I have been lurking on these boards for a while now and find the back and forth about time travel interesting. But I would like to offer up what seems obvious to me about Hiro's powers.

Hiro will find out that he can change the future but not the past. Any choice he makes in the present to go back has already been factored into the corresponding past.

With the poker men he did not go back in time and try to save them thus they stayed dead.

With Charly he decided to go back and try to save her. I believe when the choice is made and the action taken a loop is created that already accounts for his decison. It is like twisting a loop into a long ballon.

In that loop Charly is killed and Hiro goes back to save her... six months earlier decisions are made (does Hiro give her the Japanese language book? it was never stated who gave it to her) that lead to her death... Charly is killed... etc.

Why she doesn't recognize Hiro is something I don't know, and is clearly the weak link in my thought. Maybe he realizes after a couple of tries that he can't stop it and goes back again and just leaves the book and decides it is too painful to watch her die again.

There has to be limits to his power, besides him not being able to control them. And Tim Kring said (and in interview somewhere) that Hiro would discover limitations to what he can do.

Thoughts?

It's a good theory, except that future Hiro told Peter to save the cheerleader. If he knew he couldn't change the past, why even try?

It wasn't him changing the past he was expecting Peter to do that. And he didn't give Peter more information than he needed.

Not certain of the specifics but the 'time as a long ballon' theory is the only rational limitation of folding time. Time isn't just this linear chain of events it is a chain of decisons that lead to events. If Hiro makes the decision to go back then not only does he create a loop (one he will eventially have to 'jump' out of) but the present he is in has taken into acount his decision to go back and his actions, or inactions, there.

Who do you think gives Charly a book on Japanese six months ago in the middle of Midland Texas?

... the guy that can hardly speak a word of english, who did not bring the book with him from the future... yeah, i'd say hiro had more of a chance getting a japanese book in the middle of texas than anyone else... so obvious.

Future/Present/Past are all relative. When Hiro jumped forward in time to NYC and was being questioned by police about Isaac's murder, he was in the "Present" as defined by the police and Ando (who said he had been missing for 5 weeks). Yet, when he jumped back in time to escape the big boom, he changed the "Past" by not going missing for 5 weeks. He also brought Ando along with him so a call to Ando in Japan wouldn't work now either.

When he jumps back in time 6 months to save Charlie, he will be in the "Present" as defined by everyone there. He already has changed something in the past since the photo of her birthday has been altered to include Hiro and people in the Diner now recognize him as being "tight" with Charlie. If this is how it was before, why wouldn't people have come up to him before in the Diner and said hi to him/asked him where he was the last few weeks?

While watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on NBC, I saw a commercial for Heroes. There seemed to be a short scene where Hiro had stopped time, but kept Charlie from being frozen in time. It looked like he was showing the stopped time scene to her.

I'm guessing that what happens now is that Hiro goes back 6 months and befriends Charlie. During his time in the past, he improves his powers enough to take someone else along with him. A few weeks before the incident, he hops forward by a couple of weeks. (Thus, he "pops out of her life" in the view of everyone else.)

Then, a week or so before she's due to encounter Sylar, Hiro appears to her again and brings her with him back to the present (plus a day or so for good measure). Now, to everyone at the Diner, she appears to go missing for a bit, so they put up that "memorial" display.

Sylar arrives looking for her, sees her missing, and moves on. This doesn't really impact his timeline, so there's no real change in the Save The Cheerleader events. Hiro and Charlie then pop back in, get Ando back in tow, and head off to Save the Cheerleader. (Possibly leaving Charlie behind to keep her out of danger, depending on how they unfold the story.)

This is definitely the best rationale for the diner having a memorial up for a "not dead" Charlie that I have seen. Very nice theory.

After seeing last night's episode I am thinking I am closer to being right, no disrespect of course. I don't think that Hiro can change the past because any action he takes in the present to go 'back' has already been accounted for in the loop. That's why she mentioned she got a book on Japanese when she first met Hiro and Ando, even though Hiro was the one that gave it to her in the past.

Why she, or anyone in the resturant, didn't recognize him is something that I can't put my head around.

Thoughts?

You are right, check out my INSANELY detailed theory to go deeper into it:

My crazy boredom driven detailed theory

I'm glad someone else agrees with me on the forum and can grasp the idea.

*dances*

uh, ebay? amazon?

he told Peter to Save the Cheerleader because Peter called him on the phone and told him to that he told him to Save the Cheerleader. Its all just a large loop