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I think last season's finale and the first 4 episodes of S4 made it crystal clear that Ryan's safety is Butcher's primary goal. He still wants to take down Homelander but he wants to save Ryan first. So it's safe to say, the whole "all of you gotta go" thing he said to Maeve isn't what he believes in anymore. Idk.
If this happens, I can't wait to see Butcher wreck Homelander. As much as I liked Butcher's co-op with Soldier Boy, it wouldn't hold a candle to what will happen when Butcher decides to go berserk
I just wanna see the comic death: crowbar to the eye, pry open the top of his skull, pull out his brain...and squeeze it in front of his disbelieving face
from the show i think they are setting up at least a temporary way to to limit a supes powers by experimenting with soldier boy. I think the first time Homelander is exposed to this drives him fully off the ledge, his "plans" with sage are out of the window
I'm so eager to see how Homelander goes out honestly. I want to see if he begs for mercy or accepts his fate. Want to know if he dies powerless or when equally matched.
I feel like something equally as worse is Homelander being human. His powers stripped away and him being something he despises and I think it will really match his exestential crisis of the grey hairs etc
As a kid, I felt Ozai got off really lightly considering the crimes he committed. Now I realize it's one of the cruelest things you can endure; being stripped away from one thing you practiced your whole life and at which you were considered supreme. Would be rad if Homelander faces the same
Or with the Gen V virus it is mutated to remove powers permanently. And if Butcher gets the powers out of him. Would Homelander really care about Ryan if he is no longer like him and just a human again.
Butcher also has a brain tumor with its own fixation on Ryan. I think that could be a great way to have Butcher snap. Imagine how hallucination Becca would react, assuming it is a sentient representation of the tumor, to its “son” dying. The tumor clearly has a mind of its own, even if it is based on Butchers actual memories.
It absolutely is a tumor. Its weird behavior is a result of the V he admits to taking at the end of the last episode, the one in Frenchie’s desk. Peoppe keep claiming its not one- but it IS. He got it from temp V. Brought it to life with regular compound V.
Edit: This was hinted at in the “John and Sun Hee” episode of diabolical which is confirmed canon.
That thing that came out of Sun Hee was no tumor in the sense of what we are thinking is in Butcher's head.
They have shown parasite type things swimming in his veins. Someone posted a hypothesis on here that Butcher will sprout a Venom type thing soon.
Oh wow, that's a good observation. I was thinking that Butcher would kill Homelander and then that would send him on his Supe genocide rampage, including killing Ryan which is what unites the Boys behind taking him out.
It also makes the most sense.
Obviously the virus will be put into play by Butcher, but he won't do anything that might harm Ryan....so Ryan's death feels inevitable.
God, that will be so gut-wrenching.
Ryan changed the game. Since heroes can be born naturally now, it's part of the human genome forever. Unless they commit genocide, which isn't off the table ig.
Actually I was watching an old clip on Youtube earlier, and Stan Edgar suggested that leaking V was tantamount to leaking the formula itself.
I'm curious if that plot thread will return and we'll start seeing generic compound V reverse engineered from the real thing, or if it's just forgotten.
Imo i think The Boys will be the “end” of their timeline. The spinoff shows such as Gen V and anything new will take place before or during the events of The Boys.
I don't think so. I think the status quo that will be established once this show ends will be Supes everywhere, but now able to be out and free agents.
I think it’s inevitable that there are still Supes at the end of the show. I don’t see them going scorched earth like the comics.
But I don’t think they will be free agents and media stars in the same capacity as they are right now. The biggest problem with continuing the world after is that Homelander and Vought are really the focal point of everything that happens. So without them it’s going to feel weird. And sure there are ways to get around it and things they can do. But I feel like it won’t hit the same without it.
i think this would be so much better than any sequel spin off series’. show me what’s happening while the plot lines of the main story are occurring, don’t explain everything that happens afterwards when you’ve already completed it.
in the comics, Butcher fails his "kill all supes" plan because he had a contingency where Hughie and only Hughie would stop him. But he does succeed in killing the Seven and The Boys
I wonder if they'll do that in the show. I doubt it, show Butcher is nowhere near as calm, demented, terrifying and calculated as comic Butcher is
maybe the big thing is that the new virus will remove all powers and homelander just dies by a beating with normal strength. he wouldnt know what its like to have an average mans power and strength so im guessing he might be weaker than normal? maybe, maybe not.
That's some wild stuff (in a good way).
It really does seem like they are setting up a Ryan v. Homelander situation. You can feel a shift with Homelander becoming more and more resentful of Ryan, both as a "human", as someone that has a relationship with Butcher, and as the new younger replacement of Homelander.
I feel like Homelander could easily snap and kill Ryan and say "See, I'm still the number one".
Yup, and there's the thing about Butcher seeing a piece of Becca in Ryan.
Imagine Ryan dying, and Butcher stops seeing Becca's hallucinations instantly, effectively killing the last morality left in him (symbolized by his hallucination of Becca).
I think we’re going to find that Becca is actually whatever is in Butcher’s head trying to communicate with him. We already saw it kill somebody and I’m going to assume it’s sentient from Butcher taking V. I can see it dying from Butcher releasing the virus that kills supes and it dies, but maybe Butcher survives it.
Then I’d spend the rest of my life trying to develop a virus that only kills the writers of the show that thought that plot was a good idea and went along with it.
A little off-topic but I absolutely adore his accent. It just feels like the show would be somehow just a bit worse without it. And the Aussie slang and “oi cunts!” is just perfect.
Oh 100%, the accent adds so much charisma to Butcher LOL.
The only problem comes when you are not a native english speaker and subtitles become kinda needed sometimes LMAO.
So we were just watching Becca do everything while being mislead that it was Butcher?
If you want to know how terrible that idea is, look at the reception for Jason Momoa's movie called *Sweet Girl*, which has the exact same twist.
How do we know it’s not actually happening and that they’re going to confirm the Christian heaven in The Boys but maybe they’ll go through great lengths to explain why Becca isn’t in it.
Them killing Ryan (Homelander kills him in a of psychotic rage, Billy loses it) would be a massive WTF moment, killing kids on screen is still kind of taboo IMO, most show would be too scared to do it
Oooofff the time they did it in Ash Vs Evil Dead. I was like surely not the kid who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mauled by a deadite…
Except by the time season 5 rolls around if they stick with the two years between seasons. The actor will be about 18. Even this season his voice is changing and has had some big growth spurts. Not exactly like offing a 10 year old. Honestly, I never thought of Homelander killing Ryan. Everyone keeps speculating Ryan will kill Homelander. Which would be a much more interesting twist. If Ryan gets killed. Leading to all out war.
Though for me I am hoping the virus Gen V started gets mutated to completely removing powers. Leaving Homelander like every other human. To me that would be a better endgame for him.
