I keep seeing this sentiment repeated online along the lines of, āfeel bad for John, not Homelander.ā And it frustrates me to put it lightly.
John and Homelander are not different people, they are not different characters. There is no innocent child John trapped inside a Homelander shaped shell. Homelander is not some foreign spirit possessing the body of innocent lab-rat John. Homelander is John. period. In just the same fucking way that āeffectā cannot exist in isolation from ācause,ā Homelander cannot exist in isolation from John, because every awful thing that Homelander is, is the direct causal result of every awful thing that happened to John.
Because Homelander literally could not be Homelander if he was not John.
Saying āfeel for John, not for Homelanderā cowardly and strategically avoids confronting the scary fact that even ābadā people, people who you hate, might actually deserve empathy and equitable justice when they have been unjustifiably wronged. And it does so by taking ONE person and dividing them into two separate individuals: The Innocent (who you can advocate for without guilt) and The Guilty (who you can hurt without thought).
Itās so much easier to hate something when you purposefully strip it of its humanity and pretend itās another character. This is the death of nuance btw.
If 15 year old John didn't deserve what happened to him in the lab, then 45 year old mass-killer Homelander didn't deserve it either. It doesn't matter what heinous things Homelander does as an adult, a person cannot āearnā past punishment retroactively. The child torture was wrong when it happened and it remained wrong every year Homelander was alive, and every year afterward. Because they were the same person. Same body, same life, same soul, same injustice. And because of that, Homelander and not just John, but Homelander was owed justice. He was owed it. Because John was owed it. Simple as that.
Reblog to let your followers know that despite your current obsession your previous obsessions still exist and are simply lying dormant until they awaken and strike again
A spur-of-the-moment tribute art to the kid Homelander used to be after the series finale. Finally finished after 1 month. (Also just in time for the monthsary)
Oh Batjokes..... Happy to see this ship is still thriving and the current run is being steered by Scott Snyder once again. My guy, please continue writing and maybe add what you sadly wasn't able to finish back on new25. š
The more I think about the ending the more flabbergasted I am by the choices to portray it as happy and the Boys as satisfied and accomplished. When the one that won the day was Stan Edgar and it went so smoothly for him that looking at the breakdown of events, it is as if he planned it all.
He helps arrange for Soldier Boy to get turned over to the Russians. This leads to the creation of the depowering blast, which later conveniently results in Kimiko getting it. And for further convenience, Stan also gets Soldier Boy back but safely contained this time.
There were some hiccups along the way (V going public, Homelander discovering Ryan), but all proved to only be temporary setbacks as the finale showed. Even Victoria Neuman's death was acceptable collateral. Stan adopted her to serve his ends after all and when she became inconvenient, he was fine selling her out to the Boys to save his own skin. You win some, you lose some. And Stan won so big in the end that it's as if he lost nothing at all. I bet Sameer and Zoe joined back up with him too because the writers adore Gus Stan. The identity of the particular chess pieces Stan had to sacrifice to get what he wanted did not phase him, as he is unchanged and he is right back on top.
Stan is freed from his biggest problem now that that botched experiment is eliminated and firmly back to serving his interests in death, purely as a patsy now. He can point to Ashley and Victoria as well should anyone think to examine his actions (though no one will), because they were the ones on television. They were the ones embroiled in the conspiracy, not Stan -- he was framed, see, and he promises that Vought will be better back under him. That's good enough for the Boys and President Singer it seems.
The worst part for me is that this really went so very well because Ryan worked exactly as Stan wanted him to eventually. A contingency in case Homelander went off the rails. Ryan performed just as Vought wanted him to in the end, as he was the deciding factor in the Oval Office fight. Homelander is off the board and his secrets (Stan's darkest secrets, evidence of Vought's great evil) died with him.
There is a godlike character in The Boys. His name is Stan Edgar.
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN HOW PREGNANCY WORKS THERE?? ryan was born a supe cause homelander is project odessa right, everyone else including gen v was born a supe from both humans cause of getting v, meavrick is translucent son but we don't know who is the mother ig and was andre a supe cause of v or was he born like that already cause of his dad?
AND what happens in a situation like hughie and annie? is the kid supe cause annie is a supe? but if yes then what happens if the women is human, is human body capable of carrying a naturally supe child? cause becca almost died right and that would mean that any supe/human relationship are like a death threat for the women. theoretically they tried to tell us that the powers show later in age but only with v kids not naturally born supes and homelander was a naturally born supe and had powers before even being born.
if soldierboy would get firecracker pregnant would she die from carrying a V1 supe child?
do the kids get similar powers to their parents? if both parents are supes is the v somehow doubled creating a stronger supe?
I saw someone asking a pretty similar question to yours and other questions related to supe biology recently, so I created a little breakdown of how the "Supe Biology" seems to work across The Boys, Gen V, and Diabolical. Already weote this before, but just added the ones you asked as well. Definitely take this with a grain of salt because the lore is always expanding with the upcoming other related shows and I might have some misconceptions, but here is my "cheat sheet" for the V-tiers: (put it all below cuz it got too long, I may have been a bit into it XD).
