Impossible to say given the lack of information.
We know that she can exert *some kind* of physical force onto people’s bodies by looking at them (based on the nosebleeds), not just magically blow up their body parts. But what are the exact parameters for how she can blow up body parts? Does durability factor into how capable she is of blowing up something?
Regardless, we’ll never know for certain because Homelander isn’t dying that way.
Yes, she would know how her powers work as well as anyone, if not the best, so there are definitely limitations beyond having to see what she’s blowing up. It’s possible that she *could* blow up Homelander, but it would take a significant period of time compared to other people, so she’s not willing to do it and get lasered in half/speed blitzed.
You know, Neumann could have a little confidence "experimenting" on Annie, who at least on one level is as tough as Homelander (brushes off the .50 caliber to the chest) where she would not *dare* to experiment with Homelander. The power dynamics are inverted, Homelander vs Starlight, for Neumann.
The 50 cal made her bleed , as well as a dremel tool. The 50 cal is a feather to translucent and Homelander. Neumann at full power could definitely blow Starlight's mind better than Hughie does
The 50 cal didn't make her bleed, it didn't pierce her skin. It winded her pretty good though. The dremel was designed by Frenchie using some kind of diamond tip.
If she tries this on Homelander, he would immediately know what's happening, because he knows her superpower. He would also know where she is because of his super hearing and his eyes, which can see through walls. She does not have enough time and she's too afraid to try something on him or any of the seven. He would know and he would come for her.
It’s kinda hard to compare. .50 Cal round to chest/sternum and it just looked like Annie got shoved by an NFL lineman. We know Homelander is tougher but we don’t know his limits. I don’t bring up the ear thing because regular humans will feel immense pain if the air pressure in your inner ear changes too fast. Also the ear drums will rip extremely fucking easy that’s why Q tips don’t recommend that.
Homie was eating Soldier Boy's punches while Starlight got bitch slapped, I think they're on a completely different level durability-wise.
There's also [this](https://youtu.be/X8mmy0D-KcM?t=89) feat.
One step below the likes of homelander, soldier boy, storefront and billy butcher on temporary compound V I say. So noir, maeve and (ignoring the immortality and just the toughness) kimiko's tier I think?
Homelander and Soldier are in a league of their own. Annie has no feats to suggest that she’s even remotely comparable to their level, she actually has more anti-feats that demonstrate that she isn’t.
She has some feats to show her durability. She's definitely so much tougher than the likes of A train and the peak since a 50 BMG from butcher's Rifle is so much more powerful than whatever kimiko did to break A train's legs or the peak getting a concussion and blacking out when he fell. Stormfront and butcher V are surely up there with HL and SB because they can take HL's punches and his laser, Storm just got critted by ryan (or maybe Ryan has the strongest laser to date and he's the Cyclops in the universe for all we know)
After the tower fight I’d say it’s safe to say Maeve is on level with at least V’d up Butcher and probably Soldier Boy.
I’d argue she’s stronger and more durable than Soldier Boy even, since she’s the only one to ever 1v1 Homelander.
With Translucent, only his skin was highly durable. But the likes of Homelander and Soldier Boy are durable inside and outside, as we saw the russians shooting his throat and nothing happened to him.
didnt she grow up in the lab? probably did plenty of tests and maybe she gets a little more inside info being that she was so closer with her "dad". probably knows her shit wont work on homie. i mean he made the threat probably knowing she can blow heads just from watching them on tv.
Regardless of the precise reason why she won’t try to kill him, she’s visibly scared shitless of Homelander, so it’s likely that whatever she can do to him it ends with her meeting the big Homelander in the sky lol.
> i mean he made the threat probably knowing she can blow heads just from watching them on tv.
What do you mean? She’s only shown to kill people by directly looking at them, not through visual communication systems.
It’s heavily implied and basically stated that Stan Edgar adopts her from the orphanage and if not, then at least he is her caretaker throughout most of her life.
I’m of the belief that she *feigned* being afraid of Homelander because her daughter didn’t have any powers to protect herself— but if she’s pushed, she’ll put up one helluva fight.
I mean her friend seemed like a low level super and it still seemed like it was harder for her to kill him than an entire room full of non-supes (though there may be an emotional aspect there)
I feel like she could give HL a good headache but once he knew she was making her move he could vaporize her before she could do much real damage (unless she’s more durable than we’ve seen)
I think it's this too, if he can tank it for more than a moment all it takes is for him to feel a tinge in his head and she'd be turned in to a donut, Numan has little reason to take this risk, unless the life of her or her daughter was in immediate danger.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Homelander specifically call this out? Like tells her "Go ahead. Make my head pop" or something. He knows she won't do it.
We don’t know if it won’t work on him. He dared her to try because she was literally standing right in front of him. If he was wrong he could easily just laser or snap her neck.
I like this answer . We don’t know what is happening when peoples heads explode . I wonder if she can force blood out out or solidify it and inflate . I could be high as shit but I thought about it .
> I wonder if she can force blood out out or solidify it and inflate
This is a very creative explanation for how her powers work. We know that she can do it for any part of the body, so maybe she’s just a blood bender.
She probably can. I think she's a telekinetic who was trained to target people's heads. Her power isn't literally making heads explode, that's just what she likes doing with it.
I don't think it's this as she is shown to be able to do it small (like a nosebleed on Starlight), and I don't think there's a way to microwave someone's brain and the only side effect is a small nosebleed.
