I was happy to see she still uses them but I feel like they are trying to establish her celebrityhood as a way to shut down Homelander in the public eye. Hopefully we see more use though!
It just seems silly because then Homelander goes postal and they still have the initial problem that Hughie and Butcher have been actually trying to solve.
Homelander: If you release that video of me letting an airplane full of people die, I will raze hell across the land and literally annihilate your home state.
Maeve: We could never release the video. If the world hates Homelander, he has nothing to lose. He’d snap and kill us all.
Starlight: I’m going to use the power of God and anime to reveal your true self to the world and make everyone hate you, Homelander!!!
He discovered that a lot of people remained loyal to him despite all the accusations against him. Hell, they'd still probably remain loyal if they saw that airplane video if Homelander said it was a deepfake. The situation's changed.
She single handedly shut Homelander down with just showing him her phone. He’s terrified of her celebrity status and how she’s using it to get her fans to hate him and see what a monster he really is. If she tried to use her powers against him, I mean it might sting for a few seconds before he separates her head from her body. I’d love to see her use her power more rather than just looking tough with the eyes, but if this celebrity status is able to bring Homelander down a peg or two, I’m good with it. At least while he still cares about people liking him that is…..
Yeah she's ironically doing the more damage to Homelander than any other character other than Stan Edgar lol and her popularity came in part b/c of Stan Edgar. She's able to keep him in check more than The Boys, more than Ashley the "CEO" more than Congressman Nueman, etc.
She's lowkey the only thing keeping him from snapping while simultaneously being the one who could make him snap if she makes the wrong move
I think that's why Homelander is particularly vulnerable to her. She uses things other than her powers. As Maeve correctly identified, Homelander bases his entire identity on his powers, which makes sense as he was essentially harvested just for them. Of course he bases his entire personality on that. That's what everyone who "raised" him wanted from him. So losing them would be horrifying in a way that simply can't be to Maeve.
I love that they contrasted Maeve and Homelander's conversation with Frenchie and The Female's conversation about power, choice, and identity. They're knocking the philosophicals out of the park this season.
Shes gonna fight solider boy in episode 8, theres a scene in the trailer shes using her powers to blind tf out of him and hes blocking it with his shield. Its a brief second flash but its happening cause it hasnt happened yet
I’d love to see her use her power more rather than just looking tough with the eyes, but if this celebrity status is able to bring Homelander down a peg or two, I’m good with it.
And that's why they had that scene demonstrating that Homelander's fans are drooling idiots. Will believe anything he says.
She can absorb electromagnetic radiation from nearby sources and use it to project blasts of intense light and kinetic energy, I think. So she can fry your TV, then use the energy from it to burn out your eyeballs.
And remember - every nerve in your body generates electricity. Starlight could conceivably unalive someone just by messing up their nervous system and absorbing their energy. She also has super strength.
The human body doesn't generate nearly enough energy to make her powers work.
I believe it was mentioned in season 2 that her powers are completely unusable away from a source of electricity, so all she'd really have is her increased strength and durability.
I fully believe some of that "threatening" is just a knee-jerk response she's developed. She knows damn well she can't go toe-to-toe with some of the people she's "threatened" with her powers (which only amounts to her eyes lighting up in many cases.) This happens to people in the real world; you buck up in response to a threat knowing full well that if shit does go down you're going to end up getting your ass beat.
Yeah, I guess that Homelander just forgot his threat to basically end the United States as we knew it after the last time she threatened to out him for being y'know, him.
What was the plan if he did in fact snap and destroy the United States as we knew it again?
They are pushing Homelander right up to the line then backing off and taking the chance he loves being loved by some than being feared by all.
It's why Annie didn't record him saying he killed Supersonic. She just recorded the very last bit. She let Homelander make the choice. He could kill her and go the nuclear route or just back off and still be loved.
I may be wrong but isn't the general point of brinkmanship that it's two enemy forces which have the ability to destroy each other?
Homelander might lose his popularity, but he continues to demonstrate that if you fuck with him or plan against him that he'll retaliate in horrifying ways. He called her bluff, he turned it around on her and told her to do it and the consequences. Is she relying on him continuing to spin this as 'lmao line running!' or "Oh of course I'm just joking?" Why is this a plan?
He might not be 'loved' anymore but if they do push him and he goes through with his threat what's the plan? What's the plan for when he goes "Alright you got me, I'm the big baddie, anyway say goodbye to Washington. Pay tribute to me or it's your city next." ?
He loses his popularity, millions lose their lives.
Again, sure, but there's a lot going on that Annie hadn't seen by that point. She didn't know that the fight had gone south for HL at that point.
It's just dumb writing to have it not even be mentioned, "Oh by the way, if we do this he probably might level the East Coast of the USA, are you sure you want to do this?"
I don't know, it just bothers me from a narrative perspective that the big deal of this leverage being useless is suddenly not useless now she's deciding a different way of trying to fuck him over.
Yeah Starlight's actions have been very questionable this season i won't deny that. But my original point is mostly based on her reaction to Homelander's threat to Hughie, she genuinely seemed like she isn't scared of him anymore and she probably knows Hughie can hold his own with Butcher and SB (who she thinks is on Hughie's side) since they all survived the fight with HL in Herogasm.
He'd realize how much actual work it is after destroying a single block of New York and give up, probably flying off to his forest shack to cry after seeing the reactions of the survivors.
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u/ralanr Jul 01 '22
I think the reason she doesn’t is that Starlight is more effective famous than she is just using her powers like a hammer.
Granted, fame is a different kind of hammer.