The Many Faces of William Butcher in THE BOYS and How it Powers the Narrative.
- Joey Walker
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
(Warning: This article contains spoilers)
William Butcher is a complex character with many different sides. From the tough act he puts on for the world to his internal dialogue, Butcher has multiple faces vying for control. Let's explore three of them.
The Anti-Hero: Butcher's Reason for Being
William Butcher Is a textbook Anti-Hero. From the first episode of season one, it's
obvious that Butcher will break the law without hesitation to achieve his goal. But it’s only by the end of the season that we realize how far he is truly willing to go and why.
We find out that his wife, Becca, used to work at Vought as a social media manager when she was sexually assaulted by Homelander. After this Becca disappears and Butcher believes her to be dead. This further fuels his hate for Homelander. But although the world would be better off without the man, this is not what motivates Butcher. It is revenge.
A Man Torn: Butcher's Conflicting Voices
Sometimes Butcher doesn’t seem worthy of being called any kind of hero. There's a part of him willing to do absolutely anything to get revenge on Homelander, even if it's not what his late wife Becca would have wanted. After taking temp-v multiple times (a temporary version of the chemical V that gives Supes their powers), Butcher develops what is best described as a super-tumor. As a result, he begins hallucinating that his old partner Joe Kessler and Becca are talking to him.
When Butcher finds out about a virus that could potentially kill all Supes on earth, Becca tells him that would be murder and wrong. Kessler reveals himself to also be a hallucination when he disagrees with Butcher's wife. Kessler goes on to say that releasing the virus is what Butcher actually wants, revealing he knows this because he IS Butcher.
In this scene we get to see Butcher's internal turmoil in real time. It's difficult to say whether Becca represents his conscience or simply what he thinks she would say in that situation – this is left up to audience interpretation. But there is little doubt that the hallucination of Kessler is Butcher's worst thoughts, representing his deep-seated hatred and desire for revenge.
The Brother: Butcher's Softer Side
Despite his tough exterior, Butcher does reveal a more human side during the series, and not only through the affection he shows for his dog, Terror. Aside from his need for vengeance, Butcher treats Hughie (the main character of The Boys) like a brother, and he does seem to genuinely care about his friends and family. We also learn more about Butcher's upbringing and how that contributed to him becoming the man he is today.
During his childhood, Butcher and his little brother Lenny were beaten repeatedly by their father, an alcoholic. This led to Lenny committing suicide while Butcher was away from home, something he blames himself for. He believes that if he had been there, he might have been able to stop Lenny.
Hughie’s naiveté and innocence reminds Butcher of Lenny, which is why he treats him with more kindness than others. This is shown especially in episode 5 of the latest season, when Butcher tells Hughie that if they find it, he can have some of the V1 (the original mix of the V that would make the user immune to the virus) in order to save Annie and Kimiko. This is a significant compromise because it would risk Homelander finding them before the virus is released, then using the V1 on himself, thus making Butcher’s quest all the more difficult.
Butcher's Narrative Function in THE BOYS
Apart from the different aspects of Butcher's personality that we see on screen, there's another critical one in terms of how The Boys is constructed as a story,
One of Butcher's main narrative functions is to provide the inciting incident that kicks off the action of the series. He's the one that gathers the boys together as a result of his intense hatred and desire to take out the antagonist of the story, Homelander.
Butcher acts as a catalyst in the story, but he also provides a volatile presence that the boys have to, at times, work against. Although Butcher thinks of himself as their unofficial leader, it's the boys who must prevent his more extreme instincts from taking hold.
Without Butcher's multifaceted character, The Boys would not be the compelling series it is today.
Story Inkubator was founded by writer, scriptwriter and teacher, Kristina Jilly, an Australian living in Central Europe who's written for HBO Europe and RTL Television. She has an M.A. in Screenwriting and teaches at the University of Applied Sciences in Austria. Kristina also writes online content about the art of storytelling and topics that inspire creativity.
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