u/Amazing-Buy-1181

First, don't take away Season 5's budget for Vought Rising.

I'd keep Seasons 1-3 the same. From Season 4 - The Trump parodies can stay, but mainly in theme. You can parody Trump without making Homelander an idiot and not his own character (Like Daredevil did with Kingpin). I'd make sure to keep Homelander his own character and flesh him out more. In general, keep Homelander scary, competent and disturbing as he was in Season 1 and Season 3. Yes, he is supposed to have a mental breakdown, and him losing it is kind of the point, but making him lose it and revealing his pathetic self doesn't mean you need to make him a caricature with no feats.

No Sister Sage. Taking over the presidency is fully Homelander's plan. Cut out the Colin and Frenchie useless plotline. More Joe Kessler and a better setup for Butcher's arc. I actually liked what they did with Hughie and his father. More MM. They had the right direction when they focused on his vendetta against Vought in Season 3, but they kind of sidelined him for Kimiko and Frenchie. MM becoming more cynical in Season 5 doesn't feel earned. Use The Legend as a plot device for world-building.

The POV Episode in Season 5 of Firecracker and Noir 2 should be moved to Season 4.

Season 5 should feel actually schorched Earth. First, cut out all of the Vought Rising setup. Break the status quo: More time of The Boys in the freedom camps. Butcher should betray The Boys much earlier and go solo, but there should be some reunion, so he actually manipulates them and lies about the virus. It was very odd that Annie and Kimiko just agreed to use the virus and there was no conflict about it. It should have been the center of the conflict. Butcher is lying to them while he is planning on actually killing them both.

Ryan should join The Boys and build a connection with MM, if we keep MM eventually raising him. I don't think Soldier Boy is necessary, but he's a fan favorite, so we can find a place for him.

I will keep Homelander's God arc, but make it actually disturbing and creepy and a new level for his psychopathy, like his final speech in Episode 8. The Flight 37 video is leaked in Episode 6 during a press conference, where Homelander is giving the speech of "I shall remain eternal, God of the Ashes" (I'll replace God of the Ashes with "King of Hell", a reference to his line from the comics), Homelander recklessly kills all the journalists there in front of the whole world, a full, brutal massacre that should be hard to watch and and include a YouTube viewing warning.

The last half of Episode 6 and all of Episode 7 focus on Homelander's rampage and becoming "God of the Ashes" and "King of Hell". Basically, a longer, more gory version of Tighten's rampage in Megamind. Homelander kills The President in the final of Episode 6. Homelander loses all of his supporters aside from a devoted cult and some Billionaires that seek to profit from the destruction he is causing. Homelander decides to kill off the non-believers. I'd also give him a power buff. Ashley betrays Homelander and tries to stage a coup against him, but he kills her on the place and this is where her story ends.

I feel like Butcher should also go on a rampage against Supes who work for Homelander to establish his threat, also.

In Episode 7, Butcher and The Boys are forced to work together as Homelander is doing everything he said he would do in Season 3, but they don't trust him. The final fight between Butcher and Homelander is a longer, more climactic version of the Herogasm fight. If we keep Soldier Boy then this can be the point where he depowers both. Homelander's death feels more disturbing, with flashbacks to his childhood.

Episode 8 focuses on The Boys attempting to stop Butcher and the epilogue of the fall of Homelander, and dealing with the consequences for his massacre. New York should be in ruins.

Another thing I would do is put more focus on how regular people see superheroes and focus from the regular people's perspective, like they did a lot in seasons 1 and 2

Marvel and DC had total monopoly over the super-hero genre and its style not only because of their popularity but because they were also cultural icons with huge impact. Recent shows that basically re-constructed the super hero genre like The Boys and Invincible, became ridiculously popular way beyond the general audience target, nearly MCU level, Homelander and Omni-Man both became cultural icons, probably even more than Superman was for the last decade.

In general, The Boys symbolically aired right after Endgame, and when people got tired of the MCU-esque superhero movie style (which is also why many DC movies failed before The Batman), so do you think the success of the style of The Boys and Invincible will take the superhero genre to a new direction in the next decade and will also break the DC-Marvel monopoly a bit?

Trump 1.0 was a classic Republican governance with an authoritarian streak. In terms of foreign policy - He was basically some variation of Reaganism. Back then, Trump wasn't surrounded by the techno-billionaires, influencers, and Nationalists he surrounds himself with today, but had a more classical Republican inner circle.

