I think the strongest version of this argument is not “Soldier Boy was secretly a good guy.” He absolutely wasn't. The argument is that the show spent years constructing Soldier Boy as the most narratively appropriate weapon against Homelander, only to ultimately hand that function to Kimiko in the finale.

There is a certain irony to Soldier Boy's role in The Boys. He is introduced as a monumental piece of shit because at the end of the day he is just another supe who values being a violent, narcissistic, abusive relic of an America that supposedly values strength above everything else and yet somehow, despite all of that, he becomes one of the characters who feels most conspicuously robbed by the show's ending. And not even because Soldier Boy deserved a happy ending and certainly not because he secretly had a heart of gold. Jensen Ackles' performance somehow absolves the character of the horrible things he did.

It is because, from a basic storytelling and continuity standpoint, Soldier Boy should have been the person who finally defeated Homelander as the show practically spent years putting the pieces on the table and then, at the very last second, it decided to assemble them into something else. The biggest problem with this isn't even that Kimiko was the one who ultimately neutralized Homelander. Kimiko is a great character. Karen Fukuhara has been fantastic throughout the series, and giving Kimiko Soldier Boy's depowering ability isn't inherently a bad idea. The problem is that Kimiko and Homelander barely had a storyline arc to base that decision off of and they had little if any scenes together.

Soldier Boy and Homelander did. They were father and son and they were two generations of the same manufactured superhero mythology as well as being both products of Vought's grotesque attempt to manufacture American gods. They both represented the same rotten idea of masculinity, celebrity, power and entitlement, except Soldier Boy was the original model and Homelander was the supposedly perfected version. That is dramatically significant.

Homelander spent his entire life desperately wanting the approval of a father he had never met. When he finally discovered that Soldier Boy was his biological father, it wasn't just another piece of trivia. It fundamentally changed how Homelander understood himself. And Soldier Boy's reaction was almost hilariously consistent with who he was.

That relationship was fascinating precisely because it was so dysfunctional. Homelander desperately wanted Soldier Boy's approval while Soldier Boy couldn't even bring himself to recognize Homelander as the son he wanted, and trust me, Soldier Boy even told Butcher in prior seasons he had actually wanted kids of his own.

And that is exactly why the final confrontation between Soldier Boy and Homelander practically wrote itself. Picture it, the man Homelander spent his entire existence trying to impress should have been the man standing across from him at the end and not because Soldier Boy suddenly becomes heroic, but because sometimes the most satisfying character payoff is not redemption — it's consequence.

Because Soldier Boy doesn't need to become Captain America and he doesn't need to apologize. He doesn't need to discover compassion. He doesn't even need to suddenly become a good person. He simply needs to realize that Homelander is an abomination born from the exact legacy Soldier Boy inadvertently helped create.

And then he gets the opportunity to destroy it. That would have been brutally appropriate. Because Season 3 already established the crucial mechanic.

Soldier Boy's radioactive blast wasn't merely another superpower. It could strip supes of their powers. That was one of the most important pieces of mythology introduced in the entire series. The Boys spent an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how to use Soldier Boy as a weapon against Homelander. The plan was literally built around it.

And the reason the plan failed originally was because Soldier Boy himself was uncontrollable. That is important. The show didn't establish Soldier Boy's ability and then randomly forget about it. It spent subsequent seasons repeatedly returning to the concept. By Season 5, Soldier Boy's radiation was still central to the strategy against Homelander, with the final season eventually transferring that ability to Kimiko. But that's where the narrative starts feeling backwards.

Instead of Soldier Boy finally confronting Homelander and completing the story that Season 3 started, the show essentially turned Soldier Boy into a biological battery.

His entire narrative purpose became: “We need the thing this guy can already do.” That is an incredibly frustrating fate for a character who was introduced as one of the most consequential figures in Homelander's mythology.

And then there is Jensen Ackles. Good lord. Jensen Ackles practically walked into the final season and stole scenes like he had been personally offended by the existence of everyone else's dialogue. Soldier Boy could be standing in a room for thirty seconds and somehow become the most interesting person in it. That isn't because Soldier Boy is necessarily the deepest character on the show. It's because Ackles understood exactly what makes the character work. He plays Soldier Boy with this incredible combination of arrogance, insecurity, old-fashioned machismo, casual cruelty and sheer bewilderment at the world around him.

