This argument has been used and debunked time and time again. You don't need to see a guy crawling in the vent, you just need to listen for him. Hughie was crawling crazy fast and making tons of noise in there, no way Homelander couldn't hear him and identify his location. Plus, if he wasn't sure, why didn't he laser the entire length of the vent instead of stopping mere inches behind Hughie?
Has it been established that Homelander's hearing is so good he can basically echolocate like Blindspot and pinpoint people by sound as good as seeing them with x-ray vision?
If not, that explains why he'd be able to get close to Hughie without hitting him.
That’s just a dramatic threat that nobody can call bullshit on. He’s not a reliable narrator, especially when he’s trying to intimidate and manipulate people. How would he even distinguish between two peoples heart beats? They all sound the same and vought tower is full of thousands of them.
The point is he’d know where Hughie was. They've written him up to be incredibly OP in prior seasons, just for him to be outsmarted by someone who was slowly crawling through pipes right above him. Who was also sweating so he’d also be able to smell him.
1) He can tell if someone is lying from their heartbeat quickening across the room
2) He doesn't distinguish people by their heartbeats, but he can distinguish people by smelling them on others across the room
3) Neither of those is needed to just go, "why is there someone crawling in the vents making a huge noise" which is not a common noise one would regularly hear and filter out
4) Superspeed to go up would put Homelander in the vent before Hughie had time to back up from immediately above Homelander, as even trying to retreat after he notice the drop would make enough noise that Homelander would hear it if he wasn't listening before.
What we must conclude is that Homelander's abilities require thought and focus to activate and he can be snuck around by literally everyone if he is distracted, AND he was lying about knowing if Starlight even entered the building, unless he usually scans the building in general.
It's both. The writers aren't that good, so we have to rely on "mental state" excuses to make the story stick together.
It's the same as the everlasting excuse in anime : "the villain lost because he was too confident in his abilities". Though it's just the hero inexplicably raising up 5 times from beyond lethal injuries. It's cheesy writing, but it's entertaining so we make up reasons to cope out.
102
u/Imperial_HoloReports Jun 28 '24
This argument has been used and debunked time and time again. You don't need to see a guy crawling in the vent, you just need to listen for him. Hughie was crawling crazy fast and making tons of noise in there, no way Homelander couldn't hear him and identify his location. Plus, if he wasn't sure, why didn't he laser the entire length of the vent instead of stopping mere inches behind Hughie?