| 1 | [[WMG:[[center:[-''Series/TheBoys2019'' '''[[Characters/TheBoys2019 Main Character Index]]'''\ |
| 2 | '''The Boys''' | [[Characters/TheBoys2019Supes Supes]] ([[Characters/TheBoys2019TheSeven The Seven]], [[[Characters/TheBoys2019Homelander Homelander]], [[Characters/TheBoys2019Starlight Starlight]], [[Characters/TheBoys2019Stormfront Stormfront]]], [[Characters/TheBoys2019SoldierBoy Soldier Boy]]) | [[Characters/TheBoys2019VoughtInternational Vought International]] | [[Characters/TheBoys2019GodolkinUniversity Godolkin University]] | [[Characters/TheBoys2019Other Others]]-]]]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | !!The Boys |
| 5 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboysteamseason2.png]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Frenchie, Kimiko, Billy Butcher, Mother's Milk and Hughie Campbell.]] |
| 7 | The titular group of anti-Superhero vigilantes. |
| 8 | ---- |
| 9 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 12 | ->''"Butcher, the whole point of what we do, the whole goddamn point, is that no one should have that kind of power."'' |
| 13 | -->-- '''Mother's Milk''' |
| 14 | ---- |
| 15 | * AdaptationalBadass: In this series, when injected with V24, two of the members gain additional powers to their enhanced physiology. For Butcher, he also develops {{Eye Laser}}s, similar to Homelander, only the beams are golden. For Hughie, he gains the ability to TeleportSpam. |
| 16 | * AdaptationalWimp: The Boys as a whole. In the show, Kimiko is the only member of the team to be a Supe, while the rest of the team are demoted to {{Badass Normal}}s, never taking Compound-V themselves. Apparently, the intention was to avoid the show becoming a super-powered slugfest, as their lack of powers means the team relies much more on planning, espionage, blackmail, and wits since they have no chance in a straight-up fight. Season 3 sees this [[TookALevelInBadass no longer being the case]], with Butcher and Hughie [[EmpoweredBadassNormal gaining powers through taking V24]]. |
| 17 | * AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: The team is pretty dysfunctional on the show, whereas in the comics they were a cohesive unit who got along well and were pretty pleased to get back together when Butcher asked them. Part of this is due to the fact that they're much less official in the show, not having the direct support of the FBI and in general being more of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits looking for personal revenge rather than a government body. |
| 18 | * AllThereInTheManual: Their group isn't actually called "The Boys" in the show itself, and may not even have a name in-universe, but they are called as much in episode summaries and other places. In Season 2, Mallory refers to them as the Boys on several occasions. |
| 19 | * AntiHeroTeam: Many of the things The Boys do are straight-up awful and no one would argue that [[TheLeader Butcher]] is a good guy (including himself), but they are also the only group holding Supes responsible for their actions. They're not good, but their targets are typically much, much worse. [[spoiler:This is {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in Season 3, though, as each member of the team is a different stripe of AntiHero, and thus has different motivations. Thus, they eventually start fracturing due to different goals, with the midpoint of the season seeing the team dissolve due to irreconcilable differences]]. |
| 20 | * BadassNormal: With the exception of The Female, none of The Boys [[AdaptationalWimp have superpowers themselves]]. Instead, they have to rely on their own smarts, skills, and willingness to play dirty to gain an edge on the Supes. |
| 21 | * BreakingTheFellowship: [[spoiler:The team functionally ceases to exist by the events of "Herogasm". Frenchie and Kimiko are lying low due to Kimiko needing to heal after being {{depower}}ed by Soldier Boy, Billy and Hughie have gone off with Soldier Boy to take down Homelander, and MM and Annie have bailed out due to stress and their teammates' increasingly grey actions. [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether They've reformed by the season 3 finale]], but they've made it clear they are tired of putting up with Butcher's crap]]. |
| 22 | * CapeBusters: The general point of the Boys is a combination of holding Supes responsible for their actions and getting personal revenge, particularly against the Seven. Frankly, the team just does not want Supes running things. |
| 23 | * CombatPragmatist: Apart from Kimiko, the Boys are ordinary men who are deciding to fight back against the supes for their many acts of moral degeneracy. Fighting hand-to-hand or even with conventional weapons against those with superpowers is just going to get you killed, so they tend to prefer using blackmail, stealth tactics, and basically whatever is at their disposal rather than fighting up front. [[spoiler: In the first season, Hughie kills Translucent by knocking him out with electricity and then detonating the bomb that was put inside his anus. Not a dignified way to kill someone, but for someone who is otherwise invulnerable there wasn't really another option.]] |
| 24 | * DavidVsGoliath: They're just a handful of men without government backing trying to take down not only amoral superhumans, but the MegaCorp pulling their strings and all the connections, money, and resources it has at its disposal. |
| 25 | * {{Foil}}: To the Seven. The Seven are an ostensibly heroic group of government-sanctioned superheroes, but continuously provide reasons to BewareTheSuperman. The Boys, meanwhile, are a RagTagBunchOfMisfits that eventually get branded as a terrorist organization for a while, but have the more noble goal of keeping Supes in check, and for the most part, actually believe in what they are fighting for. The Seven are largely shown to be a toxic group whose members bring out the worst in each other, while the Boys work to manage their flaws to preserve group cohesion, and whose actions bring out the best in their most volatile member, Billy Butcher. Finally, while both groups butt heads with their superiors, this trait is mostly exclusive to Homelander among the Seven, who mostly does so for reasons relating to {{Pride}}. The Boys, meanwhile, only really come into conflict with the CIA for either being unwilling to stand up to Vought or withholding information that could be ''extremely'' important to keeping Supes in check. [[spoiler:Additionally, by the midpoint of season 3, both groups have fractured, but while the Seven have effectively been dissolved due to all of their members having different motives/being killed off and having TeethClenchedTeamwork, the Boys have split into smaller teams because their members actively bonded with one another and want to stick with their friends]]. |
| 26 | * FiveManBand: Their initial composition is this: |
| 27 | ** TheLeader: Billy Butcher, a driving force that keeps others focused on their goal with his ability to persuade others and his unrelenting bullheadedness. |
| 28 | ** TheLancer: Mother's Milk, a more reasonable {{Foil}} to Butcher who keeps him from going too far and also the most emotionally balanced member of the team who provides emotional support to others. |
| 29 | ** TheBigGirl: Kimiko, the team's main bruiser who's able to shrug off lethal wounds and engage in fights with Supes. |
| 30 | ** TheSmartGuy: While Hughie shows some great technical aptitude, Frenchie occupies this niche due to his assortment of skills that come in handy in various situations. |
| 31 | ** TheHeart: Hughie, the team's most idealistic and naïve member who's able to inspire others and even make Butcher have second thoughts about his more heinous actions. |
| 32 | ** SixthRanger: During season 2, Starlight/Annie has firmly become a member of the group. |
| 33 | * FriendsRentControl: As of season 3, their headquarters is a rather spacious loft in New York City's famous Flatiron Building, which even in its run-down state would normally be absolutely unaffordable for a bunch of vigilantes with no discernible income. Possibly justified due to their loose ties to the CIA, who most likely foot the bill. |
| 34 | * GuileHero: They rely on thorough planning, strategy, espionage, and cunning to overcome any threat that may come their way, since fighting openly is a total non-option. |
| 35 | * HeroWithBadPublicity: With all the PR resources that [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Vought]] has at their disposal, it's no surprise that the Boys are at a huge disadvantage from the get-go. Their own mistakes and poor decisions only make it worse, and they're the most wanted criminals in America by the end of Season 1. [[spoiler:By the end of Season 2, they manage to clean their criminal records even for crimes that they actually did, escaping this.]] |
| 36 | * MoralityChain: The group is one to Billy Butcher, their leader. While Billy is still an incredibly toxic human being, he tries to rein in the worst of his issues around the team, if only so they don't die with him. |
| 37 | * PersonalityPowers: When taking Temp V, the additional power they gain in addition to their enhanced physiology is appropriate to their personality: |
| 38 | ** Butcher, an Axe-Crazy Blood Knight, receives LaserEyes (an offensive ability) just like his Arch-Enemy Homelander. |
| 39 | ** Hughie, who was always the one to advocate against violence and avoid confrontations, receives {{Teleportation}} (a non-offensive ability) that would be perfect for rescue to quick escapes. |
| 40 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Let's see… we have a tough foul-mouthed vigilante who hates Supes, a French criminal with a knack for explosives and weaponry, a medic who is a dangerous family man with a soft spot, a mute antisocial Supe with a wild temper, and a hacker who is… well he's just an ordinary guy. They all make a great team! |
| 41 | * TheSmartGuy: Hughie and Frenchie share this role. Hughie is a competent hacker with technological smarts, while Frenchie is a CrazyPrepared RenaissanceMan and a GadgeteerGenius skilled in chemistry, biology, and an assortment of other fields. |
| 42 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Originally, the Boys had just one woman in their ranks, dubbed "The Female" until they find out her name is Kimiko. However, [[spoiler:in Season 2 this is subverted with Starlight joining]]. |
| 43 | * TwoGirlsToATeam: In season 2, [[spoiler:Starlight]] becomes a clandestine member, joining Kimiko. By the end of season 3, she's become a full-time member. |
| 44 | * UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:{{Justified}}. The rest of the group are more angry than grateful when Butcher and Hughie turn things around on the Russian security soldiers with their Temp-V powers, with Hughie even personally saving MM's life. However, this is largely because any gratefulness they would feel is overshadowed by their disgust that the two would stoop to willingly taking anything like Compound V.]] |
| 45 | * UnscrupulousHero: They have a good goal, bringing down Vought and their apathetic or outright criminal Supes, but aren't afraid to use espionage, blackmail, and even murder to do so. |
| 46 | * VigilanteMan: The Boys, whose aim is to take down superheroes (they're mostly corrupt, even criminals, in the show). |
| 47 | [[/folder]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder:Billy Butcher]] |
| 50 | !!William "Billy" Butcher |
| 51 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboyswilliambillybutcherseason2.png]] |
| 52 | [[caption-width-right:300:''[[CatchPhrase "Diabolical."]]'']] |
| 53 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/KarlUrban |
| 54 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/JeanPierreMichael (European French), Creator/AtsushiMiyauchi (Japanese) |
| 55 | |
| 56 | ->''"With great power comes the absolute certainty that you'll turn into a right cunt. I mean, that's the thing, right? You're all just people. All the V does is just amp up all that shit that's already inside. Your lot? Just a bunch of walking nuclear erections. You know? A-and it's not just Homelander. I mean, you-you fucking all got to go. Every fucking last... one of you."'' |
| 57 | |
| 58 | A rough and caustic rogue superhero hunter, Billy Butcher serves as the ''de facto'' leader of The Boys. |
| 59 | ---- |
| 60 | * TenMinuteRetirement: [[spoiler:Butcher is actually ready to work within the system or even bow out entirely of keeping a leash on supes at the start of Season 3. It's only when Hughie reveals that Neuman is a Supe (and ''Stan Edgar's adoptive daughter, no less'') and admits that Butcher was right that Billy decides to get back into the game.]] |
| 61 | * NinetiesAntiHero: Fits this trope to a T. He's a vengeful VigilanteMan with an [[TheButcher intimidating name]], who sports a BadassLongcoat, [[SirSwearsALot a foul mouth]], a troubled past, and doesn't care about hurting people who get in his way. [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] as, for all his coolness, Billy is ultimately a pretty toxic person whose actions harm both himself and the people he cares about. |
| 62 | * ZeroPercentApprovalRating: By the penultimate episode of season 3, Butcher's hypocrisy, lack of gratitude, and generally {{Jerkass}}ery have made every member of his team hate him, with the notable exception of Hughie. Marvin is outright considering ''killing Butcher'' because he views the man as an unstable loose cannon who is a threat to himself and those around him. |
| 63 | * AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:It's revealed that Butcher and his younger brother, Lenny, were horrifically abused by their father. The abuse deeply scarred both of them on an emotional level, and Lenny was eventually DrivenToSuicide.]] |
| 64 | * AdaptationalAttractiveness: His thuggish no-neck counterpart in the comics is nowhere near as good-looking as Karl Urban. |
| 65 | * AdaptationalHeroism: PlayedWith. The series actually makes no bones about how toxic Butcher actually is, and unlike the comic, it doesn't glorify his behaviour. However, in the Season 2 finale, he shows a HeelRealization and [[spoiler:tries to sacrifice himself so that Becca can escape with Ryan. When Stormfront tries to kill Becca, causing Ryan to brutally injure the former but accidentally fatally injures the latter, Butcher swallows his anger and grief to instead protect Ryan from Homelander, then gives the kid his last TragicKeepsake. In general, he seems to be moving away from his FantasticRacism toward Supes as a whole, if only to focus his issues on Homelander, [[ArchEnemy who he has PLENTY of reasons to despise]]. Season 3 shows that he's been making strides toward becoming a better person, forgoing a chance to kill a Supe so that they can face justice via the legal system and actively trying to be a father figure to Ryan. This becomes {{Subverted|Trope}} in the later parts of Season 3, where his increasing desperation to kill Homelander drives him down to the level of his comic self, to the point of [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis being willing to use Temp-V to kill Homelander]]. The season finale shows that he hasn't quite sunk to his comic level, though, as he takes pains to ensure that the rest of the Boys aren't caught in the crossfire when he goes on a potentially suicidal mission to Vought Tower to kill Homelander (they go anyway to save him, both because it is the right thing to do, Soldier Boy being a danger to everyone, and [[TheDogBitesBack they are sick and tired of putting up with his bullshit]]).]] |
| 66 | * AdaptationalJerkass: While his comic counterpart was no choirboy, he'd been more successful at remaining on friendly terms with his teammates, Hughie especially. This also extends to his relationship with [[spoiler:his wife. In the comics, Billy was on his way to being a violent sociopath until he met Becca, whose influence caused him to move past his violent tendencies and start life as a civil man. In this series, Billy's violent and unstable tendencies remained even with his marriage to Becca. Becca was so scared of Billy that, when she found out that she was pregnant with Homelander's child, she chose to turn to Vought for help, fake her death, and live hiding away from the rest of the world with Ryan rather than risk telling the Billy the truth and having him go on the warpath.]] |
| 67 | * TheAlcoholic: He used to consume considerate amounts of alcohol, but went sober since [[spoiler:Becca's death]]. |
| 68 | * AllForNothing: |
| 69 | ** His vigilante crusade against the Supes started with him believing that Homelander murdered his wife, Becca. [[spoiler:By the end of Season 1, we find out that Becca is actually still alive, meaning his violent crusade was based on a lie. Season 2 is devoted to him trying to rescue her… only for her to die at the end, anyway.]] |
| 70 | ** The end of Season 3 is this for him again. Butcher spent most of the season trying to find something that can kill Homelander and he found it in the form of Soldier Boy. [[spoiler:But after all the multiple deaths Soldier Boy is responsible for and betraying the trust of the Boys, Soldier Boy was prevented from killing Homelander because Ryan got involved and Butcher didn't want him hurt so he gives up on the idea of using Soldier Boy. To add insult to injury, Butcher taking too many Temp V ends up giving him 12-18 months to live and he loses Ryan to Homelander who starts to embrace Homelander's way of thinking]]. Basically, he ended up losing a lot and gained nothing meaningful in return. |
| 71 | * AllTakeAndNoGive: Butcher's relationship with the rest of the team is this to a tee. While deep down he respects them (sort of), he leads the team with an iron fist and prioritizes his goals and wants over those of the others and expects them to be okay with it even to the point that he left the others to the mercy of Vought to go after Homelander in season one and immediately tried to sell [[spoiler:Kimiko's brother]] out in season two. This comes to a head in season 3 when this exact behavior [[BrokenPedestal ruins his relationship with both Frenchie and Marvin]]. |
| 72 | -->'''Kimiko:''' ''[though text]'' I'm not your fucking gun.\ |
| 73 | '''Butcher:''' That is exactly what you are. In case any of you have forgotten how this works, when I tell you to do something, you fucking do it. |
| 74 | * AlliterativeName: '''B'''illy '''B'''utcher. |
| 75 | * AnimalMotif: Downplayed, when meeting Hughie for the first time there is a documentary on lions playing in the background, reflecting his authority over The Boys and his psychotic, predatory nature towards supes. Since a lion is the national animal of England, it serves as another reminder of his nationality. |
| 76 | * AntiHero: Butcher is a man driven by vengeance against Homelander, with no qualms about collateral victims. On the same day, most of the Supes and people he went against were much worse than him, lacking any sort of morality. |
| 77 | * ArchEnemy: As of the season 2 finale, Homelander finally regards Butcher as such. The two look forward to the day when one of them kills the other in glorious battle. |
| 78 | * AxCrazy: [[spoiler:According to Becca, he's always been full of rage and homicidally violent to the point that he's "one bad day from pounding someone to death in the parking lot"]]. [[DownplayedTrope While she does later take this back and apologize]], [[spoiler:Season 3 sees Billy beat Gunpowder to death in a parking lot, starting another downward spiral of his.]] |
| 79 | * BadassBoast: He tells Homelander, the WorldsStrongestMan, that he's going to hit him where it hurts by taking away his loved ones right to his face without a hint of fear. [[spoiler:While his timing is off by one season finale, he ultimately proves he's as good as his word.]] |
| 80 | * BadassLongcoat: Like his comic counterpart, Billy rocks one. Notably, he's the only one to keep it from the comics. It's also noticeably shorter, only reaching about his knees instead of his ankles. |
| 81 | * BadassNormal: In a world where people with superpowers are common and known, Billy has no powers of his own but makes up for it by being an experienced hand to hand fighter who's beaten much more powerful Supes before (like Translucent). [[spoiler:This ends up working to his advantage when he gets Supe powers of his own, as he easily trounces the UnskilledButStrong Homelander in a close up fight now that he has an even playing field in terms of strength and durability.]] |
| 82 | * BeamOWar: [[spoiler:Has this with Homelander in Season 3 Episode 6. It's unclear whose heat vision is more powerful, as they seem evenly matched, although Homelander has more control over his due to living with his powers much longer than Butcher.]] |
| 83 | * BeardOfSorrow: Grew his beard after [[spoiler:Becca disappeared and he learned that Homelander had raped her]]. |
| 84 | * BerserkButton: |
| 85 | ** He does not like it if you suggest that the Supes are "gods" or in any way stand above other people. |
| 86 | ** He seriously doesn't like being compared to Homelander. |
| 87 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Towards Hughie; it's elaborated on in Season 2 when interacting with his aunt, who infers that Hughie is a lot like Billy's late younger brother, whom Billy was violently protective of. |
| 88 | * BlackAndGrayMorality: Butcher never pretends to be something else than he is, a drunken KnightTemplar with a deep hatred for Supes, willing to do anything to take them down. Mallory hired him to do the dirty job in the past, helping him to get away with everything. He still comes better off than his {{Foil}}, Homelander, who is a complete monster, beyond any redemption. |
| 89 | * BlatantLies: To get M.M. to join him, Butcher claims that he didn't contact the 'French whore' in years, when M.M. is asking him if Frenchie is joining too. Except, Butcher sought up Frenchie before him. He lies with such a smiling face, that M.M. doesn't fully believe him anyway. |
| 90 | * BloodKnight: It’s quite clear that Billy gets pleasure from violence in his crusade against Supes, with him constantly displaying [[GrinOfAudacity excited]] and [[SlasherSmile sadistic]] smiles, although he’s a rather [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed example]] with his violent tendencies frequently disturbing and isolating his teammates. |
| 91 | * BoomerangBigot: [[spoiler:Becomes this to Supes in Season 3 after he takes Temp V for the first time to get information from Gunpowder, then beats him to death for being a Supe.]] |
| 92 | * BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Bill has a habit of doing this to people he cares about, owing to his awareness that people he gets close to tend to die. In Season 3, Butcher tells Ryan he hates him for what he did to Becca in order to keep the boy at distance for his own safety, even if he visibly regrets how he went about it. [[spoiler:It's deconstructed in the season finale, as this action causes Ryan to turn against him and join Homelander, putting the boy on the path to being corrupted and rendering all of Becca's actions pointless]]. Additionally, he knocks out Hughie [[spoiler:just before he gets ready for the final leg of the journey to Vought Tower after it becomes clear that Hughie will probably kill himself through Compound V overdose, a fate Butcher is only happy inflicting on ''himself'']]. |
| 93 | * BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: His decision to leave Ryan with Mallory is this -- Billy is well aware that neither he, Homelander, nor Vought can remotely provide a happy childhood to Ryan, so Billy leaves the boy with Mallory, ensuring that he will have a greater chance of growing up to be a better person than either his biological or adoptive fathers. |
| 94 | * BrokenPedestal: |
| 95 | ** Butcher is basically a deconstruction of this trope. At various points in the story, Butcher will do something to alienate at least one of the boys into hating him and seriously considering leaving. The deconstruction comes in due to the fact that all of them know what [[AllTakeAndNoGive kind of person]] [[WithFriendsLikeThese Butcher is]], it just they either believe that [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold there is more to him]] or that he is at least a manageable {{Jerkass}}. When confronted with the truth, they will be blisteringly mad at him, but acknowledge that they shouldn't expect better from him. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Butcher will either hit them with enough kind words or [[JerkassHasAPoint good points]] that they come back around to his side. |
