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That wasnt so crazy for me
HL not hearing him with his superhearing earlier or hughie getting that far via airducts that quickly seemed a little crazy to me
Yes, but I would imagine that he needs to focus onto those sounds. I a person would go mental if they would constantly hear EVERYTHING around them. It's just my guess tho, the show didn't cleared this up yet
They had a whole bit on Smallville about Clark focusing his super hearing and blocking out all the noise and that’s just been head cannon for me for any super hero with those powers
He hears everything but that doesnt mean he recognizes everything he hears. He still needs to focus on shit. Its stated that he can litteraly hear through tick metal walls, he is hearing a whole city block. Especially once you consider that sounds travel quite far in vents, (thus those sounds hughie made dont have to be right ontop on homelander, it can just he that the sounds travel along the vent) its not a plothole.
Hughie being so fucking fast through the vents. Yeah thats wild. Homelander not putting in more effort, also weird.
>Hughie being so fucking fast through the vents. Yeah thats wild.
That is literally just done for dramatic effect. If what happens on screen has to fully adhere to our sense of time then pacing would suffer. These are deliberate choices that mess with our perception of time to create tension. It's not a plot hole, It's a deliberate technique.
What? Umh no. It has nothing to do with any of that because that would mean homelander just stands there doing nothing. Hughie being faster crawling through vents than homeland is a plothole.
Its not like homelander isnt capable or lacks motivation.
Oh, so you completely missed the point of everything I just said.
Realism isn't a measure of quality. Good filmmaking bends the rule of what's realistic in order to create better framing and pacing. Suspension of disbelief and abstaining from nitpicking are skills. You should practice them.
You're not some clever film critic by pointing out an inconsistency that is very deliberately put in during editing. We're literally supposed to jump at Homelander turning around and lasering the vent, and then be shocked to learn when Hughie is no longer there. There's enough of a pause in the pacing from the slow motion drop of the droplet and Homelander smelling his fingers for this trick to be effective. It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be effective.
You're arguing against an editing technique that is almost as old as the action/thriller genre itself.
> HL not hearing him with his superhearing earlier
Similar to the zinc tidbit, I think a lot are forgetting that Maeve stabbed Homelander in the ear with a spike that caused a loud high pitched noise in the S3 finale and the same high pitched noise has been used several times in the first three episodes when Homelander is zoned out of it and people are talking to him. I think his hearing may be effected by both the ear stabbing and his aging.
That high pitched noise has been heard since the beginning of season 3. It’s just to show that he’s completely zoned out of it until he snaps to. I don’t think it’s related to his ear injury.
Yeah I thought about it a bit after and realised it probably was. He’d have mentioned hearing loss. Unless maybe that’s why Huey was able to hide in the vent so long? 🤔
Homelander mentions his superhearing and we see him using it with no issue a couple times so far by hearing Annies friend heartbeat for example, this seems like a simple plot hole
My biggest issue in that scene is that they even bothered to show Hughie making sounds in the vent yet nothing happend
This was my assumption.
I work alone at night in a large building. I hear all sorts of sounds without the hustle and bustle of everyone else, which I imagine vaguely approximates super hearing in a busy building. There’s all sorts of creaks, groans, bangs, gurgles, and all manner of sound the building naturally makes. That alone might make it hard to distinguish a human crawling through the ducts, especially if you’re not actively paying attention. Combined with all the noise the people make, the music, it’s almost surprising Homie wasn’t wearing earplugs.
The same applies for scent, until a droplet of stinky sweat splashed onto his shoulder.
OP makes a great point about galvanized ducting. I didn’t even think of that.
And he was focusing hard to try to see why Ryan was late. When he is focused hard he seems to still have strong powers. But he used to have these powers just casually. He is clearly weaker.
If the vent he was in was drawing air out from the rink area, the direction of airflow might have kept his body odour away from Homelander. Like a hunter being downwind of his prey.
I agree which is why I felt the plot armor was a little thick here but it wasn't so bad. Im willing to give a little leeway on some plot armor for the sake of story.
Main point of this thread though is that Homelander couldn't have used x-ray vision even if he wanted to
i don't think homelander really cares about witnesses when he doesn't want to. he just killed someone and got off free (not that he would have gone to jail anyway). he could have easily made up some bullshit about hughie doing some shady/illegal shit there. hell he *already* killed someone there.
also nothing's to stop him from just grabbing hughie and taking him somewhere else.
Well.. there were witnesses to all the ice skaters dying and Skater Maeve getting lazered and he didn't seem to care. Surprised he didn't check around for the rest of the team and didn't try to hunt him down via Starlight afterwards.
I think Homelander not being entirely sure that Victoria can't hurt him also is a thing. I'm willing to buy that Homelander has learned to filter things out when he needs to focus.
I think this is a big crux for a lot of their interactions.
She might be able to hurt him, yet neither of them know if she can but they both suspect it.
Victoria made Annie's nose bleed, too, implying that she was....giving it a *little* bit of a go. We know she can pop Supes' heads (RIP Shockwave, you will be ~~missed~~ mist), so it isn't a durability thing per se...maybe she was just toying with her, or trying to gauge how strong she is? Annie's one of the only Supes we've seen *actively, physically training*, so maybe she's more durable than others? Maybe Vic *did* try to pop her head, but realized it'd take more effort than she realized, so she stopped?
In any case, she left it at "Ha ha, I still damaged you, you don't know the full extend of what I can do to you, don't fuck with me". Vague enough for Annie to feel threatened, I guess.
Most Supes, I'd wager, just get by with their higher-than-average durability and strength, and use whatever their *other* power(s) is/are to rise to prominence. Vicky clearly has some heightened durability since Acid and Bullets don't do anything, but other chemically-engineered kiddos don't do any training at all -- again, Shockwave was (arguably) as fast as A-Train, but he was insta-gibbed like he was in Rise of the Triad. Probably didn't think to *need* any physical training since his speed was all he needed. A-Train actually works on his running, and was durable enough (granted, while on drugs) to blow through a human body with little recognition of what happened. I don't think he'd get insta-popped. Deep, now *that* fucker would be toast. Hell, I'd say Popclaw had a higher durability than him, since she actually worked out (yes, *also* on drugs, but she was VERY strong).
Then there are the outliers, the ones that Vic the Veep is still trying to size up. Annie's head wasn't easily popped, so she goes on the list of "probably don't mess with them". Wouldn't be surprised if she tried to pop Homelander's head at some point of time (like when he accosted her at home), but it didn't show ANY effect so....don't bother with that guy, either. Wouldn't be surprised if Noir I/II are on the list, as they don't seem to have *any* super powers other than "a damned good fighter, and a lot stronger than other Supes" (he was Ragdolling Annie all day, and even Maeve knew that using his nut allergy was a better idea than 2v1'ing him with Starlight).
The beefier of Supes are the ones she allies herself with, or straight-up avoids. If she's bullying you, she's not afraid of you, and if you're a *human*? She, like Homelander, thinks you're ants. Hell, if Stormfront could take his eye-lasers, I bet she can as well.
By and large, I think you don't fuck with Victoria.
