Headscratchers / The Boys (2019)

Starlight's secret identity

• How could Starlight's identity as Annie in the first three episodes be a secret? She attended child superhero contests with her gossip queen mother, was a local superhero in Des Moines with unique powers, passed a casting call to join the Seven and, more obviously, her super-costume doesn't cover her face in any way.
  • Her public image is that of Starlight, not Annie January. She’s never introduced in public out of costume. When she is out of costume she wears a baseball cap with a ponytail and no makeup and in costume wears a wig with a face full of makeup. The only time anyone has seen her as Annie using her powers was a grainy security video that most people may have seen only once. Not enough to really leave people with an image of what she looks like out of costume. Most people don't pay attention to faces as much as one might think they would, and instead rely on other features for identification like hairstyle and general dress and style. Seeing someone constantly with a face full of makeup then to see them without can be jarring. Plus if people aren't expecting a famous person to appear in public, they may assume they are someone who looks like them but if they appear different to how people normally expect them to look they may not be recognised at all. Annie is part of the Seven. Nobody really thinks about what she does when she's not doing hero work. This is why Clark Kent gets away with being Clark Kent. Superman is an alien from Krypton to the public. That's all he is, so nobody imagines that he even have a civilian identity. Plus Clark does a lot to cultivate an identity of a guy nobody would even consider is Superman. Different from his Smallville-raised true self. Similar with Starlight, Annie January might as well not exist. Although it's entirely possible she wouldn't be able to pull off her anonymity in Des Moines as more people are likely to be aware of Annie January. This is why one of Hughie's friends feels Annie looks familiar, but doesn't even consider she's Starlight.
  • This has been proven as possible in real life. Henry Cavill did an experiment, wearing just a pair of glasses and walking around New York wearing a Superman t-shirt. He wasn't recognised once. Superficially, she wears her hair back as Annie and down as Starlight, so that might make it harder for some to recognise her. She also seems to just go to places with Hughie that her fan base of extreme Christians and Squeeing young girls might not frequent - a bar and a bowling alley.
  • Likewise, Tom Cruise (one of the most recognisable movie stars in the world) did deliveries in a crowded city area in preparation for the role in Collateral and nobody was any the wiser. The preparation was specifically to prove that he could blend in and not be spotted for his role as a discrete assassin.

MM's Name

• Why is Mother's Milk named... Mother's Milk? In the series, he's not a supe, unlike in the comics, where he gains his superpowers from breastfeeding from his also-enhanced mother. So where'd he get the nickname in-series?
  • Before the origin of his powers is revealed in the comics, MM is implied to be called that because he's the purest member of the team, "mother's milk" often being used as a euphemism for a substance that is pure and good for people. Here it is most likely just a nickname that he sticks with because well, it's still better than Melvin.
  • Also, typically in the military (or settings that are similar, like CIA task forces) nicknames are given by others and are intentionally unflattering.

Translucent's Skin

• If Translucent's skin is nigh-unbreakable, and he can laugh off being shot with a .50 calibre round, how were Billy's punches able to harm him during their fistfight?
  • The skin is a rather thin part of the body, and while his powers obviously affect certain other parts of himself (hair, teeth, and so on), the reality of his powers means he's essentially a normal man wearing an extremely durable yet thin suit of armour. Concussive impacts will still rattle his insides, so to speak. A blow to the head, even while wearing a helmet, can quite literally shake up a person's brain. Add to that the fact that Translucent, like most of the other supes, probably isn't even used to being struck at all, and it makes sense that Butcher can give him a little trouble during their fight- though still only a little as nothing he does slows him down for long.
  • With this in mind, the odder part may be his lack of reaction to the .50 cal round, as it's packing more than 6 tons of energy, more than enough to at least cause some mild discomfort.
  • There is an easy answer to this one: Translucent was invisible when he was shot at with the .50 cal and while the cage he was in wasn't huge, there was enough room for him to move away from where Billy was aiming... they may simply have missed.
  • Plausible, but then a highly capable operator like Billy would most likely notice where that round (again, transmitting 6 tons of energy) would have impacted in the rest of the room, and that it didn't impact the translucent guy's skin.

• Translucent's skin reacts like a non-Newtonian fluid, resistant more with a strong shock than with a weak shock.

Homelander's Depravity

• While explaining the depraved nature of Supes to Hughie, Billy mentions (without a hint of sarcasm) that Homelander is the exception. Given what we learn about Homelander later, how could Billy possibly think that?
  • He doesn't, he just wants to make sure that the only person targeting the Homelander is himself. He is trying to build Hughie up to hate all Supes, but deliberately leaves out the Homelander as Hughie doesn't know the history until later on. It's a bit odd, but probably just playing into a bit of manipulation on Butcher's part.
  • This actually isn't that odd when one thinks about it from the perspective of Billy trying to get him to hate all Supes, if he started with "all supes are bad no exceptions" he would probably be seen as irrational. But by making that exception, he both comes off as more reasonable and when Hughie finds out later that the supposedly one genuinely good supe is actually far worse, it would make it far easier for Billy to convince him they're all rotten.
  • Or he's being Metaphorically True. Homelander doesn't get up to the same kind of shit the other Supes do... he does way, way worse.
  • He also may just be referring to the fact that Homelander doesn't go to the club and generally doesn't have the open and exploitable vices of other supes like Ezekiel or A-Train, meaning he's harder to nail down.
  • That seems to be the case. As, even in eight years of trying to bring the guy down, the only thing Billy knew about him was his rape of Becca and her subsequent disappearance. He knew how to cover his tracks.

Methods of Killing Translucent

• Why don't they just encase Translucent in concrete and toss him in the Mariana Trench? No chip signal is getting through that much water, and it would have saved them all of the time they spent trying to find a way to kill him.
  • More or less, that's what they did after killing him. By encasing him in zinc, they were able to circumvent Homelander's powers. However, the Boys were still struggling with trying to avoid detection and may have been wary of traveling out in the open where Homelander could potentially find them. Also, acquiring a concrete mixer may have been a bit more difficult than a small block of C4.
  • And the Mariana Trench is a fair distance from New York City. Difficulties in getting a boat that can handle that journey and be crewed by three people aside, that's a lot of time for a lot of things to go very wrong.
• He still has somewhat-human innards, right? Would there be a good reason why an elephant's dose of cyanide wouldn't do the job, or perhaps filling his lungs with quick drying cement? Even if a bomb was the only way to do it, why didn't they force it down his throat instead of up his bum, to make it that much harder for him to take out of himself?
  • Possibly they wanted to question him a bit more, maybe Billy was looking for a way to get to Homelander or more leads on Becca (he said torture didn't work normally but this was a different scenario). So maybe a method that allowed them to threaten him as well as killing instantly was what seemed best.

Making Translucent Visible

• While it ultimately didn't matter too much, why didn't The Boys bother to spray-paint Translucent to ensure he was always visible while they had him in captivity? Sure, he was locked in a cage, but it would certainly be beneficial to know where in the cage he was.
  • When you start with 'while it ultimately didn't matter too much', you've basically already answered your own question.
  • Still, in-character it would make sense that, given that Billy only survived their fight by using blood to locate Translucent, keeping him in view would make sense for someone as highly-trained as Billy is.
  • They originally rushed Translucent to his cage because of time constraints. They had just fell a Supe, one who was tagged and could be traced. So their main priority was to cage him and isolate him before Homelander showed up and ripped them apart. Even when he was in the cage they still were under a deadline, and focused more on concealing him then revealing him. Not to mention they knew where he was, in a cage of their making. Also another factor is the blood seemed to have cleaned up from his body later. Possibly due to his sweat or the strange nature of his skin. The group did not have time to experiment on what would stick TO him. They prioritised concealment and killing him over marking him. A wise move on their part, considering how close Homelander came to finding them despite their precautions. They knew where he was, they cared more about making sure no one else knew where he was and Butcher was more concerned about getting any intel they could with the limited time and options he had.
  • Doylist explanation? Maybe they just wanted to save the special effects budget for the more elaborate setpieces and went for the more cost effective approach of just keeping him invisible with voiceovers.

The Fly

• So... what's up with the fly? During a few scenes (after the Spice Girl speech and at the Believe Expo) a fly can be seen flying around the characters and its buzzing is audible, something that wouldn't happen if a fly was just on set.
  • Is it Swatto? A fly themed hero from the books?
  • According to this AMA the flies are just a by-product of working during summer in Toronto and Eric Kripke kept them in for realism.
  • The flies do seem to have a great sense of dramatic timing, buzzing in just after an important line delivery.

Teddy's Fate

• Did Butcher kill a baby? Teddy Stillwell was ten feet away from his mother's corpse when Butcher blew up her up, and Homelander isn't one to go out of his way to save a life when cameras aren't rolling.
  • Given the amount of C-4 strapped to Mama Stillwell, her repeated insistence to take her son upstairs seems kinda stupid, since no matter where he was in the same structure, he was dead. Given that Butcher seemed ready and willing to die in that moment as long as it hurt Homelander, it doesn't seem he was caring at all about the consequences of his actions, since he wouldn't be alive to pay them (and as established, has no belief in God, so doesn't expect any great reward or punishment based on how he lived or how he died).
  • At first it seems like Homelander is using the baby as a human shield to prevent Butcher from detonating the bomb, but after he kills Stillwell himself, it seems that he wanted her baby to die as well, one way or the other. Whether Homelander ultimately saved the baby or not, Butcher was willing to kill it as collateral damage in an utterly futile gesture of defiance to Homelander.
  • As of season 3, Teddy is alive and residing in an orphanage for supe children, and seems to have teleportation powers, which is for now a headscratcher of its own.