| 96 | ** Seems to have broken for real for both Frenchie and M.M. in season 3. For Frenchie, it's when Butcher very definitively tells Kimiko that she is a gun to him and that when he tells both her and Frenchie to do something, they do it (no diffrent than Shining Light or Little Nina treated them). For M.M., it's when [[spoiler:Butcher teams up with Soldier Boy. Even if deep down Marvin knows that he can't stop Soldier Boy, Butcher still knows how he feels about Soldier Boy. That Butcher would still do so despite knowing that, Marvin feels so betrayed that he is implies that he is willing to kill Butcher now. Ultimately, they decide to work together again, but it is clear Butcher is now on thin ice]]. |
| 97 | * TheButcher: It's literally his last name. And as a psychotic AntiHero bordering on NominalHero who has a violent hatred toward Supes and is perfectly willing to act on it, he lives up the reputation that name has. |
| 98 | * ByronicHero: Billy is a violent VigilanteMan, with a jaded look in life, who struggles a lot with own personal integrity. On one hand, he genuinely tries to be a better person and a good father figure to Ryan, loathes himself for being immoral and violent, but at the same time he knows this is his very nature. Butcher recognizes that the Supes are people just as much everyone else, but he is still determined to take them down, even if it means breaking the law and manipulating people he cares about. It also helps that he is [[Art/WandererAboveTheSeaOfFog an attractive man wearing]] a BadassLongcoat. |
| 99 | * CartwrightCurse: |
| 100 | ** First, his wife Becca, disappears for 8 years, and when he is finally reunited with her she dies [[spoiler:being accidentally killed by her own son]]. |
| 101 | ** He had a short fling in the past with Susan Reynor. She is killed by [[spoiler:Victoria Neuman]]. |
| 102 | ** And finally, [[spoiler:Queen Maeve]]. She was kidnapped and held prisoner by Homelander only because Homelander smelled Butcher's scent on her. |
| 103 | * CelibateHero: In the 8 years Becca went missing, Butcher had only a short fling with Susan Raynor in the past. Later in Season 3, [[spoiler:he is having SexForSolace with Maeve]], but he doesn't seem otherwise romantically interested in her. |
| 104 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Diabolical" and especially the word "Cunt", which he says [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iCur5yNbkY 40 times]] in the first two seasons alone, an average of two and a half per episode. |
| 105 | * CharlesAtlasSuperPower: He took some serious blows from Translucent who is a bulletproof Supe with SuperStrength, and wasn't very affected. In fact, he was capable of returning the blows. |
| 106 | * ColdSniper: Butcher owns a semi-automatic .50-caliber sniper rifle and is very good with his shot. |
| 107 | * CombatPragmatist: Butcher is a skilled and smart combatant, as seen when he spits his own blood on Translucent so he could see him which allowed him to effectively fight back. |
| 108 | * CountryMatters: He can hardly go a sentence without saying "cunt" or "twat". |
| 109 | * CorruptedCharacterCopy: To [[ComicBook/ThePunisher Frank Castle aka The Punisher]] (particularly the Creator/GarthEnnis version). He shows just how destructive and toxic a man like him can be, not only in the jerk with a tortured soul way, but in a "He is a danger to his friends and family, as well as the innocents to a degree comparable to that of his enemies". |
| 110 | * TheCorrupter: To Hughie, as he sees him as a valuable, like-minded ally in his quest against Homelander and tries to push him into following the same path. |
| 111 | * CrowbarCombatant: His melee weapon of choice. He even makes sure to have it packed with him whenever he heads out. |
| 112 | * CrusadingWidower: He wants to avenge the loss of his wife, Becca, by taking out Homelander and any other supe that crosses his path. [[spoiler:Although this is subverted when it turns out Becca is alive. Ironically inverted in the Season 2 finale where Becca's actual death lead to Billy temporarily considering to take a calmer path in life due to her dying promise.]] |
| 113 | * CynicismCatalyst: While Butcher was always rageful, he was also jovial and happy before Becca's disappearance. After, he lost his will to enjoy life and dedicated himself to avenge her. |
| 114 | * DeadpanSnarker: He is dark-humored and has a foul mouth. |
| 115 | -->'''Butcher:''' Well, well, well, if it ain't the Invisible Cunt. |
| 116 | * DeathSeeker: There's heavy implications that Billy lost his will to live after Becca disappeared, with nothing left to live for except his hatred. [[spoiler:In the Season 1 finale, he initiates a SuicideAttack on Homelander with a smile on his face. This gets worse in Season 2 where, after finding out Becca is alive, she ultimately chooses her son's safety over him, causing him to make a last goodbye to Hughie before trying to commit Suicide-by-Black Noir. He's inspired to keep on living when he sees Hughie and the others are liable to be killed alongside him.]] |
| 117 | * DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: The BadassNormal VigilanteMan archetype, particularly the CrusadingWidower form. Billy is excessively violent and treats even his friends with insulting sarcasm, and drips of toxic masculinity, which is the primary reason the Boys are so dysfunctional, and his treatment of them is clearly abusive on his end. Though he justifies his rage by what happened to Becca, it's made clear [[spoiler:by Becca herself]] that he was always a violent person who was "just one bad day away from beating a man to death in a parking lot," and what Homelander did just gave him a target. While he's not shown to be ''as'' bad as Homelander or Stormfront, he's presented as less sympathetic a character than half the Supes themselves. |
| 118 | * {{Deuteragonist}}: Over the course of the first two seasons, Butcher obtains the same screentime that the protagonist Hughie has, with his plot involving his revenge against Homelander and the tragic past involving his wife. |
| 119 | * TheDreaded: When he starts reconnecting with the Boys in Season 1, they want nothing to do with him due to his reputation as a loose cannon. And when Hughie openly criticizes Butcher's attachment to Becca in front of the team, they all collectively shit their pants. Mesmer and Vogelbaum become terrified of him after they realize the lengths he will go to just to get what he wants. [[spoiler:Even Homelander is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness noticeably worried]] after he learns that Butcher now has access to Compound V and has teamed up with Soldier Boy.]] |
| 120 | * DreamworksFace: His default expression. Butcher will smirk and raise his eyebrow every time he has a crazy idea, and he has them all the time. |
| 121 | * EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler:{{Averted|Trope}} -- while he's still technically the leader of the Boys at the end of season 3, the rest of the group has made it clear he is on thin ice. Even Hughie, who ''has'' forgiven Butcher for everything he has done, agrees that everyone else has valid criticisms regarding Billy]]. |
| 122 | * ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Billy is ex-SAS, and has all the ass-kicking skills that come with it. It's his training, combined with his wits, that allow him to hold his ground against supes. |
| 123 | * EmpoweredBadassNormal: In Season 3, V-24 grants Butcher SuperStrength, bullet-proof skin and EyeBeams. |
| 124 | * EnemyMine: |
| 125 | ** Forms a deal with Soldier Boy, despite being the one who murdered M.M.'s family, just to take down Homelander. |
| 126 | ** [[spoiler:Later in the same season, he saves Homelander after Soldier Boy harms Ryan, leading to them aiding each other in attacking the veteran.]] |
| 127 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: He introduces himself as a fake FBI agent to Hughie to try and recruit him to take down the Supes when they get out of line. He makes no secret about how much he hates the Supes in the first minutes he is introduced. |
| 128 | * EvilBrit: He is from the UK and plays the NominalHero role in the US. Downplayed because, as AxCrazy he may be, Butcher is sympatethic and has a moral compass. |
| 129 | * FatalFlaw: |
| 130 | ** His hatred for Supes (especially Homelander), to the point of letting it consume him and cloud his judgment. [[spoiler:He finds decisive evidence against Vought's schemes, but does not give it to the CIA because they can't guarantee they'll prosecute Homelander. By the time he's convinced to cooperate, it's too late as the Supe terrorists have appeared, forcing the government to cover up Vought's crimes and sign the military bill to combat the new threat.]] |
| 131 | ** Season 2 elaborates on this. [[spoiler:His racism against Supes seems to be an extension of his inherently violent nature. Becca refuses to go with him because she's afraid he will do something bad to Ryan and destroy himself in pursuit of revenge, and implies it was inevitable that she would break up with him because she did not know how to save him from himself.]] |
| 132 | ** Season 3 adds in [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim his willingness to push others away so they don't get hurt]]. While Billy means well (Butcher is aware of both how toxic he is and how people close to him tend to die, and wants to avoid sending his friends to their deaths -- at least intentionally), his habit of being a complete asshole to others to drive them away from him means that they gradually lose their ability to trust him at all. [[spoiler:This leads to Ryan choosing to side with Homelander after the latter tells the boy that Becca's death wasn't his fault (Billy had previously lied and stated that he blamed Ryan for Becca's death so that the boy would try to follow him on his quest to kill Homelander), and puts him on very thin ice with all of the Boys except for Hughie, who TookALevelInCynic and, as a side effect, finally noticed Butcher's HiddenHeartOfGold. And even then, Hughie agrees that the rest of the team has valid reasons to hate Butcher]]. |
| 133 | * FantasticRacism: He ''really'' hates Supes. While it is true that many Supes are corrupt, egotistical, or even downright evil, Billy paints them all with the same brush. He's irrationally hostile and suspicious towards Kimiko and Starlight, who have done nothing to earn it other than having superpowers. He even shows a lack of concern over potentially harming [[spoiler:a super-abled baby]]. On the whole, Billy does not seem to see Supes as human, but rather as monsters who are evil by nature. [[spoiler:[[CharacterDevelopment He's making some (admittedly small) steps to move past this]], and at the end of Season 2 chooses to treat Ryan as a person, even giving the boy his only remaining memento of Becca. Season 3 shows he's making good progress, but risks sliding back when he goes on the warpath against Homelander again. Said season also reveals the real reason he hates Supes -- not because they have powers, but rather because they can do practically anything they want and get away with it. He also admits he thinks this is a problem with all humans, but that powers just make it worse]]. |
| 134 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 135 | ** He's one to [[ArchEnemy Homelander]] - both are the leaders of their respective teams, but while Homelander puts on a façade of friendliness while he's actually a horrible person, Butcher does the opposite, hiding [[WellIntentionedExtremist good intentions]] underneath a gruff, antagonistic exterior. Their [[FreudianExcuse upbringings involving a controlling and abusive father pushing them into fitting their respective ideals]] further drives this point. [[spoiler:The big difference between the two is that Butcher is capable of recognizing his flaws and making progress in moving past them. Homelander, meanwhile, does not recognize that most of his problems are entirely due to his own flaws and thus is unable to move past them. This comes to a head in Season 3, as while Homelander's toxic personality forces away everyone who isn't cowering in fear of him, Billy has made a partnership with Soldier Boy and earned Hughie's UndyingLoyalty to the point that Hughie is willing to sacrifice himself to help Butcher kill Homelander, despite Butcher wanting Hughie to save himself]]. |
| 136 | --->'''Starlight:''' Underneath all that swagger, you're just a bigot and a bully. I know another guy just like that. He's got a flag for a cape. |
| 137 | ** Later revelations also make him one to Black Noir. [[spoiler:Both were ''horribly'' abused by a male figure of authority in their lives (Butcher had his father, Noir had Soldier Boy) who also bullied others. This lead to them becoming gruff and standoffish later in life, and also set them down violent paths (Black Noir became Stan Edgar's hitman, Butcher joined the British Army and later the SAS), while still retaining immense emotional scars from it. Other than that, though, the two could not be more different -- Butcher is an attractive man while Black Noir bears horrific scars from when he fought Soldier Boy. Butcher is loud and obnoxious while Noir is mute due to his injuries. Butcher is the leader of his team while Earving is content to follow others. Butcher is absolutely determined to kill Homelander despite the extreme odds against him while Noir is absolutely terrified of facing Soldier Boy again and runs rather than fight. Finally, there are two major, interconnected differences between the two: Black Noir and Butcher are relatively isolated among their teams due to Black Noir being mute and asocial while Billy is an ass. Butcher, however, still manages to bond with Hughie, who is slowly managing to keep him from going ''too far''. Black Noir, meanwhile, has to get a pep-talk from his own hallucinations to realize that YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre and muster the courage to face Soldier Boy]]. |
| 138 | * FreudianExcuse: He grew up with a '''very''' abusive father who had quite the monstrous [[SinkOrSwimMentor sink or swim mentality]], resulting in Butcher's [[MoralityPet younger brother]], Lenny, [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself]]. And this is not even mentioning what happens to his wife. |
| 139 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: While his family still empathizes with him, Hughie and Becca have both made it clear that regardless of how bad Butcher had it, his behavior is toxic and causes significant harm to innocents and Butcher ''needs'' to grow up, get his anger under control, and stop using others as excuses for his problems. To Billy's credit, [[TookALevelInKindness he actually makes improvements in this regard, even if they are small]]. |
| 140 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: Downplayed, but Billy's bitter, [[{{Jerkass}} abrasive]] personality and myopic obsession with revenge are frequently criticized by his comrades, especially because of his tendency to leave them by the wayside as a result. |
| 141 | * FromCamouflageToCriminal: He's a former soldier, from the S.A.S. Special Forces in the British Army. |
| 142 | * GodIsEvil: {{Discussed}}. Butcher argues to a Christian at the Believe Expo that assuming God exists he's cruel and hates humanity given how much suffering the world has. |
| 143 | -->'''Butcher:''' I'm saying, if there is some geezer up here with a big white beard, he's a world heavyweight cunt! Yeah, he's got a hard-on for mass murder and giving kids cancer and his big old answer to the existential clusterfuck that is humanity is to nail his own bleeding son to a plank. That is a cunt move! Come on, even you got to agree with me there. We should lob a fucking nuke at him, get it over and done with. You know what I'm saying? All right, good talk. Think about it. I'm here all day, alright? |
| 144 | * GoodStepmother: He had no intention of being this, but he ends up being the figure that [[spoiler:gives Ryan his freedom, and a new moral compass. Butcher doesn't like the fact that Ryan exists or that Becca would give up everything to protect the ChildByRape that tore her away from her husband, but he made a promise to Becca that he would care for Ryan, who is technically his stepson. As soon as they're out of Homelander's range of attack, he sets Ryan up with Mallory, knowing she's a better influence than he is and implicitly promises to check up on him]]. |
| 145 | * GrinOfAudacity: Billy flashes an excited grin during his brawl with Homelander. |
| 146 | * HappilyMarried: He was happy with his wife until her disappearance. |
| 147 | * HatesTheirParent: He always resented his father for how he treated him and Lenny and couldn't care less that he has cancer. |
| 148 | * HeroesFrontierStep: Butcher gets a couple in season 2, the first when he lets Kenji go to save Hughie, and the second is in the finale when he doesn't carry out his plan to hand Ryan over to Vought, and is shown willing to protect him in Becca's honor. |
| 149 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: He steadily gets worse and worse as he puts getting revenge on Supes above all else. [[spoiler:Season 2 reveals this is actually subverted. Becca reveals that Billy has always been like this so rather than getting worse, Becca's disappearance merely returned him to who he was.]] Then Season 3 does this quite literally when [[spoiler:Compound V24, a literal SuperpowerLottery, gives him part of [[NighInvulnerability Homelander's]] [[EyeBeams powerset]].]] |
| 150 | * [[HeroicRRoD Heroic RRoD]]: [[spoiler:Once the conflict at Vought Tower ends in the end of Season 3, Butcher collapses due to the effects of his recent V24 injection expiring, as well as because of his abuse of it in the recent days.]] |
| 151 | * HiddenDepths: A rare negative example - Butcher mentions in Season 3 that he's had plenty of experience using a variety of drugs even prior to his first use of V24, including cocaine, MDMA, heroin, and meth. There are some other positive examples though, like his surprising knowledge of the Spice Girls due to his wife being a huge fan and the fact that he learned card magic to entertain his younger brother. He’s also shown repeatedly watching the Flight-37 footage in Season 3, showing that he doesn’t just hate Homelander for what he did to Becca, but also for what he does, and did, to innocent people. |
| 152 | * HisOwnWorstEnemy: [[spoiler:His own nature as an inherently violent person is what causes him to clash with his teammates so much, and drives Becca away since he is incapable of leaving the path of revenge.]] |
| 153 | * HollywoodAtheist: Butcher is a {{jerkass}} (well, with a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold soft side]]), who goes out of his way to argue with a Christian at the Believe Expo, saying that if God does exist, [[GodIsEvil he's a world heavyweight cunt]]. |
| 154 | * HourglassPlot: The first two seasons have Butcher obssessed with taking down Supes in general and Homelander in particular due to a combination of FantasticRacism and, in Homelander's case, {{Revenge}}, making it a necessity for MM to reign Butcher in. [[spoiler:Season 3 sees Butcher ''finally'' get a hold of his racism, while his desire to kill Homelander shifts from "make Homelander pay for raping his (Butcher's) wife" to "Homelander is having a psychotic break and needs to be killed before he goes on a rampage", which leads him to take Temp-V and recruit Soldier Boy in an effort to finally kill Homelander. MM, however, has not forgiven Soldier Boy for killing ''his'' (MM's) family (by accident) and this ends up being a major factor in why MM ultimately leaves the group (the other being Butcher's hypocrisy and continously being TheUnfettered)]]. |
| 155 | * {{Hypocrite}}: |
| 156 | ** Tries to get [[spoiler:Mallory]] back in the game by claiming [[spoiler:she owes him for training him like a Howitzer, pointing him at Homelander and then quitting]]. When [[spoiler:Hughie]] tries the same reasoning to get [[spoiler:him to help rescue The Boys, Butcher blows him off.]] |
| 157 | ** He accuses the Boys of having a "case of vagina" that's distracting them from their goals. This coming from the guy who's fueled by vengeance for his wife [[spoiler:and ready to drop the Boys as soon as it looks like he's going to reunite with her.]] |
| 158 | ** In Season 3, [[spoiler:he ends up taking Temp-V in order to "level the playing field" after Hughie tells him that there's no "right" way to deal with Vought.]] However, in a later conversation [[spoiler:with Maeve]], he drunkenly reveals [[spoiler:just how much he hates having to rely on the same level of power as the Supes he resents so much to finally do some meaningful damage.]] |
| 159 | ** [[spoiler:Season 3 also has him recruit Soldier Boy to help take down Homelander, brushing aside the fact that Soldier Boy killed MM's family, something Marvin calls Butcher out on.]] |
| 160 | * HypocriteHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Yes, Butcher is a hypocrite for wanting to keep MM from getting revenge on Soldier Boy so that he can use Soldier Boy to kill Homelander. However, he has good reasons for this]]: |
| 161 | ** [[spoiler:Soldier Boy might be the only one who can kill Homelander, as SB's ChestBlaster ability can DePower Supes]]. |
| 162 | ** [[spoiler:Marvin stands no chance of killing Soldier Boy due to the latter's powers]]. |
| 163 | ** [[spoiler:Soldier Boy isn't interested in a vendetta against Marvin]]. |
| 164 | ** [[spoiler:Soldier Boy has been shown to be unpredictable in the usage of his radiation powers. As such, Butcher is right in keeping MM away from Soldier Boy to keep him safe. In fact, Butcher keeping MM in the same room as him is exactly what saves his life when Soldier Boy is triggered yet again by Love Sausage's music.]] |
| 165 | * IAmWhatIAm: Butcher is aware how miserable he is and how many times he crossed any morality line. |
| 166 | %% * IgnoredEpiphany: After being warned by his nightmare vision of Lenny that Hughie will die and Annie confirming that he will if he keeps taking V24, Billy decides not to tell Hughie the truth and encourages him to keep taking it. |
| 167 | * ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Billy Butcher claims he's an FBI Agent at first when recruiting Hughie into the Boys. He later admits otherwise. |
| 168 | * ImprobableWeaponUser: Billy Butcher wields a superpowered baby as a weapon by making it blast blue beams from its eyes at some security guards. |
| 169 | * InHarmsWay: After the events of Season 2, Butcher goes clean for a full year, with no killing or drinking, until an unfortunate night Homelander visits him and provokes Billy to a final duel. After that, he returns to his old agenda, knowing he cannot live a normal life. |
| 170 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Billy is seemingly incapable of putting others' wishes before his own agenda. |
| 171 | ** He is furious that his wife's family bought a grave plot and placed a headstone there so they had a place to mourn Becca after ''eight years''. His sister-in-law begs him to understand that their elderly mother needed a place to talk to her daughter, but Billy smashes the headstone regardless of the Saunders family's feelings. |
| 172 | ** [[spoiler:He backs out of a deal with Raynor that would expose Vought for many of their abusive practices because she refuses to prosecute Homelander, knowing that would be impossible, never mind that the deal would have benefited everyone on his team, including himself.]] |
| 173 | ** [[spoiler:His escape plan for Becca only involves saving Becca, not Ryan. Then, after Homelander takes Ryan and Becca asks him to help get her son back, he goes behind her back to make a deal with Stan Edgar where Becca would be permanently separated from the child she loves so he could get her back without Homelander's son underfoot. He only reneges on the deal at the last second.]] |
| 174 | * IveComeTooFar: When MM asks him he allied himself with Soldier Boy and drugged him, Butcher tells him it is because he cannot draw any line. |
| 175 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's foul-mouthed and manipulative, but fundamentally a good man who's trying to expose the Supes' crimes for what they are, and frequently has PetTheDog moments. |
