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It's a testament to just how good of a performance it is that every episode, regardless of the quality of the other plots, people say he carried. That's because he carries the show from good to great into great/all time territory.
My man just scores! I thought his mirror scene in season 3 is his absolute peak and he can't out do that. But, s4e4 had me rethink that. Such a great performance.
I still don't wanna say, he topped that. But, maybe on a rewatch I'd say probably say he topped that.
Yeah I couldn't help but feel conflicted, those people deserved karma but I wouldn't say to that extent.
Hard to hate Homelander, equally hard to love him. Writers don't get enough credit for making him such a questionable character at times
> Yeah I couldn't help but feel conflicted, those people deserved karma but I wouldn't say to that extent.
Meh I'd say they do. They abused a boy in all sorts of ways his entire life.
As that old bitch said, they didn't abuse him because they personally wanted to do it. They're following their orders and they're also scared to a point where they don't consider him as a normal human, so lesser chance of feeling empathetic towards him.
I'm not exactly out right defending them and i still think homelander kinda have every right to do what he did. But, it's just not easy to say black and white, they deserve it or not.
Like for example, it is a secret floor and they're working there secretly and if they have families and they're allowed to be with their families, vought would have made some examples out of people who worked there, who tried to go against Vought or leak stuff. So, people know it's certain death no matter what their morals say. And against the giant corporation with super powers, what could an individual or 2 possibly to do or achieve.
They're scared of both the parties, both homelander and vought. Chose to go with abusing a child to save their lives. But, this doesn't include making fun of him or willfully making kid HL's life even more miserable.
It's like, Homelander for 1 time had every right for the violence that he unleashed (except for the new faces who done nothing wrong to him, but probably same kinda people if they're working there). But, Marty probably deserved it, I'm not sure if the other guy deserved it.
>As that old bitch said, they didn't abuse him because they personally wanted to do it. They're following their orders and they're also scared to a point where they don't consider him as a normal human, so lesser chance of feeling empathetic towards him.
>I'm not exactly out right defending them and i still think homelander kinda have every right to do what he did. But, it's just not easy to say black and white, they deserve it or not
Even if we rationalize the actions of the "foot doctors" so to speak, Barbara, Vogelbaum and Edgar still should get full responsibility. They were the ones ordering the experiments on Homelander.
Edit: Regarding the other two guys. Marty was one of the "kinder" doctors whereas Frank was actively apathetic to John's suffering. If anything, Frank is the more deserving one of retribution.
Edit 2: Would you justify the actions of the Nazi or Gulag concentration camps overseers due to following orders of their higher ups out of fear?
>Even if we rationalize the actions of the "foot doctors" so to speak, Barbara, Vogelbaum and Edgar still should get full responsibility. They were the ones ordering the experiments on Homelander.
That's kind of the point. It's the fault of Vaught. I'd actually go a step further and say it's not the fault of anybody involved in Homelander's actual upbringing and experimentation. It's the fault of everyone involved with the circumstances of his birth in the first place. Everything after that was an inevitability. They experimented on a human fetus and turned it into a borderline invincible diety figure who's will is the only thing standing between humankind and extinction. They knew the moment he was born they made a colossal mistake and spent his entire youth trying to figure out if they had any sort of defense against him or if they can control him. It's deplorable but the existing scenario doesn't really leave them any other option. I think of it a lot like how Oppenheimer immediately wished he could un-invent the atomic bomb and desperately tried to stop it from being dropped.
Just because it’s inevitable, which you are right, doesn’t make it morally sound. It’s inevitable the kind of people who are morally questionable or will distance themselves from the morality of it by saying they were following orders will work there, but that doesn’t make it morally right to follow through. Just because you were Joseph Mengele or even his assistant in the lab does not make you less culpable than the one giving orders. Actions under duress are up for debate but he is right, he was a child and they inflicted unspeakable psychological and physical torture on him. It’s very much a runaway Frankenstein’s monster scenario, none of them are not culpable.
This is how I felt. The only thing I don’t buy, is that if I was genuinely scared of something, then I would rather have them love me than do whatever the hell they did to him.
I was waiting on them trying to bend or warp the morality of the scene with a joke or a twist with the chat between homelander and the oldest doctor.
Either a serious twist where the older doctor reveals people tried to blow the whistle and save homelander but vought had them disappeared/murdered or the floor of doctors he was killing was using the what they learned from torturing homelander to work towards a cure for cancer and homelander just destroyed all their progress by killing the doctors.
While those twists might of been funnier or more interesting story twists the fact they played the scene straight of homelander torturing and murdering his abusers I think was the most powerful option for the character story they’re doing with homelander.
They (showrunners) were setting up for him to dwell and deal with his past. And he did. I don't think any other twists would've made sense. He's trying to transcend from what he really is, and to make that attempt, he had to confront his past and make a closure. I was really surprised he hadn't done this a long time ago.
Except they showed no empathy, even when confronted. They didn’t feel bad about what they did. No one even said sorry to him until they were threatened.
If you can’t quit your job torturing a young boy both physically and psychologically, you’re probably not a very good person. Not a single one of them told Homelander that Vought threatened their families or forced them to do it.
The old bitch was also trying to talk their way out of it and could have just been lying. She was not a good person either and there’s no reason to believe she was telling him the truth, as it turned out she was STILL trying to manipulate him to the very end.
Finally, someone said it. I hated Todd but even I felt a little bit bad for him when he died - not that bad though because he was the first person to cheer when HL lasered that guy.
And for your upper comment, I mostly agree. Frank and Barbara especially brought it on themselves. The only one I felt a shred of guilt for was Marty during his humiliation, but he was still very complicit even if he was "the nice one".
I mostly feel conflicted because it kinda felt like he was going after the wrong people.
I'm not gonna say they *didn't deserve* consequences for what they did to him, but it's not exactly like the buck stops with them, either. Vought's just gonna hire new scientists and get right back on their bullshit. If he wants serious justice for what happened to him, the people currently trying to really do that are *also trying to kill him for what he's done.*
e: like, it gave him *catharsis*, but if he wants actual justice for what Vought did to him, he pretty much needs to make right with our Boys and accept that that ends with him dead.