The Trump family were still outsiders in Washington back then and didn't know how to navigate, so Trump was surronded by Republican, Conservative Jews like David Friedman and Sheldon Adelson, relied on Jared Kushner and donors like Rupert Murdoch and the Pro-Israel line of Fox News, and relied more on the Evangelical wing of the GOP.

His foreign policy back then was more about appesing his Pro-Israel donors (who were also very close with Netanyahu) and Evangelical supporters like Pastor Hagee, and also about the clash of civilizations approach that is identified with the Reaganites and the Evangelicals - fighting against what they saw as the "Forces of Evil".

Between 2021 and 2024, the Pro-Israel right splitted: There were people who remained loyal to Trump, but many who also preferred DeSantis or Haley over Trump. While the two sides didn't fight, Trump started to systematically dismantle the old Republican guard, anyone who wasn't loyal to him was thrown away by the Base, replacing it with a new ecosystem and a new movement. Fascinatingly, this left the evangelical base and the right-wing Jewish establishment with a stark reality: they had put all their political chips on Trump, and they no longer had any alternative vehicle for power. Instead of Trump having to appease these groups to win their votes, these groups now had to adapt to Trump’s changing whims just to stay in the room. They became entirely dependent passengers in a vehicle driven solely by Trump, his inner circle, and his new Right wing movement where the Jewish Right and the Evangelicals are not the most powerful group around the table.

With the old ideological guard removed, the intellectual vacuum was filled by the hardline nationalist vision of figures like Stephen Miller. This model completely discards the language of global leadership or Ronald Reagan moral crusades. Instead, it is more "Nixonian": views the world through a deeply cynical, survivalist lens where raw power, resource acquisition, and financial dominance are the only metrics that matter.

This has resulted in a foreign policy that behaves remarkably like a classic mafia protection racket. Under this blueprint, global relationships are stripped of sentimentality and reduced to a ledger: Who is paying us? What resources can we extract? How does this deal directly benefit the American economy or the administration's wealthy supporters?

The administration’s strategic documents openly treat foreign policy as a tool for domestic wealth creation, using aggressive tariff warfare to extract revenue and viewing military or border interventions primarily as law-enforcement operations to protect the homeland's assets.

This new direction completely rewired the MAGA movement's relationship with Israel, placing it on a track that is distinct from both traditional religious/Hawkish, Lindsay Graham Right and the isolationist alt-right. On one side, Trump rejected the conspiratorial, borderline hostile isolationism popularized by figures like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Dave Smith and the Podcastistan. Trump is very clearly very Pro-Israel and likes the Israeli people.

However, the relationship has been stripped of its romanticized, ideological Zionist veneer. In the modern GOP, Israel is no longer viewed through the lens of a biblical prophecy or a shared civilizational crusade against "evil." Instead, it is treated purely like a premium business client.

Trump 1.0 was a classic Republican governance with an authoritarian streak. In terms of foreign policy - He was basically some variation of Reaganism. Back then, Trump wasn't surrounded by the techno-billionaires, influencers, and Nationalists he surrounds himself with today, but had a more classical Republican inner circle.

The Trump family were still outsiders in Washington back then and didn't know how to navigate, so Trump was surronded by Republican, Conservative Jews like David Friedman and Sheldon Adelson, relied on Jared Kushner and donors like Rupert Murdoch and the Pro-Israel line of Fox News, and relied more on the Evangelical wing of the GOP.

His foreign policy back then was more about appesing his Pro-Israel donors (who were also very close with Netanyahu) and Evangelical supporters like Pastor Hagee, and also about the clash of civilizations approach that is identified with the Reaganites and the Evangelicals - fighting against what they saw as the "Forces of Evil".

Between 2021 and 2024, the Pro-Israel right splitted: There were people who remained loyal to Trump, but many who also preferred DeSantis or Haley over Trump. While the two sides didn't fight, Trump started to systematically dismantle the old Republican guard, anyone who wasn't loyal to him was thrown away by the Base, replacing it with a new ecosystem and a new movement. Fascinatingly, this left the evangelical base and the right-wing Jewish establishment with a stark reality: they had put all their political chips on Trump, and they no longer had any alternative vehicle for power. Instead of Trump having to appease these groups to win their votes, these groups now had to adapt to Trump’s changing whims just to stay in the room. They became entirely dependent passengers in a vehicle driven solely by Trump, his inner circle, and his new Right wing movement where the Jewish Right and the Evangelicals are not the most powerful group around the table.

