I'm not going to argue in favor of a redemption arc. But just for discussion purposes: Do you think that Jaime Lannister showed any 'indications of internal conflict in regards to how he treats people' prior to getting his hand cut off?

I think there are some pretty big differences here. Jamie did awful things because of his sister, like when he pushed Bran out of the window he was looking at his sister as he did so. A lot of his bad actions were a direct result of her. When separated from her he was fairly honorable. Not completely, but it's not like his redemption started from scratch. For homelander, his bad influence is himself, his own ego and narcissism that he was raised into, it is a lot harder to escape from that.

Plus Jamie was knocked off his pedestal, so to speak, and reminded he was only human. He recieved mercy and compassion and friendship from people who had no need to give him any. Do you think homelander could be brought down to the level Jamie was, given his power?

This post was edited by Blah58 on Oct 4 2020 10:35pm

It would be quite a stretch, considering this is a big budget series with only 8 episodes per season that has a lot of plotlines to stretch itself across. And, again, I'm not trying to argue in favor of a redemption plot.

But, just for the purposes of discussion, I think there would be two ways to concoct a storyline in which HL's power isn't a barrier to some development:

1: Temporary power loss

-We saw it with Starlight. S2E6 threw out new info that SL needed nearby electricity to have any power.
- S2E7 The cell that SL was being kept in, LL described it as 'supe proof'
-Noir has a nut allergy. A-train's heart condition slowed down his powers.
-Superman has kryptonite. Why can't HL have a weakness as well?

It doesn't seem impossible to me that the story could concoct some scenario in which Homelander is put in a situation in which he can't rely on his powers. Being normal for awhile allows him to connect with Ryan and Butcher in a different way.

2: Being around a group whose powers are comparable to his.

It's still unsure who is actually more powerful between HL, Noir, Maeve, SF, Ryan and any other mystery supes who haven't been revealed yet (such as Edgar or the Church leader). If enough other powerful supes were around, perhaps HL could be part of a 'normal' social group and thus be forced to develop social skills other than just managing his relationships with fear.

I'll reiterate that I am not arguing that the show should or will do a redemption arc. I'm only saying that the fact that he hasn't shown any 'indications of internal conflict in regards to how he treats people' isn't proof that it couldn't happen. The fact that it can't happen would have to be other factors (like limited screen time or the fact that this show doesn't really take things this deep)

This post was edited by Kayeto on Oct 4 2020 11:21pm

I agree if he found a group of supers who weren't terrified of him and called him on his shit it might bring him down slightly, but I still think the issue of none of them having empathy for normal humans would still be an issue. I personally think a redemption arc needs set up and needs to improve a story (beyond peoples generic wanting of a redemption arc for whatever psychological reason). For example I hated kylo rens redemption arc and I think he was a far more interesting villian. Seeing him completely fall imo would have been a much better story worth watching (not talking about opinion of the new movies as a whole, just the one aspect).

Very appropriate way to make a season finale. It produced a lot of closure while also setting the stage for a new chapter.

I don't remember the last time I walked away from a season finale feeling so satisfied.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Oct 8 2020 07:22pm

The show started off great, I thought nerdy dude was gunna kill all the heros with the Doom guy. But instead he spares A-trains life and pretty much becomes friends with him, and they haven’t killed any heros since the first few episodes.

Xena just poppin up outta nowhere in the final fight was dumb too. At least Doom guys cheating wife got merked.

There is so much wrong with everything you said, but cheating wife? That is just factually incorrect.

Agreed. S1E1 created this perception that this was the kind of show that would have the balls to kill off main characters. But since there have been a lot of the same bullshit tactics (fakeout deaths, deus ex machinas). The show does have a habit of introducing side characters so they can kill them off later for drama points.




Its might not be incorrect, depending how broadly someone defines 'cheating'. For example, does kissing count as cheating? We didn't see exactly how the dynamic evolved in that room.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Oct 9 2020 08:30pm

Cheating WfE!

Jaime did bad things to protect the ones he loved. That was a huge part of his redemption arc.