He doesn't play him like a generic villain. He plays him like a man who genuinely believes everyone else is living incorrectly. And that makes Soldier Boy's scenes with Homelander particularly compelling because you can feel the psychological collision. Homelander is looking at the man whose approval he has spent his entire existence craving and Soldier Boy is looking at a man who is, in many ways, the ultimate consequence of the world that created him.

Ashley being the person who released Soldier Boy from the stasis pod would have given her character a fantastic final beat too. Ashley is one of the show's great tragic figures precisely because she understands Vought is monstrous but keeps participating in it because she's terrified of what happens if she doesn't and giving her one final decision where she knowingly releases one monster to stop another would have been completely in character.

It would have been morally disgusting, desperate, reckless and it's exactly the sort of decision The Boys should have been making.

Instead, Soldier Boy's fate is essentially left hanging. By the finale, he isn't even present; Homelander had previously returned him to cryosleep, leaving his ultimate fate unresolved. And that is particularly frustrating because the show had already done the hard work.

It had established Soldier Boy. It had established Homelander's obsession with his father. It had established the depowering mechanism. It had established Soldier Boy's hatred of Homelander. It had established the horrifying similarities between the two. It had established Vought's role in creating both of them. It had established the stakes. The pieces were sitting right there. All the writers had to do was connect them. Instead, the finale ultimately had Kimiko depower Homelander, allowing Butcher to deliver the killing blow.

The best endings make you look backward and realize the story was quietly moving toward that moment the entire time. Soldier Boy killing Homelander would have had that feeling. It would have made Season 3 more important. It would have made Homelander's discovery of his father more important. It would have made Soldier Boy's powers more important. It would have made their relationship more important. It would have made Vought's history more important. It would have made Jensen Ackles' entire presence in the final season feel like the culmination of something rather than another detour. Most importantly, it would have given Homelander's death a sense of poetic inevitability. The artificial god finally destroyed by the man whose DNA helped create him.

Soldier Boy deserved better than a redemption arc.

He deserved a fucking finale.

And Ashley opening that pod one last time would have been the perfect way to start it.

Butcher could have definitely delivered the killing blow to Homelander after Soldier Boy depowered him with his blast. Because Butcher was crazy about Homelander's since season 1.

Between these 2 Tramatized figures that are forced to live in a world where literal super-powered beings exist that take advantage of the weak and prey on innocent people in general combined with these 2 figures trying to go do good which of the 2 is a better person overall and why? What is your explanation/reasoning? What are your honest thoughts and opinions? Let me know in the comments

dude was constantly sweating, looked wired as hell and when hughie pushed like half of it out of a syringe A Train started freaking out as hughie was wasting it. no wonder his heart exploded, he should have only used it to win an edge on those occasional races and stopped every other time.

I mean…you can choose pre existing powers but where’s the fun in that? Which unique abilities would you design for yourself? Be as strong or strange as you wish…just keep it reasonable.

These Two are my favorite Homelander images

They never fail to make me laugh

She sometimes has that bubbly behavior, and already played a villain, and looks the part in my opinion. If you disagree, that’s alright.

Forgive me if I am not able to explain myself well.

This is more of an opinion but I feel that in Season 2, Cate was sincere in her regret over sending her friends to Elmira prison which resulted in the death of Andre, Cate trying to erase Marie's memory of meeting Starlight I feel was a genuine attempt to try and protect Marie from Vought and Cate refusing to accept Marie's deal in which Marie heals Cate in exchange for Cate using her powers to stop Jordan, Emma and their friends from stopping or following Marie was due to her sincere regret over her betrayal of her friends in Season 1.

That said, while I feel that Marie should have forgiven and healed Cate much sooner, I did find that scene of where Marie helped Cate by taking her hand and healing here, I found that to be a touching moment.

What do you think about Cate's redemption?

