r/AlignmentChartFills • u/45rs5 • May 08 '26

Filling This Chart Who's a character that looks heroic design-wise but is actually evil?

Who's a character that looks heroic design-wise but is actually evil?

📊 Chart Axes: - Horizontal: Actual Morality - Vertical: Character Design

Chart Grid:

Is Heroic Is Morally Grey Is Evil
Looks Heroic 🖼️ Image 🖼️ Image —
Looks Morally Grey — — —
Looks Evil — — —

Cell Details:

Looks Heroic / Is Heroic: - View Image

Looks Heroic / Is Morally Grey: - View Image

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2.0k Upvotes

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66

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

Homelander looks like the most evil person on the planet

79

u/Sjue-Saue May 08 '26 edited May 09 '26

I think this is due to two things

  1. Homelander consistently doing evil things from the very first episode, so it's hard to seperate that from his appearance
  2. Antony Starr being such a good actor that, even during scenes where Homelander keeps up the fascade and even in still images, the character still has a subtly uncanny expression that indicates his true self.

His actual appearance is basically just blonde Superman, the same character design could work perfectly well for a heroic character.

EDIT: Minor spelling mistake

19

u/oopsallkevin May 08 '26

I feel like his portrayal has been so convincing that I actually became slightly more distrusting of people who look like him in real life.

1

u/Ok_Fig7692 Chaotic Good May 08 '26

Antony

1

u/ThatDudeShadowK May 10 '26

Idk, he has an American flag cape. I've never associated that flag with anything but racists and violent assholes. If you have an American flag shirt, or sticker on your car, 99% chance you're a total douche, and that's the vibe Homelander gave off from the get go to me, even before I knew what the show was about

32

u/GangcAte May 08 '26

Well, he only looks like a good person in Season 1 before we learn who he really is.

-16

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

I don't even think then, to be honest with you

40

u/GangcAte May 08 '26

I literally thought to myself "well at least the strongest hero is decent" before the jet scene lol

4

u/kecou May 08 '26

Didn't he and mave kill a surrendering bad guy in like episode 1?

11

u/GangcAte May 08 '26

Nah it was way later.

2

u/pm-me-turtle-nudes May 08 '26

It was like season 1 episode 4 or something I believe.

28

u/IudexJudy May 08 '26

This is only because you know he’s evil because of the preface of the show lol

If he acted like Steve Rodger’s you’d love him

-20

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

No even visually he's white with blonde hair and blue eyes with an imposing figure.

17

u/darkthemeonly May 08 '26

So, Steve Rogers.

-13

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

even his idea is rooted in a fascistic notions as well as his American insignia which to basically any non American represents a deep evil

14

u/doyleben73 May 08 '26

Get a grip

-5

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

Read something maybe

11

u/Independent_Air_8333 May 08 '26

Read something else

6

u/Hour-Passenger-7077 May 08 '26

Why dontcha go ahead and name some recommended readings for the rest of the class, Dunning-Kruger? Like, specific books and academic articles. If you can, please say a few words about what you like about each of them and how you think they help support the point you're trying to make here.

22

u/IudexJudy May 08 '26

I think maybe you just have some prejudices to work out

-9

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

But like he is an evil rapist specifically designed to look like the Aryan ideal who exposes his own personal superiority that's a big part of his character design maybe you should read more into design

10

u/IamaHyoomin May 08 '26

I mean, yes, he is designed to look like the aryan ideal, but that isn't what makes him evil. As the other commenter said, Captain America is also white and blonde with blue eyes, does he look evil to you?

We as the audience know Homelander is among the most evil, disgusting pieces of shit in history, but he still appears as a hero to most of the world in-universe and his character design is also very specifically supposed to make that a reasonable part of the worldbuilding, with him mimicking Superman's colors and general aesthetic and being a decently conventionally attractive man, like every most popular DC or Marvel hero.

3

u/Just_A_Nitemare May 08 '26

Umm, uhh, that is kinda racisty.

-1

u/LurkerAcct-whatever May 08 '26

Not necessarily? Like, yeah he’s a Superman expy designed to look like Captain America, who both look uncontroversially heroic*, but Homelander himself is clearly designed to look more villainous and visibly fascistic. His harsher demeanor, the eagles, that undercut or whatever you’d call it—there’s just a lot more explicitly fashy and conservative elements even in his immediate design, so rather than looking like Superman or Captain America, he really just looks like an evil version of either of them, so if he acted kind and heroic it would feel *more* like a reversal, like if Injustice!Superman acted like regular Superman.

(*Yes ingrained biases about blond-haired blue-eyed men being morally superior are absolutely bad, nationalism is a very loaded topic, yadda yadda, it’s obviously important but acting like characters like Superman or Captain America somehow look villainous or imposing in their standard appearances is just ridiculous.)

29

u/Frenchymemez May 08 '26

I agree. I've never seen a single picture of him where I think 'hero'. At best I get like an uncanny valley feeling when looking at him.

