The "Let's Make Sense Of Heroes" Thread (Spoilers??)

[melancholymecha]

And Nathan is dead for good now because the writers are finally ashamed of cheating so much all the time. Plus the other two times they fake-killed Nathan, the ratings didn't go up, so maybe they think we want Nathan dead for real?

oh reeeeeally?!
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/wat...27_spoiler_chat_trek_star_quinto_leaving.html

Spoiler

Ilaam in Rochester, N.Y.: I know Heroes just ended, but do you have any goodies for season five?
The Heroes deaths will continue next season, and a few of your favorite characters may be resurrected in the process. (Pssst, that has nothing to do with our pal Sylar).
Resurrected they say?
And so it begins...

 

[Skywalker]

She might sweat if she did all that, then she wouldn't be cute anymore. Cheerleaders can't sweat. Cheerleaders are there to look pretty.

Sweat is pretty, especially when combined with thin cotton shirts.

They should have kept Tracy in that room for the whole volume.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

And Nathan is dead for good now because the writers are finally ashamed of cheating so much all the time. Plus the other two times they fake-killed Nathan, the ratings didn't go up, so maybe they think we want Nathan dead for real?

oh reeeeeally?!
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/wat...27_spoiler_chat_trek_star_quinto_leaving.html

Spoiler

Ilaam in Rochester, N.Y.: I know Heroes just ended, but do you have any goodies for season five?
The Heroes deaths will continue next season, and a few of your favorite characters may be resurrected in the process. (Pssst, that has nothing to do with our pal Sylar).
Resurrected they say?
And so it begins...

I saw that spoiler and wondered if they really meant to say it or was that poorly worded, because

Spoiler: next season, maybe...

does that mean they're going to have some supervillain who can kill one character and morph them into another? Can we kill Claire and get Elle back? Swap Hiro for Adam? Axe Tracey and resurrect Daphne? But I don't know that they're talking about Nathan...hell, they might bring back Maya as far as we know...wait, is she dead? I forgot!

 

[melancholymecha]

^

Spoiler

she's inexplicably still alive...
sounds like more than one person is being "resurrected" maybe someone has a "speaks to the dead" power?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

If Linderman was still alive do you think his power could resurrect a dead body? cos if so then someone else with Lindermans power might come along and be able to bring people back from the dead.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The comics, at least, said Linderman couldn't resurrect the dead.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Reading through the above I wonder, could Sylar's ability to figure out how others powers work actually not be a "power" but something he just could do? It would be kind of ironic because in a sense that would mean he was almost more "special" all along. Maybe that's why he didn't trigger Suresh's tests.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Then how did Suresh track him down in the first place and think he had powers unless he actually had powers?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Reading through the above I wonder, could Sylar's ability to figure out how others powers work actually not be a "power" but something he just could do? It would be kind of ironic because in a sense that would mean he was almost more "special" all along. Maybe that's why he didn't trigger Suresh's tests.

He's somehow got the ability to sense how other people's powers work and change something in his own physical makeup to allow himself to mimic those powers.That's a superpower by definition, it's just vague - how exactly does it work? Does he have the ability to see at the subatomic level? Really really good intuition? Has he ironically been a shapeshifter all along and that's how he gives himself powers?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Reading through the above I wonder, could Sylar's ability to figure out how others powers work actually not be a "power" but something he just could do? It would be kind of ironic because in a sense that would mean he was almost more "special" all along. Maybe that's why he didn't trigger Suresh's tests.

He's somehow got the ability to sense how other people's powers work and change something in his own physical makeup to allow himself to mimic those powers.That's a superpower by definition, it's just vague - how exactly does it work? Does he have the ability to see at the subatomic level? Really really good intuition? Has he ironically been a shapeshifter all along and that's how he gives himself powers?

I always figured there was some mental component. I mean, why would looking at someone's brain allow him to figure out their DNA or whatever. I thought he sort of learned how to do what they do. I guess none of it makes much sense really...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Even a "mental" component has to have some physical link. If someone has telekinesis, they aren't literally thinking of how they're doing it, like to think about how to bake a cake by remembering a recipe.