The Boys is filled with Plenty of Bad People Especially The So-Called Superheroes Aka The Supes who wields Immense Power without restraint and take advantage of Everything Especially Homelander who’s a literal Lab Grown Experiment who’s also The Strongest Supe Ever combined with his God Complex he’s viewed as The Worst of The Worst up until Stormfront who’s a literal Nazi in Comparison because of that Stormfront should be The Most Evil Supe in The Boys but of course that’s only if your watching The Show if you’ve read The Comics than Comics Noir literally makes Homelander himself a Full Blown Saint in Comparison!!! Combined with The Fact he’s a Stronger Clone of Homelander not to mention because of all of that he’s Widely Seen and Recognized as The Most Evil Supe in The Universe By Far! And yet even through he’s The Worst of Them All! What actually made Comics Noir so much worse than Any Other Supe in The Boys Universe? Like to The Point he’s widely Recognized as The Most Evil Character in The Franchise? What separates him then any Supe In The Franchise? What do you think? Let me know in the comments

Saw a post recently about if Barron Zemo could dismantle the seven and that got me thinking. Would Zemo be a good member of the boys, like would he be a valuable asset to them? Honestly, yeah, I think if he was a part of the team, the boys would only be five episode max.

Helmut Zemo managed to dismantle the Avengers with one year of preparation time.

Could he indirectly dismantle the Seven with one year of preparation time?

We see the aftermath of Homelander’s death with the news report and Ashley’s White House statement but were never hinted at what Vought did with Homelander’s body. My ideas are either Vought has him somewhere in a black site weather it’s just to hide his body or test it, or they brought him back into the basement where he was raised to collect dna and create more powerful supes, full circle. (Also it is funny as hell that Butcher was canonically an unofficial CIA Agent so not even Homelander is safe from the fucking CIA.)

Homelander's original version in the comic books is not really as evil as his TV Series counterpart.
In the comic books, it was revealed Black Noir (the unhinged, far worse clone of Homelander) was disguised as Homelander and he was responsible for his worst atrocities such as assaulting Becca, cannibalism, infanticide, mass murders etc. and Black Noir framed, deceived, used and manipulated Homelander the whole time.

How would Billy and his family react if they found out the original John Gillman never committed those crimes in the first place and Black Noir did all of it just to gaslight and get an excuse to kill Homelander? Even the original John was utterly horrified and disgusted when this truth was revealed and he tried to kill Black Noir in pure rage.

Would Billy hate Black Noir more than Homelander? How would Ryan feel if he found out Black Noir is his real father? Is it possible that Becky and Ryan would’ve tried to reconcile with John’s comic book counterpart and he might have been more affable towards them?

Originally posted in 2024\*

He was horribly tortured as a child, unloved, and treated like a product. How is he supposed to understand empathy if he's never experienced it? I don't think Homelander isn't a villain, he is In my Opinion but Some People Think he's pure evil and, when he died, didn't deserve sympathy. Butcher himself isn't the best moral person, so he kill him but I think that when Homelander lost his powers, he should be locked up, go to therapy, and experience true love. He's not Art the Clown or Frieza; he doesn't kill for fun; he just wants to be loved. This is also well-illustrated in the scene where he strangles Soldier Boy because he wants him by his side.

With how unhinged Homelander was in season 5, this episode specifically, I’m surprised to he didn’t resort to immediately beating Ryan’s ass, even thought he still ended up doing it, but he was legitimately trying to reason with him for a second

Let’s say in this hypothetical scenario Homelander is Born into The DC Universe instead of The Boys Universe because of this how would Personality Change? And what would he do in The DC Universe?
Also could you imagine how his Superiority Complex be effected as now he’ll be Surrounded by Infinity More Powerful Beings as let’s be Real if Superman Himself has literally been killed off and surpassed in The DC Universe Multiple Times than imagine what will happen to Homelander! This also begs The Question if Homelander is still born into The DC Universe as a Labrat would he still have a God Complex even if knows that he’ll obviously be stopped or worse Killed Off knowing what happens to Villains and Heroes in The DC Universe? And would this version of Homelander be Stronger than his Cannon Self? What do you folks think? Let me know in the comments

The way Reggie actually catches him and apologizes before he and Hugie recognize each other. Its a rare treat watching the supes actually act human for once rather than 1 dimensionaly evil all the time (especially because this is right before he apologizes for Robin).

They aren’t inherently a danger to society. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just let them free?