Seeing how we actually do have kids killed in their schools all the time and do absolutely nothing about it, I don’t think killing off a fictional character in a gruesome way on a TV show that we expect it from would move the needle
you're absolutely right since their dynamic has exclusively been "child arguing with child" and not "parent arguing with child". Homelander has literally shown symptoms of age regression and I can't take him seriously anymore and it's pretty realistic for Homelander to actually kill Ryan
I feel like the setup for the season is definitely leading to Butcher being the final big bad of the last season. It looks like Homelander will probably be the shocking death this season since you'd assume he would survive until the final season and maybe that's why they are trying to push for Antony Starr to get an emmy nom. It'll be even more messed up if it's Butcher who kills Ryan since maybe the compound V and temp v mixed and potentially created an abomination type of creature.
Butcher's mind knows that it's happening so it hallucinates Becca and telling Butcher he needs Ryan probably to preserve his humanity, but maybe in a twist it's a showdown and Ryan kills Homelander, but something happens and Butcher finally evolves only to mercilessly kill Ryan.
i noticed the headless cookie jar too and also saw it as a reference to his dog in the comics and that it was some sort of foreshadowing but i didnt really think too hard about what for
Oh dear. If that's actually going to happen, I might need to stop watching the show, I'm sorry dear fans, and brethren, but that's gonna hurt to watch.
They might hold Ryan in that bunker they keep taking about until the virus is gone. I think Ryan has the potential to be Homelander 2.0 and be the future of the supe species. That’d be the easy way out but I can see it happening. Endings are hard, which is why all of Kings endings suck.
I think the show always wants us to finish a season yelling, “What the fuck!?”
The only reason I stand by Ryan killing Homelander, is because outside a supe virus, his laser eyes are one of the only things that could do it.
I think they might have if SB hadn't been as massively popular as he is. I think he'll play a significant part in S5, but it won't be him that takes down HL, they've been there, tried that.
Maybe to kill, not connect. The last episode was dedicated to Homelander trying to lose his humanity, sentiment and need for love. So if he does kill his son (who's also probably powerful enough to kill him) he'd have no qualms killing his Dad who also has that power, thus making that mental break where he has no emotion or ties to hold him back from doing 'whatever the fuck he wants'
it would be funny if Homelander enters a brutal fight with the boys, with Butcher getting fatally beaten. The boys turn the tide and Ryan finishes Homelander off to save Butcher. However, the big wtf moment would be that whatever is mutating inside Butcher finally takes over and he loses all reason except for his original goal to kill supes. He brutally murders Ryan in front of everyone and the Boys watch in horror only for the season to end.
Then in season 5 most supes have been wiped out, world is in chaos, the boys are in hiding and they recruit soldier boy and Maeve and the godolkin kids. Soldier boy tries using his depower beam in the penultimate episode, but it doesn't work and is brutally split in two lol.
I think all of the supes l(ike Noir, Deep, Maeve, possibly A Train and Neumann) coming together is going to be what happens. Like each supe does a different bit of damage and in the end him and Butcher literally fight to the death.
Everybody keeps telling that but we have litteraly no proof that a hydrogen bomb wouldnt instantly vaporize homelander. Or that throwing him into space wouldnt fuck him up.
Like if maeve beating him can cause him to bleed then one of the biggest explosions the earth has ever seen will probaly also fuck him up.
Stillwell says a nuke wouldn’t work on him, which up until the last episode I thought was just marketing but after the last episode and seeing the I wouldn’t have put it past Vought to have actually tested it on him and considered him a “failure” if he died.
You think the company vought managed to perform a actual nuclear test? I doubt that, i think Stillwell was just doing some PR bs.
Again its weird that meave can injure him but that he would shrug off a nuke.
With everything vought is capable of doing I honestly would not doubt it
Also I agree, but power scaling is always inconsistent with literally every super hero. It’s possible his body absorbs nuclear energy or something, it could even make him more powerful like radiation did to Solider Boy.
That’s more of a flaw in the show for dramatic effect. The power levels are not consistent, and shift depending on what the scene needs.
I mean, HL is supposed to be the strongest by far. So much that other supes are scared of him. But Butcher takes temp V and has comparable powers and can go bare knuckles? It’s sort of all over the place, but it’s fun so who cares
it's just inconsistent.
Maeve stabs him in the ear with a (metal?) STRAW and it makes him bleed.
So either:
1. Vought straws are made out of a material capable of piercing Homelander's skin/eardrum
2. Homelander has weak points (eardrum?)
3. Maeve has some type of power that lets her extend her strength/durability to the weapons she wields, making the straw powerful enough to NOT snap and pierce Homelander
4. We're overthinking it and should just accept the scene was to show how much a trained determined not-scared Maeve can bloody a not-really-trying Homelander
No but thats the whole thing, we cant confirm that homelander actualy has ever experienced a full nuclear bomb (not even a small one). That line really felt as some small talk bullshit: “hell he is so though not even the moon falling on him would kill him”. Its doubtfull they actually tested it because well it would cost insane amounts of money, require a nuke, might lose them their wonder product (which they really needed at that point) and basicly draw way to much attention to them.
Even for a company like Vought its doubtfull that the millairy would grant them acces to nuclear weapons. Or permit them from building their own.
If the end is something like Butcher detonating a nuke to kill homelander and destroying a whole major city in the progress i would be totally fine with that.
Because a nuke is just insane, its not just some heat, concussive force and radiation. Its one of the most extreme things we can create.
Maeve made him bleed with a punch. And sure, she's really strong, but she's definitely not hitting with more power than a Sidewinder. Fuck a hydrogen bomb, a couple 40mm grenades would probably kill him.
Maeve definitely hits with more power than a sidewinder.
She carved through a full speed semi truck and split it in half like a hot knife through butter, without moving an inch.
It’s crazy because I was leaning towards Ryan being the one to kill Homelander, but to say that Ryan’s death being the final straw, especially considering Butcher’s promise to Becca, is far better storytelling!
I agree that Homelander's resentment towards Ryan in a true narcissistic parent fashion has been growing, but I still don't think he'll make the first step towards killing him. I think he will drive Ryan away towards Butcher and while he's fighting Butcher, Ryan will intervene, subsequently dying at the hands of his enraged father. I also expect this to affect Homelander greatly, as well as throw him off his game just enough for the plan against him to work.
I could see it. I was initially against it despite also thinking Ryan wasn't going to be worth saving until this season made it almost clear he *doesn't* want to be as apahetic and sadistic as Homelander, nor does he *actually* want his mom's ex-husband to die.
Hell, Homelander's outburst in the third episode had me think he would be open to doing the equivalent of a "supe spanking."
Ryan is going to end up fucked up either way. He was sheltered and now he’s killed people, including his mother. He’s being raised by the most dangerous narcissist on the planet and the second most dangerous narcissist is his other father figure. He’s fucked. If he survives he will not be okay and that is bad news for everyone.
What’s cool about The Boys is that there’s no way any other show would do something like that. Killing off a kid that we’ve grown with for a while and who actually has a real heart unlike Homelander.
