It has been made clear since the first season that Homelander’s worst enemy is Homelander himself, and his personal feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. What causes Homelander to lose control is not some enchanted weapon or superpowered villain, but rather the knowledge that his emotions are not as immune to outside forces as the rest of his body, as Kripke goes on to explain.
“That’s been an ongoing discussion in the writers room. At the moment there aren’t many physical [weaknesses], but there’s so many psychological ones that that’s what we kind of lean to. Antony has said many times, and I agree, that Homelander is the weakest character in the show. So we’ve never really gotten into the ‘How do you stop him physically?’ But there are a lot of ways to stop him psychologically.”
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“He finds his human vulnerability so hateful and he hates that part of him and he tries to subsume it, and yet it is part of who he is. And so he hates a part of him that he can’t ultimately control, and so that kind of leads to a snake’s nest of psychoses. At the moment, that is his current weakness.”
Of course, all the emotional turbulence in the world can’t actually bring down a beast like Homelander. In the comics that the show adapts from, Homelander was defeated by his clone that had been hiding in plain sight all along. However, the show has deviated from the comics substantially already, and will likely have a different ending as well. For now, it seems the only defense the world has against Homelander is his own desire to be seen as a beloved hero, and the attempts of Billy Butcher’s gang to use clandestine means to bring down The Seven. Kripke’s comments come from Collider. Starr’s comments come from ComicBook.com
“Initially that he is not built to be a parent, at least not a good one. Then I think, you know, the good thing about that relationship is because it challenges Homelander so much, you know, he’s forced into a situation where he’s got to adapt and he’s got to discover some new layers to himself, so there’s a lot that comes out of that relationship and maybe, maybe even a hint of vulnerability.”