| 176 | * JerkassFacade: [[spoiler:Season 3 sees Billy double down on the {{Jerkass}} behavior he has started to outgrow for the sake of the current mission to get a weapon to kill Homelander with. This includes [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim accusing Ryan of causing Becca's death to keep him from getting involved]] and forcing Frenchie and Kimiko to do jobs with which they have clear reservations (plus outright calling them weapons for him to use). Unlike the old Butcher, it's clear that he has reservations about this, especially with what he said to Ryan.]] |
| 177 | * JerkassHasAPoint: At best he's a callous jerk but a lot of what he says can be pretty damn convincing; |
| 178 | ** After they witness [[spoiler:Popclaw [[AccidentalMurder killing her landlord while drugged up on Compound V]]]], Hughie tries calling Billy out on the fact that [[spoiler:he let a man die.]] Billy is quick to retort however that, [[spoiler:even if he ''did'' let Hughie go to save the landlord, he'd more than likely arrive too late and would have gotten killed by a panicked Popclaw.]] He makes a similar point later after [[spoiler:Kimiko's brother destroys a police helicopter trying to take him out, pointing that the pilots were likely killed either by the attack or the crash, and that if they stuck around to save them, they'd likely be caught and arrested.]] |
| 179 | ** He shames a support group for not being angry at the supes for crippling and castrating them, proclaiming they have no self-respect when they forgive their attackers so quickly for such unforgivable acts. Given how the average supe behaves, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday it's likely none of them even remember the hurt they've caused these people]]. |
| 180 | ** His biased views towards supes are justified as well since they are a legitimate threat when they aren't handled properly and their villainous acts require retribution, not lionization. |
| 181 | ** [[spoiler:He's right that Becca is still alive, not dead.]] |
| 182 | ** [[spoiler:While his aggression towards Hughie is largely motivated by his bias towards Supes, he is right that Hughie is too deep into their war against Supes to get out now.]] |
| 183 | ** [[spoiler:When the others get upset at him for his underwhelming reaction to Hughie and Starlight exposing Compound V to the public, he rightfully points out that, while it's certainly an achievement, they are currently trying to transport a powerful Supe Terrorist so they can clear their names ''and'' reunite him and Mother's Milk with their loved ones, meaning they can't afford to get too excited and "take their eye off the ball".]] |
| 184 | ** [[spoiler:Later on, after Kimiko's brother destroys a police helicopter Billy was negotiating with and MM glares at him, Butcher rightfully points out that it wasn't his fault. And he's right, as Frenchie tried giving The Male a metal can to drink from that he used to escape, which MM rightfully chews him out for.]] |
| 185 | ** [[spoiler:After learning of her involvement in the incident where Soldier Boy met his UncertainDoom, he's quick to call Mallory out on hiding the existence of something they could potentially use to [[ImmortalBreaker kill Homelander]] ever since the group was formed, citing that Becca could still be alive and Ryan wouldn't be living in paranoid fear if he was dead. While Mallory tries to retort that he's just using others as excuses to lash out again, it's hard not to see Billy's point; a lot of the pain, misery and deaths that have occurred throughout the series, not just that of Becca and Ryan, could have been avoided if they were able to take out Homelander, the most dangerous of the Supes, as soon as humanly possible and deal a major blow against Vought. And while this supposed weapon is not guaranteed to do the job, the lack of available options certainly makes it worth a shot, especially much earlier when Homelander still had the blind love of the public and as a result was not on the cusp of a VillainousBreakdown-induced rampage.]] |
| 186 | ** [[spoiler:Butcher pointedly calls out, despite being heavily drunk off his ass, that the problem with Supes isn't their powers per se but the fact they are almost collectively a bunch of covert narcissists that have been given everything they could of ever wanted by a silver spoon and that Compound V did nothing to make them that way, it only brought a means to express the things they were conditioned to become instead. Which is entirely on point with why Supes like Homelander are the [[TykeBomb Tyke Bombs]] they ended up being is because of the way they became, rather than a strict issue of the powers themselves]]. |
| 187 | * JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:While Butcher was never the most well-adjusted or kind-hearted bloke around, in Season 3 after discovering Mallory hid the truth from him and that he spent months working for a Vought supe, Billy becomes more sociopathic and spiteful than ever. He starts using Temp-V, cuts off ties with Ryan, murders Gunpowder, becomes more openly emotionally abusive towards the rest of the team, makes a deal with [[WildCard Soldier Boy]] and goes on a warpath against Homelander once again, with no care for collateral damage. All while dragging [[MoralityPet Hughie]] along. Butcher does eventually comes back to his senses, but by then is to late, since the V24 abuse left him with only months to live]]. |
| 188 | * KnightInSourArmor: He'll be the first to admit he's no hero and that his taking down superheroes is purely driven by a desire for revenge. Yet in the Season 2 finale [[spoiler:he's ready to sacrifice his life to buy Becca the time she needs to escape and later throws himself between Homelander and Ryan armed with nothing but a crowbar because he made a promise to Becca to protect her son as she died in his arms.]] |
| 189 | * LackOfEmpathy: Butcher is not a sociopath, but he just lacks any sort of empathy for the supes, no matter who they are. He dislikes the idea of anyone sympathising or approaching them, or in Hughie's case, dating them, and cannot understand why people around him don't hate them like he does. When he went with Hughie to a group of Supes survivors, he suffered an emotional breakdown because the people were not rageful and out in the streets killing the supes, despite being victims, never mind those people just being traumatized and untrained civilians with no CIA back-up like him. [[spoiler:Part of his CharacterDevelopment in Season 2 is learning to empathize with others, to the point that by the finale, he's at least able to show and feel sympathy for Ryan]]. |
| 190 | * LikeFatherLikeSon: His greatest fear is that he is too much like his father. That's why is leaves Ryan in Mallory's care. |
| 191 | -->'''Mallory:''' This was never about Ryan or Becca. It was always selfish. Always and only for you. For the hate inside that you want to let loose on the world. I thought maybe you changed, but I was wrong. You ''are'' your father. You've always have been. |
| 192 | ** Season 3 Episode 7 confirms this as Mindstorm's MindRape forces Billy to revisit his past and learn he has become exactly like his father if not worse, adopting all of Sam Butcher's nastiest qualities while also growing some of his own. |
| 193 | * LivingOnBorrowedTime: [[spoiler:The end of season 3 reveals that overuse of Temp-V has left him terminally ill]]. |
| 194 | * MadeOfIron: He can keep going after taking a ''serious'' beating. |
| 195 | * ManipulativeBastard: He will say or do anything to get the results he wants. [[spoiler:When the proper authorities can't guarantee that Homelander will pay for his crimes if Billy hands over the information he's gathered, he refuses to hand over any of it. Then he lies to the Boys, claiming the government was too cowardly to act on any of the evidence, convincing them that their only option is to go after the supes themselves.]] |
| 196 | * ManlyFacialHair: Butcher has a well-trimmed beard that helps portray him as a tough VigilanteMan. |
| 197 | * MeaningfulName: His full first name, William, means "Vehement protector". And ''then'' there's his [[TheButcher last name]]... His middle name might as well be "the". |
| 198 | * MirrorCharacter: Is been always hinted through the show that Butcher and Homelander have similarities, but their usual arcs also made them different from each other, until Season 3, where Eric Kripke, confirms for 'Herogasm' breakdown that: "Homelander and Butcher are really like two sides of the same coin. Um, they have very similar arcs, you know in episode one and in episode two, you know, they both feel like aggrieved and their steam kettles are boiling and then they both finally explode in their own ways. And, in many ways, they are like the two poles of the show, you know. It's sorta like we talk about them sometimes as Superman/Lex Luthor or Holmes/Moriarty like they're like the two centers of gravity. So, in their obsession with each other it's sort of inevitable that they start to kind of take on, you know, some of each other's traits. |
| 199 | * MrFanservice: No matter how heavily his macho behavior is deconstructed, Karl Urban still looks damn good in those unbuttoned shirts and trenchcoats, and the show knows it. When they initially meet, Hughie mentions that he looks like he's starring in a porn version of The Matrix. |
| 200 | * MyGreatestFailure: Leaving his brother Lenny behind at home to join the military. Billy believed that their dad wouldn't be as abusive to Lenny if he was gone, but instead it only made Sam focus all his cruelty onto Lenny, leading Lenny [[DrivenToSuicide to kill himself]]. Butcher has never forgiven himself for not being there for Lenny. |
| 201 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Butcher" is pretty descriptive. |
| 202 | * NervesOfSteel: Doesn't even raise an eyebrow at [[spoiler:Popclaw crushing the landlord's head with her thighs]] while the rest of the Boys react horrified or look away. And when finally confronting [[spoiler:Homelander at Stillwell's home]], the latter remarks Butcher is the only person he's met who knows what he can do yet doesn't fear him. |
| 203 | * NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: He kept on beating Gunpowder until he broke his skull, even after the latter told him everything he knew about what had happened to Soldier Boy. |
| 204 | * NominalHero: Discussed several times by him, Mallory and M.M. He is using his quest for revenge against Homelander as an excuse to kill Supes. It just happens that his actions are helping the victims of the Supes. |
| 205 | * NoodleIncident: Something about an underage hooker string on electroshock made the Legend lose his trust in Butcher. What happened, is never detailed. |
| 206 | * NotAfraidToDie: By Season 3, Butcher had moved from being a DeathSeeker to this trope - while he no longer actively seeks out death, he's willing to die if it will help him achieve his goals. [[spoiler:After learning from Starlight that overusing Temp-V will have fatal consequences, his only thought before going to get more is to knock out Hughie, who has been on a PowerHigh from using the substance, because while Butcher doesn't care if he lives or dies, he won't let Hughie go down with him]]. |
| 207 | * NotSoAboveItAll: When Marvin has an affectionate phone call with his wife, he couldn't help but laugh at it. Also, when he meets Lamplighter, he fails to contain his laughter at the latter's outfit. |
| 208 | * NotSoSimilar: He's this to Homelander. Both are aggressive men with major anger issues and have FantasticRacism toward members of the 'other' group, while also being the manipulative leaders of their own teams. But while Homelander has no healthy relationships to speak of, [[spoiler:murders his own mother figure, and abuses his own son (admittedly due to the fact he has no idea how to be a normal parent)]], Billy genuinely empathizes with his teammates, loves his aunt, mother, and dog, and [[spoiler:ultimately decides to relinquish care of Ryan to Mallory, knowing he can't be the father the boy needs]]. |
| 209 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 210 | ** The rest of the Boys are so used to Billy being a jerk, that him being nice on the phone is enough to tell Hughie and MM that something is seriously wrong. |
| 211 | ** Despite [[TheUnfettered being completely willing to stoop down to their enemies' level]] in the fight against Vought, [[spoiler:even to the point of taking Temp V]], he is seriously appalled at [[spoiler:Hughie's initial request to try some of the Temp V himself, and tries to tell Hughie off by remarking that the V is poison and he shouldn't want anything to do with it.]] |
| 212 | * OohMeAccentsSlipping: Karl Urban is an actor from New Zealand playing what is presumably some kind of Cockney. Let's just say it's hard to spot which British accent he is trying to convey, when he manages to keep it at all. |
| 213 | * ParentalSubstitute: [[spoiler:Despite his initial hostility towards Ryan at the end of Season 2, by Season 3 he has bonded with him considerably, with Ryan even viewing him more like a father than his real dad. However he struggles with his attachment to Ryan as he is not over Becca's death, or his FantasticRacism.]] |
| 214 | * PapaWolf: [[spoiler:Despite Ryan not being his blood, Butcher does come to care about him as if he were his own son. When Soldier Boy tries to kill Ryan along with Homelander, it causes Butcher to actually go back on the deal and cost him his best chance at finally killing his archenemy. He also begins to act this way toward Hughie due to viewing him as a reflection of his little brother Lenny. When Soldier Boy strikes Hughie for almost allowing Mindstorm to escape, Butcher gives Soldier Boy the DeathGlare.]] |
| 215 | * PersonalityPower: [[spoiler:While on V-24, he develops powers similar to Homelander, i.e. super strength, durability, and heat vision. Billy's powers are largely used for offensive purposes and fit in with his desire to avenge his wife's death and beat up Homelander in a locked room before killing him.]] |
| 216 | * PetTheDog: [[spoiler:He gives Ryan, a Supe and the son of his most hated enemy Homelander, a precious necklace from Becca because the boy needs a memento of his mom more than he does of his wife.]] |
| 217 | * PoliticallyIncorrectHero: |
| 218 | ** Billy doesn't hesitate to call a support group full of physically disabled people wimps, as they were all willing to forgive the supes that left them in that condition. |
| 219 | ** In Season 2, he accuses Frenchie and Milk of having a "raging case of vagina" when they back Hughie and Kimiko. |
| 220 | ** PlayedForDrama in Season 3 [[spoiler:when it's revealed that he called his brother a homophobic slur in a moment of anger, right before leaving him behind to join the military. It's shown to be his greatest regret, however, and he doesn't appear to be bigoted towards gay people in present day.]] |
| 221 | * PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Billy spends first episodes seeking out Frenchie and M.M. to join in his quest against Vought, who are less than happy when Butcher shows up at their door. |
| 222 | * PyrrhicVictory: By the end of Season 2. [[spoiler:He's followed through on his threat to Homelander and made him feel what he put Butcher through 8 years ago when the Boys' schemes end with Homelander's girlfriend fried alive and his son forever disowning him, with the added bonus of the Boys' criminal records expunged. However, Becca also died in the crossfire, meaning much of what he did for the past eight years amounted to nothing in the end.]] |
| 223 | * RageAgainstTheHeavens: [[spoiler:His bias towards Supes is fueled by his need to kill Homelander for raping and murdering his wife. His single-minded pursuit of revenge has sacrificed all of his personal relationships and his morality. His hatred of Supes is matched by his misotheism, as he sees God as a cruel, selfish figure who'd rather sacrifice his own son than take the initiative to fix Earth's problems. The comparison is driven home when Homelander reveals he sees himself as a god amongst men.]] |
| 224 | * RealMenWearPink: |
| 225 | ** He has encyclopedic knowledge on the Spice Girls. [[spoiler:This is because his wife Becca was a huge fan.]] |
| 226 | ** He also ''rocks'' Hawaiian shirts on occasion. |
| 227 | * RedPillBluePill: Butcher gives an entire speech to Hughie about choosing the red or the blue pill, trying to encourage him to meet A-Train and implant a bug inside Vought. [[SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfFunny Though he gets the colors mixed up]]. |
| 228 | * RelativeButton: |
| 229 | ** His wife is another one for him; when Hughie uses her as a [[ArmorPiercingQuestion question on Billy's motivation for hating Supes]], Billy is [[TranquilFury stunned, silent, and absolutely furious with Hughie]]. The fact that M.M. and Frenchie collectively shit a brick after hearing this also suggests this is a definitive red flag and a subject to be avoided like the plague. At the end of "Proper Preparation and Planning", he [[TalkToTheFist punched Hughie]] and warns him not to get in his way of rescuing Becca again. |
| 230 | ** Don't even think about mentioning his little brother's name. Let alone the circumstances surrounding his death. |
| 231 | * RevengeBeforeReason: To Billy, all Supes are evil and he'll never be convinced otherwise. His pursuit to kill Homelander has cost him everything. [[spoiler:He also came very close to murdering Ryan when he accidentally got Becca killed.]] |
| 232 | * RevengeIsNotJustice: The Boys do agree with him about the Supes needing to be punished for their many, many wrongdoings but decree that he is the lesser of two evils compared to Homelander. [[spoiler:Hughie calls him out for hating Starlight despite her attempts to help, Becca berates him for hating Ryan because of his lineage, and Annie calls him a bully and compares him to Homelander.]] |
| 233 | * SecretlyDying: [[spoiler:The season three finale reveals that V24 has wrecked his brain so badly that he has at least a few months left to live, with a year at most.]] |
| 234 | * SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Hughie is Butcher's bookish, LovableCoward and nice sidekick. |
| 235 | * SexForSolace: [[spoiler:He and Maeve end up banging in Season 3 after his trip to Russia goes awry.]] |
| 236 | * SlasherSmile: Tends to smile before he inflicts serious hurt on someone. |
| 237 | * SleepsInTheNude: No pijamas for Butcher during the night. He sleeps completely naked, dreaming that he is covered by Becca's arms. |
| 238 | * SmallParentHugeChild: "[[Recap/TheBoysS0207ButcherBakerCandlestickMaker Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker]]" shows Butcher is taller than both his parents, especially his mother who barely comes up to his collarbone. |
| 239 | * SourOutsideSadInside: His gruff and unfriendly demeanor covers up the pain he feels from losing Becca. The support group leader pegs him as one of these on first sight. |
| 240 | * StaringDownCthulhu: He has a stare-down with Homelander at the A-Train vs. Shockwave race, which leads to Homelander remembering who Butcher is. |
| 241 | * StealthHiBye: Butcher has an '''insane''' talent for getting into places he really shouldn't be, up to and including the office of the Deputy Director of the CIA (when she herself needs a keycard to unlock the door). |
| 242 | * StrongAndSkilled: In terms of human qualities, he is in peak physical condition, and a master combatant. When he becomes an EmpoweredBadassNormal, he is able to go toe-to-toe with Homelander due to his fighting experience despite being physically weaker. |
| 243 | * TallDarkAndSnarky: Being played by Karl Urban and having a cunt-y sense of humour, Butcher fits this to a T. |
| 244 | * TeensAreMonsters: As a teenager abused by his father, he was always angry and violent. Upon being caught selling marijuana, he beat up his headmaster in response with a stapler. |
| 245 | * TokenEvilTeammate: He's easily the most morally bankrupt member of the Boys, something he revels in. Case in point, when Mallory has trouble getting through to Dr. Vogelbaum, who cites the fact he's scared Vought and/or Homelander will kill his daughter if he testifies against them, Butcher then pays him a visit and threatens to beat his daughter to death himself, then his sons, his daughters-in-law, and his grandchildren, one-by-one. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Vogelbaum is horrified]] that he could even ''threaten'' something so obscene. |
| 246 | * TookALevelInJerkass: Given the flashbacks of him eight years ago, Billy was actually quite a decent fellow who was clearly a loving and caring husband to his wife. Losing Becca ''really'' made him a far more ruthless and callous man. [[TheCorrupter Mallory's influence didn't help matters.]] The second season muddies this somewhat, however, with [[spoiler:Becca]] revealing that Billy has always had a dark side to him, and that him eventually breaking down and lashing out was more of a question of when rather than if. |
| 247 | * TookALevelInKindness: He spends Season 1 being an unapologetically brutal VigilanteMan who's a [[ToxicFriendInfluence major toxic influence on his friends]], but season 2 has him confronted with how messed up his behaviour is and ultimately have a HeelRealization. He's notably less insulting towards everyone [[spoiler:after Becca rejects him at the compound]], and after spending the rest of the season continuing to be the TokenEvilTeammate, he recognises what he is and [[spoiler:tries to pull a HeroicSacrifice to keep Homelander away from Becca and Ryan. When this fails and Becca is killed thanks to Stormfront, he protects and cares for Ryan, after having previously seen him as nothing more than a "Supe freak".]] Season 3 shows how far he has come -- he forgoes giving Termite a VigilanteExecution so that the Supe can face justice for his crimes, and [[spoiler:is trying to be a father to Ryan, even if he can only visit the boy sparingly. And while he is willing to use V-24 to gain powers and level the playing field with the Supes, he seems to genuinely realize he might be crossing a line doing so and is trying to fight it. Season 3 makes it clear that while Butcher is willing to give his life for the sake of vengeance, he will not sacrifice his teammates (or at least not Hughie)]]. |
| 248 | * TragicKeepsake: Becca's St. Christopher medallion. He then passes this onto her son Ryan. |
| 249 | * TranquilFury: A very chilling example in the season 2 finale. After Becca is accidentally killed when Ryan awakens his EyeBeams and shoots Stormfront, Billy brandishes a very gruesome expression while grasping for his crowbar only barley containing his rage with the possible intent to murder whoever is in the vicinity until Homelander appears and barley says a word while carrying Ryan away . |
| 250 | * TrespassingToTalk: Billy likes to surprise people this way. |
| 251 | ** First he sneaks into the house of his former associate Susan Reynor and waits in the middle of the night for her to return only to scare the hell out of her when she does. |
| 252 | ** In the showdown of season 1, he does the same with Stillwell at her home, having to incapacitate the nanny in the process. |
| 253 | ** He hides in Grace Mallory's car, and later [[spoiler:Becca's]] car--the latter is justified as security cameras are all over the place, so he gets her to drive somewhere they're not. |
| 254 | * TheUnfettered: In Season 3, Butcher decides to cross any line possible to kill Homelander and there is the possibility he will not stop with him, as Mallory points out. Consumes V compound to "level the playing field" for once, drugs M.M., knowing his partner may try to stop him and offers Crimson Countess on a silver plate to [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded Soldier Boy]] who kills her, and strikes a deal with him]]. |
| 255 | * TurnOutLikeHisFather: As revealed in a [[spoiler:Mindstorm-induced]] nightmare, this is Billy's greatest fear -- that he'll end up an abusive {{Jerkass}} just like his father, who abused Butcher and his brother Lenny for most of their lives, to the point that [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide Lenny killed himself to escape it]]]]. Butcher seems set to go down this road for most of season 2, but the finale sees him finally see the light and take steps to become a better person. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the events of season 3 (learning that his new boss is a Supe in Vought's pocket, taking V-24 to try and gain the power to kill Homelander, and Homelander's gradual erosion of sanity) see him take a nosedive and become even more like his old man]]. |
