I found it interesting that Adam was really trying to save the world, not necessarily humanity. It appears in his mind, that humans are doomed to continue warfare, not advancing and he can see no good end. So, he is saving the world FROM humanity, at least that's my take on his actions. Anyone care to agree; disagree; or comment further?

He should have accumulated some wisdom in those 400 years. History does repeat itself, especially if you live it. The problem with his plan is that the virus will kill everyone except for immortals. What makes them so special they won't have warfare. The guy has been fighting wars for money most of his life. He's crazy. He's no different from the rest of us war mongers.

Let's see . . .

people killing each other is a bad thing, so how about we kill all the people ?

Well, not everyone will be killed, Adam doesn't want to be doomed to walking the earth alone for the next 10,000 or so years. I would say that Adam has planned this out and has been willing to take his time to do this right. It's very likely that Bob is one of his disciples and is actually working with Adam to release the virus. Adam kills off the last of the people who are against the virus, then goes to release the virus. At the same time, Bob is working to perfect an antidote/cure for the virus so that Adam and the company can choose who gets to survive and help repopulate thier new world. Once they have the cure and the virus, they will release it. As for why Adam needs Peter if he is working with Bob? It could be that Kaito or one of the others has locked the virus up in such a way that Peter and his phasing power is needed to get to the virus. It would be safe to assume the virus isn't just sitting on a shelf waiting for whoever to take it, there must be something stopping either Adam or Bob from getting at the virus themselves.

The Wisdom of Adam

I have to say I am disappointed at were we are going with Adam. I mean, 400 years of experience and all I have to show for it is "kill everyone"? What I really really hope we find out is that all of the Heroes are the desendents of Adam. Think about it. The underline theme of Heroes is Family. The parent/child relationship. It would make sense that their family tree all traces back to Adam. But noooooooooo he's just a geek would want to kill every and whose head will be cut of and that will be that.

too bad

edit: topic merged

Adam was turned into a good guy by Hiro, and he found a new lease for life, instead of just greed and money, he had a lady he loved very much, then it was just taken away from him

If you live 400 years, you will have 400 years of hate built up, all starting from losing the women you love, to living through the greed and disgusting habits of the human race, you can't blame him that he wants to destroy everything and start over, he had to sit through 400 years of our race, and humans are not the greatest people to be around... especially for 400 years

You know how sometimes, you get old people who've been in the world 80, 90, 100 years and all they can do is hate it? Not all the elderly are like this, but I think everyone knows at least one. They hate the changes in technology and philosophy, they hate the disrespect everyone shows one another, they just hate everything.

Imagine living with that for another 300 years after you've started hating.

He has probably also seen quite a bit of carnage in his years, which would severely hurt his faith in mankind. The Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, both WWI & WWII. Seeing people like Napoleon & Hitler gaining power and trying to conquer the world. The slave trade. The slaughter of the American Natives. Imagine seeing and living through all these horrible things and see if your outlook on life isn't a bit skewed. Sure, it doesn't excuse his wanting to destroy the world, but it does help to give an insight into the reasons he may be insane after experiencing 400 years of a very imperfect world. It could very well drive one to extreme measures to try and fix what they see they as a broken.

As a side note, while doing a bit of research the other day, I noticed that there was a deadly outbreak of the Bubonic Plauge in England during the 1660's, which is a very good explanation for why Adam may have left England and headed to Japan.

i COMPLETELY agree with the first part, that was the point of the last 2 GN's.
2nd: sounds viral to me

After all that time, I think he'd forget about that chick. I mean, that was probably 50 or 60 women ago. Someone stole a girl from me once... her name was.. M-something.. and that was just 12 years ago or something.

good point. however, the values of those days are probably not the same compared to those of today. Plus, was miss M-something the love of your life? Was she taken by the only person you TRULY trusted and made you into a different person?