Translucent's Weaknesses

• Another Translucent question- if they know that they can't penetrate his skin, why not poison in his food or drink? Failing that, how about filling the room with chlorine gas or carbon monoxide? I know suffocation was mentioned and that it failed but it sounded like they meant strangulation or a bag over the head.
  • Yeah, there seems to be a lot of unexplored ways for them to kill him. Why didn't they go for his eyes or down his throat when they were still in the "shoot at him" phase?
  • The fact of the matter was they were really pressed for time, hence why they went for more instant kill ways of termination. While he was caged, he was still super strong, so forcing him to imbue various toxins could have been a logistical nightmare. Hence why they went with a bullet, then with an out of the box method of explosive suppository. They could have put poison in his mouth or tried choking him to death while he was knocked out. However, they were in unknown territory regarding Supe biology so they could not say what could or would not work in regards to those methods with the limited time they had while he was out. With the suppository they gained three thing's, an instant kill method as well as an effective leash. Also, and even more importantly, they found a leverage to get good workable intel from a suddenly talkative Translucent.
  • For them to be pressed for time, and waste it by manufacturing a highly-resistant carbon polymer bullet, is a terrible idea. They had a chemistry station set up, therefore it would be much quicker to go for a simple poison. Or even CO2 asphyxiation since it takes only a few minutes (for a normal human at least, maybe a bit more for Supes).
    • However, Frenchie was a weapons expert so making a bullet would be logical. Crafting a custom bullet would be easier than searching for exotic poisons or creating and testing chemicals to see if they could kill Translucent. Especially as having a chemistry set available does not mean that he was an expert chemist. Also asphyxiation and poisoning relies on either removing oxygen from a person temporarily knocked out, or forcing poison or chemicals into a person that is knocked out. Untested chemicals or poison that may have no effect on his biology because the Boys had no idea how his body worked, they were flying blind with a ticking clock. Due to these limitations they went with something they knew: bullets and explosives. Powerful explosion inserted internally was more pragmatic then attempting to locate and use poisons that would be time consuming, or attempt to suffocate a Supe who was currently being tracked by the most dangerous being on the planet. Time constraints, options like the gear they had (guns, explosives, bullets) versus what they did not have (exotic poisons, chemical weapons) as well as being practical. Attempting to suffocate a knocked out Supe who still possessed superior strength meant getting close to him, in itself a risk should he awaken. They only had limited time and equipment and improvised a workable and practical solution.
  • You don't need to be a chemical expert to force open someone's mouth and pour bleach down it. Chemicals really only need to be understood when making more complicated compounds. It's shockingly easy to kill a person with household chemicals.
  • A person yes, a Supe on the other hand is another matter. In any case that would involve trying to knock out and force the mouth open the mouth of a Supe with superior strength, and then see if household chemicals could kill him. All the while being up close with said Supe who has invulnerability and super human strength. Logically they played to their strengths, kept their distance and went with the quickest and least dangerous solution at the time. They tried to shoot him at a distance instead of try to force chemicals down Tranlucent's throat who could beat them to death with his bare hands. Their second solution was even more quicker, instead of doping him and poring chemicals down his throat and hope for the best they dosed him, shoved a bomb up his ass and let internal explosives do the rest. Again playing to their strengths, ballistics and explosives instead of relying on unknown factors.
  • As the Perfect Poison page explains, it's actually harder to poison someone than one would think. The really deadly poisons tend to be difficult to come by, especially if you're on a deadline, and can still be dangerous to the poisoner. Poisons can be slow acting as well, so they would be unsure of whether it was even working on him. They were unsure of what to do before Frenchie's "Eureka!" Moment so perhaps if that didn't work they might have explored it as a separate option.

A-Train's Powers

• If A-Train can run through a girl so fast that he liquefies her without suffering any ill effects from the impact himself, why does Kimiko's swung pipe give him a compound fracture to his femur? Kimiko is stronger than a normal person, but not as strong as an impact at 1,000 MPH. A-Train's brother mentions that his bone density is dropping due to Compound V use, but it's framed as a health problem and not a "losing your invulnerability" problem.
  • It's possible that A-Train has some variety of Required Secondary Powers to reduce the damage from impacts while he's running, but they are not active when he's not using his powers.
  • It's also noted that A-Train's usage of Compound V increased exponentially due to his match with Shockwave with him progressively more in bad health throughout the first season then he was at the start.
  • A-Train was high on Compound V when he killed Robin. It wasn't even an intentional kill. Compound V seems to amplify all their abilities and physical attributes, so it's likely that was why he didn't get hurt. He was suffering from withdrawal when he confronted Hughie and got kneecapped by Kimiko. Even Superman had to brace for strong impacts to keep from being knocked over. A-Train never saw the hit coming, so couldn't brace for impact. It might also just be Flash rules, where he's more resilient while running.

The Plane Crash

• Did no one on the plane text about Homelander and Maeve's presence? 9/11 had people texting, and cellphones were far less common then compared to now.
  • Do we know if 9/11 happened in this universe or not?
  • Very strongly implied at least, because part of Soldier Boy's Fish out of Water characteristics is that he doesn't get how America is now the major power with presence in Afghanistan, instead of the USSR. This attack was what led to the coalition's invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and it may have set it up in Stillwell's mind that if subsequent attacks happened over international waters, they may be prevented with Supe intervention.
  • 9/11 occurred over American soil, which allowed some of the cellular phones to connect to ground towers for short stretches. The attack in this show occurred over the Atlantic Ocean, so there would have been no cellular service.
  • However, that wouldn't preclude the on-flight Wi Fi from connecting to satellites for coverage, unless those systems were taken out (even unintentionally) during the incident.
  • Stilwell even stated that the attack was happening over international waters to allow them the chance to intervene. Although it is possible that any texts or messages about it were swiftly silenced by her PR department.
  • And in Season 2, the Deep uncovers a GoPro with video of the incident that survived the crash.

Hughie's view of A-Train

• In Episode 1, Hughie is shown to have an anxiety attack at the sight of A-Train merch at the store. But in Episode 3, it is shown that he still has an A-Train figure in his room. Why didn't he get rid of it immediately? How was he able to sleep in that room?
  • As someone with a couple similar mementos from an incident with some trauma attached, I feel like going through the trouble to take them out of my collection would be akin to "going out of my way to readjust my life".
  • It's possible that he kept his A-Train merch as a personal reminder to kick his ass (not sure if there's a trope for that). It's also possible that he was planning to keep up his charade and didn't want to startle his dad by suddenly getting rid of his merch... y'know, before he lost his shit.
  • Wasn't it mentioned that Hughie was sleeping on the couch a lot after Robin's death? Maybe he just wasn't spending as much time in his room and thus didn't notice the merch until that moment. And at the point that happened, his view had changed from 'this dude accidentally killed my girlfriend' to 'this whole fucked up organisation is trying to kill me' - giving him even more reasons to angrily lash out at the merch.

The Deep and Diversity

• The Deep is a white cis gendered heterosexual white man. In what sense is he a "diversity hire?"
  • Because diversity - particularly in teams - includes diversity of skill and ability. It's not always about sex, sexuality, or race.
  • It's showing how self-absorbed he is. He considers himself this because he's not a powerhouse like everyone else on the Seven, and they treat him as a joke, invoking This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman. A-Train, Queen Maeve, and Starlight all have impressive flashy superpowers, and Black Noir (played by a black actor, so one can assume he's intended to be black under his costume, though if he's never seen without it how relevant this is is debatable) is The Dreaded. The Deep "feels" like a "minority" because he's the Butt-Monkey of the team. That he unironically considers himself this is a classic example of It's All About Me.
  • Black Noir actually is seen without his mask on as of the third season.
  • Considering he has gills which are from another species, he's pretty within the realm of "diversity" by the standards of this world.
  • Technically all members of the Seven are from another species, mutated human. He still is human, just an advanced kind. He does have a species, Supe. Like Starlight, Gecko and Black Noir. His sole sense of diversity exists only in his own ego that lets him think of himself as a victim of unfairness despite how everything that occurs to him are the results of his own actions.
  • Like the first reply said, it's most likely power diversity. Since most of the planet is water it's understandable that a "king of the sea" style hero would be coveted for branding, allowing The Seven to encompass Land, Sea, Sky by putting him alongside A-Train and Homelander. We can also assume that his powers are uncommon (if not unique) due to no similar supes being mentioned so far, which would make their addition even more prestigious for the team.
  • He's also the only member of the team with a physical deformity, and views his position on there as being solely so they can avoid potential criticisms that they only have good-looking supes with great physiques. It's somewhat applicable to actors with disabilities being cast for those same reasons, as disability representation is still a hot button talking point in the industry.
  • Which adds to the irony as, gills aside (and regardless, they even provide fetish for certain characters) and rapist inclinations aside, he is genuinely good-looking and has a great physique.
  • There was no indication he genuinely believes that his position on the Seven as a disability representation, nor that he believes he is there as a counter for criticism for the "only good-looking Supes on the Seven" situation. A criticism that has never been shown in the show. In context, those revelations were during a drugged episode so should be taken with a grain of salt. It is more likely that the Deep just believes that he is diverse rather then him actually being diverse. As a form of justification to himself for feeling persecuted not for his actions, but for his "diversity".

Hijacking the Plane

• Was the plane hijacked by terrorists as doomed as Homelander suggested? One set of controls was destroyed, but there was a co-pilot station that looked in order. Homelander complained there was nothing to push against to lift the plane, but he has been shown to be able to hover and lift things while doing so.
  • There's the distinct possibility that Homelander realised he could use the plane's destruction to tilt the scales in favour of supes in the military *before* the plane actually went down, and simply wasn't motivated to save it once he realised he had more to gain from letting it fall.
  • The show goes off of more realistic physics rules. Homelander himself explains why he can't just stop it in the air. This is also a show that slaps other superhero properties in the face, so it was taking shots at how Superman saves planes in the comics, movies and shows. Also, Homelander is an evil prick. He's said multiple times that Supes are above normal people. It's entirely possible he melted the console on purpose so Maeve would think the plane couldn't be saved.
  • Homelander isn't always that smart. Just because someone with better knowledge of planes could have saved things doesn't mean Homelander knows how.
  • He was careless in killing the bad guys with his eye beams, not thinking that it might affect the plane's controls. He probably could have thought of more ways to save the people, but he just clearly wasn't bothered.
  • It underlines a key difference between him and his Corrupted Character Copy source of Superman; he didn't even bother with attempting to save the plane (despite his justifications, it both may have been possible and would at least have been worth a shot even if it turned out to be impossible), whereas Superman would definitely try (and even if he failed, of course he would genuinely grieve for the people he failed to save). So no, the likelihood is that the plane was not as doomed (as in with the degree of certainty that Homelander expressed) as it seemed, even with realistic physics. Because when you actually have a Flying Brick character in your universe with realistic physics, well then our real world understanding of physics changes a little, and we can infer that there's any number of things he could do to try and save the plane, as Maeve mentions herself for a few cases. And making it less a case of "slapping other superhero properties in the face" (at least in this instance) and more of "this is just yet another reason why he's a Diabolical Cunt".

