Rat rat rat rat rat rat in a hat

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Hello! This is a fun question, and I know lots of people have different headcanons about it. I even saw someone suggest the idea that his birthday was actually the day he died (so, 5th April, I believe?) just for the extra angst. 😭

Truly, I do not care that Homelander is an objectively terrible person, I do not need misogynists constantly reminding me that I'm a silly little girl for wanting to enjoy him the way I do when realistically I couldn't, and I refuse to constantly justify liking him so chronically online morality police can see I'm one of the good ones who enjoys him the right way. You know why? Because he's NOT REAL and neither is any of the harm he causes.

Homelander is a vessel for actual real people (be they the show creators or fan creators) to explore dark subject matter safely, which is healthy and normal. He is a metaphor and a personified representation of several themes and ideas. He is not a real guy out there who can hurt you. He is not Donald Trump. And a small group of people online posting things about him that personally disgust you or which you find embarrassing is not going to cause the moral degradation of whichever society you live in. It's easy to forget when you're in the trenches of it, but transformative fandom is very niche and sidelined compared to, you know, actual multi-million dollar budget media that millions of people regularly consume - and even if it wasn't, it still wouldn't cause the downfall of humanity. Fiction isn't there as a step-by-step guide on how to live your life or what you should consider normal; fiction is there to help build your empathy and understanding that the world contains multitudes of good and bad, and even things that haven't penetrated your personal bubble.

Trying to shame people for whatever fantasies they may have about dark characters doesn't work on me. Mature people understand that fiction and reality are different things. And I'm also constantly aware of how often it is predominantly women fan creators - with no social or economic power behind them, unlike show creators - who get flack for exploring taboos or imagining getting pleasure from the big bad man who would actually hurt them. Guess what: we already know men like Homelander in real life are bad news because we live in the real world, but Homelander himself is a safe space because he is - let's say it again - NOT REAL. I see your internalised misogyny - your belief, the same belief people have had about women for centuries, that we're stupid and can't differentiate between fantasy and reality and are going to ruin society by having harmless fun - and I'm telling you you're not nearly as progressive or morally virtuous as you think you are. You're just immature and unable to handle when every person's fun doesn't cater to your tastes.

and i just want to add, alongside this being applied to women, it is applied to us queer fans too. those of us who aren't women, but love to explore dark topics for whatever reason, are often seen as perverted freaks who cannot separate fiction from reality. "of course such heinous people like this stuff". queer people have our sexuality mocked by others, and like women, we are sexualised to an extreme. when in reality, rejecting heteronormativity often pairs with enjoying taboo themes because of the society we live in, and the fact we are labelled as taboo for existing. and women exploring taboo topics, is also seen as this horrible, perverted thing too. when cishet men are allowed to explore this pretty openly!!

We know he's a rapist. There are plenty of great noncon Homelander fanworks and meta for all ships and mediums out there that is acknowledging this directly. However, a fictional character being a rapist does not mean that as a woman I (or anyone of any gender, but this particularly applies to women, who the onus is put on as Becca is a woman) should avoid exploring other facets of him on some kind of moral ground, or that I shouldn't be imagining him in situations him for my own (female) pleasure if I wish to. Oftentimes in fandom overrun with the anti/purity mindset, there's the implicit expectation that oppressed demographics like women, queer people, people of colour, disabled people, and neurodivergent people will and should only focus on media via the violence it explores against them. And sometimes we do! But sometimes we want to be allowed to explore ideas outside of that as well. And sometimes we even deliberately take that violence and explore it in taboo ways so we can feel in control of it. All such approaches are perfectly fine, and no one is beholden to stick to one or do all three.