The powers seem more akin to being able to see colors vs color blindness - it's something you have because your DNA built your brain and eyes that way. A color blind person can't learn to see color.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Even a "mental" component has to have some physical link. If someone has telekinesis, they aren't literally thinking of how they're doing it, like to think about how to bake a cake by remembering a recipe.

How else would they do it? Is there some extra organ or something doing the TK? As to the bake a cake thing, I don't know how to tell my heart to beat but my brain is doing that.

Though with things like Claire's blood that wouldn't work but have we seen that Sylar's blood will do the same thing or does he just have the ability?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

That's what get's me too, so he looks at their brain and figures out how their ability works, why should that suddenly mean he can copy the power? having the ability to understand how things work doesn't mean BAM you now have that ability.

In order to shapeshift it means his body must have special muscles etc which would be a genetic development and not something you can suddenly just get by studying someones brain.

Oh look, that's how that ability works, BAM his body suddenly gains these super muscles?

CRAZY!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

That's what get's me too, so he looks at their brain and figures out how their ability works, why should that suddenly mean he can copy the power? having the ability to understand how things work doesn't mean BAM you now have that ability.

In order to shapeshift it means his body must have special muscles etc which would be a genetic development and not something you can suddenly just get by studying someones brain.

Oh look, that's how that ability works, BAM his body suddenly gains these super muscles?

CRAZY!

Maybe he's always been a shapeshifter, he just didn't know it. But maybe he originally could only shapeshift the neurons and synapses of his brain, like the 1's and 0's that are actually physically written to the media of your computer in order to store information and be read back later?

In your computer's binary code - yknow the 111000111 thing - a 1 is actually the presence of an electrical charge, and a 0 is the absense, or maybe it's the other way around, but that's basically how it works - some physical change stores information in your computer that later can be retrieved.

So if Sylar changes a synapse in his brain from a 1 to a 0, that might store a little bit of information that later is used with a whole lot of other bits of information to compile a power like TK. I don't see how he can store and retrieve this ability otherwise.

Sylar's real power is the ability to rewrite his brain like it's a computer disc with any information whatsoever, and to do so intuitively, simply by willing it. Which is a frakkin' amazing ability when you think about it.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Maybe he's always been a shapeshifter,

Too convenient and doesn't explain the countless other abilities he's gained like magic. At least with peters old mimic ability one can argue his bodys DNA was made to alter itself and had been that way since birth only to be switched on by an eclipse. Sylars ability isn't a mimic ability and never has been.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

What abilities could Sylar not have been able to retain via shapeshifting his brain?

Remember they changed the rules so that he just needs to stand near someone and "absorb" their powers via I dunno telepathy? Maybe powers emit some form of radiation that he can sense? But once he's absorbed them, he could use shapeshifting of his brain to lock in those powers and re-create them later. So the issue here isn't even how he obtains the powers but how he re-creates them - that's where the shapeshifting comes in.

And sure it's convenient, but if that's an objection, then pretty much everything about Heroes is objectionable. I don't even care so much about shapeshifting being the rationale behind Sylar's ability, just trying to work thru how his powers actually work because it's interesting.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

I just wish Sylar couldn't also shapeshift his clothes. That's so dumb. At least on my show the shapeshifters have the common decency to strip the people they're imitating and steal their clothes from them.

If Sylar can shapeshift fabric and clothing, logic follows that he should be able to transform any sort of matter into something else, not just biological material.

 

[Hermiod]

It's easy. Sylar is a Changeling. The infiltration has begun.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I like to think peoples abilities are a bit more unique than "they have a special genetic marker". I mean how can someone throw lightning from their hands? some chemical bodily reaction must take place to get electrons to flow and that requires special DNA in order to program the body to do that. How does someone fly? again special DNA which probably has the body make some kind of chemical reaction to produce anti-gravitic effect. With Peter I believe his DNA allowed his own body to scan others around him (like some kind of tricorder) and pick up on their ability and then Peters DNA re-programmed itself.
Sylar though? his ability should never have allowed him to copy or mimic, his ability is purely to understand the workings of things, now they try to make out he has the ability to alter his DNA like Peter had, so what they're saying is no only does he have the ability Peter had (to an extent) he's got an added bonus of knowing how things work?
It's ridiculous.