Letting A-Train Live

• Why was A-Train just left after his leg was broken? This was the guy Hughie was most keen on getting revenge against who has just threatened the life of his father. I was anxious to see what the team was going to do with their newly crippled prisoner, I was particularly looking forward to them showing Butcher their catch, but then nothing... and A-Train is suddenly shopping in an athletics store despite the Seven being in full crisis mode and his leg being broken. A-Train would have certainly been easier for The Boys to deal with than Translucent. At the very least, they should have killed him where he fell - it makes no sense to leave him alive. They know he is a remorseless killer, dangerously unhinged, and with a personal vendetta.
  • This one is pretty simple. With Translucent, they had precautions. A cage to contain him, a room guarded against broadcast from his chip, plus he was unconscious. The scenes with him showed they know nothing about Supe biology. They don't know how fast someone like A-Train would heal, or if he had to be killed a special way. Also, their identities were burned thanks to Mesmer selling them out to Homelander. They were focused more on getting family to safety than killing a Supe. If they'd had more time, they might have made an attempt to kill him.
  • This is understandable, but it is somewhat disappointing that they didn't at least show Hughie considering killing A-Train. Getting revenge on A-Train is the reason Hughie joined up in the first place: a crippled A-Train at his mercy is both everything Hughie ever wanted and an opportunity that would likely never occur again. Not going through with it, either because of difficulty or because Hughie has emotionally moved past revenge, is valid but it still goes against his entire motivation up until now and shouldn't have been passed over without comment.
  • There's one thing you're forgetting about Hughie: he's still a human being. Yes, he killed Translucent. Yes, he wants revenge on A-Train. But he's still human. The fact is that A-Train said something to him shortly before he got kneecapped: "What I did to your girl was an accident. What you did was on purpose." (or something along those lines). It's entirely possible that line was weighing in Hughie's mind after A-Train said it, making him question and doubt his actions up to that point. Not to mention, Hughie ended up trying to help A-Train by giving him CPR after his heart attack later on. Hughie may be a killer, but he's not hard as stone like Butcher and the others (yet). He's still human.

The Lobster

• Why does the fishmonger kill The Deep’s lobster friend? While that is a humane way to dispatch one, a lobster requires almost immediate cooking. Handing someone a dead, raw lobster to take home is just wrong.
  • Consider this: like the groupie who raped The Deep, what's to say this guy didn't kill it simply to torture him, after the revelations?

Stormfront's view of Starlight

• In the second episode of the second season, Stormfront gives the straight talk to Starlight and says that she used to look up to her but now she's through her. Starlight couldn't have been on the team for more than a few months at this point, right? Stormfront makes it seem like a childhood idol.
  • Most likely, she was simply referring to how she was impressed with how Starlight handled herself at the Believe expo and its aftermath, bucking Vought's script and speaking out for herself against the Deep's sexual abuse. Stormfront was impressed by that, but then rapidly became disillusioned as Starlight seemingly became just another soulless Vought sell-out not long after.
  • It is entirely possible that she was just saying that to make Starlight lower her guard and to become more appealing to her. Stormfront has shown the ability to manipulate both social media and people. She projects the personality of the laid back, "one of the guys just being honest" kind of person that draws people. However as we saw in episode three of the second season, that’s all it is, just a projection. She is a social chameleon. To Homelander she’s the perky, nothing bothers her, irrelevant and challenging without actually challenging him. To Ashley, she’s a nightmare not following the script. To her followers she is a breath of fresh air, the rowdy best friend. And to Starlight she became a person who she can trust, whose approval she would seek thanks to Stormfront pretending to be disappointed in her. Classic manipulation which fits her personality, sometimes she lets the mask slip like when she gloats at Homelander at the press conference after killing Kimiko's brother. But basically her statements to Starlight were likely not genuine, just manipulation.

Hiring Stormfront

• How did a white supremacist like Stormfront make it through the Vought screening process? Even if we generously assume there is no website called Stormfront in this universe, and therefore the connection to Nazis wasn't immediately obvious, Stormfront is repeatedly shown as a woman who has no filter and who has an extensive social media presence. You'd think there would be dozens of things in her social media history that would get her 'cancelled', and therefore make her unacceptable to the public relations-obsessed management at Vought. Particularly since the CEO is a black man.
  • This one is VERY easy to answer. Not all black people have a loyalty to black people. If you've ever heard the phrase "All skinfolk ain't kinfolk", that's what that means. Edgar's main concern seems to be the bottom line and his profits. He doesn't seem above hiring a racist sadist to keep Homelander in line and protect his assets.
  • It's absolutely clear his bottom line is profit, and I have no doubt Edgar is amoral enough to hire a Nazi if he thought that would be in Vought's financial interests. It's just I don't see why he would make that call in 2020. Like I say, Vought is extremely image conscious, and in the present day United States that means making at least superficial efforts to appear socially conscious. As Ashley says in the first episode, inclusion polls really well with millennials; even if Homelander shut it down hard behind closed doors, she was actively looking for a hero who was 'differently abled', and was hoping to follow it up with an ethnic female supe to replace the Deep. Hiring a Nazi is the total opposite of that, and the number of consumers you scare off by making a Nazi one of the faces of your company is vastly larger than the number of consumers you attract.
  • To be fair, it's possible that Vought has some sort of specialised high tech software that allows them to delete any racist or sadistic posts that Stormfront makes. Also, they could easily lie and claim that Stormfront is a "Jewish woman who picked Stormfront as her superhero name in order to steal the name from Neo-Nazis".
  • Stormfront is clearly portrayed as highly intelligent, and extremely image conscious herself. It's likely that she has been extremely careful to avoid overt public racism, and to keep even her dogwhistling very, very subtle. Also, she's portrayed by a Jewish woman, and seems based off Laura Loomer. So, as others have said, she can likely get away with claiming that her name is based off of her weather powers, and that she's reclaiming it from racists. Hell, she might not even be exactly lying, as the actual Laura Loomer despises the Stormfront organization, despite agreeing with them on every issue except Jews.
  • With The Reveal that Stormfront was Liberty, Vought absolutely knows. They either do not care about, or are somehow even banking on, her bigotry.
  • Right before Susan Raynor died she said something about a coup inside Vought. Stormfront could be working with others at Vought who share her racist or superhero-supremacist beliefs, or at least have an interest in overthrowing the current management. If they can invent a background for Homelander —the most famous superhero in the world— then inventing a 'clean' background for Stormfront is no problem, which they would have to do anyway to hide from the public that she was Liberty. If one of Mr. Edgar's staff picked up a discrepancy, they could just pretend they were covering up an embarrassing incident for PR reasons like they do for Supes all the time.
  • The revelation that Stormfront was Frederick Vought's wife also implies that, having been part of Vought International from the beginning, she has enough contacts and influence to wield her own power inside the company (unlike Homelander). She has to stay out of sight because she's The Ageless, so it's convenient to let others like Stan Edgar run things until she's in a position to implement her own plans. Edgar is likely ignorant of her true ambitions.
  • Stan Edgar reveals in the finale of Season 2 that the plan is simply to sell Compound-V to the general population, and the rage Stormfront generates simply provides an incentive to purchase the drug. He doesn't like using her distasteful methods, but feels it is necessary after the reveal of Compound V's existence scuttled Vought's original plans for the drug. The "Race-War" she is planning seems to be an afterthought.

Communicating with Kimiko

• Why did they find it so hard to communicate with Kimiko? There is this thing called "Google Translate", after all. Just get Google Translate on a computer or cell-phone, and let her type away.
  • It's always possible that Kimiko is illiterate or close to it, whether because she was grabbed by the Shining Light Liberation Army before she was old enough to learn to read and write or for whatever other reason.
  • And that's basically confirmed, albeit subtly in the Season 2 premiere as we can see Kimiko spending time learning how to write in English.
  • Because Frenchie learned her form of sign language, this means she can both use her phone to type out messages for most of the crew to read, and also have a more private form of communication with him for whenever they desire that (like when they're visiting Crimson Countess in season 3 to interrogate her for information on Soldier Boy).

Starlight helping Hughie

• Even if A-Train keeps his mouth shut about Starlight helping Hughie and company escape at the end of Season 1, has the show forgotten he wasn't the only one there to witness it? There were a number of armed guards there who had Hughie and the other Boys surrounded before Starlight attacked. Unless the implication is that she straight-up murdered the guards during that scene, which seems really dark for an idealist like Starlight, her cover should have been blown long before A-Train recovered.
  • The guards are said to be from a government black ops unit doing Vought's dirty work. The only explanation that makes sense is that Susan Raynor—as Deputy Director of the CIA—stopped them from passing on that information to Vought. She could even present the situation as a Vought conspiracy: after all, why else would a member of The Seven be involved?
  • Season 2 Episode 6 features Starlight killing an innocent man who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and feeling pretty jaded after she does so. So it's also possible she really did use her powers to straight-up kill those guards we saw on-screen, only holding off on killing A-Train after his heart attack because she makes a distinction between killing someone in combat and murdering a defenceless enemy when he's down.

Clean Slate

• How is the "Clean Slate" thing Butcher discussed with his contact in the CIA is supposed to work for them after they have already appeared in the news section on TV as the people who were involved in several heinous crimes such as killing Madelyn Stillwell?
  • Same as Witness Protection works in real life. He gets a new set of identity documents with a new name, the various agencies stop mentioning him in their press releases and the news cycle moves on, Billy shaves and gets a new clothing style, and if anyone says anything he just says "Not me, mate. I only look like him" and the cops and courts back him up on that statement if anyone tries to drag it out.

Power levels between the Supes

• Why are the older superheroes the most powerful? You'd think that the scientists would get better at making superhumans - not worse. Is it intentional because heroes like Stormfront and Homelander are too powerful to control?
  • It's probably exactly that. They could make another hero like Homelander or Stormfront, but why would they want another nigh-unstoppable psychopath who they can barely control? Whatever process they used to make supes who have won the Superpower Lottery, someone at Vought probably made a judgement call that it was far better to produce supes who are powerful, but not so powerful that the entire world is at their mercy.
  • It is probably also based on utility. There seem to be plenty of Supes with base level powers like Super Strength, Healing Factor, Durability, and Super Speed. Vought most likely prefers a diversity of powers in their assets, so as to be prepared for multiple situations.

Liberty's Address

• Why would an intelligence report listing Liberty's old address instead lead them to the sister of one of her victims?
  • The address was handwritten by Raynor on the back of an old Budweiser advertisement featuring a celebrity endorsement by Liberty. Grace had no idea what this meant and so sent the Boys to check out the address. They just assumed they were going to meet Liberty, which was the justification for bringing Starlight along.

Crises of Faith

• Why hasn't The Boys's in-universe version of the fundamentalist Christian community had any massive wave of crises of faith after it's been revealed that Supes were granted powers by Compound V?
  • We haven't seen anything from the fundamentalist Christians since the Believe expo, so it's entirely possible they have been going through such a crisis and we're just not seeing it. Or they could rationalise it the way Starlight's mother rationalises it: Supes were granted powers by Compound V, but God acted through Vought to send that Compound V to his chosen people.
  • It's not like superheroes are a lynchpin of the Christian faith. The response to this revelation wouldn't be "wow, everything I knew is wrong, is God even real?" it would be "wow, Vought are lying hypocritical assholes," same as everyone else would think.
  • Good point, but I was not referring to the moderate Christians such as Starlight before she lost her faith in God in The Boys TV show, I was referring to the fundamentalist Christians depicted in the aforementioned TV show. I'm suprised they never bothered to show how fundamentalist Christians reacted to the revelation of Compound V, aside from Starlight's mother's rationalisation before Starlight's mother started feeling remorseful.
  • It’s not surprising the reaction of fundamentalist Christians was not portrayed as they had already moved on to the next stage of the story, nationalism and the planting the seeds of fascism under the guise of freedom using fear and social media. The reaction of fundamentalist Christians was not essential, it played no part to the next part of the story. It was useful in season one to show how Vought utilised image to sway religious America for clout. But after Homelander provided them an easier way to gain influence that appealed more to the masses, then catering to their original Christian base became a less of a priority. Also considering how often various religious scandals become newsbites that lose momentum after their original release, spin regarding the revelation was not that hard. Most likely there was some uproar, but after the revelation of super terrorists was revealed Vought spun the PR machine. Then, and thanks partly due to the new fear of terrorists with super-powers the Christian majority most likely forgot their doubts and joined the masses in thinking that Supes ere the final line to protect America, good Christian values and mom's apple pie.

