I really didn't like the idea of peter having only one ability at a time
but considering the story line and what not, i actually really like it

thoughts?

I kinda like it. It keeps Peter from becoming too powerful like he was starting to do. It forces Peter to become creative with what he has and how to get new abilities and adds a whole new aspect.

I did like Peter in this episode, but I still want him to be able to retain more than one power.

The whole episode I was worried he was gonna touch Matt or Mohinder on accident and absorb their power.

I'm warming up to this as well. It is making him return to using his brain instead of just stumbling and hoping he picks the right power for the situation. Using the flash grenade as an aide to rescuing Matt was very smart and hopefully is a trend that will continue.

Yeah, Peter's new power restriction has been working pretty well so far. I thought Peter was pretty cool this episode, and he really put the flight to good use this episode.

I think he's going to be able to hold more powers in the future. It probably has to do with trust issues, after getting screwed by so many of the people close to him.

I concur.

I think it's interesting how closely the power works to his father's. Peter might have the potential to steal powers like his father did...though he never would.

As for the power itself, I think it's an interesting development that will make the character a lot weaker (as intended). If Peter can find a way to utilize it properly, he still can be immensely powerful.

yeah i like it more this way , it avoids the "superman effect" i was actually getting concerned that too many characters were going that way,sylar , peter , mo and they would become boring ,too powerful in the sorta way supes can be.

Or after he meets Sylar and takes the ability to hold multiple powers?

I would have rather seen him flying while shooting electricity from his hands instead of a grendade, but hey, it's still kinda cool

I like that he actually seems in control now and not like a lost kid

he is definately making good use of the flying ability, that's for sure

I didn't have a problem with Peter having one ability at a time probably because I am convinced this will change by the end of the season.




I was saying this as soon as I realized Peter's new obstacle. Question is will he get all of Sylar's abilities or just the AI? Or even more interesting, what if Sylar found out about Peter's problem? Obviously Sylar doesn't like to share his speshulness so it would be fun to see Peter chasing him (unless of course he won't want multiple powers) instead of the other way around. "Hey Sylar! How about a high-five for old times sake?"

I still think Peter doesnt understand his powers yet. I think he can steal powers for good from his host just like his father could choose to do. His father took Hiros power the first time, without actually stealing it. I think if Peter comes into contact with Sylar, he could make Sylar completely powerless, just like his father did to him.

Somehow, someway, this should happen just for fun!

I think for the most part he has to will the transfer. I think the transfer with tracy was a fluke.


No he didn't he got the time travel and teleport from Peter.

I still hate but i guess writers are happy the destroyed my favorite character.

I like it, and I like what they're doing with it. And from the moment Peter absorbed Nathan's ability in Trust and Blood and flew away, I hoped he'd keep it for a while, and he did. The one-power-at-a-time-thing makes him have to think a lot more tactical, and keeps the viewer on his feet too. Peter with dozens of abilities was overkill. He had too many choices with everything he did and botched everything up, because with his godlike powers, he should have been able to do anything in a heartbeat. He never did, and people started hating him because he felt so dumb.

So, I'm extremely happy they've limited him now, and I HOPE this is going to stay. I do think he'll be able to hold on to more abilities again sometime, but I do hope there will still be some kind of stopper in place. I'm thoroughly enjoying Peter again right now. Started to the instant he lost his abilities, to tell the truth (since I always assumed he would be getting them back).

ROFLMAO! Yes, this must be.

I hope the 'one power at a time' rule is permanent but I also feel that him having to touch the others is going to get boring and convoluted after a while. So I hope that something eventually changes e.g. Peter discovers that he can switch abilities but he has no conscious control over it, it's pure instinct. Imagine Peter is chained up and dropped into the ocean to drown, if he gets strength he can break free, if flight he can rise up out of the water but if he gets breathing underwater he's stuck there until he starves, can wriggle free or somebody finds him. Likewise, if he's thrown off a cliff he might get flight but if he gets regeneration he'd better not land on his head.

If Peter could only hold one power at a time and it changes every time he touches another special, how would he still be able to fly off while grabbing Matt from the clutches of the Hunters?

