In-Universe, Hughie accuses Butcher of trying to groom him into a pawn and a successor for the Boys, not actually caring about him when Vought captures the rest of the team. The thing is that Butcher's initial plans with Hughie minimized the potential danger: all he had to do was sneak a bug into the men's room, and then return to his normal life. There was no way that Butcher could have foreseen that Translucent is a creep in the bathrooms and an idiot who would hunt down Hughie personally after seeing him plant the bug. Not to mention that Butcher could have let Translucent kill Hughie but took him on to let the other guy have a chance to run, being completely surprised that Hughie turned around and helped with some quick thinking. Indeed, there are hints that Hughie is Butcher's Morality Pet.
Given the great Adaptational Intelligence he displays many times in the show when compared to his comic book counterpart, some have called into question whether or not Homelander intentionally damaged the control board, seeing it as a better situation to exploit for the military joining rather than actually saving their lives.
In a flashback, a young Homelander kills one of his tutors by crushing her in a hug with his Super-Strength after said tutor lied about being his mother (she was humoring him after the topic of families came up and he had asked her if she was his mother). Was her death an accident, the result of an untrained child supe losing control because he was too elated at the thought of finally having someone who will love and care for him? Or was her death deliberate, as John could tell she was lying and made her pay for playing with his feelings?
Mesmer. Is he a selfish asshole who never really cared about his daughter, first losing custody of her and then ignoring a chance to at least have meetings with her, or did he come to realize that there was just no way to mend the divide and have a relationship with her and decided the better option was to stay out from her life and not ruin it any further? Was his phone call a case of Shoo the Dog in case his betraying the Boys went wrong? The latter would make his death a bit heartbreaking in hindsight.
Madelyn Stillwell is incontestably a Corrupt Corporate Executive. However, her ability to hide her genuine feelings makes it unclear how much her understated reaction or even approval of some of Homelander's more sociopathic decisions (such as his shooting down a private jet with a child aboard or creation of Compound V-infused terrorists for him to fight) is founded in genuinely being as horrible a person as he is, as opposed to simply being scared shitless of the living god she's been tasked with managing and wanting to maintain at least some level of control over someone who she has no way of stopping.
Frenchie may not really be French (and casting an Israeli actor to play him is an intentional nod to that). In the comics, he's hinted to have adopted the French persona many years before while in actuality being, probably, British. Season 3 further muddles Frenchie's background when it's revealed that he worked with the Russian mafia under the name Sergei, suggesting that he's actually Russian.
Does Homelander actually care about Ryan? Or is he just trying to groom the boy into becoming an Overlord Jr.?
Stormfront is implicated in the death of Jeffery Epstein. Is this a case of Even Evil Has Standards or did she target him because he was Jewish, considering her past as a member of the actual Nazi party or was it a scapegoat situation?
Just how much guilt does The Deep really feel over his history of sexual harassment and assault? Before being exposed as a predator, he seems completely unfazed about it. His Season 2 arc definitely shows him as being more concerned with getting back into The Seven than making genuine amends, but does that mean that he doesn't feel any remorse at all, or does he but his narcissism is just overpowering it? After all, given he himself was raped after his reputation was ruined, it's not hard to imagine that he gained some level of empathy for the women that he himself raped. Muddling up the issue is his drug-induced hallucination. It certainly implies he's aware that what he's done is wrong and provokes an emotional reaction, but given it's also dealing with his own insecurity over his appearance, are the tears he's shedding just for himself, or are they on some level for his victims? Then there's when he meets Starlight again. He's quick to apologize and admits to her that he understands that his road to redemption is a long and difficult one, putting up little fight when she continues to call him out. Is he speaking from the heart or is he just saying whatever he thinks will make him look good?
Additionally, in the scene where he gets raped, since he's a powerful superhuman, he should logically be able to overpower a normal woman. Is he not doing so just because it's too difficult with her messing with his extremely sensitive gills, has he become so depressed that he can't find it in himself to put up any more of a fight, or could guilt be playing a role in it all, and he's just resigned himself to suffering the same ordeal as his victims as a form of self-punishment? Or, was he afraid that fighting back would make him look like the attacker, landing him into even more trouble?