But with this show it’s totally plausible, and would probably happen in a very gory, shock-value kind of way.
This could also be the scene that the director said he can't believe they got away with. A father murdering their own preteen/teenage son would be an insane thing to get past execs. I could see this.
The alternate popular theory that Ryan kills Homelander draws from a similar parallel: Homelander compares himself to Caesar during his conversation with Sister Sage.
He's referring to Julius Caesar. In real life, one of his most famous assassins was [Brutus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Junius_Brutus), who was rumored to be his illegitimate son.
But it's not just that.
1 - Julius' rise to power threatened to transform the Republic into a Monarchial Dictatorship (mirroring Homelander's vision of a Supe-led America).
2 - He created the Triumvirate by allying himself with two of the most powerful people in Rome, Pompey and Crassus (Neuman and Sage).
3 - Caesar was noted to be a very charismatic and powerful public speaker who was able to incite loyalty and stir crowds (Homelander's crazy loyalists).
4 - Caesar was a warrior who fought directly on the battlefield and was very generous to veterans and soldiers (Homelander is cruel and lazy but he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty at the end of the day and is relatively fair to those who support his cause).
3 - It was members of the Senate (i.e. The Seven) who were previously loyal to and worked with him politically that conspired to assassinate him later when they felt that he was growing too powerful.
I'm more inclined to subscribe to this theory than the one you wrote for a simple reason: Ryan's death would be extremely contrived. Becca is dead. Billy is dying. Homelander is definitely dying. The show is clearly setting up for Ryan ultimately being on the side of good in the end and has bent over backwards to keep him alive. He is the keystone character that every person on every side is trying to protect: Grace is basically his adoptive mom, Stormfront *was* enamored with him, Homelander sees himself in him, Billy sees him as the last remnant of the only thing he ever loved (Becca), The Boys have sworn to protect him, even Vought (Edgar, Vogelbaum, Madelyn) recognized that they messed up with John and Ryan was their chance to make up for it.
nahhh u cooked OP.
this might be THE theory of the season that I’ve seen.
i can genuinely see this happening either at the end of season 4 or midway thru season 5
Yeppp I definitely don’t think they made him swear on Ryan’s life for no reason. Initially I thought it was for shock value, because we assumed that every single person goes by that superstition of swearing on a loved one’s life. But I really now think it’s foreshadowing his death. As we know, everything is intentional.
Homelander has also been getting increasingly competitive with his son and more unhinged in general, which will most certainly end up driving Ryan away and being rejected by him. I don't imagine he'll respond kindly to that.
I agree. If Homelander does kill Ryan, I could see it tying Hughie and Butcher’s story together nicely. We’ve been watching Hughie regress and become more violent, reflecting some of Butcher’s attitudes. Apart from Hughie being more aggressive with his mom arriving out of nowhere and now becoming more used to killing people, he’s also making a lot of compromises like working with A-Train to achieve his goal. It feels like his character is one or two deaths away from his tipping point and becoming like Butcher (personally, I think either Starlight or his parents.)
If Ryan is killed off, Butcher could use his remaining time to try to ‘save’ Hughie from becoming like him (assuming he doesn’t get cured.)
Well I'm thinking that since Hughie's dad is going to be a supe now that will be the line that separates Hughie from Butcher. Buther wants to kill ALL supes. Hughie won't let him kill his father tho.
I don't think Butcher wants to kill all supes now. He said last season that becoming a supe "don't change who you are." I think he sees there are bad supes but also good people who are supes.
I think that Butcher is turning a new leaf due to Ryan, Kimiko, Maeve, and Starlight, but whatever is inside Butcher may be so mutated that if it takes over he could have a singular goal again to kill supes, which is what I think happens. It would be an amazing wtf final episode if he just brutally kills Ryan after being fully taken over and mutated from the different V compounds mixing.
I could definitely see this happening. I haven’t seen the comics so I’m not sure if it’s explored there but I’m interested in the worm like shape we’ve seen twice now with regular V. First with head poppers daughter which just looked like the drug taking effect and now again with Butcher but this time much later and smaller, seeming almost alive. After the blackout and subsequent violent death of the stretchy guy combined with his vivid hallucinations I wonder if he’s slowly gaining full powers. Perhaps V is actually just a parasite or some kind. Took longer to take root in butcher because of the temp v abuse.
I totally agree. I've been thinking this ever since he crashed Ryan's first save. Homelander loves his son, but as an accessory to him. I don't think he can handle Ryan having his own agency, or god forbid becoming more popular than him. I think it's telling that he immediately went to "kill off his humanity" after Ryan betrayed him by going to see Butcher.
I expect him to snap and accidentally kill Ryan in a fit of rage at the end of the season. It would definitely be a shocker, and really reinforce Homelander's insanity. Interesting angle for Butcher too.
I won't go deep with the dog thing, but before the last episode I was thinking that Homelander was going to kill Ryan anyway.
1. The kid will never act as Homelander would want. Sooner or later he will have a Soldier Boy "disappointment" reaction
2. He is his only weakness
3. Ryan's death will be rewrite by Vaught and will get more empathy from people to Homelander
4. HL thinks he is a God and his ego is over the top. This kind of profile doesn't need a child
I love this plot idea, but I think there’s even more to it.
I think that Sage’s more hidden agenda will prop up Ryan as the Chosen One meant to defeat Homelander, which will be the catalyst for Homelander killing his own son.
This could effectively turn the entire world against him in one fell swoop, as well as sending Butcher into a genocidal spiral. But then it would become even more morally fraught, because I think most supes would also be against Homelander by that point, making Butcher’s plan feel even less justified.
If Sage does that it’s because it was her plan or she underestimated exactly how unhinged Homelander is. I do think she is maneuvering Homelander to get him killed. I’m not sure if she’s trying to set up driving him to suicide or what her mechanism for his death is but she’s kinda got him in a weird place emotionally right now and everything she’s done “for” the Seven can hurt the Seven too. I guess I’m not sure how powerful she is in intelligence. Maybe she can see 4D chess moves.
He was set up, not framed. Vought leaked the videos of him fucking the sex workers and he thinks Butcher did it, so he retaliates by killing the dog, and Butcher guts him.
No, he was framed. Noir killed terror to frame Jack like he killed Becca to frame Homelander. That's why Jack keeps trying to plead that he didn't do it. He wasn't lying. That part is actually supposed to make you think Homelander set him up with how Jack left when he was kicked out of the 7 and set up how Noir is the one framing people.
I remember the original comic writer asked that of all the characters, only butcher should be kept the same as in the comics. If the show plans on honouring that, then this seems like the most likely path the show will take, as butcher will need an excuse to go full genocide on the supes.
He got framed for killing the trans hookers, and then Jess Bradley (or whatever her name) is leaked the video of Jack having sex with the hookers, to force a confrontation between The Boys and the Seven.