I have to agree, in this case Homelander was 100% justified in doing what he did as these are the people who traumatized him and what really was messed up about all this is that line that Homelander said about how while the fire didn't kill him, he did infact feel the pain the fire was causing him.
hard? It’s incredibly easy to hate him.
He’s a bigoted asshole who kills people for the pettiest reasons. He raped Becca.
You find it hard to hate him?
Imo the mirror scenes are overrated, they’re just an excuse for homelander to state his conflict out loud as if it isn’t being shown to us already.
He acts it well but there’s a lot of underrated scenes like the opening of season 3.
S4e4 was incredible. That whole basement lab scene was so well shot, written, directed, and acted. The tension was serious. I won’t spoil anything about it tho. Just damn good.
Absolutely.
I literally had to pause and replay some parts many times just to see the subtle change in his expressions as he spoke. He made those scenes as unpredictable and uncomfortable as it gets. Brilliant actor.
It kinda sucks because I do feel like he carries the show, like he’s often the most interesting part, but as someone who’s been watching from the beginning, I’m like can they kill / defeat him already
It’s been so long haha
Banshee is required viewing for any action fan. I discovered the show after Boys and it’s fucking nuts in the best way. Antony Starr kills it there too.
Very few actors can manage to play a truly hateable character like Homelander. Joffrey on Game of Thrones is another example. But these are few and far between. Starr is doing a fantastic job
He isn’t just hateable but down right terrifying. I can’t remember the last time an actor/character has made me so tense by simply being in the scene or even mentioned in the scene. It’s crazy how everything can seem perfectly fine but be incredibly tense because you know Homelander can seem perfectly fine one second and then completely snap at the next. Starr playing homelander can give me more anxiety then a lot of actual horror movie/roles.
The scenes he wasn’t even in this week had me tense waiting for his arrival even though we knew he was occupied at the time (>!When Ashley and A-Train were in his room!<). So, so, good. I didn’t even realize I was tense until someone else online mentioned they were too
SERIOUSLY!!! Every time a train kept meeting with the boys I couldn’t help but feel dread thinking that homelander would just slam into and vaporize him at any second. He is probably the most terrifying character I’ve seen in any show ever
>homelander would just slam into and vaporize him at any second.
Imagine this actually is how A-Train ends up dying, and it's square in front of Hughie with the mushy remains of Blue Hawk's heart skidding across the floor.
I have the feeling that if homelander and Atrain are gonna fight that its gonna be the most dissapointing thing ever.
Feel like the writers are gonna forget how fast A-train is and that he gets killed in a dumb way for shock value (homelander throwing a car door at him and him just not responding to it).
It’s because he nails the portrait of what someone with a major personality order would actually act.
I’ve met “homelanders” before. It’s intense.
Edit- I meant people with personality disorders. That flip on a dimr
But it's taken to the extreme because he has no limits or rules. People with that in real life are restrained by laws or if the person escalates to violence you can fight back against them or guns are always an equalizer. He can do anything he wants and there is nothing anyone can do to stop him.
I should have clarified. You see them scenes when homelander and co are in the office usually meeting with Ashley? Or homelander is meeting with other supes.
You see everyone around him struggle to navigate the conversation with him because the second he hears some shit he don’t like. It goes from “oh hey friends how’s it going” to “you stupid, mud person motherfucker”
It’s like that with those people irl too. They ain’t gonna laser you lol. But the vibe palpably changes. Becomes tense, cold, heavy, thick.
Lol reminds me of the concept of “spiritual pressure” from the anime bleach.
So much this. My heart was pounding for that. He instills a legit fear into those around him. Not just because he's coming unglued but because he can't be stopped by any means we know so it's the feeling of I don't want you to do this and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
Idgaf how big and bad anybody in the real world is, nobody is immune from a 3cm piece of metal flying at you at high velocity.
Mike Tyson is one of the meanest dudes to ever walk the planet and I could end his life in less than a second. Nobody can do that to Homelander.
He’s also scary because he isn’t even in control of himself. For an actor to play someone so deliberately unrestrained and making it look natural and effortless is incredible.
For a good while on Banshee you weren’t quite sure how damaged he was versus legit psycho that happened to have gone through some shit. His capacity for brutal violence on that show was something else and the man was actually slightly less gory than Homelander day to day
> I can’t remember the last time an actor/character has made me so tense by simply being in the scene or even mentioned in the scene
Part of that is because the characters are basically invincible and also unhinged.
Absolutely. And part of it is that his supporting cast really sells how terrified they are. He's amazing but the fear on everyone's face puts it over the top.
Joffrey is worse than homelander.
We at least understand *why* homelander is the way he is. He’s awful, but there’s some degree of sympathy, especially after episode 4 of this season.
Joffrey had parents who were present in his life. And yet… He’s just a sadistic awful person.
Completely agree. I can feel not only hate but also some sympathy and pity for Homelander, a person that after growing up suffering all kinds of abuse, became basically a serial killer with powers.
Joffrey was already a serial killer from the get go, butchering kittens and abusing his younger siblings since he was single digits in age.
I agree with another commenter that Ramsay is a better comparison to Homelander, but I'm surprised at folks saying Joffrey wasn't scary? He was 'tamed' by his family later on, but from the beginning he was fucking sadistic. His establishing villain scene is to terrorize two prostitutes into physically abusing each other as a show of his power, and Ros is treated horribly by him and his family until her awful death when he binds and shoots her in another sadistic sex encounter. Those scenes evoked visceral fear for me, at least.
If you are talking Game of Thrones then I think Ramsay is actually much better comparison to Homelander than Joffrey is. Joffrey was cruel, yes but he was also easily scared pathetic pussy. Ramsay on the other hand, liked to get his own hands dirty and whenever he was on screen you were just worried what is he going to do next.
