It seemed pretty clear to me that Homelander enjoyed having Butcher as a pseudo nemesis even though, save for last season, the former clearly could kill the latter whenever he wanted to. I've always read it as though he enjoyed the sport of the conflict on an amusement level, at least until he ordered Deep and Noir to kill them.It's been 4 seasons and barely anybody important has died. Butcher was on death's door basically this entire season for f***s sake.
Like why hasn't Homelander just straight deleted these fools by now. I dunno, I just don't like this show as much as a lot of people do. I don't really like superheroes the way a lot of people do either so disclaimer I guess. The kind of shock value they offer was fun for a while but the total lack of subtlety drags after a while. It's still good and better than most drivel they're putting out. I think they could still stick the landing in a final season, I am interested to see where they go with Ryan and liked the Firecracker & Sage characters this season. Hughie is still my boy. Rooting for that kid.
I don't know maybe I've been influenced by videos which show that Homelander tends to look down on those who are afraid of him but actually respects those that aren't or at least have the balls to stand up to him and show a spine (to some degree, as in he doesn't immediately kill them: Butcher, Vogelbaum, Maeve, Edgar, the head scientist from that underground lab this season (forget the name), Sage, Hughie (last season).
But for someone who doesn't like superheroes, I mean that's part of the draw of this show. It's intentionally putting out the inverse effect superhero movies/shows are supposed to have. To each their own I guess.