Homelander being called a loser just makes me feel off.
All the time in the show and in the more general fandom of The Boys, he’s constantly called “pathetic, “weak,” “nothing”… a manchild who is nothing but the suit.
And I can’t help but feel irked by this. Especially when people also refer to him as bad product or a failed asset through implementing Stan Edgar’s vocabulary as truth of Homelander’s identity.
Even Mirrorlander insults him like this.
Nothing about Homelander is weak. He survived through things that would’ve killed a human or a lesser supe. He came out on top and knew it but the moment he could stand alone and Vought realized it, they had to pull the reigns.
I’m having a difficult time putting it into words, but it just feels wrong to remove his identity from him. He is still someone even without his powers.
I always was of the belief that if a child truly was in a room by themselves with nothing to learn or bounce off from, there is still an identity. Just inherently having conscience and even the experience of nothing is still an experience in itself. Homelander might have shown fear and denial and so called “weakness” at the end, but who wouldn’t when everything you’ve known was just stripped from you. It feels like the end of the world. Especially to himself. He sees himself as weak and pathetic and just having the cast tell him that too hurts.
Hounding in that he isn’t just reinforces that they are right. And that messaging just feels off.