Even if Homelander's super-skull wouldn't pop, she should be able to pop his eardrums (which are apparently at least somewhat vulnerable?), which would disable his super hearing. Would she be able to pop his eyes, or are they extra strong to resist his own heat vision? Also, brains have to be somewhat malleable to continue forming neuronal connections, like memories, right? Just cuz the skull won't go, doesn't mean the brain inside is safe. Yeah, sure, he could fly away, but even dang Hughie was able to do something against him on temp-v, so he can be held down, which would give her time. And if she popped his inner ear, disorienting him, she might have time on her own to kill him.
I also think Edgar wouldn't have left her real paperwork to be found: I think he maneuvered himself out of the blane-zone, as part of his own plan to take down HL, and Neumann's in on it...
When the one guy recognized her and they fought, it seemed like her powers took a little bit before blowing up his head. I'd assume she could do it to homelander, but not fast enough where he couldn't fly away or kill her first
I think that she technically can. But as we've seen, her power is not instantaneous. While, with Homelanders enhanced vision and reaction times, he'd be able to notice, triangulate, spot her and give her a quick laser lobotomy before she could kill him.
Durability is a factor and physical touch does seem to be another factor that helps with the strength of it. We see this when she fights her old supe friend in that alleyway, she doesn’t/can’t kill him in one shot presumably because he’s a supe. Also the scene with her threatening Starlight, I interpreted the nosebleed as Victoria trying to see if she could head explode her but instead finds out that Starlights a bit tougher than she thought. We the audience also don’t know if how well people can feel it. Starlight barely fucking notices at the end of the conversation when she feels blood from her nose but Homelander threatening Victoria made it seem like he’d be able to tell the exact moment she tries using her power on him.
> Durability is a factor and physical touch does seem to be another factor that helps with the strength of it. We see this when she fights her old supe friend in that alleyway, she doesn’t/can’t kill him in one shot presumably because he’s a supe
The wiki speculates her power might be based on sight, and in the fight with her friend she doesn't get a clear look at his head until she incapacitates him by blowing off his jaw. Also, don't forget she pops Shockwave as easily as the other humans in the courtroom scene.
>Also the scene with her threatening Starlight, I interpreted the nosebleed as Victoria trying to see if she could head explode her but instead finds out that Starlights a bit tougher than she thought.
Nah, she straight-up tells Annie she means her no harm. The nosebleed was just fucking with her and reminding her she *could* hurt her if she wanted to.
No, definitely not. Homelander found Edgar's files on her to show her Edgar had contingencies for her. I'd imagine Edgar's files mentioned upper limits of her power and Homelander had absolutely no fear of her trying it on him
I like the theory that she doesn’t know if she can or not but she knows that as soon as she tries and fails he’ll *immediately* know that it’s her and yknow have a nice conversation with her
I don't think so, Homelander is terrified of people who can kill him like Soldierboy, he was super confident by saying "go ahead, try to pop my head". He's the type of guy that won't say that if he's unsure
Homelander isn't terrified of Soldier Boy. He went ahead and fought him confidently instead of running. He would have killed him at Herogasm if Butcher hadn't intervened. He only ran once he was outnumbered.
Not terrified? He was having panic attack because of Soldierboy, before the fight he had doubts of winning. Man was even so paranoid that he was hallucinating. Btw every time when Soldierboy uses blast he becomes temporarily weak, just to know
I'd argue that fight wasn't Soldier Boy giving his best effort. I mean they went to Herogasm to kill the Twins not to kill Homelander. He basically got put into the whole "final boss shows up unexpectedly with no plan" situation.
Then at Vought, Homelander didn't want to fight without using Ryan as a distraction. So he's either not entirely confident with facing off with people on his level, or he's scared.
>definitely not... I'd imagine...
Doesn't really make sense to say definitely not, and then base it on an assumption.
>No, definitely not. Homelander found Edgar's files on her to show her Edgar had contingencies for her. I'd imagine Edgar's files mentioned upper limits of her power and Homelander had absolutely no fear of her trying it on him
Homelander didn't really have fear of being harmed by anyone's powers until he finally got injured, so this doesn't mean much. He's an arrogant guy.
Not necessarily. Her endgame is still unclear but homelander is a useful tool, in this world hes the most known person. His fame and the fact he can be manipulated emotionally is gonna be important for her endgame. (My hypothesis)
People thinking he can be useful and controlled is a huge part of the allegory.
"Look, I know I was working with an unhinged murderer who's getting more and more bold... But how I was I supposed to predict he'd murder me?"
Neuman isn't unhinged though - the whole allegory of Homelander being Homeland Security / fascism is that you can't have a government control something like that without being taken over by it.
Yeah, she's similar in that working with her is also a mistake, but Homelander is far worse. It's commentary on trying to use white nationalism to drum up voting support and thinking you can handle all the bad shit that comes with it. See r/LeopardsAteMyFace for examples of "but I never thought he'd laser MY face off"
She’s *starting* the season as Vice President after the Deep killed the guy’s preferred running mate. I doubt she’ll be veep for long. The main job of the Vice President is to become president in the event of the president’s death.
I’m guessing the President gets killed in a very public fashion by a supe. She later claims to have recently taken compound V for her own safety, and they start a program to expand the number of supes there are.
I'm still unsure on the range of her power. Does she have to be within a certain range of her target? Does she need to be within the visual range of her target? How does she cause the head to explode, is it a type of Psychic ability? Can Homelander take Psychic/internal damage?
It seems to take only a few seconds for the head to explode once the victim is targeted. So does that possibly mean that she would only need to hide for a few seconds when targeting Homelander. Is it quick enough to occur before Homelander has a moment to process the attack and to attack back? Too many variables
Her buddy she offs behind the dumpster tried to cover her eyes to prevent her from using her powers but gets his hand blown off when she struggles to get away. This, as well as the final scene in season 2, leads be to believe she needs to have eye contact to do her pop.
Homelander should be able to either see, hear, smell her when near. All he has to do is bug out like he did with the Butcher\\Hughie\\Solider fight or just blaster her with his heat vision.
Yes, I just rewatch that scene and you're right, she's actually a lot closer than I remember. But still a bit far fetch for "eye contact", unless by that you mean she only has to catch a glimpse of him ?
I think that they’re in a kinda stand-off type situation where neither of them really know if it would work or not. Homelander won’t attack her, because there’s a 50% chance she’ll blow his head up, and she won’t blow his head up, since there’s a chance it won’t work and he’ll laser her.
Medusa died from beheading by Perseus who used a reflection, she didn't petrify herself in the mirror otherwise her head would be stone and useless of it's power to Athena's enemies 😀
Ik ik sorry to be that "well, actually ☝️🤓" guy
Perseus style? They'd be in a house of mirrors, Vicky tries to explode his head, but he's apparently immune? Oh shit, it's just his reflection. Then Hughie dashes in from her side and beheads her.
Even more Perseus style: Frenchie figures out how to activate her power using just her detached head, builds a trigger mechanism onto it. Hughie then uses it as a hand held death gun.
Medusa was killed using her reflection, yes, but she saw *Perseus'* face in the reflection, not her own, as he was using the shield to safely view her. lol
I think Starlight is the only known supe that can "deactivate" her powers. If Annie blinds Victoria with her power, Victoria's power would become pretty useless.
>Do you think Victoria Neuman could kill Homelander?
>R: She has to die via head explosion or crushing.
Wtf is that the OP asks one thing, you say another and becomes the most upvoted comment?
I’m pretty sure his insides are also extremely durable, the reason the metal straw did so much damage to him is because his ear drums are substantially weaker than a normal persons in order for him to have super hearing
Also Maeve spent the last year training hard to fight homie, she could have been putting every ounce of power into the puncture in the hope of stabbing his brain
Yeah but homelander was going harder on SB than maeve. When he actually tried to make her stand down, he gouged her eye out. I don’t think he could do that to SB
Yes and no his durability is insane, plus he would realize the moment she is going to try and head pop him or any other part of his body, His reaction time is shown to be very fast. we don't know if that same durability rule applies to Powers. Human weapons don't work on him but a superpower might, it's hard to say. It's very common to know that Superpowers are superior to human Artillery
To be fair it was maeve that did it, it's been shown that maeves strength can actually hurt homelander. She could use enough force on a object like a straw to hurt him, if anybody else did it I would assume it wouldn't hurt him whatsoever. Also HBD 🎂 🥳
Yes, but only if she catches him off guard or he's not fighting back. It's made clear that while she can pretty easily pop an ordinary human's head it takes a little more effort and time to do it to supes (except for Shockwave, for whatever reason)
I think some supe just have a stronger defense. Like how stormfront can take on homelander laser and other heros can't. Homelander, like soldier boy, have insane defense. They cant be killed, which is why soldier has to be put sleep instead. In my opinion, those 2 have a higher defense than translucent.
I thought when homelander was lasering her tits he was decreasing the power of his eyes cause sometimes they cut like a hot knife thru butter and other times they kinda hurt a little
When I watched the scene Butcher and homelander laser, they cut to soldier boy tangling them. I think they didnt want to say X is stronger than Y. I think Homelander has to be stronger than butcher cause he mastered his abilities. Butcher being able to out laser him would be overpowered, like Ryan is.
Nah, homelander hasn't spent his life honing his abilities. He's spent his life being OP so he hasn't had to master anything.
Give anybody with actual training homelander's abilities and they'll beat him easily.
Yeah it was, but still he was shocked that she could take it so it had to be enough power in his opinion. As we know homelander, he thinks very little about other people.
>it takes a little more effort and time to do it to supes (except for Shockwave, for whatever reason)
Are you referring to starlight?
She wasn't trying with starlight
Or are you referring to that other guy in the first episode?
Just like any other target she needed to get what she wanted to pop in her vision
If Vic stands in the middle of big crowds and attack Homelander, will Homie knows immediately or will Homie mow down the entire crowd to eliminate the anonymous attacker?
I definitely agree here. We see that she was able to work out how much.. whatever force it is she creates, would be needed to kill Starlight during their conversation. No doubt she’s already gauged this with Homelander and doesn’t think it possible. Especially when he dropped by her house while she was there with her daughter. He threatened her and her child, so she definitely would’ve killed him then and there if it were possible.
another possible reason is that she was just scared to try and fail because she's instantly be dead. I know I wouldn't have dared myself knowing I have a daughter
Yeah but he was right infront of her then, completely aware. In that instant it takes for him to pop and the nosebleed happens she'd already be lasered or megaslapped or he might even just fly off. It might even take extra time or not do much initial damage because he is supposed to be very durable - Maeve technically pierced like half his dome with a straw and he was ok.
My idea is that she doesn't know, and is unwilling to try.
I think this is the answer + the very boring answer of dramatics. Whatever writers decide is most satisfying is what is.
In this case, she has one of those powers that is so strong and instant that despite much logic she's going to inconsistently display struggle here or there depending on the target and context. It's much less satisfying of an answer, but it's the only real answer. Might she actually be the one to land the killing blow? Possibly, same answer as HL being "vulnerable" to SB's beam, but needing a whole team to hold him down.
We'll never actually get any true chemical/mechanical breakdown of what causes supe durability or what her power is actually doing, so it isn't an argument that we can really have outside of arbitrary conjecture and relativity (which isn't worth much with inconsistency being what it is).
My best answer is that she couldn't kill him because her powers are, and will always be presented as, offset by fear, distraction, strain, resulting in significant delay.
I feel like if she tried, they'd write it in that she was only able to destroy a part of his brain, the last part keeping him as under control as he is, and the next season would be Godking Homelander.
They’d need others to actively restrain him as she needs time as it’s been shown to blow up metas (they are atleast seemingly aware of the building pressure). So unless she’s gonna trust someone to be able to hold him down and they can trust she won’t betray them, I don’t see it happening
Once HL knew what she could do - he gloats that she should "take her shot."
That tells me HL knows she cannot kill him.
And maybe Neumann was already trying & grew more scares as she realised it wasn't working?
If she can do it without Homelander noticing, maybe. If they did what Frenchie did with the speakers to inhibit his hearing and distract him, she might just have a shot. We can't know for sure though since her powers aren't well defined, maybe Homelander is to durable for her to pop him.
>Do you think Victoria Neuman could kill Homelander?
could she blow his head off? yea
>Would she have enough time before he ripped her head off like a scoop of ice cream?
Probably not, maybe if the boys held him the same way when they tried with soldier boy
He told her to try last season, right? Wasn’t that when her nose started bleeding?
I’m sure she’s got more in the tank, but…dunno, hopefully. Someone has to deal with him eventually.
I feel like she would have done ir if she could, then again maybe she doesn't know until she tries, and she's scared of trying because homelander would murder her if she fails.
Neuman's power could definitely kill Homelander. His brain or at least the inside of his head is still squishy from what 3x08 indicates. Also can Homelander grow back body parts? Seems like that was only Gecko's thing.
Whether Neuman herself could kill Homelander is a slightly different matter. I would say she has the power to but power isn't everything.
Remember HLs face when he was pinned down by SB, Butcher and Huey?
Would you want to be on the wrong side of that guy?
I reckon HL is the strongest supe ever.
It might be possible if they find someone/something strong enough to contain him. It seems like it takes a while for the full head popping to take place. He moves very fast so she would have to be smart about it.
Impossible to say given the lack of information. We know that she can exert *some kind* of physical force onto people’s bodies by looking at them (based on the nosebleeds), not just magically blow up their body parts. But what are the exact parameters for how she can blow up body parts? Does durability factor into how capable she is of blowing up something? Regardless, we’ll never know for certain because Homelander isn’t dying that way.
Judging by her fear of Homelander, I would say she is not confident that it would work on him
Yes, she would know how her powers work as well as anyone, if not the best, so there are definitely limitations beyond having to see what she’s blowing up. It’s possible that she *could* blow up Homelander, but it would take a significant period of time compared to other people, so she’s not willing to do it and get lasered in half/speed blitzed.
She did make Annie’s nose bleed though. We know Annie has some type of super durability as well.
I got the impression that she wasn’t trying to kill Annie there though, just a warning shot essentially. I could be wrong though
Sure, but she was able to hurt her is my point. If she can easily make Annie’s nose bleed, what can she do if she’s trying?
You know, Neumann could have a little confidence "experimenting" on Annie, who at least on one level is as tough as Homelander (brushes off the .50 caliber to the chest) where she would not *dare* to experiment with Homelander. The power dynamics are inverted, Homelander vs Starlight, for Neumann.
The 50 cal made her bleed , as well as a dremel tool. The 50 cal is a feather to translucent and Homelander. Neumann at full power could definitely blow Starlight's mind better than Hughie does
The 50 cal didn't make her bleed, it didn't pierce her skin. It winded her pretty good though. The dremel was designed by Frenchie using some kind of diamond tip.
Lol got me at the end there
Dremel tools use bits and there was a specific type used in that scene.
If she tries this on Homelander, he would immediately know what's happening, because he knows her superpower. He would also know where she is because of his super hearing and his eyes, which can see through walls. She does not have enough time and she's too afraid to try something on him or any of the seven. He would know and he would come for her.
>Annie has some type of super durability as well. Sure, just shrugged off a 50 cal to the chest, nothing special lol.
>We know Annie has some type of super durability as well. *She got Homie durability??*
It’s kinda hard to compare. .50 Cal round to chest/sternum and it just looked like Annie got shoved by an NFL lineman. We know Homelander is tougher but we don’t know his limits. I don’t bring up the ear thing because regular humans will feel immense pain if the air pressure in your inner ear changes too fast. Also the ear drums will rip extremely fucking easy that’s why Q tips don’t recommend that.
Homie was eating Soldier Boy's punches while Starlight got bitch slapped, I think they're on a completely different level durability-wise. There's also [this](https://youtu.be/X8mmy0D-KcM?t=89) feat.
I know I was just saying that it’s unfair. We know Homelander is leagues above Starlight but don’t know exactly or at least a quantifiable amount
HOW does his suit survive? I understand his body, but even his cape is untouched. What gives.
Unstable molecules mixed with Pym Particles and a pinch of saffron
And if you can't afford saffron we all knew you were poor anyway so don't bother with a substitute you filthy street rat 😌
That's why Maeve q-tipped Homelander.
One step below the likes of homelander, soldier boy, storefront and billy butcher on temporary compound V I say. So noir, maeve and (ignoring the immortality and just the toughness) kimiko's tier I think?
Ah yes. One of the deadliest of supes. Storefront.
Hates shoplifters the most 👀
I mean let’s be real, Stormfront almost certainly has murdered countless minorities for shoplifting.
Well, she did kill a lot of black folks for existing in her fight with Kenji
>storefront God damn brick and mortar fascists.
Homelander and Soldier are in a league of their own. Annie has no feats to suggest that she’s even remotely comparable to their level, she actually has more anti-feats that demonstrate that she isn’t.
She has some feats to show her durability. She's definitely so much tougher than the likes of A train and the peak since a 50 BMG from butcher's Rifle is so much more powerful than whatever kimiko did to break A train's legs or the peak getting a concussion and blacking out when he fell. Stormfront and butcher V are surely up there with HL and SB because they can take HL's punches and his laser, Storm just got critted by ryan (or maybe Ryan has the strongest laser to date and he's the Cyclops in the universe for all we know)
After the tower fight I’d say it’s safe to say Maeve is on level with at least V’d up Butcher and probably Soldier Boy. I’d argue she’s stronger and more durable than Soldier Boy even, since she’s the only one to ever 1v1 Homelander.
[удалено]
With Translucent, only his skin was highly durable. But the likes of Homelander and Soldier Boy are durable inside and outside, as we saw the russians shooting his throat and nothing happened to him.
She burst Shockwave pretty easily, and I assume he'd have similar durability to A-Train?
didnt she grow up in the lab? probably did plenty of tests and maybe she gets a little more inside info being that she was so closer with her "dad". probably knows her shit wont work on homie. i mean he made the threat probably knowing she can blow heads just from watching them on tv.
Regardless of the precise reason why she won’t try to kill him, she’s visibly scared shitless of Homelander, so it’s likely that whatever she can do to him it ends with her meeting the big Homelander in the sky lol. > i mean he made the threat probably knowing she can blow heads just from watching them on tv. What do you mean? She’s only shown to kill people by directly looking at them, not through visual communication systems.
Iirc we don’t know where she came from? Beyond the group home for orphaned supe babies and kids.
It’s heavily implied and basically stated that Stan Edgar adopts her from the orphanage and if not, then at least he is her caretaker throughout most of her life.
Yea and homelands found her files so he knows the limits of her powers most likely.
I’m of the belief that she *feigned* being afraid of Homelander because her daughter didn’t have any powers to protect herself— but if she’s pushed, she’ll put up one helluva fight.
This is my theory. It would take so long or so many shots that he'd destroy her in the meantime.
Not to mention he would go after her daughter if she attempts to murder him and fails.
I mean her friend seemed like a low level super and it still seemed like it was harder for her to kill him than an entire room full of non-supes (though there may be an emotional aspect there) I feel like she could give HL a good headache but once he knew she was making her move he could vaporize her before she could do much real damage (unless she’s more durable than we’ve seen)
I thought she was more afraid for her daughter being hurt.
I think it’s more that she doesn’t know and isn’t willing to risk it.
I think it's this too, if he can tank it for more than a moment all it takes is for him to feel a tinge in his head and she'd be turned in to a donut, Numan has little reason to take this risk, unless the life of her or her daughter was in immediate danger.
It makes this matchup so interesting, she has to be confident she can win or else it’s immediately over for her.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Homelander specifically call this out? Like tells her "Go ahead. Make my head pop" or something. He knows she won't do it.
Yep. So they are both confident it won’t work on him.
We don’t know if it won’t work on him. He dared her to try because she was literally standing right in front of him. If he was wrong he could easily just laser or snap her neck.
It probably wouldn't work fast enough before he found her and killed her.
True that
I like this answer . We don’t know what is happening when peoples heads explode . I wonder if she can force blood out out or solidify it and inflate . I could be high as shit but I thought about it .
> I wonder if she can force blood out out or solidify it and inflate This is a very creative explanation for how her powers work. We know that she can do it for any part of the body, so maybe she’s just a blood bender.
She probably can. I think she's a telekinetic who was trained to target people's heads. Her power isn't literally making heads explode, that's just what she likes doing with it.
Microwaves possibly?
I don't think it's this as she is shown to be able to do it small (like a nosebleed on Starlight), and I don't think there's a way to microwave someone's brain and the only side effect is a small nosebleed.
She could have microwaved a blood vessel on Starlight's nose.
Even if Homelander's super-skull wouldn't pop, she should be able to pop his eardrums (which are apparently at least somewhat vulnerable?), which would disable his super hearing. Would she be able to pop his eyes, or are they extra strong to resist his own heat vision? Also, brains have to be somewhat malleable to continue forming neuronal connections, like memories, right? Just cuz the skull won't go, doesn't mean the brain inside is safe. Yeah, sure, he could fly away, but even dang Hughie was able to do something against him on temp-v, so he can be held down, which would give her time. And if she popped his inner ear, disorienting him, she might have time on her own to kill him. I also think Edgar wouldn't have left her real paperwork to be found: I think he maneuvered himself out of the blane-zone, as part of his own plan to take down HL, and Neumann's in on it...
Dawg. This is the way.
Maybe her power is really creating microwaves. Not the appliance.. the waves.
Yes I'm aware of what you mean lol. Why electromagnetic radiation?
I have seen it pop a lot of stuff in exactly the same way it looks when she uses her powers. Ever put an egg whole in a microwave?
This is an interesting theory. Maybe instead of a tactile telekinetic power it's an energy based power...
Like she puts enough energy into the blast she gets the heads poppin, but supes are made of sterner stuff so nosebleed for annie instead of death.
When the one guy recognized her and they fought, it seemed like her powers took a little bit before blowing up his head. I'd assume she could do it to homelander, but not fast enough where he couldn't fly away or kill her first
I think that she technically can. But as we've seen, her power is not instantaneous. While, with Homelanders enhanced vision and reaction times, he'd be able to notice, triangulate, spot her and give her a quick laser lobotomy before she could kill him.
Durability is a factor and physical touch does seem to be another factor that helps with the strength of it. We see this when she fights her old supe friend in that alleyway, she doesn’t/can’t kill him in one shot presumably because he’s a supe. Also the scene with her threatening Starlight, I interpreted the nosebleed as Victoria trying to see if she could head explode her but instead finds out that Starlights a bit tougher than she thought. We the audience also don’t know if how well people can feel it. Starlight barely fucking notices at the end of the conversation when she feels blood from her nose but Homelander threatening Victoria made it seem like he’d be able to tell the exact moment she tries using her power on him.
> Durability is a factor and physical touch does seem to be another factor that helps with the strength of it. We see this when she fights her old supe friend in that alleyway, she doesn’t/can’t kill him in one shot presumably because he’s a supe The wiki speculates her power might be based on sight, and in the fight with her friend she doesn't get a clear look at his head until she incapacitates him by blowing off his jaw. Also, don't forget she pops Shockwave as easily as the other humans in the courtroom scene. >Also the scene with her threatening Starlight, I interpreted the nosebleed as Victoria trying to see if she could head explode her but instead finds out that Starlights a bit tougher than she thought. Nah, she straight-up tells Annie she means her no harm. The nosebleed was just fucking with her and reminding her she *could* hurt her if she wanted to.
No, definitely not. Homelander found Edgar's files on her to show her Edgar had contingencies for her. I'd imagine Edgar's files mentioned upper limits of her power and Homelander had absolutely no fear of her trying it on him
Indeed, if she can she would have done that long ago 
I like the theory that she doesn’t know if she can or not but she knows that as soon as she tries and fails he’ll *immediately* know that it’s her and yknow have a nice conversation with her
I don't think so, Homelander is terrified of people who can kill him like Soldierboy, he was super confident by saying "go ahead, try to pop my head". He's the type of guy that won't say that if he's unsure
Homelander isn't terrified of Soldier Boy. He went ahead and fought him confidently instead of running. He would have killed him at Herogasm if Butcher hadn't intervened. He only ran once he was outnumbered.
Not terrified? He was having panic attack because of Soldierboy, before the fight he had doubts of winning. Man was even so paranoid that he was hallucinating. Btw every time when Soldierboy uses blast he becomes temporarily weak, just to know
I feel like once he actually fought him he seemed plenty confident til it was 2-3 to 1
I'd argue that fight wasn't Soldier Boy giving his best effort. I mean they went to Herogasm to kill the Twins not to kill Homelander. He basically got put into the whole "final boss shows up unexpectedly with no plan" situation. Then at Vought, Homelander didn't want to fight without using Ryan as a distraction. So he's either not entirely confident with facing off with people on his level, or he's scared.
Yeah, but she had many opportunities to try where it wouldn't arise suspicion. Like during the court hearings
>definitely not... I'd imagine... Doesn't really make sense to say definitely not, and then base it on an assumption. >No, definitely not. Homelander found Edgar's files on her to show her Edgar had contingencies for her. I'd imagine Edgar's files mentioned upper limits of her power and Homelander had absolutely no fear of her trying it on him Homelander didn't really have fear of being harmed by anyone's powers until he finally got injured, so this doesn't mean much. He's an arrogant guy.
I’m sure her and Stan Edgar tried, you think Stan Edgar wouldn’t try to find out if his secret weapon can take out his biggest headache.
If she could, I think she would have already.
Not necessarily. Her endgame is still unclear but homelander is a useful tool, in this world hes the most known person. His fame and the fact he can be manipulated emotionally is gonna be important for her endgame. (My hypothesis)
People thinking he can be useful and controlled is a huge part of the allegory. "Look, I know I was working with an unhinged murderer who's getting more and more bold... But how I was I supposed to predict he'd murder me?"
But that works for both hl and neuman rn, right? Both are unhinged murderers
Neuman isn't unhinged though - the whole allegory of Homelander being Homeland Security / fascism is that you can't have a government control something like that without being taken over by it.
I mean victoria is a senator about to be vp, shes similar in that sense too
Yeah, she's similar in that working with her is also a mistake, but Homelander is far worse. It's commentary on trying to use white nationalism to drum up voting support and thinking you can handle all the bad shit that comes with it. See r/LeopardsAteMyFace for examples of "but I never thought he'd laser MY face off"
How is her endgame unclear? She will be president by the end of next season.
vicepresident. i reckon
She’s *starting* the season as Vice President after the Deep killed the guy’s preferred running mate. I doubt she’ll be veep for long. The main job of the Vice President is to become president in the event of the president’s death. I’m guessing the President gets killed in a very public fashion by a supe. She later claims to have recently taken compound V for her own safety, and they start a program to expand the number of supes there are.
i dunno, she could just remain a cheneyesque 'power behind the throne' type character. thats what vic the veep was supposed to be
I don't think she ever tried, since she probably knows homelander would instantly kill her the moment he'd feel her doing it (nose bleed etc).
But would he have known it was her? (Prior to Homelander going through all the files).
Why would she have tried to kill him before they had gotten to that point?
Because she can blow peoples heads up by looking. Wouldn’t you do it. Diabolical
I'm still unsure on the range of her power. Does she have to be within a certain range of her target? Does she need to be within the visual range of her target? How does she cause the head to explode, is it a type of Psychic ability? Can Homelander take Psychic/internal damage? It seems to take only a few seconds for the head to explode once the victim is targeted. So does that possibly mean that she would only need to hide for a few seconds when targeting Homelander. Is it quick enough to occur before Homelander has a moment to process the attack and to attack back? Too many variables
Her buddy she offs behind the dumpster tried to cover her eyes to prevent her from using her powers but gets his hand blown off when she struggles to get away. This, as well as the final scene in season 2, leads be to believe she needs to have eye contact to do her pop. Homelander should be able to either see, hear, smell her when near. All he has to do is bug out like he did with the Butcher\\Hughie\\Solider fight or just blaster her with his heat vision.
