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Prime Video<\/p>\n
This article contains spoilers for “The Boys” season 5, episode 1, “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite.”<\/p>\n
Our reality has become so absurd that it’s hard to remember a time when “The Boys” was just poking fun at the sillier aspects of our world. There was a time when the show was more about big corporations and the superhero movie industrial complex than our modern political horrors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The grand finale of Prime Video’s bloody superhero epic is finally here<\/a> with season 5, and it unleashes violence and mayhem right off the bat. Homelander (Antony Starr) has now gone from a parody of Captain America and Superman to a parody of the United States’ sitting felon President, and Homelander has decided to essentially make himself a god for his Christofascist fanbase. He has killed people and gotten praise for it, and he’s basically running the government while facing no repercussions.<\/p>\n The premiere dives right into this, with Starlight (Erin Moriarty) releasing the Flight 37 video of Homelander murdering a plane’s worth of innocents to the public. Though there is a brief backlash, it quickly gets replaced by … memes. The season 5 premiere leans into what a source of memes Homelander has become in our real world when the Teenage Kix team make a TikTok with a remix of the leaked audio of Homelander threatening to kill the plane passengers.<\/p>\n Yes, the folks behind “The Boys” are very aware of the memes you’ve been making, and now they’re finding their way into the show itself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Homelander the meme<\/p>\n
Prime Video<\/p>\n \/Film’s Devin Meenan spoke with “The Boys” star Antony Starr and showrunner and creator Eric Kripke about season 5 and how Homelander can be both a very terrifying and also a meme-worthy character.<\/p>\n Starr pointed to one of the biggest “The Boys” memes, featuring Homelander inflating his cheeks and breathing profusely in an attempt to calm himself down after almost murdering a man at a political rally. It’s a small moment that’s easy to miss, but the internet immediately took notice and turned it into an undying meme, which you can watch here<\/a>. “I didn’t know my cheeks could go that big,” Starr joked. “F***ing screen grab that came up, I looked like a chipmunk with hot embers in its cheeks. And the youth of today have magnified the cheeks.”<\/p>\n “I just think the fact that my dude has been memed so much is just a testament to the show being in the forefront of people’s minds and in pop culture, and that’s a wonderful thing,” he added.<\/p>\n For his part, Eric Kripke credited Starr’s performance for making Homelander “part of that pop culture fabric.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Indeed, if you look up “The Boys” memes, they mostly tend to be about Homelander and Antony Starr’s unhinged facial expressions. The character might be an absolute monster, but he does give very memorable reaction shots that are easy to turn into memes.<\/p>\n “It’s so crazy that you put this postcard out into the world and then it gets stamped and restamped and restamped and then it comes back to you, but it comes back in a different language and it’s gotten scrawl all over it,” Kripke said. “It’s such a magical thing and it’s a testament to these guys, to the show, to the jobs they do.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Homelander continues to be desperate for approval<\/p>\n
Prime Video<\/p>\n Season 5 makes one thing very clear: It doesn’t matter how much power Homelander has, or how many atrocities he continues to get away with<\/a>, he still doesn’t have what he wants. The only thing Homelander cares about, the thing he is desperate for, is the approval of everyone. He craves approval ever since he was a child who grew up in a lab full of scientists doing experiments on him. It’s why the change between Homelander and Soldier Boy’s relationship works so well<\/a>, because it hits on this theme of abandonment and longing that’s at the core of Homelander as a character.<\/p>\n In the season 5 premiere, the all-powerful supe doesn’t really appear angry about the release of the Flight 37 video nearly as much as he cares about the memes it’s inspired. “Have you seen the memes!? Have you seen the memes about me!?” he screams at Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), before immediately demanding that posting memes should be a crime.<\/p>\n Homelander isn’t even subtle about his psychology, either, as he shouts at Sage: “I need people to be devoted to me.” He has amassed an incredible amount of power, but it doesn’t satisfy him. It’s why he has never cared as much about The Boys being in defiance of him as much as he cares about the public’s opinion of him. Starlight fighting him in private? Whatever, she can’t kill him. Starlight inspiring an open rebellion against Homelander’s rule? Now that\u00a0he can’t accept.<\/p>\n
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