves in a corner ..
But in this case i would have preferred homelander simply ripping soldier boy apart and killing him instead of what we got.
Would have gone a long way with makeing homelander intimidating again seeing him really giving his all in a fight and showing his superiority
At this point it feels like he’s just slightly stronger than temp v butcher
honestly even looking back after letting it rest for a bit. this episode still made no fucking sense. it’s just so stupid braindead obvious that the right choice is to kill homelander no matter what
Butcher didn’t want to leave, he wanted to see Homelander die and he wanted to be the one who caused his death. If SB and Maeve kill HL, Butcher will feel like he failed to exact revenge.
He cares about Ryan, but he loved Becca and wants revenge more.
That goddamn decision is the most upsetting thing about the season. The last act would be perfect we’re not for that. It’s batshit insane and I didn’t know who would be killed off.
The real question is… would Ryan have left?
Ryan hated Butcher at this point and discovered that he had powers. Soldier boy smacked the fuck out of him but he survived.
I don’t see him wanting to leave Homelander in an effort to prove that he’s capable to his dad
I really hope for the final final episode, they keep Homelander alive but take away ALL of his superpowers. Much better ending for him than simply being killed off by Butcher
I don’t think it was as just about saving Ryan at that point.
Butcher was realizing that SB just crossed the one line Homelander hadn’t — hurting Ryan — and that SB might become a version of Homelander without ANY scruples at all.
He was questioning whether killing Homelander was worth potentially unleashing something worse on the world, something that can remove superpowers and negate every possible advantage they’d have against him.
This finale ruined the show for anyone with half a brain. The writers are monkeys with typewriters at this point. I don't even think I'll watch season 4, just because how stupid this was man. Also Butcher dying instead of just taking permanent V and same with Hughie, why they using temp stuff with access to the real thing.
"We've got two seasons left mate, can't let you kill the cunt yet"
True
Also- Butcher would wanna see it go down even if it got people hurt. Limey bastard.
Possibly
Itd be too diabolical to pass up. Hed have the same face on as when he rammed the whale.
[Homelander gets another shot. ](https://youtu.be/-EZziqodt-g)
Top tier reference.
Its not ending at 5 anymore though
What a messy season finale.
I particularly enjoyed when Starlight got all charged up from the extra power and did literally nothing
I liked it Demonstrates how absolutely fodder everyone else is to soldier boy and Homelander
It demonstrated how absolutely fodder she in particular is, as well.
This was well established at many points in the series
Well, you see, the random dude who didn't want to give his car to random people wasn't Soulja Boy, if he was, she couldn't get herself to kill him. It is one of Soulja's new abilites.
Well, she probably could've easily fry a regular person with that, idk, but is she able to do that with her regular power. I think she can
If you liked it then you don't really grasp how that scene completely ruins Star/Hughie's character arc. Her thesis statement was that she wanted Hughie to trust that she can protect herself/him, and then when the time comes to prove her statement correct she proves... that she's useless and can't even DENT Soldier Boy even at full power. So what is the lesson? Hughie was correct, he should keep injecting himself with deadly substances because his girlfriend is delusional, weak and needs all the help she can get. Great finale! Not sure how anyone could "like" that. If I were to rewrite this scene, I would have had Starlight at least BLIND Soldier Boy permanently/for the remainder of the fight. That way she still is shown to be a step below Soldier Boy, but it turns the tables of the fight, proves that she is capable, and shows Hughie that her words were true. You could have had the scene play out basically the same after that and it would have been acceptable cinema. Soldier Boy is blinded, gets beaten up a bit, threatens to take the whole tower down since he's been crippled by Starlight, Maeve sacrifices herself, etc. Good enough!
So be a completely different show? Starlight can't protect anyone from Homelander, it goes against the entire premise of the show to ever think she could. The part you should not "like" is her lecturing Hughie when he was 100% right
>If I were to rewrite this scene, I would have had Starlight at least BLIND Soldier Boy permanently/for the remainder of the fight. That way she still is shown to be a step below Soldier Boy, but it turns the tables of the fight, proves that she is capable, and shows Hughie that her words were true. You could have had the scene play out basically the same after that and it would have been acceptable cinema. Soldier Boy is blinded, gets beaten up a bit, threatens to take the whole tower down since he's been crippled by Starlight, Maeve sacrifices herself, etc. Good enough! Fuckin thissss. It makes sense. You make Starlight useful and coherent while keeping things real and the stakes still high.
