Why Homelander Was So Weak in The Boys’ Series Finale

The series finale of The Boys has finally been released, and fans have some questions about Homelander’s role in it. Since episode 1 of The Boys, killing Homelander has been the goal, with Butcher, Hughie, and the rest of the team treating him as the head of Vought. The final confrontation between the Boys and Homelander finally occurs in The Boys season 5, episode 8, and after years of build-up, it’s surprising how weak Homelander is.

The world of The Boys is full of powerful supes, but of them all, Homelander is the most powerful. All five seasons of The Boys are full of supes who are terrified of Homelander, with him easily wiping out humans and lesser supes without breaking a sweat. This made him a massive threat to the Boys, even after some of them took Compound V. However, when their final battle occurred, the Boys were able to kill Homelander pretty easily.

Homelander Was Far Too Weak In The Boys Finale

Most of The Boys finale centers on the team breaking into the White House in order to kill Homelander during his Easter national address. They enter through the tunnels, traverse through the building, and finally confront Homelander in the Oval Office. When Homelander realizes that Kimiko has the power to fry the Compound V out of his blood, he attempts to fly away. However, the combined effort of Kimiko, Butcher, and Ryan is able to repeatedly grab him and pull him to the ground before he can make his escape.

Unfortunately, there is a problem with this. Just a few scenes earlier, The Boys finale showed that Homelander is able to fly to space and back in mere seconds while holding someone. It seems like a bit of a contradiction for him to be significantly slower with no explanation during his final fight, something that many fans have pointed out. Similarly, his laser eyes seem to be much weaker in this scene. Earlier in the season, Homelander lasered Kimiko in half. This time, however, his lasers just push her back without actually damaging her. Kimiko’s radiation shouldn’t have changed her durability, so Homelander’s lasers being weaker seems like a plot hole.

The reason that Homelander is weaker in The Boys finale is clear. At points in the show, Homelander seemed way too powerful for the Boys to beat in a fight. Even with Butcher’s brain tentacles and Kimiko’s strength, they stand no match for Homelander’s top speed and powerful lasers. So, The Boys finale had to scale down Homelander’s power so that the team could actually win. Power scaling is always a difficult topic in superhero projects, but The Boys finale is a clear example of a villain being scaled down for the final fight.

What makes this power scaling issue worse is that Homelander just took V1 a few episodes ago. While it wasn’t explicitly stated that V1 would make him physically stronger, it does stop him from aging. Plus, his laser eyes were more powerful than ever immediately after he took it. It was expected that Homelander would be more unhinged after taking V1, yet the final episodes of The Boys never show this. Homelander seems weaker rather than stronger, leading to the final fight between him and the Boys being a bit unsatisfying.

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Homelander’s Power Scaling Has Been A Problem Throughout The Boys

It isn’t surprising that Homelander’s power scaling is off in The Boys finale, as his power level has never been consistent throughout the show. For example, his speed. In season 1, Homelander took a bomb off Butcher and moved Butcher in less time than it took for Butcher to press the detonator. In season 5, Homelander is almost as fast as A-Train. Then, in the finale, he is slower than Butcher’s tentacles and Ryan’s flight.

Similarly, in season 3, it took the combined effort of Soldier Boy, Hughie, and Butcher to hold Homelander down. At points in the finale, however, Butcher, Ryan, and Kimiko are all able to hold him individually. The aforementioned discrepancy in the power of his laser eyes is another major example of the issues with Homelander’s power scaling.

Every superhero project has characters who vastly vary in strength throughout the story. This can be found in Invincible, the MCU, the DCU, and more. Inconsistent power scaling is sometimes necessary for stories to happen, as long-form stories can’t survive if they constantly have to up the stakes. However, the main hook of The Boys is that the titular team is taking on a superhero much more powerful than they are. So, it’s a bit disappointing that Homelander’s power level was held back by the finale’s writing.

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