Rebellious Supes

• Considering that Starlight is slowly rebelling against Vought, and to a lesser extent so is Queen Maeve, why haven't other superheroes in this universe not rebelled against Vought before?
  • Maybe they have. We saw with Mesmer that Vought can destroy the careers of Supes who do things they disapprove of.
  • Because the world vastly changed in late 2017 with both the "Me Too" Movement as well as social media and widespread internet making such a movement possible. Any rebels in the past could be easily silenced with payoffs, blackmail or a smear campaign by a more powerful PR team - but it's a different era now. Both Starlight and Maeve are valuable to Vought because of this - Starlight confessed to being the victim of a sexual assault on live TV and became a national hero for saving a girl from being raped, and the second only became possible because the girl came forward to back Starlight up (beforehand Ashley and Madelyn are furious because there was no proof that she didn't just beat up two random guys). So she's able to get away with a lot more because it would be a PR disaster for them to crack the whip at her, until she gets exposed as a traitor. Maeve meanwhile doesn't rebel until she's somewhat protected by the 'Girls Get It Done' marketing and the reveal that she's bisexual, which means Vought benefit from diversity points.
  • And also in Season 2 when the rebelling really starts happening, it's because Madelyn has been killed, and without her to control Homelander and rein him in, he's slipping up and becoming more careless. He was able to keep Maeve in line with pure fear beforehand, but then he gets caught killing innocent people and suffers a massive blow to his reputation, and Maeve takes advantage by trying to get evidence of the plane incident. Again, evidence that would only be possible to exist very recently in the world.

Ryan's Powerset

• Why didn't Ryan using his super-strength as he was pushing Homelander off of Becca not accidentally take off Becca's arm considering that Homelander was using his own super-strength to grip Becca's arm enough so that she cannot pull away and that Ryan's not experienced enough to use his super-strength properly?
  • Considering he only seemed to activate his strength when he was enraged, it was possible that the anger took time to build hence why it was only later that he pushed his father back. He seems a well balanced child, with a good heart. Possibly he never had cause to really rage out until Homelander gave him cause. Homelander manhandled his mother, Ryan's anger started to reach boiling point and when he lashed out in pure rage then his super-strength came into effect. Much like in Real Life when adrenaline can allow feats of above normal strength in people, in Ryan's case it was like that but a superhuman version of it.
  • Okay, but you forgot about another part of my question: why didn't Ryan using his super-strength to push Homelander off of Becca not accidentally take off Becca's arm due to Homelander giving Becca the death grip using his own superhuman strength and Ryan's lack of experience, and I forgot to mention the velocity of the push plus the fact that Homelander was refusing to let go of Becca's arm?
  • Because he only pushed Homelander with enough force to send him staggering back, not send him flying. The strength surprised Homelander putting him off balance and lose his footing but otherwise not bothering him. When he felt himself be pushed back and start to fall, which was possibly a new sensation for him, he automatically let go in either surprise or in an attempt to gain balance. He did what most people do when falling back, let go and try to use his hands to soften his landing via the Inegrating Reflex Response an automatic human action. If Ryan had pushed him hard enough to launch him into the next street her arm would be gone, but he only pushed his father hard enough to go staggering back and fall; possibly for the first time in his life. Enough force to make him let go in surprise, but not with enough force to create harm towards his mother. Whether intentionally, or perhaps due to the limits of his super strength. If Ryan had hit Homelander with enough strength to send him flying away then there would be an issue. As it is it is doubtful either due to his youth or genetics that Ryan can actually do that due to Homelander's greater density and invulnerability.
  • Good points. Thank you. And in Ryan's defence, perhaps he does at least have enough control of his super-strength to make sure he's careful when protecting his mom.
• Another question about Ryan's powers- how come his eyebeams were powerful enough to do that much damage to Stormfront when she was resistant to Homelander's? You'd think they'd be weaker given he's clearly still developing his powers.
  • Maybe Ryan's eyebeams are simply more powerful than Homelander's? Meaning that Ryan's physical powers are weaker than Homelander's, but his energy powers (his eyebeams and presumably his X-Ray vision if he ever develops that power) are more powerful than Homelander's?
  • In other words, Ryan would be a Squishy Wizard and Glass Cannon compared to Homelander's Lightning Bruiser.
  • Additionally, we don't know for sure that Homelander ever used the full intensity of his eyebeams on Stormfront. Based on the scene where he heats up Stillwell's breastmilk, we know that he can control how powerful they are. Maybe he only went up to a mid-level intensity during his encounter with Stormfront, while Ryan used the full extent of his power. Either way, we're not likely to find out for sure until we get more information on Ryan's powers.
  • It could also be a supe version of hysterical strength, and Homelanders eyebeams could be that strong but he just can't consciously access it while Ryan was in a much more stressful situation.

Surviving a Supe Pregancy

• Another plothole about Ryan: How exactly did Becca survive giving birth to a baby with superhuman strength and durability in addition to laser vision?
  • Given that Ryan's powers are only manifesting now, they likely weren't available then. Also given that we see a Supe baby with Eye Beams, Vought presumably has experience by now in handling such things.
  • Alternatively, Ryan's powers could be repressed (along with the other repressive ways she raises him, or perhaps rather as a direct consequence of those ways) rather than not manifesting yet as a function of development.
  • Ryan could have been a C-section as well.
  • Other works involving a Mystical Pregnancy such as Charmed (1998) or Tangled have used the idea that the mother has some of the baby's powers while she's carrying it, so in that event maybe Becca had Required Secondary Powers while pregnant to allow her to withstand the birth.
  • And Season 3 reveals the existence of temporary V, which gives twenty four hour superpowers. So maybe Becca having a child growing in her with the DNA of a supe gave her some small amount of powers. She's able to ram a knife through Stormfront's eye in the Season 2 finale, so maybe she had some mild Super-Strength or Super Tough abilities as a result.
  • They also say that Supe/Norm pregnancies are much more likely to progress to term for cases where the Supe is female/the mother, but the flipside to that statement would be that some minority of Norm women can still succesffuly have Supe pregnancies.

Edible Arrangement

• What is the the Mysterious Affair of the Edible Arrangement that Susan Raynor was so annoyed at Butcher over? Is this from the comics?
  • Look's like it was just a Noodle Incident made to give the characters a shared inside joke, one that most likely will never be explained with her murder.
  • My theory is that Raynor and Butcher got up to some kinky stuff with chocolate-coated fruit during sex, and Butcher (just to be a dick) sent the Edible Arrangement to Raynor as a wedding gift to remind her of it.
  • Edible Arrangements are considered by some to be a poor gift since it's basically a lot of fruit that has to be eaten quickly (within a day or two) before it goes bad.

Public knowledge of the Corruption in the Supes Community

• Why hasn't Hughie noticed the corruption in the Supe community before A-Train accidentally ran over Robin? Wouldn't Hughie have found out about reported cases of superhero brutality (similar to Liberty/Stormfront committing murder), recordings of superheroes using excessive force, or something like that before the A-Train incident?
  • Because Vought goes to great trouble to suppress or downplay most of it. Those stories which can't be contained are easily dismissed as accidents, collateral damage or the occasional 'bad apple' Supe. Hughie has the same head-in-the-sand attitude as everyone else until Robin is killed right in front of him and he hears A-Train lying about it on television (and laughing about it in private) afterwards.
• For that matter, why haven't superheroes committing murder not gone viral during the early YouTube era, considering that YouTube was around since 2005 (or VoughtTube or whatever the hell is the show's equivalent of YouTube)?
  • Mesmer was convicted of insider-trading long before the start of the series, so clearly they have NOT managed to prevent all public knowledge of superhero corruption. What they HAVE done is used their media power to prevent the public from realising that there is widespread SYSTEMIC corruption. An individual supe like the Deep or Mesmer gets caught doing something corrupt, and Vought simply fires them and puts its media power behind portraying them as a rogue bad apple. So long as they can hide their SYSTEMIC corruption, individuals being caught means nothing.
  • Also, if there is a "VoughtTube", clearly the company running the platform would not allow it to be used as a means of disemminating anti-Supe (or specifically, anti-Vought endorsed Supes) messaging and videos.

Starlight's murder of the driver

• Why didn't Starlight just immediately grab the gun of the guy they were trying to take the car from? She did not need to shoot him. The whole scene is contrived to make it seem like she needed to use lethal force, but since she is bulletproof and super-strong, it simply wasn't. Just walk over and slap the gun out of his hand, or backhand him.
  • They're under stress with Hughie injured, so make mistakes that have a lot to do with their personalities and training. Butcher, innately mistrusting of others, tries to con the man out of his car rather than take the risk that he'll recognise these federal fugitives or famous superhero Starlight while driving them all to a hospital. Starlight, used to relying on her superpowers for combat, reverts to them instead of rushing over and disarming the man.
  • It is also a major point of the series that supes, even well-meaning ones like Starlight, are simply not prepared for stressful situations. She acted on impulse and got an innocent man killed.

Sage Grove Containment

• How did Sage Grove manage to contain someone like Cindy? What was stopping her from just crushing the door from inside? You'd think she'd have to be constantly sedated, or maybe wear some kind of straight-glove (if she has to make that fist-closing gesture to use her power), but nothing of that kind seemed to be in place.
  • She was indeed supposed to be constantly sedated, and Lamplighter explicitly says so when talking to Stormfront about the escape. He blames Doctor Carlton for getting Cindy's Propofol dosage wrong.
  • Was Lamplighter simply lying to cover his ass and scapegoating Carlton. If Cindy wasn't sedated then why did she wait for Lamplighter to blast open her door?
  • He says that Doctor Carlton got the Propofol dose wrong again. Carlton screwed up at least once before.
  • The thing about Propofol is that it robs the patient of motivation. Put someone on the right dose of Propofol and as long as they are deprived of sufficiently loud and sudden external stimuli they will just sit there. If Cindy was properly medicated she would be safe for as long as she was treated gently and not exposed to sudden stimuli. When Lamplighter blew the cell door open, that is the sort of large stimuli that cuts through the Propofol mental fog.
  • Given that every Supe has a weakness, the cell was probably lined with Cindy's version of Kryptonite. Burning a hole in the door enabled her to step outside the cell so her powers would work again.
  • In the next episode Starlight is shown to be in a cell that stops her from using her powers. It might be the same kind of cell there.
  • Yep, and then she suddenly can, because... a lamp went on because of a fire alert? What was up with that? Why would it be there in the first place, if everyone knows it's the source of her powers and why would it suddenly turn on?
  • It's probably an automatic light as part of emergency procedure. As to why it's there it's semi-implied by Lamplighter that he spent some time in that room so clearly it's not just for people/supes Vought ultimately want to kill and therefore would have Health and Safety procedure to allow for potential detainees to be released/escape. Obviously they didn't want Starlight out, but when removing light sources I doubt anyone thought to remove the (at the time switched off) emergency-only power source.
  • Given the odd hue, the lights in the cell are implied to be chemical - i.e. basically glow sticks, and would not provide a source of electrical power for Starlight to use. The emergency light was an oversight because normally no current goes there.

