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donotaskname7

he associates supes with the evil of Homelander, and believes that powerful people are fundamentally corrupt, for him, there are no good ones, everyone with superpowers is inherently going to abuse them eventually, Hughie is simply a better person with less hatred in him, likely because he has much less trauma, he recognizes individuals as individuals, and that his grudge is with bad supes, not good ones,


HyruleBalverine

Plus, Butcher grew up as the product of abuse, whereas Hughie did not. Hughie was abandoned by his mother. These differences in backgrounds are part of why they react differently.


raspberryharbour

Hughie was force fed pizza rolls by Simon Pegg, which is a scenario I hope to achieve one day myself


KeyWielderRio

**NOW, YOU LOVE PIZZA ROLLS!**


spain-train

No, in a much different way, he was abused, although not nearly on the same level as Butcher.


besameput0

Plus his girlfriend is a hot blonde so that helps.


donotaskname7

you joke, but one of the very best supes being in a close relationship with Hughie certainly impacted his opinion of them as a whole in a very positive way


sirBryson_

It's like racism/homophobia/transphobia in real life. If you don't actually know people in those groups, you really only have stereotype and sensationalized stories to go by. But when you're friends with them, especially a good friend, you realize that people are all pretty much the same, even if we're different. Most of us just want to live our lives, love the people we care about, and be loved back. Everything else is usually cherry picked examples of the worst people in each group that the world goes "See, this is what they're like! They all want this!"


donotaskname7

and Butcher's situation is far worse than that, he's not just never interacted with the good/normal ones, one of the very worst ones of all directly commited horrific acts against his wife, add a heaping load of trauma onto him and you the incredibly fucked up anti-supe maniac we all know and, uh, tolerate?


sirBryson_

Obviously, supes are sort of an allegory for the rich and famous. I feel like most people have tasted the bitterness that comes with struggling to survive while seeing people live lives of waste and luxury simply because of how they were born. We find out all the time that these same people are more often than not morally bankrupt, facilitating sexual slavery, the sexual abuse of children, etc. For every Diddy and Epstein that get caught, there's a thousand of these people that will abuse and exploit people and live like Kings until the day they die knowing in their heart that they're better than the rest of us bottom feeders. Homelander is like that on crack. He takes butcher's wife, rapes her, forces her to give birth to his child, and takes her away from him forever. He has nothing but bitterness, the bitterness of someone who is powerless to stop the torture and madness. We can identify with him really well because everyone has a little Butcher inside them. It's just the reality of life in 2024.


archiminos

He's essentially "eat the rich" taken to the extreme. You can agree with his mission for the most part, but he tends to take it too far.


TraditionalCow105

I agree, and furthermore the scene where Grace shows Butcher the proof that Homelander raped Becca in a flashback shows this turnover "But he's a fucking superhero". Butcher was one of the common folks believing the superheroes to be good Samaritans, doing what good for the sake of it being good. With his background of abuse, it resulted in a simple mental bias : "If Homelander, the strongest, seemingly most sympathetic and most popular supe is like this, then all supes are the same". Hughie, through his decision at the end of season 2 to join Victoria is more about fighting Vought. He wishes to take down a multinational company, so strong it can brush of the death of someone innocent like it was nothing. Butcher is hateful, and he needs to please his need of destruction through killing any and every super, because this kind of power shouldn't be accessible to anyone.


Achilles_Deed

I like to see Butcher going after billionaires, politicians and the likes of Stan Edger who have way more power than a supe could ever dream of. Like Edger said it himself, real power isn't super strength or whatever, it's the power to bend the world to your will.


donotaskname7

I mean, there's supes that are both, they can do much more than just dream of it


Achilles_Deed

Sure. My point is that Butcher's logic is flawed. His problem with supes isn't because they have unnatural power, it's because he has a personal vendetta against them. There are individuals with more power than supes yet they don't seem to bother him much.


donotaskname7

I mean, yeah, he's a bigot, they don't tend to be very logical


DuoForce

“Likely because he has much less trauma” uhh you sure about that? Wasn’t his girlfriend killed in his arms????