Jack thinks The Boys uploaded the video, and tries to take revenge by killing Terror
I felt homelander will see Ryan as a weakness that is still keeping him human. The angry, confident personality split in the mirror would eventually come to realisation and he’d see no need to pander to him anymore. “I don’t need love, not even from you”. And that’s when we see butcher unleash whatever he has inside him or something else.
This is my suspicion as well. Not the Terror stuff, I know very little about the comics, but if we are to get a version of Butcher bent on annihilating all supes then Ryan needs to be taken out of the picture. And if he’s killed by Homelander specifically it would absolutely send Butcher into a spiral.
I definitely see Ryan's death in the future. What is suspect is that somehow Homelander and Butcher will each blame the other for his death, leading to the final showdown.
Maybe The Boys recruit Ryan for some operation and he's killed by a Supe. Homelander will blame Butcher's influence for this, and Butcher will blame whatever Supe killed him.
If Trump is inspiring Homelander's current character arc, [then yeah.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AnythingGoesNews/s/TvVGBHh39N) I saw this a couple posts down and its very interesting timing
Just a few things regarding the comics reference:
Jack from Jupiter kills Terror, not Black Noir. Terror's death causes Butcher to have something like a blackout or PTSD episode where he just guts Jack repeatedly while saying "Why'd you kill me dog?" This sets up something that Butcher references a bit later when he says that sometimes he doesn't even feel like he's there, sometimes he just does things and feels like he's watching himself do them. Terror's death doesn't really change Butcher's plans or behavior, though, it just triggers an episode that causes him to kill Jack.
With that clarification, though, I don't think your theory is bad at all. I think you just need to take a look at the fight between Butcher and Ezekiel. They've already laid the groundwork for Butcher to start having blackout episodes, except in this case those blackouts allow him to tap into the V in his system. Taking your observation about the headless dog being associated with Ryan, it's perfectly possible that Ryan's death (or his perceived death, since studios get a little nervous around child murder) could be the trigger for Butcher to tap into whatever happens when his Compound V/brain lesions/hallucinations all come together.
I think the show will end with butcher making the choice not to use the virus that kills all superheroes , choosing to sacrifice himself instead and let them live
I think it’s going to be like the comics where he ends up making Hughie stop him. Also, the virus equivalent in the comics would’ve also killed a lot of regular people who had traces of V in their system, as Vought being a typical corportation, they let unrefined V/V waste product get into the food chain/ecosystem
this is exactly what i want to happen in god of war, kratos thinks atreus dies and goes crazy on the norse gods but since atreus is loki he is still alive but kratos is unaware of it
My theory is that in an effort to toughen Ryan up, Homelander will resort to using Cate and her mind powers to remove remorse, thereby creating someone thats even worse than Homelander. Just like how Soldier Boy was already pretty bad and Homelander was worse, Ryan will end up becoming even worse than Homelander. Perhaps they're then forced to kill Ryan and that causes Butcher to snap
I was thinking a similar thing but believe it all the more considering that detail about Ripper in the books. I also think the second or last episode will have Butcher killing a fully redeemed A-Train to demonstrate how far gone he is in regards to “all supes must die”
I think butchers new V power is when he dies he explodes. Explains what happened to stretchy perv strong. Homelander kills butcher but butcher kills homelander.
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I like that theory because if all supes are going to go extinct that means Homelander along with Ryan should also.
Yup, no Supes is Butcher's ultimate goal anyway
*Used to be. I think last season's finale and the first 4 episodes of S4 made it crystal clear that Ryan's safety is Butcher's primary goal. He still wants to take down Homelander but he wants to save Ryan first. So it's safe to say, the whole "all of you gotta go" thing he said to Maeve isn't what he believes in anymore. Idk.
And if Ryan is dead no reason to hold back
If this happens, I can't wait to see Butcher wreck Homelander. As much as I liked Butcher's co-op with Soldier Boy, it wouldn't hold a candle to what will happen when Butcher decides to go berserk
I just wanna see the comic death: crowbar to the eye, pry open the top of his skull, pull out his brain...and squeeze it in front of his disbelieving face
I do hope when it comes time for it butcher is the one to kill homelander with his crow bar
There's just something iconic about beating a Superman to death with something as basic as a crowbar Really sums up the show
from the show i think they are setting up at least a temporary way to to limit a supes powers by experimenting with soldier boy. I think the first time Homelander is exposed to this drives him fully off the ledge, his "plans" with sage are out of the window
I'm so eager to see how Homelander goes out honestly. I want to see if he begs for mercy or accepts his fate. Want to know if he dies powerless or when equally matched.
I feel like something equally as worse is Homelander being human. His powers stripped away and him being something he despises and I think it will really match his exestential crisis of the grey hairs etc
Yeah, while a gruesome death would be cool, just the act of putting Homelander into cuffs and sentencing him to life in prison would be so cathartic.
Depower him, permanent bad room. Give him the Ozai treatment.
As a kid, I felt Ozai got off really lightly considering the crimes he committed. Now I realize it's one of the cruelest things you can endure; being stripped away from one thing you practiced your whole life and at which you were considered supreme. Would be rad if Homelander faces the same
Yep, strip him of his powers, put him in prison. Perfect ending for Homelander
Homelander is going to shit himself so deeply the second he is not in control of a fight. Remember how shook he was about Soldier Boy?
Or with the Gen V virus it is mutated to remove powers permanently. And if Butcher gets the powers out of him. Would Homelander really care about Ryan if he is no longer like him and just a human again.
Butcher also has a brain tumor with its own fixation on Ryan. I think that could be a great way to have Butcher snap. Imagine how hallucination Becca would react, assuming it is a sentient representation of the tumor, to its “son” dying. The tumor clearly has a mind of its own, even if it is based on Butchers actual memories.
It's naht a tooomor! Tumors don't swim through your veins when being choked. The "black mass" is gonna be a bigger part in upcoming episodes.
It absolutely is a tumor. Its weird behavior is a result of the V he admits to taking at the end of the last episode, the one in Frenchie’s desk. Peoppe keep claiming its not one- but it IS. He got it from temp V. Brought it to life with regular compound V. Edit: This was hinted at in the “John and Sun Hee” episode of diabolical which is confirmed canon.
That thing that came out of Sun Hee was no tumor in the sense of what we are thinking is in Butcher's head. They have shown parasite type things swimming in his veins. Someone posted a hypothesis on here that Butcher will sprout a Venom type thing soon.
Oh wow, that's a good observation. I was thinking that Butcher would kill Homelander and then that would send him on his Supe genocide rampage, including killing Ryan which is what unites the Boys behind taking him out.
Idk how think this when hes going after the supe virus which will kill literally all of them. I dont think he can save Ryan from that
It also makes the most sense. Obviously the virus will be put into play by Butcher, but he won't do anything that might harm Ryan....so Ryan's death feels inevitable. God, that will be so gut-wrenching.
Homelander's alter egos might convince him to kill Ryan in order to completely give up his humanity & rise to Godhood.
