The Boys sideblog

why he was taunting a-train over the calories he consumed? we know he hurts people to control them, because that's what happened to him. was he a cunt? yes, let me make it clear, YES. but he probably sees a-train and other supes who need a lot of surplus calories and he envies that they don't have to think twice about it. i don't think the envy comes from the fact he wishes he could eat more, i doubt he cares much about food. he is jealous of other people's joy, full stop. i doubt it would be easy for him to gain weight, and who knows how many calories he needs; he himself has superspeed, flight, super strength etc. but i'm sure they strictly controlled his food intake as a child, probably made deliberate comments about the negativity of weight gain as part of the psychological abuse with the goal of controlling him. he was probably told his suit was made for him to fit in to and how much of a disappointment he'd be if he outgrew it, that "we already have to pad it to look like you have muscles".

homelander's body doesn't function entirely as a human's does, and we don't know the ins and outs so it's hard to drop specific headcanons-- but the abuse he suffered, that was bought for him, was tailored to make HIM obedient, so, i am sure they gave him some complex about weight and appearance. his cruel remarks to a-train just felt a little too personal... "you're making us look like an embarrassment!". is that what was said to him? he'd be an embarrassment if he enjoyed food? even if it wasn't easy to gain weight, i am sure they made him know just the appearance of him eating lots wasn't a good look.

we see him several times obsessing over his appearance, especially in s4 when he begins noticing visible signs of ageing. they definitely hammered in to him the importance of it.

but what i find most interesting is his gasps for air, he most certainly has never experienced a struggle with breathing before, at least not in normal, human circumstances. vought definitely experimented on his breathing capabilities as a kid.

here in his reddit AMA he states he barely needs to breathe when someone asks him if he can breathe in space. he can't, he just... can survive on little oxygen, so i am sure he doesn't waste his time breathing much. he can probably fly for a long time before succumbing to asphyxiation, swim underwater for a long time, and yes visit space.

so, when he wakes up and takes a deep breath, his body is likely not use to breathing by itself, he probably now has to manually think about making sure he isn't holding his breath, from the muscle memory of simply not taking breaths. also, a horrible evil thought: the last time he was deprived of oxygen was in the lab as a child, and maybe for a second he thought he was all the way back there again, waking up from another experiment. it is no surprise his cries are awfully similar to that of a wounded animal or child.

a side-note conclusion is that: if their plan was to depower homelander, they wasted it by killing him within 5 minutes. there is SO much to explore, so much that was missed. i wanted to see more of antony play a depowered homelander if he got the time to fit everything in he wanted to. in that specific moment, had we gotten a longer scene, homelander should have been reacting very differently. firstly, the pain of existing in a human body!!!! one that had just been blasted, that is now bleeding from his head. being genuinely disorientated, struggling with balance since he can no longer fly, being able to just feel the weight of his clothes, the heaviness of his boots. stumbling over, and definitely crying or shaking at the sheer overstimulation. we have seen him get overstimulated before.

ALSO WHAT IS THEIR SHIP NAME? YES I DO NOT CARE THAT THIS IS QUITE LITERALLY SOAPSHIPPING. WHAT. IS. THEIR. SHIP. NAME??