The Boys

Hoss said:

You think Trump was the first one to say that? Rush Limbaugh's been banging that drum for like 30 years. The only thing in his speech that Trump ever said was fake news. Rush had all of it in his rants over the years. Lame stream media, punished for excellence, stop apologizing for greatness. If homelander and his supporters were supposed to be anything political it's way more likely they're based on Rush and ditto heads.

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Now ask yourself if the showrunners think the average viewer is more aware of Limbaugh's opinions or Trump's. Or you can just read the interview Ambiturner linked.

Phazael said:

I don't know if they weakened him per se. Homelander has never had to actually fight anyone, that could hurt him at least. Soldier Boy and certainly Butcher have fighting experience against people who could inflict harm on them. It may be as simple as lack of experience.

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I agree as long as the writers agree.

I think Homelander was taken by surprise at the actual situation. He expected a quick beat down reminder at who was clearly the most powerful, only to figure out that for the first time in his life, he was actually threatened. If I am understanding the situation, all soldier boy has to do is hit him with the chest ray and Homelander is toast. Laser eyes do not remove supe powers. At the end, you get to see something never shown before. You get to see actual physical damage on Homelander.



Now we get to see how Homelander adapts to his new reality. There are other gods on the playground.

You just know they intentionally put a lot of meaningful story beats and powerful character moments into this episode just for the sheer glee at nominating it for an Emmy next year and thus compelling the academy members to watch.

Next episode is going to feel dull / lame as fuck, just because of the sheer amount of over the top shit in this one. We've got what, 2 more episodes left?

The comics were stretched across 6 books for this episode - I wonder what all was left out?

Armadon said:

On a scale from 1-100 lets say Homelander is 100. would soldier boy be like a 95? Maybe butcher at 90 with his powers? Also I'm starting to wonder if homelander is created from soldier boy dna or something.

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just from what we have seen in season 3 I'd honestly rank homelander as 90, Soldier Boy as 100, and Butcher at 80. I'm pretty sure Homelander could kill Butcher if the fight went on long enough, if nothing else once he finds out he is on Temp V he can just wait it out.

Soldier Boy, so far, is technically more powerful than Homelander because he went through years and years of testing without death, he has developed a new power which lets him depower supes (so that automatically makes him more powerful than Homelander), and he blacks out and goes feral with at least one trigger. The only thing we don't know is that "something" knocks out Soldier Boy, not Halogen (?) gas, and we don't know what it is or how effective it can be at larger doses.

The reveal that Homelander has a smeagol personality that "protects" him was interesting though, wonder if thats an even more powerful personality.

Also I've seen people theorize that TempV works at a subconcious level and not exactly like V24 powerup. Butcher is basically mirroring Homelander because he despises him so much. Hughie's first instinct is to run away from danger so he gets Nightcrawler teleport.

Armadon said:

On a scale from 1-100 lets say Homelander is 100. would soldier boy be like a 95? Maybe butcher at 90 with his powers? Also I'm starting to wonder if homelander is created from soldier boy dna or something.

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Let's Madden 95 rate these !%@#*

Butcher and Homelander do such good crazy faces. Still might have to give it to Homelander. Also has A Train always had superstrength. Thought blue Hawk would have been stronger.

Homsar said:

Butcher and Homelander do such good crazy faces. Still might have to give it to Homelander. Also has A Train always had superstrength. Thought blue Hawk would have been stronger.

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Both are considered to have "Super Human Strength" and "Super Human Durability." I had to search up Blue Hawks power since I really didnt know his deal to begin with and someone pretty much said it well when I was reading over it: "Blue Hawk was able to talk through A Train's throat grab and his body looked considerably better than a human body would look after being dragged that far at that pace." (Mach 1.3)

A Train, outside of his black people heart condition, I imagine was on the Seven far before it became a popularity contest. The more I learn about this show, the more Im amazed it hasnt been cancelled yet. Even though it picks on both sides, some of the lines its crossed/crossing would shut a comedian down imo.

Phazael said:

I don't know if they weakened him per se. Homelander has never had to actually fight anyone, that could hurt him at least. Soldier Boy and certainly Butcher have fighting experience against people who could inflict harm on them. It may be as simple as lack of experience.

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The intentional comparisons to Superman create a problem for the show’s portrayal of his power for sure. Superman is a planet buster +, the idea that Superman could fight two “near equals” inside of a house and not just leave a crater is far-fetched when you consider that none of these three have the ethical hang ups that cause Superman to hold back.

was it me or was Butcher vs Homelander better than anything in the Obi Wan Kenobi show?

They did a much better job of building up the rivalry and the "IT'S ON" tension than OWK?

I quit that show I think at the gate episode and terrible Darth fight so probably.

Guessing Homelander decides to fuck everything and just tries to up and flee and wants to take Ryan with him. Butcher and Soldier Boy show up and Soldier Boy threatens/tries to kill Ryan and that sends Butcher over the edge, killing Soldier Boy and thus ensuring Homelanders super-superiority again and bringing most everything back to square one. Especially since with Maeve gone (for now), Butcher is most likely out of V24.