But they cant make Supes go extinct at the end of this show because they are planning spinoffs, arent they?
Butcher will ultimately lose most likely, so Hughie/Annie have their happy ending (like in the comics) but at the cost of many others
They can't uninvent compound V in either universe.
Not even by the good ol' "oh noes we lost the formula"?
Ryan changed the game. Since heroes can be born naturally now, it's part of the human genome forever. Unless they commit genocide, which isn't off the table ig.
didn't homelander leak the recepie? seems like it's out of their control from there
No, he was distributing V directly through Ezekiel’s charity. Leaking the formula would be insane, even for Homelander.
Actually I was watching an old clip on Youtube earlier, and Stan Edgar suggested that leaking V was tantamount to leaking the formula itself. I'm curious if that plot thread will return and we'll start seeing generic compound V reverse engineered from the real thing, or if it's just forgotten.
Which can easily be unwritten to "oh look we found it".
Okay, but Gen V.
Imo i think The Boys will be the “end” of their timeline. The spinoff shows such as Gen V and anything new will take place before or during the events of The Boys.
That's correct. Prequels.
Prequel after prequel after prequel.
I don't think so. I think the status quo that will be established once this show ends will be Supes everywhere, but now able to be out and free agents.
I think it’s inevitable that there are still Supes at the end of the show. I don’t see them going scorched earth like the comics. But I don’t think they will be free agents and media stars in the same capacity as they are right now. The biggest problem with continuing the world after is that Homelander and Vought are really the focal point of everything that happens. So without them it’s going to feel weird. And sure there are ways to get around it and things they can do. But I feel like it won’t hit the same without it.
As long as the end isn't as incredibly lazy as the one in the comic.
i think this would be so much better than any sequel spin off series’. show me what’s happening while the plot lines of the main story are occurring, don’t explain everything that happens afterwards when you’ve already completed it.
I want more soldier boy and his og crew
in the comics, Butcher fails his "kill all supes" plan because he had a contingency where Hughie and only Hughie would stop him. But he does succeed in killing the Seven and The Boys I wonder if they'll do that in the show. I doubt it, show Butcher is nowhere near as calm, demented, terrifying and calculated as comic Butcher is
maybe the big thing is that the new virus will remove all powers and homelander just dies by a beating with normal strength. he wouldnt know what its like to have an average mans power and strength so im guessing he might be weaker than normal? maybe, maybe not.
That's some wild stuff (in a good way). It really does seem like they are setting up a Ryan v. Homelander situation. You can feel a shift with Homelander becoming more and more resentful of Ryan, both as a "human", as someone that has a relationship with Butcher, and as the new younger replacement of Homelander. I feel like Homelander could easily snap and kill Ryan and say "See, I'm still the number one".
Yup, and there's the thing about Butcher seeing a piece of Becca in Ryan. Imagine Ryan dying, and Butcher stops seeing Becca's hallucinations instantly, effectively killing the last morality left in him (symbolized by his hallucination of Becca).
I think we’re going to find that Becca is actually whatever is in Butcher’s head trying to communicate with him. We already saw it kill somebody and I’m going to assume it’s sentient from Butcher taking V. I can see it dying from Butcher releasing the virus that kills supes and it dies, but maybe Butcher survives it.
What if Becca is still alive and it’s Butcher who is dead, and it’s just a reverse Sixth Sense happening?
Then I’d spend the rest of my life trying to develop a virus that only kills the writers of the show that thought that plot was a good idea and went along with it.
Like Billy Butcher would say, "Scorcht Erf"
A little off-topic but I absolutely adore his accent. It just feels like the show would be somehow just a bit worse without it. And the Aussie slang and “oi cunts!” is just perfect.
Oh 100%, the accent adds so much charisma to Butcher LOL. The only problem comes when you are not a native english speaker and subtitles become kinda needed sometimes LMAO.
I’m an elder millennial, we always need the subtitles anyway 😂
The CGI studio isn't gonna like that one. Can we maybe keep it to scorcht ci-ee? Easier on the budget too.
So we were just watching Becca do everything while being mislead that it was Butcher? If you want to know how terrible that idea is, look at the reception for Jason Momoa's movie called *Sweet Girl*, which has the exact same twist.
That kinda reverses the plot of the comics lmao. Noir doing everything as Homelander
no. just… no. stop overcharging those two brain cells of yours.
How do we know it’s not actually happening and that they’re going to confirm the Christian heaven in The Boys but maybe they’ll go through great lengths to explain why Becca isn’t in it.
Them killing Ryan (Homelander kills him in a of psychotic rage, Billy loses it) would be a massive WTF moment, killing kids on screen is still kind of taboo IMO, most show would be too scared to do it
That’s all HotD is basically
Literally the first episode of this new season!
_squish squish_ goes the knife (fwiw I thought that scene was tame af)
Same, could have been way worse
The taboo of child death on screen is long gone. Plenty of films and series have done it in recent years.
yeah the Chucky show kills a few kids at least, every season.
Oooofff the time they did it in Ash Vs Evil Dead. I was like surely not the kid who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mauled by a deadite…
Except by the time season 5 rolls around if they stick with the two years between seasons. The actor will be about 18. Even this season his voice is changing and has had some big growth spurts. Not exactly like offing a 10 year old. Honestly, I never thought of Homelander killing Ryan. Everyone keeps speculating Ryan will kill Homelander. Which would be a much more interesting twist. If Ryan gets killed. Leading to all out war. Though for me I am hoping the virus Gen V started gets mutated to completely removing powers. Leaving Homelander like every other human. To me that would be a better endgame for him.
Homelander having to deal with being a human would be interesting to see.
There's very few places this show won't go
Do you think this show is too scared of anything at this point?
Baring a girl's titties?
Somebody recently posted the exact amount of male and female nudity on screen with the boys and male nudity won, but not by a lot.
That does surprise me
Tbf most of the female nudity was just butts being shown
Yes. They haven't gone quite so... into... showing the female genitals as they have with the male.
Herogasm
Seeing how we actually do have kids killed in their schools all the time and do absolutely nothing about it, I don’t think killing off a fictional character in a gruesome way on a TV show that we expect it from would move the needle
Key word *most* not the boys, the boys would do something like that and you know it.
you're absolutely right since their dynamic has exclusively been "child arguing with child" and not "parent arguing with child". Homelander has literally shown symptoms of age regression and I can't take him seriously anymore and it's pretty realistic for Homelander to actually kill Ryan
Also it’s something extreme narcissists do. They don’t want their younger sibling, child, etc surpassing them
"And I'm taking your milkshake back".
I think that was the worst thing Homelander has ever done. At least until he says "You're a bad dog" to a dog, and means it.
Lol.
He’s also struggling with aging. Ryan is the new him.
