Well past when anyone would have cared
Feb. 3rd, 2009 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI realize I'm way late to the party and most people probably came up with this years ago; also, I'm not entirely sure what prompted it.
Okay, so, first off, Peter should never have been able to maintain his powers away from his "benefactor". I don't know why the hell the writers put that in, as it's hugely plot-breaking. We could keep the scene with him getting pushed off the building, but instead have Future-Hiro pop in to a) save him and b) tell him not to do anything stupid like that again without Claire or Nathan around.
Most of my issues, after that, come in the final episode, and specifically the fight between Peter and Sylar. Given that Peter has both Sylar's powers and the powers of everyone else, it should have been a total curbstomp. Curbstomps make bad TV. So, we start the fight: First, Sylar uses a previously-unseen power that paralyzes or otherwise takes out the rest of the cast, but Peter escapes because he's got DL's phasing power. The fight begins, and Sylar has the obvious upper hand, because Peter uses one power at a time, and Sylar can counter with multiple ones that he knows how to use to their fullest extent. (At the very least, he has telekinesis, ice blasts, radiation blasts, super-hearing, super-memory, and future-painting, right? This would be a great time to reveal the shadow-jumping or eyebeams he's been saving for just such and occasion.) Peter stumbles about trying to do something, and you get a shot of him looking at each cast member as he uses or dismisses their power...then he looks at Sylar. And you get the beat as Sylar realizes that Peter has just absorbed his Intuitive Aptitude...and then time freezes as flying teleporting phasing super-strong regenerating telepathic Peter administers the appropriate level of curbstomping for someone that cool. Time resumes, Sylar staggers back, and Hiro's there with the sword. Sylar goes down.
Then we get into the tricky part: If Ted's dead, then Peter can only have his powers by absorbing them from Sylar. But as Sylar dies, Peter will lose his power-collection. So I think the appropriate exploding-man note is to have Peter, high on Sylar's powers, start using TK to cut open Sylar's head, only to have Nathan stop him. You could have a cute brotherly moment as Peter realizes he can't control Ted's power without using Sylar's, but Sylar's power will drive him crazy. Peter does the death-radioactive-glow. Sylar shoves away Hiro and collapses, and Nathan shoots into the sky with Peter in tow. Boom.
I realize the reason Sylar survives is because of popularity power, but he really shouldn't have. Peter could have, if Ted's powers allowed him to survive the explosion, and Claire was close enough to wherever he landed. (Or if he landed near someone else with regeration powers/invulnerability.) But the giant plot hold of Peter's abilities would be signficantly smaller, and "How To Stop an Exploding Man" would be much less of a wallbanger.
Okay, so, first off, Peter should never have been able to maintain his powers away from his "benefactor". I don't know why the hell the writers put that in, as it's hugely plot-breaking. We could keep the scene with him getting pushed off the building, but instead have Future-Hiro pop in to a) save him and b) tell him not to do anything stupid like that again without Claire or Nathan around.
Most of my issues, after that, come in the final episode, and specifically the fight between Peter and Sylar. Given that Peter has both Sylar's powers and the powers of everyone else, it should have been a total curbstomp. Curbstomps make bad TV. So, we start the fight: First, Sylar uses a previously-unseen power that paralyzes or otherwise takes out the rest of the cast, but Peter escapes because he's got DL's phasing power. The fight begins, and Sylar has the obvious upper hand, because Peter uses one power at a time, and Sylar can counter with multiple ones that he knows how to use to their fullest extent. (At the very least, he has telekinesis, ice blasts, radiation blasts, super-hearing, super-memory, and future-painting, right? This would be a great time to reveal the shadow-jumping or eyebeams he's been saving for just such and occasion.) Peter stumbles about trying to do something, and you get a shot of him looking at each cast member as he uses or dismisses their power...then he looks at Sylar. And you get the beat as Sylar realizes that Peter has just absorbed his Intuitive Aptitude...and then time freezes as flying teleporting phasing super-strong regenerating telepathic Peter administers the appropriate level of curbstomping for someone that cool. Time resumes, Sylar staggers back, and Hiro's there with the sword. Sylar goes down.
Then we get into the tricky part: If Ted's dead, then Peter can only have his powers by absorbing them from Sylar. But as Sylar dies, Peter will lose his power-collection. So I think the appropriate exploding-man note is to have Peter, high on Sylar's powers, start using TK to cut open Sylar's head, only to have Nathan stop him. You could have a cute brotherly moment as Peter realizes he can't control Ted's power without using Sylar's, but Sylar's power will drive him crazy. Peter does the death-radioactive-glow. Sylar shoves away Hiro and collapses, and Nathan shoots into the sky with Peter in tow. Boom.
I realize the reason Sylar survives is because of popularity power, but he really shouldn't have. Peter could have, if Ted's powers allowed him to survive the explosion, and Claire was close enough to wherever he landed. (Or if he landed near someone else with regeration powers/invulnerability.) But the giant plot hold of Peter's abilities would be signficantly smaller, and "How To Stop an Exploding Man" would be much less of a wallbanger.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 04:11 pm (UTC)A character like Sylar can't exist as part of an ensemble show, because his power (when used properly) makes him practically unbeatable. Peter, if he can retain powers, has the same problem.
I think they should have killed off Sylar, Mr. Bennett, (apparently) Peter, and possibly Nikki (her story was pretty well played out), then focused a new "family" arc around radiation-burned Nathan and tragedy-scarred Claire; a new "company" arc around Matt; and Hiro's time-lost arc eventually leading into what happened to Peter. But then, I'd actually need to watch seasons two and three before I could rewrite them.