Hughie's Medical Treatment

• After Hughie ended up severely wounded outside Sage Grove, why did Billy and Starlight take him to an hospital instead of a Back-Alley Doctor or something similar? Both Billy and Hughie were considered nation-wide wanted criminals, so they likely wouldn't be able be in a hospital without being recognised, specially in the company of one of Vought's Seven, and not getting into the big risk of being arrested.
  • Maybe Starlight was the very reason they got away with it. "Seven's business. Patch him up and don't ask any questions."
  • You might as well ask why Butcher just walks around without trying to shave his beard off, or the rest of The Boys don't try to alter their appearance. As for why they didn't take him to a Back-Alley Doctor, they were in a completely different state from where they usually operate, so would have no idea on where to find one.
  • The back alley doctor thing can be explained by the fact they're in Pennsylvania at the time and that Butcher doesn't have any contacts there. If Hughie was wounded in New York City, he might have taken him to one.

End of WW2

• How did the Nazis lose the war in this setting? With the incredibly powerful Stormfront as a fully functioning Supe on their side and Frederick Vought ready to make more Compound-V, what did it take to overcome them? If Frederick Vought switched sides, why would he do that if he was an avid Nazi and had the means to make the Nazis win?
  • After Frederick defected, it's possible that the Allies won the war in this universe because Frederick created other Supes in addition to Soldier Boy who as a collective outnumbered Stormfront and overwhelmed her, allowing non-powered soldiers to defeat the non-powered Nazis easier.
  • As for why Frederick defected, it's possible that he may have had an Even Evil Has Standards moment.
  • Another possibility is that Stormfront only became viable as a Supe too late to drastically effect the outcome of the war. Compound V isn't supposed to work consistently on adults, and Vought was still testing early versions. By the time she came fully online, Vought may have seen the writing on the wall and defected, knowing one Supe couldn't turn the tide.
  • Much like many other Nazi weapons projects. Too few, too late.
  • V is shown to be unstable even in the modern-day, so it's likely that they couldn't perfect the formula enough to reliably produce supes at the time. As for Stormfront, as powerful as she is, she isn't immune to conventional weapons. If a knife can poke her eye out, there is not much she can do against the entire Soviet and Allied war machine.
  • It's also shown that supes in the military really just aren't good. There's a reason the army don't just recruit people who already know how to shoot and send them out immediately. They train them to work as a team, follow the chain of command, use judgment and have discipline on their weapons. We see in flashbacks to the 80s in season 3 what a hindrance supes are in combat zones - Swatto gives away their position because he flies around too high, Crimson Countess accidentally kills some of her own comrades and the whole thing is a disaster. And with it being the 1940s and all, maybe Liberty being a woman made them reluctant about allowing her in a combat zone? There's a whole complicated discussion about women in combat zones that wasn't really resolved until the 2000s - not necessarily that women couldn't keep up with the men, but that the men would default to protecting female comrades and disrupting the functioning of a unit. And from what we see of Stormfront, she's the ultimate opportunist, so if she sensed that the public opinion was turning against the Nazis, she and her husband might have defected once they saw the Allies were winning the war.
  • In defence of Stormfront as a weapon, the Wehrmacht might not even need to protect her given her powers. She might not even need to be fighting side-by-side with them, she could be sent in as a lone wolf special operations solder and devastate Allied camps and supply lines. She may be vulnerable to conventional weaponry to some extent, yes, but then the element of surprise would be crucial to take out the enemy before they can field an effective response. The idea of her being developed too late, combined with a counter in the form of Soldier Boy and other Allied Supes, is sufficient for why she wasn't able to turn the tide.

Chris Hansen's Complicity

• Is this universe's version of Chris Hansen in on the Vought-Corrupt Superheroes conspiracy, or is he kept in the dark about the aforementioned conspiracy similar to how Hughie and Billy initially were until they found out through horrible revelations? Same question goes for the in-universe versions of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Rogen.
  • Most likely, Fallon and Rogen were unaware of the conspiracy, at least until Compound V became public knowledge. People like them may know Hollywood's shadier secrets and tactics, but Vought is a whole different animal than Hollywood, even if they produce a ton of movies. Since Chris Hansen is a journalist and thus in a different part of the media world, he likely didn't know, either.
• Why isn't this universe's version of Chris Hansen investigating Vought and Vought's superheroes? Considering how dedicated Chris Hansen is in investigating child predators in real life, from To Catch a Predator up to now with his YouTube activities, you'd think since this version of Chris Hansen is basically the same as his real-life counterpart that he'd be the first to notice something wrong about Vought and Vought's superheroes.
  • Then they'll end up the same as MM's father and Susan Raynor, they'll either "disappear" or get into a very disastrous accident.

Firing A-Train

• Is it really the best time for Vought get rid of A-Train and replace him with Shockwave on The Seven? Yes, A-Train has a heart condition that is getting in the way of his efficiency, but Lamplighter 'retired' and Translucent's death is now public knowledge (even if said public doesn't know the real story with those two), while The Deep was outed as a sexual predator and forced out of the team. Even with Starlight and Stormfront now on The Seven, wouldn't it look bad for The Seven to lose a fourth member so soon after everything else? Given Vought's sheer power and influence, couldn't they and Homelander just bullshit their way around the heart condition for a while, trying to hide it while making excuses for why A-Train isn't the same, and at least wait before kicking him out of the Seven?
  • It could probably be Stormfront's doing since she is literally the wife of the founder and communicates with Stan Edgar regularly over Sage Grove. This implies that she has some pull over Vought, so she might want to kick A-Train out cause you know, she's a Nazi and A-Train is black, and she already said something about how Vought was meant to fulfill the Nazis' goals and destiny and having a black man in the Seven just really goes against Stormfront's ideals in general.
  • To talk about the original question, it's because of all of those reasons stated that they tried to get rid of A-Train. A-Train retiring may be a potential bad look, but A-Train having a heart attack and potentially dying in the midst of a mission would be a far worse look even if no one looks into the specifics of how his heart became weakened in the first place. If two of the Seven died within such a (relatively) short timeframe it would call into question their overall strength.
  • It's also better for him to retire in ostensibly amicable circumstances and good graces, as opposed to having a scandalous (or life-threatening) reason to be forced out of the team.

Ryan's forgiving nature

• Why did Ryan almost magically forget that Homelander intentionally pushed him down a roof and aggressively grabbed Becca's arm? You'd think Ryan would remember Homelander behaving that way.
  • For that matter, why did Ryan not notice that Stormfront is wearing an outfit that evokes Nazi imagery? Wouldn't that cause a bunch of red flags to go off in Ryan's head?
  • Ryan doesn't even know about Youtube or NBA, and with Becca's overprotective nature and insistence on keeping him out of the real world I highly doubt Ryan knows anything about WW2. And as for why Ryan just decided to forgive Homelander he's a kid, and as long as you show your kid a little bit of kindness after mucking up they'll start to forgive you.
  • Homelander is also the only other human being, besides Becca, that Ryan has ever interacted with - and he happens to be one who flies in and out of every visit. It's easy to see how Ryan would be tempted into forgiving him, lest that contact be taken away for good.
  • Ryan may also remember that he survived that fall from the roof, with no injuries, and may have begun asking himself what else his mother had been lying about.

Chris Hansen's Status

• Why didn't Vought send a Supe to murder this universe's version of Chris Hansen, considering that Chris Hansen's investigative skills could mean that he could expose Vought for their horrible deeds?
  • Is Chris Hansen that good of an investigator? In this verse he seemed to be towing the party line. I mean his reenactment was just propaganda and not investigative journalism. Vought targets genuine threats, Chris Hansen does not seem to be one. Not this version at least.
  • In that case, I guess we'll never know more about this universe's version of Chris Hansen until he makes more cameo appearances.

Telepaths' Status

• Why didn't other telepaths try to rebel against Vought (hopefully with more noble goals than Mesmer did)? They could use their powers to secretly send information to others to warn people of Vought's atrocities?
  • It is unknown if Compound V has actually created telepaths of that power as of yet. The most adapt one we have seen so far, one powerful enough to have his own show was a touch telepath. Only able to read via tactile means. Vought in the past have kept track of all their experimental babies so if a telepath did manifest they would measure the threat. If the threat was minimal and useful such as Mesmer then they keep them around. Also if any of their captives they were experimenting on showed any threatening abilities, like mind reading and projecting, they had them imprisoned and could kill them off in secret. If any of their compound babies was a more powerful telepath then it is likely they have contingency plans regarding that. Most likely the permanent kind. This company has been working in the background of history for decades, most likely by preemptively taking care of any threats, or placing agents in position of power that identify and destroy threats possibly like Congresswoman Neuman for example.
  • Vought has created telepaths far more powerful than Mesmer, as seen with Cate Dunlap in Gen V. Cate is significantly stronger than Mesmer, since she doesn't have to touch people to read their thoughts. She can also mind control people into doing things (although she has to physically touch the person in question first). Dean Shetty is shown to have regulated Cate's powers by prescribing her pills that dampen her telepathy, and used her to regularly wipe Golden Boy's memories while they performed experiments on him and his brother Sam. There are dire consequences when Cate stops taking the pills, as she ends up uncovering Shetty's scheme to commit Supe genocide and proceeds to murder Shetty before breaking out a bunch of Supes who are being experimented on in a secret facility at Godolkin.

Victoria Neuman

• Is Neuman a mole for Vought? Couldn't she have her own agenda independent of Vought and the Boys?
  • The implication is that yes, she's under Stan Edgar's command. Vought implicitly knows the identity of everyone who has received Compound V, as well as their power set. Therefore, the likelihood of them permitting her interference while having this damning evidence against her seems unlikely.
  • She implicitly killed Alastair to prevent his damaging information regarding Vought from going public, so yes, she almost certainly works for Vought.
  • She might be working for Edgar specifically, instead of Vought in general, given the mention of a "coup from the inside" before the very first headsplosion of the season.
  • Season 3 establishes that she's Stan Edgar's adopted daughter, and her loyalty is largely to him.