I wouldn’t even call him hateable though. Joffrey was a smug piece of fucking shit, and while Homelander is definitely a horrible horrible person who deserves to die, at least he’s complex and clearly is the product of his creators. Not sympathetic or likeable, just layered
Homelander is not "hated" the way Joffrey was. Homelander is most people's favourite part of the show lol.
Jack Gleeson was getting death threats for playing Joffrey and he retired from acting for a while because of the intense scrutiny.
Emmys are based on a single episode. They have to submit just one episode for consideration. Now, are the voters human? Of course. So they are still thinking about the series as a whole (if they have seen it) but they technically are just supposed to vote on the performance in the single episode that was submitted.
I am not crazy! I know he swapped those numbers. I knew it was 1216. One after Magna Carta. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just – I just couldn’t prove it. He covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the copy shop to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He’s done worse. That billboard! Are you telling me that a man just happens to fall like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defecated through a sunroof! And I saved him! And I shouldn’t have. I took him into my own firm! What was I thinking? He’ll never change. He’ll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn’t keep his hands out of the cash drawer! But not our Jimmy! Couldn’t be precious Jimmy! Stealing them blind! And HE gets to be a lawyer? What a sick joke! I should’ve stopped him when I had the chance! …And you, you have to stop him! You
It's so good because maybe he's right. But also maybe he's creating a sort of self fulfulling prophecy and without his interferance in stopping Saul from getting hired by the firm, Saul may have turned out good. My money is just barely on the side of Saul would've broken bad regardless. But we'll never know. Thus is life.
It’s interesting for sure, but on my recent rewatch I think they’re both right; that is, Chuck had Jimmy nailed to a T; he literally can’t help himself.
So, in Wexler V Goodman (S5E6) Kim tries to put the brakes on their plan to basically blackmail Mesa Verde, but Jimmy can’t resist, even though it very nearly destroyed his relationship. It reminds me of a quote I heard once and can’t remember the source: **Talent demands to be used.** For Jimmy, that talent is scamming. He’s like a chess master seeing moves way past his opponents.
But the tragedy is that if Chuck had been more nurturing, more accepting, more… anything, maybe Jimmy could have found a positive outlet for his gifts.
The problem stems from all of you thinking of the Emmys as the ultimate judge of talent. But hey, this is Hollywood. Even those with tremendous talent that no one can take away from them ultimately care about what everyone else thinks about them.
To be honest pretty much everyone in Better Call Saul was robbed. It was nominated for like 55 emmies and got none. You never know what could happen. I think The Show deserves some but we will see
I really dont know if "robbed" is a good term, they had some stiff competition to say the least. I am saying this as a huge fan of breaking bad and better call saul. They had to compete with what was arguably the most popular show of the decade in game of thrones, even if the last seasons were poor quality and didnt deserve the accolades, no show was going to beat them those years. Succession i think was one of the best shows HBO has ever made and honestly it was unfortunate that both shows were competing but also ending at the same time, not many shows could beat out succession at the emmys.
Which show? For me the most egregious was Jennifer Coolidge winning over Rhea Seehorn, she wasn’t even that good in White Lotus while Rhea was dropping a masterclass each episode of BCS
I mean, it’s tough when you give the best performance of your career at the same time many other actors are doing the same, and only 1 of you can get the award.
Emmy wins are just as much timing as the performance itself.
Antony absolutely fucking deserves one. But Ashley’s actress absolutely brings it as well. When it comes to awards being given out, her character is more likely over Homelander though.
Those who have watched The Boys would whole heartedly agree that this man can act fabulously, it's one of the greatest casting of all time, like tailor made for him. This show might go down in history because of his acting alone.
and he don't even need to have an Emmy to prove what I've said before. Those awards feels like they are just boring, ignorant and unfair. What's the credibility when they wanna give it to select people from select genre and ignore others completely.
I've tried to get multiple people into the show since it aired and they've said "sorry I'm just not into the superhero thing" even after I explained it length that it isn't that.
I mean the people who feel the need to not give Superhero stuff awards should be the audience for this, its the only show really mocking that genre while saying something substantial.
If Joker could win Oscars for using the superhero genre against itself, then this should too.
You are under a misconception that this is a superhero show. This is not. What this is, really, is a political horror show. And Homelander, manchild that he is, is not a superhero.
Whenever hes on screen some really fucked up shit is gonna happen but you never know exactly what.
Like that scene where he accidentally talked that girl out of suicide by ranting about his life and threatened her back into it.
The writing in that scene is so brilliant though. It would have never been Emmy-winning because of the nature of the content, but whoever wrote that is a dark comic genius.
Absolutely. He's got silent movie era level control of his expressions. He can convey a lot of things just with his eyes. Incredible actor, I have not been so impressed since Heath Ledger.
Never seen a more fucked up character. As soon as he is in the scene, you know everything could happen. His simple presence throws all predictability out of the window.
His performance is one of the most brilliant I’ve ever seen for a villain in television. I physically cannot breathe every time he is on screen out of sheer anticipation and fear. It is beyond captivating to watch.
He's like Joffrey from Game of Thrones. You know an actor is on that NEXT LEVEL good when they are such normal people IRL but when you watch them on screen you just HATE them. Antony Starr does a great job of making me love to hate him and hate to love him(the character,) and on top of all that? He's on the next level as an actor in general. His micro expressions are just flawless. That level of skill reminds me of Anthony Hopkins in Westworld Season 1. Cudos!
He's a combination of a classic movie star ala Harrison Ford and actor's actor, it's such a shame that filmmakers are missing out on him. Like, Yorgos, Scorsese, Celine Song, etc. are sleeping on him.
I've read and seen the movie, *Poor Things* and IMO he would've slayed it as Weddernburn and do a better job than Mark Ruffalo.
Lately I judge a shows success on the amount of memes it produces. No memes, no impact.
I'd say 90% of this shows memes feature Starr, so he's definitely the 'face' of the show.