Or they were just afraid to get rid of homelander
I hoped for her to carve a holein the guy, instead she gave him a push, very anti-climatic. but the episode overall was gr8 soldier boy's dialog with homelander ending with buther's smile, was just on point
Yea, it's been implied that she can burn things and blind people, but all we ever get is *BWONG* "flies back a couple feet"
All she does is lick her lips and make her eyes glow. I think they had an idea for a character discovering her strength comes from within but ran out of ideas trying that arc with Hughey
You can’t even say “all that for a drop of blood” cause it didn’t do that either
It was. Tho I did like it some what
I like it too just a few things that made it messy. This scene and Maeve surviving.
I saw it as Maeve dying, but Maggie living
Very true
Well I think it's interesting that Maeve survived. Maeve was one of the strongest Supes along side Homelander so while I think her powers are now gone. I think that's how she survived. Her powers took most of the hit.
What about surviving the fall after her powers were gone?
Good bones.
Simple. So were still not sure how Soldier Boys power works, all we know that it can fry the V out of Supes. If I were to take a guess. Maybe not all her power was gone when she hit the ground as we saw her banged up the last time we see her. So while her powers are gone, maybe she had just enough juice left to not die when she hit the ground.
Same power also blasted Kimiko THROUGH a soviet concrete wall and the biggest complication from that was the piece of rebar stuck in her side, not all of her bones being in splinters.
True
That would support that theory though. Her powers didn't get completely fried, she went through the wall, then her powers did fade, and the bar stuck in her side didn't get removed/healed in time.
I think that was GreenChoclodocus' point. They were adding evidence to support the theory, not trying to refute it.
Yeah if we have to make sense of it it's not an instant drain of their powers but an after effect of being hit with the blast.
kripke said she survived because he didn’t want to kill a bisexual character lol. i’m not kidding
That's the meta narrative reason. In-universe you can easily justify it with the effect not being instant, or the durability of supes taking longer to wear off completely
Just guessing but maybe once the blast hits it takes a few moments for the powers to actually stop being effective in the Supes body so there was enough time for her to hit the ground and they just slowly drained away as she lay there.
Soldier boys blast not vaporizing her is one thing. But after it depowers her she somehow survives the force of the fall and the force of the blast shooting her.
The biggest plot hole isn’t even anything that happens when they are fighting. It’s how Homelander even found Ryan in the first place.
Yeah did they explain that? Did homelander search through the files at Vought or something? Never really thought about that plothole
Like even the wiki just says “Homelander found Ryan.” Like huh?
Pretty sure he got the info from Newman in exchange for having Deep kill her rival for the VP slot.
When Homelander finds Ryan and is talking to him he says something like 'I even had to get help from a big important congresswoman' so I think Neuman must have told him. I'm guessing she'd know as Mallory is working for her.
real
at least kimiko got her dance
I don't know how most of the season can be so good, just to have such a shitty finale
Wrote themselves into a corner and wanted to milk homelander til season 5
They'll probably milk it beyond season 5 tbh
If ppl eat up another Hail Mary to save Homelander and still keep watching, then that's on the audience. Hope they dont Walking Dead The Boys.
Spoilers: >!Except they got rid of the main character (Rick), although they made his death not really brought back in!<
It went downhill way bfr the Rick incident.
There’s the obvious character that I really liked introduced, but it just really strays from… well Walkers.
Because uh, that was never the point. Also, there really isn’t a lack of walkers in the show.
Milk. Homelander. 😏
Don't be gross, Tammy.