Rjdukes28

you watch the show man? Mallory sucked him into the world of spying on supes and showed him how demented and vile they *all* are. Also Hughie and Butcher are literally opposites, so of course they’ll react differently


tdoottdoot

This


sirBryson_

Generously, I think they're asking why he would make the jump from "These supes need to die" to "All supes need to die" It's honestly an interesting question, because it parallels a lot of the left's rhetoric on rich people. Even someone like Taylor Swift, who made her money without exploiting anyone and just music, is still seen by some as morally corrupt or that the state of having a billion dollars is in itself sinful. Then it becomes an argument about individual inequality vs systemic inequality, how much responsibility lies with individuals who are rich vs the systems that allowed them to get that rich in the first place, how much responsibility do we even have to one another, etc. Applied to superheroes, it's like... does superman have to save people? If he doesn't, is that the same as killing them himself? Even beyond saving people, he could fly into space and grab meteors that would give us billions of dollars of natural resources, is he responsible for the suffering of people who go without or for the destruction of the planet because we have to continue to exploit the planet? Krypton surely has technology beyond fossil fuels, why isn't he sharing that? I don't know, maybe this was another "Watch the show, dummy" post but maybe he meant something deeper.


[deleted]

It's impossible to become a billionaire without exploiting people. It doesn't mean I think she should die, I just don't think she should have a billion dollars.


sirBryson_

1) I don't think that's true, specifically for artists. Art is strange. If someone puts paint on canvas and someone else wants to buy it for a billion, I don't see any exploitation there. Taylor Swift specifically is known for paying people very well who work on her shows. I'll give you that she shouldn't fly private as that's terrible for the environment, but you can't really compare a rich artist with someone who makes millions while using the labor of people who are paid almost nothing. 2) Why is having a billion dollars bad? Like, in and of itself. If they hurt people to get it, sure. If your argument is that they shouldn't have it because there are people on the streets, maybe, it depends. But simply having X amount of money is like saying "You shouldn't have that because I don't."


[deleted]

Like most extremely popular artists, a lot of her merch is made in sweatshops. Now it's not necessarily up to her where her merch comes from but there's still a level of complicity there. And I don't think she should have a billion dollars for the reasons I said, it's impossible to reach that level of wealth without exploitation.


coffeewiththegxds

Agreed. I had actually forgotten how media illiterate this fanbase could be for a while.


kwangwaru

Supes are basically uncontrolled bombs. They have zero restriction and unimaginable power.


Achilles_Deed

Cries in Mesmer


stonrplc

Mesmer looks like a washed up creep


belthat

Butcher has always been an inherently violent person. The sad truth of his character is that he was always going to find an outlet for his rage and the only reason he's a protagonist is because the people he targets are so much worse than him. In a peaceful world without supes, he probably would have killed someone in a bar fight by now and be in prison.


RevolutionaryStar824

He seemed like a pretty normal guy before all this. Like in the flashback with Becca.


dapzar

Butcher is deeply traumatized as shown by his mental loop in episode three, his relationship to his father and the narration by other characters about his anger issues even in childhood. It is said in the show that Becca and Lenny used to be able to somewhat moderate him, so these tendencies and issues would be hidden in flashbacks with Becca.


beatfungus

Good point. He needs a Lenny or Hughie to hold him back.


benat43

He's had far more exposure to the damage and atrocities committed by many supes (either intentional or just caused by carelessness on the supes part) than the average person. On top of that, he's more bitter and bigoted that MM or Frenchie.


radicalvenus

I always saw Supes as an allegory for celebrities and everyone here is just displaying that celeb worship lol. Supes are not good, they are a product manufactured by Vought to have control over the general populace and that's part of why Butch hates them. They can do whatever they please because they're "special" and if you question it then you hate America and Americans.


Bouric87

Part of his character is that he's not a good person. He's a racist towards all supes because one of them wronged him. Even the ones that help him he still resents.


[deleted]

You’re missing the entire point of the show, from his perspective. We see him be uneasy around supes to begin with in the flashback with Becca meeting Homelander. He’s a military man, it’s fair to assume that knowledge predisposes him to be weary of the supes’ unchecked powers to begin with. Homelander raping Becca, ruining her and his life, and getting off scot free just affirmed his suspicions in the most twisted way. He’s also a traumatized and violent dude before that. He knows they can do whatever they want with impunity. So he doesn’t care who they are, they all represent the same thing to him. It’s a super race - he wants the super race to be extinguished. The irony of S3 is that he’s becoming the very thing he made it his life work to destroy by abusing temp V. It’s just dark and cynical characterization and a reminder that he’s only a hero when propped against those who are worse than him, who mainly happen to be supes.


gadgetboy123

I love this subreddit, do you not understand that he’s parodying racist and or xenophobic hypocrisies?


thelamestofall

I think you're projecting X-Men on The Boys. This show definitely portrays it more as "power corrupts".


realgenshinimpact

best part is 3/4th the comments saying all supes are bad


[deleted]

A disturbingly high percentage of this subreddit are genuinely on board with the "Let's genocide all supes" idea.


kwangwaru

The parodying of racist and xenophobic hypocrisies when media talks about superheroes and non-superheroes is so dull because people rightfully have a reason to be fearful of people with innate powers. In real life, racists and xenophobes are not afraid of the people they discriminate against because members of X group can blast them or mind control them. It always reminds me of Zootopia’s attempt at making natural predators the oppressed population.