I think it's a conscious choice. He held Nathan for awhile in "Trust and Blood" before he absorbed flight again. I don't think Peter has to worry about accidentally bumping into people. The only exception is Tracy on the plane but that's probably because he was drugged up and scared - oh, and it was a plot device

I totally agree. I love this new aspect for the same reasons. Flight could be a "boring" power on Heroes or it can be badass and Peter is finding ways to use it that I think are fresh and totally make the scenes.

I was never against the one power and agreed that he was becoming too powerful/sloppy. And it takes away the whole "Why didn't he use his X or Y power?!" frustration.

It's kinda cool to see Peter being able to use his brain instead of being a dumb too powerful character lol
About his power, it would be nice for him to be able to hold multiple abilities. I reckon his ability is still evolving (from the time he injected himself the formula) so later he might be able to hold more than 1 ability. The restriction of touching people to get their ability would be a good way to prevent him from becoming too powerful

Peter Flyingman is great to see, because it was the first power Peter wanted.

It was the power he believed he had, when no-one else believed in him.

It was the power he shared with his brother.

It was the power his brother used to save New York.

And then Peter used to save his brother. Twice.

And now it's the power Peter is flaunting, while his brother has to keep it hidden.

Danko: How did you get here so fast..?

And that's the irony I love most!

One power Peter is working out great so far.

I dislike it and now even more after they pulled it the other way around again in the last episode cause when he was alone with tracy he "couldn't fly" with her together (take her with him) because if he would touch her he would get her power again and flight wouldn't be possible. However, in the last episode he all of sudden grabs matt and flies away.
If he could prevent himself from absorbing his power so he can carry him away then why not in tracys case? -.-
These are things that bug me a bit. They go there and set a plan on how to limit a character but then they are turning around "forgetting" what these limits are toying around as they see fit ignoring the facts they set in the first place.
I just hope they will pull it off better next time instead of pulling such things when they "feel like it".

Did he actually say that was why he couldn't take Tracy? Even if he did you could explain it as Peter not knowing then what his limits were and now he's had the chance to test them out and see if can touch people without autoabsorbing their ability.

The first time he touched her by accident he autoabsorbed her power.
That was also the reason why he couldn't punch away the guard anymore.
He had lost mohinders power.
Other than that, months had passed since he had his new power and if he wouldn't know how it works he wouldn't try to touch mohinder to aquire super strength to escape in the first place.

Trihan,
No, he never said. But you would think he'd have tested it out before Vol 4 started because even if he was avoiding Nathan, I doubt Senator Petrelli was following Angela around like a shadow the day after taking Arthur's side. Then again, mom might not have been Peter's favorite person after asking him to shoot dad in the head.

Hm, if Cold Wars was the "flashback episode" we might never get an answer to this.

Anyway, I think you're right. After abandoning Tracy Peter had plenty of time to shake hands with the other guys.

Raekon,
I'd agree except Peter knew that he had flight so that could be argued is enough for him to try to touch Mohinder. Judging from the paramedic scene he was upset that he could only fly and might have been thinking a lot about his past ability.

Peter never said he couldn't take Tracy with him because he'd lose flight if he touched her. He still had her power from the plane (he didn't seem to absorb Mohinder's, and he didn't absorb Claire's when they ran). He was just saying that he would lose hers if he absorbed another power - consciously, presumably. It seems absorbing hers on the plane was the only real accident he'd had with his new way of absorption.

And I'm not sure he would have figured out how it worked after he flew with Nathan from Pinehearst. He probably didn't see his brother after that (he told his co-worker in the first ep that he and Nathan weren't talking, and Nathan flew away from him with the words "I wouldn't have saved you". The only other special he met during that time, presumably, was his mother. He would probably have absorbed her ability and found out he couldn't fly anymore, but I'm not sure he would have made the touch connection at that point - since this family touches each other a lot, it wasn't that obvious to him.

And he seemed genuinely surprised when he hit the guard on the plane and didn't have super strength anymore. He certainly hadn't had flight in a while.

We assume that since we never saw him use any ability but for all we know he could have absorbed the ability to spit in all the colours of the rainbow from somebody else on the plane.


Aren't you contradicting yourself here?