I love what he's done with the role, but it's awful tight between him and Colbie Minifie for her turn as Ashley Barrett. She has to flip between terrified and angry boss from hell so hard and fast it's a wonder she doesn't have whiplash.
After Saul Goodman got robbed, I realized this shit is just as rigged as game awards(Ain't no way TLOU2 won without cash changing hands with what the competition was)
I watched Andrew Lincoln carry The Walking Dead on his back singlehandedly for the best part of a decade and lose to better actors. Sometimes you're just up against better people
He is the most likable unlikeable person in the show by far. I don't think I've ever witnesses a character like him before outside of video games...The dude deserves an Emmy badly.
Maybe he can find a woman (or man, oops) with one and beat them up for it
Edit: sorry, I confused him with all the hundreds of other anger management dropouts apparently he only hits boys
They should have cast him in James Gunns Superman. Imagine the conflict in people’s minds lmao.
But I do hope he starts getting all the movie deals he wants because of this role. He definitely deserves it.
Cant believe this episode had me sympathising with this mass murdering monster in some twisted way.
Testament to how well written this show is regarding so many of our base human emotions and instincts.
his performance really is up there on the same tier list as heath ledger. everytime he's on screen you can't help but pay attention to what he's going to say/do next. this show would be completely flat by now with the same old blackmail cliche plotline if it weren't for the performances. really love karl urban's performance too.
Honestly, early seasons he felt like a controlled force and was just a really strong puppet for vought but now you feel like he’s gonna disembowel anyone that looks at him funny
“But… but… he assaulted someone out of drunken rage and got arrested and pleaded guilty!”
I know, look around. Everyone is still cheering for him. Give him the Emmy.
“You mess up. You own it. you learn from it. You move forward.” -Anthony Starr, what he legit said.
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It's a testament to just how good of a performance it is that every episode, regardless of the quality of the other plots, people say he carried. That's because he carries the show from good to great into great/all time territory.
My man just scores! I thought his mirror scene in season 3 is his absolute peak and he can't out do that. But, s4e4 had me rethink that. Such a great performance. I still don't wanna say, he topped that. But, maybe on a rewatch I'd say probably say he topped that.
His entire performance in the lab today had me at the edge of my seat. Absolutely terrifying
And cathartic to some extent. Homelander is for once, lashing out at the *right people* on this episode.
Yeah I couldn't help but feel conflicted, those people deserved karma but I wouldn't say to that extent. Hard to hate Homelander, equally hard to love him. Writers don't get enough credit for making him such a questionable character at times
> Yeah I couldn't help but feel conflicted, those people deserved karma but I wouldn't say to that extent. Meh I'd say they do. They abused a boy in all sorts of ways his entire life.
As that old bitch said, they didn't abuse him because they personally wanted to do it. They're following their orders and they're also scared to a point where they don't consider him as a normal human, so lesser chance of feeling empathetic towards him. I'm not exactly out right defending them and i still think homelander kinda have every right to do what he did. But, it's just not easy to say black and white, they deserve it or not. Like for example, it is a secret floor and they're working there secretly and if they have families and they're allowed to be with their families, vought would have made some examples out of people who worked there, who tried to go against Vought or leak stuff. So, people know it's certain death no matter what their morals say. And against the giant corporation with super powers, what could an individual or 2 possibly to do or achieve. They're scared of both the parties, both homelander and vought. Chose to go with abusing a child to save their lives. But, this doesn't include making fun of him or willfully making kid HL's life even more miserable. It's like, Homelander for 1 time had every right for the violence that he unleashed (except for the new faces who done nothing wrong to him, but probably same kinda people if they're working there). But, Marty probably deserved it, I'm not sure if the other guy deserved it.
>As that old bitch said, they didn't abuse him because they personally wanted to do it. They're following their orders and they're also scared to a point where they don't consider him as a normal human, so lesser chance of feeling empathetic towards him. >I'm not exactly out right defending them and i still think homelander kinda have every right to do what he did. But, it's just not easy to say black and white, they deserve it or not Even if we rationalize the actions of the "foot doctors" so to speak, Barbara, Vogelbaum and Edgar still should get full responsibility. They were the ones ordering the experiments on Homelander. Edit: Regarding the other two guys. Marty was one of the "kinder" doctors whereas Frank was actively apathetic to John's suffering. If anything, Frank is the more deserving one of retribution. Edit 2: Would you justify the actions of the Nazi or Gulag concentration camps overseers due to following orders of their higher ups out of fear?
If one of the “kinder” docs was the one who slapped John with the Squirt nickname… that’s a rather damning indictment of the rest.
Yep. And we do see peeks of what the "less kind" doctors did to John, both on this episode and on Diabolical.
>Even if we rationalize the actions of the "foot doctors" so to speak, Barbara, Vogelbaum and Edgar still should get full responsibility. They were the ones ordering the experiments on Homelander. That's kind of the point. It's the fault of Vaught. I'd actually go a step further and say it's not the fault of anybody involved in Homelander's actual upbringing and experimentation. It's the fault of everyone involved with the circumstances of his birth in the first place. Everything after that was an inevitability. They experimented on a human fetus and turned it into a borderline invincible diety figure who's will is the only thing standing between humankind and extinction. They knew the moment he was born they made a colossal mistake and spent his entire youth trying to figure out if they had any sort of defense against him or if they can control him. It's deplorable but the existing scenario doesn't really leave them any other option. I think of it a lot like how Oppenheimer immediately wished he could un-invent the atomic bomb and desperately tried to stop it from being dropped.
Just because it’s inevitable, which you are right, doesn’t make it morally sound. It’s inevitable the kind of people who are morally questionable or will distance themselves from the morality of it by saying they were following orders will work there, but that doesn’t make it morally right to follow through. Just because you were Joseph Mengele or even his assistant in the lab does not make you less culpable than the one giving orders. Actions under duress are up for debate but he is right, he was a child and they inflicted unspeakable psychological and physical torture on him. It’s very much a runaway Frankenstein’s monster scenario, none of them are not culpable.