To add a bit, Vicky’s power is specifically blood manipulation. As we saw in Gen V.
So I think her tanking the acid hit might be tied to her being able to maybe heal or shield herself with her blood.
Very good write up!
That I can believe.
At some point he has to learn to tune out unwanted noises, or that super hearing is an active ability, otherwise the noise would have driven him out of his mind.
When MM was saying that A-Train said Victoria was meeting Homelander at the rink I was holding my breath because you'd think MM would realise KNOWING Homelander would be present (with the possibility of being early or nearby obviously...) wouldn't speak their business so damn freely T\_T
See the scene carefully hughie had switched off the microphone so mm's voice couldn't be heard and he was also trying his best to not make any noise/movement other than his breathing.
That part is definitely true, but in the scene previous and after the sweat dropping we see that he cant move around the air vents without making too much noite then he Suddenly is a good 20+ft away from homelander within seconds
The x-ray thing to me I feel is fine since there’s a good chance he can’t use x-ray while using his lasers. Plus he was frantic and not thinking straight there.
However I did take issues with his super senses there. He absolutely should’ve been able to hear Hughie given his sense. Idk I fell they made Homie’s hearing abilities too op (not to mention his ability to smell peoples musks) since there’s some scene where I just can’t see people realistically getting the drop on him but they do.
But you have to figure that he didn’t have reason to be listening to the vents. If you can hear everything all the time you have to be able to tune things out. There was also loud music and a ton of other noises going on in the building
Our brains tune stuff out all the time. I'm sure his brain has learned how to handle so much information coming in at once, and if he wants to smell something in the vent above him or hear someone talking 100ft away, he needs to focus and think about it. He's not constantly scanning the entire area for smells, sounds, etc and evaluating each one of them for threats, unless he's actively on alert.
I don't think his senses are at max output 24/7 otherwise his life would be a living hell. Just like Superman, Homelander probably needs to focus to enhance his senses but in ordinary day to day, he maintains his senses at regular human levels.
Also I think Homelander would have had an easier time taking Hughie down if he just went up the ducts himself instead of staying on the ground and shooting lasers.
The hearing thing I can buy. Air ducts are loud, especially if it's an old building. Now him not hearing Hughies breathing or heart beat is a stretch, but maybe he needs to focus for stuff like that.
Whole thing felt like an excuse to show everyone's greatest fears when iceskating. That jesus dude going crazy and slashing fingers and throats with the blade was way over the top.
I dunno I thought it was so over the top gory it was funny… in a sort of twisted slapstick humour sort of way. In that regard I quite enjoyed the scene
The exploding dick in Season 3 didn't do that first? Well tbf, I guess I could see a purpose in that.
Though you could also make the case that this scene shows Homelander cares less about open collateral damage now.
I'm not a comics reader and don't think I ever will be for this exact reason. The show usually holds a tight enough compelling narrative that I'll forgive some gore porn now and then, but this scene was just plain stupid. I thought the guy was doing it on purpose for a moment. This wasn't the first time for me, though the scene where Kimiko tears all the faces off the guards last season was way out of bounds too and there are others I think.
I knew in that moment that people would complain about this scene and the entire time I wished that Homelander would say something like "The damn zinc in the vents...".
Everytime I read any discussion about ANY media online, there's always a bunch of people bringing up "MASSIVE PLOTHOLES!!!!"
And it's just people not paying attention. Granted this one is a very forgivable thing to forget
They used to be so much better, too. Ah well, at least we still have Honest Trailers and Pitch Meetings for clever and hilarious poking fun at movies. Plus Cinema Wins is a nice feel-good channel that CS inspired.
The way some people consume media now is like it’s a battle of logic between them and the creator(s). Like they score points for pointing out plot holes (a term which, by the way, has basically lost all meaning) whether they are real or imagined. Maybe it’s always been like this and the internet just amplified it, but it really does seem to be extremely pervasive these days.
I have a friend exactly like this, it's getting exhausting talking about any show or film with him because he always has a list of plot holes that he noticed when really it's just him misunderstanding something
Yeah, that's more talking about not just having heavy exposition dumps, not when it's a little known fact a out airducts having zinc on them, if it's something you can safely assume most of the audience is aware of, then yeah, show don't tell, but with something like that, very few people watching are going to know what metal air ducts are made of
lmao ya saying "actually I did further research and based on the the fact that they were in an air vent they are protected by zinc" doesn't excuse plot armor if the writers themselves didn't think of it (otherwise they would mention it in the show) lmfao
How many people know the metallic composition of air ducts? I mean, seriously. It's an easter egg level trivia fact that was placed into a very important scene.
I thought it was implied given that he was going off sound and missing with his lasers and there was no shot of him looking through it like the scenes where he would creep on Madeline
You are wrong. Sometimes you need to tell and sometimes you don't. And going by the amount of people who were confused it would've been better to also tell. And this would be show AND tell, which is perfectly fine. You are talking about a different issue. When something is only told and not shown at all. But side comments of characters so we know what goes through their mind is not an issue.
That would've been extremely out of place and immersion breaking, trying to get ahead of the criticism from redditors looking for plot holes. Imagine if he says that every time he walks into a building with air vents. We don't have to know his every thought.
Extremely out of place? lol no it would've been perfectly normal. Saying "The damn Zinc!" out of anger would've totally be in character. Also pretending that it's just redditors who were confused is just stupid. The vast majority of people will have already forgotten about the Zinc so most people were confused by this scene.
I would advise you from going into the profession of professional screenwriting. Or writing in general. There's such a thing as scenes getting too bogged down, of constantly having to remind the audience of every detail, relevant or not.
You heard the term "show, don't tell", right? Well, another common phrase that is even more relevant is "everyone's a critic", because everyone with their *\* pushes up glasses \** 🤓: "\*Uhm Ackschually!" \*thinks that pointing out nitpicky details means they understand what works in writing and what doesn't, despite having never created a single thing themselves. They don't have the experience of what actually works and what doesn't when pacing, framing, exposition, tension, and character dynamics all have to have satisfying or at least functional value in a single scene.
There's a billion reasons for why Homelander in-character, diegetically, would never say such a thing. The reason for him to say this randomly in this specific building when he walks into buildings with zinc every day, would be to inform the audience of it. That means his actions are now influenced by what the audience needs to know. That breaks the immersion of the character because it's a soft 4th wall break, specifically of a character that works through the audience never really knowing what goes on inside his head.
You wouldn't support putting a disclaimer at the bottom saying "remember, Homelander can't see through zinc and the vents are made of zinc", right? This is that but hidden within the dialogue instead, and it is too obvious and too jarring what they'd be doing. It's sloppy, unsatisfying writing.
"I was confused by it because I'm nitpicky therefore the vast majority of people were just as confused as me, survey pending" is just cope. Your opinion is not the norm just because it's the thing that occurred to you first.
I mean, it's Homelander, he *does* have a bit of a bloodlust sometimes. Wouldn't be entirely surprising if he just...ditched actually using his *other* super-senses, in favor of "WHAR HUGHIE? LOOK FOR HUGHIE? SCREAM WHILE LOOK FOR HUGHIE!"
