(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

Okay, for serious, Nathan flying? So much more awesome than I expected, especially given how fake that always looks. Great, great stuff. And him and Hiro ending up in the coffee shop together with his not-quite copping to flying and not-quite believing in Hiro's power (save where it benefits him to believe in it, of course)! So much love! Matt's relationship with his wife? So very television, but still also very cute. Of all the heroes, he, by far, is the most weakened by his power. He's jeopardy-boy with the rate at which he gets into trouble. Isaac and Peter together make for some serious tension, but good on Peter for finally getting a firm grasp on his abilities (and Isaac's to boot, which not even Isaac has done). Loved the special effects for how Peter sees the painting-to-be (the eye thing was okay, too, but I immediately went all Dune and figured if Isaac and Peter weren't hitting the rock, they were at least dipping into the spice).

But I think the most awesome scenes of all went to Mr. Bennet this week. For the first time, his interaction with Claire wasn't a) creepy or b) ominous. It was the first father-daughter relating that was free of the larger repercussions of what Mr. Bennet's job entails. Not entirely, of course, given when he goes and has his pet superpowered dude do to Brody, but that's later. Up front, Mr. Bennet is Claire's concerned, impotent-feeling father when he finds out his baby was not only violated but felt so ashamed she couldn't even confess it to him. Majoy kudos to the actor playing Mr. Bennet, as his rage was truly understated yet intense throughout. Slight twitches of his lip, flares of nostril as his mind is assualted with the notion of his daughter being messed with. It's horrifying for him--he who deals in horror made to be frightened and made helpless. Whatever his duties, I don't doubt that he loves Claire very much. If he knew she was special before adopting her, he's been lost in his own ruse of being her father. If he didn't, he can't ever betray her because his love is too real and is now proven as such. Kings will fall before Mr. Bennet and whatever organization he represents, but his daughter will come to no harm by his hand.

Which means, of course, she will be his undoing and his doom. And he knows this, I think. The redemption of the dark one, Darth Vader coming back to embrace the light, Mr. Bennet will save Claire at the expense of his own freedom, security, and, probably, his life. And he does not care. It is not his choice to die or be defeated but to save Claire, and the costs of that are secondary. Brilliantly done.

But, of course, there cannot be a loss from the side of self-interest and power without a reciprocal sacrifice from the side of righteousness and goodness, and several of the heroes tangoed closer to that fall this episode. Nathan moved away from it, which is unexpected (Adrian Pasdar is so good at being dirty, it's a surprise and a good one to have him fight the darkness in his portrayal of Nathan). But DL's reappearance will push Niki and ikiN over the line (most likely), and Matt's abuse of his power will have consequences. All is balance.

Comments

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

D, you are so fired. I can't believe you wrote a post about Heroes but NOT about BSG because OMG there's so much to talk about. Shame on you.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Right, right, I'm getting to that. It's jsut that I watched this week's BSG while super tired. Also, the TWoP guy does such a good job reviewing it, it's like I'm not allowed to! I will get right on that, promise, promise.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm all caught up on Heroes again so I can actually read and comment on these. I'm curious where "the message" is going to take Hiro from here. It's kind of obvious that Hiro is going to be the one to go "I know that one, and that one, and that one...." once he sees the paintings of the others. The regenerating glass doll that is the cheerleader, well I think I know what her role is now. Sadly her powers are more about just keeping her alive then actually being the key to saving the future. Of course she's on a runaway train towards our favorite mystery character (you know who's shadow that was right). As for Niki..... you can't deny her super strength at least. It's not always obvious, but some of the moves we've seen her do (like in the elevator) are signs that she is a lot stronger when she goes 2.0, as you like to put it. Still can't tell if this is an incredible hulk type deal or what though. The personality change mostly seems like a coping mechanism to keep her "sane" though. I'm going to be curious to see how she pits her powers against the phasing ex next week (yay for super power on super power action). In closing, Heroes yet again hammers home the point that telepaths make for the best lovers since they know everything that makes you feel good ^_^

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's kind of obvious that Hiro is going to be the one to go "I know that one, and that one, and that one...."

Hiro is the focal point, in other words, because he is the one who believes and acts. I don't know how meta you want to get on this point, but his connectivity conveys an essential truth of his power, not just his persona. His ability--an intimate relation to time and space--is one that, metaphysically, we all have. It makes sense that he is able to connect with others because he does so through the untouchable medium of time (untouched except for his interference, of course ^.^). Whereas the show has taken considerable measures to show the other things we'd like to consider inviolate--our bodies, our will, our minds--aren't, and it does so by putting the characters with the most control over those things--Claire, Niki, and Matt, respectively--into situations where they are stripped of those abilities (Claire is nearly raped and murdered; Niki cannot make the conscious choice, so ikiN makes it for her; Matt cannot remember what happened to him).