Maeve locating the Cabin

• In the climax of the second season, how did Queen Maeve find the cabin and The Boys? I don't recall anything connecting her to it, she cannot fly, so she couldn't have followed Stormfront there, and she didn't know anything about the Ryan situation, so she couldn't have even followed the Vought security team.
  • Stormfront's tracking chip maybe. She could have had the Vought analysis team or the like track her down, an easy ask given Maeve is a hero in good standing and Stormfront has just been outed as a Nazi.
  • Granted, but then how did she get there so fast? Stormfront flew directly to the Tower and back. I wouldn't put it past QM to have a personal jet, but there was no indication that she used one - she just appeared behind Stormfront.
  • Back in the season one pilot we witnessed her take a super jump off a cop car and up a building. It is possible she took a private transport to the location. Then just speed to the fight and leapt behind Stormfront who was too preoccupied to notice her.
  • She not only leaps very high, but also runs on a building before jumping in front of the van in the very first episode, which showcases that she has super speed, just not SUPER speed like A-Train.
  • It's also important to remember that, while the events in the scenes unfold very quickly, it would take the Boys a lot of time to go back and forth from the various places - so Maeve would actually have a bit of time to make it to the cabin and help once Stormfront was outed as a Nazi.
  • If she didn't use super speed, well then being a Wonder Woman expy, she may well indeed have an invisible jet. Invisible or not, she could have parachuted (or more likely just jumped out and survived, being a badass Nigh-Invulnerable Supe).

"White Man's Luxury"

• What did Edgar mean when he said "I can't just lash out like some maniac. That's a white man's luxury"?
  • As a professional head of Vought and a billion dollar industry, due to his race any outburst on his part would reflect more harshly on him then it would be on a Caucasian representative. Due to the perception of the angry black man being used as an extra demerit on his character. While historically and in modern America a person of Caucasian persuasion would be favoured more of the benefit of doubt over a person of colour. An unfortunate double standard, but one he is well aware of.
  • Of course, he could also be lying to cover his ass, since he was complicit in the actions of those like Stormfront, who he himself brought into the Seven. Really, he might be the Greater-Scope Villain of the series.
  • Lying or not, he was simply stating an unfortunate fact that as a black professional in power he could not lash out without being labelled just another angry black man in a well-tailored suit.

Kimiko's background and state of Japan

• Is the political situation in Japan supposed to be markedly different in this setting? To my knowledge there are no militant insurgent movements holding ground in the Japanese countryside. What we see and hear of Kimiko's childhood makes it seem more like something you'd expect in places like Burma or Cambodia or Vietnam at the height of the Cold War.
  • The Shining Light Liberation Army is based in the Philippines. It is a little unclear when Mesmer is recounting Kimiko's memories, but it seems like Kimiko's family were in the Philippines for whatever reason when her parents were killed and she and her brother were abducted and indoctrinated.

Stormfront's Eyes

• If Stormfront's eyes are vulnerable to a knife (Becca's stab), why is she not at least wearing goggles? Do her eyes heal?
  • She seems to have some sort of super healing (Homelander's Eye Beams visibly burnt her but no scars are left) and with her arrogance and powerset it probably never occurred to her that anyone would/could get close enough to go for her eyes.
  • And since Becca was under Vought's protection in case Homelander ever discovered her whereabouts, maybe the knife was made of something particularly strong enough to at least hurt a supe in case she had to fight for her life.
  • Her eyes would probably heal in time, but that wouldn't stop a knife getting shoved into one of them from either hurting or being quite the inconvenience.

How much does Homelander know about Compound V?

• Obviously, he knows that Compound V is a drug that gives people superpowers, but does he know that every supe is given Compound V? He doesn't question Vogelbaum's story about the superpowered fetus (at first), and he believes that Ryan is a fellow "god" from the start, even though there is no suggestion that Ryan was given Compound V and it would be strange for him to just assume that Ryan is a born supe when he is the first one.
  • It's likely he believes that he is a Physical God, perhaps one who had prodigious power even before the V boosted it for him. As of season 2, he knows he is not "the first Supe". Most likely he knows that every Supe required Compound V for their powers, and they are not naturally born, but that his self-believed godhood makes him at least a partial exception.

How on earth did Victoria Neuman discover her powers?

• How did she find out she could explode peoples heads AND keep it a secret?
  • It was most likely Vought that kept it a secret like it done with so many other Supes, especially as a power like that wouldn't be marketable to the general audience but it could come extremely handy in other applications.
  • Answered in Season 3. She was in an orphanage for children with powers, and Stan Edgar adopted her, and changed her name from Nadia to Victoria.
  • And if she ever had a moment of revelation by herself, not under the supervision of either the orphanage or Vought, then she must have killed her first victim discretely. Say in an alleyway, with no witnesses (the circumstances under which she kills Tony), and this would lead her to not want to use the power without some degree of care and discretion. That murder could easily be brushed off as some gangland violence or a mugging which ended up in a gunshot wound to the head (and if Vought discovered it fast enough, they could even plant evidence to that effect).

Superheroes in other countries.

• Why aren't Superheroes in other countries intervening when Stormfront's corruption is exposed or if footage of Homelander murdering an African civilian is public knowledge? You'd think, for example, a powerful Japanese superhero who was friends or something with that African civilian would confront Homelander about what he (Homelander) did to that civilian in Africa and use superhuman strength to angrily punch Homelander in the face in a fit of rage.
  • There is no evidence in the show that superhumans exist in other countries. In the show as in the comic, compound V is a Vought exclusive patent hence why Edgar was somewhat miffed that Homelander was handing it overseas to create supervillians for him to beat on for his own image. Which is why Edgar tolerated Stormfront despite her Nazi agenda, she made the demand for their product rise and in doing so raised the value of their product. Vought is the only company with V and they are focused on creating American supers for profit, including ensuring that any oversight on their activities is handled by one of their operatives (possibly) via Neuman. So, "other" superheroes don't intervene as they don't exist. As Vought created the only superheroes in existence via experiments on babies and controlled environments.
  • And the presence of supervillains in Syria seems very unusual in-universe, suggesting that Compound V is only developed in America. Stormfront/Liberty was the first one, and Vought has only been around since the 1940s so the supes were only ever American.
  • With the exception of Liberty, originally being a German national.

NNC/CNN

• So the "NNC" channel is a clear stand-in for CNN, with an almost identical name and broadcast look. And yet multiple characters mention CNN like it exists in this universe as well. So do they both exist? What does CNN look like then?
  • It's probably just a subtle (or not?) jab at corporate media, with most of them having alphabet soup names and mostly all espousing the same narrative (political affliation aside) with "news actors" instead of anchors, calling stuff 50:50 instead of objectively, and such. The lack of any real difference in the names underscores the lack of difference between the different networks both in substance and stylistically. Note that Vought's own channel seems to be a parody of Fox News. Don Lemon is mentioned multiple times so he likely hosts a slot on CNN just like his real life counterpart.

How did Valerie know Stormfront was Liberty?

• She didn’t even see her face that night.
  • She did hear her voice. Stormfront's voice and speech mannerisms have not changed. Add the traumatic factor that is the voice of the woman who horrifically murdered her brother, then it is possible the voice is etched in Valerie's memory. Not to mention that a) she knew who Lady Liberty was and b) back in the day according to the posters she only wore a hood, not a face mask. So it would be easy for her to connect the voice and face of the woman who traumatically scarred her to the voice and face of the person on social media and TV in front of her.
  • And maybe Liberty had to make an apology in private to Valerie like A-Train did for Hughie, and she was able to see her face then. And by the time Hughie, Starlight and Mother's Milk make their visit to Valerie, Stormfront has been active online and in the media for quite some time; giving her a good while to work out that she and Liberty are the same person.

Translucent's tracking chip?

• In season 2, Frenchie has to use a Dremel saw to cut into Starlight's skin and extract her tracking chip. Given that Translucent's skin is even more indestructable than Starlight's, how did Vought originally implant his chip?
  • Vought probably implanted his chip when his skin was in its normal form.
  • Or they worked out his weak spot the same way Frenchie did and inserted it via good old fashioned Ass Shove.
  • Expanding upon that, if his external skin is impervious but his internal tissue isn't, well there you go. They could make the chip, if not a nanobot, then a very small robot with the ability to drill into somewhere inside him which doesn't suffer much from internal bleeding (maybe just the tonsil area or somewhere?) and heal it once embedded there. Or it could be digested through the stomach lining but yet not damaged by acids, and in that way absorbed into the bloodstream, then swim to an appropriate location to embed and then just remain implanted there.

Billy's Crowbar

• Why does Billy bother with using a crowbar considering that most Supes are bulletproof and indestructible?
  • Same reason soldiers and criminals shoot at Supes. Desperation and instinct. If there were any effective weaponry that would work on a Supe they would use it. It's like facing off against a coked up Grizzly with a butter knife, it's not much but you still use it.
  • When he shot Starlight in Season 1, she wasn't harmed but she was still thrown back by the force of the shot. So while a weapon won't do lasting damage, it still will be an inconvenience and potentially slow someone down. And he did just see Becca get Stormfront in the eye with a knife, so maybe he thought he could do something similar.
  • Some supes have massive durability buffs, like with Translucent's skin, but yet still feel impact damage and internal injuries under that, so it may be worth it (or he may already know from research that it is worth it).

Kenji vs. Stormfront

• Why does Kenji not attempt to use his telekinesis against Stormfront from a safe distance? He tackles her when she's strangling Kimiko, and attempts to use it before Stormfront breaks his wrists. But if he could levitate himself to get to the higher building where Kimiko was at the time, he could have used his power against Stormfront from well outside "tackle" range.
  • Stormfront was on the cusp of killing his sister (or at least he thought so as he may not know the true depths of Kimiko's regenerative ability). Most anyone wouldn't be thinking straight at that juncture.

Pictures of Ryan = Evidence that Homelander raped Becca?

