Out of all the Members of the Seven, the most lethal and powerful superhero would be the Homelander. He is of course the craziest of the lot too. His trademark psychosis is hidden behind his signature good looks. Vought has ensured that his PR is so bullet-proof that Homelander is but a Living God. The Superhero/Super Villain seems unstoppable and nigh invincible. Nothing can hurt him and nothing could stop him. Homelander is like a walking, breathing fortress. He lives to cause chaos and conquer. But Season 2 might have revealed a crucial detail on how to defeat Homelander in his own game.
Both the showrunner of The Boys Eric Kripke and the actor who plays the character Antony Starr have been asked the same question. The mortality of Homelander is a matter of grave concern. As long as he lives, the world will remain to be in turmoil. According to Kripke, Homelander cannot be defeated via traditional, physical means. The way to defeat Homelander is a psychological one. The concept of ‘Mind Over Matter’ comes into play here.
Also Read: The Boys Season 2: Here’s How Billy Butcher Kills Homelander
“At the moment there aren’t many physical ones, but there’s so many psychological ones that that’s what we kind of lean to,” Eric Kripke said. “Anthony has said many times, and I agree, that Homelander is the weakest character in the show. So we’ve never really gotten into the ‘How do you stop him physically?’ But there are a lot of ways to stop him psychologically.”
The first few episodes released on Amazon Prime for The Boys Season 2 has given us several hints confirming Kripke’s hypothesis. The only way Homelander could be put down is by attacking where he is the weakest – his fragile mind. Although he acts tough, we all know behind the scenes Homelander is just a scared little kid with daddy and mommy issues. He needs the acknowledgement from others. Even though he never tires of saying how proud he is of being a superhero, his extraordinary origin story has left him with no one he could actually call allies. People follow him not because they respect him but because they are afraid of him.
And Homelander knows it. He knows that he is cursed to remain a figure of agony and despair to the people closest to him. He constantly lashes out at them for this and has a very high degree of self-loathing. The only person who showed any form of affection to Homelander was Madelyn Stillwell, the late Vought CEO Homelander killed. Homelander had a child-like obsession with Stillwell, almost having a twisted maternal relationship with her.
For a long time after Stillwell’s passing, Homelander had no ‘family’ to fall back to. When he discovered he had a son with Becca, his entire world was turned upside down. He regained his human connection. Homelander despises the ordinary but deep down, we know he actually hates it because he can never have it. And that is how the Homelander could be brought down, according to Eric Kripke.
“He finds his human vulnerability so hateful and he hates that part of him and he tries to subsume it, and yet it is part of who he is.”
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So in order for Billy Butcher and his gang to take down the strongest superhero on Earth, they need to use this ‘human connection’ to get under Homelander’s skin. That is the only vulnerability worth exploring. Ryan is the key to take down Homelander. Eric Kripke may have revealed too much than he was originally supposed to in this interview.
Will Butcher use Becca’s son against Homelander? Can he stoop that low? Well…he kind of already has. And we mean A LOT OF TIMES. Using somebody’s son against a father is completely not beneath a man who has used a baby to slice down enemy gun-men.
That would be surely an epic way to take to bring the psychotic chap to his knees.
We had already discussed earlier on how the Homelander is not actually as invincible as we had originally thought him to be. His reign of pure terror has affected literally each and every member of the Seven. Queen Maeve, Starlight, the A-Train, the Deep, the Black Noir – everyone is sick and tired of the Homelander trying to get the better of them. It is a boiling pot. The Seven is a volatile team that is starting to show signs of mutiny. Stormfront, the newest addition to the Seven, has already sown seeds of dissent. Billy Butcher only needs to add a little fuel to the fire and watch it engulf Vought in flames and Homelander along with it.
In the original comic book arc, Homelander realizes that Vought made a clone of him and placed him as a double agent within the Seven. Black Noir has all the powers of Homelander and he has been masquerading as him, doing crimes the Homelander is later framed of. In the ensuing tussle, Homelander dies and Black Noir takes over the role. The only trouble is, Black Noir Homelander is even more psychotic and demented than the original one. Although the Amazon Prime series’ arc differs from the source material, we n=know for sure that in the comic books, one of the Seven killed him.
Related: The Boys: Why Homelander is So Terrified of Stormfront
If Billy Butcher plays his cards right, he could use Homelander’s only weakness against him. Homelander has developed a kindred relationship with his son. This is something the Boys could use in the long run. The only part where the Homelander is not vulnerable is his fragile psyche. Hurt it enough and the rest of the legend that is him will crumble down like a house of cards.
The first three episodes of The Boys is already streaming on Amazon Prime. The show stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk, Karen Fukuhara as The Female, Chance Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Dominique McElligot as Queen Maeve, and Aya Cash as Stormfront. A new episode will arrive every Friday on Amazon Prime.
Source: CBR