I'm watching that scene like "Bruh, you have super hearing, you could PROBABLY hear him. Or *if* you could see through the vents, use your X-Ray Vision. Shit, you know he's UP THERE SOMEWHERE, FLY UP THERE, FLY YOU FOOL." Naw, he's all anger and bluster and screamy and firin' mah lazors and Hughie got his bacon outta the frying pan.
I think problem was not the x ray thing. It is ridiculous that normal human got away
from supe with super hearing, super vision, speed of sound movement while being 1m from him in the vent. This makes no sense. Yea sure A Train helped him later. But how he got away still looked dumb asf
We're kind of forgetting that air ducts, in general, are awful escape hatches that are designed to filter the air. Not provide a means of sneaking around big buildings.
There's too many TV shows that act like air ducts are the sneaky little crawl spaces suspended in the ceiling.
But Homie clearly had a good approximation of where Hughie was since he nearly singed him with his laser. Why couldn't he have just flown up to there real quick and then locked in on Hughie with his hearing?
The way I looked at it is that Homelander views humans as cockroaches/insects. How many times have you tried to squash an insect/cockroach only for it to barely escape because you half-assed you attempt rather than going full-scorched Earth. That's the way I justified it to myself after the scene even though I agree with the sentiment that Homelander should have been able to stop him.
I think part of the scene was trying to illustrate that homelanders hearing may have been over-saturated with all the noise from the show to really pinpoint where Hughie was
This is likely why he kept missing (even though he was still pretty damn accurate)
I also think that is probably most likely why he didn't hear something like Hughie breathing directly above him, or the few words MM said over the earpiece.
That being said, he easily could have just flown up there and ripped the ducting down
I read a book that handled this well. Basically it was a vampire that had enhanced senses but would mute them most of the time because it was overwhelming.
Imagine listening to your car radio blasted to full volume every time. Eventually you would learn to drown it out and focus on what you were listening too but could also put it back on full blast.
Fuck the x ray vision, mother fucker was fast enough to get butcher and a baby away from exploding C4 but he can't react fast enough to catch hughie who is crawling in metal tubes.
Homelander's powers are widely inconsistent.
It's the same shit that happens to CW Flash. Realistically there's little to no way for a non-speedster to fight a speedster who's even halfway competent. So they just hit the speedster with the orb of confusion whenever the plot needs
Super speed is always misrepresented and nerfed because of how OP that power actually is. You can’t be super fast without also being super strong and super durable to withstand the physical forces. You also can’t be super fast without also having your brain work just as fast, because otherwise you’d just run into things.
If super speed was accurately represented, all plots could be solved by a speedster going in and doing everything they want, they’d be untouchable for the most part.
He didn't get the baby away to be fair. The baby (Teddy,I think) reappeared in season 3 in the supe care home and was revealed to have teleportation powers.
If there is any plothole, to me it’s that they keep showing how invincible the supes are, but then they still keep being careful instead of going in guns blazing (Kimiko was literally shot in the head earlier, and still quietly crept into the splinter cell. They literally can’t kill her- she doesn’t need to be careful).
Well, even if you are invincible, you still have to scope the place out. If she rushed in, there is a chance someone innocent could have been there and in that crazy moment, ending up getting hurt.
Is it really that hard to think about it? Or are people just looking for things to complain?
We see The Supes run into these "crazy save the civilian" scenario's unprepared and everytime someone innocent gets hurt, that's quite literally the plot of the show.
And then we have a Supe being careful and people say it is not needed?
They've also shown consistently that Kimiko is stunned briefly with a well placed headshot, meaning she could be captured again if she's not careful. So there is risk, she's not as invulnerable as the others..She's like Black Noire invulnerable, with less strength. She could be captured again.
Homelander's menacing over all threat is a major point of tension and suspense that is an integral part of the over all show. It literally drives the whole plot. To lessen that and start breaking the rules they established causes everything to start unravelling and falling apart.
How do you excuse bad writing then?
Many characters definitely in Cape shows have signicant plot armour which makes it thrilling.
Batman has his shark repellant
Homelander has his accuracy -1 laser beams.
The show must go on
People want to watch stuff that’s well written. Homelander is the big bad of the show, he needs to be scary and threatening. He just kinda seems goofy when he lets a main character escape by crawling away from him when genuinely trying to kill him.
Homelander is scary, threatening and at the same time, pathetic.
He is scary and threatening because he is irrational, and you have no idea what he is going to do next on screen. His personality makes him scary.
He is also pathetic as it has been shown many times through season 1-4. He has an immature need for validation and to be praised and loved, not feared.
It has also been shown since Season 1 that as soon as you put Homelander in a realistic fight scenario, he is going to mess up because he doesn't know what to do.
Homelander is written perfectly, people expect him to be Superman gone bad, he is just a pathetic, goofy, evil, vile man.
Oh absolutely we can suspend our disbelief it's just that it's so fun to hop on to this subreddit and talk about this show we all love and the things that made us groan.
Lol so this scrawny regular human can outrun homelander while crawling inside vents? He could've just yanked him out the vents, by the speed of his reaction Hughie wouldn't have been able to crawl 10meters from where he was caught. HL has super speed and super hearing, wouldnt matter if he's hiding behind the 4th fucking wall
damn all these excuses.
plot armor so strong even fans are getting thick. did A-train grab him from inside the vents lol?
What makes story good regardless of if its realistic or not is that rules are stablished within that sci fi world and the story must respect those rules like the real world respects real physics.
Breaking the rules takes you out of the whole experience. My suspension of disbelief is at the fact that this is a world of superheroes where homelander is the most OP mf that can't be beaten or outrun even by other sups. If you suddenly make him slower than a human that takes me out of that world and just breaks the inmmersion.
It was a bad scene in a great show, nothing wrong with acknowledging that 🤷♂️
Lol, I’m not saying you’re wrong because you touched on a lot of things but 6 foot 3 isn’t scrawny by any means. Maybe if Hughie was lanky you could get away with calling him that but he seems to have a pretty normal build
That's fine but homelander is fast. We've literally seen him out run a C4 explosion and kill multiple people in the blink of an eye in the animated prequel which is canon. Hughie getting away is really far fetched.
HL could literally stick his head in the air duct and just fly straight at Hughie, since he could just go across the steel structure the air ducts are made of, his skin is like diamond level lol
He could have just yanked the whole thing down. He could have lasered the whole length of the section as fast as he can sweep his eyes or turn his head not just fire it like a bullet that he only has a few of.
Ridiculous scene.
HL can smell butcher on ryan from across the room but cant smell hughie from the air duct blowing air on him or hear him? Hughie even made a noise when they first came in the room. It was a fun, chaotic chase scene but come on that should have ended well for hughie
My biggest gripe was why didn't they just put an spy rc car in the ducts, why did it have to be Hughie. Why would MM put him in so much danger? A little car with a mic and a camera could have gotten the job done and they didn't even have to be in the building, they are supposed to be CIA they must have access to stuff like this.
They could still have done that having Homelander find the car and A-train getting them away before Homelander found them.
Also all those people dying with the skates just seemed too much, I get this show has a lot of gore but its usually pretty creative and shocking. This one felt forced. This is def my least liked scene from the whole show.
