the gif wrangler

i think he should have killed those guys who spoke about editing out the wrinkles in his movies. :(

vought clearly taught him his appearance was very important to his brand, and well, his life was created to be a brand. so they likely made it very very apparent. i know not everyone agrees he has body image issues, and that’s fine! but my headcanon is that they manifest in different ways to the most stereotypical “i feel ugly”, because it is a fact he isn’t ugly and he knows that. in my mind his body issues stem from vought using that to sell their shit, instead of letting the rest of who he is shine through.

even his powers weren’t enough, he had to look strong. he didn’t need muscle mass, yet they padded his suit, they couldn’t just let him show strength in his own way; let him be him. that type of thing. i think he knew and enjoyed being pretty regardless, even if there were issues sprinkled in, that were rapidly growing as he lost his youth.

at least in the beginning that kind of shallow admiration was likely enough to satiate him. but he began wanting more and more. to be loved for his entire self. and i don’t blame him for wanting a deeper kind of love.

it felt inevitable that he’d feel insecure for ageing with all this factored in. and definitely after meeting soldier boy, who is decades older than him, but would never age. it got him thinking about how he won’t live forever, and his grey hairs were beginning to show he is visibly ageing, making him unable to ignore it. i bet it felt like he was running out of time to feel truly loved

the v1 arc in another timeline would have actually been good and leaned more his characterisation. we got snippets but, as usual, homelander is very interesting and they didn’t explore him at all in the final season. instead we got cameos and trump references. that is what i’ll say about that