Well, we really have no proof that Adam still even cares about Hiro or the princess he lost out on. Nothing he has said in this day or age is really related to Hiro messing with him back in the 1600's. Yes, he did kill Hiro's father, but then he has been locked up for 30 years and may not even realize that Kaito is "Carps" father. Kaito was the one who said to lock him up and throw away the key, that's reason enough for Adam wanting to kill him, being Hiro's Dad is probably an unexpected bonus.

Though, I can't wait to see what kind of reaction Adam has when he meets Hiro in the present timeline. It really could go a few different ways. Maybe he is past everything that happened and has forgiven Hiro long ago, maybe he still hates him more than anything, or maybe he'll just say "gee, you look like someone I used to know"..

I was really hoping they would have Adam change over the last 336 years and turn out to be a good guy.

However, I do think that living for that long could take a person in more than one direction. On the one hand, certainly it could make one come to recognize the futility of many of humanity's follies and purge him of his flaws, but on the other, if you're set on a dark path, it can plunge you deeper and deeper in, until you go from being enraged at one person or one personal tragedy to being enraged at all of humanity for all the evils you see them producing over and over and over. It seems that Adam went from being bitter and enraged at Hiro for his flaws to growing bitter and enraged at humanity as a whole for all the endlessly repeated follies and hypocrisies and evils he saw for over 300 years, many of which he spent in the ugliest and worst places in history.

Moreover, looking from his perspective, I can imagine that individual lives would come to seem less and less precious and significant the longer he endured. He would have seen countless people born and die, countless rulers rise and fall, wars fought and slaughters to no end. We meet people and know them all our lives, and have a very limited exposure to the rest of humanity, which teaches us to value individual life and care for people on a person-by-person basis. Adam, on the other hand, has reached a warped perspective in spending hundreds of years watching history as an outsider and viewing history as a great collage of societys and masses of people instead of individual lives and their struggles. Hence, when he thinks of "saving the world," he doesn't mean bringing good to all or even most of the people in it, but instead of wiping out the current establishment and creating a new order which he believes he can form to be less self-destructive/destructive to the planet. This type of thinking also correlates with the way that he's come to think of himself as a god (remember Noah's Ark?).

i have thought to myself..that the common theme is everyone is connected...and when adam was introduced..the characters of the show wont let you forget they are all connected...that when he has been around for 400 yrs.that everything starts with him..who knows how many names he has used throughout those years..maybe we will start here...petrelli...parkman..gey..linderman..and however many in between..400 yrs a long time not to get busy with all races and creeds of women..lord knows i would (lord willing lol..if i was only that luky!)...he made hiro a pomise a long time ago that his family would suffer..maybe it took adam that long to find out who Kaito really was and his offspring...not saying im a big fan of adam/kensai...but i understand where he coming from...nevermind throwing in living 400 yrs..what else do you have to do knowing you cant die...think about the man who took your first love...i definitely would wait for him especiall when i know what he lloks like

I thought this too.

The way I see it Adam is trying to save the world like tex said. He is using the virus as the catalyst to unite the population, or what little is left, together. I think he underestimated the actual devastation the virus would cause, but ultimately in the end, he is trying to stop humanity's in-fighting. I urge you to read Watchmen for a great story dealing with uniting humanity through tragedy. You won't be disappointed.

I think that Adam's intents with the virus are good in the end. Think about it, with a virus spreading rapidly throughout the world, showing no preference to one race or one country, everyone will lay down their arms and join together to stop the virus. However, I think Adam underestimated just how devastating the virus could be. But in the end, it all comes down to a great tragedy to unite the human race.

That was what the bomb was for in Season one. That was Linderman's plan.

You can't have good and evil unless there's a being around that can draw the line between them. Without humanity, we just have animals operating on base instincts, no thought of morality. When you're able to see a distinction between good and bad, then you're bad.

And although it's never been outright stated, I think it'd be fitting if this Strain 138 was actually powerful enough to kill even Adam and Claire...

If he's "Saving the world from humanity.", that could very well mean he does plan on releasing the virus once he gets ahold of it.

Linderman was Adam's disciple. Linderman figured he couldn't go through with the original plans of releasing the virus so instead took a different route.