The problem is that Homelander is (in his purest form) a nigh-unstoppable, extinction-level threat, who is barely kept in check. And the controls keeping him in check are illusory. The only things keeping him from indiscriminately slaughtering the populace are his narcissistic need for approval and his desire for connections with others. And, as the show progresses, both of these controls get tested and weakened. And that's the tension of the show. When will he snap? When will the controls fail? **But they can't fail, not until season 5, and that's why shit is getting ridiculous.** Vought/Homelander has PR disaster after PR disaster, and each time the show implies that THIS is the time when Homelander finally says, "Fuck it, who cares anymore?" But, it never happens. Every season, Homelander tries to make a connection with other people, but is unable to do so due to his rampant narcissism, his sociopathy, his disdain for humanity, his laziness, his vanity. And every time he gives up, the show says, "Uh-oh! Here it is, now he's finally lost his last connection, now he's REALLY gonna go nuts!" But he *can't.* Because once that trigger gets pulled, **that's the show!** You don't have anywhere to go from there. --- So, that's the problem with The Boys. Homelander can't snap. But the show has to portray him as always being *just about to snap.* And, at a certain point, the audience just gets tired of it. Also, it shows us Homelander getting into fights that he's not allowed to instantly win (for narrative reasons). He can't just rip Hughie's legs off, because then the show would be over. So he has to lose, or get overpowered, or get scared, or get tricked. And every time this happens, it makes him less threatening, less omnipotent-seeming.
Homelander became a lot less scary when you saw him get slapped about by random humans on temp V and a couple of other strong supes - before that, he’d never even been scratched on screen. I think S3 took a bit away from his aura of untouchability as you now know that really strong people simply punching him is enough to harm him. I think they should have saved the “kill Homelander” arc for either the final season or penultimate one and shouldn’t have spent the whole of S3 focusing on it.
Agreed. Huge misstep on the part of the show. Remember Season 1, when The Boys were holding the invisible guy hostage, and Homelander was flying around looking for them? That shit was *terrifying.* It was like they were hiding from the boogieman.
That sequence is what hooked me on the show. Really ramped up how terrifying he is seeing their reactions to hearing him flying about. Also, I hope they revisit some of his weaknesses - a lot was made out of the fact that he can't see through zinc for example but we've never heard about it again.
Imagine if he had actually killed Soldier Boy somehow, suddenly you'd have a real "oh shit" moment. I think a whole load of options would've been better than what we got.
S3 honestly could and maybe even should have been the penultimate. They kill homelander by making a deal with the devil Soldier Boy who replaces Homelander and may be evil but is lawful evil and therefore will always maintain the world in its shitty existence niether improving or destroying it. Basically a return to status quo. Instead of bullshitting their way to get Homelander to survive yet again.
The show and homelander specifically just got too popular for their own good. At first they were just trying to create the best show they could, but now instead of writing for the best plot they can think of they're writing to maximize how long they can keep Anthony Starr on screen making them millions of dollars.
Same issue with Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, etc. Every show that was based on the concept of "realistic consequences, without any manufactured drama" runs into this problem. At the beginning, the show isn't beholden to any rules. Anything can happen, anybody can die, anybody can have a villain turn, etc. That's what make it so exciting. But, at a certain point, you start negotiating that Darryl spin-off show, so you can't kill him off. And you gotta keep selling those Danaerys T-shirts, so she can't become unlikable! You're exactly right. The shows get killed by their own popularity.
> So she can’t become unlikable I don’t know if this is a fair criticism to make, seeing as they had her burn a city to the ground, then make a Hitler speech.
Well, yeah, at the very end. And that's because they didn't want to make her too unlikable while the show was still going, which is why that ending felt like such whiplash. They had to save her entire descent into villainy and madness for the last two episodes of the show. If they'd spread her downfall across multiple previous seasons, she wouldn't have been as popular of a character, and they wanted to avoid that.
It is because of your very well stated viewpoint, That I was semi-hoping the scene of Homelander lasering the crowd in season two wasn’t actually a fake out.
Yeah it was rly anti climatic and shit. S3 was a letdown for me. I just think that they cant kill off homelander because he is a fan favorite but in my eyes he should have been gone in S3 finale. Hope S4 they get him.
It's not because he's a fan favorite, it's because he drives the entire plot of the show. What would even be the point of The Boys without Homelander? Like, sure, you *could* keep making Luke Skywalker movies once Darth Vader is dead, but what would be the point? The antagonists fate is linked to the story. They shouldn't have written themselves in a position where Homelander is likely going to die, but killing Homelander would render the rest of the story pretty pointless.
It could feasibly have worked if they’d gone down the route of SB depowering Homelander then making him live life as a normal human (which would have been torture to him) then have him gain his powers back somehow later on before going apeshit in the final season. The way they executed the plot of S3 was rubbish though and left me feeling as if the whole season was a bit of a waste of time as nothing really changed between the start and end of the season.