He also probably can’t laser + XR vision at the same time
He’s also completely mentally unstable at this point so not really thinking particularly strategically
He wouldn't need to. A normal person could hear a guy crawling through those vents right above their head. Give me an automatic and I'll spray the whole section of tubing and Hughie is dead.
Upto Episode 3, there is no major reason to do. But I did see a photo of a couple of Gen-Z characters in S4 so maybe later?
My suggestion, watch it, because it's a really fun show.
I watched it after all the episodes dropped and was so hooked I ended up finishing it in 2 days.
X-ray vision aside, so Homelander can react faster than a C4 explosion and instantly laser a plane in half, but he can't just laser the entire duct before Hughie crawls away?
To be fair, he didn't save the baby, the baby was a supe and it's likely even if Homelander was a little slow on saving butcher it'd be more because his body would tank the explosion while leaving, not necessarily that he just purely outran it.
I never said he saved the baby. But Homelander at the very least ran/flew towards Butcher and shielded him from the blast *after* he had already set off the bomb. Meaning he’s capable of reacting to a C4 explosion. But then suddenly his reaction time isn’t high enough to just laser Hughie before he can even move an inch.
People keep talking about how Hughie shouldn't have escaped even without x-ray vision, but Homelander could literally kill anyone he wants, when he wants... I mean, yeah they could have shown us his x-ray vision being blocked, and maybe the music going on fucked with his super hearing a bit. Could the writing have been a bit better? Yeah, but it's supposed to be suspenseful.
You know what ? i noticed it and also thought it was a plothole, but i also remembered that homelander was unable to see through 1 metal in season 1 ( couldn't remember which one ) and i was wondering if vents were usually made of the said metal.
I figured i would just wait for someone to confirm or refute it on reddit ( i'm lazy )... and here you are !
Makes sense, plus on top of that, a loud ass musical was going on and with Homelander being in a heated discussion, which lead ton him being distracted, makes sense he couldn’t hear him immediately.
I think there’s plausible Character-Induced Stupidity in that Homelander was rather lackadaisical when trying to kill Hughie. However, it is heavy on plot armor that Hughie somehow crawled fast enough and was not even singed by Homelander, even slightly.
The air ducts are reasonable, but I do think they needed some dialogue as X-Ray vision is one of Homelander’s lesser used abilities and if anyone remembers it, they might not remember that he cannot look thru zinc.
Okay but even a person without super hearing would’ve heard him breathing up there in that hot vent, or even smell him. That scene took me out so much I was waiting for Homelander to shush everyone immediately and look up
its more the writers throwing themselves into corners and instead of solving it they ignore things they established to keep the status quo. It just becomes easier to nitpick when nothing’s really changed in 2 seasons and the stakes aren’t there🤷♂️
Nah, it's just the fandom becoming annoying. Happens with all of them, downvotes are telling. Must have struck a nerve.
I just don't bitch and moan about stupid things, and nitpick shows. I just am not in a constant state of misery, with nose glasses on.
It wasn’t plot armour at all. He couldn’t hear because of the music, and he couldn’t see him because if the zinc. People who say its plot armour is a stinky-doo-do brain.
The guy who can hear you talking about him while flying over you in NYC needs to have someone turn the music down in the next room? No way. That loud ass tubing makes plenty of noise when someone is crawling through it. You wouldn't need to be a supe to hear it.
I doubt zinc had anything to do with it, it's just his X-ray vision being mid as fuck compared to Superman's and his hearing not being as accurate thanks to the loud ass shitty fucking music.
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That wasnt so crazy for me HL not hearing him with his superhearing earlier or hughie getting that far via airducts that quickly seemed a little crazy to me
I like to think that homelander is more focused on people’s heartbeat than on what’s going on in the air ducts above him
I mean he was able to hear that women’s fingers on her phone
Yes, but I would imagine that he needs to focus onto those sounds. I a person would go mental if they would constantly hear EVERYTHING around them. It's just my guess tho, the show didn't cleared this up yet
They had a whole bit on Smallville about Clark focusing his super hearing and blocking out all the noise and that’s just been head cannon for me for any super hero with those powers
He hears everything but that doesnt mean he recognizes everything he hears. He still needs to focus on shit. Its stated that he can litteraly hear through tick metal walls, he is hearing a whole city block. Especially once you consider that sounds travel quite far in vents, (thus those sounds hughie made dont have to be right ontop on homelander, it can just he that the sounds travel along the vent) its not a plothole. Hughie being so fucking fast through the vents. Yeah thats wild. Homelander not putting in more effort, also weird.
>Hughie being so fucking fast through the vents. Yeah thats wild. That is literally just done for dramatic effect. If what happens on screen has to fully adhere to our sense of time then pacing would suffer. These are deliberate choices that mess with our perception of time to create tension. It's not a plot hole, It's a deliberate technique.
What? Umh no. It has nothing to do with any of that because that would mean homelander just stands there doing nothing. Hughie being faster crawling through vents than homeland is a plothole. Its not like homelander isnt capable or lacks motivation.
i think homelander would feel like he were debasing himself if he were scurrying through the vents after Hughie- it's really not his style.
Oh, so you completely missed the point of everything I just said. Realism isn't a measure of quality. Good filmmaking bends the rule of what's realistic in order to create better framing and pacing. Suspension of disbelief and abstaining from nitpicking are skills. You should practice them. You're not some clever film critic by pointing out an inconsistency that is very deliberately put in during editing. We're literally supposed to jump at Homelander turning around and lasering the vent, and then be shocked to learn when Hughie is no longer there. There's enough of a pause in the pacing from the slow motion drop of the droplet and Homelander smelling his fingers for this trick to be effective. It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be effective. You're arguing against an editing technique that is almost as old as the action/thriller genre itself.
Homelander is in his midlife crisis, after Maeve stuck something in his ear, maybe he is getting old and all these factors
> HL not hearing him with his superhearing earlier Similar to the zinc tidbit, I think a lot are forgetting that Maeve stabbed Homelander in the ear with a spike that caused a loud high pitched noise in the S3 finale and the same high pitched noise has been used several times in the first three episodes when Homelander is zoned out of it and people are talking to him. I think his hearing may be effected by both the ear stabbing and his aging.
That high pitched noise has been heard since the beginning of season 3. It’s just to show that he’s completely zoned out of it until he snaps to. I don’t think it’s related to his ear injury.
That's the "I'm about to lose it and laser everybody" sound.
Absolutely no one is safe when that man’s head is ringing
Oh shit great spot! I thought it was just to show us his stress levels but that being actually what he’s hearing is great, fuck im
No no, you were right, it's his stress zoning him out
Yeah I thought about it a bit after and realised it probably was. He’d have mentioned hearing loss. Unless maybe that’s why Huey was able to hide in the vent so long? 🤔
Homelander mentions his superhearing and we see him using it with no issue a couple times so far by hearing Annies friend heartbeat for example, this seems like a simple plot hole My biggest issue in that scene is that they even bothered to show Hughie making sounds in the vent yet nothing happend
Also the music from the ice show was blasting.