No. Where would I be?

If he noticed that he had lost flight after absorbing something else, why would he be surprised when it happened on the plane?

(As far as I can tell he didn't have time to look surprised until he froze the plane but that's another point.)

I said:



I don't think he had flight when he was taken down by HRG (because he'd probably seen his mother in the months between vol. 3 and 4). So he hadn't had that in a while.

Whatever he had when he was brought on that plane, it was replaced by Mohinder's super strength when Peter grabbed his hand while they were still strapped into their seats.

After he'd accidentally touched Tracy, he was still expecting to have super strength, but found out he didn't when he punched the guard, hence the look of surprise just before he got knocked into the bulkhead (and froze it).

That's what I thought you said. But even if Peter was surprised his strength was gone, I still don't see how that means he had lost flight long before being abducted. IMHO it would be a clue to the opposite, that this was the first time an ability was gone.

We could of course speculate that Peter was aware of his limits (meaning he lost flight 'experimenting') but was either unaware he absorbed anything from Tracy up until he froze the plane or expected to have Niki's strength.

Well, of course that was just an assumption on my part, but really not important to the plot. I think it's hard to imagine that he hadn't seen his mother during the two or three months since Pinehearst, so he'd have lost Nathan's ability then - and he uses flight often enough that he might have noticed.

Case in point, there was an expression of surprise on his face after he punched the guard to very unsatisfying effect, so he certainly didn't expect Mohinder's super strength to be gone.

Apart from what I said earlier in this thread, he might well have seen his mother, maybe even touched her but that doesn't necessarily mean he would absorb her ability. She might even have been the one that told him to be careful if he starts absorbing abilities again. "Remember Ted Sprague?" "Yes. I also remember Charles Deveux." "Oh."


I can't tell for all the getting his butt handed to him.

Reality check, they're NOT going to have Peter become a power sponge again, they clearly stated that making him too powerful was an enormous mistake, and this whole season has been basically about correcting that mistake that turned Peter into a walking plothole with not enough brains to manage so many powers... I mean how quickly people forget all the complaining about "why didn't Peter use this power instead of this power, this sucks!"

So get over it, Peter is now limited to one power at a time, and with all the crap the writers have taken so far there is NO WAY IN HELL they're going to write themselves back into the "Super Peter" complication again, and that's amazing in my opinion. I like Peter better this way, he's still very powerful, but now he NEEDS to be smart and strategize his power usage based on what's available to him, THAT makes a good character, not a million powers he has no idea how to handle.

Actually the main problem that writers had wasn't the "million powers" peter had because they stated and confirmed within and out of the show that no matter how many powers peter gets, he can't use them until he knows he has them and how they work.

The main problem was some viewers that thought that only because THEY know that peter has power X and power Y that peter has to know automatically aswell, forgetting that even they show and assumed what he got since as viewers knew what the other characters could do, peter himself as a character couldn't have known. It's as easy as that!

Of course it's fun to watch peter doing more now but they could had made him this way a long time ago no matter how many powers he had or not since the explanation about him NOT knowing how many and what powers he had until he found out was there.

So the mistake of the writers was that they didn't let the character act the way he should only because they were afraid that some people in the audience will start questioning again why he didn't do this and that in situation X while through the way they executed the whole thing caused exactly what they were trying to avoid.

With other words the writers caused what they were trying to avoid by not letting the character grow, while some people in the audience always denied to "look behind the curtain" and understand the character and what was confirmed about him for so many times.

As about peter and flight: he already confirmed to nathan that he had flight through their conversation before peter got bag tagged.

Reakon,

I don't think that many expect Peter to instantly know all that he can do but many do judge his behaviour by what he knows he can do because he's done it before e.g. "Why didn't he read Adam's mind?" and "Why didn't he try phasing into the vault first?"

Personally I liked Peter the way he was because it could lead to a lot of moral questions about how being the most powerful meshes with trying to be the most benevolent. I think the writers think they either couldn't reach this 'level' or that doing so would conflict somehow with the rest of the show.


I wouldn't say 'confirmed' and many of us just find it hard to believe he went months without trying stuff out then just happened to think grabbing Mohinder's fingers, that's all.