| 256 | * UnknownRival: He hates Homelander with a bitter passion for raping his wife. Homelander doesn't even know who he is without some detective work. [[spoiler:When the two finally meet, Homelander admits he's impressed by Billy's lack of fear, but he still refuses to take him seriously and spares him from death because he finds it more amusing to keep him alive for emotional torment. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] as of the season 2 finale, as now that Billy has separated Homelander from Ryan, Homelander hates him just as much as Billy hates Homelander]]. |
| 257 | * VerbalTic: "Oi." |
| 258 | * VigilanteMan: Just as much as his [[Characters/MarvelComicsFrankCastle inspiration]], which resulted in getting him and the Boys accused of being terrorists by the end of Season 1. |
| 259 | * VillainKiller: He's killed onscreen multiple Vought mercenaries, Supes like Mesmer and Translucent and Russian mobsters. |
| 260 | * VillainRespect: Butcher is the person to whom Homelander shows the most respect, other than Stan Edgar, because they are the only people in the series who are not afraid of him. Homelander even waits to be invited into Butcher's home, rather than simply entering the way he did with Neuman, and lets Butcher openly insult him. |
| 261 | * WeakButSkilled: He's an unpowered human but his extensive combat experience and military training as well as his intellect let him get by when facing supes. [[spoiler:When he fights Homelander while using V-24, he has a noticeable advantage with his skills along with his powers, compared to Homelander, who didn't need to ever train himself beyond "hit the thing, kill the thing."]] |
| 262 | * WhatTheHellHero: He gets one of these each times he pulls a dickwad move for the sake of vengeance against Supes, which is pretty often. It takes a long time but eventually they starting hitting home. |
| 263 | * WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: His philosophy is "[w]ith great power comes the absolute certainty that you'll turn into a right cunt". |
| 264 | * WouldHurtAChild: |
| 265 | ** After using the Laser Baby to kill some Vought guards, Billy quips to the child that he will come kill him later if it doesn't keep his nose clean. |
| 266 | ** When Butcher decides to detonate the explosives even after [[spoiler:Stillwell's death, knowing full well that Stillwell's baby is nearby and definitely within the blast radius.]] Season 2 confirms that Homelander saved him, though Billy didn't expect him to and was willing to write it off as collateral in his AttemptedSuicide middle finger to Homelander. |
| 267 | ** Narrowly {{Averted}} in the Season 2 finale. Billy's expression when he tells [[spoiler:Becca]] that he would save and help hide [[spoiler:Ryan]] clearly clues her into the fact that Billy would immediately begin plotting to get rid of him somehow. Sure enough, [[spoiler:shortly after he promises Becca that he would keep Ryan safe and let him know that her death wasn't his fault, he picks up a crowbar and looks at Ryan with a murderous DeathGlare.]] He is interrupted by [[spoiler:Homelander, whose arrival makes Ryan choose Butcher as his protector,]] snapping him out of his rage and refusing to let [[spoiler:Homelander]] take him. |
| 268 | * YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: He's very unhappy when his father starts praising him for choosing to "swim" in a sink-or-swim world, especially when Sam starts unfavorably comparing Lenny to him. Even Billy attacking his father only results in the old bastard smiling, vindicated that his efforts in turning his son into a "monster" were successful. |
| 269 | * YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:By the Season 3 finale, Butcher's overuse of V24 shortened his remaining lifespan to only around 12 to 18 months.]] |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:Hughie Campbell]] |
| 273 | !!Hugh "Hughie" Campbell Jr. |
| 274 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboyshughhughiecampbellseason2.png]] |
| 275 | [[caption-width-right:300:''"If we're ever going to win against monsters, we need to start acting human."'']] |
| 276 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/JackQuaid |
| 277 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Jun'ya Hirano (Japanese) |
| 278 | |
| 279 | ->''"You know, I managed to go my whole life without seeing someone die horribly, and now I’m up to about a half dozen, so I think I’m good."'' |
| 280 | |
| 281 | Originally a rather ordinary 20-something clerk at an electronics appliance store, the death of his girlfriend, Robin, at the hands of a superhero puts him on the path to join The Boys. He's the main protagonist and POV character of the series. |
| 282 | ---- |
| 283 | * AccuserOfTheBrethren: Becomes this for the first part of the second season, being the only one not trusting Billy after his return. He changes his mind when Billy makes a huge sacrifice to save Hughie's life. |
| 284 | * ActionSurvivor: He's a normal tech guy whose life got turned upside down by Supes. Now he fights back against those powerful beings with the Boys. |
| 285 | * AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Hughie’s childhood in the comic was described as semi-idyllic, while here he was raised by an overprotective father and his mom abandoned him. |
| 286 | * AdaptationalAttractiveness: Comic Hughie was modeled after Creator/SimonPegg, who is certainly not ugly but definitely not a conventional Hollywood hunk type. Jack Quaid, meanwhile, is much easier on the eyes. |
| 287 | * AdaptationalIntelligence: His comic counterpart is TheEveryman. He's technically savvy on the show and generally much more capable. He's also a fan of superheroes, whereas his comic counterpart was barely even aware they existed until one killed his girlfriend. |
| 288 | * AdaptationalNationality: Scottish in the comics, American in the show. |
| 289 | * AdaptationalWimp: In the comics, Hughie is injected with Compound V early on and gains superhuman strength and durability. However, in the show, he remains completely powerless (since Compound V in the show has to be delivered to the recipient at birth) and lacks any combat experience whatsoever. This changes somewhat in season 3 when he takes V-24, giving him temporary powers and an ego boost. |
| 290 | * AgeLift: Comic Hughie is based on Simon Pegg, looking in his late 30s/early 40s. Hughie in the show appears to be around his 20s, and the youngest of the group. |
| 291 | * AllForNothing: [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] by himself even. [[spoiler: After discovering that Neuman was working for Vought the entire time- essentially only going after small-time heroes to create the illusion of progress while still allowing the big timers to perpetuate the system- Hughie laments that he wasted an entire year working for her]]. |
| 292 | * AmazonChaser: A turning point in his first date with Starlight comes when he tells her to stop pretending she's worse than him at bowling, and to stop trying to soft-pedal the fact that she can trivially outclass him physically. When she starts fully acknowledging her strength (and bowling skill, immediately bowling a strike) and asks if it bothers him that she could easily bench-press him, he seems more turned on than anything else. |
| 293 | ** In Season 3 Hughie eventually tells Starlight that he does in fact feel emasculated by her. It's worth noting that he was using V at the time - which is implied to be corrupting him - so his actual intent isn't 100% clear. |
| 294 | ** Besides this, he also shows signs of having some kind of attachment disorder, most likely due to both his mother abandoning him and Robin’s death. Butcher points out how he tends to cling to people, and Starlight even questions why he is so forgiving of her and of Butcher in situations where he has every right to give up on them. [[UndyingLoyalty He just says that he never would.]] In the season 2 finale, he acknowledges how unhealthy this is and starts making efforts to stand on his own. |
| 295 | * AMFMCharacterization: His love of Music/BillyJoel and other old, white pop singers shows his dorky nature [[spoiler: and comes from his mother who walked out on him and his father in his childhood.]] |
| 296 | * ApologeticAttacker: When forced to shoot someone in self-defense he screams “Sorry! I’m sorry!” [[spoiler:Also, when he first uses Temp V and teleports over to a Russian soldier, he immediately apologizes to him after punching through his chest.]] |
| 297 | * AudienceSurrogate: Hughie is the audience POV character for entering the world of the series. |
| 298 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: He is the youngest member of the Boys and the least prepared. And despite being an adult, Hughie is called "kid" by Butcher and M.M. all the time and is even treated as such. [[spoiler:Season 3 shows that he's aware of this and resents it]]. |
| 299 | * BerserkButton: Demeaning him for his youthful looks by calling him a kid or a lad really gets under his skin. [[spoiler:Tellingly, Translucent patronising Hughie tilts him enough to detonate the bomb in the invisible superhero's arsehole.]] His father babying him his entire life seems to be the root cause of it. Threatening and or insulting his friends and family is also a good way to get on his bad side. |
| 300 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Hughie is a gentle and sensitive soul, but he can be ''scary'' when pushed far enough. |
| 301 | ** After appearing to let Translucent go, Hughie goes on [[spoiler:detonate the bomb that was shoved up into Translucent's anus]]. |
| 302 | ** He manages to be intimidating enough to blackmail Ezekiel even though the evidence was destroyed. |
| 303 | ** When A-Train [[spoiler:takes Hughie's dad hostage, Hughie walks into the trap and distracts him with Compound V long enough for Kimiko to get the drop on him. He also punches A-Train at Herogasm despite his sincere apology for accidentally killing Robin.]] |
| 304 | ** With Annie's help, he exposes the existence of Compound V, which causes more damage to Vought than any of the Boys' actions to date. |
| 305 | ** After Butcher punches him for interfering with his plan to get Becca back, Hughie punches him back in the face later when he tries to apologize. |
| 306 | ** When Homelander asks if Starlight is "a good fuck", [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu he actually gets in Homelander's face.]] Even Homelander is slightly taken aback by this. |
| 307 | ** [[spoiler:When he's dosed with V24, he not only gets the prerequisite SuperStrength and [[MadeOfIron endurance]], he gains [[TeleportSpam teleportation powers]]. When Butcher and Hughie team up with Soldier Boy to take on Homelander, the latter can't even touch him in a straight fight, and Hughie has no issue helping pin him down.]] |
| 308 | * BloodSplatteredInnocents: Happens to him twice in the first two episodes, first when A-Train pulverizes Robin right in front of him, marking his loss of innocence, and second when [[spoiler:he blows up Transluscent]], marking his transition into a hardened killer. In Season 2 when he gets rammed inside a whale and covered in its guts, [[HeroicBSOD he just shuts down completely]] and has to be coaxed into running for his life. |
| 309 | * BrokenPedestal: Toward A-Train. As it turns out, Hughie was a massive fanboy. Then A-Train casually ran ''[[LudicrousGibs through]]'' Robin and never even fully acknowledged the fact. ''Then'' he personally belittled Hughie, openly mocking the irony of facing a fanboy. There is a chance Hughie might have taken Robin's death differently had it not been caused by his personal idol. |
| 310 | ** In Season 3, he becomes the BrokenPedestal to M.M. and Annie for taking V-24, when he was supposed to be the MoralityPet for everyone. |
| 311 | ** The pedestal Annie put him on breaks even further when he stops her from trying to stop Soldier Boy from killing the TNT Twins and then tells her that it does actually bother him that she is so much stronger than him. |
| 312 | * CallToAdventure: A darker take on the trope. Butcher is the one who introduces Hughie, a LoserProtagonist, into the mad war between psychotic supes and crazy vigilantes. |
| 313 | -->'''Butcher:''' This is your only one and only, mate. Once I go, I'm gone. I am offering you the opportunity to get them that got your girl. What have you got to lose, that you ain't already lost? |
| 314 | * CelebrityParadox: He references ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' in Season 2. His actor played Marvel, a tribute in its first two films. |
| 315 | * ChickMagnet: Downplayed; Besides dating Robin and Starlight, he noticeably catches the attention of Cherie, who admires and touches his face when seeing him for the first time. Maeve also makes odd sexual comments about Hughie when she's introduced to him by Starlight (although this was said in a snarky tone). [[spoiler:A woman at Herogasm also perks up when he teleports in completely nude.]] |
| 316 | * ComboPlatterPowers: V-24 grants Hughie teleportation, Super Strength and a HealingFactor. |
| 317 | * ComingOfAgeStory: The late bloomer variety. Hughie is mentally a child as he's still treated like one, holds onto his childhood with both hands, and is shown to be living a stagnant lifestyle while with his girlfriend, Robin, who had to ask him out on a first date because he never took the initiative to do so. After Robin is killed, Hughie's mundane life is pulled from under his feet and he tumbles down to adulthood when he experiences injustice for the first time when A-Train doesn't get any punishment for Robin's death and Hughie realizes that his own father can't provide the closure he's looking for. When Hughie kills Translucent, it signifies the [[BreakTheCutie loss of his innocence]]. But it doesn't make him feel like an adult, instead leaving him with severe [=PTSD=] that only gets worse in season 2. His relationship with Annie has him slowly growing more mature as he starts taking the initiative and shedding his naivete while still maintaining his optimistic determination. |
| 318 | * CommonalityConnection: [[spoiler:Due to him [[TookALevlInCynic Taking A Level In Cynic]] in Season 3, he's the only one in the group to see past Butcher's JerkassFacade and see his intentions behind things like [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim accusing Ryan of causing Becca's death to keep him from getting involved]], whereas the others seem quick to assume it's just Butcher being Butcher, albeit to a greater degree. While Butcher seems appreciative, he has clear reservations with Hughie wanting to take V24 and doing so behind his back.]] |
| 319 | * DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:What Hughie temporarily becomes after Butcher kills Lucy and the Boys are forced to flee into the sewers. He’s completely numb to the possibility of dying at the hands of the Seven. When Homelander sees him and threatens to kill both Hughie and Annie, if the latter doesn’t kill Hughie first, Hughie outright (albeit wordlessly) tells her to kill him. It’s Hughie’s look of relief at that moment that sells it.]] |
| 320 | * DeliberateInjuryGambit: [[spoiler: In order to continue working with the Boys without arousing Neuman's suspicion about his absence from work, he has Kimiko break his arm to give him a more legitimate reason for not showing up than being sick.]] |
| 321 | * DieChairDie: Hughie has a moment of weakness where he trashes his room after [[spoiler:killing Translucent]]. |
| 322 | * DrunkOnTheDarkSide: [[spoiler:Hughie is initially okay with Annie being a Supe and was capable of holding his own but once he starts taking V-24 and using his own power of teleportation, he begins to feel insecure about himself and resents how he's always the one in need of saving as Annie and the Boys have to pull him out of danger. The fact that he's constantly around Soldier Boy, a hypermasculine sociopath with an obsession with having sex with women and using penises as a metaphor, and Billy Butcher, a tough guy who refuses to show any form of vulnerability, mean Hughie starts taking influence from them.]] |
| 323 | * EvenTheGuysWantHim: Frenchie kissed his lips after [[spoiler:he and Annie exposed the truth about Compound V to the public]]. Later on, a man at Herogasm asks Hughie if he would like to participate in an act involving his anus, to which he politely declines. |
| 324 | * ExtremeDoormat: He is repeatedly called out for being one in Episode 1. By Robin, who had to ask ''him'' out on a first date, by his father, and by Butcher. This changes with time. |
| 325 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 326 | ** To Billy. Both Hughie and Billy are set on the path of revenge because they lost the women they loved to a superhero, and Billy seems to view Hughie as a younger, more naïve version of himself in a way. However, the big difference between them is that Hughie eventually comes to realize that [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty getting revenge on A-Train won't bring Robin back or solve any of his problems]] and he needs to move forward with his life, whilst Billy is still completely devoted to taking down the supes to the point that it's consumed him. Ironically, the two end up inverting their previous dynamic come Season 3 -- [[spoiler:due to trying to be a father figure to Ryan, Butcher has mellowed out and become less willing to cross lines to take down Supes, while Hughie becomes ''more'' willing to engage in questionable tactics after learning that Victoria Neuman, his boss, is a Supe, meaning that his efforts to police Supes legitimately while working under her were AllForNothing]]. |
| 327 | ** To A-Train. Hughie is a working-class tech store salesman, while A-Train is a famous super-athlete. Both men have killed people, but while A-Train put the blame on his victim to rationalize his kill (presumably because this is something he's likely to do again), Hughie came to terms with what he did and avoids killing anyone else. Both also have super girlfriends, but while A-Train hides his relationship with Popclaw out of cowardice and yields to Vought’s demands about their love, Hughie isn't the least bit ashamed of dating Starlight and furiously goes against Butcher for threatening her. [[spoiler:Also, while both have had moments of impairment due to being high on Compound V/V-24, Hughie retains better control of his faculties, and while Hughie does punch A-Train while the latter is offering a sincere apology for Robin's death, Hughie is still cognizant despite the high and refuses to go any further than a punch. Hughie's teleportation ability also makes him essentially an upgraded version of A-Train's speedster gimmick. Additionally, while A-Train is a complete kiss-up to Homelander, Hughie will challenge Butcher when the latter goes too far. Tellingly, A-Train later becomes TheChewToy for Homelander while Hughie is Butcher's MoralityPet]]. |
| 328 | ** To Homelander. Hughie is physically the least formidable of the Boys, Homelander is the most powerful member of the Seven. Homelander is mentally unstable and overcompensates for his insecurities with a God Complex; Hughie is insecure about his lack of physical abilities but remains humble and is very mentally resilient. Homelander is very charismatic, Hughie is socially awkward (though he becomes less awkward as the series goes on). Homelander is a selfish and violent psychopath who doesn't care who he hurts; Hughie is a compassionate and gentle soul that hates hurting people and feels immense guilt when he does, but will sacrifice himself to save his friends if need be. Both also have childlike qualities to them despite being adult men but Hughie's immature traits are simply an aversion to change, being overly submissive and insecure, flaws he honestly tries to work past and his friends and Starlight encourage him to do so. Homelander's flaws are [[PsychopathicManchild his petty sadism and ego]] and he has no intention of ever changing and terrifies others into enabling his worst impulses. Both also yearn for a mother that was absent during their childhood. |
| 329 | * ForgivenButNotForgotten: [[spoiler:While they're able to make up and even team up to expose Compound V to the public to get at Vought, Starlight hasn't completely forgiven him for lying to her about her involvement with The Boys and killing Translucent, and has a tendency to sneak in jabs at him for it.]] |
| 330 | * FreakOut: He's prone to anxiety attacks. |
| 331 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: To Vaught. He was just an IT guy working a deadend job and they thought they could just buy him off like they do everyone else their [[VillainsWithGoodPublicity "Heroes"]] hurt. They were wrong. |
| 332 | * FunTShirt: Prone to wearing band t-shirts, such as those of Van Halen and The Ramones. |
| 333 | * GuileHero: Hughie's biggest asset is his brain, as a NonActionGuy, he is better at coming up with plans. In Season 1, he intentionally gets himself caught by Vought to save Kimiko, MM, and Frenchie who are imprisoned, and he did it by hiding a picklock inside his braces. He knew that Frenchie can open everything even with an impromptu picklock. |
| 334 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 335 | ** He is quite shocked at himself after [[spoiler:killing Translucent]] and all he does is stare at the blood in the tub while washing himself. |
| 336 | --->'''Frenchie:''' You are, perhaps... in a state of shock, mon ami. |
| 337 | ** [[spoiler:Suffers one after Butcher drives the speedboat into Lucy the whale, with Hughie becoming semi-catatonic and almost unresponsive to the team, even being okay with Homelander nearly forcing Starlight to kill him.]] |
| 338 | * HiddenDepths: |
| 339 | ** At the very beginning of the series he seems like just a meek, below average guy. Even his own father thinks he doesn't have it in him to fight a Goliath like Vaught. Turns out he was masking a temper and a steel backbone just waiting to be triggered. |
| 340 | ** [[spoiler:"Herogasm" reveals that he absolutely ''hates'' being the one who needs to be saved due to his lack of powers or combat skills and that he took V-24 because he wanted to be stronger. He also apparently has a lot of repressed rage after years of being bullied as a kid]]. |
| 341 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Hughie is a man who intentionally participates in murder or torture with the intention of getting to A-Train who, while [[ButForMeItWasTuesday completely flippant]] about the affair, didn’t ''mean'' to kill Robin. [[HypocrisyNod To his credit, Hughie realizes the contradiction between his values and actions, and decides to not to go down the path of vengeance like Billy.]] |
| 342 | * ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: He knows full well that a celebrity superhero like Starlight is way out of his league. When Homelander pressures Starlight into being his onscreen girlfriend, Hughie is understandably agitated by the influx of memes calling him a cuck. |
| 343 | * InLoveWithTheMark: His initial interactions with Starlight are before he knows she's the new member of the Seven, but once he finds out who she is, he agrees to exploit his connection with her to help the Boys gain information to use. Despite this, he is reluctant to abuse her trust and develops genuine feelings for her. |
| 344 | * InsecureLoveInterest: [[spoiler: While he and Starlight are enjoying a happy relationship in Season 3, it's evident that he's slightly insecure about how much more capable she is compared to him and that her ex-boyfriend, who's applying to join The Seven and therefore in close proximity of her, is a former boy band star on top of being a superhero. This gets worse when he learns that Neuman's the Head Popper, as it fuels his sense of inferiority due to the belief that he fucked up by not noticing sooner and that, unlike Starlight's attempts at internal reform and saving lives, his work was effectively AllForNothing. "Herogasm" also reveals that he hates how he constantly needs to be saved and is bothered by Annie being stronger than him due to her powers.]] |
| 345 | * KarmicJackpot: Hughie would choose to save A-Train's life, who would later return the favor in Season 2 by helping him expose Stormfront's past as a Nazi, thus destroying her reputation and giving Hughie and the Boys a win against Vought. |