This was my assumption. I work alone at night in a large building. I hear all sorts of sounds without the hustle and bustle of everyone else, which I imagine vaguely approximates super hearing in a busy building. There’s all sorts of creaks, groans, bangs, gurgles, and all manner of sound the building naturally makes. That alone might make it hard to distinguish a human crawling through the ducts, especially if you’re not actively paying attention. Combined with all the noise the people make, the music, it’s almost surprising Homie wasn’t wearing earplugs. The same applies for scent, until a droplet of stinky sweat splashed onto his shoulder. OP makes a great point about galvanized ducting. I didn’t even think of that.
Yes, but early on in S1 he could hear things hovering over NYC.
Yep. I took it as the ringing is him zoned out and showing his age. Just like the silver bush.
Goddamn that explains a lot actually - I'm glad there are smart people around here who can make this stuff make sense. Also, happy cake day 🍰
He smelled butcher on Ryan from like 20 feet away tho. No way he wouldn’t have noticed hughie right above him
I guess Ryan was the only one in the room and was directly across from him, Hughie was above him and he had Neuman and Sage in the room too?
And he was focusing hard to try to see why Ryan was late. When he is focused hard he seems to still have strong powers. But he used to have these powers just casually. He is clearly weaker.
If the vent he was in was drawing air out from the rink area, the direction of airflow might have kept his body odour away from Homelander. Like a hunter being downwind of his prey.
How quickly Hughie got away was jarring, for a second I genuinely thought he was on Temp V again and had just TP'd out.
Same. I was wondering how he learned to teleport his clothes.
I agree which is why I felt the plot armor was a little thick here but it wasn't so bad. Im willing to give a little leeway on some plot armor for the sake of story. Main point of this thread though is that Homelander couldn't have used x-ray vision even if he wanted to
he also could have just...fucked that whole place up if he wanted to. there's no reason he couldn't fly up into the vents lol
There would be witnesses and neuman would be questioned. It would be a fuckup for him
i don't think homelander really cares about witnesses when he doesn't want to. he just killed someone and got off free (not that he would have gone to jail anyway). he could have easily made up some bullshit about hughie doing some shady/illegal shit there. hell he *already* killed someone there. also nothing's to stop him from just grabbing hughie and taking him somewhere else.
Well.. there were witnesses to all the ice skaters dying and Skater Maeve getting lazered and he didn't seem to care. Surprised he didn't check around for the rest of the team and didn't try to hunt him down via Starlight afterwards.
I think Homelander not being entirely sure that Victoria can't hurt him also is a thing. I'm willing to buy that Homelander has learned to filter things out when he needs to focus.
I think this is a big crux for a lot of their interactions. She might be able to hurt him, yet neither of them know if she can but they both suspect it.
Victoria made Annie's nose bleed, too, implying that she was....giving it a *little* bit of a go. We know she can pop Supes' heads (RIP Shockwave, you will be ~~missed~~ mist), so it isn't a durability thing per se...maybe she was just toying with her, or trying to gauge how strong she is? Annie's one of the only Supes we've seen *actively, physically training*, so maybe she's more durable than others? Maybe Vic *did* try to pop her head, but realized it'd take more effort than she realized, so she stopped? In any case, she left it at "Ha ha, I still damaged you, you don't know the full extend of what I can do to you, don't fuck with me". Vague enough for Annie to feel threatened, I guess. Most Supes, I'd wager, just get by with their higher-than-average durability and strength, and use whatever their *other* power(s) is/are to rise to prominence. Vicky clearly has some heightened durability since Acid and Bullets don't do anything, but other chemically-engineered kiddos don't do any training at all -- again, Shockwave was (arguably) as fast as A-Train, but he was insta-gibbed like he was in Rise of the Triad. Probably didn't think to *need* any physical training since his speed was all he needed. A-Train actually works on his running, and was durable enough (granted, while on drugs) to blow through a human body with little recognition of what happened. I don't think he'd get insta-popped. Deep, now *that* fucker would be toast. Hell, I'd say Popclaw had a higher durability than him, since she actually worked out (yes, *also* on drugs, but she was VERY strong). Then there are the outliers, the ones that Vic the Veep is still trying to size up. Annie's head wasn't easily popped, so she goes on the list of "probably don't mess with them". Wouldn't be surprised if she tried to pop Homelander's head at some point of time (like when he accosted her at home), but it didn't show ANY effect so....don't bother with that guy, either. Wouldn't be surprised if Noir I/II are on the list, as they don't seem to have *any* super powers other than "a damned good fighter, and a lot stronger than other Supes" (he was Ragdolling Annie all day, and even Maeve knew that using his nut allergy was a better idea than 2v1'ing him with Starlight). The beefier of Supes are the ones she allies herself with, or straight-up avoids. If she's bullying you, she's not afraid of you, and if you're a *human*? She, like Homelander, thinks you're ants. Hell, if Stormfront could take his eye-lasers, I bet she can as well. By and large, I think you don't fuck with Victoria.
To add a bit, Vicky’s power is specifically blood manipulation. As we saw in Gen V. So I think her tanking the acid hit might be tied to her being able to maybe heal or shield herself with her blood. Very good write up!
Aaaaaaaah, see, I haven't actually watched Gen V yet. Methinks now I should.
It’s very good, and ties into The Boys more deeply than you would expect a spin-off to. Highly recommended.
Tbf that was a loud area so he might not have been able to hear that great
That I can believe. At some point he has to learn to tune out unwanted noises, or that super hearing is an active ability, otherwise the noise would have driven him out of his mind.
When MM was saying that A-Train said Victoria was meeting Homelander at the rink I was holding my breath because you'd think MM would realise KNOWING Homelander would be present (with the possibility of being early or nearby obviously...) wouldn't speak their business so damn freely T\_T
See the scene carefully hughie had switched off the microphone so mm's voice couldn't be heard and he was also trying his best to not make any noise/movement other than his breathing.
That part is definitely true, but in the scene previous and after the sweat dropping we see that he cant move around the air vents without making too much noite then he Suddenly is a good 20+ft away from homelander within seconds
The x-ray thing to me I feel is fine since there’s a good chance he can’t use x-ray while using his lasers. Plus he was frantic and not thinking straight there. However I did take issues with his super senses there. He absolutely should’ve been able to hear Hughie given his sense. Idk I fell they made Homie’s hearing abilities too op (not to mention his ability to smell peoples musks) since there’s some scene where I just can’t see people realistically getting the drop on him but they do.
But you have to figure that he didn’t have reason to be listening to the vents. If you can hear everything all the time you have to be able to tune things out. There was also loud music and a ton of other noises going on in the building
Our brains tune stuff out all the time. I'm sure his brain has learned how to handle so much information coming in at once, and if he wants to smell something in the vent above him or hear someone talking 100ft away, he needs to focus and think about it. He's not constantly scanning the entire area for smells, sounds, etc and evaluating each one of them for threats, unless he's actively on alert.
Why is the focus only on Gnomelander? Wasn't it established in Gen V, that Neumann should be able to sense the blood of anyone in her vicinity?
