I am curious to ask, this question has been haunting me for ages but would Homelander care about Ryan just as much had he been born without powers? I mean I feel like he would be pretty disappointed and feel conflicted between having a son but a son who is a "mud person" from his genes, I could also see Homelander maybe considering injecting Ryan with Compound V. Never really being able to accept his son bring human. I bring this up because I keep seeing platonic father Homelander with human daughter s/o (Platonic mind you) and I just don't think he'd be very loving to a human child from him. I could see him sorta seeing them as a runt of the litter so to speak. Your thoughts?

suuuuch a tough question to answer. honestly, one of my theories for season 4 is that Butcher may attempt to "de-supe" Ryan in order to wipe away some of the shine on him from Homelander's eye. it feels a very Butcher line of thinking to have, assuming Homelander only cares about Ryan so long as he's a supe. from Butcher's point of view, it may be the only thing that ultimately allows Ryan to live a normal life, and obviously it would very much be Butcher's preference.

back to the point, Homelander's first question about his child was "was it a boy?" but i think this question is more nuanced than just 'he wanted a son.' i think he asked this because vogelbaum is describing to Homelander what we the audience see; the baby had laser vision and freakish strength. Homelander wasn't JUST asking if the baby was a boy, he was asking if this baby was him.

Homelander needed it to be true. he needed Ryan to be him. he's extremely defensive about Ryan experiencing any of the same traumas he did, but from the very beginning he's also wildly sensitive to any implication that Ryan is anything less than a god. anything less than he is. part of this is due to Homelander seeing Ryan as an extension of himself; a means to heal his inner child. give himself the life he deserved through his perfectly super child. just like he was confident Ryan was as tough as him and could definitely fly, despite zero evidence, i do think he would be extremely confident Ryan, were he born normal, would survive a round of V, and have all his dads same power. i can see him trying to convince Ryan of accepting it. could Homelander accept Ryan as a human? maybe not as enthusiastically as he did in canon, but I also don't think Homelander would be able to abandon his own child. not after what happened to him.

now, with all that in mind, had the baby been a daughter... i think that would have completely changed the role she plays in Homelander's psyche. in terms of his emotional healing, it would instead put him in the forward facing role as her father, and what that would mean for his future and growth, rather than what her experiences mean for his inner child healing.

i think the introduction of a daughter would elicit that reaction in him whether she was a supe or not. Homelander is vicious towards humans broadly speaking, but he's not immune to caring about them as individuals. i think any child of Homelander is still inherently better to him than any other person simply by virtue of being his. i think a non-supe child would be less of a runt and more of a... pet. not his equal, but above the others.

ALL that aside, we can theorize to our hearts content based on the writing we have what Homelander may or may not think/do with a human child, but in the end we don't have a precedent for it, so it's entirely up to interpretation, and what stories we as the fandoms want to see/engage with. i think the reason we see so much dadlander content is because we have daddy issues it's fun to engage with! it's as much a fantasy as any of the romantic x reader content i write. people read fanfic for all kinds of things, and girldad's are a common trope in fan communities for a reason. it's endearing, we love them, and it tells a good story. Homelander is consistently shown loving people for what emotional need they fulfill in him. we've seen supes and humans alike in those roles for him. he may have a bias against humans, but it's undeniable that he still craves the validation and love of them nonetheless. the hatred he feels for humanity is a defense mechanism for his own feelings of abandonment, isolation and rejection in childhood. his conversation with mirrorlander illustrates these conflicting feelings perfectly.