Adam may consider possible good coming from the virus in that he sees mankind as corrupt and that the widespread devastation of it by the virus forces a change. It's also possible that after like 400 years, he's somewhat bored with life and just doesn't care. It's something to do. He's probably a bit crazy, too. Perhaps he enjoys seeing what chaos he can cause. Also, by killing off most of the population, he probably wants to feel superior to everyone else.

I agree with everyone's takes on Adam, some more than others. I have posted many times that I am an Adam's fan (I should start something like the Sarmy...call it Adam's disciples or something, LOL j/k). His character is one of the most mysterious, it almost impossible to fathom all the things he have done or seen.

I do disagree with the OP in one thing, the grudge has nothing to do with anything now. It was the catalyst for Adam to start seen humanity as no more than dirt, but since then he has had many other opportunities to reshape that view. If we follow the way stories are told, Adam is the almost perfect villain...smart (he has done everything right for his plan to release the virus to come true), he has convinced others to follow him (in the GN he realized he needed disciples) , he is ruthless but manipulative (the way he disposed of Victoria was a struck of genius...of course, Peter isn't the sharpest knife on the draw but still it was masterful) and he has a god complex, fueled by his abilities and his contempt for everything (in the GN he calls the destruction of a city "a beautiful sight"). I love also how he used the term "timeless" when referring to himself, that puts him at odds with Hiro (a person who bend time)...the opposite.

I do not think he is insane... he has a madness on him, for sure.. but there is a method to his madness. He has probably waited for this moment for a long time, for the moment to have the weapon that can fulfill his dreams and he is making his move now. And i see him ready to adopt a new plan if this one doesn't work...he is "timeless" he can wait... but i think he sees this as the perfect moment to accomplish his goal. He reminds me of Palpatine with Anakin... that he realize he has the most powerful hero of them all on HIS SIDE!

Many complain that he has a defensive power and not an offensive power. I disagree, his most powerful ability is not regeneration or immortality or whatever they want to call it... his greatest ability is his ability to hate sooooo much he is willing to destroy everything in order to feed that hate. I hope they keep him for some other volumes... he will be the continuing threat for the Heroes... and also, it will get dull to have a new villain every volume, which will need to be develop and presented and will take time from the already established characters to develop and grow... but thats my opinion and I am sure no one will agree with me...

Agree, the bomb plot has all the hallmarks of Adam's phylosophy...

I really like Adam as a character, which is why it's really really sad that he has to be the 'bad guy'. He has all the one needs to be one of the adored 'good' ones, but thanks to tragedies in the past...

Anyway, I really hope that they won't explain why he's bad guy just by some cheap 'He has seen so much world that he went insane. Or something like that'. If he doesn't get atleast as good moments as Sylar did(Those were quite good. Not excellent, but good), I'll protest against this series and stop watching. I could take how Claire, Mohinder and HRG were degraded to annoying idiots, but if Adam faces the same fate... That's a bit too much.

is anyone getting a fight club / project mayhem vibe from adams plans?
set the world back a 1000 years to build it up again? how many people would adam save by stopping all wars? eventually it would equal up & more to 93% of the current population - if you consider all the future generations to come that is...

adams right imho - hehe - you cant make an omlette without breaking some eggs, humanity is a cracked egg..well the current situation needs to change anyway...if we dont change it then famines floods virus's will..malthus was right...

just in case anyones wondering i am sorta playing devils advocate here..

Oh PLEASE Quinten will you stop that? How can you put Napoleon and Hitler/slave trade/slaughter of Native Americans on the same side? That's ridiculous, Napoleon was a great man, he strenghtened the institutions created by the French Revolution, and he spread the spirit of liberty through Europe by destroying tens of kingdoms, from Germany to Italy, from the East to the West.
What's that horrible British propaganda of yours, come on!
You want to talk about a pre-Hitler? Let's talk to George III then, he was a tyrant, a counter-revolutionary and a madman. And a Briton.

Dammit.

Okay, that was my little French moment, sorry.

Adam in a way is wise...