Zaide said:

The intentional comparisons to Superman create a problem for the show’s portrayal of his power for sure. Superman is a planet buster +, the idea that Superman could fight two “near equals” inside of a house and not just leave a crater is far-fetched when you consider that none of these three have the ethical hang ups that cause Superman to hold back.

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I think more of a early superman that wasn't Overpowered

Xevy said:

Guessing Homelander decides to fuck everything and just tries to up and flee and wants to take Ryan with him. Butcher and Soldier Boy show up and Soldier Boy threatens/tries to kill Ryan and that sends Butcher over the edge, killing Soldier Boy and thus ensuring Homelanders super-superiority again and bringing most everything back to square one. Especially since with Maeve gone (for now), Butcher is most likely out of V24.

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Edger or his girl might be able to get V24 for them, also I wouldnt doubt it was Noir that help sell out Soldier Boy, he did want more attention before he got wrecked in Nicaragua

Xevy said:

Guessing Homelander decides to fuck everything and just tries to up and flee and wants to take Ryan with him. Butcher and Soldier Boy show up and Soldier Boy threatens/tries to kill Ryan and that sends Butcher over the edge, killing Soldier Boy and thus ensuring Homelanders super-superiority again and bringing most everything back to square one. Especially since with Maeve gone (for now), Butcher is most likely out of V24.

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problem is homelander doesn't know where ryan is

spronk said:

just from what we have seen in season 3 I'd honestly rank homelander as 90, Soldier Boy as 100, and Butcher at 80. I'm pretty sure Homelander could kill Butcher if the fight went on long enough, if nothing else once he finds out he is on Temp V he can just wait it out.

Soldier Boy, so far, is technically more powerful than Homelander because he went through years and years of testing without death, he has developed a new power which lets him depower supes (so that automatically makes him more powerful than Homelander), and he blacks out and goes feral with at least one trigger. The only thing we don't know is that "something" knocks out Soldier Boy, not Halogen (?) gas, and we don't know what it is or how effective it can be at larger doses.

The reveal that Homelander has a smeagol personality that "protects" him was interesting though, wonder if thats an even more powerful personality.

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Looked like they showed Homelander as clearly superior 1-on-1 against any of them.

But in the first episode we saw Maeve just stand there as an armored truck crashed into her and got crushed to shit without so much as moving a hair on her head, then Maeve be no match for Stormfront, and then Stormfront get blown to shit by Homelander's son. He was also able to realize Stillwell's apartment was exploding and still get Butcher out safely before the explosion even got to him. That's faster than A-Train.

He was clearly built up to be Superman, but then Hughie was somehow a help in restraining him when he just reached "open my own jar" level of strength.

Hah.

Ambiturner said:

Looked like they showed Homelander as clearly superior 1-on-1 against any of them.

But in the first episode we saw Maeve just stand there as an armored truck crashed into her and got crushed to shit without so much as moving a hair on her head, then Maeve be no match for Stormfront, and then Stormfront get blown to shit by Homelander's son. He was also able to realize Stillwell's apartment was exploding and still get Butcher out safely before the explosion even got to him. That's faster than A-Train.

He was clearly built up to be Superman, but then Hughie was somehow a help in restraining him when he just reached "open my own jar" level of strength.

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It seems like every supe has some sort of basic “super strength”. When Hughie hit A-Train he said “wait how did you do that?” As though a non supe Hughie wouldn’t have been able to hit hard enough for A-Train to register it.

Power scaling def isn’t super clear.

There is a trope about "mandatory secondary powers", powers that are required to survive your actual main superpower. The Flash or A-Train for instance requires some kind of superstrength and extreme resistance to friction to be able to survive running this fast with just some spandex and some goggles. He also has a super metabolism (he eats 30K calories a day). He probably also needs to have different lungs or nose to be able to breathe at such speeds. You get the jist of it.

As has been mentioned, most if not all supes in The Boys seem to have some sort of super strength and super resistance to damage (when Starlight got tossed through a concrete wall in S1 or S2, she didn't break every bone in her body, only had some bruises. Kimiko got fucked up by Soldier Boy's blast but a normie would have been splattered against the wall, not blown through concrete and rebar), but some have way more than others if it's part of their main power archetype.

Homelander (and maybe Soldier Boy) are Superman-type supes and as such have pretty much the best stats at everything (in Smallville for example, Superman can run -almost- as fast as The Flash.. but not quite as fast as The Flash when he really really tries, it's probably the same with A-Train if he didn't have his heart condition).

I think part of why Homelander was getting his ass kicked for a bit in that fight is 1) because he has never really needed to fight a real fight before and 2) he was so shocked and outraged by the normies having powers and him getting actually punched / damaged that he didn't really have time to react accordingly.

Now that he knows what he is facing I expect he won't make the same mistake of underestimating his opponents next time.