This article contains major spoilers for The Boys Seasons 1 to 5.
With Season 5 being The Boys‘ swansong, it makes sense that everything would be racked up to 11, including the unhinged behavior of our beloved, maniacal, and truly deranged icon, Homelander. Since Season 5 started, I’ve been seeing plenty of discourse surrounding Homelander’s actions, and the consensus seems to be that he’s only gotten increasingly moronic as the seasons have gone on.
Well, yes. But here’s the interesting part: Homelander has always been a moron. He’s always done incredibly stupid things. He may have been more competent in Season 1, but he’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed. In fact, he may even be almost as stupid as The Deep. Alright, he’s not quite there yet, but my point is that this is not a smart man. He never has been.
Let’s go all the way back to Season 1, shall we? When we’re first introduced to Homelander, he’s presented as a terrifying force who could crush the Boys in a second. He still is, for the most part. This was helped by the fact that Vought had actual leaders in power who could control him and clean up his messes if necessary. Let’s not forget that it was Homelander’s smuggling operation with A-Train that led to the exposure of Compound V in the first place, which not only nearly tanked Vought as a corporation, but also allowed the Boys to use it as a weapon against them, bringing us to the state of things in Season 5.
Let’s also not forget the whole Flight 37 debacle, which should’ve been a very simple rescue mission if not for the fact that Homelander accidentally lasered the plane’s control panel while subduing the terrorists, forcing him to let the plane crash. This incident alone is proof enough that Homelander simply doesn’t have the brains to back up all that brawn, but of course, there’s more.
While Homelander proved himself to be a decent enough PR guy, it’s clear that he always needed the help of his smarter leaders to keep him off track. After killing off Madeline Stillwell — his only emotional anchor at the time — he was drawn to Stormfront, who convinced him he was a god. After she dies, he’s emotionally wrecked and left with a god complex. After driving off Stan Edgar — who’d been cleaning up his messes for years by the time we’re introduced to him — Homelander and Vought are only rescued by him somehow stumbling into a plan to control the government. A plan that he didn’t even come up with himself, no less.
The Boys has long since established that Homelander’s only weakness is his emotional dependence on other people. Without some sort of anchor or leaders to keep him in check, he’s doomed to spiral, which is exactly what has been happening since the end of Season 1, when Stillwell was taken out of the picture. With only Yes men and sycophants around him, Homelander’s spiral is inevitable, and it makes complete sense why he is the way he is now.
He’s always been a joke; it’s just more obvious now to us and the Boys, which is why he feels less menacing when he’s on screen. Do I wish he still demonstrated some level of intelligence and competence like he did in Season 1? Absolutely. But you know what? I’ve come to realize we really can’t expect too much from a guy who’s been emotionally stunted his own life, gets talked down to by his dad, and just found out he may be tunnel buddies with said dad when it comes to Stormfront, AKA Liberty. My tiny brain wouldn’t even be able to compute half of that.
The Boys is now available for streaming on Prime.
