HEROES 3x06 "Dying of the Light" Discuss and Grade

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Dream, Oct 20, 2008.

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Grade the episode

  1. Excellent

    39.2%
  2. Above Average

    39.2%
  3. Average

    15.2%
  4. Below Average

    5.1%
  5. Poor

    1.3%
  1. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

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    Do we know that the serum would give Peter a random power? It could, but it could also re-activate the power he's supposed to have.
     
  2. WeAreTheBorg

    WeAreTheBorg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Its good that they nerfed Peter, he was ridiculously overpowered.

    Heroes is has always been hectic and crazy with dangling plot threads all over the place and intermingling and getting mixed up, but it's getting out of hand these days.

    By the end of the show, Mohinder and Hiro will be gay married, everyone will be found to be a Petrelli, Ando will become a cyborg, Kaito will be ressurected to run against Nathan for President, Parkman will be sent back in time and meet himself, thus trapping the universe in a causality paradox, Angela will get back together with Arthur to be supreme overlords of the universe, and Sylar will turn out to be Jesus sent forward in time by himself in the future when he gets the power from Hiro (which won't actually happen because the future will change) and his memory wiped by the Haitian, meaning Jesus Christ was also a Petrelli.
     
  3. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Excellent! People who left this show because it was too slow or the characters were too dumb or whatever sure are missing some great stuff now. This one would get high marks just for getting Nathan's shirt off, but there was so much more than that...

    Too bad about Adam, I was starting to like him. But the minute I saw that, it relieved my anxieties about Sandra being the "fan favorite" slated to buy it. That would take the show in an overly dark direction, glad it didn't happen.

    Papa Petrelli's power certainly explains why his two younger sons ended up with very similar abilities. I guess Nathan should be grateful he ended up with two "normal" genes or however that works. That's some dangerous mojo! He's already one scary-ass guy. They've got themselves another great character, this show doesn't let up!

    Hiro and Ando vs the precog was hilarious. Who didn't know the guy would still hit Hiro with the shovel? Don't have to be a precog to see that one coming.

    Claire, Meredith and Sandra work very well together as characters. The "solution" of shooting Claire was too obvious but it certainly was a better outcome than the one I was worrying about.

    Matt and Daphne are adorable together. The irony is, Matt's powers would make him one fearsome villain, he's the Puppetmaster only even moreso. He needs to get squarely back into the middle of the plotline, hopefully starting next week.

    Any scene with Sylar and Peter together gets high marks from me, but we also got a pretty decent, if swift, fight. No doubt Petey's powerless state is a temporary state of affairs (tho interesting for now) so that's just round, uh, two or three at this point? Out of what, 100? :rommie: Peter getting mad about Sylar calling his Mom, well, "Mom," was great stuff, sorry kid you're going to have to adjust sooner or later. And I liked Peter showing some intelligence for a change by realizing that the whole Hunger thing was beyond his control and perhaps admitting that Sylar would be the one with the answers. No doubt when his powesr come back, that problem will be right back with em.

    Mo is still acting like a Mo-ron, and unless we just assume he's totally bonkers, it makes no sense. He needs to get smacked out of it and become an anti-powers crusader as a result of his guilt over being an idiot. After he kills Maya, please.

    Next week:
    Peter, you're grounded! Oh man, Arthur is going to be my favorite character of all...:rommie:
     
  4. Hermiod

    Hermiod Admiral Admiral

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    ^And that's pretty much why you and I will never agree when it comes to this show.

    De-powering Peter is a horrible, horrible decision. I'd rather see him killed off, to be honest.
     
  5. CommodoreKong

    CommodoreKong Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    My guess is that it would give him his old power back, but none of the powers he acquired with his power, he would have to get them again.
     
  6. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Don't worry, he'll be re-powered before the season is over. :rommie: I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the Hun-gaaahhh! thrown back at his poor little overloaded brain to boot.

    But given that the next volume is
    everyone is on the run when people figure out what's been going on, it's just too much fun for at least part of that story to be Peter having absolutely no powers to fall back on. Genius! And bet who gets to save his sorry ass? Gabriel, who by then will be calling himself that name again, actually I'm not sure he ever stopped - when he adopted the name, he introduced himself to Brian as "Gabriel Sylar."
    He might have faked his own suicide to avoid the problem of his sons testifying against him in the Linderman case. All the supers seem to be trying to avoid public exposure like the plague so the legal system might be a fearsome enough obstacle. And I never got the idea that Arthur was a nice guy (Angela called him an alpha dog) or that he had no powers.

    The writers foreshadowed this in S1. The FORGIVE ME scrawled in red in Sylar's apartment, in a secret room covered with similar sentiments (depicting a level of remorse Sylar isn't even showing now); Sylar telling Chandra Suresh that the reason he doesn't feel "special" is because he feels like he's living with the wrong family and doesn't fit it (so that finding his true family will allow him to be mentally strong enough to resist the hunger better - he's got a reason now); and the way he freaked out when he learned that his future was to blow up NYC - he balked at the idea of killing millions of innocent people.

    Sylar has been depicted as multi-faceted from the very start, never as a simplistic monster. The only real inconsistency is in S2 when they de-powered Sylar but he was still a psycho. Maybe that was just force of habit. Finding his true family was a more important factor in his mental state than the hunger ever was. Sylar's character arc is reasonable and logical. Whether people like it is another matter, but it's not "wrong."