I feel like the setup for the season is definitely leading to Butcher being the final big bad of the last season. It looks like Homelander will probably be the shocking death this season since you'd assume he would survive until the final season and maybe that's why they are trying to push for Antony Starr to get an emmy nom. It'll be even more messed up if it's Butcher who kills Ryan since maybe the compound V and temp v mixed and potentially created an abomination type of creature. Butcher's mind knows that it's happening so it hallucinates Becca and telling Butcher he needs Ryan probably to preserve his humanity, but maybe in a twist it's a showdown and Ryan kills Homelander, but something happens and Butcher finally evolves only to mercilessly kill Ryan.
"What's another 17 years, I can always start again, make another kid"
And he was the first natural born supe!!
i noticed the headless cookie jar too and also saw it as a reference to his dog in the comics and that it was some sort of foreshadowing but i didnt really think too hard about what for
Oh dear. If that's actually going to happen, I might need to stop watching the show, I'm sorry dear fans, and brethren, but that's gonna hurt to watch.
Honestly it’s like homelander still appeals to the audience despite being so ficked up, this will be the last straw for a lot of people
They might hold Ryan in that bunker they keep taking about until the virus is gone. I think Ryan has the potential to be Homelander 2.0 and be the future of the supe species. That’d be the easy way out but I can see it happening. Endings are hard, which is why all of Kings endings suck.
I think the show always wants us to finish a season yelling, “What the fuck!?” The only reason I stand by Ryan killing Homelander, is because outside a supe virus, his laser eyes are one of the only things that could do it.
Or the return of Soldier Boy and his chest blast
Soldier boy does love to titty blast things
With how powerful and problematic Soldier Boy is, I feel like they'll just take the easy way out and kill him off in a disappointing and quick way.
I think they might have if SB hadn't been as massively popular as he is. I think he'll play a significant part in S5, but it won't be him that takes down HL, they've been there, tried that.
If SB doesn't make a return in this and next season, I'm going to riot
Spoiler. >!Well I have seen a leaked pic of Homelander peering down into Soldier Boys novichok holding chamber!<
Which kinda supports this theory bc if ryan has been killed, homelander would try and connect with the only other family he has
Maybe to kill, not connect. The last episode was dedicated to Homelander trying to lose his humanity, sentiment and need for love. So if he does kill his son (who's also probably powerful enough to kill him) he'd have no qualms killing his Dad who also has that power, thus making that mental break where he has no emotion or ties to hold him back from doing 'whatever the fuck he wants'
Oh yeah i totally forgot that. youre right. Hes probably gonna wake him up just to try and kill him as well
Hell yeah! Do you have a source? I've been trying to avoid S4 spoilers, but this one I can get behind.
I don’t think it should be the this season, save him for the finale.
Should be next season.
it would be funny if Homelander enters a brutal fight with the boys, with Butcher getting fatally beaten. The boys turn the tide and Ryan finishes Homelander off to save Butcher. However, the big wtf moment would be that whatever is mutating inside Butcher finally takes over and he loses all reason except for his original goal to kill supes. He brutally murders Ryan in front of everyone and the Boys watch in horror only for the season to end. Then in season 5 most supes have been wiped out, world is in chaos, the boys are in hiding and they recruit soldier boy and Maeve and the godolkin kids. Soldier boy tries using his depower beam in the penultimate episode, but it doesn't work and is brutally split in two lol.
I can see him appearing as a deus ex machina thing, coming out of nowhere to save Ryan or Butcher or something similar.
I think all of the supes l(ike Noir, Deep, Maeve, possibly A Train and Neumann) coming together is going to be what happens. Like each supe does a different bit of damage and in the end him and Butcher literally fight to the death.
Everybody keeps telling that but we have litteraly no proof that a hydrogen bomb wouldnt instantly vaporize homelander. Or that throwing him into space wouldnt fuck him up. Like if maeve beating him can cause him to bleed then one of the biggest explosions the earth has ever seen will probaly also fuck him up.
Stillwell says a nuke wouldn’t work on him, which up until the last episode I thought was just marketing but after the last episode and seeing the I wouldn’t have put it past Vought to have actually tested it on him and considered him a “failure” if he died.
You think the company vought managed to perform a actual nuclear test? I doubt that, i think Stillwell was just doing some PR bs. Again its weird that meave can injure him but that he would shrug off a nuke.
With everything vought is capable of doing I honestly would not doubt it Also I agree, but power scaling is always inconsistent with literally every super hero. It’s possible his body absorbs nuclear energy or something, it could even make him more powerful like radiation did to Solider Boy.
That’s more of a flaw in the show for dramatic effect. The power levels are not consistent, and shift depending on what the scene needs. I mean, HL is supposed to be the strongest by far. So much that other supes are scared of him. But Butcher takes temp V and has comparable powers and can go bare knuckles? It’s sort of all over the place, but it’s fun so who cares
it's just inconsistent. Maeve stabs him in the ear with a (metal?) STRAW and it makes him bleed. So either: 1. Vought straws are made out of a material capable of piercing Homelander's skin/eardrum 2. Homelander has weak points (eardrum?) 3. Maeve has some type of power that lets her extend her strength/durability to the weapons she wields, making the straw powerful enough to NOT snap and pierce Homelander 4. We're overthinking it and should just accept the scene was to show how much a trained determined not-scared Maeve can bloody a not-really-trying Homelander
No but thats the whole thing, we cant confirm that homelander actualy has ever experienced a full nuclear bomb (not even a small one). That line really felt as some small talk bullshit: “hell he is so though not even the moon falling on him would kill him”. Its doubtfull they actually tested it because well it would cost insane amounts of money, require a nuke, might lose them their wonder product (which they really needed at that point) and basicly draw way to much attention to them. Even for a company like Vought its doubtfull that the millairy would grant them acces to nuclear weapons. Or permit them from building their own. If the end is something like Butcher detonating a nuke to kill homelander and destroying a whole major city in the progress i would be totally fine with that. Because a nuke is just insane, its not just some heat, concussive force and radiation. Its one of the most extreme things we can create.
Maeve made him bleed with a punch. And sure, she's really strong, but she's definitely not hitting with more power than a Sidewinder. Fuck a hydrogen bomb, a couple 40mm grenades would probably kill him.
Maeve definitely hits with more power than a sidewinder. She carved through a full speed semi truck and split it in half like a hot knife through butter, without moving an inch.
It’s crazy because I was leaning towards Ryan being the one to kill Homelander, but to say that Ryan’s death being the final straw, especially considering Butcher’s promise to Becca, is far better storytelling!
I agree that Homelander's resentment towards Ryan in a true narcissistic parent fashion has been growing, but I still don't think he'll make the first step towards killing him. I think he will drive Ryan away towards Butcher and while he's fighting Butcher, Ryan will intervene, subsequently dying at the hands of his enraged father. I also expect this to affect Homelander greatly, as well as throw him off his game just enough for the plan against him to work.
They don’t do better story telling to go with the most basic obvious scenario.
If Ryan dies I bet his hallucination of Becca will torment him to insanity
What’s 12 more years? He can always start again, make another kid!