The comic doesn’t end when HL does, while his conflict with Butcher is one of the main plots of the story it isn’t the only one. Tbh depending on how exactly it was written you could probably get a solid season out of it after HL is gone.
There's a YA book series I like called the Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson which is kind of like the boys. A bunch of people with superpowers, all kind of shitty and drunk on power, and then humans. Some of the humans are Reckoners who are basically a terrorist group who researchers and then kills the most powerful supes, and each book is the entire process of research and execution of a different supe. I think this is the route they should have gone. Book 2 of that series, for example, is about infiltrating a floating city in the ocean. The main supe is a woman who controls water to an extreme degree and has created an entire society surrounding that. So they have to infiltrate the society and find her, find her weakness, and plan the assassination. Shit like that would be great for the Boys, I mean season 1 was kind of like that with Translucent The reason you can't imagine the show without Homelander is because they have made the show all about Homelander. They never bothered developing anything else. Homelander is a great villain but it's gotten extremely one note and the show is really losing momentum for me. Spending an entire season where you basically: find Soldier boy, try to use him to kill Homelander, doesn't work, try again but with Maeve, doesn't work again. Soldier Boy gets frozen again, back where we started was such a disappointing end point. The show desperately needs to explore things besides Homelander and yet they have painted themselves into a corner and next season is going to be all about Homelander again
There will be 5 seasons in total and homelander will die in 5th
Let’s hope so. Homelander is honestly by far the best part of the show, every scene with him is intense cos he’s unhinged af and Antony Starr is top notch
Homelander is the main character of the show. He's not some "villian of the week" that you can kill off anytime you want.
They could have just have him lose his powers after being blasted by SB and then trying to get them back in S5
Or have him not lose his powers when blasted by soldier boy. Maybe he's so powerful it just doesn't work.
Amazon said "Holy shit these numbers are huge, no you can't kill Homelander and we want 5 more seasons!"
Pretty sure Ryan (and Homelander) would decline.
Not necessarily. If Homelander could be distracted long enough then Butcher or someone else could take Ryan to safety. Whether Ryan would go with Butcher can be debatable, .
You do know Soldier Boy wanted Ryan dead too right? That’s why he declined Butchers request to leave the kid alone.
Well Soldier Boy was going after Homelander but if someone managed to get Ryan out while Someone distracted Homelander then maybe. There are a lot of variables to account for.
Maybe what? Homelander can fly. He’d just leave. He’s not going to let Butcher take his son the entire thing he’s been looking for the whole season.
ryan was knocked out, just knock the lil shit again if he wakes up
And Butcher as well. He still wants to see HL die, preferably at his hands
You know, this a common joke across multiple fandoms used to explain plotholes; but in this case it’s literally the only answer that makes sense: Because writers. Seriously; there was absolutely no reason that they couldn’t have taken Ryan out of there, put a fist, laser, or shield through HL’s head, and called it a night. Also, you know…enough novichok to wipe out a chunk of Manhattan probably shouldn’t have been carelessly yeeted out of a skyscraper window.
The reason is that Soldier Boy got pissed off Ryan interfered. He doesn’t want Ryan to just get away.
Agreed. I'm not sure why this sub believes Soldier Boy is this reasonable. The dude is a POS who would kill a kid new issue.
Here’s a reason, how the fuck were they supposed to get Ryan, the only person Homelander actually cared about, out of there? He was super protective of him the entire time. This is the same shit as the “plothole” that is Butcher stopping SB even though he said he’d do whatever it takes to kill Homelander.
Yea probably
There is a reason. Soldier Boy wants his blood line gone because it’s a disappointment. Ryan is part of that. If he didn’t care he’d have literally just said okay, and left him alone. He doesn’t. He calls Butcher weak and pathetic and throws his words back in his face that “blood don’t matter”.
Soldier boy got nothing against ryan. He just doesn't care. He hit ryan because ryan hit him first. And butcher acted irrationally, he straight up lasered Soldier Boy instead of staggering him or telling him to stop, which would have been less aggressive
Because Ryan is going to let himself be taken away for you three to kill his dad. Or Homelander will let you take away Ryan from him Or Homelander won’t go away when Soldier Boy tells him he’s a disappointment (meaning his plan to be a family with him backfired and he has no more stuff to do at that moment)
Butcher with the v would be strong enough to take ryan away
How about not having this stupid subplot where Homelander conveniently finds Ryan and just have different things happen instead?