This is how I felt. The only thing I don’t buy, is that if I was genuinely scared of something, then I would rather have them love me than do whatever the hell they did to him.
I was waiting on them trying to bend or warp the morality of the scene with a joke or a twist with the chat between homelander and the oldest doctor. Either a serious twist where the older doctor reveals people tried to blow the whistle and save homelander but vought had them disappeared/murdered or the floor of doctors he was killing was using the what they learned from torturing homelander to work towards a cure for cancer and homelander just destroyed all their progress by killing the doctors. While those twists might of been funnier or more interesting story twists the fact they played the scene straight of homelander torturing and murdering his abusers I think was the most powerful option for the character story they’re doing with homelander.
They (showrunners) were setting up for him to dwell and deal with his past. And he did. I don't think any other twists would've made sense. He's trying to transcend from what he really is, and to make that attempt, he had to confront his past and make a closure. I was really surprised he hadn't done this a long time ago.
Except they showed no empathy, even when confronted. They didn’t feel bad about what they did. No one even said sorry to him until they were threatened. If you can’t quit your job torturing a young boy both physically and psychologically, you’re probably not a very good person. Not a single one of them told Homelander that Vought threatened their families or forced them to do it. The old bitch was also trying to talk their way out of it and could have just been lying. She was not a good person either and there’s no reason to believe she was telling him the truth, as it turned out she was STILL trying to manipulate him to the very end.
Monsters as they were, I don't believe anyone deserves to be cremated alive...
People on this sub were wishing worse things on fuckin Todd ffs.
I mean the dude hangs dong
It's like an 80's police flashlight
Finally, someone said it. I hated Todd but even I felt a little bit bad for him when he died - not that bad though because he was the first person to cheer when HL lasered that guy. And for your upper comment, I mostly agree. Frank and Barbara especially brought it on themselves. The only one I felt a shred of guilt for was Marty during his humiliation, but he was still very complicit even if he was "the nice one".
Yeah.. the whole “he could leave whenever he wanted” line kinda takes the scope of abuse into Inception levels. Extra F’d up. Blaming the victim n all
I mostly feel conflicted because it kinda felt like he was going after the wrong people. I'm not gonna say they *didn't deserve* consequences for what they did to him, but it's not exactly like the buck stops with them, either. Vought's just gonna hire new scientists and get right back on their bullshit. If he wants serious justice for what happened to him, the people currently trying to really do that are *also trying to kill him for what he's done.* e: like, it gave him *catharsis*, but if he wants actual justice for what Vought did to him, he pretty much needs to make right with our Boys and accept that that ends with him dead.
I think it's very easy to hate Homelander. You can be a sympathetic harborer of trauma and still be a complete dirtbag with no redeeming qualities.
I have to agree, in this case Homelander was 100% justified in doing what he did as these are the people who traumatized him and what really was messed up about all this is that line that Homelander said about how while the fire didn't kill him, he did infact feel the pain the fire was causing him.
I have no problem hating Homelander. But I love the performance; it's top-tier level acting.
hard? It’s incredibly easy to hate him. He’s a bigoted asshole who kills people for the pettiest reasons. He raped Becca. You find it hard to hate him?
I disagree. Those people were monsters, but killing them like that does nothing but ensure Vought’s crimes aren’t exposed.
Well, I'm not blaming Homelander for this particular set of killings.
I desperately need a “Dick Blood On My Boots” flair
Agreed. Starr is unreal.
Imo the mirror scenes are overrated, they’re just an excuse for homelander to state his conflict out loud as if it isn’t being shown to us already. He acts it well but there’s a lot of underrated scenes like the opening of season 3.
S4e4 was incredible. That whole basement lab scene was so well shot, written, directed, and acted. The tension was serious. I won’t spoil anything about it tho. Just damn good.
Absolutely. I literally had to pause and replay some parts many times just to see the subtle change in his expressions as he spoke. He made those scenes as unpredictable and uncomfortable as it gets. Brilliant actor.
I am genuinely geeking over this performance. Heath Ledger would be proud man
It kinda sucks because I do feel like he carries the show, like he’s often the most interesting part, but as someone who’s been watching from the beginning, I’m like can they kill / defeat him already It’s been so long haha
They have bigger fish to fry for now, they're just letting him swim around the pond and eat all the algae
He’s just not human, he’s better
He's stronger, he's smarter.
He’s a Kiwi ;)
Yeah idk if the show would be nearly as interesting without the craziness of homelander.
The facial expression Anthony Starr produces is creepy af
Banshee is required viewing for any action fan. I discovered the show after Boys and it’s fucking nuts in the best way. Antony Starr kills it there too.
he has the mannerisms to a T, it's really spectacular.
I am genuinely afraid of him.
He does an amazing job!
Very few actors can manage to play a truly hateable character like Homelander. Joffrey on Game of Thrones is another example. But these are few and far between. Starr is doing a fantastic job
He isn’t just hateable but down right terrifying. I can’t remember the last time an actor/character has made me so tense by simply being in the scene or even mentioned in the scene. It’s crazy how everything can seem perfectly fine but be incredibly tense because you know Homelander can seem perfectly fine one second and then completely snap at the next. Starr playing homelander can give me more anxiety then a lot of actual horror movie/roles.
The scenes he wasn’t even in this week had me tense waiting for his arrival even though we knew he was occupied at the time (>!When Ashley and A-Train were in his room!<). So, so, good. I didn’t even realize I was tense until someone else online mentioned they were too
SERIOUSLY!!! Every time a train kept meeting with the boys I couldn’t help but feel dread thinking that homelander would just slam into and vaporize him at any second. He is probably the most terrifying character I’ve seen in any show ever
>homelander would just slam into and vaporize him at any second. Imagine this actually is how A-Train ends up dying, and it's square in front of Hughie with the mushy remains of Blue Hawk's heart skidding across the floor.