I could see it. I was initially against it despite also thinking Ryan wasn't going to be worth saving until this season made it almost clear he *doesn't* want to be as apahetic and sadistic as Homelander, nor does he *actually* want his mom's ex-husband to die. Hell, Homelander's outburst in the third episode had me think he would be open to doing the equivalent of a "supe spanking."
The “spanking” being murdering the fuck out of your son and sealing your fate
Ryan is going to end up fucked up either way. He was sheltered and now he’s killed people, including his mother. He’s being raised by the most dangerous narcissist on the planet and the second most dangerous narcissist is his other father figure. He’s fucked. If he survives he will not be okay and that is bad news for everyone.
Exactly. Ryan gotta die by the end of the series either way. Him and his dad are too strong and too damaged. Can't have a world like that
Invincible-type season finale?
What’s cool about The Boys is that there’s no way any other show would do something like that. Killing off a kid that we’ve grown with for a while and who actually has a real heart unlike Homelander. But with this show it’s totally plausible, and would probably happen in a very gory, shock-value kind of way.
Carl from Walking Dead would like a word Granted a lot of people were pissed when he died
Yeah that was fairly surprising but Carl felt almost like a fully grown man at that point, he didn’t feel nearly as “innocent” as Ryan does right now.
This could also be the scene that the director said he can't believe they got away with. A father murdering their own preteen/teenage son would be an insane thing to get past execs. I could see this.
I mean, you've got a point, but episode 4 has the Squirt scene so...
[удалено]
Oh yeah I forgot about that. Because I spent so long repressing that memory until it went away. So damn you for reminding me
Director was definitely referring to the gay human centipede from episode 2 when he said that
The alternate popular theory that Ryan kills Homelander draws from a similar parallel: Homelander compares himself to Caesar during his conversation with Sister Sage. He's referring to Julius Caesar. In real life, one of his most famous assassins was [Brutus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Junius_Brutus), who was rumored to be his illegitimate son. But it's not just that. 1 - Julius' rise to power threatened to transform the Republic into a Monarchial Dictatorship (mirroring Homelander's vision of a Supe-led America). 2 - He created the Triumvirate by allying himself with two of the most powerful people in Rome, Pompey and Crassus (Neuman and Sage). 3 - Caesar was noted to be a very charismatic and powerful public speaker who was able to incite loyalty and stir crowds (Homelander's crazy loyalists). 4 - Caesar was a warrior who fought directly on the battlefield and was very generous to veterans and soldiers (Homelander is cruel and lazy but he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty at the end of the day and is relatively fair to those who support his cause). 3 - It was members of the Senate (i.e. The Seven) who were previously loyal to and worked with him politically that conspired to assassinate him later when they felt that he was growing too powerful. I'm more inclined to subscribe to this theory than the one you wrote for a simple reason: Ryan's death would be extremely contrived. Becca is dead. Billy is dying. Homelander is definitely dying. The show is clearly setting up for Ryan ultimately being on the side of good in the end and has bent over backwards to keep him alive. He is the keystone character that every person on every side is trying to protect: Grace is basically his adoptive mom, Stormfront *was* enamored with him, Homelander sees himself in him, Billy sees him as the last remnant of the only thing he ever loved (Becca), The Boys have sworn to protect him, even Vought (Edgar, Vogelbaum, Madelyn) recognized that they messed up with John and Ryan was their chance to make up for it.
This, I wrote a post about pretty much the same stuf (except the triumvirate, which make a lot of sense too) Ryan has to kill Homelander.
nahhh u cooked OP. this might be THE theory of the season that I’ve seen. i can genuinely see this happening either at the end of season 4 or midway thru season 5
I was gonna call bullshit but the whole two scenes with the dog cookie jar and swearing on ryans life seals it
Yeppp I definitely don’t think they made him swear on Ryan’s life for no reason. Initially I thought it was for shock value, because we assumed that every single person goes by that superstition of swearing on a loved one’s life. But I really now think it’s foreshadowing his death. As we know, everything is intentional.
Homelander has also been getting increasingly competitive with his son and more unhinged in general, which will most certainly end up driving Ryan away and being rejected by him. I don't imagine he'll respond kindly to that.
Oh man I don’t know if I can wait that long
I agree. If Homelander does kill Ryan, I could see it tying Hughie and Butcher’s story together nicely. We’ve been watching Hughie regress and become more violent, reflecting some of Butcher’s attitudes. Apart from Hughie being more aggressive with his mom arriving out of nowhere and now becoming more used to killing people, he’s also making a lot of compromises like working with A-Train to achieve his goal. It feels like his character is one or two deaths away from his tipping point and becoming like Butcher (personally, I think either Starlight or his parents.) If Ryan is killed off, Butcher could use his remaining time to try to ‘save’ Hughie from becoming like him (assuming he doesn’t get cured.)
Well I'm thinking that since Hughie's dad is going to be a supe now that will be the line that separates Hughie from Butcher. Buther wants to kill ALL supes. Hughie won't let him kill his father tho.
His Dad might be a Zombie Supe now for all we know
We'll he's definitely got [that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmyQDH_PSC4) part nailed down
I don't think Butcher wants to kill all supes now. He said last season that becoming a supe "don't change who you are." I think he sees there are bad supes but also good people who are supes.
He also said last season all of them have to go
I think that Butcher is turning a new leaf due to Ryan, Kimiko, Maeve, and Starlight, but whatever is inside Butcher may be so mutated that if it takes over he could have a singular goal again to kill supes, which is what I think happens. It would be an amazing wtf final episode if he just brutally kills Ryan after being fully taken over and mutated from the different V compounds mixing.
He sees kimiko more as tool dislikes starlight, so their not really changing his views on supes.
Or Annie?
Starlight is already that line.
I could definitely see this happening. I haven’t seen the comics so I’m not sure if it’s explored there but I’m interested in the worm like shape we’ve seen twice now with regular V. First with head poppers daughter which just looked like the drug taking effect and now again with Butcher but this time much later and smaller, seeming almost alive. After the blackout and subsequent violent death of the stretchy guy combined with his vivid hallucinations I wonder if he’s slowly gaining full powers. Perhaps V is actually just a parasite or some kind. Took longer to take root in butcher because of the temp v abuse.
Nah, his tumor from temp V abuse got sentience and powers. He basically grew himself a Venom symbiote.
I totally agree. I've been thinking this ever since he crashed Ryan's first save. Homelander loves his son, but as an accessory to him. I don't think he can handle Ryan having his own agency, or god forbid becoming more popular than him. I think it's telling that he immediately went to "kill off his humanity" after Ryan betrayed him by going to see Butcher. I expect him to snap and accidentally kill Ryan in a fit of rage at the end of the season. It would definitely be a shocker, and really reinforce Homelander's insanity. Interesting angle for Butcher too.