| 346 | * TheLancer: Delves fully into this role in Season 2 when he finds himself in the position of being the only one questioning what Butcher is up to. |
| 347 | * LetsGetDangerous: Considering that he's pretty unremarkable as a person and is the only member of the titular team that has no special training or experience in the field of wetwork, he's surprisingly competent and an unexpected threat against the Seven. [[spoiler:He's also the only member of the Boys who has killed a member of the Seven.]] |
| 348 | * LivingEmotionalCrutch: To Butcher. Butcher struggles with a large amount of self-hatred that outright turns to DeathSeeker tendencies a few times. Hughie's support of Butcher and his resemblance to Butcher's late brother eventually led to Butcher going out of his way to keep Hughie safe. The resemblance to Lenny (Billy's brother) in particular makes Butcher view him as ReplacementGoldfish for Lenny. |
| 349 | * LoserProtagonist: Fully deconstructed in Season 3. After being constantly seen as the scrawny guy, Hughie couldn't handle anymore the idea of being a regular person in a world of supes, until he was finally given a dose of Temp-V. Of course, he enjoys feeling powerful and manly. But this means also taking a few amoral decisions which nearly destroy his relationship with Annie. |
| 350 | * MissionControl: Subverted. He initially ''thinks'' he's going to help the team this way due to his tech skills, but Butcher gives him espionage missions, much to Hughie's fear and dismay. |
| 351 | * MissingMom: Hughie's mother doesn't appear to be in the picture, given his dad's prominent presence. Late in Season 2, it’s revealed that she left when Hughie was six years old. |
| 352 | * MoralityPet: As much as Butcher hates to admit it, Hughie is this to him, and to a greater extent stops the team from going too far. [[spoiler:Becca and Judy remark how much Hughie reminds them of Lenny, Butcher's younger brother who ended up taking his own life.]] |
| 353 | * {{Motifs}}: Infancy and childhood. Hughie is still treated like a child by his father and by his friends. His dad calls a pediatrician so Hughie can take grief counselling, it's a poster of a baby that pushes him to [[spoiler:kill a Supe for the first time]], and Annie states that Hughie still uses children's shampoo.[[spoiler: It's implied he's attached to this motif because of his MissingMom who left when he was six, and that he holds onto people and certain beliefs out of fear.]] |
| 354 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Hughie has this reaction upon discovering [[spoiler:that Translucent has a son and he left the boy fatherless.]] |
| 355 | * NakedPeopleAreFunny: Hughie's superpower turns out to be teleportation, but it only works on living organisms. Every time he uses his power Hughie ends up naked. As does anyone who he teleports with him. |
| 356 | * NiceGuy: Aside from his rage against A-Train getting away with killing Robin, Hughie doesn't seem to hold any bitterness towards supes. He plays the good cop when they capture Translucent and [[spoiler:resuscitates A-Train when his heart stops]]. He is also one of the first people to show real kindness to Annie and treat her as a person rather than a prop. |
| 357 | * NonActionGuy: He is the only major character with no special ability or fighting skills. |
| 358 | * NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: {{Zig Zagged|Trope}}. In Season 1, he tells Annie to stop pretending she's bad at bowling (she doesn't want to show him up precisely because she believes in this trope), and she's relieved that he's not threatened by her physical superiority to him. However, [[spoiler:Season 3 reveals that Hughie ''is'' bothered by how much stronger she is than him - as in, strong enough to easily lift cars and break stone walls. This is one of several factors that lead him to take Temp V, and when he reveals this to Starlight, it forms a wedge between them]]. |
| 359 | * NoRespectGuy: Almost every person he meets after joining the Boys, from Homelander to ''Annie's mom'' dismisses him off the bat and/or mocks him to his face. Justified as he's a normal jittery 20-something in a crew of hardened badasses and his tech skills [[CripplingOverspecialization aren't really relevant]] as much as he might like. |
| 360 | * NotQuiteTheRightThing: By the end of Season 2, [[spoiler:he intends on trying to fight against Vought and Supes in a more legitimate method, helping politician Victoria Neuman with her anti-Vought campaign rather than as a VigilanteMan. Unfortunately, he doesn't know that she's the head-exploding Supe seeking to take a foothold in the government.]] |
| 361 | * NotSoSimilar: Like Butcher, he lost his lover to a Supe and starts walking down the path to vengeance for it. However, Starlight's influence convinces him not all Supes are bad and makes him reconsider what he really values in life. Butcher was not as lucky since he had no one but Mallory, who had fed his hatred for her own agenda. [[spoiler:Season 2 cements it as while Hughie was always known to be kind, Butcher is revealed to be violent at heart.]] |
| 362 | * OneHeadTaller: At 6 feet tall, he's almost a head taller than his lover, 5'6" Annie January/Starlight. It's more noticeable when she's not in her costume, which includes high heels. |
| 363 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[spoiler:It's evident that Hughie is suffering a bit of a power high after taking V24. Not only does he seem much more ecstatic at having killed a man than he would have normally, but he displays little to no concern when Kimiko is injured and has her HealingFactor [[PowerNullifier nullified]], choosing to admire his empowered arm while Frenchie and MM struggle to keep her alive.]] |
| 364 | * PersonalityPower: [[spoiler: While under V-24, Hughie gains the power to teleport, which reflects Hughie's desire to avoid trouble and escape from The Boys so he can legally hold Vought accountable for their actions.]] |
| 365 | * PowerHigh: After consuming V-24, Hughie becomes high, and when Annie learns from him what he consumed, Hughie acknowledges he enjoyed the power and the confidence it came with temporarily being a Supe. |
| 366 | * RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler:He eventually gets fed up with the Supes walking around like untouchable gods when Translucent tries talking down to him smug as ever, driving Hughie to kill him in a fit of rage.]] |
| 367 | * RejectedApology: A-Train finally apologizes sincerely to Hughie about Robin in "Herogasm". Not in the mood to forgive anyone due to the corrupting influence of the V in his system, Hughie's response is to punch A-Train in the face. A-Train doesn't even seem angry, more shocked that Hughie, who unbeknownst to him is on Temp V, could hit hard enough to stagger him. |
| 368 | * RunningGag: Hughie is regularly the butt of jokes about being scrawny. |
| 369 | ** Hardly an episode goes by that doesn't feature Hughie being ''soaked'' with blood and guts. |
| 370 | * SexualKarma: [[spoiler: In stark contrast to everyone else, his sexual relationship with Annie is wholesome and mutually pleasurable]]. |
| 371 | * SociallyAwkwardHero: Hughie completely freezes whenever Butcher sends him on a mission involving socializing. When he sent to implant a bug in the Vought building, Butcher had to give him a speech about RedPillBluePill to convince him. Yet when he killed Translucent, he felt powerful, not afraid. |
| 372 | * SupportingProtagonist: While Hughie is indeed TheProtagonist, the main plot is rather about Butcher's war with Homelander. |
| 373 | * TookALevelInBadass: He starts off as a normal and unassuming guy with a rather meek personality, but then Robin is killed and Hughie sets off on a path covered in blood. |
| 374 | * TookALevelInCynic: [[spoiler: After learning that Neuman is both a supe and Stan Edgar's unofficially adopted daughter, Hughie declares that the year he spent working for the government under her was a waste, and that Butcher's extreme methods were right. Notably, he's so broken by this revelation that he's the ''only'' member of the team besides Butcher to take V-24 and gain powers, and actually ''steals a vial from Butcher to do so''. Understandably, the rest of the team is ashamed of him for doing so.]] |
| 375 | * UglyGuyHotWife: Downplayed. Hughie is comely, but he is constantly referred as skinny and a twink, while Starlight is the most fanserviced female character in the show and has plenty of suitors. Maeve even makes fun of her for dating Hughie because he looks to her like someone asking to be the "dog rawed". |
| 376 | * TheUnfettered: Hughie himself starts to go down the spiral in Season 3. He is ready to do "whatever it takes" to stop Homelander and keep Starlight safe. His desire to walk over every moral boundary comes from his own insecurity and helplessness of not being man enough for Annie. |
| 377 | * UnlikelyHero: Hughie's ordinariness contrasts sharply with the other members of The Boys and the Supers, especially early on. |
| 378 | * UnwittingPawn: In the first episode, Butcher manipulates him into planting a bug in The Seven's headquarters, under the guise of an official FBI investigation. Once Hughie has outlived his usefulness, Butcher is fully prepared to fob him off, but fortunately changes his mind and comes back in time to save Hughie from Translucent. ''Unfortunately'' there's the slight matter of Butcher not actually being a federal agent... |
| 379 | * WhatYouAreInTheDark: |
| 380 | ** When in the middle of an attempt to kill Hughie, A-Train has a heart attack. It takes Hughie a grand total of ''two seconds'' to start performing CPR and making Annie call for an ambulance. |
| 381 | ** [[spoiler:During "Herogasm", he admits to Annie that he took V-24 because he resents being in constant need of saving, which puts a temporary dent in their relationship]]. |
| 382 | ** [[spoiler: During the fight at the end of "The Instant White-Hot Wild", Hughie chooses not to take [=V24=] again, and instead helps give Annie an electricity boost so she can stun Soldier Boy.]] |
| 383 | * WideEyedIdealist: A more downplayed example - compared to the others, Hughie is the least cynical character in the whole series. While the other Boys, Billy especially, are jaded and cynical, Hughie is optimistic and determined, and while he is a bit naive at times, he learns to shed it pretty quickly. |
| 384 | * WorkplaceAcquiredAbilities: His job in a tech store proves useful a number of times: |
| 385 | ** He knows carbon is a conductor [[spoiler:and therefore that Translucent is vulnerable to electric shocks]]. |
| 386 | ** He knows how to use RF shielding foil to cloak a tracking device. |
| 387 | ** He knows how to quickly install malware onto someone's computer to remotely access their webcam or clone their hard drive. |
| 388 | ** He knows the procedure to use burner phones and instructs it to [[spoiler:Annie]] whenever they need to communicate in Season 2. |
| 389 | [[/folder]] |
| 390 | |
| 391 | [[folder:Mother's Milk]] |
| 392 | !!Mother's Milk/Marvin T. Milk |
| 393 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboysmothersmilkseason2.png]] |
| 394 | [[caption-width-right:300:''"Sometimes you get further with people by treating them like people."'']] |
| 395 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/LazAlonso |
| 396 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Kensuke Ota (Japanese) |
| 397 | |
| 398 | ->''"If I'm gonna make a difference, I just feel more comfortable doing it on a smaller scale. I'm a motherfucker with a heart."'' |
| 399 | |
| 400 | A family man who works at a juvenile corrections facility, Mother’s Milk has medical skills and often serves as a voice of reason. |
| 401 | ---- |
| 402 | * ActionDad: He has a daughter named Janine, and makes it clear that he wants to prioritize her and her safety over Billy's crusade. |
| 403 | * AdaptationalAngstDowngrade: |
| 404 | ** His family situation is much better than in the comic, where he is divorced and his ex-wife is a drug addict, while his daughter is involved with many unsavory things. |
| 405 | ** Since this version of Mother's Milk never took Compound V, he lacks the dependency his comic counterpart did. In the comics, he also had a brother with a mental handicap, who died when the Compound V in his system activated while he was wearing a helmet, causing his father to die of grief and stress. In the show, M.M.'s father is said to have believed in justice and wanted Vought to face the consequences of their actions because he believed nobody should be above the law. [[spoiler: His father still worked himself to death and M.M suffered another personal tragedy when his grandad was unwittingly killed by Soldier Boy, something M.M. blamed himself for because he was the one who woke up his granddad to watch Soldier Boy in the first place.]] |
| 406 | * AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Is much more irritable and prone to snapping at his teammates, though not quite to Jerkass levels. |
| 407 | * AdaptationNameChange: In the comics, his real name was Baron Wallis, and "Mother's Milk" was a reference to his dependency on drinking his mother's Compound V-infused breast milk to stay alive. |
| 408 | * AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the comics, Mother's Milk got his nickname because he inherited Compound V from his mother and needs to keep drinking her breast milk to survive. But since he never took Compound V in the show, that aspect of his character is removed despite keeping his nickname due to serving as the TeamMom. |
| 409 | * AdaptationOriginConnection: [[spoiler: Soldier Boy killed his grandad by throwing a car through his house, something M.M. blamed himself for and developed Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder through his trauma.]] |
| 410 | * AlliterativeName: '''M'''arvin '''M'''ilk. |
| 411 | * AMFMCharacterization: Enjoys older hip-hop acts like Music/RunDMC and Music/{{NWA}}, tying into his childhood in Harlem. |
| 412 | * ArtisticLicenseMilitary: He's at various points described as an ex-Marine, and an ex-medic. There is simply no such thing as a Marine medic, and the role that would entail is instead fulfilled by ''Navy'' Hospital Corpsmen. |
| 413 | * AwesomenessByAnalysis: He's able to determine the backgrounds of the clothes and other physical traits of Kenji's using only the distant footage of a security camera, such as how he's wearing knock-offs from Taiwan. It's enough detail for Raynor to come to a serious conclusion. |
| 414 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Aside from Hughie, he's normally the most kind-hearted of The Boys. But he is also a highly trained Marine and full-blown PapaWolf who will not hesitate to kick ass if needed. |
| 415 | * BondingOverMissingParents: He and Annie bond for the first time over fathers and sugar. |
| 416 | * BluntNo: He has this reaction to Butcher coming to 'visit' him after several years. He is not pleased at all, and knows that Butcher means trouble. |
| 417 | -->'''M.M.:''' Oh, hell no! The fuck do you want? |
| 418 | * BrickJoke: In Season 2, MM gets strangled by Love Sausage's PrehensileTail at Sage Grove. In Season 3, when they meet again at Herogasm, Love Sausage points out that MM seems familiar to him. |
| 419 | * BrokenPedestal: He was a fan of Soldier Boy as a kid, waking up his grandpa to have him watch Soldier Boy stopping car thieves. Then Soldier Boy tossed the car at his house hitting his grandpa directly and many other family members. |
| 420 | * TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: [[spoiler: Despite retiring from The Boys at the end of Season 2 and even taking medication to curb his desire for revenge, Billy visiting for info on Soldier Boy, who killed his family, compels Marvin to rejoin the group to get answers and closure.]] |
| 421 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: No wonder he is not too thrilled to work with Frenchie again, beside the Mallory incident. MM always has to make sure Frenchie follows the plan, argues with him over some crazy idea Frenchie may have and ends up in trouble regularly because of him. |
| 422 | -->'''Frenchie:''' Well, you know, in, uh, medieval times they locked prisoners inside a pillory barrel. Then they'd kneel in their own excrement 'till they got sepsis and died, so...\ |
| 423 | '''M.M. completely deadpan:''' Thank you, Frenchie, for that disgusting yet fascinating piece of trivia. |
| 424 | * CombatMedic: He mentions having been this. |
| 425 | * CoolShades: He wears his signature sunglasses from the comics. |
| 426 | * DeadpanSnarker: It's not like he has a choice when he has to put up with people like Butcher and Frenchie. |
| 427 | -->'''M.M.:''' So we got a French whore and a Steven fucking Hawking. Great job, Butcher. |
| 428 | * TheFettered: No matter what happens, there are lines MM will not cross. Even as Butcher goes further into morally gray zones, Marvin refuses to give up his morals. [[spoiler:This is {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in season 3, as Homelander's psychotic issues and, you know, ''being indestructible'' forces Butcher to start considering illegal means to take the Supe down because ''there is no legitimate way left to reign him in''. Marvin's fetters prevent him from following Butcher, and they end up getting further tested when Butcher recruits Soldier Boy to help take down Homelander, both because Soldier Boy appears to be a violent murderer and, more importantly, ''he killed MM's family''. This ends up being the last straw for Marvin, and he leaves the team after the debacle at Herogasm]]. |
| 429 | * FromCamouflageToCriminal: He's an ex-Marine. |
| 430 | * {{Foil}}: Billy chose M.M. for very good reasons to be his [[TheLancer Lancer]]. Billy is ex-SAS, while M.M. is an ex-US Marine. Butcher had an abusive father who pushed his younger brother to suicide, while M.M. had a strong bond with his father until an incident involving Soldier Boy. Both of them were married to wonderful women, but Becca died leaving her son with Homelander in Butcher's care, while M.M.'s wife moved on from him when he was considered a terrorist, but she is still alive and shares a daughter with MM. Marvin shares Billy's 'disease' to seek revenge and self-destruction. Monique knows he will not stop until he avenges his father, and much like Butcher, it will be death or victory. Both men worry about not passing their own shit into Janine and Ryan. Even so, M.M. manages to stay TheFettered, and is unwilling to cross the line, while Billy becomes TheUnfettered, dragging Hughie after him, while associating himself with Soldier Boy. Both Butcher and M.M. have similar archenemies: Homelander and Soldier Boy, who is seen as "the Homelander before Homelander". |
| 431 | * HappilyMarried: By all indications, he is a loving and dedicated family man, and the biggest problem he has with his wife is keeping her in the dark about working with The Boys. Even after she finds out, most of her anger is directed at Billy for dragging her husband into his crusade against his will. |
| 432 | * TheHeart: He shares this role with Hughie, and Butcher says that's why he was recruited in the past; he can hold the team together in a way Butcher can't. It's where he gets his nickname; Mother's Milk. |
| 433 | * HeroicBuild: While it's never brought up, Laz Alonso is ''ripped'', and the T-shirts he wears in character expose his massive biceps. While Milk abhors violence, he makes good use of that strength while carrying Kimiko to safety with the effort of holding up a pillow. |
| 434 | * HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Downplayed - his codename is Mother's Milk while his real name is Marvin Milk. |
| 435 | * HourglassPlot: For the first two seasons, MM wants to focus on holding Supes accountable for their crimes and allowing them to face justice, while Butcher is motivated by FantasticRacism and would gladly wipe out every Supe he could, with a particular interest in killing Homelander for raping his wife. [[spoiler:Season 3 has these positions reverse slightly, as while Billy does want to recruit the dangerous Soldier Boy to kill Homelander, he's moved past his need for vengeance and tempered his racism. MM, however, cannot forgive Soldier Boy for killing his family ''or'' drop the issue until a later date, and has a falling out with Butcher over the latter's hypocrisy]]. |
| 436 | * {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:For all that MM calls out Butcher on need for {{Revenge}} against Homelander, Marvin easily slips into RevengeBeforeReason when facing Soldier Boy, whose actions resulted in the death of several members of Marvin's family.]] |
| 437 | * JerkassBall: At the start of Season 2 he's a lot more aggressive and prone to threats, especially to Hughie. Admittedly, it's suggested that this is because the latter continues to suggest a return to the crusade that ruined MM's life. Once Hughie calls him out on his hostility, he returns to his normal gruff yet kind self. |
| 438 | * JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler: Like Butcher, he's vehemently against Hughie hooking up with Starlight. However, whereas with Butcher it's mostly due to FantasticRacism, Mother's Milk's main issue is that trying to maintain contact with her is extremely risky, since for all they know she could be loyal to Vought. While he still opposes it in Season 2, it's largely because that Vought picking up on their meetings and conversations could not only put The Boys in danger, but also paint a target on Starlight's back.]] |
| 439 | * KnockoutGas: Throws one to Soldier Boy, which doesn't work. |
| 440 | * TheLancer: He's essentially Billy's right-hand man, but is always the first to stand up to Billy if something goes wrong. |
| 441 | * MirrorCharacter: [[spoiler: M.M and Soldier Boy are very similar to each other but have key difference, both characters have served in the military and both have worked in team that mistreat them (Soldier Boy was betrayed and given to the Russians because they hated him, whereas, M.M works with Billy Butcher, who puts his vendetta against supes before everything else, drags M.M into his crusade, and then forms an alliance with M.M's sworn enemy, Soldier Boy). However, the difference between the two of them is their idea of masculinity; Soldier Boy is a hypermasculine frat boy who looks down on men who look after their family and is sexist towards women (even hitting on another woman in front of his girlfriend), whereas, M.M is not afraid to be affectionate with his family and will protect them by fighting with everything he has, and is shown treat women as equals and was devoted to Monique before their divorce. Even their names reflect this, Soldier ''Boy'' and ''Mother's'' Milk.]] |
| 442 | * MoralityPet: MM considers that his daughter was the only good thing he ever did in his life and tries to stay clean only for her. |
| 443 | * MyFavoriteShirt: He complains about when Termite slams into him and leaves a trace of vaginal fluids on his favorite jacket at 'Herogasm'. |
| 444 | * NiceGuy: Temper aside, he's a kind and caring man, and his day job involved working at a juvenile correctional facility aimed at helping lost young criminal boys improve their lives. |
| 445 | * NWordPrivileges: {{Defied|Trope}}. He works in a correctional facility and pointedly doesn't allow even his African-American charges to use the N-word. |
| 446 | -->'''M.M.:''' What else does it mean? Come on, spit it out.\ |
| 447 | '''Inmate:''' Means that we're disrespecting all the other niggas--\ |
| 448 | '''M.M.:''' Excuse ''me!?''\ |
| 449 | '''Inmate:''' All our fellow brothers in the unit. |
| 450 | * ObsessivelyOrganized: Frenchie points out that anything that's messed up, whether it be teens with no direction in life or the ice cream in a tub that's partly scooped out, ends up irking him something nasty, driving him to set those kids straight and ''finish that ice cream.'' This is how Frenchie gets him on board to help the mentally messed-up Kimiko. |
| 451 | * OddFriendship: He slowly builds up a friendship with Annie, culminating in them working together closely during Season 3. He is the one who calls her when Soldier Boy arrives at Crimson Countess' house, when not even Hughie didn't, and confessed to Annie what happened to his family because of Soldier Boy. They even go together at Herogasm to evacuate the people. |