ā¢ V1 supes (Soldier Boy era/Vought Rising): Injected as adults. Genetically modified, but they don't seem to pass down abilities naturally. No record of them having powered kids without lab help.
ā¢ Odessa V supes (Homelander & Marie): Injected way earlier, during the blastocyst/embryo stage. This rewrote them at a cellular level, which is probably why Homelander is so much stronger and could actually pass his powers to Ryan naturally.
ā¢ Compound V supes (The majority - Starlight, A-Train, Andre, Maverick): Injected as babies. They aren't sterile, but their kids are born human. To get powers, the kids (like Translucentās son Maverick) have to be injected too. Their DNA acts like a blueprint, so the V usually gives them a power similar to their parent.
ā¢ V24 supe (Hughie & Butcher): Only lasts 24 hours. Doesnāt change their reproductive or their any part of their DNA permenantly, so nothing gets passed down.
ā¢ Naturalborn supe (Ryan): The first "true" one. He had V in his system from birth and inherited his powers directly without ever needing a needle.
Some extra notes:
ā¢ The Sterility Lie: While most supes know they can have kids (like Mesmer and Translucent), Vought and Dr. Vogelbaum specifically lied to Homelander to keep him isolated and under their thumb. It turns out he just has a very low fertility rate, which is why Ryan was such a "miracle" that caught even Vought by surprise.
ā¢ The Vaccine Cover-up: This is how guys like Andre and Maverick got their powers. Vought secretly gives Compound V to the parents, who then inject it into their babies while pretending itās just a normal childhood vaccine or vitamin. The parents willingly do it because Vought signs the infants to massive talent contracts, basically trading their kid's DNA for a huge corporate paycheck. Or just plainly telling the parents they'll have better lives like what happened to Annie.
ā¢ The Human/Supe Pregnancy Risk: To answer your question about Firecracker and Annie, carrying a natural Supe child is def death sentence for a regular human woman. Ryanās powers developed in the womb, and his crazy growth and super-durability almost killed Becca during delivery (Vought had to do emergency surgery in secret). But if a female Supe like Annie or Firecracker got pregnant, their bodies have that baseline super-durability, so their tissues could actually handle carrying a Supe fetus without tearing apart. Though that wouldn't happen cuz they aren't genetically engineered or their DNA aren't altered as much like Homelander. One of the main points why he's special is that he survived getting V, during the embryonic stage, while others are given after birth (Compound V) and during adult stage (both Compound V and V1), which are very lethal.
ā¢ The Ryan Culmination: Ryan is basically the "perfect" end of a V-chain. It started with Soldier Boy (perfect V1 compatibility), whose DNA was used to make Homelander (via embryonic injection), which finally led to Ryan (natural birth).
ā¢ The Genetic Blueprint: DNA and personality definitely play a part. Hughie and his dad both got "evasive" powers (teleporting and phasing) because they share those non-confrontational traits. Andre inherited magnetic manipulation from Polarity, and Maverick inherited invisibility from Translucent, because as I said, their DNA acts like a blueprint for the V.
ā¢ DNA link, personality, and health: These factors can totally change how the V manifests, like how it created the misfit supes in Diabolical and the random powered-up animals (like the farm animals and Jamie the hamster) in the main show.
ā¢ The Butcher/Cancer Mutation: This is the craziest example of health changing the V. When Butcher took permanent Compound V to save his life, it didn't just heal him. It reacted with his aggressive, fast-spreading brain cancer cells. It basically gave his tumor its own sentient, super-powered biology. Now itās this crazy parasitic relationship where the V fuels the cancer into a physical entity (the black tentacles) that he can control, showing that V adapts to whatever chaotic biological mess is already inside the host. This type of phenomenon is also shown in the The Boys: Diabolical animated show.
Homelander, I am so fucking sorry that the soulless blood-soaked nazi-built mega-corporation that dehumanized you and tortured you physically and psychologically from the moment of you took your first breath, in ways that are almost incomprehensible to the human mind, all for capitalistic greedā¦ got to walk away from this series completely unscathed and in tact and ready to make more hopeless monsters exactly like you.
You had to go, thatās true. You were a monster that could not be rehabilitated. But you were a monster that Vought made. You should have at least gotten to take Vought down with you. But that wasnāt in the cards I guess. Supes still exist and Vought still exist, and because of that, somewhere in the world in a laboratory deep underground another little child just might exist with a future as hopeless as your own.
He died in pain, he died in his stupid super suit, he died as a product, Edgar won, Edgar won, he died alone, no one mourns the wicked, he died weak, he died SCARED, goodness knows the wicked die alone, he died clueless, he die-Iām spiraling.
This started as a supposed mini AMV in the middle of a 10-minute video I made for a Panitikan Pilipino project about the reason for falling in love with Art. That task allowed me to experiment with a massive multifandom mashup I always imagined making, so after passing it, I thought, "Why not polish it?" and that's how this was born. Itās a minimal edit with no crazy typography or flashy effects, just smooth cuts to AJR. š§š„ Hope you guys like the vibes.
Media list used in order below:
