The Boys Season 3: Is Homelander A Better Father Than Butcher? What Do The Boys Think?
Homelander and Billy Butcher have an elaborate fighter over who will get the custody of Ryan in The Boys season 3. But who is a better father, according to The Boys?
P.S.- SPOILERS FOR THE BOYS SEASON 3 FINALE!
What is Homelander’s fatherhood according to The Boys Season 3?
The Boys Season 2 posed the question of who is the better father for Ryan, Homelander or Billy Butcher? Everyone is giving their side of the argument, but the answer to the question was given in The Boys season 3.
After Becca’s death in The Boys, Billy Butcher became a surrogate father to Ryan during the gap between The Boys seasons 2 and 3. Homelander finds out where his son is in the episode “The Instant White-Hot Wild.” Ryan, too chose Homelander over Billy Butcher.
In The Boys season 2, there were hints that Homelander might be heading towards fatherhood. Homelander was a pushy father who did everything possible to make his son’s latent abilities work. But now, he was sympathizing with Ryan about his struggles.
Homelander, known for his egoistic nature, showed actual emotions for Ryan in The Boys Season 3.
According to The Boys season 3, in the finale, Homelander has come on top of the competition; who is the better father?
When Homelander is with Ryan in isolation, scenes force one to wonder if the famous antagonist who has murdered many people in his life is even a bad person from inside or those his mental issues. He says, “I’m not going anywhere” to Ryan, whereas Billy Butcher is telling him, “Maybe I don’t want to look at you after what you did to my Becca” in The Boys season 3.
Even in the finale, Homelander runs to Ryan when he is attacked by Soldier Boy, putting himself in danger. At the same time, Billy Butcher is busy fighting Radioactive Grandpa with his heat vision.
All these incidents might mean that even though Homelander is awful, he was cut out for being a parent. He values the one person in his life who is his family.
Also Read: When will The Boys Season 4 Filming? Filming Date Confirmed
How Does The Parenting Of Homelander Break The Boys Season 3’s Pattern?
“The father’s sins being inherited by the son” is a constant theme of The Boys season 3.
For instance, Soldier Boy tells Billy Butcher that his father despised him for being a “disappointment,” then taunts Homelander around the same premises during the finale.
Then there is the story of Billy Butcher, whose “alcoholic” father used to beat him and abused and when he grew up, he used his father’s exact M.O. when he insults Lenny by abusing him and saying, “Don’t be such a f***ing p**f.”
Even the issues of MM are visible, and he is obsessed with seeing Soldier Boy crumpled down. To be specific, his father died obsessing over the same.
Therefore, it has become a theme in The Boys Season 3 that men with abusive or troubled fathers have grown up to be an exact copy of their father’s issues.
In times like this, Homelander is a ray of hope for Ryan. Viewers were not expecting Homelander to do any different, but in The Boys Season 3, he did it for Ryan. We know that Homelander was raised in the lab of Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum, where he was never treated as a kid but as an experiment.
Homelander grew up deprived of the warmth of a family or parents, and the Doctor only wanted him to be his experiment and grow strong physically. If Homelander followed the pattern of Billy Butcher, Soldier Boy, or MM, he would have been a terrible parent, but to everyone’s shock, he is not.
In Boys Season 3, Homelander removes everything from his past to give his son a better childhood than himself. On the other hand, Billy Butcher knew first-hand how terrible it feels to have an abusive father; even then, he carried on his father’s patterns.
Hence, to answer the question, who is the better father? Homelander is. He is working on himself to provide the love and care for Ryan he never got and give him the best upbringing he can. At the same time, Billy Butcher is repeating his father’s mistakes.
Conclusion
Homelander’s childhood and adolescence tolled him and his mental health. Homelander is a serial murderer, but when it comes to his son Ryan, he uses his paternal instincts well. When we see scenes of Ryan Butcher and Homelander, his biological father, and compare them to the ones with Billy Butcher in The Boys season 3, it becomes clear that Homelander is a better fit.
“A hero would sacrifice the one he loves to save the entire world, but a villain would sacrifice the entire world to save the one he loves.” This saying could be an example of why a Homelander is a good parent.