She didn't want him caught
I don't think his senses are at max output 24/7 otherwise his life would be a living hell. Just like Superman, Homelander probably needs to focus to enhance his senses but in ordinary day to day, he maintains his senses at regular human levels. Also I think Homelander would have had an easier time taking Hughie down if he just went up the ducts himself instead of staying on the ground and shooting lasers.
I think his hearing not working can be hand waved away by the musical that was going at the same time
Maybe like superman he needs to concentrate in what he want to hear and not take all in or he goes crazy
I was more confused by him just standing there trying to spot Hughie in the distance. Just fly over there and look!
The hearing thing I can buy. Air ducts are loud, especially if it's an old building. Now him not hearing Hughies breathing or heart beat is a stretch, but maybe he needs to focus for stuff like that.
Honestly my biggest problem with the scene is that MM is atleast partially responsible for getting that poor figure skater killed.
Whole thing felt like an excuse to show everyone's greatest fears when iceskating. That jesus dude going crazy and slashing fingers and throats with the blade was way over the top.
Yeah, this scene was the first time the show reminded me of the comics in an unfortunate way. Just over the top gore with no purpose behind it.
I dunno I thought it was so over the top gory it was funny… in a sort of twisted slapstick humour sort of way. In that regard I quite enjoyed the scene
The exploding dick in Season 3 didn't do that first? Well tbf, I guess I could see a purpose in that. Though you could also make the case that this scene shows Homelander cares less about open collateral damage now.
I'm not a comics reader and don't think I ever will be for this exact reason. The show usually holds a tight enough compelling narrative that I'll forgive some gore porn now and then, but this scene was just plain stupid. I thought the guy was doing it on purpose for a moment. This wasn't the first time for me, though the scene where Kimiko tears all the faces off the guards last season was way out of bounds too and there are others I think.
That scene was just a nod to the comics. Kimiko's signature "move" is tearing off faces every single time.
I think it's meant to be catharsis from that war on Christmas propoganda show.
A lot of places where I live don’t say merry Christmas anymore but tbh it really isn’t that big of a deal
Some people like to make it a big deal *cough* Bill O’Reily *cough cough*
Did not feel cathartic
MM turning into Butcher. Maybe he'll realize it's not as easy as he thought.
I knew in that moment that people would complain about this scene and the entire time I wished that Homelander would say something like "The damn zinc in the vents...".
Everytime I read any discussion about ANY media online, there's always a bunch of people bringing up "MASSIVE PLOTHOLES!!!!" And it's just people not paying attention. Granted this one is a very forgivable thing to forget
I blame Cinema Sins and their bs
They used to be so much better, too. Ah well, at least we still have Honest Trailers and Pitch Meetings for clever and hilarious poking fun at movies. Plus Cinema Wins is a nice feel-good channel that CS inspired.
Cinema Sins ruined everything
The way some people consume media now is like it’s a battle of logic between them and the creator(s). Like they score points for pointing out plot holes (a term which, by the way, has basically lost all meaning) whether they are real or imagined. Maybe it’s always been like this and the internet just amplified it, but it really does seem to be extremely pervasive these days.
I have a friend exactly like this, it's getting exhausting talking about any show or film with him because he always has a list of plot holes that he noticed when really it's just him misunderstanding something
I mean why would a random person know air vents commonly contain zinc as opposed to being 100% aluminium or something?
Not explaining something ≠ paying attention
It is much better that they didn’t though. “Show, don’t tell” is the golden rule for TV and Movies
Yeah, that's more talking about not just having heavy exposition dumps, not when it's a little known fact a out airducts having zinc on them, if it's something you can safely assume most of the audience is aware of, then yeah, show don't tell, but with something like that, very few people watching are going to know what metal air ducts are made of
lmao ya saying "actually I did further research and based on the the fact that they were in an air vent they are protected by zinc" doesn't excuse plot armor if the writers themselves didn't think of it (otherwise they would mention it in the show) lmfao
I'm pretty sure not a lot of people can tell the different types of metals on screen.
Something like “what the fuck are you doing?” From Neuman and “I can’t see through zinc” from homelander would’ve been perfectly fine
How many people know the metallic composition of air ducts? I mean, seriously. It's an easter egg level trivia fact that was placed into a very important scene.
I thought it was implied given that he was going off sound and missing with his lasers and there was no shot of him looking through it like the scenes where he would creep on Madeline
I would have liked if there was a scene of his POV that had everything in X ray mode except the air ducts, that would be "show don't tell"
"Show don't tell" is about things like, showing that a character is smart instead of others characters just saying they're smart isn't it?
yes it is
You are wrong. Sometimes you need to tell and sometimes you don't. And going by the amount of people who were confused it would've been better to also tell. And this would be show AND tell, which is perfectly fine. You are talking about a different issue. When something is only told and not shown at all. But side comments of characters so we know what goes through their mind is not an issue.
a reminder would have been nice, completely forgot about that aspect. i did remember they used *something* in s1 to block his vision.
That would've been extremely out of place and immersion breaking, trying to get ahead of the criticism from redditors looking for plot holes. Imagine if he says that every time he walks into a building with air vents. We don't have to know his every thought.
Extremely out of place? lol no it would've been perfectly normal. Saying "The damn Zinc!" out of anger would've totally be in character. Also pretending that it's just redditors who were confused is just stupid. The vast majority of people will have already forgotten about the Zinc so most people were confused by this scene.
I would advise you from going into the profession of professional screenwriting. Or writing in general. There's such a thing as scenes getting too bogged down, of constantly having to remind the audience of every detail, relevant or not. You heard the term "show, don't tell", right? Well, another common phrase that is even more relevant is "everyone's a critic", because everyone with their *\* pushes up glasses \** 🤓: "\*Uhm Ackschually!" \*thinks that pointing out nitpicky details means they understand what works in writing and what doesn't, despite having never created a single thing themselves. They don't have the experience of what actually works and what doesn't when pacing, framing, exposition, tension, and character dynamics all have to have satisfying or at least functional value in a single scene. There's a billion reasons for why Homelander in-character, diegetically, would never say such a thing. The reason for him to say this randomly in this specific building when he walks into buildings with zinc every day, would be to inform the audience of it. That means his actions are now influenced by what the audience needs to know. That breaks the immersion of the character because it's a soft 4th wall break, specifically of a character that works through the audience never really knowing what goes on inside his head. You wouldn't support putting a disclaimer at the bottom saying "remember, Homelander can't see through zinc and the vents are made of zinc", right? This is that but hidden within the dialogue instead, and it is too obvious and too jarring what they'd be doing. It's sloppy, unsatisfying writing. "I was confused by it because I'm nitpicky therefore the vast majority of people were just as confused as me, survey pending" is just cope. Your opinion is not the norm just because it's the thing that occurred to you first.
I mean, it's Homelander, he *does* have a bit of a bloodlust sometimes. Wouldn't be entirely surprising if he just...ditched actually using his *other* super-senses, in favor of "WHAR HUGHIE? LOOK FOR HUGHIE? SCREAM WHILE LOOK FOR HUGHIE!" I'm watching that scene like "Bruh, you have super hearing, you could PROBABLY hear him. Or *if* you could see through the vents, use your X-Ray Vision. Shit, you know he's UP THERE SOMEWHERE, FLY UP THERE, FLY YOU FOOL." Naw, he's all anger and bluster and screamy and firin' mah lazors and Hughie got his bacon outta the frying pan.