It will be interesting to see what happens if/when Peter and Sylar go at it. We need to remember what Sylar's core abilities are. It's not just the IA, he's also got Empathic Mimicry. (I contest that he's always used EM to gain powers, he just "triggers" it a different way).

If Peter touches Sylar, and gains EM, will his body accept it as his base ability since it's already primed to do so?

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Totally agreed!

Here is my two cents...


Enable for any writing to be "good", it all starts with character development. I know those two words have been used wildly in every sense of the word, but what I really mean by it is that you have to base your story around a person that will make the difference of the main idea or plot. That main character has to have an equal (not physically or mentally but equally being able to shift the main idea or plot just as effectively) to challenge and overcome this foe(s) and/or villain(s), also to test his/her ability, mentality, nobility,honor, and all the other stuff that parents tell their children to be more of. It's good to have powerful characters...(maybe even too powerful) on either side of the playing field(that is good and evil). Regardless of who has the upper hand(in smarts,abilities, or group-size), the "nail biter" is all about having balance between the two sides and how that balance is sustained.

With that being said... The beginning of Heroes was just amazing. Heroes was different to other comics in that there were multiple main characters, and we didn't know what side of the field these characters played on. (I'm only focusing on Peter Now) Peter obviously was the most special of all as we saw he had the ability to absorb any given power that was to come(Mental note, I'm thinking this two, three episodes into the series). Then we see the killer, the main villain that would kill for reasons unknown(We all know who Sylar is today). The suspense of these two characters, the battle that would become when these two supermen (amongst all of the supermen) are ready to face off against each other, would be out of this world, overly-intense. I continued to watch and noticed that Peter was like every other comic hero in which he wanted to save the world at whatever cost (his life, his body,his mentality). This is what made Peter my favorite... He wanted more, his "destiny" called out to him without him understanding what he could do with his abilities and he didn't care what was to come in his way (there was a reason why Future Hiro came to him on the train and no one else, he was the only at the time we thought stood a chance against the villain). I never complained when i saw more than one ability being used, or why he didn't use this/that ability to make it easier for himself. I always thought that was what made a hero... not his abilities(what and how many he had) and how powerful he was with it/them, but how can utilize them and conserve them to fight fair with "honor" and "glory" (It's not like you'll ever see superman defeat the same character twice with the same ability) You can never be perfect during any situation, because then you take away the human element in heroes or any character your are trying to keep in sense(relate) with your audience ...(unless you painted it before it even happened). Heroes, season one kept this mind and was very successful. You didn't know who was going to blow up New York... the good or the evil, and they kept us wondering.


Superman, Batman, Spiderman, X-men, Captain America etc... All these main characters(Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Peter Parker) have normal lives like Peter, plus a ANOTHER secret identity. These men have double identities during the night, behind masks and tight pants and special gadgets. Yet you wouldn't consider any of these men to be too powerful though? They are too powerful; that's the whole purpose of a secret identity(These are Supermen amongst regular men). You don't want them to be too powerful for when the crap hits the fan? They all have one main idea regardless.. "What can I do to help those around me with these powers?". I think this is where they messed up on Peter's Character development. He still couldn't find himself even after season two where he was about to scalp his mother's head for information (When have seen a hero go that out of character?). We never saw Peter as an Identity, what his main purpose was to the show. All we knew about him was his good motives and his good heart (no true love story, no main quest to build a story around). Following season one, there were plenty of things in Peter's story that the writers could of have continued, but either the writer's strike or paying to much attention to what the crowd wanted killed the character before it could gain back his spunk. The writers continued to downgrade the character hoping that the recovery of the character would once again embark its equality with the villian of the show. That's why when we saw Peter forgetting his memory, trying to find himself all over again (when in reality he never really did find himself), it was such a failure. We would see the villain collect power after power(each taking of an ability as evil and eerie as the last), becoming this all powerful being that had no equal (still till this day), no one to stop him on his quest. Every time you see the two on screen, you would already know who was to win (even when Sylar had no ability and Peter did). How long could you see a strong minded villain (Yes Sylar is easily manipulated, but when his mind is set to kill, he knows exactly what to do to win) vs. a hero that wanted to save the world (yet couldn't distinguish who was good or evil) and not think that things were going to get better? We were entertained, but with hesitance.