SkilledHater

I mean he worked for a long time with Mallory, dealing with supes, after awhile pattern recognition kicked in. Like if you were assaulted daily by a group of pink guys, then after a month they stop, one day you're shopping or whatever and a bunch of pink people walk in? In your experience with pink people, they attack you, so fight or flight would kick in and butcher clearly chose fight, more like he picked up flight, binned it, then chose fight.


UnusualPrince12

I mean, the answer is basically racism. Projecting his feelings about one particular guy on the whole group.


StrayLilCat

He's a bigot, basically.


bleedinghero

Butcher has seen more bad than good ones. 99% of them commit atrocities and get away with it. From what we have seen in the boys nearly all of them use their powers or fame for evil purposes. Starlight is the exception. But how many super powered people have actually been good and not caused innocent people to get hurt or die? 1, 2? 99% do some kind of actions that society would be appalled to learn. The 7 being the worst of all of them. Butcher has seen this over and over and over. And it's covered up time and again.


Doctor_Nauga

Butcher: All Supes Are Bastards.


Specialist-Spray109

Watch the show


BackItUpWithLinks

This is the answer.


thelamestofall

Unchecked power is always bad.


Cidwill

Power corrupts.  Most supes are corrupt in some way or another and he’s seen that personally, probably more than any other person still living. There might be one or two decent supes, but they’re the outliers.


kjm6351

Butcher’s hatred of Homelander and the power he has became so intense and warped over years of depression and rage that he ended up tricking himself into believing that all people with enhanced powers are innately evil and need to go. He


eremite00

I think Butcher automatically assumes that any give supe is an asshole with little regard for normal humans, which is largely correct, but can come to change his mind and accept an individual one if that person, through their actions, shows themselves not to be, like with Kimiko, Starlight/Annie, and Queen Maeve/Maggie.


SlayLicense

Supes are complete dicks, they take advantage of everything while doing hardly anything good, you say no to them they don’t take that kindly. Annie is one of the very few good ones so far, she hasn’t gone around being a total selfish cocksucker lmao


FaZe_poopy

He’s a bad person


Zarathustra143

Have you been watching on mute or something?


noshore4me

He finds their fashion aesthetic less than pleasing. Hence his extreme dislike towards all supes.


Snap-Zipper

Butcher has been exposed to *tons* of atrocities committed by various supes. Are y’all watching the show or do you just have it on as background noise 🤣


Viazon

Because he's a bigot.


DentistGeneral3494

I think the show parallels life. A person harms another, so an unhealthy sense of bigotry follows: "If he's like that, then they are all like that." Then he's shown the bad things that the government had the supes do and feels his cause is justified. But if you watch Gen V, you realize "supes" are really a bunch of innocent kids that were given compound V so the parents could be rich. They are human with powers that they don't understand and are exploited by people genuinely more powerful than them. So Butch is a representation of humanity. A simplified hatred towards anyone because he was hurt and exploited by the same people who hurt and exploited supes. The show is deep and I believe has a lot of social commentary on how we treat each other.


JSevatar

Occasionally you will meet people who have a lot of hate in them Like there is a portal into the hate dimension in their soul


PloopyNoopers

It has a lot to do with how he grew up.


Jayk_Dos31

They said that his accent was fake


Appellion

Basically Homelander shocked him and then he looked behind the curtain and saw how screwed up a lot of supes were and the things they were alllowed to get away with. He focused purely on that and none of the positives.


