#and tbf the show has gotten a lot shallower in its depiction of supes as it's gone on

[homielander]

my biggest pet peeve about the boys fandom discourse is everyone is very quick to point out how vought is an amalgamation of amazon and disney and every megacorp in one, but whenever it comes to this show's resolution (specifically regarding homelander), that awareness flies out the window and i'm forced to endure one take after another celebrating homelander's inevitable death because it will be a happy ending and fix every problem. discounting that this is a very emotionally motivated and punitive view of justice (would depowering him not be sufficient to keep him from harming others?) i feel like the show has gone to great lengths to spell out that homelander is a product of his environment... just another victim of vought's exploitation and callous disregard for human life.

this applies to other supes as well. annie's mom says outright that annie was injected with compound v in exchange for their hospital bills being covered, a-train didn't have a stable home life based on his account from s1 and it's likely a similar arrangement was worked out there, and iirc some vought promotional snippet mentioned that supersonic signed on to a supe team after vought paid for his rehab. after preying on vulnerable kids and families, vought flings them headfirst into missions even though they're not properly equipped to exercise their abilities and someone is accidentally killed (we've seen this happen with homelander, a-train, and crimson countess, to name a few). new supes realize the heroes they've idolized their whole lives are completely uncaring in the face of this violence. and even though substance use is widespread among supes, there don't seem to be any constructive efforts made to curb it because it succeeds in dulling any moral qualms they might have about vought's culture of casual violence (a-train is the only exception but that's because his substance use begins to impede his speed, thereby impacting the bottom line). and at the end of the day, all their transgressions are covered up by vought, which opens the door to all sorts of legal and psychological debts.

and anyone can preach about strength of character, but we know maeve suffered from this slow moral deterioration, and we were seeing it take place in real time with annie in season 1 (only maeve and hughie's interference stopped it). their best intentions did not matter! homelander is no different, except that his conditioning was far more severe (and admittedly he was less hesitant to abandon any notions of doing good when his status was threatened, but that's not at all surprising when you consider his upbringing).

the point is that vought enables and encourages supes to abuse regular people. that problem has never been exclusive to homelander. homelander is trying to subsume vought but it is an institution that existed before him and will persist after him. i guess it's not a surprise that so many people peddle homelander as the "real villain" considering we mostly experience events in the boys' pov but it does make most conversations about this show's endgame insufferable. god bless

#like the posts i saw while s3 was airing... some of u have lost the plot sorry #and tbf the show has gotten a lot shallower in its depiction of supes as it's gone on #anyway im rewatching s1 and having a lot of fun #homelander #the seven #the boys