| 452 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mother's Milk is always called this except once when his wife calls him Marvin. He's sometimes called MM for short. |
| 453 | * OnlySaneMan: For the boys, he is much CloserToEarth than any of them, and the only one with a proper job and not directly involved with gangsters or terrorists. |
| 454 | * OrderVersusChaos: He is a very orderly person that feels most comfortable when things are by-the-book and go according to plan. This puts him into constant conflict with Frenchie who is chaotic and impulsive. |
| 455 | * PragmaticHero: Sometimes, even MM will take decisions that would rather benefit himself, like refusing to release the female when he meets her first time. Hughie even points out he sounds like Butcher. |
| 456 | * PapaWolf: He's a loving family man and one of the most dangerous members of The Boys. His interactions with Starlight share a similar tone, as he tells her to wash her hands properly and glares at Hughie when [[RightThroughTheWall he and Starlight discover they woke M.M. up]]. |
| 457 | * RealMenWearPink: When the Boys are in hiding at the start of the second season, he passes his time by meticulously constructing a dollhouse. |
| 458 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He works at a juvenile facility where he regularly breaks up fights. He’s also the most moral member of the group next to Hughie. |
| 459 | * TheReliableOne: Next to Butcher (obsessive, not a people person), Frenchie (easily distracted), Hughie (naïve newcomer), and Kimiko (violent, mute, newcomer), MM is the rock that keeps the team together. |
| 460 | * ReligiousBruiser: He is an ex-Marine, and a good fighter who will instill the fear of God into anyone. |
| 461 | * RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:A big factor in why MM ultimately leaves the Boys -- his need for revenge against Soldier Boy drives a wedge between him and Butcher due to the latter wanting to use Soldier Boy to kill Homelander. While he has other reasons for no longer hanging around with Butcher, MM tries twice to take down Soldier Boy even when it is apparent he stands no chance against the Supe -- [[MirrorCharacter making him a lot like Billy was in the earlier seasons]].]] |
| 462 | * SarcasticDevotee: He always has negative feedback about Butcher's orders, argues with him about his plans and calls him out on constantly failing to keep his word about things being different. Not anyone can get away with calling Butcher a motherfucker and being dumber than he looks. MM is also TheReliableOne to Butcher to get things done in his absence. |
| 463 | * ScaryBlackMan: In his first scene, MM is introduced intimidating the inmates he is taking care of. He is otherwise the moral member of the group, besides Hughie. |
| 464 | * SemperFi: Butcher met MM when he was still a US Marine. |
| 465 | * SherlockScan: Even Butcher calls him "Sherlock fucking Homie" for discovering that Popclaw and A-Train consume Compound-V-like drugs after connecting the dots between Popclaw's fix kit and her telling A-Train that the V is dangerous. |
| 466 | * SickeninglySweethearts: With Monique, his wife, quite in contrast with his grouchy demeanor with the team. |
| 467 | * SmallStepsHero: After the incident with Mallory, MM is quite happy to make a difference on a smaller scale when Butcher tries to recruit him again. He works as a juvenile detention center counselor when he is first introduced and accepts Butcher's offer only after he learns they have a real chance this time to take the Seven down. |
| 468 | * SnarkToSnarkCombat: MM and Frenchie have a lot to say to each other all the time, whether is about Frenchie being a sex-crazed nutjob or about MM's mother and marriage. |
| 469 | * TeamMom: While Butcher is the team leader, Mother's Milk is the down-to-earth one keeping things together. In Season 3, Butcher tells M.M. the reason he was chosen for the team, was his ability to keep everyone together. Butcher knows that no matter how low he will go, M.M. will always be there to watch over the Boys and take good care of them. |
| 470 | * ThirdWheel: In Season 2, he intentionally tries to stop Hughie and Annie from getting back because he knows it could bring trouble. |
| 471 | * TokenReligiousTeammate: He’s an Episcopalian Christian, while Hughie is agnostic, Frenchie's and Kimiko's leanings are unknown, and Billy is not just an atheist but also a misotheist (actively hates God) if his "world heavyweight cunt" quip is anything to go off of. |
| 472 | * TrapMaster: Nails, ball bearings, electric wiring, pressurized, aerosol products, and a big can... this all MM needs to create booby traps in Judy's home to stop Black Noir. |
| 473 | * TwoferTokenMinority: While everyone in the team has a different ethnicity (except for Frenchie, who has multiple ethnicities), MM is the only one who is a Christian ([[spoiler:until Annie joins]]) and suffering from OCD. |
| 474 | * UnknownRival: To Soldier Boy. While M.M. considers Soldier Boy his personal nemesis for causing the death of his family, the hero barely registers him and just shrugs him off. |
| 475 | * WarriorTherapist: He can offer good advice about the kind of jobs the Boys do to new recruits like Hughie. He knows what it feels like and the price for it. |
| 476 | * WhatTheHellHero: Gives these speeches to other members of the team when necessary, like scolding Hughie for meeting up with [[spoiler:Starlight]] in spite of all of the risks now that he's a fugitive, or calling out Billy when his abusive treatment of Hughie negatively affects the latter's emotional well-being. |
| 477 | [[/folder]] |
| 478 | |
| 479 | [[folder:Frenchie]] |
| 480 | !!Frenchie / Serge |
| 481 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboysfrenchieseason2.png]] |
| 482 | [[caption-width-right:300:''"Life has always been hard, but I don’t remember it being quite this crude."'']] |
| 483 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/TomerCapone |
| 484 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Ryo Shimokawa (Japanese) |
| 485 | |
| 486 | ->''"I know a little about a lot of things. I'm a gunrunner by trade, but, as you can see, I've developed a certain niche."'' |
| 487 | |
| 488 | A French-born multi-talented criminal and former associate of Butcher who provides expertise on drugs, weapons, and break-ins. |
| 489 | ---- |
| 490 | * AbusiveParents: His dad kidnapped him as a young boy and was physically abusive, putting out cigarettes on his body. Frenchie also claims his father once tried to smother Frenchie with a ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' duvet when Frenchie was only 10. |
| 491 | * TheAce: Frenchie is talented at many kinds of criminal skills, whether it's producing drugs, smuggling weapons, breaking and entering, or lying to authorities. He's so good at the latter that he pretty flawlessly fools ''Homelander'', who is a LivingLieDetector due to his SuperSenses. |
| 492 | * AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: He was responsible for the death of Mallory's grandchildren, which has haunted him for years and caused a rift between him and MM, to say nothing of Mallory. |
| 493 | * AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Comic book Frenchie's backstory is of [[UnreliableNarrator dubious veracity]] [[note]]it involves [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext baguette jousting]][[/note]] but the only reliable fact is that he served in the French Foreign Legion. Serge on the show was and is a criminal, and even says the first person he killed was a woman in New York. |
| 494 | * AdaptationalNationality: In the comics, he was hinted to be a Brit who had an obsession with France. Here he is from Algeria, which as a former French colony has French as a common language. Although, season three implies [[spoiler: that he's actually Russian (or from another east Slavic country) since he has ties with TheMafiya and Little Nina claims that his real name is Sergei]]. |
| 495 | * AdaptationalPersonalityChange: In the comic, Frenchie is outright bonkers and strongly hinted to be a Brit (badly) pretending to be French. In the show, he has his eccentricities but overall is by all accounts sane. |
| 496 | * AmazonChaser: His taste in women seems to tend toward the violent. |
| 497 | * AmbiguouslyBi: He had a girlfriend/fling named Cherie, plenty of ShipTease with Kimiko, has kissed Hughie on the lips [[spoiler:when he and Starlight expose the truth about Compound V]] and in flashbacks of Season 2 of episode 6, he seemed to be as close to fallen friend Jay as he is to Cherie, and asked MM how he felt about transgender strippers for his bachelor party. When MM is horrified about [[ItMakesSenseInContext almost being strangled to death by a giant penis]], Frenchie's half-joking answer is for him "not to be so close-minded". |
| 498 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: When he and MM debate about the benefits of the marriage, he asks MM that if marriage is so pure, why is he lying so much to his wife about his real job. MM doesn't answer the question. |
| 499 | * ArmsDealer: Presumably a mix of the "Gangland Gun Runner" and "International Arms Merchant". He states he is a gunrunner for his trade; coming up with ways to fight supes is something he does in his downtime. |
| 500 | * TheAtoner: One of his conversations with Hughie implies that he feels quite guilty about his past as a hitman. He later tells Mother’s Milk that he feels Kimiko makes him a better person, implying this is part of his motivation for helping her. |
| 501 | * BoxedCrook: He was recruited from the police station after being arrested for a failed bank robbery. In a variant, his answer was refusal, but agreed when Mallory told him his accomplices would be spared as well. |
| 502 | * TheCasanova: |
| 503 | ** He claims to sleep with someone different every night when he's not busy being on the run. Considering that he brings this up with an argument with [[HappilyMarried M.M.]], he could just be trying to get under the latter's skin. |
| 504 | ** He's also ''devastated'' he didn't get to witness (or possibly participate in) Herogasm, and nearly everyone comments "Frenchie would be loving this." |
| 505 | * ClandestineChemist: Used his extensive knowledge in chemistry to back his criminal career prior to joining The Boys. It was usually to address the powers of supes instead of getting into the drug trade, but he still had the [[GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply attitude]] down pat. [[spoiler:Since The Boys have a more official government-backed position by Season 3, the "clandestine" part might not really apply anymore.]] |
| 506 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: There's something very ''off'' about Frenchie from his frighteningly lethal skillset to his attempts to befriend Hughie by telling him horrifying stories from his childhood. |
| 507 | * CloudCuckoolandersMinder: And yet, he serves as this temporarily to Kimiko as she learns to readjust to life outside of a cage, which is essentially like trying to control a feral child. |
| 508 | * CrazyPrepared: He's got at least 34 addresses and 12 aliases, and at least one location rigged to "burn" (read: explode in a way to erase all evidence) at a moment's notice. Just in case. |
| 509 | * EasilyForgiven: Discussed. After MM hears the real reason Frenchie didn't tail Lamplighter, which resulted in the death of Mallory's grandkids, he tells him that they would have forgiven him. Frenchie says that he didn't tell anyone because he doesn't think he deserves to be forgiven. |
| 510 | -->'''MM:''' After all these years man, would have let you off the hook.\ |
| 511 | '''Frenchie:''' What makes you think I want to be let off the hook? |
| 512 | * EveryScarHasAStory: Little Nina tried to humiliate Frenchie in front of Kimiko by exposing his scars in a way that is supposed to cause pain. Nina frames the stories of his scars as consequences of his actions, not because of what he's endured but because of what he's done and who he is. |
| 513 | * FunctionalAddict: He's constantly seen consuming all manner of drugs casually, which doesn't seem to affect his wits. |
| 514 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: He was robbing banks and defeating Supes with just his friends, his wits, and his drugs long before Mallory brought him on the team. |
| 515 | * HiddenDepths: Among his arsenal of less-than-savoury skills, he is also well-versed in French cuisine. |
| 516 | * InSeriesNickname: Only ever called "Frenchie" by The Boys and their associates. Those who have known him for longer call him "Serge", [[spoiler:which is revealed to be short for "Sergei" by [[TheMafiya Little Nina]]]]. |
| 517 | * JackOfAllTrades: As Hughie mentions, he functions as a gunrunner, chemist, interrogator, engineer, and door-kicker as needed. Frenchie himself claims to know "a little about a lot." |
| 518 | * JustFriends: Frenchie and Kimiko are just friends. In Season 2 he does try to kiss her while high on cocaine but Kimiko immediately rejects him and Frenchie is remorseful for crossing her boundaries. But in Season 3, Kimiko is the one kissing Frenchie, blurring the lines. |
| 519 | * MadScientist: Frenchie has a knack for chemistry and engineering to rig weapons and traps that can incapacitate supes, in addition to some level of understanding human biology. Place him in a lab and his inventions can range from an all-purpose knockout bomb to a ''deadly nerve agent''. |
| 520 | ** Tasked with finding a way to take out Transluscent for good (just in case), he realizes that a protected outside might leave a normal and vulnerable inside. Frenchie knocks the supe out with extra voltage and shoves [=C4=] up Transluscent's rectal cavity. |
| 521 | ** Season 2 reveals he once came up with a Xanax-spreading RPG against a superhero [[HulkMashUp whose powers align with his rage]]. He ''tried'' to replicate this success [[spoiler:against Stormfront with EMP-backed RPG's]], but things don't go to plan there. |
| 522 | * MasterOfUnlocking: With the right tools, he can pick any lock. |
| 523 | * MauriceChevalierAccent: He speaks English with a very noticeable French accent, and [[GratuitousFrench sprinkles his phrases with French words]]. |
| 524 | * NiceGuy: Kookiness and criminal background aside, Frenchie is a friendly and supportive guy. |
| 525 | * NoodleIncident: Frenchie was supposed to tail Lamplighter and keep track of his location one night, but he didn't and Lamplighter ended up burning Mallory's grandchildren. Marvin blames Frenchie for whatever happened that night but Frenchie maintains his innocence, and the two have remained on bad terms ever since. |
| 526 | ** [[spoiler:Season 2, Episode 6 reveals what happened. Frenchie was supposed to tail Lamplighter but got a call that his friend was overdosing; Frenchie ran to save him, and did not catch up to Lamplighter, who was attempting to assassinate Mallory and mistakenly killed her grandchildren. Marvin immediately asks Frenchie why he never revealed what happened.]] |
| 527 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: [[spoiler:Season 2, Episode 6 reveals his real name is Serge]]. It's worth noting that his nationality might not actually be known. In the comics, it's never confirmed but strongly implied Frenchie is British and his accent and entire persona is... not exactly faked, but isn't real, either. The show is playing with this by casting an Israeli actor in the role, especially as his accent and pronunciation occasionally slip, which could just be the actor, or could be very much in character. |
| 528 | * OohMeAccentsSlipping: In the first flashback in Season 2 Episode 6, he falls out of his accent a couple of times, and mentions living off the streets of New York. |
| 529 | * OrderVersusChaos: He is chaotic, impulsive, and follows his gut. This puts him into constant conflict with M.M. who likes it when everything is orderly and everyone sticks to the plan (to which Frenchie seems allergic). |
| 530 | * PopCulturedBadass: The most destruction-capable member of The Boys who references all kinds of media to get his points across. |
| 531 | * RealMenCanCook: Amusingly, one of the French stereotypes he does exhibit is mastery of baking pastries in episode 7. ''He's good enough to coach Kimiko.'' |
| 532 | * RealMenWearPink: Season 2 reveals that he's a big fan of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', claiming that he learned quite a bit of his attitude from the show. |
| 533 | * RecruitingTheCriminal: Frenchie is not only the one member of the original Boys that had a criminal background, but also the only one that wasn't career military before joining. Deconstructed, as the resulting tendency to disregard orders occasionally gets the Boys into hot water and [[spoiler:gives Lamplighter an opening to cause the deaths of Mallory's grandkids]]. |
| 534 | * ShipTease: A lot of it with Kimiko throughout the series. While they remain JustFriends, it keeps the door open for a potential RelationshipUpgrade. |
| 535 | * TheSmartGuy: He's the most intelligent member of the group, with the widest skillset. He was specifically recruited for his knack for coming up with ways to counter supes's abilities. |
| 536 | * TheSpook: Nobody knows who this guy really is. Even Vought's crime analytics department can't figure out his true identity, and basically refer to him as "that man." |
| 537 | * TheStoner: Is a master drug cook and psychedelics enthusiast. When Hughie is freaking out about keeping Translucent as a prisoner, Frenchie offers him an LSD/MDMA cocktail to calm his nerves. |
| 538 | * SupremeChef: He's noted by many characters to be a phenomenal chef with a talent for French cuisine. |
| 539 | * TaughtByTelevision: He formed his life lessons from watching ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' and he makes many analogies and comparisons from pop culture to get his points across. |
| 540 | * TraumaButton: Seeing [[spoiler:Lamplighter over the camera in Sage Grove]] immediately sends him into a murderous rage. |
| 541 | * VoiceForTheVoiceless: Once he and Kimiko become close, he's able to read her gestures and expressions in order to translate to the group what she is thinking or trying to communicate. |
| 542 | * WearingAFlagOnYourHead: He has a laptop with a large image of the flag of France covering its top. Of course, whether he is actually French is open to question. |
| 543 | * WeUsedToBeFriends: Season 2 shows that, prior to the Lamplighter fiasco, MM and Frenchie were very close, to the point it's even implied Serge would be best man at Marvin's wedding. Making it much HarsherInHindsight that the two come to blows almost immediately when they reunite in Season 1. |
| 544 | * WhyDontYouJustShootHim: He thinks [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner Wile E. Coyote]] using all sorts of whacky schemes to hunt the Road Runner is a waste when it would have just been easier to shoot him. [[spoiler: This is after the failed Compound V hearing against Vought, where the Boys start arming themselves to assassinate The Seven. Hughie and Annie try to convince them that it won't address the root causes and Vought will only make stronger supes in response, so Frenchie turns down the idea by using the cartoon as an analogy.]] |
| 545 | -->'''Frenchie:''' Always chases Road Runner, always with an elaborate plan, always fails. You know, I always say, "Why do this, Coyote? All you need is an AR-15, and 'meep meep' no more."\ |
| 546 | '''Butcher:''' Exactly! See, we're just gonna shoot Road Runner in the fucking head. |
| 547 | [[/folder]] |
| 548 | |
| 549 | [[folder:Kimiko Miyashiro]] |
| 550 | !!Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female |
| 551 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theboyskimokoseason2.png]] |
| 552 | %%[[caption-width-right:300:]] |
| 553 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/KarenFukuhara |
| 554 | |
| 555 | ->''"..."'' |
| 556 | |
| 557 | A mute young woman found locked up in the basement of an Asian crime syndicate, years of horrific experimentation have given her super-human abilities. She is freed by The Boys, and eventually joins them. |
| 558 | ---- |
| 559 | * AbsurdlySharpClaws: She has ones sharp enough to cut through Black Noir's seemingly armored suit. |
| 560 | * ActionGirl: As a Supe, she’s the muscle of the group and with her regenerative abilities, above average strength, and claws, she’s difficult to take out. |
| 561 | * AdaptationalBackstoryChange: She was accidentally exposed to Compound V as a baby and taken prisoner by some scientists in the comics. The show [[DarkAndTroubledPast gives a different backstory to her]]. |
| 562 | * AdaptationalBadass: In comparison to the rest of The Boys, all of whom had powers in the comics but none in the show, she seems to be a bit more powerful than in the comics, [[spoiler:including a HealingFactor on top of her SuperStrength.]] |
| 563 | * AdaptationalLateAppearance: The Boys first meet her halfway through the first season, whereas in the comics, she was involved with the group long before Hughie came on to the team. |
| 564 | * AdaptationalHeroism: |
| 565 | ** Her comic self is a full-blown sadist who loves violence so much that she goes out of her way to perform hits for the mob as a way to satisfy her bloodlust. While Kimiko is no stranger to brutally murdering people, she does so for understandable reasons. First because she's a terrified captive trying to defend herself against the criminals who locked her in a dirty cage, then later because she joins the Boys in their war against Supes, and ends up being the main fighter of the group because of her super strength and near invulnerability. In stark contrast to The Female, Kimiko does ''not'' enjoy the carnage, and especially hates it when Billy essentially uses her as just another weapon. |
| 566 | ** The comics Female isn't above viciously attacking her teammates because of how much she hates being touched. While she does lash out at the Boys at first, even Frenchie, it's because she's just been rescued from a cage and is basically feral. As she begins to bond with the group, she eventually stops posing a risk to the others. |
| 567 | * AdaptationalPersonalityChange: She's a lot more stable than her comic self, who was violent and unstable, worked as a mob hitwoman just for the violence, and hated being touched to the degree of attacking allies and teammates, aside from Frenchie. Kimiko on the show is still dangerous, but is more expressive, accepts human contact, and is even friendly to others once she warms up to them. |
| 568 | * AffectionateNickname: Frenchie calls her ''mon cœur''[[note]]my heart[[/note]]. |
| 569 | * AgeLift: Her comic self is a teenager. |
| 570 | * AgonyOfTheFeet: Black Noir stabs her in the foot to pin her down. |
| 571 | * BadassAdorable: She has a childlike personality and is extremely shy; she's also one of the most vicious members of the team. |
| 572 | * BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: |
| 573 | ** She's a danger to everyone except Frenchie, who is implied to be the first person to treat her with kindness. After she flees and Frenchie gets attacked by Black Noir in an alley, Kimiko intervenes and saves his life. |
| 574 | ** Despite her distrust towards supes, she's also thankful to Starlight for helping to save her life in the Season 1 finale, even though Kimiko was knocked out from drugs. When they meet again, she hugs Annie and smiles while holding hands. |
| 575 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: She never speaks and is petite in stature, but she’s actually the most dangerous member of the Boys. Although Starlight is probably more powerful, Kimiko is far more brutal and skilled in terms of hand-to-hand combat. She’s strong enough to dismember a room full of trained soldiers. [[spoiler:Even without powers, she’s able to kill Nina’s gang almost by herself.]] |
| 576 | * BigOlEyebrows: Her eyebrows are very thick. |
| 577 | * BigSisterInstinct: Kimiko is the older sister of her brother Kenji, which means she felt duty-bound to protect him. [[spoiler:This makes it even worse when he's murdered with her being unable to stop his attacker.]] |
| 578 | * BroughtDownToBadass: Even after Soldier Boy depowers her, Kimiko is still a force to be reckoned with as seen in her survival battle against Nina's enforcers. |
| 579 | * CantStayNormal: After being abducted by Little Nina's goons, finding out Frenchie was tortured by them and almost being killed, she decides to ask Annie to get her some Compound V so she can get her powers back and protect Frenchie. |