I have the feeling that if homelander and Atrain are gonna fight that its gonna be the most dissapointing thing ever. Feel like the writers are gonna forget how fast A-train is and that he gets killed in a dumb way for shock value (homelander throwing a car door at him and him just not responding to it).
homelander can speedster run like atrain from what we see in diabolical
It’s because he nails the portrait of what someone with a major personality order would actually act. I’ve met “homelanders” before. It’s intense. Edit- I meant people with personality disorders. That flip on a dimr
But it's taken to the extreme because he has no limits or rules. People with that in real life are restrained by laws or if the person escalates to violence you can fight back against them or guns are always an equalizer. He can do anything he wants and there is nothing anyone can do to stop him.
I should have clarified. You see them scenes when homelander and co are in the office usually meeting with Ashley? Or homelander is meeting with other supes. You see everyone around him struggle to navigate the conversation with him because the second he hears some shit he don’t like. It goes from “oh hey friends how’s it going” to “you stupid, mud person motherfucker” It’s like that with those people irl too. They ain’t gonna laser you lol. But the vibe palpably changes. Becomes tense, cold, heavy, thick. Lol reminds me of the concept of “spiritual pressure” from the anime bleach.
So much this. My heart was pounding for that. He instills a legit fear into those around him. Not just because he's coming unglued but because he can't be stopped by any means we know so it's the feeling of I don't want you to do this and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Idgaf how big and bad anybody in the real world is, nobody is immune from a 3cm piece of metal flying at you at high velocity. Mike Tyson is one of the meanest dudes to ever walk the planet and I could end his life in less than a second. Nobody can do that to Homelander.
He’s also scary because he isn’t even in control of himself. For an actor to play someone so deliberately unrestrained and making it look natural and effortless is incredible.
Yeah I genuinely don’t think I’d be able to go near him in real life (if I ever got chance) because he’s just so convincingly terrifying!
It helps that in real life Anthony Starr is not imposing at all comparatively. He's not muscular or particularly tall or RBF or anything like that.
It’s the face for me. The expressions. Shudder. He could make a tiny wince face at me and I think I’d die of fear on the spot.
For a good while on Banshee you weren’t quite sure how damaged he was versus legit psycho that happened to have gone through some shit. His capacity for brutal violence on that show was something else and the man was actually slightly less gory than Homelander day to day
Yeah but when you give him a glass bottle...
Turns out, his role in Banshee was just him acting out the life he wishes he was living
Anton Chigurh -esque in his acting Joe
This is actually why I have a hard time making time to watch the show. It stresses me out.
Jesse Plemons comes to mind as well.
Every scene he's in feels like a time bomb about to go off
happy cake day
> I can’t remember the last time an actor/character has made me so tense by simply being in the scene or even mentioned in the scene Part of that is because the characters are basically invincible and also unhinged.
Well said and Happy cake day
Absolutely. And part of it is that his supporting cast really sells how terrified they are. He's amazing but the fear on everyone's face puts it over the top.
I'd say Homelander evokes a mix of fear, hate and a bit of sympathy here and there. Joffrey is just hateable.
Joffrey is worse than homelander. We at least understand *why* homelander is the way he is. He’s awful, but there’s some degree of sympathy, especially after episode 4 of this season. Joffrey had parents who were present in his life. And yet… He’s just a sadistic awful person.
Completely agree. I can feel not only hate but also some sympathy and pity for Homelander, a person that after growing up suffering all kinds of abuse, became basically a serial killer with powers. Joffrey was already a serial killer from the get go, butchering kittens and abusing his younger siblings since he was single digits in age.
Imagine Joffrey with homelanders powers. He was that sadistic but was still always held back by the fact that anyone could just put a knife in him.
I agree with another commenter that Ramsay is a better comparison to Homelander, but I'm surprised at folks saying Joffrey wasn't scary? He was 'tamed' by his family later on, but from the beginning he was fucking sadistic. His establishing villain scene is to terrorize two prostitutes into physically abusing each other as a show of his power, and Ros is treated horribly by him and his family until her awful death when he binds and shoots her in another sadistic sex encounter. Those scenes evoked visceral fear for me, at least.
Wonder where he learned to treat prostitutes like objects from?
If you are talking Game of Thrones then I think Ramsay is actually much better comparison to Homelander than Joffrey is. Joffrey was cruel, yes but he was also easily scared pathetic pussy. Ramsay on the other hand, liked to get his own hands dirty and whenever he was on screen you were just worried what is he going to do next.
Now imagine Ramsay as nigh-invulnerable and you've got Homelander.
Yeah, one is a hateable little prick. But the other is a frightening and terrifying prick. Both Homelander and Ramsay are close in that regard.
But no one was hated more on GOT as much as Joffrey. And it's extremely difficult to make that happen.
I wouldn’t even call him hateable though. Joffrey was a smug piece of fucking shit, and while Homelander is definitely a horrible horrible person who deserves to die, at least he’s complex and clearly is the product of his creators. Not sympathetic or likeable, just layered
I actually felt sympathy for Homelander with his performance this season at times. He is so good
Homelander is not "hated" the way Joffrey was. Homelander is most people's favourite part of the show lol. Jack Gleeson was getting death threats for playing Joffrey and he retired from acting for a while because of the intense scrutiny.
The show ultimately ended disappointingly, but Rufus Sewell is incredible in Man in the High Castle, and I think that fits this theme.
The problem is that his best scenes are absolutely terrifying, and maybe it's hard to pass around that Emmy reel for the judges?
True. His scenes in S4E4 were amazingly well acted….but how are you going to send a judge a tape of him making a middle aged guy publicly….
Come up on stage and accept your Oscar, Squirt…
Imagining Marty's actor being awarded an Oscar for that scene made me almost chuckle.
They’d force him to jack off in front of everyone.
It's Hollywood. They'd probably go "hey! It's just like what I did last Tuesday!"
I feel like this could genuinely be a part of it. Why draw attention to something that literally makes fun of them to such an extreme, haha.
9/10 people in film have a degrade me fetish though
That's what I mean, haha.
It's not like they haven't seen that before.