He wants to kill everyone and start the world over because he has seen the patterns of people destroying things and each other. Even though you and I would look at that as crazy, being alive for 400 years having your only friend betray you, the loveof your life stolen and seeing all your friends die. You start to think like that.
He is tired of seeing the same things over and over

I agree that it would take something major happening to change humanity, but why does it always mean people have to die?

Death is a very powerful force, which is why, when messed with, like releasing a virus so powerful, can't be stopped, the population would never truly heal from something like that.

So Idk how that could help save the world.

Replace the word "world" with "environment." I think Adam's trying to save the environment so a handful of his proteges could repopulate the world in his image. Eco-terrorism to the extreme.

Fight Club is a decent analogy, but I prefer Ras Al Ghul from Batman. An immortal hell bent on destroying the world's population to reforge a society of his choosing. Yeah, that's both of them to a T.

I must admit I am lost with what you are trying to say. by bombing them, he gets rid of warfare?

Yes, I believe you're right. Saving the environment has nothing to do with humanity. By erasing humanity, the environment is screwed.

Or am I totally not getting what you just said, coz Idk if I am. LoL.




I think he meant like, and don't take my word for it, because I'm not them, that humanity is what is going wrong with the world, or environment ((thanks ruppan)) if you will.

If humanity continues with warfare, the world ((environment)) gets sicker.

But my erasing humanity with said virus, the environment would be safer? Idk. LoL.

Lol@ adam if he does think that. Who is he saving it for? The people that he's killed?

How can you consider the lives of future generations he may be saving and not consider the lives of future generations that will never come into being because 93% of their ancestors died from the virus? I guarantee the number of those is exponentially larger.

One other thing that's been bugging me...the mortality rate was 93% of the planet's population after just one year. No cases of immunity were mentioned so the remaining 7% of the population may simply not have come into contact with the virus yet. At that rate and depending on the life cycle of the virus in the atmosphere, I'd expect the overall death toll would approach 100% very quickly.

I truly hope this is what they have in mind for him, not just a cookie cutter villian/psycho. I suppose the bomb was what they tried to satiate Adam with when they realised just how far he wanted to go. Of course, I would also like if he has been in league with Bob the whole time too.

Also, I agree with Watchmen. Absolutely brilliant.

Merged topic: Question on Adam’s motive?

Can someone tell me why Adam wants to destroy the world? What is he going to gain from it?

There's been some discussion of that here. You might want to check it out

Thanks! It sure is a good discussion

If Adam does plan on setting the world back to rebuild it, the world may be able to recover eventually. Adam has a lot of time to wait. He may be able to stop the spread of the virus eventually with his blood as a cure, if he so desired.

And in doing so, he would probably put himself in a pretty high position of power in the reborn world.

He could, but that doesn't mean he would.

Yeah. But the fact that he could is definitely something he could hold over the remaining population of the world. He is the key to saving them and could potentially use that influence over them to control the world.

Not if Claire is still alive.

I love how "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" can still be related to this. LoL.

A lot of people make no sense, they hate Mo for shooting HRG trying to do what he thought would lead to saving the world, and he even brought him back to life, But a lot of these same people like Adam and think his attempt to kill 93% of the population is "misguided" and poetic? What type of bull is that? I'm sure HRG as well as many other heroes (we know at least Nathan) will die from this virus, but thats ok because Adam is such a good guy?



Adam is evil, he isn't misunderstood. he started out a vilain, he was given hope for redemption by Hiro, told he was going to be a great heroe in history, and oh yeah, this hot girl will be your "princess" then Hiro takes the girl, the glory, and confirms to Adam that looking out for himself and being under-handed is what will get him ahead. Adam wants to kill the majority of life on the planet to become a Heroe to the whats left of the world and rebuild the world as a savior/ruler. Its not a hard motive to follow based on his character and looking at how he is putting this plan together...



The fact that anyone would say a man knowing he is going to kill 93% of the world is just misguided, and another guy shooting somebody in the heat of passion to actually save those lives deserves death isn't really driving with a full tank of gas! (If anything Mo was misguided by a web of deciet and a need to stop te virus!)