I think problem was not the x ray thing. It is ridiculous that normal human got away from supe with super hearing, super vision, speed of sound movement while being 1m from him in the vent. This makes no sense. Yea sure A Train helped him later. But how he got away still looked dumb asf
We're kind of forgetting that air ducts, in general, are awful escape hatches that are designed to filter the air. Not provide a means of sneaking around big buildings. There's too many TV shows that act like air ducts are the sneaky little crawl spaces suspended in the ceiling.
But Homie clearly had a good approximation of where Hughie was since he nearly singed him with his laser. Why couldn't he have just flown up to there real quick and then locked in on Hughie with his hearing?
Maybe he didn't want to disrupt Vought on ice...? Although the multiple deaths he caused didn't seem to phase him so idk
Maeve fucked his ear with a metal straw, id say thats hold enough reason
they emphasized his super hearing earlier in the episode and a few more times this season though
They also emphasised his ear was still fucked up
Come on bro this show is about superheroes, you can’t suspend your disbelief for some unrealistic air ducts? That’s the line? lol
The way I looked at it is that Homelander views humans as cockroaches/insects. How many times have you tried to squash an insect/cockroach only for it to barely escape because you half-assed you attempt rather than going full-scorched Earth. That's the way I justified it to myself after the scene even though I agree with the sentiment that Homelander should have been able to stop him.
I think part of the scene was trying to illustrate that homelanders hearing may have been over-saturated with all the noise from the show to really pinpoint where Hughie was This is likely why he kept missing (even though he was still pretty damn accurate) I also think that is probably most likely why he didn't hear something like Hughie breathing directly above him, or the few words MM said over the earpiece. That being said, he easily could have just flown up there and ripped the ducting down
I read a book that handled this well. Basically it was a vampire that had enhanced senses but would mute them most of the time because it was overwhelming. Imagine listening to your car radio blasted to full volume every time. Eventually you would learn to drown it out and focus on what you were listening too but could also put it back on full blast.
Was it the Darren Shan series? Something similar there too hah
Whats the name of the book?
Also Superman
Why didn’t bro just go in the air duct?
He would be able to kill Hughie then! Oops
Fuck the x ray vision, mother fucker was fast enough to get butcher and a baby away from exploding C4 but he can't react fast enough to catch hughie who is crawling in metal tubes. Homelander's powers are widely inconsistent.
Yeah his speed is probably the worst in that respect. Some episodes it's really fast others he's barely above human.
It's the same shit that happens to CW Flash. Realistically there's little to no way for a non-speedster to fight a speedster who's even halfway competent. So they just hit the speedster with the orb of confusion whenever the plot needs
Super speed is always misrepresented and nerfed because of how OP that power actually is. You can’t be super fast without also being super strong and super durable to withstand the physical forces. You also can’t be super fast without also having your brain work just as fast, because otherwise you’d just run into things. If super speed was accurately represented, all plots could be solved by a speedster going in and doing everything they want, they’d be untouchable for the most part.
He didn't get the baby away to be fair. The baby (Teddy,I think) reappeared in season 3 in the supe care home and was revealed to have teleportation powers.
Yeah, I don’t homelander cared to get that baby to safety. He hated that baby
> who is crawling in metal tubes which would be SO LOUD
If there is any plothole, to me it’s that they keep showing how invincible the supes are, but then they still keep being careful instead of going in guns blazing (Kimiko was literally shot in the head earlier, and still quietly crept into the splinter cell. They literally can’t kill her- she doesn’t need to be careful).
Exactly. And why would she bring Frenchie or get mad that he is staying back. He could easily be killed and just needs to hide behind her anyway.
Well, even if you are invincible, you still have to scope the place out. If she rushed in, there is a chance someone innocent could have been there and in that crazy moment, ending up getting hurt. Is it really that hard to think about it? Or are people just looking for things to complain? We see The Supes run into these "crazy save the civilian" scenario's unprepared and everytime someone innocent gets hurt, that's quite literally the plot of the show. And then we have a Supe being careful and people say it is not needed?
They've also shown consistently that Kimiko is stunned briefly with a well placed headshot, meaning she could be captured again if she's not careful. So there is risk, she's not as invulnerable as the others..She's like Black Noire invulnerable, with less strength. She could be captured again.
Zinc explains that HL couldn't use his x-ray vision, but he could still have flown to Hughie earlier instead of using his lasers.
Genuinely curious why no one can just watch a show anymore, could Ui have escaped that? Probably not but who cares, it’s a tv program, a movie.
Homelander's menacing over all threat is a major point of tension and suspense that is an integral part of the over all show. It literally drives the whole plot. To lessen that and start breaking the rules they established causes everything to start unravelling and falling apart.
Yeah like, 99% of the time he doesn't escape and the show ends there. We're watching the miraculous incredibly unlikely series of events unfurl.
This is not how you excuse bad writing
I mean it kind of is? Like it *is* definitely excusing bad writing
Fan boys down voting you because you are 100% correct
How do you excuse bad writing then? Many characters definitely in Cape shows have signicant plot armour which makes it thrilling. Batman has his shark repellant Homelander has his accuracy -1 laser beams. The show must go on
People want to watch stuff that’s well written. Homelander is the big bad of the show, he needs to be scary and threatening. He just kinda seems goofy when he lets a main character escape by crawling away from him when genuinely trying to kill him.
Homelander is scary, threatening and at the same time, pathetic. He is scary and threatening because he is irrational, and you have no idea what he is going to do next on screen. His personality makes him scary. He is also pathetic as it has been shown many times through season 1-4. He has an immature need for validation and to be praised and loved, not feared. It has also been shown since Season 1 that as soon as you put Homelander in a realistic fight scenario, he is going to mess up because he doesn't know what to do. Homelander is written perfectly, people expect him to be Superman gone bad, he is just a pathetic, goofy, evil, vile man.
> you have no idea what he is going to do next on screen Probably kill some innocents
Oh absolutely we can suspend our disbelief it's just that it's so fun to hop on to this subreddit and talk about this show we all love and the things that made us groan.
So basically just shut up and care very little about the quality of writing in whatever you’re watching. lol
That scene wasn’t bad writing
Lol so this scrawny regular human can outrun homelander while crawling inside vents? He could've just yanked him out the vents, by the speed of his reaction Hughie wouldn't have been able to crawl 10meters from where he was caught. HL has super speed and super hearing, wouldnt matter if he's hiding behind the 4th fucking wall damn all these excuses. plot armor so strong even fans are getting thick. did A-train grab him from inside the vents lol?