Time is the pure body, the pure stream, and only through extreme effort, can it be manipulated to serve man as opposed to condemning him. Hence, it takes the combined efforts of three--Hiro, Isaac, and Peter--to interpre the mood of time and shift the river without flooding the future, to finish the metaphor right there.

ikiN (Niki 2.0) being super strong, yes, I can admit that's probably true at this point, even though the evidence has only been in the preview for the next ep. I half wonder where Niki gets off accusing her husband of being disgusting when she's got some pretty compelling evidence that she's a violent, dangerous murderer herself, but I guess I underestimated the power of denial and the all-too-human need for her to scapegoat in order to understand what's going on with her. And, yes, woo to Matt abusing his power. I'm sure he's not going to suffer mightily for it or anything. Abuse of power will not be rewarded (God, I sound like Hiro).

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

I would hardly call Matt's love session with the wife an "abuse of power". Hell, it's the first time he really used his power constructively. If anything his power left him blind to being able to sense what his wife wanted through "human" means so the telepathy is making up for that lost sense. Plus unlike many other abilities, his is one that he has to learn to turn off rather than turn on. Till he gets to that point, there is no abuse of power.......... ok maybe if he went to play poker in Vegas.

Actually super strong 2.0 was seen more the last two episodes then in the preview. Deconstructing some of the scenes you get to see just how much raw physical strength is needed to make up for lack of skill. So far I wouldn't put her past Captain America level of strength, but she may turn out to be much stronger (but no more so than say Spiderman or at the absolute upper limit Venom). Next episode we get to find out if she can punch through walls ^_^

You have to wonder too, just how will Peter get his scar ;)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's a fine line between self-service and abuse, you're right, but Matt's taking the wrong tack with his powers, especially if he can't turn them off and people are projecting on him left and right. When his wife figures out (or he tells her) how he knew to do all that? There's going to be trouble because that was majorly invasive and he didn't tell her. If he'd told her, established that he couldn't help it, peeping in on her head might still be invading her privacy but at least she'd be aware of it and could stop him by not thinking about things. Also, while it's sweet that he wants to please her, he's going about it the wrong way. The point of being in a relationship is to observe the need of your partner and want to fill it. He sees that she's needing something and does fill the need, but he cheats. Cheaters never win, as Hiro and Ando found out. This could end up costing him the relationship instead of saving it. So, yeah, I say it's sort of an abuse of power.

If anything his power left him blind to being able to sense what his wife wanted through "human" means so the telepathy is making up for that lost sense.

Sorry. Much as I love Matt, that's not going to fly. He was having marital difficulties before any ability came upon him, so he doesn't get to blame his ability for falling down on the job of being a good, supportive husband. He wasn't being observant enough, caring enough to be happy for her even when he wasn't happy. I love this as a human flaw precisely because it is so difficult to applaud someone else while your options are circling the drain, so I forgive him for being resentful, but he has to get over that if they're going to work. Has nothing to do with telepathy.

As for ikiN, I don't think it takes that much strength to do what she did to the goon in the elevator (you knee a guy in the balls enough times, he goes down easy; trust me on that one) or to push Nathan around. The only proof really has been what she did to the goons in Niki's garage (and, as we didn't see that and the bodies weren't shown, we just have the residuals from the crime scene and Niki's word for the level of brutality). I believe that she is powerful, just not sure of the measurements yet.

Peter's scarring doesn't really interest me much. Technically, if Hiro and he prevent the end of the world, he probably won't get one. Then again, if you try to make any assumptions about what will or won't happen when people can start, stop, and predict segments of time, you just look like a chump. They haven't proven what can or can't be altered yet, so I'll just not speculate just yet.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

He was having marital difficulties before any ability came upon him, so he doesn't get to blame his ability for falling down on the job of being a good, supportive husband.

You missed my point. I'm saying that he did not have the observation skills in the first place, and that his telepathy came to the foreground to fill the gaping need to "fix things". As stress triggers go, that is one of the better ones for telepathy. He wanted so badly to be able to understand why his wife was upset and suddenly it triggered a dormant ability. One thing I've come to notice in general with how telepaths are written is that without their telepathic abilities they tend to be the most oblivious of folks.

