(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

Okay, so I watched Heroes. Without spoiling too much, I have to say that it's going to be increasingly difficult, with the way their respective powers are presented, to have Peter and Sylar be defeatable. This is kind of like Phoenix-syndrome: the Phoenix is a powerful motherfucker, and once you introduce her, you need to have a convincing reason she won't just wipe the floor with reality. Peter's amassed collection of abilities is actually more impressive than Sylar's in terms of both offensive/defensive capabilities, but Sylar's are equally indefatigable if less varied.

So, you get these two together and, to the show's credit, Peter doesn't win. Sylar's use of his stolen super-hearing should and did triumph. Peter is very much a dangerously tempting character to dislike because he's so good and nice and everybody loooooooves him (especially his family--ewwww), and he's also able to amass every power ever and control it without going nuts (the very obvious flaw that keeps Sylar from being dislikeable for being so perfect).

It's nice to see that Peter, while quick-thinking and skilled isn't really that smart or cautious, two things that his adversary in "O.7%" has in spades (whatever his inability to remotely relate to people or even pretend to be a real human being, Sylar is wicked smart, cunning, and self-preserving above all; this is the guy who gave up on Claire to follow along with Mohinder because he could tell it was a losing proposition). But the fact remains that Peter is, thanks to Claire, invulnerable in addition to being a human sponge and still has all his marbles. This seems really unfair, and it makes Peter far too powerful for this series.

It means he has to die. That's the only way to take care of a character who's given abilities that cannot be countered. It's how the Phoenix died--you had to appeal to a weakness (or strength, depending on your POV) to get her to allow herself to be destroyed. That seems to be where they're taking Peter. If Ted can work out how to control his abilities, there's no reason that Peter won't when they, inevitably, meet up. Which means that linaerys's lovely fic about Peter running away so he wasn't a danger to people for being the second exploding guy is probably not going to be a problem. Instead, Peter is going to blow up and let himself die because, well, because? Because he knows he's dangerous and that there's really no way for him not to eventually become the super-powered tyrant, no matter how nice he started out.

As for Sylar, I think this is less of a problem. For all that he's clever and manipulative, Sylar is not thinking above a selfish scale of operation. He wants power for himself for the sake of power. It is not so much for wielding it over others, just to have. Sylar has no ambition. He has possessive psychotic tendencies. He wants to be the ultimate power holder but he has no plan to take over the world and his antisocial spite would never allow for anyone to use him. He'd sooner die. Point of fact, he already did (who did he get that from?). Sylar's weakness is that he is in it from the evolutionary focus of one--selfish genes, so to speak--but his is ultimately a dead end. I doubt very much he'd ever reproduce successfully or even really attempt anything like it with his psychological issues. He'd obviously have an easy time raping/impregnating a powerless woman, but, like I said, his skewed perception of evolution isn't really taking into account that his legacy--his impact on the genome of man--won't be felt unless he produces offspring (FOR THIS I BLAME MOHINDER AND HIS USELESS, USELESS, MISTAKE-RIDDEN IDEA OF "GENETICS"--well, I guess it's okay if it means the world isn't taken over by Sylar-spawn).

Other than that?

--Peter annoys me so hard that, even though I knew it wasn't permanent, I CHEERED when Sylar took him out with the chunk of glass. Ka-thunk! Down goes Peter!

--I FUCKING HATE CANDICE. The bitch needs to die. She's clearly enjoying fucking with Mr. Bennet, and that shit doesn't fly with me. I hope Jessica rips her arms out and beats her to death with them because the bitch just stepped out on a super-strong psycho. Really, Linderman might be able to talk Jessica down, but he's got to throw Candice to the wolves. Fucking hate her.

--Speaking of Jessica, it's nice that DL finally confronted her about not being Niki and all, but what's up with that? If I were him, I'd be a lot more cautious about pissing off Jessica. See my notes about Candice

--Didn't care for the Petrelli family reunion that much, actually. Mama P's crying over Peter was great, as was Claire's, but not so much into Nathan's (and I love the Pasdar, I do) or Nathan and Claire's moment later. I wanted it to be more awkward, but Nathan had obviouslg game-planned it out. Alas. Claire still cute, but being rendered useless.

--Love Mr. Bennet and Matt working together with Ted. "I hate that guy." No, no you don't, Parkman. I wuv him, and so do you. Yay for Mr. B being back in the bad-ass saddle!

--Bye bye, Isaac. Don't miss you. Find it hi-larious that Sylar has your abilities and he can't paint for shit. His picture of Nathan made Nathan look like Bizarro. "Me am Nathan Pee-trell-eee. Me am President!"

--Future Hiro--actually Sylar? That really freaked me out. I mean, it's not true, but Future Hiro's first reaction to our Hiro sounded a lot like Sylar greeting Peter in Mohinder's apartment. How awesome that would be, if only because it means that Sylar had to kill Candice to get her morphing abilities. Not so pleased with him killing Hiro for his. Whatever, it's not Sylar. It's just the jungle of threads around Isaac's studio resembling Sylar's base of operations and the fact that he was just in the studio killing Isaac that made it seem like that. Hiro--still alive! Still destined to be a badass!