| 580 | * ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: She's only called ''The Female'' in her first few appearances. After Mesmer reads her mind, everyone calls her Kimiko. |
| 581 | * CuteBruiser: For most of the series, she's ''by far'' the strongest and most lethal member of The Boys in a one-on-one fight, subjecting plenty of enemies to a MookHorrorShow. Despite that, she's also a sweet-natured young woman played by the petite, beautiful Karen Fukahara. |
| 582 | * CuteMute: Kimiko's deadly, yet cute as a button, and hasn't said a word since the start of her dark and troubled existence. |
| 583 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Along with her brother, [[spoiler:she was a ChildSoldier, kidnapped by a terrorist organisation called the Shining Light Liberation Army... Then she was pumped full of experimental drugs against her will in order to become a super terrorist]]. |
| 584 | * DeathGlare: When watching the news about Stormfront being hailed as a hero, she looks angrily at the TV [[spoiler: for her killing Kenji.]] |
| 585 | * DisneyDeath: It looks like Black Noir killed her in the alley but then Frenchie witnesses her HealingFactor kicking in. |
| 586 | * TheDreaded: When the Boys first find Kimiko, she's being held prisoner by armed human traffickers in solitary confinement. She kills everyone in the room when they let her loose, the Boys are then forced to lock ''themselves'' into the cell they had just released ''her'' from to survive, and the last of her captors ''immediately'' shoots himself after seeing she had escaped her cell. |
| 587 | * DisabledInTheAdaptation: In the comics, The Female is selectively mute and just chooses not to talk. Kimiko genuinely can't speak despite her attempts and instead communicates through sign language. |
| 588 | * GuttedLikeAFish: [[spoiler: Black Noir]] cuts her entire torso open, which only disables her for at most a few minutes before her HealingFactor kicks in. |
| 589 | * HandicappedBadass: Mute, but also the most powerful member of The Boys. |
| 590 | * HandSignals: In Season 2, she speaks to her brother Kenji using sign language they invented after she became mute as a result of her trauma and later teaches Frenchie to understand what she's saying with gestures. |
| 591 | * HeroicSacrifice: Nearly dies holding off a Supe who was after Frenchie. |
| 592 | * HealingFactor: |
| 593 | ** Kimiko turns out to have one, as shown in the wake of her fight with Black Noir after he stabbed and slashed her multiple times. A-Train also finds out the hard way that he can't kill her, smashing her head at super speed to no avail. However, tranquilizers can disable her. |
| 594 | ** [[spoiler: Stormfront snaps her neck in "What I Know." It barely slows her down.]] |
| 595 | * HiddenDepths: |
| 596 | ** Once she's mellowed out, she's capable of following instructions like a valid part of the team, whether it's the exact method of beating batter in making French pastries to [[spoiler:acting as Hughie's backup and breaking A-Train's leg with a pipe at the right time.]] |
| 597 | ** [[spoiler: She also invented a whole new sign language with her brother after she lost her ability to talk.]] |
| 598 | ** She loves musicals and likes to imagine herself singing and dancing as if she were in one. |
| 599 | * HorrifyingTheHorror: [[spoiler: After she breaks free and starts attacking Nina’s gang of criminals, Nina runs away in shock and fear.]] |
| 600 | * IAmAMonster: When talking with her brother, she says she was turned into this by the Shining Light. Her brother points out that if she became a monster, [[YouAreNotAlone so did he.]] |
| 601 | * IAmNotAGun: She "tells" Billy this after he informs her he's sold her services to Little Nina for an assassination in exchange for information. |
| 602 | -->'''Kimiko:''' (Through text on her phone) I'm not your fucking gun. |
| 603 | -->'''Butcher:''' [[NoSympathy That is exactly what you fucking are.]] |
| 604 | * IJustWantToBeNormal: For Kimiko, her powers are a sad reminder of her lost childhood. When Soldier Boy depowers her by accident, she is ecstatic to learn she no longer has her powers, considering them more of a curse that ruined her entire life. |
| 605 | * InterchangeableAsianCultures: While the first season doesn't give her a clear origin, suggesting she comes from a fictitious country in southeast Asia that is a hodgepodge of Japanese and Chinese cultures, it's ultimately averted in season 2 with her being explicitly stated as being Japanese. The Shining Light murdered her parents and kidnapped her brother and her to the Philippines to indoctrinate them as soldiers. However, Kimiko didn't know where she had been taken, and so could only give vague answers as to where they were from. |
| 606 | * ItsPersonal: She regards Stormfront as her ArchNemesis after she [[spoiler:kills Kimiko's brother]]. |
| 607 | * JustFriends: Frenchie and Kimiko are just friends. In Season 2 he does kiss her while high but Kimiko immediately rejects him and Frenchie is remorseful for having crossed her boundaries. But in Season 3, Kimiko is the one kissing Frenchie, blurring the lines. For added points, the kiss comes after a fantasy she has about singing and dancing with him and repeatedly calling him "my man". |
| 608 | * LivingMacguffin: She's living proof of Vought's schemes, so both sides want to capture her very badly. |
| 609 | * MadeOfIron: Even leaving aside her HealingFactor, she can tank attacks that would reduce a normal person to LudicrousGibs without so much as a bruise. |
| 610 | * MoralityPet: Frenchie views her as this, claiming that she makes him a better person. |
| 611 | * NamedByTheAdaptation: Kimiko Miyashiro. In the comics, she was known only as The Female (of the Species). |
| 612 | * NeckSnap: Inflicted on her by [[spoiler: Stormfront]] in the Season 2 finale. It literally only puts her down for a few seconds, and she simply re-snaps it into place before getting back up. |
| 613 | * {{Omniglot}}: She understands Japanese (being from Japan), English (as she lived in the Philippines and currently lives in America), and sign language (which she uses to communicate outwardly when she needs to). |
| 614 | * PlatonicLifePartners: She and Frenchie settle into this dynamic by the latter half of S2. Before this, the two have a short fight when [[spoiler:following Kenji's death, Kimiko refuses to open up, rebuffs his romantic advancements, and becomes a ProfessionalKiller for a while. Frenchie later apologizes for trying to force her into the role of his LivingEmotionalCrutch and the two end the season living together.]] |
| 615 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After Frenchie lets her out of her cage she immediately starts slaughtering the gangsters who imprisoned her. She then escapes the lair and seeks out the woman who trafficked her, who she proceeds to maul into LudicrousGibs. |
| 616 | * SheCleansUpNicely: Kimiko looks quite pretty after she combs her hair and puts on clean clothes. Butcher forces her into a dress and heels for an assassination gig in Season 3 and while she hates it, she certainly looks gorgeous. |
| 617 | * ShipTease: Large quantities of it with Frenchie. While they remain friends, she is by far the closest to him out of all other members of the Boys and there are numerous moments between them throughout the series that blur the line between friendship and romance. [[spoiler:Season 3 blurs things further when even after rebuffing him in Season 2, she expresses a desire to run away with him and even kisses him whilst in hospital.]] |
| 618 | * SilentSnarker: She's unable to speak, but she can still make mocking expressions and [[FlippingTheBird give you the finger]]. |
| 619 | * TheSpeechless: She's been mute since the day she was kidnapped. Her sole vocalization is a peal of laughter in the season 2 finale -- because she's [[spoiler:about to kick Stormfront's ass]]. |
| 620 | * SuddenlySpeaking: Downplayed. After roughly two seasons of absolutely no vocalizations, she begins [[LaughingMad cackling]] at the final episode of Season 2 [[spoiler: right before she [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge kicks the shit out of Stormfront]].]] |
| 621 | ** In Season 3, Kimiko has two [[ImagineSpot fantasies]] where she sings as if she were the star of a musical. The second one begins with her croaking out a lyric to a surprised Frenchie before she goes full tilt and sings. |
| 622 | * SuperStrength: She is strong enough to punch holes in people. |
| 623 | * SuperToughness: She can get thrown through walls without injury. |
| 624 | * TerroristsWithoutACause: The [[spoiler:"Shining Light Liberation Army" that she and her brother were forcibly recruited into is not a real organization, and the show discusses nothing about their ideology or goals. Their name is an apparent allusion to the Shining Path, a real far-left terrorist group in Peru.]] |
| 625 | * TokenSuper: She's the only one on the crew with Compound V in her veins, unlike the comics. |
| 626 | * TwoferTokenMinority: A ''quadruple'' minority even, as Kimiko is the only woman of the group, the only Supe ([[spoiler:both before Annie joins]]), the only East Asian, and is mute, making her the only one with an explicit disability. |
| 627 | * WhenSheSmiles: Tends to wear an angry scowl most of the time but when she's happy and smiling, she's absolutely radiant. |
| 628 | * WolverineWannabe: She possesses a HealingFactor and had a DarkAndTroubledPast involving being experimented on to give her powers and become a LivingWeapon. She pretty much has everything but the WolverineClaws. |
| 629 | * TheWorfEffect: She's defeated and nearly killed by Black Noir and Stormfront to show how powerful they are. |
| 630 | * WorfHadTheFlu: After the black bag operatives tranquilize her to bring her in, they keep her separate from Frenchie and Milk and pump her full of more sedatives via IV, so she's useless to the team even after they break her out. |
| 631 | * YouKilledMyFather: The Shining Light killed her parents in front of herself and her brother. As soon as she saw a member she recognized, she snapped his neck and then pretty much ripped his head off. [[spoiler: Again after Stormfront kills her brother in front of her.]] |
| 632 | [[/folder]] |
| 633 | |
| 634 | [[folder:Annie January]] |
| 635 | For character tropes on her, see her [[Characters/TheBoys2019Starlight page]]. |
| 636 | [[/folder]] |
| 637 | !!Former members |
| 638 | |
| 639 | [[folder:Grace Mallory]] |
| 640 | !!Grace Mallory |
| 641 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled_151.png]] |
| 642 | %%[[caption-width-right:350:]] |
| 643 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/LailaRobins, Sarah Swire (young) |
| 644 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Eiko Hanawa (Japanese) |
| 645 | |
| 646 | ->''"Grace Mallory; I'm the founder of your little club."'' |
| 647 | |
| 648 | A former CIA case officer who first recruited Butcher. |
| 649 | ---- |
| 650 | * AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In the comics, Mallory disliked Raynor, while she seems to have been a mentor to her here. She also has a better rapport with Boys currently, helping Butcher find Becca to make amends. |
| 651 | * AgeLift: Comic Mallory fought in World War II, and is preserved by Compound V to look much younger than he is. As none of the Boys get Compound V on the show, Grace here is as young as she appears. |
| 652 | * AscendedExtra: She becomes occasionally involved with the Boys' current operations, while her comic counterpart stayed out of it and mostly made appearances in flashbacks. |
| 653 | * BeenThereShapedHistory: Mallory was directly involved in the Iran-Contra Affair via Operation Charly, tasked with overseeing cocaine shipments from Nicaragua to U.S. minority neighborhoods, then using the profits for arms sales. |
| 654 | * BreakTheBadass: Lamplighter killing her grandkids is what led to her quitting the Boys and retiring in seclusion. |
| 655 | * BrokenPedestal: Butcher and MM lose a lot of regard for Mallory. Not only was she involved in the CIA’s drug smuggling which impacted African-American communities, she’d been sitting on information regarding Soldier Boy and a potential anti-supe weapon for as long as she’s known them. |
| 656 | * ColonelBadass: She's a colonel, though it is unknown in which service. |
| 657 | * TheCorrupter: To Butcher, being responsible for turning him into [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the man he is today]], something she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone honestly regrets.]] |
| 658 | * CynicalMentor: Mallory trained Butcher, Mother's Milk, and Frenchie, teaching them to hold the belief that supes are all untrustworthy. |
| 659 | * EveryoneHasStandards: |
| 660 | ** Even though she hates supes and refers to Payback as a group of idiots, she gives Black Noir a look of pity after seeing him severely disfigured and brain-damaged [[spoiler:from the beatdown he just took from Soldier Boy]], instead of her usual look of disdain towards the other members. It helps that Noir had been the only member of Payback who wasn't showboating and was having what seemed like a fairly normal conversation with Stan Edgar (wherein Noir mentions his nut allergy), which greatly humanized him. |
| 661 | ** In ''Series/GenV'', she draws the line at supporting [[spoiler:Indira Shetty]]'s plans to commit the wholesale genocide of Supes. |
| 662 | * GenderFlip: She's a man called Greg in the comic. |
| 663 | * MoralMyopia: She wants revenge against Vought due to Payback's incompetence causing the deaths of hundreds of her men, while her tenure as a CIA agent had her back far-right death squads and smuggle cocaine to minority communities to destabilize them in order to "fight communism". |
| 664 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The war of revenge she contributed to against the Seven getting her grandchildren killed has left her disillusioned with the whole business. |
| 665 | * NervesOfSteel: Stands up to Soldier Boy in her youth and Homelander as an older woman. |
| 666 | * ParentalSubstitute: She adopts Ryan after his mother's demise and becomes "Aunt Mallory" for him. |
| 667 | * RetiredBadass: Considering Mallory is ex-military, ex-CIA, and spent her golden years hunting down rogue superheroes, she definitely qualifies. |
| 668 | * TheSnarkKnight: Her quips are very cynical in nature. |
| 669 | * TheSpymaster: She's still keeping tabs on Vought despite retiring, and gives Billy crucial information regarding Homelander and Stillwell. |
| 670 | * TheTeamBenefactor: She's the founder, mentor, and original leader of The Boys. |
| 671 | * VengeanceFeelsEmpty: |
| 672 | ** She says as much to Hughie in the Season 1 finale, commenting on how it brought her to a "dead end, watching [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] birds." |
| 673 | ** She similarly tries to talk [[spoiler:Shetty]] out of her plot to commit Supe genocide, warning her that for all the people she'll end up killing in the process, it won't bring back [[spoiler:her family members that Homelander killed]]. |
| 674 | [[/folder]] |
| 675 | |
| 676 | ! Associates of The Boys |
| 677 | |
| 678 | !!Hughie's Friends, Family & Associates |
| 679 | |
| 680 | [[folder:Robin Ward]] |
| 681 | !!Robin Ward |
| 682 | [[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robin_ward.jpg]] |
| 683 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/JessSalgueiro |
| 684 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Iori Kosaka (Japanese) |
| 685 | |
| 686 | Hughie's girlfriend, who was killed by A-Train in an accident, setting the plot into motion. |
| 687 | ---- |
| 688 | * AdaptationNameChange: Robin Mawhinney in the comic. |
| 689 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: She instantly bursts into a puddle of gore after being run through by A-Train. Well, except for her hands, they're detached but still holding Hughie's hands. |
| 690 | * DeathByOriginStory: Her death is what makes Hughie want to fight the superheroes. It also causes him to develop a personal vendetta against A-Train, as he was the one who killed Robin by running into her at extreme speed, then lying about it by saying she was in the middle of the road when it happened, though she was only ''two steps off the sidewalk''. |
| 691 | * DiceRollDeath: She steps off the sidewalk while telling Hughie she's planning on buying a house, and stays there just long enough for A-Train to splatter her. If she'd stayed on the sidewalk, or didn't stay off it so long, or if A-Train was a bit closer to the middle of the road, or if he was paying more attention to where he was going... none of this would have happened. |
| 692 | * DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: In the comic, she's crushed to death when A-Train smashes her into a wall with another superhero. In the series, A-Train runs through her, reducing her to a puddle of blood and gore on the floor. |
| 693 | * DisposableWoman: She basically just exists to get killed to start Hughie on his journey. |
| 694 | * TheLostLenore: Hughie keeps seeing her ghost out of the corner of his eye. She doesn't go away until he and Starlight have their first kiss. |
| 695 | * LudicrousGibs: Robin becomes a red stain on the ground after A-Train runs through her. |
| 696 | * PlotTriggeringDeath: Without her death, this story would have never occurred. |
| 697 | * RaceLift: She's white in the comics, but played by Latin Canadian actress Jess Salgueiro on the show. |
| 698 | * SurprisinglySuddenDeath: One moment, Hughie is telling her not to besmirch Billy Joel; the next, she's LudicrousGibs on the street. |
| 699 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: Is alive for all of one scene before turning into a pile of LudicrousGibs. |
| 700 | [[/folder]] |
| 701 | |
| 702 | [[folder:Hugh Campbell Sr.]] |
| 703 | !!Hugh Campbell Sr. |
| 704 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/father_hugo.png]] |
| 705 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/SimonPegg |
| 706 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Kensuke Ota (Japanese) |
| 707 | |
| 708 | Hughie's father. |
| 709 | ---- |
| 710 | * AdaptationalNationality: Scottish in the comics, American in the show (possibly downplayed as Hugh could've moved to America before Hughie's birth). Hilarious considering his son was based on the actor playing him, and one of that actor's most famous roles is that of a [[Film/StarTrek2009 famous Scotsman]]. |
| 711 | * AdaptationNameChange: Neither comic Hughie's adopted father nor a minor villain implied to be his biological father are named Hugh. |
| 712 | * BumblingDad: He's awkward and too comfortable with letting Vought get away with their crimes. His behavior is borderline overprotective, as his first thought was to contact a ''pediatrician'' to help Hughie with grief counseling. |
| 713 | * CastingGag: Hughie in the comics was based on Simon Pegg, in both likeness and mannerisms. In this series, Simon Pegg actually gets to play the character's father. |
| 714 | * ExtremeDoormat: He's willing to let Vought get away with letting Robin die because he's aware that taking them on would likely end in tears. He's also aware that he's this, gently if bluntly telling his son that he's never been anything else and he doesn't see Hughie being any different. After he gets inadvertently caught in the crossfire and is given a glimpse of what Hughie has been doing with the Boys, [[spoiler:he [[SoProudOfYou expresses pride]] that his son is trying to make a difference]]. |
| 715 | * InnocentBigot: Refers to Kimiko as an "Oriental". |
| 716 | * MyBelovedSmother: He babies Hughie and treats him like a child rather than a grown-up adult, which is a source of extreme aggravation for Hughie. |
| 717 | * MythologyGag: Hugh's physical appearance and mannerisms resemble an older version of Pre-CharacterDevelopment Wee Hughie from the comics. Even his name can be spoken as "Hughie", before the "Sr." being added after the birth of his son. |
| 718 | * ParentsAsPeople: A meek but otherwise nice guy, he's in a tough situation as a parent, trying his hardest to support his son despite his answers being awkward and unhelpful. He truly wants to protect his son from Vought and the Seven but he's having a lot of difficulties trying to console and understand Hughie, who saw Robin die right in front of him and A-Train not even acknowledge it and gets away with it. [[spoiler:In the end, he accepts Hughie's choices and admits how proud he is of him for trying to make a difference. In season 3, Hughie has a self-revelation about his father as he realised that his dad did everything he could to support him after Hughie's mom left. Hughie now realises that Hugh was left to raise him on his own and was going through the worst days of his life after his wife left him and abandoned Hughie, but kept smiling and did everything he could to raise his son.]] |
| 719 | * ShadowArchetype: |
| 720 | ** Hugh Sr. can be arguably seen as this to his son if he never outgrew his childish outlook. |
| 721 | ** He can also be a possible WhatIf to Wee Hughie from the comics if the latter never underwent the trauma from losing a loved one by a Supe -- even more appropriate since the comic version of Hughie was based on this character's actor. |
| 722 | * SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler:He tells Hughie he's proud of how he's learned to stand up and became tougher in fighting against Vought]]. |
| 723 | [[/folder]] |
| 724 | |
| 725 | !!Billy's Friends, Family & Associates |
| 726 | |
| 727 | [[folder:Becca Butcher]] |
| 728 | !!Rebecca "Becca" Butcher, née Saunders |
| 729 | [[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rebecca_0.jpg]] |
| 730 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/ShantelVanSanten |
| 731 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Saori Takamiya (Japanese) |
| 732 | |
| 733 | Billy's beloved wife, who disappeared years ago after an encounter with Homelander. |
| 734 | ---- |
| 735 | * ActionMom: Had military training, claims to have outshot Billy on the firing range [[spoiler:and stabs Stormfront in the eye, doing more damage to her than three Supes did combined.]] |
| 736 | * AdaptationalDyeJob: Rebecca goes from a FieryRedhead in the comics, to a BrainyBrunette in the show. |
| 737 | * AdaptationalJobChange: She worked for Vought in the show rather than be a social worker. |
| 738 | * AdaptationalNationality: She's English in the comic. |
| 739 | * AllForNothing: She made her choice to be considered dead by her family and isolate herself from the world, all so she can raise her Son Ryan and ensure he does not turn out like his father Homelander. [[spoiler: But come Season 3, Billy's [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim actions led to Ryan being driven away straight into Homelander's arms who swiftly indoctrinating him into his]] [[BewareTheSuperman misanthropic worldview]]. Because of that, all of Becca's sacrifices have been rendered meaningless.]] |
| 740 | * AlliterativeName: As Becca Butcher. |
| 741 | * AmbiguouslyChristian: She used to own a necklace with St. Christopher. |
| 742 | * BuryingASubstitute: Since her body was never found, her sister put a headstone in its place so their mother has a grave to visit. Billy takes great offense, and smashes it down. |
| 743 | * ChekhovMIA: She disappeared eight years prior to the timeline of the plot. Police NeverFoundTheBody. [[spoiler:Then she reappears in the last scene of the first season]]. |
| 744 | * DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: In the comics, she died [[spoiler: when her superpowered ChildByRape tore its way out of her. Here, it's revealed that she survived and is raising the child, but she's killed in season 2 rescuing Ryan from Stormfront.]] |
| 745 | * DifferingPrioritiesBreakup: [[spoiler:By "Nothing Like It in the World", she refuses to be with Butcher in order to raise Ryan, while he wanted to abandon the boy so that he and Becca could be together again.]] |
| 746 | * DisposableWoman: [[spoiler: She's killed off in season 2]] in order to further Billy and Ryan's character arcs. |
| 747 | * DrivenToSuicide: Officially, according to the police. |
| 748 | * GoodParents: [[spoiler:To Ryan. She makes sure to give him much love and care, sacrificing her previous life to be a good role-model for him. Even when Homelander and Stormfront try to pamper him with their celebrity statuses, Ryan prefers the mundane life that he had with his loving mother.]] |
