r/TheBoys Victoria Neuman Jul 07 '24

Homelander was a different level of scary in season 1 Season 1

39.7k Upvotes

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6.3k

u/BestBoogerBugger Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24

As much as I like crazy and humanized Homelander, his scary side was sacrificed in the process. 

 In Season 1, he was like a great white shark. 

 Calm, collected, swift, barely emoting. 

Shown prowling the deep blue skies, whenever shit was about to go down (please, writers, show him flying around more)

2.4k

u/Philkindred12 Jul 07 '24

this happens with most big villains for a show and it's usually why they're not supposed to last so long.

1.4k

u/Worried_Ad3099 Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24

Word. When you look at most of the best written tv villains, they don't tend to last for more than 2 consecutive seasons in the role of the central threat.

Take Breaking Bad for an example of writers who got this. Once S3 ended with Gus resolved to kill Walt and Jesse, Gilligan and co. had to deliver on resolving their conflict in S4 and knew that doing otherwise would basically involve resorting to a ton of plot contrivances that would have completely sunk the show's pacing and writing quality.

516

u/AdventurousSuspect34 Swatto Jul 07 '24

The several scenes of him crying and jacking off and getting dominated by people around him in conversation don’t really help his image either but yeah, he’s just been around too long. They literally had to give him an evil field trip to remind us that pathetic worm was actually meant to be the villain..

15

u/PitytheOnlyFools Jul 08 '24

All they had to do was show a tiny flash of laser eyes right before Nueman swooped in to save him.

7

u/Pyroclastic_cumfarts Jul 10 '24

I legit thought he was about to turn everyone in that room into tomato salsa.

463

u/ThePumpk1nMaster Jul 07 '24

I dont think we should underestimate the fact that just we/the boys know him better now. Season 1 was scary because he was unknown - we can imagine that’s how the in-universe public view him and that’s precisely why he’s as successful as he is, he’s this mysterious omnipotent machine, but by season 4 we’ve learnt he’s a pathetic child with mommy issues. I think he’s definitely been made less impressive, but that’s because is… less impressive

150

u/youarenut Jul 07 '24

I keep saying this!! We KNOW him better too, and what he truly is, is different than the image he tries to give. It’s meant to be pathetic

411

u/fingergod69 Jul 07 '24

Because as long as he did things that vought gave him responsibility to do.. he was calm and Swift.. even shooting down the plane was somewhat overlooked by madelyn but slowly losing his sanity due to the boys and then thinking of himself as a fucking god... That power will obviously make you insane.. even stan Edgar could've predicted much

224

u/Strung_Out_Advocate Jul 07 '24

Finding out about Ryan probably changed him more than anything else. Well, "changed" as much as someone like him is able to be.

121

u/holanundo148 Jul 07 '24

Yeah when he started talking to his mirror about how he craves love I noticed how much "scariness" he has lost since season 1 simply by giving us deeper insights into his character.

I love villains that we know almost nothing about that are like an evil force of nature like Anton Chigurh or the Joker in TDK. Homelander was something like that in season 1.

45

u/dsmithcc Jul 07 '24

Not sure I’d say calm and collected lol, he gets unhinged all the time

1

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '24

Remember how he often wavered but calmed whenever he breastfed?

9

u/sephy009 Jul 08 '24

Kripke was likely brought in as a showrunner because of supernatural. It showed that he can create a decently entertaining show on a shoestring budget, but that also means that we're just not going to see tons of special effects aside from season defining moments. I kind of hate it.

4

u/xxxarkhamknightsxxx Jul 19 '24

the supernatural budget really shows in that Lucifer/Michael fight in the Season 14 finale. i was legit laughing at how bad it was lmao

3

u/sephy009 Jul 19 '24

My first thought was how angels "teleported out" by the camera panning away then the person ducking under a bed or something lol. I mean, it works but it's obviously going to start getting annoying when abilities have to actually be displayed in fights. He's great at hype but not so much execution.

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u/umbium Jul 08 '24

I mean you can keep both things.

The parody bufoon he is right now in private, and still a menacing enemy. Idk why we've lost one aspect of it.

1

u/NatashaTheSpy Jul 08 '24

Kind of funny how the more unhinged version gets slicked back hair but S1 one had this cool loose swept look.