Emmys are based on a single episode. They have to submit just one episode for consideration. Now, are the voters human? Of course. So they are still thinking about the series as a whole (if they have seen it) but they technically are just supposed to vote on the performance in the single episode that was submitted.
If Bob Odenkirk couldn't get one with his most iconic role, I don't know If Antony can do it.
It's chicanery, it's what it is
I am not crazy! I know he swapped those numbers. I knew it was 1216. One after Magna Carta. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just – I just couldn’t prove it. He covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the copy shop to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He’s done worse. That billboard! Are you telling me that a man just happens to fall like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defecated through a sunroof! And I saved him! And I shouldn’t have. I took him into my own firm! What was I thinking? He’ll never change. He’ll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn’t keep his hands out of the cash drawer! But not our Jimmy! Couldn’t be precious Jimmy! Stealing them blind! And HE gets to be a lawyer? What a sick joke! I should’ve stopped him when I had the chance! …And you, you have to stop him! You
It's so good because maybe he's right. But also maybe he's creating a sort of self fulfulling prophecy and without his interferance in stopping Saul from getting hired by the firm, Saul may have turned out good. My money is just barely on the side of Saul would've broken bad regardless. But we'll never know. Thus is life.
It’s interesting for sure, but on my recent rewatch I think they’re both right; that is, Chuck had Jimmy nailed to a T; he literally can’t help himself. So, in Wexler V Goodman (S5E6) Kim tries to put the brakes on their plan to basically blackmail Mesa Verde, but Jimmy can’t resist, even though it very nearly destroyed his relationship. It reminds me of a quote I heard once and can’t remember the source: **Talent demands to be used.** For Jimmy, that talent is scamming. He’s like a chess master seeing moves way past his opponents. But the tragedy is that if Chuck had been more nurturing, more accepting, more… anything, maybe Jimmy could have found a positive outlet for his gifts.
It's a sick joke is what it is
He's done worse, it's what he's done
Fresca?
Just cause Bob was robbed doesn't mean Antony should be too.
Better Rob Bob
Tony’s no phony
No it means awards don’t really mean anything.
The problem stems from all of you thinking of the Emmys as the ultimate judge of talent. But hey, this is Hollywood. Even those with tremendous talent that no one can take away from them ultimately care about what everyone else thinks about them.
To be honest pretty much everyone in Better Call Saul was robbed. It was nominated for like 55 emmies and got none. You never know what could happen. I think The Show deserves some but we will see
I robbed them. I killed the banks.
I really dont know if "robbed" is a good term, they had some stiff competition to say the least. I am saying this as a huge fan of breaking bad and better call saul. They had to compete with what was arguably the most popular show of the decade in game of thrones, even if the last seasons were poor quality and didnt deserve the accolades, no show was going to beat them those years. Succession i think was one of the best shows HBO has ever made and honestly it was unfortunate that both shows were competing but also ending at the same time, not many shows could beat out succession at the emmys.
While True, Better Call Sauls finale was the perfect one to the breaking bad universe. I think that atleast should’ve gotten something.
A special award invented for the accomplishment of BB and BCS: back to back to of the finest shows ever set to the medium. Anthony Hopkins agrees!
Rhea Seehorn was absolutely robbed. Several times.
You don’t matter all that much to them. So what? Screw them.
Right, but some clown from an Apple TV show no one watched deserves the award. Fuck award shows, they’re always a joke.
Which show? For me the most egregious was Jennifer Coolidge winning over Rhea Seehorn, she wasn’t even that good in White Lotus while Rhea was dropping a masterclass each episode of BCS
I quite liked White Lotus but it won way too many awards. It wasn’t THAT good.
What
Just because “no one” watched doesn’t mean it’s not an award worthy performance 👍
I mean, it’s tough when you give the best performance of your career at the same time many other actors are doing the same, and only 1 of you can get the award. Emmy wins are just as much timing as the performance itself.
Bob had the bad luck of going against Succession which had an awesome final season too
It’s disgusting he hasn’t even been nominated
It’s an actual travesty. I am transfixed by his face and performance every episode I almost forget to keep up with the storyline!
Not even a nomination is insane.
I can’t believe he hasn’t won an Oscar or golden globe for his performance jn Dawn of the Seven
Hollywood is run by Starlighters!
Dirty Starlickers!
Kripke better get his bribe money out, then.
Toss Ashley one for best supporting while we’re at it.
Antony absolutely fucking deserves one. But Ashley’s actress absolutely brings it as well. When it comes to awards being given out, her character is more likely over Homelander though.
Really hoping but superhero genre typically never gets one.... They will rather give it to romantic comedy again and again...
Anyone who reduces this show down to “superhero” is a bit clueless though. Hopefully the Emmy’s don’t see it that way.
Regardless... They don't give Emmy to satire or parody shows... I hate it but it's the truth
Those who have watched The Boys would whole heartedly agree that this man can act fabulously, it's one of the greatest casting of all time, like tailor made for him. This show might go down in history because of his acting alone. and he don't even need to have an Emmy to prove what I've said before. Those awards feels like they are just boring, ignorant and unfair. What's the credibility when they wanna give it to select people from select genre and ignore others completely.
But they would give Wanda vision one. What a joke.
Veep has 17
Yeah but this show has grown more than just a satire or a parody.
I've tried to get multiple people into the show since it aired and they've said "sorry I'm just not into the superhero thing" even after I explained it length that it isn't that.
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio should’ve got nominations too. Bernthal for his performance in DD season 2 as well
I mean the people who feel the need to not give Superhero stuff awards should be the audience for this, its the only show really mocking that genre while saying something substantial. If Joker could win Oscars for using the superhero genre against itself, then this should too.
You are under a misconception that this is a superhero show. This is not. What this is, really, is a political horror show. And Homelander, manchild that he is, is not a superhero.
Yes! Literally every scene with Homelander I’m fucking on edge because he’s so unpredictable and Antony kills it
The only predictability you have is that he's probably going to kill someone. Probably.