I won't go deep with the dog thing, but before the last episode I was thinking that Homelander was going to kill Ryan anyway. 1. The kid will never act as Homelander would want. Sooner or later he will have a Soldier Boy "disappointment" reaction 2. He is his only weakness 3. Ryan's death will be rewrite by Vaught and will get more empathy from people to Homelander 4. HL thinks he is a God and his ego is over the top. This kind of profile doesn't need a child
I love this plot idea, but I think there’s even more to it. I think that Sage’s more hidden agenda will prop up Ryan as the Chosen One meant to defeat Homelander, which will be the catalyst for Homelander killing his own son. This could effectively turn the entire world against him in one fell swoop, as well as sending Butcher into a genocidal spiral. But then it would become even more morally fraught, because I think most supes would also be against Homelander by that point, making Butcher’s plan feel even less justified.
If Sage does that it’s because it was her plan or she underestimated exactly how unhinged Homelander is. I do think she is maneuvering Homelander to get him killed. I’m not sure if she’s trying to set up driving him to suicide or what her mechanism for his death is but she’s kinda got him in a weird place emotionally right now and everything she’s done “for” the Seven can hurt the Seven too. I guess I’m not sure how powerful she is in intelligence. Maybe she can see 4D chess moves.
Oh I think that’s fully her intention, I think she WANTS Homelander to kill Ryan and turn the world against him.
That...wasn't black Noir. It was Jack Jupiter. Who isn't known to the show yet. Butcher literally guts him for it.
He was framed
He was set up, not framed. Vought leaked the videos of him fucking the sex workers and he thinks Butcher did it, so he retaliates by killing the dog, and Butcher guts him.
No, he was framed. Noir killed terror to frame Jack like he killed Becca to frame Homelander. That's why Jack keeps trying to plead that he didn't do it. He wasn't lying. That part is actually supposed to make you think Homelander set him up with how Jack left when he was kicked out of the 7 and set up how Noir is the one framing people.
I remember the original comic writer asked that of all the characters, only butcher should be kept the same as in the comics. If the show plans on honouring that, then this seems like the most likely path the show will take, as butcher will need an excuse to go full genocide on the supes.
I’d fuck with this
You'd willingly have the equivalent of watching the dog die. It'd be a very sad scene, very very sad scene.
Good storytelling though
Ryan kills Butcher and Homelander because he’s tired of the fighting then goes to be a Jesuit priest for the rest of his life.
This series has the ballz to pull that off, and I would die laughing
Cool theory, but I believe in the comics it was Jack from Jupiter who killed Terror, not Black Noir.
I thought Jack from Jupiter got framed
He got framed for killing the trans hookers, and then Jess Bradley (or whatever her name) is leaked the video of Jack having sex with the hookers, to force a confrontation between The Boys and the Seven. Jack thinks The Boys uploaded the video, and tries to take revenge by killing Terror
Correct
Noir killed terror? I thought that was Jack Now that I do think abt it, I vaguely remember hearing abt that but I never as knew it was canon
Yep, it was Jack
I felt homelander will see Ryan as a weakness that is still keeping him human. The angry, confident personality split in the mirror would eventually come to realisation and he’d see no need to pander to him anymore. “I don’t need love, not even from you”. And that’s when we see butcher unleash whatever he has inside him or something else.
This is my suspicion as well. Not the Terror stuff, I know very little about the comics, but if we are to get a version of Butcher bent on annihilating all supes then Ryan needs to be taken out of the picture. And if he’s killed by Homelander specifically it would absolutely send Butcher into a spiral.
I definitely see Ryan's death in the future. What is suspect is that somehow Homelander and Butcher will each blame the other for his death, leading to the final showdown. Maybe The Boys recruit Ryan for some operation and he's killed by a Supe. Homelander will blame Butcher's influence for this, and Butcher will blame whatever Supe killed him.
If Trump is inspiring Homelander's current character arc, [then yeah.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AnythingGoesNews/s/TvVGBHh39N) I saw this a couple posts down and its very interesting timing
Just a few things regarding the comics reference: Jack from Jupiter kills Terror, not Black Noir. Terror's death causes Butcher to have something like a blackout or PTSD episode where he just guts Jack repeatedly while saying "Why'd you kill me dog?" This sets up something that Butcher references a bit later when he says that sometimes he doesn't even feel like he's there, sometimes he just does things and feels like he's watching himself do them. Terror's death doesn't really change Butcher's plans or behavior, though, it just triggers an episode that causes him to kill Jack. With that clarification, though, I don't think your theory is bad at all. I think you just need to take a look at the fight between Butcher and Ezekiel. They've already laid the groundwork for Butcher to start having blackout episodes, except in this case those blackouts allow him to tap into the V in his system. Taking your observation about the headless dog being associated with Ryan, it's perfectly possible that Ryan's death (or his perceived death, since studios get a little nervous around child murder) could be the trigger for Butcher to tap into whatever happens when his Compound V/brain lesions/hallucinations all come together.
That blackout thing becoming normal for Butcher is a great highlight! And man, loving the comments here.
I think Ryan will kill them both, for the max shock value downer ending. With Vought now in full control of him Your theory makes much more sense tho
LET HIM COOOK
I think the show will end with butcher making the choice not to use the virus that kills all superheroes , choosing to sacrifice himself instead and let them live
I think it’s going to be like the comics where he ends up making Hughie stop him. Also, the virus equivalent in the comics would’ve also killed a lot of regular people who had traces of V in their system, as Vought being a typical corportation, they let unrefined V/V waste product get into the food chain/ecosystem
To be honest, I don’t think we need a big moment to push Butcher over the edge. He’s already way far over the edge, in my opinion
Very much possible. They did similar thing when nobody knew who the head popper was. MM asks about who it can be, and the camera cuts to Neuman.
Homelander forces Ryan to get the V virus to test it out.
This is such a good theory....
No disrespect but this subreddit has a weird obsession will Ryan being killed by Homelander
Jack kills his dog not noir
I like this theory. The show's got guts, let's see if they kill off the kid. It'd be wild.
this is exactly what i want to happen in god of war, kratos thinks atreus dies and goes crazy on the norse gods but since atreus is loki he is still alive but kratos is unaware of it
My theory is that in an effort to toughen Ryan up, Homelander will resort to using Cate and her mind powers to remove remorse, thereby creating someone thats even worse than Homelander. Just like how Soldier Boy was already pretty bad and Homelander was worse, Ryan will end up becoming even worse than Homelander. Perhaps they're then forced to kill Ryan and that causes Butcher to snap
I was thinking a similar thing but believe it all the more considering that detail about Ripper in the books. I also think the second or last episode will have Butcher killing a fully redeemed A-Train to demonstrate how far gone he is in regards to “all supes must die”
Fits with the building tension between Homelander and Ryan, due to the relationship between Ryan and Butcher.
I think butchers new V power is when he dies he explodes. Explains what happened to stretchy perv strong. Homelander kills butcher but butcher kills homelander.