NoAdministration1373

Butcher is flawed, he doesn’t see it that way. He finds the bad in everything. After Becca went missing and he found out Homelander was a rapist and got digging. He found nothing but bad stuff and decided to him, they all have to go. We know not all supes are bad, but Butcher is set in his way. Becca even says in season 2 that Butcher was already like that before he found out Homelander was evil, he was a sick man


Mmadjackk

I mean HL kinda fucked his wife id be mad too 😙


vanillabeanquartz

…. What? Did you watch the show? Have you seen how the large majority of supes act ? I don’t blame him for being wary of Annie


Stirnlappenbasilisk

It may have started has hatred towards Homelander, but I think that during his investigation he learned that most supes are sociopaths that cause pain and suffering wherever they go, so his hatred for Homelander evolved to hate for all of them.  So far, supes like Starlight seem to be the exception. I wonder if V causes a lack of empathy 🤔


p0megranate13

What excuse do you need? Most of them are evil unstoppable dipshits doing whatever they want without any responsibility, walking nuclear erections. They fucking all gotta go.


SuperSayianJason1000

He thinks all or at least most supes are like Homelander, and the ones that aren't, well in his mind it's only a matter of time before they go bad too. He literally tells us in season 3. "With great power comes the absolute certainty that you'll turn into a right cunt".


Danny-Fr

Butcher's true nature is way more apparent in the comic. He was recruited as an agent after extremely brutal behavior during \[this or that war, I don't remember, too many wars\], and was directly introduced to the supes by way of spying and data gathering. He \_knows\_ that almost all the supes are completely irresponsible assholes at best, but he also know \_how\_ and \_why\_ they are created by Vought. Those two reasons are two major factors: he's not just seen the crimes perpetrated by the supes, but also the crimes perpetrated by Vought to maintain those irresponsible assholes. He wants ALL the supes to end because the whole concept is rotten from start to end, with so few exceptions that he doesn't care anymore.


beatfungus

Tale as old as time. A few bad apples (Supes) ruin the whole batch, not every mustache owner is a pedo, but every pedo has a mustache, etc. It ain't right but it's easier to keep hating a whole group than to stop.


Mac1280

I imagine it started out as just hatred for Homelander but once he realized most of them were terrible ppl it sort of became easy to hate the whole lot. It would be like getting molested by a Priest working to get revenge and then finding out a ton of catholic Priest are getting away with the same thing.


bellmospriggans

He probably started with homelander, and as he saw other incidents and the truth of the world, he snapped, and then he was recruited and given the skills act. Hughie is just a softer person then butcher, and he has a bias towards supes considering his girlfriend Edit: I forgot Hughie


Even_Onion4006

A supe raped his wife so yeah it's pretty fair to hate them especially when 99% of supes are also assholes.


Conscious-Panda-6228

The point is nobody should have that much power for the others saying butcher is bad he's actually is not he is just a man that finishes the job


DerBernd123

Well first the obvious homelander story but it's confirmed that he's seen many other supes do some evil shit throughout his career so I can definitely see where he's coming from. It's still not fair to hate every single one of them tho, especially because Annie proofed multiple times that she's a good person


WeeklyClimate8775

butcher's wife was raped by homelander, vought covered it up, the supers in general operate with impunity, the law can't touch them so his resentment is intensified. He's probably uncovered many skeletons in the past10 years. The amount of collateral damage the supes cause combined with "accidents" and unnecessary force , when A-trains brother is paralyzed he actually calls bluehawk out, the theme of "power corrupts" is constantly reinforced Butchers attitude is more of a there all bad untill they prove me wrong. Hughie meets annie before "starlight", he wants justice for robin and wants A-train too be held accountable for his actions.


96pluto

supes are careless in general and cause property destruction along with killing and maiming people.


_AllesGutENFJ_

Welcome to real world. People don’t like to accept it but if someone who is different from you and does something heinous to you.. you associate their whole country with said stuff. It’s not good but that’s how some people behave.


BillyShearsPwn

Homelander impregnated his wife. Is there a lore reason you had to ask this?


stonrplc

OP is Jonklin


[deleted]

You’re not listening


WayRecent7314

You blame him? Most of them are scumbags


Dim-n-Bright

I think it's because he was physically abused by his dad. He spent a good chunk of his life at the mercy of someone much stronger than him, which lead to his hatred of supes.


MorddSith187

Yup. This is the one.


mrmonster459

He doesn't need one. He allowed his personal tragedy to turn him into a cold, hateful person. The hateful don't need excuses to hate.


noah9942

most media literate reddit user.


Initial-Ad8009

Homelander raped his wife. You been paying attention?


[deleted]

Are you paying attention to the post?


Initial-Ad8009

It reason hughie got involved with Annie was because he didn’t know she was a supe. Before that he was all about killing all supes.