• I understand that Billy bluffed about having pictures of Ryan to get Stan Edgar to tell Black Noir to stand down, but even if Billy had pictures of Ryan, how would that prove that Becca was raped? All that Ryan's birth is gonna prove is that Ryan exists. Now, if Ryan, Homelander, and Becca got DNA tests, the recording of Becca showing fear and desperately and hurriedly trying to leave while expressing panic after a "meeting" with Homelander and Becca has a consistent testimony about what actually happened to her, then I could see that being evidence against Homelander.
  • Also keep in mind that they don't necessarily need to even prove that Ryan was a child born of rape. Ryan existing as it is would be a blow against Homelander. Remember that his image is that of an All-American Man who is a faithful servant of God. Having an affair with another man's wife and begetting a child through that affair wouldn't do his image much good in his supporter base. Add to that the potential for anyone deciding to look deeper into how said affair happened (that being of course, the rape itself) and it's pretty clear to see why Ryan's existence would be a very dangerous variable for Vought to risk leaving out there in the opening.
  • Vought are also dealing with the negative PR from the Deep admitting to his sexual assault of Starlight. A second accusation against another member of the Seven, especially against the leader and golden boy at that, would be disastrous in the short term. For all Stan knows, he and Becca planned this between them and she was lying in wait to go public and back the story up.
  • Maybe an unspoken part of the bluff is, the pictures could be expected to show Ryan's powers, which would be alarmingly similar to Homelander's. Said powers were thought to be singularly unique and powerful, and thus the logical deduction would be that yes, he sired this young child who is blessed with the same set as him.

"You've Got a License to Drive (Me Crazy)"

• Take That! and Stylistic Suck aside, is the title meant to be a reference to the Tony Sciuto song, or is that just coincidence?

Why does Hughie struggle with using his powers in combat, but Butcher can easily use his powers in combat as soon as he does so the very first time?

• They both became newly powered thanks to V-24. So shouldn’t they both be new to using their powers in a fight?
  • Possibility 1: Billy has more willpower than Hughie and so also better command of his powers.
  • Possibility 2: It's down to the nature of their powers. Hughie got teleportation. Butcher got the Superman package minus flight. The only active power he's got is laser eyes, which are seemingly triggered by anger, which Billy has in spades.
  • Okay, those make sense. Hopefully Hughie will learn how to better use his powers in a fight.
  • Butcher is also an experienced combatant, who's inevitably going to adapt quicker to using even an unfamiliar weapon in a fight.

Why does temp-V give different powers to different people?

• Butcher and Hughie both took V-24, yet Butcher got Homelander's powers (maybe not all of them, we haven't seen him fly) and Hughie got teleportation. Why?
  If there are different versions of V-24, Maeve giving Butcher the one for teleportation wouldn't make much sense, it wouldn't do much (if anything) against Homelander. It would be better to get him more of the "Homelander" version. Unless she wasn't able to and got them what she could.
  Or is V-24 just giving different powers, based on person's DNA or something?
  • The latter, same as regular Compound V.

Why does M.M hate Soldier Boy so much?

• His killing of his family was accidental, yet M.M acts as if he went straight up to his house and personally butchered everyone he loved
  • …because Soldier Boy KILLED HIS FAMILY. Even if it was an accident any sane person would be pissed, especially since the guy just brushes off M.M’s grief. A-Train killing Robin was an accident and Hughie still hates the guy even though he refused to execute him.
  • Also, Soldier Boy murdering M.M's grandfather wasn't so much an "accident" as it was willful neglect on Soldier Boy's part. From what M.M describes, Soldier Boy was dealing with a group of kids stealing a Mercedes Benz. This confrontation somehow resulted in the Supe hurling the car through an apartment building and killing M.M's grandfather in the process. While we never see what happened onscreen, considering that he was probably up against a group of completely human thugs and in no sense of danger himself, and considering how nearly every Supe in the show deals with regular humans, it's all but outright said that Soldier Boy escalated the situation unnecessarily and wasted an innocent life thanks to his negligence (especially considering that, given that the issue involved a stolen car, what possible reason could Soldier Boy have to toss it so carelessly?). Even worse is that when M.M confronts him on the family he's broken, Soldier Boy's response is an uncaring "which one?" which implies that he's harmed more than one family. M.M doesn't just hate Soldier Boy for the one murder, but everything Soldier Boy stands for; that is, Supes' callous disregard for the harm of others.
  • Soldier Boy's situation is basically the same as A-Train's, sure the initial killing was an accident but one caused by negligence and lack of care rather then one completely out of their hands. And while that could still be potentially forgivable, neither show remorse, a desire to genuinely make things right, or even enough care for the situation to remember it, all of which throws any chance for forgiveness out the window.
  • The incident is what put MM's father on the path to crusade against the supes, which eventually led to his death too. And now MM is on the same path. So he associates Soldier Boy with the obsession that consumed his father and eventually himself.

Silver Kincaid's nationality

• How can Silver Kincaid be English? Vought is an American company and they only inject Compound V into American babies.
  • Do they? Love Sausage is Russian and globalisation is a thing, they could have just inject Compound V offshore because they are not even supposed to inject Compound V in the first place. People are supposed to believe superheros are just born and Vought offer sponsorship. It would be really suspicious if supes are only in America before the reveal.
  • Maybe she just happened to be born in America, and was raised in the UK.

Is Soldier Boy Racist?

• M.M seems to think he is “just another racist piece of shit we can’t seem to get rid of". It's understandable he might think that but we don't really get that vibe from Soldier Boy not even the kind of casual "grandad" racism you might expect from someone born in the early 20th Century. So what gives?
  • Honestly, we don't really know. Season 3 did not do all that great of a job of highlighting Soldier Boy's flaws, preferring to exposit things he had done in the past off-screen, or using the cartoon flashback by Black Noir. All we know for certain, besides the M.M. incident, is that he had a hand in breaking up a lot of Civil Rights protests but we're given no indication as to whether he did so out of any sense of bigotry, or simply because he was ordered to do so. It's likely that M.M. considers him one due to that on top of what he did to his grandfather, but we don't have any concrete evidence one way or another.
  • Soldier Boy telling Black Noir, “I see you getting out of line again, trying to move on up, I will put you in the fucking ground” (to Noir, who is black as in African American) is definitely a reference to The Jeffersons. He’s clearly a racist.
  • Soldier Boy is probably mildly racist. At least on that level where in his own time period, he would have been considered relatively moderate compared to others. After all, at various points it seems like he holds respect for certain black people (Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy) and respect for Afghans due to his time in Afghanistan.
  • He's definitely a racist. Even if he didn't personally have problems with the movement, breaking up Civil Rights protests is still a bad thing to do, regardless of if he was ordered to do it or not, especially since Soldier Boy chose to be a Supe, rather than it being something forced upon him (like, say, Homelander, who can also be racist at times, but also has the excuse of extreme isolation and lack of social awareness, which is an excuse Soldier Boy does not have). Soldier Boy doesn't need to explicitly hate black people, but his actions still greatly impacted black individuals negatively, which are made worse by his astounding Lack of Empathy toward M.M's grief.
  • That still doesn't make Soldier Boy racist. Yes he is still a bad person for that stuff, but if he's not doing it out of any actual hatred or animosity, then I don't see haow he's racist. Soldier Boy no doubt has practically no empathy for his actions, but that still doesn't fall under the category of racism.
  • What about that scene where he verbally accosted and brutalised Black Noir when he wanted to break out on his own, including callously saying he shouldn't try to "move on up", which is a reference to The Jeffersons (a popular show about a black family at the time) and a clear jab at Black Noir's race specifically? If that's not racially motivated, I don't know what is. Also, you don't need to explicitly hate a certain race to be a racist, you just need to benefit from the system that upholds racism and fight to keep others below you, which Soldier Boy has done, as he also actively fought against Civil Rights' groups fighting for equality. Even if he doesn't explicitly hate black people, he sure doesn't like to see them achieve more success than him and will swiftly take the opportunity to use race as a way to justify his mistreatment of them. The only exception seems to be Bill Cosby, whose another celebrity that he was drinking buddies with. So, yes, even if he's no Stormfront, he is racist.
  • Made even worse is that Soldier Boy's entire arc centers around him wanting revenge against his team who betrayed him after he horribly mistreated them for years, yet has zero sympathy or understanding for M.M wanting revenge against him for killing a family member.
  • Made even worse is that when M.M states why he wants revenge for his family, Soldier Boy callously asks, "which one?" implying that he's killed other families before. Considering he was tasked to crack down on Civil Rights protests and participated in the Kent State massacre, and the American government has quite the history of cracking down on such protests with swift brutality, including murder and arson, one has to wonder what exactly Soldier Boy was doing in a black neighbourhood so late at night to begin with when he was targeting the black people who stole a car, even if M.M's grandfather was collateral damage.

Homelander's and Ryan's formative years

• Why did Vought treat Homelander so poorly in his early life? Like, seriously?!! Keep him in a lab isolated from the rest of the world and exposed to all manner of abuse including (implied) sexual. Why not just give him to a childless couple at the company or put him in foster care/orphanage and keep tabs on him from there? Even if they don't care about Homelander the person (which admittely they don't), it would be much more cost-effective and they should care that the Physical God Super Prototype is mentally stable and socially adjusted, if only for security and practical reasons. And why exactly are they raising Ryan the same way when Homelander turned out to be a psychopath?
  • Saddest thing is they didn't treat him that poorly if you compare him to all the other kids or Sage Grove patients they (mis)treated. As for why, the Supe kids can kill them and likely killed their colleagues by accident or on a tantrum. The only reason they put up with this is the cheque, they are not gonna find a special tutor that doubles as a lion tamer, they just do what they can and hope to survive.
  • Also, Vought is a business. They treated him poorly because his only use to them was to be a powerful product. They only realised their mistake once he grew up and they realised they couldn't hurt him anymore (except Edgar, who is a sociopath). Mental health for Supes is not a priority.
  • He was born in the 80s. At that time, spanking was still acceptable and school bullying was seen as harmless 'kids will be kids' stuff. People just weren't as aware of how abuse suffered as a child can really eff them up later in life. Vought didn't want Homelander to be a happy, well-adjusted child. They wanted someone who could be their lifelong puppet.

Soldier Boy's hypocrisy with his homophobia.

• Why is Soldier Boy tolerant of gay men, yet he hates lesbians? It's bad enough that he's a bigot, he's not even a consistent one.
  • I fail to see the issue. Soldier Boy is not tolerant towards gay men, see when he saw the gay couple in the street, SB was visibly taken aback and found it amusing.
  • His bigotry is also clearly more nuanced than Stormfront's or Homelander's. He gives Mallory a sign of respect for having his back and is willing to work with Maeve in the finale. If he was informed that Maeve was bisexual I don't think he'd care because what matters to him most is whether a person can help him accomplish a mission.

What kind of sick people are they?

• First Todd cheers at what Homelander did and then the entire group of people join in. How can that many people approve of Homelander murdering someone in broad daylight? Especially as what kind of example does that set for children?
  • That's the point. It's social satire largely aimed at supporters of Trump, who famously bragged that he could shoot someone in the street and not lose voters.
  • We all saw what happens when Homelander is really pissed off. Even if it was in his imagination, you don't need to be a genius to understand how easily such a gory scenario could become a reality. He never exactly hid his propensity for lethal force. On the other hand, he could easily claim that he recognized the guy as a terrorist and that he was protecting the crowd from him (which is how Vought probably going to spin it), and why shouldn't people believe him? The guy did attack a child after all.
  • There is a theory that Todd started cheering knowing it would be safer to do so in case Homelander started targeting the rest of the crowd instead. So in that event, it would be an act of self-preservation.