With the old ideological guard removed, the intellectual vacuum was filled by the hardline nationalist vision of figures like Stephen Miller. This model completely discards the language of global leadership or Ronald Reagan moral crusades. Instead, it is more "Nixonian": views the world through a deeply cynical, survivalist lens where raw power, resource acquisition, and financial dominance are the only metrics that matter.

This has resulted in a foreign policy that behaves remarkably like a classic mafia protection racket. Under this blueprint, global relationships are stripped of sentimentality and reduced to a ledger: Who is paying us? What resources can we extract? How does this deal directly benefit the American economy or the administration's wealthy supporters?

The administration’s strategic documents openly treat foreign policy as a tool for domestic wealth creation, using aggressive tariff warfare to extract revenue and viewing military or border interventions primarily as law-enforcement operations to protect the homeland's assets.

This new direction completely rewired the MAGA movement's relationship with Israel, placing it on a track that is distinct from both traditional religious/Hawkish, Lindsay Graham Right and the isolationist alt-right. On one side, Trump rejected the conspiratorial, borderline hostile isolationism popularized by figures like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Dave Smith and the Podcastistan. Trump is very clearly very Pro-Israel and likes the Israeli people.

However, the relationship has been stripped of its romanticized, ideological Zionist veneer. In the modern GOP, Israel is no longer viewed through the lens of a biblical prophecy or a shared civilizational crusade against "evil." Instead, it is treated purely like a premium business client.

• Homelander roasts The Deep, telling him he wanted him to feel how worthless he is
• Homelander has a speech publicly where he basically declares himself as a God. No rampage apparently (seriously? then what was the whole fucking point?. Antony Starr said after Episode 3 and the Ryan beatdown that he can't wait for the audience to see the worst thing Homelander has done)
• The Peak and Annie have a one last showdown, where Annie asks The Peak if he doesn't want to be free of Homelander. The Deep basically blames her for all of his problems and for him losing everything. They have a fight, The Peak is then in the Ocean and getting killed by the Sea creatures
• Hughie does a Butcher impression
• Aside from Butcher, no one on The Boys dies
• Ashley doesn't get a redemption or whatsoever. She is just arrested. They kind of a had a setup for her having a redemption before death, but after the last Episode I'm fine with this being her fate.
• Homelander vs Ryan and Butcher is public (takes place after Homelander addreses the nation). Kimiko depowers Homelander. Butcher kills Homelander in front of the whole world basically, saying "this is for my Becca"
• Butcher offers Ryan a fresh start, but Ryan rejects, says Butcher is not a good person either
• Butcher and Hughie meet in the Seven Tower. Butcher is ready to unleash the virus with Hughie pleading him not to do it.

This is what I saw so far.

As an atheist I was always interested in the inner politics of the Right and the role religion plays in it, and during the past few years, and espically after 2024 but it has been in the making since 2015, a new religion is created that is basically the religion of the Bannon-esque New Right. The new populist, Nationalist, working-class MAGA right is not using religion like the Reagan right, but basically creates a new religion.

There is a massive tectonic shift between the traditional Religious Right of the late twentieth century and the populist, Bannon-led "New Right." The old guard focused heavily on doctrinal purity, biblical literalism, and traditional family structures. By contrast, the populist nationalist movement treats Christianity less as a personal faith and more as a tribal uniform, a civilizational shield, and a political weapon

Their Religion is redesigned as a cultural identity marker to unite a fractured working class against what they perceive as a corrupt, globalist elite, centered more around traditions, "Christ is King", and Trump's cult of personality then the classic Christian Nationalism.

The Bannon-type populist wing leans heavily into a stylized, reactionary interpretation of Catholic traditionalism. Fragmented online spaces, podcasts, and video streaming networks allow individuals to bypass institutional gatekeepers and assemble their own customized orthodoxies. Within this digital ecosystem, traditional religious hierarchies are replaced by political influencers and the like, and this new religion is more based on hollow traditions and social media performance.

In this new civil religion, aggressive social media performance, transactional loyalty, and a willingness to smash institutional norms become the new sacred virtues. This new civil religion seeks to also include within itself American nationalism, militant America First, wrapped with Donald Trump's cult of personality, and the religious-traditional envelope.

Sam Harris likes to criticize religion, and I agree with him, but I do think he misses some aspects. The new populist, Nationalist, working-class MAGA right is not using religion like the Reagan right, but basically creates a new religion.