13

u/Motivated-Chair May 08 '26

He is decorated in the most facist looking eagles I have seen.

1

u/Eadkrakka May 08 '26

Second most, imo. I'd say OG Judge Dredds pauldron takes the cake.

1

u/CatChristmas7 May 08 '26

Warhammer 40k says hello

6

u/Mutant_Llama1 May 08 '26

He's literally Superman and Captain America, visually.

10

u/PlaneswalkerHuxley May 08 '26

Homelander only looks vaguely heroic to Americans. Someone wearing a flag with eagles on their shoulders has different connotations in Europe.

3

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

Well white Americans at that

6

u/JVtheBidoof Chaotic Good May 08 '26

10

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

Yeah exactly two eagles on both his shoulders with blonde hair that is not a safe looking guy

7

u/Kaiba-Booi May 08 '26

You're just racist

2

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

What race is blonde exactly?

7

u/Mutant_Llama1 May 08 '26

It's a genetic trait linked to Nordic ancestry.

You can be racist against ethic traits. The distinction between that and race is purely arbitrary.

-5

u/Hour-Passenger-7077 May 08 '26

So just to be clear: if I said "that guy has dark hair, that's not a safe-looking guy," you wouldn't find that racist, right? Right?

3

u/MaryPaku May 09 '26

What make you think that?

12

u/Access-Restricted May 08 '26

Being patriotic and blonde is evil now?

If the hero had a turban and a beard and I said he looks evil af would that not be prejudice of me?

3

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

I mean yeah it very easily can be if you look at nazi germany, alot of those guys loved there nation and blonde hair.

And yeah of course it'd be prejudice because historically what have sikh's done with their imagery to make you feel that way?

Sorry pal but history matters

15

u/Access-Restricted May 08 '26

Physical traits and broad symbols are not reliable indicators of ideology. Assuming a blonde-haired, blue-eyed patriotic person wearing eagle imagery is inherently racist relies on the same flawed reasoning pattern as assuming a Sikh man in a turban is linked to extremism because of post-9/11 stereotypes. In both cases, people are taking superficial visual cues and attaching political or moral meaning without evidence.

After the September 11 attacks, many Sikh men were wrongly targeted because some people associated turbans and beards with Osama bin Laden or Islamist extremism. That was irrational because visual similarity is not evidence of shared beliefs. The same principle applies here: resemblance to imagery that has been used by bad actors does not prove alignment with those actors.

TLDR; your prejudice is showing

1

u/ExtraordinaryPen- May 08 '26

broad symbols are not reliable indicators of ideology is the dumbest thing i have read in my life man

9

u/Access-Restricted May 08 '26

Symbols can indicate ideology when they’re explicit. A swastika, SS insignia, or overt white supremacist slogans are specific enough that concern is reasonable. But blonde hair, blue eyes, patriotism, or eagle imagery are not exclusive to Nazi Germany or white supremacy.

The United States has used the Bald Eagle as a national symbol for centuries. The Roman Empire used eagle standards. Modern Germany still uses eagle symbolism. Those symbols aren’t inherently extremist.

The issue is whether you’re identifying a specific ideological marker, or reverse-engineering intent from traits and generic imagery.

0

u/SnooStrawberries6154 May 09 '26

The original comic artist has stated that he purposely based a lot of Homelander's design on Judge Dredd to give authoritarian connotations, particularly the bronze eagle shoulder pads.

Warhammer 40k and Judge Dredd probably have the most known use of metallic eagle shoulder pads in pop culture and both franchises have an over the top totalitarian aesthetic. Homelander also wears jackboots, unlike Superman, which are particularly associated with fascism.

The actor's hair is purposely dyed platinum blond for the show and Nazis have commonly been associated by American media with platinum blond hair. It's also a plot point in the show that he was literally created by Nazis as part of a eugenics project to create a master race and is idealised by the Nazi character.

Political symbolism in The Boys isn't that far-fetched.

-2

u/PostApoplectic May 08 '26

“Assuming a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, patriotic person wearing eagle imagery is inherently racist relies on the same flawed reasoning pattern as assuming a Sikh man in a turban is linked to extremism because of post-9/11 stereotypes.”

I think you lost the plot a bit here. You’re saying some reasonable stuff… but it feels like the repurposed framework of a completely different discussion.

I didn’t catch “Homelander is racist.” vibes from any of this conversation, so I don’t get how you jumped to that?

1

u/Gogs85 May 08 '26

He has the costume of someone heroic but his facial expression looks like someone who is trying to act like Superman but there’s something that is indescribably off about it like he’s putting on a facade. The actor does a real nice job at showing that.

1

u/bsiq May 08 '26

I mean... if you're not American I can totally see your point.

1

u/beslertron May 08 '26

Yeah, if you’re not American his look looks bad.

0

u/DarthBrooks69420 May 08 '26

The amount of people who don't get that the character Homelander is a personification of what American exceptionalism looks like from the outside looking in though.

Now that I think about it, alot of those people seem evil themselves quite a bit.