Why is bigotry so damn common in Vought!?

• I mean, Homelander is a racist of the fantasy-based variety and he’s also ableist, Islamaphobic, sectarian, anti-semitic, and also homophobic (albeit his homophobia is of the condescending compassion variety, but still), Stormfront is a literal Nazi, A-Train is a self-hating racist in that he only cares about other Black people in the Condescening Compassion sense, Soldier Boy is racist, sexist, and homophobic, Blue Hawk is a racist who’s oblivious to his own racism, the list goes on. Why didn’t Vought find a way to depower these assholes and fire them before Soldier Boy gained the ability to project a depowering radioactive laser beam!?
  • They can't depower racist supes since they can't even depower supes to begin with. As for why bigotry is rampant, it's a mix of already being alienated from most humans because of their power and status on top of having to cater to all groups, like the cure your gays campaign Ezekiel is spokeperson for. Vought doesn't even care if they are racist; they don't even see the supes as human beings, just corporate products they can't get rid of because they don't have an undo button.
  • Good points, but still, why couldn't they FIND a way to depower Supes for when they become problematic? Sure, Vought only cares about money, but the bad things the corrupt superheroes do are bad for business from any company's point of view. If Russian scientists found a way to depower Supes, surely Vought can with their own scientists, especially because since a scientist Dr. Frederick Vought made Compound V which powers Supes, then a depowering thing to counter Compound V would very likely be something scientists could make in this universe.
  • The Russians didn't find a way to do that given that Soldier Boy still has his power, all they proved is that if you irradiate supes hard enough their cells crumble. Which means Vought would need authorisation to use nuclear weapons on civilians because they don't like how their human experiment turned up. How is that possibility gonna be seen as better than racist superheroes to the public? And if they were allowed this much, they wouldn't bother with anything about bottom line, they can just ask the U.S for a blank cheque which would be easier than tactical nukes.
  • Also, Vought started in the first place because a German Nazi defected and started the company in America. Vought isn't just racist in the modern day; they started out that way and still are, even if they've somewhat gotten better at hiding it and demonstrating faux-progressivism. After all, the idea of genetically engineering humans to be superpowered using research based in Eugenics and not caring if innocent lives are ruined in the process is already pretty damn evil even if Vought wasn't motivated by bigotry. Bigotry is almost a step down.
  • From a realism standpoint, being "problematic" also often isn't enough to actually get someone removed from a company. Sure, sometimes people will be removed if their bigotry causes actual workplace issues (which won't happen if they manage to keep their bigotry separate from their workplace, like most bigots try to do) but if a person is famous or rich enough, companies will keep them around so long as they are profitable, no matter how unsavory their target demographic becomes or how depraved they act. And even when that person does get replaced, it's very easy for someone with a similar personality to fulfill that same role. We've seen it time and time again: some celebrity says or does something "problematic", they get lambasted for a week, eventually they fade from the public eye, and the cycle starts again. Vought, aside from all of the Supe stuff, treats all of its stars the same exact way.
  • Last but not least, it's possibly simply rule of averages at play. It's mentioned there are about 200 heroes under the control of Vought, not to mention the many past heroes and other supes that come and go. With so many people, of course at least some bigots are going to turn up, even if by chance. The supes who are indeed bigots often have reasons behind their beliefs- Homelander is simply not right in the head due to his upbringing, Stormfront and Soldier Boy are products of their time, etc.

How could Ryan forgive Homelander?

• Did he seriously forget what he did to him and his mother last season?
  • He didn't. He is a seriously lonely kid with no friends, a dead mother and a stepfather who pushed him away. Here comes someone who knows what he is going through, and easily forgives him for what he did to both Stormfront and Becca. It's like how cult leaders and terrorist groups work: get through to an isolated and lonely person via understanding, and he/she/they will come around to your cause.
  • He's young enough that his loyalties can vacillate pretty easily, in sync with his hormones and feelings and such. Presumably after the third season the Boys may try to convince him once again that Homelander, don't forget, is a truly wicked and unwell man and that Ryan's powers are better used to stop Homelander (it shouldn't be inordinately hard to do that).

Maeve vs. Soldier Boy

• Is Maeve stronger than Soldier Boy? It's first made very clear that Soldier Boy is only second to Homelander, but in the finale, Maeve is able to go toe-to-toe with Homelander and even make him bleed for the first time in his life whereas Soldier Boy gave him a large bruise. However, Soldier Boy was a lot less damaged after his fight with Homelander and was able to forcefully grab his face and not let go despite Homelander punching him in order to get free. Was Soldier Boy weakened after his PTSD episode at Herogasm, or is that just fan speculation?

Giving Soldier Boy to the Russians

• Why would Edgar/Vought do that? Neutralise him and replace with Homelander, fine, but give him away to the USA's greatest (percieved) enemy? Isn't that a sure recepie for disaster? How could they be sure Russians wouldn't recruit him? And regardless, wouldn't they want to keep him somewhere safe under their own supervision, maybe experiment on him, maybe try and use him as a deterrent to Homelander? A kind of deterrant of which, in the show continuity, they apparantly completely lack?
  • The interactions between Black Noir and Edgar, plus the rest of Payback, heavily imply they've wanted to get rid of Soldier Boy for quite a lot of time due to his Jerkass Sociopathic Hero behaviour, so whatever deal they cut with the Russians was likely a "seize the opportunity while it's there" affair. Him getting recruited is unlikely, since he was a hardcore Captain Patriotic. Keeping him as a deterrence for Homelander only makes sense in hindsight, not to mention imprisoning him would be problematic because he was pretty much the World's Strongest Man even before the Russians gave him his nuke ability (really they had to use military-grade Novichok just to keep him mildly sedated). Last but not the least, Vought is a American corporation, not a goverment agency, they only care about the safety of the USA as much as that matches their bottom line.
• Speaking of, is there a good reason the remaining Payback members weren't eliminated? With all they knew, they were a clear threat to Vought and USA (and Russia, come to think of it). You'd think one or more of the above would've taken care of them.
  • What do they know? They don't even know if the Russians killed Soldier Boy, they just wanted to get rid of him, only thing they can say that won't be denied is "we attempted murder" which won't really put anyone but them in trouble.
  • They know that he is in the Russians' hands, which could be bad for Russia. They also know that they took him with Vought's blessing, which could be bad for Vought and USA.
  • The Russians wouldn't kill them because killing collaborators is counter-productive, and Vought isn't going to expend 5-6 potentially profitable heroes when they've already lost one of their main cash cows.

Blue Hawk's hypocrisy with his racism.

• Why does Blue Hawk hate racial minorities, yet is fine with being friends with A-Train, a Black man?
  • Two possible things:
  1. Simple. Blue Hawk is not fine being friends with A-Train, he is just showing pragmatic civility to a presumably more powerful (and wealthier and more well-positioned) Supe.
  2. Also, it's possible Blue Hawk isn't a racist in the strictest definition of the term, so much as just (just) a corrupt and brutish Jerkass. Because of crime and police issues, racial minorities are just an easy target for his abuse and violence.
  • A-Train is black, but he is also a Supe. Blue Hawk probably seems to think, "he's one of us, not one of them", and in fact can use that to justify his crimes with Some of My Best Friends Are X. He could be classist as well, since the neighbourhood he's terrorising appears to be a working class one (which would obviously strike a chord of sorts with A-Train and Nate, given it's noted that they come from poverty).

Blue Hawk's obliviousness with his racism.

• Why exactly is Blue Hawk so damn oblivious with his racism? Even Stormfront expressed self-awareness. Blue Hawk makes Homelander (because Homelander is also oblivious to his own bigotry against LGBT people, Muslim people, Jewish people, disabled people, and non-powered people) look self-aware by comparison.
  • Moreso than other Supes, Blue Hawk appears to be more of a direct Take That! to brutal/racially profiling police officers. He patrols one neighbourhood and doesn't really seem to take on more dangerous threats like terrorism or supervillains. So you can ask yourself, why are real life police officers brutal and/or racist and oblivious to their wrongdoings? Like them, either he knows he's racist but doesn't care about being subtle about it (but will still act like it isn't there), or he genuinely is oblivious because he believes he is fighting a good fight and doesn't see that he's wrongfully targeting individuals because of their skin colour (and also their socioeconomic status more generally). He is himself clearly very working class and the way he was raised in that neighbourhood of NYC may not have been conducive to more enlightened views, so that when he was confronted with them later in life, he was already too set in his ways. Couple these factors with the fact that Supes being so powerful means many of them feel they do not have to answer to anyone (except Vought management and the almighty dollar... sometimes) and it adds up.

Why did the Deep stay with Cassandra Schwartz?

• The Deep said himself that he was frustrated to basically have an arranged marriage to this woman who is "a weirdo who gives terrible blowjobs". And if there's one thing the Deep wants, it's good head. I get that he had to keep up a public image as a happily married man to rehabilitate his PR, but his self serving nature would be better indulged without her, one would think. And he must get that she was only using him to exert some influence with his celebrity. Why didn't he wait until he got back into the Seven, then dump her and begin dating one of the women the cult had interviewed who he would be more attracted to? Hell, he may even have been happy to go single and play with that squid.
  • Because the Deep doesn't just want "good head". He seems to mostly use women sexually for the power trip and to alleviate his own hangups, not just because he's horny (which is a common misconception of rape and sexual assault, as power over another person is the goal of it, not sexual pleasure). Also, the Deep isn't quite smart enough to think that through: He is Lethally Stupid and will cow to someone else if he thinks it benefits him (even if it doesn't in reality), and that extends to his Sham Marriage.
  • Also, Cassandra demonstrates some seriously controlling tendencies, so the Deep sticking around with her may be because he's convinced that he still needs her around even when he really doesn't, only sticking up for himself when he legitimately has hit a breaking point. Cassandra is not a good wife, but, like many abusive relationships, it's quite likely that the Deep stays married to her because of his own insecurities.

Why did Cassandra give Starlight the creepy hug as if Cassandra wanted something else from Starlight?

• Seriously, what does Cassandra want with Starlight? Does she actually want Starlight to be her "sister-from-another-mister" or is she trying to manipulate Starlight in some way?
  • She really doesn't interact with Starlight that much. She was maybe trying to neutralize Starlight as a PR presence as Starlight originally called out the Deep for sexual assault.

Why didn't Vought scientists perfect the Temp V formula?

• If Frederick Vought could make a power-granting formula, why couldn't any scientist at Vought make the Temp V formula in a way that would have NO major side effects?
  • Because research and development takes time. Frederick Vought literally had access to millions of unwilling test subjects and no oversight. In the present, Vought International has had to proceed carefully and under the radar. Not really a headscratcher as realistically scientific advancement usually develops in coalition to funding, time and work.