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    #16
    I can understand why this wasn't the episode for everyone. In a lot of ways, this reminded me of the current "Terminator" series. Rather than focus on action, this was an episode about character. For some shows, this is hardly worthy of note, but for "Heroes", it's a rather big shift. And more importantly, the character exploration was actually well done. It wasn't fast-paced, but it made sense.

    The episode focused mostly on three plots in rotation: Peter and Angela, Nathan and Claire, and Danko and Sylar. Two of the threads are fairly introspective, even if they bring characters to an important step along their respective paths. The third plot thread is a bit more active, but serves to begin clarifying some of the mess from Volume Three.

    Angela is clearly going to play a stronger role in the balance of this volume, bringing together the metahumans based on her precognitive dream. This is not particularly new to the series, of course, but I liked how it was treated in this instance. It wasn't about puzzling over yet another set of Tim Sale drawings, delaying understanding and action. This was about giving Angela the peace of mind necessary to use her ability to everyone's advantage. Finding a kind of peace with Peter was necessary to that end. As such, their time in the church was as much about Peter finding his way as it was Angela getting what she needed.

    I've often felt that Peter was designed to be the leader of the "good" metahumans, because of the scale of his power. The writers have adjusted that to make Peter less of a "superman", and this should push him to work with others to combat the common threat. If the previous volumes have told us anything, it's that the Petrellis have always tried to lead the metahumans through their own self-generated crises. They typically fail based on their human weaknesses. So this could be a step in the right direction, if they can begin learning from their mistakes.

    Nathan is certainly no better than Peter. Nathan has the leadership skills (or he wouldn't be persuasive enough to be a successful politician), but he lacks innate common sense. He's not nearly as clever or aware as he seems to think he is. Claire is probably the last person to call Nathan on his shortcomings, given her track record of leaping before looking, but she's probably going to be the catalyst to get the rest of the Petrelli brood in gear. (And I must say, Hayden is gorgeous in this episode, particularly the first half!)

    If the two Petrelli-dominated plot threads are meant to point towards potential leadership for the "heroes", then Danko's alliance with Sylar is clearly meant to elevate him back to the role as the main antagonist. This is where Sylar should have started at the beginning of Volume Three, frankly, and his manipulation of Danko is nearly perfect. Now that Sylar is thought to be dead, and he can assume any appearance, he can do just about anything. In fact, it wouldn't be all that surprising if he killed Danko and took his place.

    Considering how long I've been pointing out the lack of clear and logical motivations for the characters, this is a very good sign. It gives me hope that the remainder of the season will course-correct the series and start repairing the damage that Volume Three had caused.

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      #17
      I don't like the idea of Sylar having the shape-shifting power, it makes him too powerful. I wouldn't mind so much if they hadn't nerfed Peter's ability. There seems to be no balance to Sylar's power anymore and I really can't see a reasonable way around that fact, especially if he starts acquiring new powers and nobody other than himself and Danko know about it.

      For once Claire was well written in this episode. She finally felt like the character she was during season 1 and not some hyper active pest. I enjoyed her scenes with Nathan even though they were entirely character-centric.

      Angela has a mystery sister... right. Not sure where that's going, but introducing even more long lost family members is a bad sign. How often does this show play that card?

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        #18
        Originally posted by lunarleviathan View Post
        I don't like the idea of Sylar having the shape-shifting power, it makes him too powerful.
        Indeed. Now you could actually imagine a future in which no one knows Sylar is alive. A future in which Nathan Petrelli becomes the president, and is later killed and replaced by shapeshifting Sylar. A future in which heroes would be split into two factions, with Sylar leading the nation and Peter as the leader of the rebels. If only the writers had thought of something cool like that!

        Comment


          #19
          Originally posted by ipp0 View Post
          Indeed. Now you could actually imagine a future in which no one knows Sylar is alive. A future in which Nathan Petrelli becomes the president, and is later killed and replaced by shapeshifting Sylar. A future in which heroes would be split into two factions, with Sylar leading the nation and Peter as the leader of the rebels. If only the writers had thought of something cool like that!
          That future was terrible (the explosion part was good, but president Sylar was random). On the plus side, if they were to pick up that thread again -- or something similar -- at least he wouldn't be a powerful as if he had actually acquired Candice's Illusion power that he was using during that future.

          Comment


            #20
            Originally posted by lunarleviathan View Post
            I don't like the idea of Sylar having the shape-shifting power, it makes him too powerful. I wouldn't mind so much if they hadn't nerfed Peter's ability. There seems to be no balance to Sylar's power anymore and I really can't see a reasonable way around that fact, especially if he starts acquiring new powers and nobody other than himself and Danko know about it.