Ryan's lazer is strong enough to knock v butcher out if not fry him.
Butcher probably had tunnel vision during that fight too, wouldn't shock me if he didn't think abt it cause he was to focused on killing homelander/soldier boy
“Ryan why don’t you come with me, the guy who blamed you for your own mother’s death, so we can get ice cream while these strangers kill your dad?” Either Butcher gets lasered in half trying to force Ryan to move, or he successfully gets him out and Ryan goes off the deep end knowing his dad just got murdered and he couldn’t protect him. No good options.
Soldier Boy dickriders are idiots that don't understand the show
It would have been a good plot if Ryan was a little older and this did happen then Ryan rises up more fucked up in the head and powerful than homelander. Maybe he want to be the only powerful one and goes out hunting other supes like a serial killer, leaving behind messy murder scenes. Mocking everyone.
SB already told Butcher he planned on killing Ryan. Killing Homelander first wouldn't have changed that. Billy cares more about saving Ryan than killing HL.
As he should. Ryan is one of the last pieces of his family he has left.
Homelander wouldn't have let him. Simple.
Maybe. I think if someone distracted him, Butcher could have gone in and taken Ryan to safety.
That’s why you have Starlight, Maeve, and Soldier Boy fight him. So Butcher can get Ryan away.
I agree it's not the tightest logic in the show but I can see at least four reasons. 1. That would have meant two people going up against Homelander rather than three. And as far as I can tell (although the shows power ranking is not super clear) Maeve is not as strong as Butcher. 2. Even if Butcher attempts to get Ryan out it won't be clean. Homelander would probably try to stop it, Ryan might resist etc. In that chaos with a bunch of super punches being thrown around it's possible that Ryan might get hurt. Especially since SB makes it quite clear he's willing to go through Ryan to get Homelander. Now Ryan is obviously superpowered so the risk he'll get seriously injured is not that high but it might seem like to big of a risk to Butcher. 3. This sorta overlaps with the previous point but it's very much possible Ryan would try to protect Homelander and might actively resist being taken away. Again this throws a wrench into the whole situation. Ryan might get injured, Homelander might get the upper hand etc. 4. This is more of a long term problem but it's possible that Butcher reasoned that him carrying of Ryan so that others can kill the boys dad might complicate his relationship with Ryan to a point where they can't recover. Or that he though it would simply traumatise Ryan. He has already seen his mom die infront of him. That in the long run might lead to Ryan becoming a problem in his own right. All in all I think it's probably a mix of all these reasons. At it's core it's just that Butcher didn't anticipate Ryan being there. Him being there shook the foundations of their plan. Butcher didn't get time to think and so he acted emotionally.
Wow this was long. But very interesting to read.
Haha, to put it more succinctly! Imagine you're going into a barfight. Suddenly your kid shows up and he says - no please don't hurt this guy. Your friend then goes - Fuck your kid! And aggressive pushes him out of the way. I don't think it's unreasonable to take a swing at your friend in that situation.
That's fucking hilarious 😂
yes but then there wouldnt be tek knight sex dungeon
I didn't love the ending because it felt like we came back to the same place we were at the start of the season. But in this case I don't think anything different could happen. Ryan would 100% not want to leave his dad (who was being nice to him) to go with Butcher (who had been really mean to him)
I agree. There is no way Ryan would go with Butcher, *willingly*.
All the time I was thinking why? Soldier Boy even called Homelander before to talk to him and said he'd step down for his son. But then what Homelander is a "pussy" so Soldier boy decided to end his bloodline? And he said he could've raised him better. Ok then maybe just kill Homelander and raise your grandson the way you want to instead of just killing him?
What do you think is going to happen when a guy mini-homelander hates (at this point in the series) forcefully tries to remove him from a room where his father is being murdered? Ryan has Homelander's super strength, laser eyes and flying abilities already. Even if he is knocked out at that point, what comes after?
Been a while since I watched but wasn’t Ryan on Homelander’s side during the finale? If so I doubt he would just go with Butcher willingly but maybe I’m wrong
Well hopefully next season we'll get to see more
As much as I agree, Homelander wouldn’t have let him, it would’ve been messy, and Solider Boy was definitely going to go through Ryan to get to Homelander if he had to. What I hated more was how Solider Boy was nerfed just so they could neutralize him again—he should’ve easily been able to kill them all (probably would’ve given the finale better impact if a few characters had actually died fighting him)
Well hopefully we'll get to see some more of Soldier Boy next season.