    My explanation: they realized that Gabriel's powers would screw him up badly so they gave him to a watchmaker who could channel his mania for "seeing" into something harmless: working on a German watch for seven years, that kind of thing. Other than killing him or locking him up, it's the only thing they could do, and they probably wanted to find some less ruthless solution. It was actually Chandra Suresh who screwed that all up. If he hadn't blundered across Sylar, the Petrellis' plan might have worked.

    I agree, that was way too obvious. Pinehurst shouldn't try to recruit Hiro, they should just kill him. Controlling a time traveller is too difficult.

    Which raises another question: why, exactly, does Pinehurst think they can control these people they're recruiting? And I don't think they're just lunch for Arthur...well, at least that wasn't the plan before he absorbed Sylar's powers via Peter...I think something different is going on here. Arthur seems like a guy with grandiose plans. Grandiosity also runs in the Petrelli family.

    Which reminds me, I was rewatching some early episodes. Remember the scene where Nathan tries to get Peter to shut up about thinking he can fly because his political campaign can't afford people thinking "crazy runs in our family"? :rommie: Way too little, way too late, Nate.
     
  7. Hermiod

    Hermiod Admiral Admiral

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    That's a show I don't really want to watch anymore, to be completely frank.

    Depowering superheroes is lazy. It shows you have no imagination and you have written yourself in to a corner.

    We'll have the Heroes equivalent of a fracking Crisis next.
     
  8. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The writing on this show is sloppy and lazy but so what? It's also a hell of a lot of fun. As long as they are good at doing the crazy-ass crowd-pleasing stuff, they can get away with murder. I'll wait for Jan to see Lost if I want actual quality TV but for now, Heroes is a blast.
     
  9. A Clockwork Lim

    A Clockwork Lim Lieutenant Commander

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    Sep 24, 2008
    That's the thing, though. Peter should have gained Arthur's power at the same time, creating a feedback loop. Arthur drains him while he drains Arthur while Arthur drains him while he drains Arthur ad infinitum. Exactly like when Matt and Peter try to read each other's minds.

    They were both in physical contact, Arthur was using his power, and the emotional requirements were there to boot. There's no real reason there shouldn't have been a loop.
     
  10. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Are you one of those Ms Marvel fans that were pissed that when Rouge stole Ms Marvel's powers?:shifty:
     
  11. Hermiod

    Hermiod Admiral Admiral

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    Crazy-ass crowd pleasing stuff is Peter and Sylar finally fighting, not this.

    That happened in 1981, I was 3. But no, I wouldn't consider that the best move either.
     
  12. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Oh. I noticed your Ms Marvel avatar so I was wondering if that had anything to do with your complaints. :lol:
     
  13. Captain Intrepid

    Captain Intrepid Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Considering the powers are genetic in origin, I'd wager it'd have to be his original power that he'd get again.
     
  14. Hermiod

    Hermiod Admiral Admiral

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    I just think it's lazy writing. You give a character an ability and then the only way you can think of to create "drama" is to take it away.

    Smallville is worse for this as you end up with the villain of the week wearing a Kryptonite watch.
     
  15. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    While I know that it probably won't happen I think it would be really unexpected not to mention cool they if gave Peter a completely new set of powers after all this is over.

    They turned Peter into the bomb in season one, shipped him off to be with annoying Caitlin in Ireland and then made him Adam's lacky in season two so it's obvious they don't know what to do with him since he is so powerful. Can you imagine Peter injecting himself and ending up getting a crappy power like Zane's metal melting ability from season one?

    How do you feel about the Haitian? You must hate his guts since he can turn off powers.
     
  16. Hermiod

    Hermiod Admiral Admiral

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    He is a somewhat lazy plot device. I like him as a character and I like the actor too. His ability to take away memories is fine.
     
  17. Thespeckledkiwi

    Thespeckledkiwi Vice Admiral

    Didn't see it (but I am kind of blind) but if Sylar's power was transfer to Peter (the hunger), wouldn't it be transfer to Papa?
     
  18. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Since Arthur leached all of Peter's powers, then yes, he should also have the hunger that comes with Gabriel's power.
     
  19. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Peter copies powers. Arthur steals them.

    Peter could have taken Arthur's power in the few seconds he was there, but as soon as Arthur stole them, Peter didn't have the power to copy them again. Plus, when Arthur takes powers away, it seems to not be very pleasant for the victim, so Peter probably wasn't able to use his powers to fight back.
     
  20. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    As much as I find the show to be on a downward slide I'll chime in on this "depowering" topic.

    Its a device used in comics, which HEROES shamelessly emulates, to show us or test the character. Is the character a hero because of the power or because of the integrity of the individual? Typically that is the type issue that a writer addresses in a depowering situation.

    Can a GL(Hal,Kyle take your pic) still be heroic with out the ring?
    Pick your hero and most likely at some point this story has been done.
    I think the most famous and consistent example is Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle. After her crippling at the hands of the Joker she could no longer be a front line fighter as Batgirl. She became and still is the wheelchair bound Oracle fighting the good fight.

    The problem with Smallville is they've done it a few times now in such a short span. In comics its not often repeated. Now if Peter loses his power as much as Clark in Smallville I'll have an issue. But really by then I most likely won't be watching at the rate this show is dissapointing me.