Hiro interviened and saved the grunt who was working for Kensei & therefore screwing up Kensei's plan. He didn't get to kill the leader of the bandits and therefore Ottsu was destroyed. While this has been covered, I can't believe how stupid Hiro was. He wanted to save Kensei but, shouldn't he have known that Kensei wouldn't need saving? My theory is that Kensei would have discoverd his ability (whatever that might be) shortly after the eclipse and then become a true hero (and afterwards his source of power would be asociated with the sword as it was only recently given to him). Hiro changed that. So perhaps now Kensei will become a villain instead and it's all Hiro's fault? Would be a good storyline.

err... no offense, but doesn't make sense to me... at all.
I am still trying to find a theory that makes sense.

An alternative explanation is that Kensei was never the hero he was made out to be. The saving of the village, etc. will happen because Hiro will impersonate Kensei or will help him out. My own take is that, in a sense, Hiro is following a "script". That is, the original Kensei in the original time-line was also a mountebank. And all his remembered heroic actions will be done by Hiro (or aided by him). So when Hiro saves the village, etc. he will be doing something that he already has done (so to speak).

In other words, the "past" events that will happen has already happened with no "time meddling": Confrontation at Otsu, Hiro appears, Hiro realizes Kensai is a rogue, Hiro does everything Kensei is remembered for (or helps him to do it), these deeds become legendary, 20th century Hiro hears of them, Hiro jumps into the past, (confrontation at Otsu etc ...)

And if the idea of a cyclic time loop (a time traveller participating in a past event which results in a future in which the time traveller goes back to do that event) hurts your head, well that's time travelling for you! Which is why I hope they won't do so much of it anymore.

No he hasn't.
As we can clearly see the future is still the same, whatever hiro is doing has allready happened...if you get what i mean.

Whatever then, I personally think that the writers should be more careful about timetravel. But tell me this, has it been confirmed that Kensei is a season 2 villain? Right now he could become one of the good guys.

it's Heroes, anything seems possible.

To quote Ron Stoppable:

"Time travel, it's a cornucopia of disturbing concepts."

What's wild is to know that Masi was only doin' what was in the script. So, while it's obvious Hiro messed with history as it's been shown to us, somethin' tells me that TPTB have figured out the storylines to deal with what Hiro has done and also have plotted out what happens with Kane...

Aside: Kim Possible's a fun show!

I like to think that Kensei was nothing but a grunt and paid people to fight for him. Then Hiro shows up and makes him live up to the hype.

If you watched the Kensei videos on Yamagatofellowship.org then you know Kensei would defeat huge ammounts of armys all by himself.

well... what is one easy explanation to that?
Hiro stops time and kills them all for him. Kensei gets the credit for saving the town...
Kensei then becomes the hero that we know today.

End.

Yup. Hiro is the "Dragon" that teaches him to be a "Sword Saint". Go Hiro Go!

Interesting idea, but I can't accept the idea that Hiro helps Kensei by stopping time/killing opponents etc. I hope they finish this storyline by episode 11 when volume 2 ends. Also, I believe that the guy who killed Hiro's father is Kensei (and wth? They just killed one of the coolest characters in the show ).

So you are assuming Kensei has some sort of power that either preserved him until the present, or allowed him to travel to the present to kill Hiro's father?

That's what I thought too - don't know if it's gonna happen that way, though:

Somehting along those lines.

I don't clearly see that at all. Peter now has an electrical power and Nathan is not dead. We don't know if the present we are seeing is a result of the finale we saw last year or Hiro changing the past. Last year ended with a glimpse of this season, that is why we saw Hiro in the past. This season opens with 4 months having gone by and then shows Hiro landing in the past. The present was altered from that moment on, I would think. Even if he went back in time immediately after Sylar hurled him he didn't alter anything until after the explosion we were viewing things in real time. If it were 25 minutes later when Hiro teleported the Kensei double then it would have been after the finale concluded.

You just gave me a great idea. Hiro changed the past and therefore the present and that's why Nathan had the freaky burned reflection. He sees what should have happened to him.

This is basically like in Stephen King's "The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands". If you change the past you get 2 sets of conflicting memories (and Peter it seems, has lost his memory entirely).

I think the Nathan being burned thing was a (sorry for the pun) "reflection" of his guilt towards his brother's supposed death.

As for Kensei, I agree with most that whatever Hiro will do in the past will ultimately lead to the same outcome he knew before, but perhaps something will change. I think that Kensei's power, whatever it is, has to be something that will affect the current storyline. Otherwise, what's the point of it? I don't want to watch Hiro go through all this trouble for 4,5, heck, maybe 8 episodes, only to have him go "ok I'm going to the future again now!" I'm thinking they have SOMETHING in mind for this Kensei character...I just don't know what yet. Speculation points to "evil" though.

yea. i think that hiro is there to make the stories true, and to make Kensai the real hero.

i don't think the future is changed because of hiro's actions, because they're showing us what happened in the past. Everything that Hiro does isn't going to change anything, cuz it already happened.

ugh, my head hurts.

anyone esle find it hilarious when he said "Greata Scotta?"

I couldn't disagree more. They're setting the stage for Hiro to become the Taezo Kensei of his childhood stories. It's already been established that the featured Japanese actress, and former Miss Universe contestant, was locked in to play Hiro's love interest. So follow the logic:

"I even read about your love of the swordsmith's daughter."

Angry cute girl from burning village takes sword. "It's my father's sword!"

"She is the swordsmith's daughter!"

Actress slated to play character falling for Hiro, Kensei is fabled to love the swordsmith's daughter, Hiro becomes the Kensei of legend.

that was meant to happen, Hiro's destiny is to BE Kensei, as you can see The actual Kensei is... well un-heroic

That makes complete sense is exactly what i was thinking.

I remember watching another time travel tv show or movie, can't remember what it was but it said changing a blade of grass could change the course of history. I mean as ridiculous as these sounds, if i was to go back in time to the time one of my ancestors was conceived and just walked past them that could have put them on a different train of thought and i could not have been born or around today

Like i said in the Kensei thread, Heroes maybe conforms to the notion of fate which would then mean Isaacs paintings aren't to be trusted?

i like this. Add in the part where Hiro is going to try as hard as he can to pu thing back the way they should but wont be able to. Its hard to say whether the stories about Takezo where always about Hiro or not. Ander's Takezo does seem like a wild savage. Either way i am sure Hiro changed something. If the furture is unchangable (thats right my new word) then the whole first season isn't posible. Future Hiro went back to a very specific time to change the future. It seems like the same thing is happening now. Not sure if he went back at the right time or did the right thing yet but something has to change.

Just a little note. The images of Kensei in the literature that Hiro read all look remarkably similar to future Hiro, with the long hair and soul patch.

Hiro messed up ROYALLY. With Otsu destroyed by would have been dead Bandits, Kensei never saw the benefit of being a hero. Ownage ensues.

Now Hiro has to force history to happen, the hard way, by, more or less, taking Kensei's place and helping with his power. History will turn out the EXACT SAME, since the only thing that affects the present are the STORIES of Kensei... if the STORIES stay intact, everything will be fine.

There are some books in which the beating of a butterflies wings creates a hurricane later in time. But this is HEROES. If a butterfly beats his wings? Who cares? It's just a butterfly.

And don't EVER doubt Isaac's paintings...
It's not like New York can't STILL Blow up, y'know?