YMMV / The Boys Diabolical S 1 E 08 One Plus One Equals Two

• Fridge Horror: Homelander’s relationship with Madelyn is given an even more disturbing implication than before, after it shows that she was one of the people in charge of conditioning him as a child. When she encourages Homelander to compete with Black Noir, she gropes him into getting an erection, which he appears uncomfortable with. With this in mind, and that she is Homelander’s main authority figure, it’s very possible that she groomed him into being her sexual partner as a child. With his handler and mother figure also being his sexual abuser, it’s no wonder he ended up so twisted.
• Harsher in Hindsight: This episode shows that Black Noir corrupted Homelander into becoming the PR driven sociopath he is today. That comes back to bite Black Noir in the ass when in the main show's season 3 finale, Homelander kills Noir for betraying his father, Soldier Boy and keeping his relation a secret from him.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Every single one of a young John’s childhood memories, all of which include some form of abuse being inflicted on him.
  • Homelander accidentally blowing up a gun with his Eye Beams, which explodes half of a poor hostage’s head. His reaction makes it even more haunting.
  • In a fit of dissociative rage, Homelander brutally kills the terrorists AND hostages, and doesn’t even realize it until he notices he’s holding a human torso.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The eco-terorists are supposed to be seen as victims and at worst Well-Intentioned Extremists, but the fact remains that they took a bunch of innocent workers hostage at gunpoint and threatened to kill them if their demands weren't met. Homelander also gave them every chance to surrender peacefully, by disarming them without using lethal force and afterwards making it clear he was willing to take them in alive. Meanwhile the eco-terorists themselves continuously endangered the hostages by pointing at first functional, then defective weapons at them and wouldn't stop needlessly antagonizing Homelander. So when things finally start to go horribly wrong and they all end up killed by Homelander during a rage-induced dissociative episode, it reads less like a preventable tragedy and more like a bunch of overly aggressive idiots getting their comeuppance for being Too Dumb to Live.

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