            For once Claire was well written in this episode. She finally felt like the character she was during season 1 and not some hyper active pest. I enjoyed her scenes with Nathan even though they were entirely character-centric.

            Angela has a mystery sister... right. Not sure where that's going, but introducing even more long lost family members is a bad sign. How often does this show play that card?
            The thing that bothers me is that this is precisely why they nerfed Peter in the first place; he was too powerful for anyone to fight against and win. And yet now they do the same thing to Sylar (with no more Peter to match him) and apparently it's not big deal? It unbalances the show... no one can realistically kill Sylar now.
            Click the banner or episode links to visit the virtual continuations of Stargate!
            Previous Episode: 11x03 "Shore Leave" | Previous Episode: 6x04 "Nightfall" | Now Airing: 3x06 "Eldest"

            Comment


              #21
              Originally posted by s09119 View Post
              The thing that bothers me is that this is precisely why they nerfed Peter in the first place; he was too powerful for anyone to fight against and win. And yet now they do the same thing to Sylar (with no more Peter to match him) and apparently it's not big deal? It unbalances the show... no one can realistically kill Sylar now.
              Personally for me the villain of a story should always be more powerful than your heroes.
              That way you can create a great story of all the heroes coming together, pooling all their resources to bring down the big bad. There are many examples of this throughout the media. in SG1 for example, for a significant part of the show the goa'uld/ori were more powerful than our heroes. In Buffy each season brought a bigger stronger evil to fight, with the heroes fighting a up hill battle to win. These great example in comic, which is a great parallel to draw since Heroes is meant to be written like a comic book. You have Doomsday in the superman comics, Apocalipse in the x-men comics

              Comment


                #22
                Originally posted by Madwelshboy View Post
                Personally for me the villain of a story should always be more powerful than your heroes.
                That way you can create a great story of all the heroes coming together, pooling all their resources to bring down the big bad. There are many examples of this throughout the media. in SG1 for example, for a significant part of the show the goa'uld/ori were more powerful than our heroes. In Buffy each season brought a bigger stronger evil to fight, with the heroes fighting a up hill battle to win. These great example in comic, which is a great parallel to draw since Heroes is meant to be written like a comic book. You have Doomsday in the superman comics, Apocalipse in the x-men comics
                However they are always cheesey "We worked as a team, see how much better we work as a team"

                Comment


                  #23
                  Originally posted by Madwelshboy View Post
                  Personally for me the villain of a story should always be more powerful than your heroes.
                  That way you can create a great story of all the heroes coming together, pooling all their resources to bring down the big bad. There are many examples of this throughout the media. in SG1 for example, for a significant part of the show the goa'uld/ori were more powerful than our heroes. In Buffy each season brought a bigger stronger evil to fight, with the heroes fighting a up hill battle to win. These great example in comic, which is a great parallel to draw since Heroes is meant to be written like a comic book. You have Doomsday in the superman comics, Apocalipse in the x-men comics
                  But even working together, they couldn't beat Sylar, not without Hiro at least, and his powers seem sporadic at best now, and he's not part of the "team" at this point. If Nathan, Peter, Claire, Micah, Noah, Parkman, Suresh, Tracy (assuming she is still alive somehow) and Angela were to all pool their powers and attack Sylar, he'd take them all out in a matter of minutes. He's just too powerful, with too many uber-powers for any of the "lesser abilities" to handle, even combined.
                  Click the banner or episode links to visit the virtual continuations of Stargate!
                  Previous Episode: 11x03 "Shore Leave" | Previous Episode: 6x04 "Nightfall" | Now Airing: 3x06 "Eldest"

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Originally posted by s09119 View Post
                    But even working together, they couldn't beat Sylar, not without Hiro at least, and his powers seem sporadic at best now, and he's not part of the "team" at this point. If Nathan, Peter, Claire, Micah, Noah, Parkman, Suresh, Tracy (assuming she is still alive somehow) and Angela were to all pool their powers and attack Sylar, he'd take them all out in a matter of minutes. He's just too powerful, with too many uber-powers for any of the "lesser abilities" to handle, even combined.
                    Sylar only has the following powers:-
                    intuitive aptitude
                    telekinesis
                    Rapid cellular regeneration
                    Alchemic transmutation
                    Clairsentience
                    Sound manipulation
                    Electric manipulation
                    Lie detection
                    Thoughtography
                    Shapeshifting
                    And in a battle sittuation Lie detection, Thoughtography, Alchemic transmutation as not very usefull. And to a certain extent neither is intuitive aptitude.

