Why Butcher is the Best Deconstruction in ‘The Boys’

You read that right. The best deconstruction in the show is Butcher.

No, not Homelander. Yes, I’m sure. It’s actually not even close.

Let’s first check if Homelander is really a deconstruction of Superman like some keep saying he is.

Is he?

Merriam-Webster defines ‘deconstruction’ as “breaking down” or “analyzing” something. Homelander doesn’t really do that to Superman.

The idea with Superman is that his values come from The Kents. That’s why Clark is the way he is and Zod isn’t. Homelander was raised as an abused corporate lab rat. He doesn’t contradict the idea that someone with Clark’s background can turn out a good dude like Superman.

If anything, Homelander reinforces the idea that Superman is a product of nurture and not nature. Strip Baby Clark from the Kents and raise him in an environment with no love like Vought’s, and he would turn out like Homelander. The same is true vice versa.

Homelander’s son Ryan reinforces that even more. Ryan had a loving mom and isn’t a psychopath like his dad.

So Homelander isn’t really a deconstruction. He doesn’t challenge your knowledge of Superman. You don’t learn anything new about Superman from looking at Homelander. All your prior existing knowledge just gets reinforced.

So why is Butcher a deconstruction? Who is he even a deconstruction of?

Well, imagine a franchise had a guy who:

Is “too cool for school” / an asshole to people.
Isn’t a team player / runs off on his own half the time.
Is impulsive / shoots first and asks questions later.

I know, I know… foreign fucking concept… but hear me out.

Now imagine the franchise had no self-awareness about this dude’s flaws. The whole team was just cool with how uncooperative and gung-ho he is… not just that, he somehow even becomes team leader!

It just conveniently works out for him that way.

Oh, and he’s a great judge of character too. Like, don’t even get me started on how pitch perfect his bullshit radar is. What’s that? He’s just cynical, you say? It’s contrived that every person he distrusts will conveniently turn out to be a bad guy, full of shit or some naive junior? Nah, he’s just a realist or whatever.

Even when he isn’t the leader or part of the team – when he is running off having solo adventures and being twice as gung-ho – everything still conveniently works out for him.

The whole universe always bends to his badassery.

That’s exactly the archetype Billy Butcher was when we met him.

Badass. Intimidating. Bloodthirsty.

His plans were stupid and not thought-out. (Get some pizza boy looking dude to plant a bug at Vought? Really??) But hey, who cares? Did I mention how badass and charming he is?

His bullshit radar was also maybe not as “spot on” as that of other dudes like him. At least not all the time. He was wrong about Kimiko and Starlight. Oh, he was especially wrong about Starlight.

So sure, maybe he is a bit too cynical. But hey, let’s give that a pass. He’s still just so badass and charming… it’s not like being “that kind of dude” would cause significant problems for him, right?

Eventually he abandons his team and runs off on his own ’cause, again, it’s what these dudes do.

He barges into a situation all bloodthirsty and ready to kick ass.

Except OOPS! Not only his plan fails… he didn’t get his facts right. Turns out his wife is alive and he almost widowed her.

Having survived only because his wife told Homelander she’d kill herself if he kills Butcher, Butcher returns to his team expecting to just pick up from where he left off.

Of course he expects that. These dudes get endless second chances. Why would that be any different now?

Again… oops. Turns out his team is kinda pissed at him for what he did.

Turns out if you act like those dudes in the real world, your team will want nothing to do with you. Why would they? You hurt their trust. All teams and friendships are based on trust. Want to come back and be their leader? You have to beg for forgiveness; earn their trust again.

So Butcher stays Butcher, but apologizes and starts showing more compassion.

Later he even chooses to sacrifice himself fighting Black Noir so his team can get away.

He has even more of an epiphany when he’s reunited with Rebecca. He learns she chose not to go to him after she was raped. She knew if he found out, he’d start a reckless war with Homelander and get himself killed.

Butcher being “that guy” is why she is captive in the first place!

Later, Butcher and The Boys finally manage to save her. The plan in Season 2 worked in a way that the plan in Season 1 didn’t because Butcher this time was being level-headed, a team player and a proper leader.

In other words, he shed the most negative aspects of his archetype.

When Ryan accidentally kills Rebecca, Butcher gets one final test: Put his impulsivity and bloodthirst aside, save Ryan and step into the role of a father figure/role model.

It’s a hard role ’cause it doesn’t come naturally to these guys. Like Logan said in 2017: “I suck at this.”

But Butcher chooses to be there for Ryan and to step into that role nonetheless. Even though it scares him worse than Homelander. Even though it’s supposedly “outside the bounds” of his archetype.