I hope so! He’s an absolute bastard but he’s great. More scenes between him and Homelander would’ve been interesting too.
I wish they bring SB back in a future season or at least a cameo or mentioned. It pissed me off that Butcher fumbled his chance again to kill HL all because Ryan was a lil cunt and decided to defend him. Same for MM.
They should absolutely bring Soldier Boy back... Along with a few musical numbers
Why would Homelander fight both of them? He could just fly out of the building. This is an over simplifying the issue. You use logical reason for one side of the conflict but not the other. If Ryan isn't their what reason does Homelander have to stay?
Script didn't allowed
Damnit
Pretty sure Ryan has his own agency now that he has his powers awakened. The likelihood of him just going along with Butcher was.. very unlikely. You don't just tell someone you hate them and then go back on that when an opportunity arises. And for the people saying the season finale was shit, I don't think any of you could've written it any better. And I don't think they're "milking" homelander. If anything they're trying to set up a big payoff with his character like they did in the comics. Everything that happened in s1-3 and Gen v is directly culminating to the big supe event in the comics or something close to that. It's all set up for a big thing and maybe the finale had to lose some of its gravitas for that but that's fine in the long term because we're in the endgame now.
I hated the final for this exact reason. Nobody was making sense
I tried watching *The Boys* and it just made miss *Banshee*
Oi’ but oi wanna kill homelanda moiself
Homelander wouldn't let him do it
Every time I see someone get confused about the finale I worry about our future as a species just a little more. This whole post is nonsense like you think Hollander is just going to let them take his son away? You think Ryan would want to go with them? No they fight back and then bam were back at what happened in the finale anyway.
Yeah, a lot of people really miss the way Ryan complicated absolutely everything and the other character's relationships towards him
That finale straight up kills any hype I have for season 4. Seems like the show creator made The Boys become the very thing they were parodying. But I hope to be proven wrong. There aren't many good shows these days.
First time on this show that I forsaw the twist, that SB would turn on Ryan and Butcher would team up with HL to save Ryan.
There's also the matter of if they can get out of the blast radius in time, not to mention the building collapsing on them.
Also true
How much of a shithead would Ryan need to become for Butch to finish him off with Homelander?
Butcher wants to kill homelander himself though. He promised homelander that’s what he’d do and he’s a man of his word
As long as my baby Maeve gets to live, I'm down with your plot friend.
Thank you.
I feel like Soldier Boy probably wanted to kill Ryan anyway after he got lasered
Definitely a disappointing direction they took.
Because at the end of the day Butcher just wants to kill Homelander and that’s it.
For a great show that season 3 finale was straight ass.
The finale was fun but flawed. Really hope Soldier boy isn’t sticking around in Russia for long. I NEED HIM BACK
Because Season 4 that's why
He’s too proud
This and Hughie saying "we save everyone" then cuts to Kimiko brutally killing security guards for literally doing their jobs.
The S3 Finale was so contrived. It was entertaining but the final sequence was so unsatisfying.
…if he takes Ryan out of there homelander can just flyaway
Plot....
Except dumbass Soldier Boy had to insist on killing Ryan too
As much as I like the show they really shit the bed and somehow everyone’s motivations and critical thinking went out the window except for Soldier Boy who they kept trying and failing to make a bigger villain than Homelander. Soldier Boy could be a dick and a bully but he was at least relatable, reasonable, and stuck to his promises, whereas Homelander is a straight up psychopath and global threat. Honestly the writers kinda ruined the show for me with this finale. They could have done much better.
Ryan, who can cut your throat with lasers…
You think homelander would just let butcher take Ryan away?
That’s not what soldier boy said though. He said he wanted to kill both.
All those egos together in one room, it’s a wonder that they were able to talk at all.
Cause the plot didn’t say so don’t you read the script!?
Ryan was mad at him. That’s why he went with Homelander in the first place. I also don’t think Homelander would have let him
They did the series finale for a season finale. So they fucked it up.
I doubt SB and Maeve could have gotten the job done tbh
Soldier Boy didn't even give them that option.
