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On the surface, Homelander presents himself as a charismatic superhero, warm, encouraging, altruistic and revolted by any form of injustice. He often encourages his allies by telling them "that they are the real heroes". This only serves as a façade for when he wishes to be presentable however, and is quick to show his true side when necessary even towards those he has vowed to protect.
In reality, he is an apathetic, selfish, uncaring, merciless, sadistic, psychopathic, troubled, cold, vile, hypocritical, arrogant, and above all ruthless and horrid narcissist. Because of his immense power, he believes that he is superior to the whole of humanity; that is how he does not hesitate to crash a plane, letting dozens of people die or use his power to get what he wants. His manipulative and devious side is also demonstrated when he pursues his own plans behind Madelyn Stillwell's back, creating super-terrorists with the complicity of A-Train.
Unlike his comic book counterpart who was framed by the comic book Black Noir for many of his crimes and driven crazy, this Homelander is evil of his own volition, willingly killing people in order to satiate his bloodlust and being the person who raped Billy's wife, while the TV series Black Noir had nothing to do with it (from what we know so far). Homelander is also very controlling, hating receiving orders from Vought and he forces Ashley to be secretly his puppet when she replaces Stillwell and to let him do whatever he wants.
While an unrepentant sociopath, Homelander does have a desire of the love and affection he never had as a child which causes him to have a soft spot for Madelyn Stillwell of whom he looks up to as a surrogate mother figure. In addition to this, Homelander also shows an attraction to Stillwell and appears to view her in both a matrilineal and sexual light, roleplaying with her as a mother and child in their sexual encounters. Beyond her value to him as a sexual partner though, Homelander has little care for Stillwell as a human being and ultimately killed her when he found out she kept the truth of his child from him. After her death, Homelander would force Doppelganger to shape-shift into her so he could relive some of their sexual encounters, showing his care for her was only out of what she meant to him. He also showed an interest in Queen Maeve and the two appeared to have dated at some point, though after Homelander discovered she was bisexual he willingly let her go, likely out of the realization that she could never be attracted to him and possibly due to him never truly caring about her beyond her value as a pawn. Homelander is somewhat lazy as well, preferring to use his laser beams everytime instead of using more pragmatic means to stop criminals, which often leads to him causing more damage than criminals he intends to stop, like causing a plane to crash and accidentally killing a child.
Likely as a result of being raised to be Vought's premier superhero and lack of proper childhood, Homelander has an extreme sense of narcissism and, while cruel and uncaring towards civilians behind-the-scenes, longs for their love and attention as further validation for himself. He is prideful about his status as the world's best superhero and is incredibly hostile to anyone who would challenge his popularity or position as leader of the Seven, such as Stormfront. Furthermore, like his fellow superheroes, he is good at playing the system and tricking the world into thinking that their actions are justified. He does so while doing anything possible to cover up the crimes that even their most loyal followers will despise them for if they ever find out.
Despite all the bad things he's done, Homelander does actually care about his son, Ryan, seemingly empathizing with him after he has a panic attack from being surrounded by many people, as he had the same happen to him. Homelander points out that he doesn't want his son to grow up the same way he did, isolated, which shows he does care.
He also came to genuinely care about his lover Stormfront. While he originally was more than ready to kill her when he thought she was betraying him he looked genuinely saddened upon seeing her crippled and incinerated.
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