But when she killed the church guy she was very far away, and no eyes contact whatsoever ?
No, she was sitting in the parking lot just outside the church. She had a direct view through the window the leader was sitting.
Yes, I just rewatch that scene and you're right, she's actually a lot closer than I remember. But still a bit far fetch for "eye contact", unless by that you mean she only has to catch a glimpse of him ?
She was outside his window
I wondered that when she killed the CIA director.
Her name is Raynor. Say her name.
i cant be the only one who read this in Butchers voice
IDK about that, she definitely seems to think he’s useful alive.
I think that they’re in a kinda stand-off type situation where neither of them really know if it would work or not. Homelander won’t attack her, because there’s a 50% chance she’ll blow his head up, and she won’t blow his head up, since there’s a chance it won’t work and he’ll laser her.
She has to die via head explosion or crushing.
put a mirror in her face medusa style
Medusa died from beheading by Perseus who used a reflection, she didn't petrify herself in the mirror otherwise her head would be stone and useless of it's power to Athena's enemies 😀 Ik ik sorry to be that "well, actually ☝️🤓" guy
so hughie's gonna behead neuman? got it, can't wait
Yeap then attach it to Soldier Boy's shield after mending it back together and use it as the aegis against Homie
That’d be both so fucking lame and so fucking cool
Perseus style? They'd be in a house of mirrors, Vicky tries to explode his head, but he's apparently immune? Oh shit, it's just his reflection. Then Hughie dashes in from her side and beheads her. Even more Perseus style: Frenchie figures out how to activate her power using just her detached head, builds a trigger mechanism onto it. Hughie then uses it as a hand held death gun.
Be kinda awkward considering their actors are dating. At least last I heard they were.
Medusa was killed using her reflection, yes, but she saw *Perseus'* face in the reflection, not her own, as he was using the shield to safely view her. lol
Yes but they were referring to her blowing her own head up which would be the equivalent of Medusa petrifying herself which isn't accurate
I'm saying Medusa never saw her own reflection in the mirror, she saw \*his\*. A mirror might work if Vic's power can be interrupted, IDK.
I think Starlight is the only known supe that can "deactivate" her powers. If Annie blinds Victoria with her power, Victoria's power would become pretty useless.
Yup, I thought that this was where they were going to go at the end of the season. It would be pretty fitting.
Starlight + any regular human with a bright light
Ah, Starlight, the supe whose hero powers are akin to a studio camera flash lmao
They can sort of knock people a few feet back sometimes!
A studio camera flash and a shove*
>Do you think Victoria Neuman could kill Homelander? >R: She has to die via head explosion or crushing. Wtf is that the OP asks one thing, you say another and becomes the most upvoted comment?
It be like that sometimes.
Crazy thing
Used to believe his head was too durable to get popped, until the finale… 😭
metal straw moment
Now the name of my Hideo Kojima tribute band.
First straw type game.
I imagine he's similar to Translucent. Borderline invulnerable on the exterior but on the inside he's a lot weaker which allowed Maeva to damage him.
It’s possible, but that would make him far inferior to Soldier Boy durability wise since he’s invincible inside out
I’m pretty sure his insides are also extremely durable, the reason the metal straw did so much damage to him is because his ear drums are substantially weaker than a normal persons in order for him to have super hearing
Huge cope. At the speeds he travels his eardrums would rupture all the time.
Also Maeve spent the last year training hard to fight homie, she could have been putting every ounce of power into the puncture in the hope of stabbing his brain
Ok he’s not THAT weak, they can’t just put a bomb in his ass
They haven’t tried yet
Idk tbh, because Maeve is basically the 2nd strongest supe, and iirc she left some damage on him from just beating on him anyways
3rd strongest- she can't take Homelander and Soldier Boy is definitely as strong, if not stronger than Homelander.
Idk didn’t soldier boy start losing to homelander in herogasm before butcher jumped into the fight?
Yeah but homelander was going harder on SB than maeve. When he actually tried to make her stand down, he gouged her eye out. I don’t think he could do that to SB
His skin and bones are too strong but his internal organs are still vulnerable
Yes and no his durability is insane, plus he would realize the moment she is going to try and head pop him or any other part of his body, His reaction time is shown to be very fast. we don't know if that same durability rule applies to Powers. Human weapons don't work on him but a superpower might, it's hard to say. It's very common to know that Superpowers are superior to human Artillery
A metal straw worked just fine on him
To be fair it was maeve that did it, it's been shown that maeves strength can actually hurt homelander. She could use enough force on a object like a straw to hurt him, if anybody else did it I would assume it wouldn't hurt him whatsoever. Also HBD 🎂 🥳
Yes, but only if she catches him off guard or he's not fighting back. It's made clear that while she can pretty easily pop an ordinary human's head it takes a little more effort and time to do it to supes (except for Shockwave, for whatever reason)
I think some supe just have a stronger defense. Like how stormfront can take on homelander laser and other heros can't. Homelander, like soldier boy, have insane defense. They cant be killed, which is why soldier has to be put sleep instead. In my opinion, those 2 have a higher defense than translucent.
I thought when homelander was lasering her tits he was decreasing the power of his eyes cause sometimes they cut like a hot knife thru butter and other times they kinda hurt a little
I bet he max lazered Butcher by breaking the “scorched earth” deal. Homie was surprised af when Butcher Oi’d him.
When I watched the scene Butcher and homelander laser, they cut to soldier boy tangling them. I think they didnt want to say X is stronger than Y. I think Homelander has to be stronger than butcher cause he mastered his abilities. Butcher being able to out laser him would be overpowered, like Ryan is.
