Homelander and Starlight’s kiss in season 2 of The Boys was a complex moment that revealed a lot about the dysfunctional relationship between the two most popular members of The Seven. To understand why they kissed, we need to examine their history together, their personal motivations, and the larger context surrounding superheroes in the world of The Boys.
Homelander and Starlight’s Relationship History
Homelander is the leader of The Seven and the most powerful and beloved superhero in the world. However, underneath his charming public persona, Homelander is actually a dangerous and unstable individual who abuses his powers. Starlight is a young and idealistic superhero who joins The Seven in season 1. She looks up to Homelander at first, but soon realizes how corrupt he and Vought (the company that manages The Seven) truly are.
From the beginning, Homelander takes an interest in Starlight. He seems to enjoy having someone around who still believes in old-fashioned superhero ideals. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Homelander wants to manipulate and control Starlight for his own purposes. He tries to get her to use her powers to kill a man at one point, testing her morals. When Starlight refuses to compromise her principles, Homelander begins treating her more cruelly.
Their relationship becomes even more tense and adversarial in season 2. After Starlight exposes crimes committed by Vought and The Seven, Homelander starts tormenting her and trying to intimidate her into staying silent. He frequently invades her personal space and makes inappropriate sexual comments. It’s clear he wants to keep her under his thumb and is threatened by her independence.
Homelander’s Motivations
So why would Homelander suddenly kiss Starlight, given their antagonistic history? To understand Homelander’s motivations, we have to recognize that he is extremely narcissistic and obsessed with control.
Kissing Starlight is a way for Homelander to assert his dominance over her. It’s very inappropriate given their professional relationship and the clear lack of consent on her part. Homelander does not actually care about Starlight, but he knows she once admired him. By kissing her forcefully, he is able to satisfy his own ego and remind Starlight that he holds power over her.
Homelander also likely did it to threaten and destabilize Starlight. Earlier in the season, Starlight and Hughie start secretly working to take down Vought and gather evidence against Homelander. So the kiss could be Homelander’s way of warning Starlight that he is watching her and trying to make her feel unsafe in her own team. It emphasizes that he can violate her boundaries whenever he wants to.
Starlight’s Motivations
For Starlight, the kiss was clearly unwanted and unsettling. However, in the moment, she made the quick decision not to fight back or anger Homelander further. Starlight knows how dangerous and volatile he can be, and she wants to survive long enough to continue her efforts in taking him down.
So Starlight lets the kiss happen and does not resist, even leaning into it slightly. This likely confuses and mollifies Homelander enough that he walks away without escalating to violence. So for Starlight, it was a strategic choice to avoid provoking Homelander’s rage and keep herself safe.
The kiss also shows how trapped Starlight feels as part of The Seven under Homelander’s control. Despite her disgust, she is forced to placate him and pretend the kiss was normal. This demonstrates the dysfunctional power dynamics and lack of accountability among The Seven that allows harassment and abuse to occur unchecked.
The Superhero Context
To fully analyze Homelander and Starlight’s kiss, we have to consider the larger context of the superhero world they inhabit.
In The Boys universe, superheroes are extremely famous, beloved celebrities who are marketed and monetized by Vought. The Seven in particular are held up as shining role models for society. This gives them privilege, power, and public trust.
However, in private most of The Seven engage in appalling behavior, such as Homelander’s sexual assault of Starlight. But the worshipful, uncritical view of superheroes makes the public ignore any warning signs and write off their crimes.
So the kiss happens in an environment where supes face little accountability and can abuse their status with impunity. Celebritization and hero worship have corrupted the system that is supposed to keep superheroes in check.
Vought’s Corruption
As the company that controls The Seven, Vought has incentive to cover up Homelander’s misconduct and maintain the illusion of perfection. If the public found out the truth, they would lose confidence in Vought and The Seven as products and brands. So Vought looks the other way and enables Homelander’s inappropriate behavior.
The CEO of Vought, Stan Edgar, has criticized Homelander’s unhinged tendencies. But ultimately Edgar does nothing meaningful to restrain Homelander, because his priority is protecting the company’s image and profits.
So Vought creates an environment where there are no repercussions for Homelander’s harassment of Starlight. This normalization of abuse is what allows the kiss to occur.
Toxic Masculinity
Additionally, Homelander embodies a toxic, hypermasculine culture that perceives women as objects to be controlled and dominated. His feeling of entitlement to Starlight’s body is tied to a misogynistic worldview.
The Boys explores how flawed concepts of masculinity and patriarchal gender dynamics contribute to the superhero system’s corruption. The kiss between Homelander and Starlight stems from the same culture of male supremacy that allows superheroes to exploit their status and become a danger rather than protectors.
Conclusion
Homelander and Starlight’s kiss was an upsetting moment that exposed the dysfunctional underbelly of the superhero world in The Boys. It arose from Homelander’s own narcissism, need for control, and toxicity. Starlight was forced to appease him for her own safety. Meanwhile, the celebrity culture and lack of oversight allowed his harassment to happen unchecked.
Their kiss perfectly encapsulated how superheroes in this universe abuse their privilege and status. It was a sobering demonstration of the corruption at the heart of Vought, The Seven, and the larger system that enables their worst impulses. The scene provided significant insights into Homelander and Starlight as characters. But more importantly, it was a bold critique of the damage caused by unaccountable power and toxic masculinity.