There is a massive tectonic shift between the traditional Religious Right of the late twentieth century and the populist, Bannon-led "New Right." The old guard focused heavily on doctrinal purity, biblical literalism, and traditional family structures. By contrast, the populist nationalist movement treats Christianity less as a personal faith and more as a tribal uniform, a civilizational shield, and a political weapon

Their Religion is redesigned as a cultural identity marker to unite a fractured working class against what they perceive as a corrupt, globalist elite, centered more around traditions, "Christ is King", and Trump's cult of personality then the classic Christian Nationalism.

The Bannon-type populist wing leans heavily into a stylized, reactionary interpretation of Catholic traditionalism. Fragmented online spaces, podcasts, and video streaming networks allow individuals to bypass institutional gatekeepers and assemble their own customized orthodoxies. Within this digital ecosystem, traditional religious hierarchies are replaced by political influencers and the like, and this new religion is more based on hollow traditions and social media performance.

In this new civil religion, aggressive social media performance, transactional loyalty, and a willingness to smash institutional norms become the new sacred virtues. This new civil religion seeks to also include within itself American nationalism, militant America First, wrapped with Donald Trump's cult of personality, and the religious-traditional envelope.

Trump 1.0 was a classic Republican governance with an authoritarian streak. Trump 2.0 is just full-on MAGA populism, oligarchy, and authoritarianism. Trump 1.0 was something between Reaganism and Nixonian. He attacked the media and such and tried to take over the institutions, but it was in a more Nixonian style as he focused more on attacking those institutions rather then fully making them his own and didn't really manage to influence them. His economic policies were also the usual tax cuts playbook.

The MAGA movement of Bannon-style populism was still in its beginning and didn't have the influence they have on policies as today, so Trump relied more on the Evangelical wing of the GOP, Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, or classical Neocons, hence his foreign policy was also more about the clash of civilizations approach that is identified with the Evangelicals and fighting against what they saw as the "Forces of Evil".

Between 2021 and 2024 that movement, that was also influenced by the "America First" approach and Nationalism that is more built around modern traditionalism and personal loyalty to Trump, and when Trump returned, he already had a playbook in his own image and a well-established movement with a media ecosystem, and an ideology which is a mix of anti-establishment populism and authoritarianism, an economic model that is similar to that of Orban, and a foreign policy that is shaped more around his economic interests rather than appeasing the evangelicals.

He also learned how to use his authority to damage businessmen rivals, and learned how to make billionaires cave down to him and not the other way around. However, it shall be noted that Trump is still more in the realms of an authoritarian capitalist model rather than the working class grievance anarchy of the MAGA movement that is driven by Bannon, Tucker and their ilk. He shifted away from the Bannonite populism, and adopted a business-focused, Nationalist, mafia-state model. Neo-Jacksonian is perhaps the fitting definition. He’s executing a modernized, hyper-charged Andrew Jackson playbook. If Trump 1.0 was defined by Nixonian friction and paranoia, Trump 2.0 is pure Jacksonian dominance, built entirely around the revival of a 19th-century American Spoils System.

The absolute engine of this shift is the weaponization of executive power to completely purge the federal bureaucracy through mechanisms like Schedule F. Just like Jackson in 1829, Trump 2.0 cloaks the destruction of the independent civil service, and like the Jacksonian spoils system, it evolves into a raw mafia-economic model. The ultimate "spoils" of political victory are no longer just bureaucratic jobs-they are the multi-trillion-dollar flows of the American economy. By wielding unilateral executive power over massive tariffs, regulatory waivers, and antitrust investigations, the administration effectively turns the free market into a loyalty market.

Like Trump and the circle of young nationalist billionaires and wealthy online personalities that evolved around him between 2021 and 2024, Andrew Jackson had massive backing from wealthy businessmen, and understanding this is the key to separating real-world presidential execution from the theoretical "burn-it-all-down" populism of the Bannon-Carlson wing.

Historians have pointed out that Jacksonian Democracy wasn't just a spontaneous uprising of poor farmers and laborers. It was heavily financed and driven by "new money"-a rising class of state-level entrepreneurs, land speculators, and local bankers who felt completely choked out by the "old money" eastern establishment, like the tech-bros/PayPal mafia/Nouveau riche Republicans. Their ultimate enemy was the Second Bank of the United States.

This move redirected the entire financial lifeblood of the United States to a preferred corporate inner circle, much like what Trump and his allies are doing now.

