Heroes Season [Volume] 2 (#34)---12/03/07-'POWERLESS' Mid-Season Finale (or the End)

[fba827]

How about Peter loved his brother and since he is so powerful he will destroy who did this

Oh yes! Good one. I had also thought that but forgot to list it.

 

[Wormwood]

Well, saw it last night.

Fooled me twice. Shame on me.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I just finished watching what they've shown of season 2 between yesterday and today.

There are some good moments but overall it was terrible. Over on RPG.net they were asking what powers would people like to see and I said common sense.

1. Peter is an idiot. In many, many, many ways.

1a. Don't phase through the door or anything Pete.

1b. Don't read Hiro's mind to see what he knows Pete.

1c. Don't ask the more experienced time traveller to help you get your old lady back or anything Pete.

Sylar, and the wonder twins whole arc could've been clipped and I don't think the season would've been any less for it. Missing him for the whole season and just having him show up would've been more of a treat as now we've just seen him more and more and still a tool. Still too 'super villiany'. With all the evidence he's been leaving behind, he'd be quickly busted. He has no fast method of movement and once he's out in the open everything changes no?

So Nathan is a drunk.... but wait, he spent most of that time healing. So what was he? A drunk for two minutes or something?

The whole four months latter and the eventually flashbacks were poorly handled.

Hiro jumping back in time in the first place and then coming back four months latter was stupid.

Adam simply not killing Hiro as a teen or anything also seemed stupid. I know, someone's going to go, "But Adam didn't know when Hiro went back in time so didn't want to screw that up." If so, Adam would NEVER kill Hiro and make sure he was safe at least till he was much older.

Lots of potential, lots of missed opportunities.

Season three has a lot to deliver on.

 

[GSHamster]

Heh, one thing about the vault is that it could be vacuum sealed. That's not that much of stretch for a vault containing a virus of such deadliness.

Thus phasing through the door would not have been a good solution for Peter.

 

[Fast Learner]

Seems unlikely, what with the vault containing all kinds of things (including that brain in a jar), and many things don't do well in a vacuum (e.g. explode).

Don't get me wrong, maybe there was some great explanation. If there was, though, it needed to be explained or hinted at. Not an unreasonable request of the writing and directing, imo.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Heh, one thing about the vault is that it could be vacuum sealed. That's not that much of stretch for a vault containing a virus of such deadliness.

Thus phasing through the door would not have been a good solution for Peter.

And he couldn't tumble the locks either?

Or simply use radiation to kill the virus through the wall.

Or teleport.

Or or or or or or or or or or or.....

It was bad.

 

[WayneLigon]

And he couldn't tumble the locks either?
Or simply use radiation to kill the virus through the wall.
Or teleport.

Just because people don't act like a Special Forces operative and choose the most optimal solution within microseconds when they are confronted with a problem doesn't make them stupid. It's like listening to D&D players dissect a book and call all the character idiots because they react as people would instead of machines; it's armchair quarterbacking at it's worst. They call writers stupid or lazy when it's really their own blindness as to how drama and tension are built and maintained, and how characters or plot are developed. This is why most D&D players that try to write turn out to be terrible at it. In fact they're worse than terrible at it.

Tumbling the locks? Having TK doesn't magically grant him the knowledge of the combination. Nor does it give him X-ray vision to see how the thing is constructed.

Radiation? Enough radiation to go through a bank vault door would also kill everyone around him, if he's even good enough to generate that much radiation without blowing up again. I'm surprised he had the guts to turn on that power again.

I'm not even sure that Peter knows he can teleport, yet. I don't think he's ever done it; he's never stumbled onto the 'space' part of Hiro's Space/Time Control power. Remember that just because he has a power doesn't mean he knows how it works. He still has at least, what, five or six powers he doesn't even know he has.

Yes, he could phase through but (1) it isn't as cool and (2) he doesn't know what the virus looks like or where it is. I'm not sure he was calm enough to do both himself and Adam anyway but that gets beside the point: appropriate drama and tension almost require that the door be open. So we can have the confrontation that occurs. Remember: characters without the appropriate training, preperation and attitude always doing the correct, perfect thing like they were looking at things in the third person and were removed from time contraints is bad writing.

Peter's come a long way in learning how to use his various powers, but remember that he has a harder road than anyone else does. Sylar's power by it's very nature seems to give him control very, very quickly. Peter has to learn like everyone else has, but he has a lot more to absorb. Also, rememeber that almost everyone's power is governed by their emotional state and Peter seems way more high-strung than most of the others. He's very reactive instead of proactive, and operates on an emotional level rather than an intellectual level most of the time: that's a prime facet of his character and also what keeps him from being an overbalanced ubermensch. That emotional swing lets him use his powers in an instinctual way but half the time when he tries to use them, he fails because he's thinking about it too much. He only really cuts loose when he's scared or when he's pissed off. We saw the same thing with Hiro in Season One but Hiro has grown up more than Peter has. In many ways Peter is still the kid he was in Season One. He's gotten better at that, too, but people don't change overnight and the writer's seem to get that.

 

[Darkwolf71]

Also, as far as phasing goes, Peter has no idea he can take some one with him. I mean we're all D&D players here. We can separate Player knowledge from Character knowledge. Right? Why is it, we so often expect tv or movie characters to act differently? The same goes for the kvetching about "Claire already had the 'hate daddy arc' last year". Guess what? She's a teenager. She likely has a hate daddy arc a dozen times a day. Know what else? She'll have one again when she finds out dear old dad killed Nathan.

 

[WayneLigon]

Also, as far as phasing goes, Peter has no idea he can take some one with him.

He does; that's how he gets Adam and himself out of the Company prison. I think he does it at least one other time but I can't remember right off hand. He seems to have to work himself up to do it, though.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I just finished watching what they've shown of season 2 between yesterday and today.

There are some good moments but overall it was terrible. Over on RPG.net they were asking what powers would people like to see and I said common sense.

The thing is, there's really no discussion. If folks like the stuff, then it's easily explained away with;
1) You're using knowledge they don't have. (Sure, most of the powers are used via instinct, and they've had a year to work with them, but it's perfectly understandable that Peter would read everyones mind except Adam during the long boring drives with Adam. Because we as an audience know Adam is bad, but Peter doesn't know anything about him, so it's normal human intuition to blindly trust folks.)

2) It's a comic book, dummy! (This is used to explain all the bad and inconsistent stuff, it's all comic book tropes.)

3) Well, it coulda been... (This is where they find an explanation that was never in the show and there is no evidence to support, but it's perfectly possible that Sylar vacuum sealed the vault when he was off-camera to keep the virus intact for when he needed it. He did this all through his future self that eventually gains Hiro's power.)


As for missed plot elements, there is a symbol that continually presents itself with no outside influence. God Send apparently is not interesting to any of the characters. Hiro has encountered it a few times, 5 Years Past had no mention of it, and it was blood inked on pictures without a question. Is it just Adams Mark or something? They don't say, and apparently none of the characters care.

Suresh's found that certain genetic markers showed the potential for powers, are these markers "the Adam trait" or simply show descent from the "Great Heroes" of some mythic age or something? Are the powers based on genetic code, or is it just the ability to manipulate some energy source that permeates the world?

Apparently, that all seems to take a back seat to researching the non-contagious virus and building strains that can wipe out all life.