If anyone can justify Mohander hate and Adam love to me with a rational answer would be the world's greatest debate artist, because like I said before, Adam plans to kill HRG, Mo, Mat, Molly, etc. but he gets a free "he's misguided" card? Seriously flawed logic on this board...

I dont remember immunity being mentioned either. The survivors in the future were in quarantine. And when Peter was looking at the cadvers stacked and piled up, the guy with him said it had been a bad week. Implying that all those deaths were recent - or at least I thought so.

We also know that this virus is a tough little bugger that has already mutated once to overcome Mohinder's anitbodies. Who is to say it could not do so again and again for whatever challenges it encounters? Viruses want to survive and make copies of themselves, lotsa copies!

Plus, from the graphic novels we can kinda surmise that this virus can survive for long periods of time and also that someone can have it and yet not show signs for quite awhile. Thats how I took it.

Ebola could almost do something like this, but it is a fast acting virus, so god forbid it ever getting out - but, we could probably contain it. And as far as I know, we still dont even know where Ebola actually comes from, BUT it is only 24 hours away from you right now.

Ok, so I read The Hot Zone. Sorry for the babble, but I also think this virus will kill everyone eventually. Yes, everyone. Eventually even Adam. Cause doesn't this virus take away abilities?

Im sick of Adam/Kensei or wahtever he is calling himself these days. What's up with the lame British accent? I cant wait to see my dude Hiro slice his head off and I hope he takes peters head as well. Peter is a loser/follower he hasnt made any choices of his own since the Kirby Plaza showdown. At least his big bro. has balls. It is also my prediction that Kensei/Adam/Puppeteer is the real papa petrelli anybody agree?

I would hardly say he started out as a villian. I mean, look at the times he was in, he was not exactly out of place. Sure, he was thinking of himself, but I didn't know that was 'evil'. People do it all the time right now. If Hiro had never gone back, Kensei presumably would have saved the village (in his own drunken way). I'm not saying he is not necessarily warped from his years roaming and witnessing the worst of the world, but to say he started this way is not quite fair, I think.

Also, about Mo and HRG, I was more surprised at what an awesome shot he apparently is !

This proves my point about people giving Adam the "misunderstood" card... I said he IS evil now, but he did start out as a vilain, technically a miscreant, but not good by any stretch... Even if he was destined to be a heroe, and Hiro wasn't meant to be Kensai of legend, he still has become evil now and why people would hate Mo for making a misguided decision to kill one man to save billions and almost idolize Adam for killing billions for his own agenda is beyond me... Somebody else in this thread said it best when they said killing 93% of the population is way past misguided... Personally I'd say by 92.999% or so...

Adam is very similar to Ra's Al Ghul. Batman's most capable and dangerous enemy. Both have lived for centuries. And both have a desire to start over. Through centuries of observing the human race, they've decided that the only way to "save the world" is to cleanse it.

Although Ra's is painted as a villian, his intentions have always been ambiguous. He believes he's doing a good, and very seldom acts selfishly. His schemes are always to "benefit" the planet.

I believe Adam is the same way. I think he truly believes he's doing a good thing. And doesn't look to gain anything out of it. (namely money and power) That is of course left to be determined.

Now, because these two people would survive a global disaster, they would most likely gain immense power. But one gets the sense Adam is not in it for money.

lol Wow, I really wasn't expecting that reaction! I respectfully withdraw my statement. Napoleon was not an "evil" man so to speak, though he did have some slight world domination issues.

Speaking of which..has anyone else heard about the Temeraire movie that is coming next summer? It's a recounting of the Napoleonic Wars, with the slight addition of Dragons to his armies. A pretty interesting concept if you ask me!

I certainly hope it is explained. There has been no indication of "why" other than Hiro "broke his heart"..How sad. Must of been one heck of a woman to hold on to that pain for 400 years. But with 93% of the population gone. Maybe the other 7% are all "Heroes".