Right-Wing American Audiences Confused That ‘The Boys’ Homelander Is A Villain. Duh!

The recent episode of The Boys revealed that Homelander is in fact, a villain and not a superhero, and it got a certain group of fans riled up.

A group of right-wing fans have taken to the show’s subreddit thread to complain about how political the series has gotten. One fan thought that racist superhero cop Blue Hawk was making some “pretty good points” shortly before assaulting an unarmed room of Black People, which in itself, mirrors the issue of police brutality in America.

But a larger chunk of the conflict centred on Homelander. Homelander has essentially become a 1:1 parallel of Donald Trump, assigning his minions to clear out valuable agencies and going on the equivalent of Fox News to talk about free speech and cancel culture. This is similar to the time Trump shut down crime tracking.

The Boys subreddit is chaos right now. Threads getting locked, users rage-deleting whole accounts. It’s amazing. Right-wing users are whining about “no politics,” but it’s impossible to talk about the show without them now. Fans who thought Homelander was cool are in a meltdown. pic.twitter.com/w4YyWVuWIW

— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) June 18, 2022

According to Rolling Stone writer Ryan Broderick on Twitter, Homelander has always been a villain – and many, if not most fans are aware of it. It is surprising that supporters of the character are shocked at the progression of his character, especially as his villainy becomes more and more blatant in the latest season.

The third season has been such a wild balancing act, but if they can keep it up, it’s on track to becoming one of the best modern satires in a long time. It’s like edging into Robocop or Starship Troopers territory. Though I’m concerned they might both-sides the Soldier Boy stuff

— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) June 18, 2022

Broderick argues that Homelander fans are likely hoping for a redemption arc, but that’s the thing with villains: rarely do they get such an opportunity because they are, as aforementioned, villains.

The Boys have long been political whether fans want to admit it or not. The characters are deeply flawed, each meant to parody a political issue. Stormfront is a Nazi, Blue Hawk is a direct allegory for police brutality and Homelander is a sociopath akin to Trump.

With the upcoming episode set to introduce fans of the show to Herogasm, one of the more iconic and memorable storylines from the comic, viewers are likely to have yet another heated and deep discussion. This is especially since the episode has already gotten some Twitter drama regarding an emoji.