| 749 | * TheLostLenore: For Butcher. |
| 750 | * LoveCannotOvercome: She's never stopped loving Billy, but she walked out of his life after her encounter with Homelander because she knew learning about it would have [[HeWhoFightsMonsters sent him down a dark road]]. (Too bad Mallory sent him down it anyway!) In season 2, [[spoiler:she refuses to reunite with Billy, this time because she knows she cannot have both Billy and Ryan in her life.]] |
| 751 | * TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife: [[spoiler:Running off with Butcher would put them in the crosshairs of Vought and harm Ryan, whom she has kept the appearance of a proper role-model for. She wishes to stay at the compound hoping to prevent another Homelander, and she refuses to risk a life with Billy.]] |
| 752 | * MySecretPregnancy: She hid her pregnancy from anyone and disappeared without a word from Butcher's life. |
| 753 | * NeverFoundTheBody: She's been missing for so long that she's presumed dead, and only Billy is convinced she's out there somewhere. |
| 754 | * RapeAsDrama: She went mute and then disappeared after being raped [[spoiler:and impregnated]] by Homelander. |
| 755 | * SatelliteLoveInterest: We don't get to know much about her outside of being Billy's wife and Ryan's mother. Shantel Van Santen, however, does an admirable job of breathing life into the character for the little screen time she has. |
| 756 | * StepfordSmiler: Imprisoned in a StepfordSuburbia surrounded by high walls and monitored by CCTV cameras inside her own home, she just concentrated on raising her son and imagined she was [[Series/TheBradyBunch Carol Brady]]. |
| 757 | * TurnOutLikeHisFather: [[spoiler:Rebecca made a deal with Vought to have her and Ryan secluded into a safe haven where she can raise her son properly, never seeing Homelander ever again. When Homelander returns anyway, she refuses to run away with Billy for fear that Ryan will fall under his father's influence if she just disappears from his life.]] |
| 758 | * WalkingSpoiler: The nature of her character as Billy's motivation and the circumstances regarding her disappearance is a major factor in the series. |
| 759 | [[/folder]] |
| 760 | |
| 761 | [[folder:Sam Butcher]] |
| 762 | !!Sam Butcher |
| 763 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/father_butcher.png]] |
| 764 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JohnNoble, Creator/BrendanMurray (Young) |
| 765 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Hiromichi Tezuka (Japanese) |
| 766 | |
| 767 | ->''"It's a shit world out there. You count on no one but yourself. You either sink, or you swim."'' |
| 768 | |
| 769 | Billy and Lenny's abusive father, and the man responsible for turning Billy into the monster he is today. |
| 770 | ---- |
| 771 | * AbusiveParents: He beat his sons a lot, claiming it was to make them strong and tough enough to survive in a world he saw as merciless. In truth, it's because he's a sadistic bully. Even worse is that he expects Billy to be thankful for it. |
| 772 | * AdaptationalHeroism: Relatively speaking. He's still an abusive father, but unlike the comic, there is no indication his abuse extended to his wife as well. |
| 773 | * BaitTheDog: He tricks Billy into a meeting and begs him to stay when he turns to go seemingly because he's dying and wants to use his last days to make amends with his son for his actions. The meeting instead turns into a cavalcade of excuses and insults to both Billy and Lenny, and he makes it very clear that not only does he not regret a damn thing, but is actively proud of it. |
| 774 | * CardCarryingVillain: Despite his claims that it was for their own good, he clearly enjoyed beating his sons and smiles when Billy calls him a monster. |
| 775 | * CastingGag: A shitty father who prefers the older and more masculine son over the gentler, younger one? He's definitely [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Denethor]]. Bonus points since Creator/KarlUrban was also in that series as Eomer. |
| 776 | * TheCorrupter: He is this to Billy, as his trip through Mindstorm's nightmare shows he is taking in a lot of his father's toxic, abusive traits. |
| 777 | * DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the ToughLove, SinkOrSwimMentor father. Sam claims he beat his sons to make them stronger, but it's presented as nothing more than toxic masculinity at best, and an excuse to beat and torment his sons at worst. On the SinkOrSwimMentor side of things, it shows what happens when this type of person gets someone killed, he shows no remorse for his son Lenny's suicide. |
| 778 | * HateSink: With his blatantly abusive relationship towards Billy and Lenny and feeling proud of this fact as it meant toughening up Billy to be a "real man" as well as not showing any remorse over contributing to Lenny's suicide, he comes off as among the vilest characters in the series. |
| 779 | * {{Jerkass}}: He is an abusive bully to his sons. |
| 780 | * JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: For all his bluster about how it's sink or swim world and toughening them up, it's clear Sam is a nothing more than a bully who deluded himself into believing he's a tough but fair father. |
| 781 | * LackOfEmpathy: Shows absolutely no remorse for driving one of his sons, Lenny, to suicide with his abuse. |
| 782 | * MythologyGag: Both his outfit and hairstyle make him resemble an older version of Billy Butcher from the comics. |
| 783 | * ParentalFavoritism: He says he loves Lenny, but it's clear he prefers Billy for being the tougher and more masculine of the two. |
| 784 | * PsychopathicManchild: At the end of the day, Sam is this. For all his excuses of ToughLove, he's ultimately a small man taking his rage out on his sons. |
| 785 | * ARealManIsAKiller: He fully believes that a man should be strong and violent. |
| 786 | * SinkOrSwimMentor: He believes that he is one, citing this mentality word-for-word to explain why he beat his sons. It's at best a delusion and at worst an excuse he used. |
| 787 | * SoProudOfYou: An extremely twisted version. Afer Billy snaps and attacks his headmaster, instead of disciplining him Sam instead congratulates, telling him that "he swam" and gives him a glass of beer as a present. |
| 788 | * TheSociopath: He's what Billy would be (or could become) if he didn't have his humanity. |
| 789 | * StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: He badmouths Lenny for being weak, and is absolutely delighted when Billy almost kills him for it because it's proof in his eyes that he made Billy strong. |
| 790 | * ToughLove: He maintains that all the pain he put his sons through was for the purpose of making them strong. Billy justly feels otherwise. |
| 791 | * WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: His overall opinion of Lenny, telling him that he's a "fucking little poof" and he should be more like Billy. |
| 792 | * YouMonster: Billy calls him this for what he put him through. Sam accepts it with a big smile on his face and replies that Billy is just the same. |
| 793 | * YourDaysAreNumbered: In the conversation with Billy, his son implies Sam is dying from cancer. |
| 794 | -->'''Billy Butcher''': You step one inch closer and I'll kill you quicker than that arse cancer! |
| 795 | [[/folder]] |
| 796 | |
| 797 | [[folder:Connie Butcher]] |
| 798 | !!Connie Butcher |
| 799 | [[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mother_butcher.jpg]] |
| 800 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Lesley Nicol |
| 801 | |
| 802 | Billy and Lenny's mother. |
| 803 | ---- |
| 804 | * AbusiveParents: While she didn't take an active role in the abuse Sam inflicted on Lenny and Billy, she didn't seem to have done anything to help them and still continues to make excuses for Sam's behavior. |
| 805 | * AdaptationNameChange: Connie, rather than Carol. |
| 806 | * ExtremeDoormat: To her husband who she's stayed with despite all the abuse he's put the entire family through. |
| 807 | * HateSink: Aside from having done nothing to prevent her husband from abusing their sons (leading to driving one of them into suicide), her being obviously still devoted towards him and taking his side when it's fairly apparent that he provoked Billy into attacking him, makes her easily almost as detestable as Sam. |
| 808 | * UselessBystanderParent: Like previously mentioned, she does nothing to stop her husband's physical and mental abuse of her sons, even when it reaches the point of [[spoiler: driving her youngest to suicide and her eldest to join the military as soon as he's old enough to get out of the house and contemplating committing Patricide.]] |
| 809 | * WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Billy is baffled why she's still with Sam despite him being a total douchebag. |
| 810 | [[/folder]] |
| 811 | |
| 812 | [[folder:Lenny Butcher]] |
| 813 | !!Lenny Butcher |
| 814 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Jack Fulton (Teen), Bruno Rudolf (Young) |
| 815 | Billy's younger brother. |
| 816 | ---- |
| 817 | * AteHisGun: Sam Butcher reveals that he committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. |
| 818 | * DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Rather than suicide, he was hit by a car in the comic. |
| 819 | * DrivenToSuicide: After Billy joined the military, Lenny was left alone with their abusive father, leading him to suicide by gunshot. |
| 820 | * IdenticalStranger: Judy describes Hughie as Lenny's spitting image. |
| 821 | * MoralityChain: Was this for Billy since childhood. Only he could get Billy to quell his UnstoppableRage, with much more success than anyone else could. |
| 822 | * PosthumousCharacter: He died before the start of the series. |
| 823 | * ReplacementGoldfish: It seems that Hughie is acting in Lenny's place for Billy. During a LotusEaterMachine nightmare, the young version of Lenny that Billy interacts with the last time he saw him calls him out on his abandonment of him, Billy's {{Guilt}} over the incident manifesting through him, and making it clear that Billy does recognise the similarities between Hughie and Lenny... and like the latter, part of Billy wants to cut Hughie loose so he can indulge in his self-destructive ways without restraint. |
| 824 | -->'''Lenny''': You fucking knew what he'd do. It's ''your'' fault. |
| 825 | -->'''Billy''': No, don't say that! That's not true! I, I'm not that bastard! |
| 826 | -->'''Lenny''': Come off it, Billy. You always have been, 'cause anyone who's ever loved you, you end up getting them killed, don't you? Me. Becca. Now Hughie, the last person on God's green earth trying to stop you from being a monster and what do you do? [[TheCorrupter Drag him down to your level]]. When he dies, and he will, then no one can stop you. Can they? ''[puts the gun to his head]'' |
| 827 | -->'''Billy''': [[BigNo Lenny, no! No]]! ''[gunshot]'' |
| 828 | * SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The sensitive guy to Billy's manly man. The abuse hardened Billy and made him into the asshole tough guy vigilante he is today. By contrast, Lenny was a gentler soul and eventually took his own life when he couldn't take it anymore. |
| 829 | [[/folder]] |
| 830 | |
| 831 | [[folder:Judy Atkinson]] |
| 832 | !!Judy Atkinson |
| 833 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/judy_7.png]] |
| 834 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Barbara Gordon |
| 835 | |
| 836 | Billy's aunt. |
| 837 | ---- |
| 838 | * AdaptationNameChange: Assuming Atkinson isn't a married man, Billy's mother's maiden name was Atkins in the comic. |
| 839 | * CoolOldLady: Not too fazed with Billy's antics and runs a drug-dealing operation. |
| 840 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: She apparently had no idea what Billy was getting into. |
| 841 | * NeverMessWithGranny: She's a drug dealer running her operations from home, and she has no problem with having her house rigged with explosives for The Boys to take on Black Noir. |
| 842 | [[/folder]] |
| 843 | |
| 844 | [[folder:Terror]] |
| 845 | !!Terror |
| 846 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terrortheboys.jpg]] |
| 847 | |
| 848 | Billy's pet, a Bulldog. |
| 849 | ---- |
| 850 | * AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike the comics, the only thing he rapes here is plush toys. |
| 851 | * AdaptationalWimp: Is Billy's AttackAnimal in the comic, but merely a beloved pet on the show. |
| 852 | * DeathbringerTheAdorable: Pretty adorable animal for his name. |
| 853 | * DemotedToExtra: Is a TeamPet in the comic, but has only a couple of appearances so far. He only appeared in a single shot of the first season. |
| 854 | * LovableSexManiac: Likes to hump plushies, be they of cartoon pigs or Homelander. |
| 855 | * MythologyGag: After giving Terror a new toy, Billy utters the famous "Fuck It" command with which Terror happily obliges. |
| 856 | * PetTheDog: For Billy. |
| 857 | [[/folder]] |
| 858 | |
| 859 | !!Frenchie's Friends, Family & Associates |
| 860 | |
| 861 | [[folder:Cherie]] |
| 862 | !!Cherie |
| 863 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cherie.png]] |
| 864 | ->'''Portrayed by:''' Jordana Lajoie |
| 865 | ->'''Dubbed by:''' Iori Kosaka (Japanese) |
| 866 | |
| 867 | Frenchie's girlfriend. |
| 868 | ---- |
| 869 | * EmotionlessGirl: Cherie is rarely moved into an emotional reaction, perhaps because she's SeenItAll. |
| 870 | ** She's totally unfazed when Frenchie calls her and lets her know she needs to blow up the warehouse on very short notice, beyond a mildly annoyed "Really?" |
| 871 | ** When Frenchie admits to kissing Kimiko, she's not surprised or jealous, only remonstrating him for thinking that would help her. |
| 872 | ** Averted ''hard'' in Frenchie's Season 2 flashbacks where she is seen crying and extremely emotional during Jay's overdose. |
| 873 | ** Also averted in Season 3, where Nina shows her and Kimiko the scars on Frenchie's back and tells them how he was abused by his father. She is shown to be crying at the sight of this, and for him. |
| 874 | * HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: It's initially unclear whether "Cherie" is her name or just a nickname that Frenchie uses for her, seeing as it's also a French pet name (meaning "sweetheart"), but in season 2, Mallory refers to her as Cherie in a flashback, indicating it is her name. |
| 875 | * NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: She randomly caresses Hughie's face for several seconds upon meeting him, with no explanation and without even introducing herself first. |
| 876 | * RunOrDie: She destroys her phone and flees after letting Frenchie know he's burned. |
| 877 | * SeenItAll: She strongly gives this impression, based on how quickly and calmly she reacts to any sort of danger or crisis. Season 2 shows that she was part of Frenchie's crew and helped him with insane Supe-related operations and stakes before he even joined The Boys. |
| 878 | [[/folder]] |
| 879 | |
| 880 | [[folder:Jay]] |
| 881 | !!Jay |
| 882 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jay_5.png]] |
| 883 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Michael Ayres |
| 884 | |
| 885 | Frenchie's best friend. |
| 886 | ---- |
| 887 | * AddledAddict: He overdosed a couple of times, the second fatally. |
| 888 | * BankRobbery: He helps pull at least one with Frenchie over the course of their criminal careers. |
| 889 | * PosthumousCharacter: He's been dead for nearly five years by the time of Season 2, having died of an overdose a few months after cutting ties with his former friends. |
| 890 | * WeUsedToBeFriends: He cuts ties with Frenchie and Cherie when Frenchie tries to balance his work with The Boys over them. |
| 891 | [[/folder]] |
| 892 | |
| 893 | !!Mother Milk's Friends, Family & Associates |
| 894 | |
| 895 | [[folder:Monique Milk]] |
| 896 | !!Monique Milk |
| 897 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monique_1.png]] |
| 898 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Frances Turner (season 3), Alvina August (season 1) |
| 899 | |
| 900 | Marvin's wife. |
| 901 | ---- |
| 902 | * AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the comic, she's a drug addict who kidnapped Janine and ran off to be with her drug-dealer ex-boyfriend. She later gets Janine doing incest porn. In the show, she and Milk are SickeningSweethearts and she is the more responsible one in the relationship who doesn't want Butcher to drag him back into danger again. While she does still eventually leave him for another man, it's through an amicable divorce in this version. |
| 903 | * AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: They're long divorced, and not amicably, in the comic. [[TruerToTheText Season 3 sees her divorce Marvin]], but they remain AmicableExes. |
| 904 | * AlliterativeName: '''M'''onique '''M'''ilk. Same goes for her actress. |
| 905 | * AmicableExes: In season 3 she has divorced her husband and remarried, but she still get along with him and is supportive of him getting closure about Soldier Boy. |
| 906 | * HappilyMarried: With Marvin, to SickeninglySweethearts levels. Later with her new husband Todd. |
| 907 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: She doesn't think too hard about Todd being a mindless Homelander fan, which gets worse when we see that [[spoiler: Todd has become an alt-right conspiracy nut who worships him even as he murders a protestor in broad daylight.]] To her credit, she makes it clear she does ''not'' approve of Todd taking Janine to Homelander's rallies and orders him to never do it again. |
| 908 | [[/folder]] |
| 909 | |
| 910 | [[folder:Janine Milk]] |
| 911 | !!Janine Milk |
| 912 | [[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/janine.jpg]] |
| 913 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Liyou Abere (season 3), Nalini Ingrita (season 1) |
| 914 | |
| 915 | Marvin's daughter. |
| 916 | ---- |
| 917 | * AdaptationalAngstDowngrade: ''Oh boy'', where to begin? In the comics, she's got an awful relationship with her father, she's rapidly aging and looks like a grown woman despite being a child, hangs out with some really unpleasant guys, and her mother is a depraved drug addict who [[spoiler:tries to rope her into shooting ''incest porn'' with her]]. Here, she's a normal, healthy young girl with two loving parents. |
| 918 | * AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the comic, Janine is a BrattyTeenageDaughter. Jannine in the show is a sweet and cheerful girl. |
| 919 | * AdaptationalWimp: Sort of. In the comic Janine, like her father, is actually a Supe, but the only ability she ever demonstrates is accelerated aging. |
| 920 | * AdaptationNameChange: She's named Janine Wallis in the comics, likewise MM's real name isn't Marvin Milk, but Baron Wallis. |
| 921 | * AgeLift: Comic book Jannine is at least in her late teens, whereas TV series Jannine is a preteen. [[spoiler:Except that comic book Janine aged fast because of the Compound V in her body and is just a tween.]] |
| 922 | * CheerfulChild: She makes her first appearance by showing Marvin her drawings. |
| 923 | * DaddysGirl: She adores her father and he adores her back. |
| 924 | [[/folder]] |
| 925 | |
| 926 | [[folder:Todd]] |
| 927 | ->'''Portrayed By:''' Matthew Gorman |
| 928 | Monique's new husband, a teacher who is a fan of Homelander. |
| 929 | ---- |
| 930 | * AbusiveParents: He insists on bringing Janine along to Homelander rallies, which obviously infuriates both Marvin and Monique. On the surface, this is just him being stupid, but given that he [[spoiler:cheers after Homelander snaps and brutally murders a man at one of his rallies]], the whole thing becomes ''much'' more insidious. |
| 931 | * AllegoricalCharacter: For all the ordinary people who get sucked into conspiracy theories and personality cults by people that they blindly admire for validating their preconceptions. |
| 932 | * BeneathTheMask: On the surface, he appears to be a mild-mannered, somewhat passive-aggressive man who wants to be a good stepfather to Janine. On the inside, he's the kind of person so consumed by loyalty to Homelander that he's actually not all that different from him. |
| 933 | * BullyingADragon: Has the gall to tell Marvin, who's ex-military and twice his size, that he's a better father than him to his face. He gets knocked out in one punch for his troubles. |
| 934 | * FaceHeelTurn: Todd starts out as a decent man who's on good terms with Marvin, but as the season progresses, he starts to become more obsessed with [[TheSociopath Homelander]] and his personality cult. [[spoiler:In the season finale, he is the first of Homelander's supporters to cheer his murder of a protester.]] |
| 935 | * HateSink: Todd doesn't start off as one as he's initially presented as a fairly decent guy who gets along with Monique, Janine, and MM, though he soon starts to raise red flags when he reveals that he looks up to and supports Homelander and encourages Janine with the same interest, something which upsets MM and makes him more cautious and this problem only worsens Todd's character throughout Season 3. He becomes fully detestable when [[spoiler:Homelander kills a protester at a rally Todd attends and he reacts by applauding Homelander's actions, revealing him to be so enthralled by Homelander's influence that he's willing to support him in his worst acts.]] |
| 936 | * HeroWorshipper: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]], as the series goes on, Todd becomes increasingly obsessed with Homelander in spite of MM's constant warnings that Homelander is not who he seems to be. [[spoiler:By the time of the season 3 finale, Todd is so far gone that he's the first to cheer Homelander on when he murders a Starlight fan in broad daylight.]] |
| 937 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Subverted. He initially seems like one since he greatly admires Homelander, even after Homelander goes on an unhinged rant on how much better he is than everyone. [[spoiler:By the finale of Season 3, Todd reveals that he loves Homelander specifically ''for'' being a murderous narcissist.]] |
| 938 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Has a hatred for the "mainstream media" for supposedly concealing truths that only Homelander is willing to tell. Homelander has made numerous appearances on popular talk shows and is in control of Vought's version of Fox News, ironically making his sources of information much more mainstream and corporately influenced than he claims. The similarity to Fox News loyalists is overt. |
| 939 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: His fanboying over Homelander greatly disturbs MM, as MM knows what a monster Homelander is. |
| 940 | * JerkassHasAPoint: It was hurtful for him to tell MM that his daughter needs a father, but MM has been neglectful to Janine due to him working with the Boys and then getting obsessed over Soldier Boy. |
| 941 | * LoonyFan: He is a major fan of Homelander, so fanatically loyal to him that [[spoiler:seeing him kill an innocent in broad daylight makes him love Homelander ''more'']]. |
| 942 | * {{Manchild}}: Todd's admiration of Homelander [[spoiler:but goes into full-blown [[PsychopathicManchild psycho territory]] once he cheers on Homelander murdering a protestor.]] |
| 943 | * ObliviouslyEvil: Todd is a fan of Homelander, but he, like most of the public, isn't aware of Homelander's true persona. [[spoiler:By the time Homelander reveals his true self in public, Todd is so far gone that learning what a monster Homelander is only strengthens his devotion.]] |
| 944 | * RippedFromTheHeadlines: The conspiracy theory he got from Homelander that Starlight is sex trafficking children is the Supe version of Pizzagate. |
| 945 | * TookALevelInJerkass: He's first introduced as a mild-mannered fan of superheroes, but as he starts listening more and more to Homelander he becomes an unhinged conspiracy theorist, and by the end of season 3, [[spoiler:he cheers when Homelander murders a civilian in broad daylight]]. |
| 946 | * WhatYouAreInTheDark: At a rally, Homelander [[spoiler:straight up murders a Starlight supporter in full view of everyone. Everyone is in shock... until Todd just starts cheering. He had the opportunity to leave or just remain silent, but instead, he showed his true colors]]. |
| 947 | * WickedStepfather: Not intentionally, but he is pushing his support of Homelander onto his stepdaughter, greatly upsetting MM. |
| 948 | [[/folder]] |
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