Homelander appears very uncomfortable when Stormfront starts trying to indoctrinate Ryan with her "white genocide" nonsense. He's racist himself, but is racism as an aggressive political ideology too much for him? Is his racism based more on a belief in Supe Supremacy rather than white supremacy? Or is he more personally irritated by Stormfront lying since that's his Berserk Button?
How much does Stan Edgar actually care about the things that Vought does? He makes a valid point about black men not having the same luxury of expressing their anger as their white counterparts do, but he goes along with Stormfront and Homelander's plans every step of the way, clearly knowing full well what Stormfront intends to do and never gives any hint of being opposed to either Homelander's or his company's many wrongdoings. As CEO he could be instrumental in reshaping the company, or he could just as easily resign rather than condone the ongoing employment and repeated re-marketing of a literal Nazi. Could be he's just using that as an excuse to pretend to be sympathetic in spite of not doing anything. A flashback scene in season 3 where he meets with a young Black Noir shows him convincing the latter to hide his ethnicity for the sake of (at the time) good publicity, so his loyalty to his own race is questionable at least.
Homelander not letting Silver Kincaid onto the Seven is justified by himself as not wanting a Muslim on the team. However, considering one of her listed powers is Telepathy, it's also possible that Homelander realises that being around her too often would allow her to discover all of his secrets.
Stan Edgar promoted Black Noir as Vought's number one hero after Soldier Boy's faked death and kidnapping, until Homelander was old enough to take over, and kept Noir as his closest asset after the fact. Did he do that because he was apologetic for the injuries Noir sustained in the battle with Soldier Boy, or because Noir's traumatic brain injury made him easier to control and Edgar wanted a personal assassin on call?
Was Black Noir truly Homelander's friend? All of Noir's gestures of good showing can be attributable to benefiting Vought and, as Soldier Boy put it, "Noir doesn't shit without Vought's say so." From the very beginning since Noir helped Homelander cover up the murders from his very first mission, Noir could have been going along with Vought's orders. Homelander himself seems to realize this when he vulnerably ask's Noir why he didn't tell him that his father was alive (because Vought clearly wouldn't want it).
Todd cheering for Homelander after the latter kills a Starlight supporter that threw a bottle at Ryan. Did he cheer for Homelander under the belief that his idol could do no wrong, or was he afraid that he and the rest of the people there might be his next target if they didn't placate his anger somehow?
Homelander's shocked response to his followers cheering after he killed a Starlight supporter. Was he pleasantly surprised to find out his followers remained loyal to him and he really can do what he wants? Was he afraid of the potential aftermath from his non-supporters? Or was he disgusted at his supporters?
Soldier Boy
Soldier Boy is known to use a lot of homoerotic insults and is hypermasculine to the point where he hates any display of vulnerability, weakness, and men caring for their families. His fixation on using homophobic remarks, phallic insults, and using homoerotic insults could very well imply that Soldier Boy is bisexual or a deeply closeted gay man due to the criminalization of homosexuality during the 1940s. Soldier Boy's relationship with Crimson Countess could have been arranged by Vought for publicity or done by Soldier Boy to hide his sexuality.
Despite how toxic the writers tried to make Soldier Boy, a lot of fans have taken to him and root for him. The main reason being that he isn't wrong about Homelander. Homelander is a complete psycho with no redeeming qualities whatsoever while Soldier Boy actually does love America more than just being a good spokesman for the company. Homelander has also murdered hundreds of people to cover up his mistakes while Soldier Boy regrets killing innocents. Soldier Boy is also well aware about his flaws and see them all in Homelander and he is determined to fix his mistakes by putting Homelander down even if the outward reasoning is to be "Top Alpha". Soldier Boy comes off as a broken man seeking redemption and peace while Homelander is a petulant manchild.
Soldier Boy's insistence on his service in World War 2, is he actually claiming that he served in World War 2 despite the evidence to the contrary, or does he genuinely believe he served in the war because of his traumas in Russia or age-related memory issues?