As for 2.0 in the elevator, she didn't knee him...... she threw/shoved him. At the angle she was pinned to the wall, and taking into account what her stance was in heels, the amount of raw strength involve to shove/throw that guy is huge. You don't have your legs to work. with since being pinned at that angle doesn't give you the back support to draw strength from the lower body (that's not even counting the fact that heels do mess up how draw energy from ground contact). So that leaves pure upper body strength. Her primary contacts with the wall was he head and upper back (lower back position shows that her feet were more in front of her than under her). That leaves raw muscle power of the arm and back, and it's contact point with the elevator wall. Now given how hard the guy hit the opposite wall, the force used against him was not enough to send him flying but enough to send him quite a few feet away if not for that wall. So if all that energy was came the arm/back system she would have to be rather obscenely strong for a human. Now add the fact there was no sign of strain after that encounter, that would mean that degree of strength is well within her norm. Which means she should roughly be strong enough to deadlift that same guy by the neck with one arm and hold him there....... s.c.a.r.y........


*looks up and realizes how geeky that all the combat talk sounds*

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I can confess without really minding all that much that I didn't pay that much attention to how Niki was standing when she took the guy down. We'll see just how strong she is soon enough, so I can wait. (And yes, knowing all that makes you sound geeky to say the least.)

As for Matt, he still doesn't get the emotional pass for using telepathy instead of actually paying attention. He means well, sure, but he's still not picking up on clues instead of just reading the secrets right there. Notice, too, that his wife's impression of him is fairly dead accurate, meaning that she has cared enough to pay attention, which kind of (but not totally) makes her more understandable for being hostile with him (she's making the effort, he isn't; she isn't as much of a bitch as she was made out to be). While it's nice to think that "Gee, my telepathic husband will just know why I'm upset so I don't have to wait around having him guess," it's not really interpersonal if Matt's capable of doing that with anyone. He has to go the extra distance and learn to control his ability and learn to notice things about her any way.

As for marital difficulties triggering an ability, I like that in theory, but with the way the show is going so far, I doubt that that is actually how he was triggered. Based on things Creepy Glasses Man has been doing/saying, I'd hazard a guess at this time that the surfacing of all the powers around now is no accident (still not sure why now or whether the eclipse is involved or is just a cool title gimick). It would be a shame if that were the case, though, as I like the idea of people in the show being latent until stress got to them (which might explain why Nathan's been keeping his under wraps with no difficulty--I don't believe that guy has any stress aside from his crazy brother. He even handles kidnapping and blackmail without breaking a sweat.)

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Well I have hope that Matt, like other telepaths, will in time become well versed in human psychology. If future Hiro is any example, all our empowered characters are due for some major personal growth...... or death. Given how Matt seems so far my guess is he will grow.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Or go crazy. Matt's dangerously inexperienced, exposed, and naive. His heart's in the right place, and he genuinely wants to help (in a less "this is about me being special, damn it!" way than, say, Peter is), but he needs to go slower (which I can't believe I'm saying given the pacing of this show's reveals and plot development) about how he gets into it. Some control would be nice, though you can't really fault him for that as only Hiro so far has any demonstrable control over his abilities (ikiN does, too, I guess).

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

...and to a lesser degree Peter (who really has to master all powers as they come to him). As is I am wondering just what will happen when Peter meets Matt (I pray it doesn't become an echo chamber feedback loop).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I, too, wondered about that. Mostly, I think Matt will get some fucking sympathy, which would be nice. The show does its level best to make Matt seem like kind of a schlub who's also a total weakling when it comes to using his gift. And that's saying something given that Isaac has to shoot up to use his and Niki has psychotic breaks to deal with hers. But being an unwilling telepath is exhausting, not to mention it probably gives you headaches liek whoa. Maybe, since people seem to listen to Peter when he whines (why? God why!?), they'll stop treating Matt like a straw dummy.

Honestly, I'd like to see what happens if you stick Peter in a room with all of the heroes. The limits have to be tested--does he get up to a certain number of abilities (a la Mimic); a lesser ability at all the powers; only gets the one closest to him? What?

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

The better question will be what happens when Peter meets Sylar. Since Sylar appears to have all the abilities (in part or completely) of all the other heroes on the show and then some, what happens when Peter gets in range? Also was it Sylar's head that made him that way or are Sylar's actions dictated by one or more of his abilities? What if it turns out that Sylar is also a junkie, but unlike Issac he needs brains in order to function. Animal brains might have kept him going before discovering his abilities, but now he might need human brains just to live =-O

Ok I'm over reaching there with my impression of Sylar. But still, you have to wonder what will happen when Peter meets Sylar......

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Really, at this point, we know nothing about Sylar's powers. Not even whether he has powers like any of the other characters. He definitely has some wicked telekinesis and either a regenerative ability or a Rogue-level durability that explains why Matt emptying a clip into him didn't kill him, and some kind of jumping/flight that allowed him to escape. Sylar's abilities might not resemble the heroes at all. It's possible that the people he targets do have abilities and that his is ingesting and using theirs via their brains. If that's true, Peter can't do anything with his power except get his own power only in a gruesome, horrible way. And why rip out someone's brain if you can just stand next to them and get their ability?