Trump 1.0 was a classic Republican governance with an authoritarian streak. Trump 2.0 is just full-on MAGA populism, oligarchy, and authoritarianism. Trump 1.0 was something between Reaganism and Nixonian. He attacked the media and such and tried to take over the institutions, but it was in a more Nixonian style as he focused more on attacking those institutions rather then fully making them his own and didn't really manage to influence them. His economic policies were also the usual tax cuts playbook.

The MAGA movement of Bannon-style populism was still in its beginning and didn't have the influence they have on policies as today, so Trump relied more on the Evangelical wing of the GOP, Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, or classical Neocons, hence his foreign policy was also more about the clash of civilizations approach that is identified with the Evangelicals and fighting against what they saw as the "Forces of Evil".

Between 2021 and 2024 that movement, that was also influenced by the "America First" approach and Nationalism that is more built around modern traditionalism and personal loyalty to Trump, and when Trump returned, he already had a playbook in his own image and a well-established movement with a media ecosystem, and an ideology which is a mix of anti-establishment populism and authoritarianism, an economic model that is similar to that of Orban, and a foreign policy that is shaped more around his economic interests rather than appeasing the evangelicals.

He also learned how to use his authority to damage businessmen rivals, and learned how to make billionaires cave down to him and not the other way around. However, it shall be noted that Trump is still more in the realms of an authoritarian capitalist model rather than the working class grievance anarchy of the MAGA movement that is driven by Bannon, Tucker and their ilk. He shifted away from the Bannonite populism, and adopted a business-focused, Nationalist, mafia-state model. Neo-Jacksonian is perhaps the fitting definition. He’s executing a modernized, hyper-charged Andrew Jackson playbook. If Trump 1.0 was defined by Nixonian friction and paranoia, Trump 2.0 is pure Jacksonian dominance, built entirely around the revival of a 19th-century American Spoils System.

The absolute engine of this shift is the weaponization of executive power to completely purge the federal bureaucracy through mechanisms like Schedule F. Just like Jackson in 1829, Trump 2.0 cloaks the destruction of the independent civil service, and like the Jacksonian spoils system, it evolves into a raw mafia-economic model. The ultimate "spoils" of political victory are no longer just bureaucratic jobs-they are the multi-trillion-dollar flows of the American economy. By wielding unilateral executive power over massive tariffs, regulatory waivers, and antitrust investigations, the administration effectively turns the free market into a loyalty market.

Like Trump and the circle of young nationalist billionaires and wealthy online personalities that evolved around him between 2021 and 2024, Andrew Jackson had massive backing from wealthy businessmen, and understanding this is the key to separating real-world presidential execution from the theoretical "burn-it-all-down" populism of the Bannon-Carlson wing.

Historians have pointed out that Jacksonian Democracy wasn't just a spontaneous uprising of poor farmers and laborers. It was heavily financed and driven by "new money"-a rising class of state-level entrepreneurs, land speculators, and local bankers who felt completely choked out by the "old money" eastern establishment, like the tech-bros/PayPal mafia/Nouveau riche Republicans. Their ultimate enemy was the Second Bank of the United States.

This move redirected the entire financial lifeblood of the United States to a preferred corporate inner circle, much like what Trump and his allies are doing now.

Trump 1.0 was a classic Republican governance with an authoritarian streak. Trump 2.0 is just full-on MAGA populism, oligarchy, and authoritarianism. Trump 1.0 was something between Reaganism and Nixonian. He attacked the media and such and tried to take over the institutions, but it was in a more Nixonian style as he focused more on attacking those institutions rather then fully making them his own and didn't really manage to influence them. His economic policies were also the usual tax cuts playbook.

The MAGA movement of Bannon-style populism was still in its beginning and didn't have the influence they have on policies as today, so Trump relied more on the Evangelical wing of the GOP, Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, or classical Neocons, hence his foreign policy was also more about the clash of civilizations approach that is identified with the Evangelicals and fighting against what they saw as the "Forces of Evil".

Between 2021 and 2024 that movement, that was also influenced by the "America First" approach and Nationalism that is more built around modern traditionalism and personal loyalty to Trump, and when Trump returned, he already had a playbook in his own image and a well-established movement with a media ecosystem, and an ideology which is a mix of anti-establishment populism and authoritarianism, an economic model that is similar to that of Orban, and a foreign policy that is shaped more around his economic interests rather than appeasing the evangelicals. He also learned how to use his authority to damage businessmen rivals, and learned how to make billionaires cave down to him and not the other way around. However, it shall be noted that Trump is still more in the realms of an authoritarian capitalist model rather than the working class grievance anarchy of the MAGA movement that is driven by Bannon, Tucker and their ilk.