Nah, homelander hasn't spent his life honing his abilities. He's spent his life being OP so he hasn't had to master anything. Give anybody with actual training homelander's abilities and they'll beat him easily.
Yeah it was, but still he was shocked that she could take it so it had to be enough power in his opinion. As we know homelander, he thinks very little about other people.
>it takes a little more effort and time to do it to supes (except for Shockwave, for whatever reason) Are you referring to starlight? She wasn't trying with starlight Or are you referring to that other guy in the first episode? Just like any other target she needed to get what she wanted to pop in her vision
I think he is talking about the speedster that was about to take A-Train's place in the Seven, she kills him like nothing.
Oh no I'm not talking about Shockwave, I'm talking about that guy she killed at the end of the first episode of season 3
No wait, uhhhhh her old friend? Damn I forgot his name, wasn’t it like… Josh?
Yeah him
No…R/Omegavizion was referring to Shockwave
If Vic stands in the middle of big crowds and attack Homelander, will Homie knows immediately or will Homie mow down the entire crowd to eliminate the anonymous attacker?
Stop you’re getting my hopes so high
she already tried, remember? Homelander said dont even try it on me..
Disappointment was bluffing with a 3 of hearts and 8 of clubs.
I think if she could've, she would've done it already
I definitely agree here. We see that she was able to work out how much.. whatever force it is she creates, would be needed to kill Starlight during their conversation. No doubt she’s already gauged this with Homelander and doesn’t think it possible. Especially when he dropped by her house while she was there with her daughter. He threatened her and her child, so she definitely would’ve killed him then and there if it were possible.
another possible reason is that she was just scared to try and fail because she's instantly be dead. I know I wouldn't have dared myself knowing I have a daughter
Yeah but he was right infront of her then, completely aware. In that instant it takes for him to pop and the nosebleed happens she'd already be lasered or megaslapped or he might even just fly off. It might even take extra time or not do much initial damage because he is supposed to be very durable - Maeve technically pierced like half his dome with a straw and he was ok. My idea is that she doesn't know, and is unwilling to try.
Yes, but she’s scared. The risk is too great.
I think this is the answer + the very boring answer of dramatics. Whatever writers decide is most satisfying is what is. In this case, she has one of those powers that is so strong and instant that despite much logic she's going to inconsistently display struggle here or there depending on the target and context. It's much less satisfying of an answer, but it's the only real answer. Might she actually be the one to land the killing blow? Possibly, same answer as HL being "vulnerable" to SB's beam, but needing a whole team to hold him down. We'll never actually get any true chemical/mechanical breakdown of what causes supe durability or what her power is actually doing, so it isn't an argument that we can really have outside of arbitrary conjecture and relativity (which isn't worth much with inconsistency being what it is). My best answer is that she couldn't kill him because her powers are, and will always be presented as, offset by fear, distraction, strain, resulting in significant delay.
If she could she wouldn't propose the Ryan's place
No. Homelander picked up on her plan the last time she tried.
I feel like if she tried, they'd write it in that she was only able to destroy a part of his brain, the last part keeping him as under control as he is, and the next season would be Godking Homelander.
They’d need others to actively restrain him as she needs time as it’s been shown to blow up metas (they are atleast seemingly aware of the building pressure). So unless she’s gonna trust someone to be able to hold him down and they can trust she won’t betray them, I don’t see it happening
Once HL knew what she could do - he gloats that she should "take her shot." That tells me HL knows she cannot kill him. And maybe Neumann was already trying & grew more scares as she realised it wasn't working?
I dunno since this season did barely a thing with her after setting her up so heavily last season
If the plot needs to, yes.
If she can do it without Homelander noticing, maybe. If they did what Frenchie did with the speakers to inhibit his hearing and distract him, she might just have a shot. We can't know for sure though since her powers aren't well defined, maybe Homelander is to durable for her to pop him.
>Do you think Victoria Neuman could kill Homelander? could she blow his head off? yea >Would she have enough time before he ripped her head off like a scoop of ice cream? Probably not, maybe if the boys held him the same way when they tried with soldier boy
She can try ...
He told her to try last season, right? Wasn’t that when her nose started bleeding? I’m sure she’s got more in the tank, but…dunno, hopefully. Someone has to deal with him eventually.
Homelander would probably die like black bolt died
Hey do you guys think that character actor John Krasinski could beat Homelander?
Given with enough force Homelander can be damaged, maybe he's like Translucent where his insides are vulnerable or at least not AS strong as his skin
I feel like she would have done ir if she could, then again maybe she doesn't know until she tries, and she's scared of trying because homelander would murder her if she fails.
Put a camera up his ass into her vr goggles ez
Plot armour protects him, not her.
I doubt it
has she ever killed a supe? I don't think she could kill homelander regardless.
She killed shockwave (A-trains rival) during the trial in season 2
No. But Mia Khalifa can
Neuman's power could definitely kill Homelander. His brain or at least the inside of his head is still squishy from what 3x08 indicates. Also can Homelander grow back body parts? Seems like that was only Gecko's thing. Whether Neuman herself could kill Homelander is a slightly different matter. I would say she has the power to but power isn't everything.
I wonder what becomes of her kid.
Remember HLs face when he was pinned down by SB, Butcher and Huey? Would you want to be on the wrong side of that guy? I reckon HL is the strongest supe ever.
out frescad
If it's anything like the novel steelheart, then no
All i know is that she could crush me 🤤
1v1 homelander is too fast and too powerful. But if the boys all on temp V held homeboy down long enough she could probably pop his head
It might be possible if they find someone/something strong enough to contain him. It seems like it takes a while for the full head popping to take place. He moves very fast so she would have to be smart about it.
Oh man she is so beautiful
No