Hold on there. While most of what you're saying is true, you're also downplaying Homie's performance against more skilled opponents. He was holding his own relatively well against Butcher and Soldier Boy who are weaker but still comparable to him (they were actually hurting him with their attacks as opposed to the explosion he scales to which he took zero damage from). The two of them couldn't beat him despite being more skilled and had to pin him down with Hughie so SB could try to charge up his power null blast.
The only reason Homelander didn't get "beaten" by Hughie, Butcher, and Soldier Boy was because he gained a surge in strength to overpower them to stop Soldier Boy's Radiation Burst. Not because Homelander has any notion of "skill." Throughout the fight, both Butcher and Soldier Boy were individually beating up Homelander with the only problem being Homelander's pure power. The fact Homelander nearly dies to-by your admission-weaker opponents, shows that Homelander is incompetent in battle.
Uh... Just laser the tentacles? They don't got the heat resistance nor AP (it upscales) to withstand it and neither does the forcefield (will address that one below).
Homelander's laser relies completely on his vision. Homelander's incapable of using Heat Vision on tentacles that grab his neck from behind and pull him to the ground. Then 4 more get summoned to further restrain Homelander by his limbs. Yes, Homelander will perhaps laser one or two, but ultimately it's futile. The quantity of tentacles Alastor can summon is far beyond Homelander's ability to consistently use Heat Vision on, especially when his neck movements are restricted.
Speed is equalized. The tentacles don't look like they're faster to the point of blitzing him either. Maybe he'll get caught off guard and fail to avoid them the first time just because of how they're summoned, but he'll definitely become more cautious after that due to their superior LS. Even if he gets grabbed, he can just break out with heat vision as I already mentioned.
My entire argument stands on the condition that Alastor's tentacles can restrain Homelander and render immobile to further dismember and kill him. By your own concession, Homelander
will get caught by Alastor's tentacles, so I don't see why you're arguing for Homelander when you've directly. I must reiterate that for someone like Homelander, something being instantly summoned under him would be jarring as that's nothing he's ever seen before. It's doubtful he would even know how to react to the attack since he doesn't have any idea
what Alastor's tentacles are.
His flight will make it harder for them to catch him and by the third time or so, he'll be aware of how the tentacles are summoned and just has to look around to get rid of them.
Flight isn't an issue. Homelander is scarcely skilled enough to use it effectively and Alastor has dealt with flying opponents before. Anyone with a miniscule amount of proficiency in ranged weaponry can hit a flying target. Alastor is no different with his tentacles. This isn't an argument.
No, it wouldn't. Homie's heat vision is higher than his own AP (which already upscales his feat) and is hotter than 3500°C. In fact, ain't that the same temperature Adam's holy light scales to? (Kinda funny since he's literally Homelander if he was an angel). If Alastor says or does anything that pisses Homie off including making him struggle as you already said, he gets a rage amp that increases his AP even further.
Again, you've implicitly conceded Homelander would get caught by Alastor's tentacles. Alastor's win condition is exactly this:
Restrain Homelander with tentacles --> rip apart
One event would naturally lead to the next. There's no "breaking free" for Homelander once he gets caught.
Yeah, because it took 3 seconds after that one attack (it shattered on impact and only took that long to fully disperse).
Enough time for Alastor to do any of his abilities. Thought-based Teleportation, Thought-based Intangibility. Anything, really.
The simple ability called heat vision:
Homelander's Heat Vision isn't the end all be all. The laser will be localized in a small surface area on Alastor's body. It would burn clean through him, sure, but Alastor isn't going to instantly combust from getting hit with it. I don't think I need to explain why Alastor wouldn't die from getting lasered in the arm or legs. Homelander lasering in the head/heart doesn't work because Alastor is already an undead.
Is that in character? Even if it is, his shadows aren't intangible all the time (if they were then they wouldn't be able to touch and grab stuff). Even if he is intangible as a shadow (which would be elemental intangibility), Homie should still be able to hit him with heat vision just because it's beams of light. It's like using water against someone who can turn into fire.
Intangibility comes in plenty of forms and Alastor's intangibility is the "I can touch you but you can't touch me" kind. If you want to use the interaction between shadow and light, then your argument is dead wrong. Actually use real-life physics instead of coping-out midway to try to covertly give Homelander NPI. Shadows happen when an object blocks a light source. Homelander's Heat Vision would disperse Alastor's shadowy form, but Alastor would be completely unaffected by it.
Regardless, Alastor's shadow control has been shown to be just fine when under direct light (see literally any scene when he's using tentacles). Your entire argument is moot.
I wouldn't think so. Homie is arrogant but he isn't stupid (unlike his comic version). First impression, Alastor is a literal deer demon who's covered in 90% red, has a 24/7 radio host voice, and the most shit eating grin on his face. This isn't even mentioning John's enhanced senses, which will let him notice the massive difference in physiology compared to humans even more and potentially discern Alastor's emotions, and SBA which has him assume that the enemy wants to harm him and at least tries to fight back. Even if that doesn't raise a red flag to him somehow, he'll become alert once he gets grabbed by the big shadow tentacles and struggles to break out physically. He also won't be dismembered easily due to sheer durability. Let's not forget that from Alastor's perspective, Homelander is a normal human who's dressed like a Superman knockoff so he wouldn't take him seriously either until he starts using his powers.
Alastor uses tentacles to kill objective fodder characters. He does it as a starting move no matter how someone looks save if his opponent is an in-verse top-tier. Meanwhile, Homelander is
known to use appearances to inform his opinions about his opponent. It doesn't matter what intelligence Homelander has, if Homelander decides to be arrogant and walk into the fight expecting to be invincible, he loses. This arrogance is something Homelander has consistently demonstrated throughout the entirety of The Boys. Alastor's physiology and costume get-up might make Homelander take him even
less seriously since Homelander would view Alastor as a freak. Not the best argument here.