                    Im not saying that they will completely kill Sylar (the characters have already thought he was dead twice), but drawing parallell again to Apocalypse in the x-men comics - heres a villan that the Heroes come up against again and again who is more powerfull than the x-men team, yet they manage to beat him back again and again, but he allways returns. That's how i see Sylar.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Not so hard to kill Sylar... Just hide somewhere, grab a sniper rifle, headshot and he's down. But now he has shapeshifting and only Danko knows he's still alive...
                      Mia: Don't you hate that?
                      Vincent: Hate what?
                      Mia: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullsh*t in order to be comfortable?
                      Vincent: I don't know. That's a good question.
                      Mia: That's when you know you've found somebody really special: you can just shut the f*** up for a minute and comfortably share silence.
                      - Pulp Fiction

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Originally posted by s09119 View Post
                        The thing that bothers me is that this is precisely why they nerfed Peter in the first place; he was too powerful for anyone to fight against and win. And yet now they do the same thing to Sylar (with no more Peter to match him) and apparently it's not big deal? It unbalances the show... no one can realistically kill Sylar now.
                        As people said a long range sniper shot will do it.

                        Originally posted by Madwelshboy View Post
                        Sylar only has the following powers:-
                        intuitive aptitude
                        telekinesis
                        Rapid cellular regeneration
                        Alchemic transmutation
                        Clairsentience
                        Sound manipulation
                        Electric manipulation
                        Lie detection
                        Thoughtography
                        Shapeshifting
                        And in a battle sittuation Lie detection, Thoughtography, Alchemic transmutation as not very usefull. And to a certain extent neither is intuitive aptitude.

                        Im not saying that they will completely kill Sylar (the characters have already thought he was dead twice), but drawing parallell again to Apocalypse in the x-men comics - heres a villan that the Heroes come up against again and again who is more powerfull than the x-men team, yet they manage to beat him back again and again, but he allways returns. That's how i see Sylar.
                        I am pretty sure he got more than that by now. I am guest microwaving people is probable one.
                        But seeing the future will allow Angela to predict his every move. Which is something he probably unaware off.
                        I want to see at the end of the season that we see Washington destroy and in rubble. It about time our heroes tasted a bitter victory.
                        The whole sniper thing is obvious but bit boring. Especially with Angela on your side.

                        I personally think may be the baby will play essentially part on what ever Angela plan is.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Originally posted by knowles2 View Post
                          As people said a long range sniper shot will do it.



                          I am pretty sure he got more than that by now. I am guest microwaving people is probable one.
                          But seeing the future will allow Angela to predict his every move. Which is something he probably unaware off.
                          I want to see at the end of the season that we see Washington destroy and in rubble. It about time our heroes tasted a bitter victory.
                          The whole sniper thing is obvious but bit boring. Especially with Angela on your side.

                          I personally think may be the baby will play essentially part on what ever Angela plan is.
                          True he could have more powers, the ones Ive listed are the one confirmed on screen that he's gained since regaining his powers at the start of Vol 3. in regards to microwaving, he didnt kill Luke nor was it shown that he attempted to take his powers (like he did with elle and the shapeshifter), but its possible.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Originally posted by TBA View Post
                            Not so hard to kill Sylar... Just hide somewhere, grab a sniper rifle, headshot and he's down. But now he has shapeshifting and only Danko knows he's still alive...
                            HRG knows.
                            || Star Stream || Destiny Song || The Four Suns (My Band) || The Art of War <<== listen please!

                            Comment


                              #29
                              I believe HRG doesn't know Sylar is still out there. He zipped up the body bag with MartinSylar in it, believing it was indeed Sylar (he also noticed the thingie in the back of his head). He looked kinda confused, and it could be that he indeed suspects *something*, but I think he was just confused and also impressed Danko managed to take Sylar out.
                              Mia: Don't you hate that?
                              Vincent: Hate what?
                              Mia: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullsh*t in order to be comfortable?
                              Vincent: I don't know. That's a good question.
                              Mia: That's when you know you've found somebody really special: you can just shut the f*** up for a minute and comfortably share silence.
                              - Pulp Fiction

                              Comment


                                #30
                                Originally posted by TBA View Post
                                I believe HRG doesn't know Sylar is still out there. He zipped up the body bag with MartinSylar in it, believing it was indeed Sylar (he also noticed the thingie in the back of his head). He looked kinda confused, and it could be that he indeed suspects *something*, but I think he was just confused and also impressed Danko managed to take Sylar out.
                                I'll have to watch it again. I could've sworn the look he gave was because there was nothing wrong with the back of his head.
                                || Star Stream || Destiny Song || The Four Suns (My Band) || The Art of War <<== listen please!

                                Comment

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