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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | You know what I do when I'm sad or scared? F*cking nothing! Because I'm not a f*cking p*ssy. | „ |
| ~ Soldier Boy "inspires" Hughie. |
Ben, better known as Soldier Boy, is one of the two main antagonists of Season 3 (alongside Homelander) of the Amazon TV adaptation of The Boys and minor character of its spin-off series Gen V. He was a former superhero and the leader of a Payback, a team of his until being betrayed by them due to his abusive behaviour. He is also the father of Homelander and grandfather of Ryan Butcher.
He is portrayed by Jensen Ackles.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- While he used to be a humble young man for turning his own holiday into a homage for all future generations of superheroes during his early years as a superhero, he shed this redeeming quality by letting power and fame corrupt him due to his insecurities and inadequacies regarding his masculinity, self-image and trying to prove his father wrong.
- He’s presumably a fraud for never taking part in WW2’s most significant events in history: Normandy, instead showing up for a staged photo shoot in pursuit of a war propaganda campaign. Although this isn’t a heinous crime, it still taints his heroic image and puts him in a more gray area.
- in 1952, he took part in the red scare which means that he actively participated in one of the most notorious periods of American history, marked by intense fear of communism and widespread persecution of those suspected of having leftist or communist sympathies.
- In 1963, he brutalized minorities and silenced multiple civil rights protesters in Birmingham, even using a fire hose against some of them.
- In 1970, he massacred anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University.
- In 1982, he and Swatto assaulted a homeless man for unknown reasons and then possibly killed him.
- He was a brutal and unjust crimefighter back in his day, killing 20+ criminals and maiming several others, employing fear tactics against minors to extract confessions and arresting countless addicts for illegal use of marihuana. This makes him a massive hypocrite since he was a total junkie himself.
- He was responsible for killing several members of the M.M.’s family. While he was chasing a criminal attempting to flee in a getaway car, he threw the car into the family home of M.M. He later expresses no remorse for this and instead just asks “which one” when M.M. confronts him for killing his family.
- As the leader and commander of Payback, he subjected his teammates to horrible abuse for years, refusing to let them question his authority and frequently beating them if they did. This is especially true towards Black Noir, who he repeatedly berated for trying to become an actor and Gunpowder who claims that it was “hazing that went too far”.
- He sabotaged Black Noir's chance of becoming a film star in Beverly Hills Cop, leading to Eddie Murphy getting his role instead.
- He savagely beat Black Noir and threatened to kill him if he tried to further his career.
- In 1984, when he was at the base camp in Nicaragua, he was prepared to recklessly fire an M2 Carl Gustaf rocket launcher he was aiming at an ammunitions dump, which could obliterate half the camp and draw the attention of any enemy military forces operating nearby, only to instead flirt on his commanding officer, Mallory Grace, when she asked him to stop.
- He misogynistically called Mallory a lesbian when she didn't condone his flirting.
- He ruthlessly sent a Russian soldier flying into the air causing him to land on the ground and die.
- When he was betrayed by his team, he tried to kill them in self-defense. But at one point spitefully pressed Black Noir's face into a burning car then smashed bits of his brain with his shield, resulting in him being permanently disfigured and mute.
- When the Boys found him and freed him from his imprisonment in Russia, a confused and weakened Ben slowly lets out a burst of radioactive energy from his chest which almost killed Frenchie if not for Kimiko’s interference. This resulted in severely wounded her and removing her powers. Furthermore, Ben doesn’t express any gratitude towards Butcher for freeing him and instead calls him an “asshole”. To make matters even worse, he gained a new set of abilities after being experimented with radiation. This makes him a much more dangerous threat combined with his hostile and vicious nature.
- He let his radiation go out and killed 19 people in an explosion (although this was unintentional on his part, and he felt remorse for it.)
- He blows up and incinerates Crimson Countess after tracking her down and realizing she never loved him.
- He blows up at Herogasm, thus killing countless people including the TNT twins after finding them, which while somewhat accidental, he did not show any remorse.
- While searching for Mindstorm, he killed a priest and a nun without batting an eye under the impression that they might be possessed by him.
- He beat and interrogated Mindstorm and then killed him by brutally bashing his head in with his shield after interrogating him.
- He knocks out his grandson by sending him away and ramming him into a bookshelf.
- He prepares to blast Homelander and Ryan to death, the latter of whom wasn't part of his deal with Butcher and did nothing to deserve this, which leads to Butcher betraying and fighting him.
- He tried to kill Starlight during their battle.
- When he is being beaten, he attempts to explode to kill the Boys and everyone in the room, only for Maeve to sacrifice herself with an inch of her life left as she tackles him out of the window. Fortunately, Maeve survives at the cost of losing her powers (though she couldn't care less).
- Although he does have comedic moments, it does not detract from how serious he is taken.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- While having personal villainy towards the Boys and Payback, Soldier Boy is only able to stand out through the people he killed in his radioactive bursts, some of which he regretted. This makes him unintentionally heinous as the rest of his crimes are outshone by his son, Homelander, who caused the crash of Flight 37 and threatened to turn the world into an authoritarian dictatorship through mass murder, and Stormfront, who brutally killed dozens of people based on racial prejudice and intended to reintroduce Nazi supremacy.
- He has a genuinely tragic past that still holds up. While his actions are inexcusable, his violent and ruthless nature stems from an emotionally abusive upbringing and a strained relationship he had with his harsh, absent, demanding and chauvinistic father. Sent to boarding school, he grappled with academic pressure leading to expulsion and his father's harsh disapproval thus deeming a young Ben unworthy and unfit to continue his legacy. Coping with the emotional burden through heavy drinking, he sought the war department which experimented on him with compound V resulting in him becoming a superhero and symbol for the United States during hard times like World War II only to face dismissal from his father for relying on a permanent serum rather than grit and effort which led Ben to despair and his desire for becoming a better father than his own. However, Butcher steers him back to his mission to kill Homelander, his last blood, thus leading Soldier Boy to kill him as part of their deal to find Payback and for representing the very thing he loathes most: himself.
- Most of his major crimes are off screen so it’s not enough for him to count as Inconsistently Heinous.
- He is portrayed as insecure since he considers himself a disappointment like his father did.
- While usually callous towards civilian lives (notably MM's family), he did genuinely express remorse for blowing up 19 innocent people on accident.
- He is honorable as he intended to uphold his deal to Billy by defeating Homelander, even if he went too far and against Billy's wishes later.
- He can sometimes be affable as he was willing to open up to Billy about his poor relationship with his father and was understanding of Billy’s similar struggles.
- While searching for Mindstorm, when he and Hughie stumbled upon a priest and a nun on the road, and when they asked if he was a superhero, he warned them that there was a fugitive in the area and that they should leave before they get hurt, before realizing they were brainwashed by Mindstorm. This shows he does have some level of empathy towards other people.
Trivia[]
- Although he is currently considered a VB, there is a possibility that his status might change on these two reasons;
- He is currently still comatose and frozen in a capsule at the end of Season 4 and presumably might get free either before or during Season 5.
- It was also announced that the show is receiving a prequel called Vought Rising where Soldier Boy will appear, which will likely expand on his heinous standards further.
External Links[]
- Soldier Boy on the Villains Wiki
- Soldier Boy on the Boys Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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The Seven Payback Others | ||