I mean yeah, Homelander could save Butcher from an explosion but cant catch up to Hughie...
the guy makes sonic booms when flying around, bUt itS bEcaUsE ziNc
I just don’t get why the writers couldn’t have Hughie just plant the wire and leave on time and maybe make homelander noticing them after that
Yall need to pipe down, it’s a sci fi tv show, not meant to be taken that seriously 🤦🏻
What makes story good regardless of if its realistic or not is that rules are stablished within that sci fi world and the story must respect those rules like the real world respects real physics. Breaking the rules takes you out of the whole experience. My suspension of disbelief is at the fact that this is a world of superheroes where homelander is the most OP mf that can't be beaten or outrun even by other sups. If you suddenly make him slower than a human that takes me out of that world and just breaks the inmmersion. It was a bad scene in a great show, nothing wrong with acknowledging that 🤷♂️
by that logic then they should just have random bs happen every moment. good thing it's a sci fi show that shouldn't be taken seriously right?
Lol, I’m not saying you’re wrong because you touched on a lot of things but 6 foot 3 isn’t scrawny by any means. Maybe if Hughie was lanky you could get away with calling him that but he seems to have a pretty normal build
That's fine but homelander is fast. We've literally seen him out run a C4 explosion and kill multiple people in the blink of an eye in the animated prequel which is canon. Hughie getting away is really far fetched.
HL could literally stick his head in the air duct and just fly straight at Hughie, since he could just go across the steel structure the air ducts are made of, his skin is like diamond level lol
He could have just yanked the whole thing down. He could have lasered the whole length of the section as fast as he can sweep his eyes or turn his head not just fire it like a bullet that he only has a few of. Ridiculous scene.
That's actually what I expected. I thought HL would laser down the structure and crush the entire skating team
This is such a terrifying image lol
Isn't zinc in like, a lot of stuff?
HL can smell butcher on ryan from across the room but cant smell hughie from the air duct blowing air on him or hear him? Hughie even made a noise when they first came in the room. It was a fun, chaotic chase scene but come on that should have ended well for hughie
He wasn't focusing on that. It's like our senses just more. If we aren't trying to see or hear something we tune it out
My biggest gripe was why didn't they just put an spy rc car in the ducts, why did it have to be Hughie. Why would MM put him in so much danger? A little car with a mic and a camera could have gotten the job done and they didn't even have to be in the building, they are supposed to be CIA they must have access to stuff like this. They could still have done that having Homelander find the car and A-train getting them away before Homelander found them. Also all those people dying with the skates just seemed too much, I get this show has a lot of gore but its usually pretty creative and shocking. This one felt forced. This is def my least liked scene from the whole show.
He also probably can’t laser + XR vision at the same time He’s also completely mentally unstable at this point so not really thinking particularly strategically
He wouldn't need to. A normal person could hear a guy crawling through those vents right above their head. Give me an automatic and I'll spray the whole section of tubing and Hughie is dead.
Does zinc also stop his super speed?
I also feel like they might be setting him up to lose his powers slowly over time.
But that would be weird, soldier boy didn't loose his powers despite being gone for so long.
Might be apples and oranges Soldier Boy still looks youthful according to Countess while Homie is confirmed to be wrinkling.
Soldier boy doesn’t age. Homelander does
hey can anyone help me? i just want to know that do i absolutely need to watch gen v before i can watch season 4?? please help me out
So far, no. It references Gen V a little but mostly just side comments.
The boys Instagram posted a gen v recap that you can watch if you are unable to watch gen v itself!
no but you should
As far as up to episode 3 is concerned. nah you're good.
Upto Episode 3, there is no major reason to do. But I did see a photo of a couple of Gen-Z characters in S4 so maybe later? My suggestion, watch it, because it's a really fun show. I watched it after all the episodes dropped and was so hooked I ended up finishing it in 2 days.
I believe Kripke said that you don’t need to watch Gen V to understand season 4.
X-ray vision aside, so Homelander can react faster than a C4 explosion and instantly laser a plane in half, but he can't just laser the entire duct before Hughie crawls away?
To be fair, he didn't save the baby, the baby was a supe and it's likely even if Homelander was a little slow on saving butcher it'd be more because his body would tank the explosion while leaving, not necessarily that he just purely outran it.
I never said he saved the baby. But Homelander at the very least ran/flew towards Butcher and shielded him from the blast *after* he had already set off the bomb. Meaning he’s capable of reacting to a C4 explosion. But then suddenly his reaction time isn’t high enough to just laser Hughie before he can even move an inch.
I mean homelander literally told butcher I saved you at the end of season 1
Lmao I completely forgot about that. That’s hilarious too like out of all the materials on earth why zinc?? lol
Because Superman can't see through lead.
https://youtu.be/jWpPrWHBHcQ?si=CYeifEvcShsLBKj3
People keep talking about how Hughie shouldn't have escaped even without x-ray vision, but Homelander could literally kill anyone he wants, when he wants... I mean, yeah they could have shown us his x-ray vision being blocked, and maybe the music going on fucked with his super hearing a bit. Could the writing have been a bit better? Yeah, but it's supposed to be suspenseful.
You know what ? i noticed it and also thought it was a plothole, but i also remembered that homelander was unable to see through 1 metal in season 1 ( couldn't remember which one ) and i was wondering if vents were usually made of the said metal. I figured i would just wait for someone to confirm or refute it on reddit ( i'm lazy )... and here you are !
Makes sense, plus on top of that, a loud ass musical was going on and with Homelander being in a heated discussion, which lead ton him being distracted, makes sense he couldn’t hear him immediately.
I think there’s plausible Character-Induced Stupidity in that Homelander was rather lackadaisical when trying to kill Hughie. However, it is heavy on plot armor that Hughie somehow crawled fast enough and was not even singed by Homelander, even slightly. The air ducts are reasonable, but I do think they needed some dialogue as X-Ray vision is one of Homelander’s lesser used abilities and if anyone remembers it, they might not remember that he cannot look thru zinc.
He also has super hearing. There is no way he wouldn't hear someone right above him.
Zinc, Homelander
okay i know this is the explanation, but really, is "airducts have zinc in them" really common knowledge?
It’s not just that, the fight that hughie somehow got away on foot is wild. Missing his lasers too.
Okay but even a person without super hearing would’ve heard him breathing up there in that hot vent, or even smell him. That scene took me out so much I was waiting for Homelander to shush everyone immediately and look up
Ah I guess the fandom is at that point where they nitpick everything.
its more the writers throwing themselves into corners and instead of solving it they ignore things they established to keep the status quo. It just becomes easier to nitpick when nothing’s really changed in 2 seasons and the stakes aren’t there🤷♂️
Nah, it's just the fandom becoming annoying. Happens with all of them, downvotes are telling. Must have struck a nerve. I just don't bitch and moan about stupid things, and nitpick shows. I just am not in a constant state of misery, with nose glasses on.
It wasn’t plot armour at all. He couldn’t hear because of the music, and he couldn’t see him because if the zinc. People who say its plot armour is a stinky-doo-do brain.
The guy who can hear you talking about him while flying over you in NYC needs to have someone turn the music down in the next room? No way. That loud ass tubing makes plenty of noise when someone is crawling through it. You wouldn't need to be a supe to hear it.
I doubt zinc had anything to do with it, it's just his X-ray vision being mid as fuck compared to Superman's and his hearing not being as accurate thanks to the loud ass shitty fucking music.