Trump 1.0 was a classic Republican governance with an authoritarian streak. Trump 2.0 is just full-on MAGA populism, oligarchy, and authoritarianism. Trump 1.0 was something between Reaganism and Nixonian. He attacked the media and such and tried to take over the institutions, but it was in a more Nixonian style as he focused more on attacking those institutions rather then fully making them his own and didn't really manage to influence them. His economic policies were also the usual tax cuts playbook.

The MAGA movement of Bannon-style populism was still in its beginning and didn't have the influence they have on policies as today, so Trump relied more on the Evangelical wing of the GOP, Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, or classical Neocons, hence his foreign policy was also more about the clash of civilizations approach that is identified with the Evangelicals and fighting against what they saw as the "Forces of Evil".

Between 2021 and 2024 that movement, that was also influenced by the "America First" approach and Nationalism that is more built around modern traditionalism and personal loyalty to Trump, and when Trump returned, he already had a playbook in his own image and a well-established movement with a media ecosystem, and an ideology which is a mix of anti-establishment populism and authoritarianism, an economic model that is similar to that of Orban, and a foreign policy that is shaped more around his economic interests rather than appeasing the evangelicals. He also learned how to use his authority to damage businessmen rivals, and learned how to make billionaires cave down to him and not the other way around. However, it shall be noted that Trump is still more in the realms of an authoritarian capitalist model rather than the working class grievance anarchy of the MAGA movement that is driven by Bannon, Tucker and their ilk.

Homelander, the main villain, starts out as a demagogue who uses a language based on security, charismatic, "Mr. Security," using religious rhetoric to inflame his traditional supporters. Both Netanyahu and Homelander start out as classic establishment conservatives who symbolize the right who uses security to unite the public around him, but uses only clean, patriotic, dog-whistle language, and operates within the system. Homelander initially operates under the supervision of vought, and Netanyahu was restrained in his relationship with the institutions of the Israeli state.

In their early iterations, both figures were bound by frameworks that modulated their rawest impulses. Homelander was a corporate asset managed by Vought International, kept on a leash by public relations teams, legal departments, and handlers like Stan Edgar. He used the sanitized, focus-grouped language of American exceptionalism and security to project the image of a patriotic savior while operating strictly within a corporate hierarchy.

Similarly, Netanyahu’s early political identity was anchored to his reputation as "Mr. Security," a classic establishment conservative who operated within the traditional boundaries of Israel's democratic, legal, and judicial state institutions. Netanyahu was also kept in check by people like Shimon Peres, and was dependent on the financial backing of Sheldon Adelson and Ron Lauder.

During this period, both leaders leveraged security anxieties and patriotic dog-whistles to consolidate their traditional base, but they still deferred to the institutional guardrails that granted them mainstream legitimacy.

In the weeks leading up to March 2015, Netanyahu was politically cornered, trailing significantly in the polls to Isaac Herzog’s center-left Zionist Union. The mainstream media, the cultural elite, and the institutional apparatus of the state were preparing for the end of the Netanyahu era, operating under the assumption that conventional political gravity would pull him down. This is similar to Homelander thinking he is losing his approval and public status due to his PR disasters on Season 2. Faced with political mortality, Netanyahu did not moderate or retreat into institutional decorum; instead, he completely dismantled the established campaign playbook. In the final hours of the race, he discarded years of diplomatic posturing by explicitly disavowing a two-state solution and released the infamous election-day video warning his base that Arab citizens were moving to the polls "in droves." It was a moment of raw, unfiltered polarization that shattered the illusion of the polite, unifying statesman. When the final tally revealed a crushing, unexpected victory for Likud, it was Netanyahu's "I can do whatever I want" moment.

As he becomes more powerful and the cult of personality around him grows, he begins to see himself as God, and demands that his supporters believe in *him*.

What has been happening since October 7th is that Netanyahu has stopped speaking in the name of God, and deliberately makes sure that the cult of personality will be around him and that he himself will be the one who is believed in. What we see is that even his religious supporters stop talking about God, and even those who are less loyal to Netanyahu personally, like the Religious Zionists, devote themselves to a personality cult around him and essentially replace God with Netanyahu the symbol.