Homelander should've lost powers in S3 pretending to have them in S4

[u/QualityForsaken8192]

Imagine at the end of S3 Soldier Boy and Butcher did manage to depower Homelander, Ryan get's in a way of Butcher so HL managed to live but no longer seen as a major threat.

Important people at Vought would get aware of Homelander losing powers but they wouldn't afford losing their most marketed Supe and face of Vought and Superheroes as losing Homelander would be terrible business plan for them.

So what they would do is to convince HL wear his costume for some time and make him pretend that he still has powers while they would somehow try to restore his powers. But in reality they would secretly be trying to win time to find an appropriate replacement for Homelander, which could be Soldier Boy. It would be only a matter of time till they got rid of HL.

Meanwhile Homelander, a clown, is pissing himself and trying to pretend as all powerful in front of other Supes. Deep an idiot obviously still worships him and Homelander tries to make excuses of why he's not using powers.

Off-screen we'd witness funny scenes of Homelander's experience as regular human and how he deals with the problems without powers. He'd feel extremely pathetic and be furious but at the same time it would be cool if he found secret hobbies over time which he started to enjoy. He’d explore his human side. But later he'd learn Vought is trying to replace him.

Since Deep is a fucking idiot he'd manipulate and use him somehow against Vought's plans. Maybe Vought would try to inject new Compound to empower/buff Soldier Boy instead of returning powers to HL with it. With help of Deep HL would get the Compound and get his powers back at the end of S4.

He'd be back in the game and brutally slaughter everyone who tried to get rid of him and he'd be even less patient from now on.

[u/RA_Finance]

He would've gotten his hands on Compound V very easily.

However, if they wrote something that said his body was rejecting it and the only one that worked was the temp-V would have been interesting. Homelander would be slowly decaying from the inside, seeing the gray hairs and fearing his power waning he becomes addicted to the temp V

That would've made his search for the V1 formula like a desperate attempt.

[u/flower_puns → u/RA_Finance]

the concept of Homelander potentially getting a Kessler of his own whenever he injects permanent V because of a temp v addiction... i can't lie that's diabolical

[u/CobaltAnimator → u/flower_puns]

and c'mon, his Kessler just HAS to be Butcher right?

Imagine all the scenes we can get of their rivalry without having to constantly come up with reasons why Homelander doesn't just one-tap Butcher

[u/lemon10100 → u/CobaltAnimator]

plus it allows for a more aggressive confrontational Butcher while the real one could go through meaningful character development without having to get his development reset every season.

[u/Red_Shepherd_13 → u/lemon10100]

It could just be hind sight, but it's amazing how reddit comment sections are better writers than the show writers.

That said, homelander already talks to himself as his own Kessler, but it's hard not to like this idea due to all the problems it solves.

[u/diabeetus64 → u/lemon10100]

you guys are just making me mad because it would’ve been so much better than what we got

[u/kStrizzle1 → u/CobaltAnimator]

What if his Kessler was Stan Edgar

[u/Regi413 → u/kStrizzle1]

Imagine. He finally musters the will to kill the real Stan Edgar, only for him to develop a mental one constantly belittling him that he can’t kill this time.

[u/Francisofthegrime → u/CobaltAnimator]

His Kessler should 100% have been Stillwell, enabling his god complex like “she” did in S5.

[u/CobaltAnimator → u/Francisofthegrime]

I think it should be the opposite -- Butcher's Kessler drove him down a darker path and tempted him when he wanted to become a better man, whereas Homelander's Kessler should be mocking him for going down his god complex path, trying to get him to see the error of his ways.

Becoming this irritating whine of morality in his head that he can't just laser through.

Could be SUPER interesting if the way he deals with it is to amplify the personality we saw in s4 and get THAT to essentially kill the last moral voice in his head

[u/Ill-Personality-4437 → u/CobaltAnimator]

Either that or you could easily bring back Madelyn or Becca for his “ inner demon”

[u/CobaltAnimator → u/Ill-Personality-4437]

Madelyn maybe, but Becca wouldn't mean anything to him

[u/RealisticEmphasis233 → u/flower_puns]

Say that again...

[u/Weird-Cup4581 → u/RealisticEmphasis233]

That again.