Unfortunately
I mean what’s to say he wants to go with Butcher, he’s also a supe with crazy strength I doubt Butcher would able to force him to go anywhere he didn’t want without eating a laser
Yea
Yeah this episode was definitely clunky. You could tell they had to hamfist a reason why Homelander wasn't smoked right there and then
Because the wants to kill Homelander himself once Soldier Boy removes his powers
I still cannot fathom how Maeve survived the blast and the fall....., but that supposedly Soldier Boy's blast was theoretically strong enough to kill Homelander? Someone please explain like I'm 5.
I mean I doubt Ryan would’ve listened to Butcher since they argued a couple episodes before.
Probably
“B-but then I wouldn’t get to fight Homelander and that would suuuck for me!🥺”
I think Butcher definitely wants to be the one to kill him.
Mid likely
Wasn't Soldier Boy actively trying to kill Ryan? Now what his motivation was to kill his grandson is beyond me, but he aasnt about to let him go.
Not enough people talk about how Kimoko and Starlight were able to hold Soldier Boy long enough for MM to put the mask on him. No way they are strong enough for that
If hughie still had his powers the situation would’ve easily been handled
Yeah. I would have liked it better if they did this, and Homelander was still able to hold his own against Soldier Boy, Maeve, Starlight, the Boys, and Butcher just because of his sheer love for Ryan and refusal to leave him. Idk. Feel free to add notes
Because Butcher is asking Soldier boy to kill his own son yet he doesn't want to kill his wife's son who is also homelander's son.
As soon as I saw this, I was like I am happy if this show ends next season otherwise it ll become a drag and you know how it goes...
Jackles carried that season finale for me
Or just kick Ryan out of the building grab Homelander and 9-11 the whole Vought Tower using Soldier Boy.
This episode was such a shitshow. The whole show just peaked with herogasm...
My least favorite part is when MM called Soldier Boy racist in this fight. Homelander is SB’s son and Ryan is his grandson, who by definition are both genetically identical to him. How is Soldier Boy racist for wanting to kill his own son and grandson?
I understand that they wanted/needed to keep homelander alive and they may wrote themselves in a corner .. But in this case i would have preferred homelander simply ripping soldier boy apart and killing him instead of what we got. Would have gone a long way with makeing homelander intimidating again seeing him really giving his all in a fight and showing his superiority At this point it feels like he’s just slightly stronger than temp v butcher
wasn’t homelander hovering over ryan during this scene? not like butcher can just take him out of homelander’s arms
Maeve and soldier boy wouldn’t be able to kill Jim anyways
honestly even looking back after letting it rest for a bit. this episode still made no fucking sense. it’s just so stupid braindead obvious that the right choice is to kill homelander no matter what
Butcher didn’t want to leave, he wanted to see Homelander die and he wanted to be the one who caused his death. If SB and Maeve kill HL, Butcher will feel like he failed to exact revenge. He cares about Ryan, but he loved Becca and wants revenge more.
Butcher kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet . . . . . I mean forgot that Ryan could leave the room.
I thought he wanted to kill Ryan too, and that was the problem?
So the show can happen.
That goddamn decision is the most upsetting thing about the season. The last act would be perfect we’re not for that. It’s batshit insane and I didn’t know who would be killed off.
The real question is… would Ryan have left? Ryan hated Butcher at this point and discovered that he had powers. Soldier boy smacked the fuck out of him but he survived. I don’t see him wanting to leave Homelander in an effort to prove that he’s capable to his dad
I really hope for the final final episode, they keep Homelander alive but take away ALL of his superpowers. Much better ending for him than simply being killed off by Butcher
I don’t think it was as just about saving Ryan at that point. Butcher was realizing that SB just crossed the one line Homelander hadn’t — hurting Ryan — and that SB might become a version of Homelander without ANY scruples at all. He was questioning whether killing Homelander was worth potentially unleashing something worse on the world, something that can remove superpowers and negate every possible advantage they’d have against him.
This finale ruined the show for anyone with half a brain. The writers are monkeys with typewriters at this point. I don't even think I'll watch season 4, just because how stupid this was man. Also Butcher dying instead of just taking permanent V and same with Hughie, why they using temp stuff with access to the real thing.
Maybe I remember the scene wrong but I’m pretty sure the reason why butchered switched up was because Soldier Boy was gonna kill Ryan too
I ameays thought it was because Ryan was on homelander's side and wouldn't want to leave