I forgot to mention this while I was watching the show, but I find it highly amusing that Fox News covers all the news about the escapees in Prison Break. That channel wishes its news were even half so reality-based. It does nothing for Fox News that their station covers a fictional show's news except to make me laugh. HA HA.

Comments

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

Well, I clearly like Peter better than you do, but I also don't think he's quite so invulnerable. What would happen if they didn't take the glass out of his head? At some point he has to die for real, right?

I think that unlike Phoenix, there are ways to kill Peter, and his powers aren't nearly as advanced as hers. And they could have Peter struggle more to control his powers. Still, all the Heroes' powers are less powerful on their own than the X-men's powers, at least from what we've seen (except maybe Ted's) so I don't think it necessarily has to go into Phoenix territory.

I do think that Peter does have the "going to die to save the world" stamp on his forehead. Just not sure when that's going to happen.

let's raise the spoilers up a notch

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

I'm rather surprise you skipped over the rather big 5 sec scene of the show (more on that in a bit). First though, Peter. Peter can die, it's just that as soon as the offending material is removed he comes back to life (kind of like vampires from certain movies/games once you remove the stake from their heart). I'm pretty sure that if Sylar thought to chop Peter's head off, then Peter would have stayed dead. I must say though that of the two Sylar is still the more powerful one. The main reason, Sylar knows how to use more than one ability at a time. Peter has yet to show that he can use more than one ability at once, and that's his weakness. Unless a part of Peter can focus on an ability, he doesn't have it. So he can be caught off guard and killed by anyone clever enough to do it.

Now for the important bid you didn't talk about...... Linderman & Mrs. Petrelli were both last generation superheroes O_o It explains a whole lot about both of them, and makes me wonder how much those two have worked together in the past or continue to work together. It would also explain why Linderman has always been involved with the Petrelli family in some way, shape, or form. I'm curious as to what Mrs. Petrelli's ability is. I'm also curious as to what she thought Peter's powers were compared to what they are............ and if now Peter has her power too. I really hope they run with this development and not let it become a stagnant bit of plot that goes nowhere.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

What would happen if they didn't take the glass out of his head? At some point he has to die for real, right?

There's not really anything I think he couldn't come back from except decapitation. Because Claire was not only dead but dead for at least a few hours when she got clocked in the head, and she just stitched herself back together. Aside from organ removal, there's nothing they can't get away with pretty much and survive. It might take, say, someone with a sword to really take care of business.

I do think that Peter does have the "going to die to save the world" stamp on his forehead. Just not sure when that's going to happen.

I really think he has to blow up New York. Otherwise, what's the point of that dream? Or are we ignoring that, too? Silly show!

And I don't haaaaate Peter (at least, not the way I HATE CANDICE), I just find him irritating. Do approve of the haircut, though--he looks a lot better with it out of his eyes.

Re: let's raise the spoilers up a notch

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Sylar is more controlled, but I don't think Peter's all that far behind. The difference is in dilligence, and Sylar is just freaky dedicated. Offensive/defensive-wise, I still say Peter's got the better range of abilities. Plus, technically, he should have all of Sylar's abilities as well in any confrontation, which gives him an advantage, too.

Mama P knew about Claire, but I think she's always known about Nathan and I think how she treats her sons demonstrates what, if anything, she knew about their abilities. The fact that she pretty much sits on Nathan and grounds reality into him suggests that she might have caught him at a young age demonstrating his power of flight and drummed it out of him (it explains his anti head-in-the-clouds POV). With Peter, she probably freaked after Nathan and coddled him so much to keep him from ever having a similar reveal. Given the nature of Peter's ability, she probably assumed that he demonstrated none and was safe.

Her ability, I'm guessing, is something crazy latent if Peter hasn't, with all the time they spend together, not once ever noticed his picking up on it (which he does most unconsciously, as healing when he met Claire proved). I just didn't speculate beyond that because I'm more interested in seeing how it plays out.

Mama P is not Linderman's friend, this much is certain. I wonder if she's the "friend" he mentioned running away to profit on her skills (maybe she can control odds in her favor, a la Domino in X-Men--that's latent enough Peter might not know he has it). It would really fit with Linderman's demonstrated character that he would then fuck with her family as much as possible. Methinks she's the more altruistic one than he...

Re: let's raise the spoilers up a notch

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

Peter can't access non-passive abilities that he is unaware of, he won't know about the full complement of Sylar's powers until he sees Sylar use them. I did expect Peter to wake up complaining that suddenly everything is so LOUD, though. He has used multiple powers one after the other - invisibility, TK, and flight. True, he has yet to use them all at the same time. Once he figures that out, he will have an advantage.

In general, the Heroes all seem weaker than their Marvel counterparts, so I concur that Peter won't reach Phoenix level.

I think that Mama P has prophetic dreams. Remember in the first ep, Peter kept talking about his dreams of flying?

Re: let's raise the spoilers up a notch

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think that Mama P has prophetic dreams. Remember in the first ep, Peter kept talking about his dreams of flying?


You might just be a genius. Wow, that's amazing, it really makes sense.