u/Reptilian_Overlord20

The way Homelander died, depowered, blubbering and pathetic was **perfect**and frankly an incredible moment of catharsis for me on both a narrative and meta level.

If there is one thing I am beyond tired of it’s **hype moments and aura** especially as it pertains to fictional psychotic murderers that teenage boys online flock to and are obsessed with to a creepy degree.

Guys who want to kill in huge numbers and form fascist movements are not “badass”, the toxic fantasy of power and dominance is just that, a fantasy.

In reality every person in real life who tries to embrace fascism is not a big powerful aura man, they are a pathetic weak child who never grew out of being a playground bully. Losers, dorks, weaklings. The lot of them.

And frankly I always found the weird cult of people who worship Homelander and his aura and menace really creepy and off putting. When Homelander threatened Starlight with global genocide if she released the Flight 97 footage I remember seeing a YouTube video titled as him “putting her in her place”.

While it might not be accurate to say that a lot of people didn’t get that Homelander was a villain there was a significant amount of people still drawn to him and idolising the aesthetic of his power. They liked the image of power and dominance and masculinity he represented.

That is literally the point of the character of Todd. A pathetic little chode of a man who loves the vicarious fantasy of getting to dominate with destructive power and feels like Homelander is a symbol of reclaimed masculinity.

And that’s why it’s absolutely brilliant that once Homelander loses his power and for the first time in his life realises he can’t actually overpower or dominate anyone he collapses and whimpers begging for mercy.

He was never brave or strong. He was only ever as brave as his powers allowed him to be. Without that he was just a weak coward.

The reality is fascism is a cult of strength, appearing weak is its only sin. Notice how in the episode people don’t leave when Homelander snaps and starts promising genocide and instead leave when he starts blubbering? Because that’s what actually defeated him, looking pathetic.

And frankly I’m tired of all the based sigma TikTok thirst trap edits glazing psycho killers like Homelander and Patrick Bateman, Anakin Skywalker in revenge of the Sith and the Joker and all the others. They aren’t cool or tough, nor are they complex tragic and deep. They are pathetic losers.

The kind of person who wants to be that guy is inherently pathetic, it’s why I prefer Kylo Ren to Darth Vader because he’s that character realized. He’s not cool, it’s all manufactured and the illusion is completely cracked in the first movie. He’s just an angry emotionally messed up boy playing pretend, because wanting to be an evil mass killer is pathetic. He’s still dangerous partly because he’s so insecure and unstable but the movies never indulge in the aesthetic of power fantasy with him so he doesn’t ever get the same weird creepy fanboys Anakin got.

And I think people forget this, \*\*Homelander was always like this.\*\* In the first season he was an insecure baby who screwed up a plane rescue and lost his composure and was super jealous that his corporate surrogate sex mommy spent more time with her baby than him. Hell, he finally fucked her and lasted like ten seconds.

Stan Edgar said it perfectly, Homelander is a deeply insecure loser who will never truly be happy and that it was only a matter of time before the world knew what a pathetic disappointment he was. And this was proven correct as the last image anyone will ever have of him is him beaten and bloody pleading for his life and saying he will eat Butcher’s shit live on camera if he gets to live.

That’s “shock and awe” just not the way he planned.

Am I denying it was anti climactic? No. Am I disappointed that we didn’t get the massive wave of destruction the show kept suggesting? A bit yeah (though if I’m honest if it means we don’t get ten million glaze goon hype moment compilations on YouTube maybe it was worth it).

What I am saying is that the only way to truly kill a fascist is to deny them aura and power. To strip bare all the superficial power and aura they have built to expose the fragile weak coward underneath. And I was fucking cheering when Homelander was left blubbering and getting his brain scooped out via crowbar.

I recently finished the Theta Saga, I enjoyed it a lot but I do have two misgivings. The first being it’s in a weird alternate universe seperate from AVP continuity and there’s all these random Star Wars looking aliens running around (it also seems to think humanity will have settled other planets and found complex alien ecosystems by 2041 which is if nothing else very optimistic) the other problem is the protagonist doesn’t really have an arc.

She starts out strong, spoilers ahead, as a choke her parents were killed by a Yautja and over several years she’s dedicated her life to hunting and killing Yautja until she gets the one that killed her family, along the way she adopts their gear and fighting style becoming a kind of Predator for Predators.

She eventually kills the one who got her parents, relatively early in the story, but that’s not where it ends. She keeps killing, by the end of the story she’s killed 36 Yautja and it’s still not enough for her. Eventually she does decide to help people who have been the victims of Predators (albeit not super successfully) and chooses saving lives over killing but her relentless kill quest never ends. (Heck she has a pretty cool moment where she gets a deadly virus capsule to use on herself so even if a Predator beats her she can off herself and thus deny them a trophy.)

She is, to the last, determined to kill every Predator she sees with extreme prejudice. She actively seeks them out.

And reading that comic I kept thinking about Dek, the “good” Yautja. The one who defied his society and prioritised protecting his loved ones over killing for personal glory. The one who risked everything to save a broken Weyland Yutani android. The guy who defeated his father and clan leader in single combat and has a freaking pet **Kallisk**

If any Yautja was going to inspire a major societal upheaval and change of norms in their culture, it would be him. I’ve already spoken about how he could do that.

But the kicker is that as written, Theta wouldn’t see Dek any differently to the dozens of Yautja she’s slaughtered already. He’d still be just another predator to her, another monster. Given Dek has Thia now who is compassion personified I could see a plot where his culture’s love of hunting humans gets at least commented on because Thia was literally programmed to serve and aid humanity and his species hunts humanity (this would be the equivalent of a white guy bringing his black girlfriend to his parents place for thanksgiving and only remembering at the last minute that big confederate flag they keep in the back yard.) I could see this being a point of tension and introspection, especially if they follow the narrative of him creating a new clan of other outcasts.

The point would really be hammered home if he and his fellow Yautja found themselves being hunted by a human with their tech, a role reversal with the awkward truth being that we kind of deserve it, she’s not wrong to hate us.

I’m just spitballing here but imagine it, Dek having to face an emotionally dead woman all consumed by vengeance and realizing she’s a monster his kind created, culminating in a final fight and a teachable moment about maybe not hunting sentient beings for sport anymore? Actually engaging with that as a concept as Dek is forced to defeat a human in combat but allows her to go out on her terms and instead of a trophy gives her a funeral and a vow to do better?

Plus it would mean a complete shakeup of the formula, Predator in role of Prey at the hands of a human.

Side note I suspect Dan Tratchenberg might be planning to make Naru the Machiko Noguchi of this setting which I am all for.