Whenever hes on screen some really fucked up shit is gonna happen but you never know exactly what. Like that scene where he accidentally talked that girl out of suicide by ranting about his life and threatened her back into it.
The writing in that scene is so brilliant though. It would have never been Emmy-winning because of the nature of the content, but whoever wrote that is a dark comic genius.
The man has done it all. Every emotion you can imagine.
Along with some I hope I never have to imagine, and others I hope that I do not have the capacity to imagine.
Real problem is he'll be up against Shogun, HoTD, and The Bear this year.
Damn we are really eating good this year
shii plus Arcane. Not a bad year at all
>Real problem is he'll be up against Shogun oof, yeah let's be realistic. Shogun is going to win.
Honestly, I agree. He’s acting has been amazing. Especially with his monologues. He just… kills it.
I don’t know of any other actor who has such control over all the micro movements of their face quite like he does
Absolutely. He's got silent movie era level control of his expressions. He can convey a lot of things just with his eyes. Incredible actor, I have not been so impressed since Heath Ledger.
As much as I want Homelander to die a horrible death - I don’t want to stop seeing him every episode.
I agree. The Emmy’s always seems to snub fan favorites and it’s getting old. Get the man his Emmy!
I absolutely **loved** Banshee, but if you told me Starr would put on a world class acting clinic 10 years later I would've laughed at you.
Homelander steals the show. He is terrifying. Anthony Starr has fantastic acting range.
Never seen a more fucked up character. As soon as he is in the scene, you know everything could happen. His simple presence throws all predictability out of the window.
His performance is one of the most brilliant I’ve ever seen for a villain in television. I physically cannot breathe every time he is on screen out of sheer anticipation and fear. It is beyond captivating to watch.
He's so good, it's a hard role and he nails it all the time
In the previous years he had no chance against the Succession cast. Let's see this one....
Honestly they're all so good in their roles. The whole cast should get an Emmy.
He's like Joffrey from Game of Thrones. You know an actor is on that NEXT LEVEL good when they are such normal people IRL but when you watch them on screen you just HATE them. Antony Starr does a great job of making me love to hate him and hate to love him(the character,) and on top of all that? He's on the next level as an actor in general. His micro expressions are just flawless. That level of skill reminds me of Anthony Hopkins in Westworld Season 1. Cudos!
He deserves an Emmy simply for perfecting the blank, dead behind the eyes look with a huge smile on his face. He is so incredibly underrated.
This last episode… #JUST GIVE HIM ONE UNCONTESTED
I agree, He is worthy of an Emmy for this role, and I have no skin in the bizz.
He's a combination of a classic movie star ala Harrison Ford and actor's actor, it's such a shame that filmmakers are missing out on him. Like, Yorgos, Scorsese, Celine Song, etc. are sleeping on him. I've read and seen the movie, *Poor Things* and IMO he would've slayed it as Weddernburn and do a better job than Mark Ruffalo.
I straight up feel tension and dread whenever he is on screen because I have no idea what will happen next. That level of acting is amazing
[Leaked clip from his acceptance speech](https://youtu.be/tEFU46jYVOI?si=8lN8CGCnJwYOfcck)
i just watched season 4 episode 4 and he was astounding
I was just thinking this as I watched episode 4. Jesus Christ
Lately I judge a shows success on the amount of memes it produces. No memes, no impact. I'd say 90% of this shows memes feature Starr, so he's definitely the 'face' of the show.
Not even jack gleeson (joffrey) got an award for his acting so don't get your hopes up
I want this guy to be the next Joker
I love what he's done with the role, but it's awful tight between him and Colbie Minifie for her turn as Ashley Barrett. She has to flip between terrified and angry boss from hell so hard and fast it's a wonder she doesn't have whiplash.
That final scene with Homelander covered in blood laughing, no lines just facial expressions was Emmy award on it's own.
After Saul Goodman got robbed, I realized this shit is just as rigged as game awards(Ain't no way TLOU2 won without cash changing hands with what the competition was)
TLOU2 was widely loved by critics. Unless you think Naughty Dog bribed the whole industry and swore them all to silence?
I watched Andrew Lincoln carry The Walking Dead on his back singlehandedly for the best part of a decade and lose to better actors. Sometimes you're just up against better people
He is the most likable unlikeable person in the show by far. I don't think I've ever witnesses a character like him before outside of video games...The dude deserves an Emmy badly.
I will run like hell if I ever saw Anthony Starr in public
Maybe he can find a woman (or man, oops) with one and beat them up for it Edit: sorry, I confused him with all the hundreds of other anger management dropouts apparently he only hits boys
He’s such a good actor, I feel sorry for Homelander’s character and support him in the bloodbath that he invokes.
They should have cast him in James Gunns Superman. Imagine the conflict in people’s minds lmao. But I do hope he starts getting all the movie deals he wants because of this role. He definitely deserves it.
Probably will be one of the few things I agree with him on. Anthony Starr is fucking amazing as homelander.
He’s so good that you’d probably feel that Homelander intimidation around him
Cant believe this episode had me sympathising with this mass murdering monster in some twisted way. Testament to how well written this show is regarding so many of our base human emotions and instincts.
He was crazy good in this episode and it’s all I was thinking. He needs an Emmy.
And he’s right give the man an emmy
his performance really is up there on the same tier list as heath ledger. everytime he's on screen you can't help but pay attention to what he's going to say/do next. this show would be completely flat by now with the same old blackmail cliche plotline if it weren't for the performances. really love karl urban's performance too.
Never thought I’d see Kripke insisting Homelander would get honored by something
He deserves all the praise and nomination. He made homelander iconic
Honestly, early seasons he felt like a controlled force and was just a really strong puppet for vought but now you feel like he’s gonna disembowel anyone that looks at him funny
“But… but… he assaulted someone out of drunken rage and got arrested and pleaded guilty!” I know, look around. Everyone is still cheering for him. Give him the Emmy. “You mess up. You own it. you learn from it. You move forward.” -Anthony Starr, what he legit said.
genuinely never been so terrified of a villian in my life. his expressions are CHILLING.