Season three we see more of the same.. A way to make the villain more powerful and the hero more weak(no balance). Peter loses his powers, now he gets a new set of rules to his new ability while Sylar tracks down his past to better understand himself (obviously dragging out they have nothing to do with his character, no battles to put him, no one to fight against). Are you going to tell me that when season one ended we would think that Sylar could EASILY kill Peter by the time Volume four would start? No, we would predict battles like in the episode "five years gone". A hero with a facial scar from a war, much more skilled and vigilante against even his allies vs. a villain that has learned to play both sides the field to get his ultimate goal. Instead, they have gone backwards, showing us what-ifs and could-bes with the unsuccessful future episodes(they make no sense when the two main character of the good side are going to be redeveloped) instead of showing us the storyline of now and what they could do now to change what's coming... now!


Ahh! Reseting Peter's powers is like reseting the whole show... If you have a fan base, and a great one which is 9thwonders.com that pay attention in great detail, come out with a show and continue it's storyline, regardless or inclining or declining ratings. You don't want to confuse people with information, you want them to ask questions based on other questions ... and enable to do that, relate to all previous seasons and keep them all logically convinced throughout the remainder of the show.


Heroes was a great show... but sloppy writing made the show it is today. You can only press the reset button so many times...

I like Peter's re-jigged powers. Like others have said it means he has to rely on his brain a bit more and I'm all in favour of getting Peter Petrelli to stop being an idiot.

I completely disagree with Peter being a more interesting character with more powers. Peter to me was a non-character throughout season 2, and the beginning of season 3, incredibly, the moment he lost his powers to Arthur he became an interesting character again, and now that his powers have been toned down he's an even GREATER character, there's a strategy to the usage of his powers, and it's not "easier" for the writers, since now they have plan ahead what powers he'll obtain, and Peter himself will have to figure out which powers are better to take for a particular situation and how to use a power he has at a particular time when none other are available to him. THAT is a great usage of power, and that puts him on the same level as all the other characters: "what do I do with what I have?"

It simply goes back to the whole characterization of the Hero, for a Hero to be truly interesting he needs to overcome the odds, he needs to be the guy who might not be the most powerful but who has enough will and heart to beat the problems he faces. Sylar is the villain, and by rule, a villain can be as powerful as he wants, that way it will be FAR greater when the hero defeats him.

The funny thing is that back in season 1, I told one of my best friends, during Claude's training "ok, now Peter's going to be able to use ALL the powers he wants, and I BET he's going to start sucking as a character, and I'm going to lose interest in him", and well... I was right. So, I'm ecstatic that they did the smart thing and increased Peter's handicap, and I like that he's still trying to do the right thing (which coincidentally he seems to do better now) despite being less powerful. He's back to being one of my favorite characters, like he was during most of season 1.

I agree completely. I think this is why I like the idea of Peter retaining all his abilities but switching from one to the other without touching someone is out of his control, it's 100% instinctive. Because it puts Peter even more on the spot and that makes it interesting.

Imagine Peter might be relied on to fly for a plan to succeed but something goes wrong just before and his body instinctively switches to regeneration to protect itself but if he doesn't manage to switch back to flight before his part in the plan... well, he has to think fast. He could try diving off a building but hey, it didn't work in S1 ) so he has to find another way, maybe try to get another ability working or maybe find a way to complete his task with regeneration or even without relying on abilities altogether.

Done well, this would make Peter very interesting to watch, done badly, turn him into Inspector Gadget.

At first I was really frustrated with the whole power restriction. I didn't like the change, LoL. It's like, "Oh no, my Peter isn't the same!".

But now that I've thought about it, it's much better this way, though I have a feeling he might stumble upon the power of empathy again.

Though this does make a good set up for him to get that scar ((if he ever does get it)).

IF this is all leading up to some sort of 5YG future, I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

((First episode discussion post of season 3! I'm so proud of myself. I missed it in here.))

Superman is crap, anyway he has to be powerful because, he plays a crappy character anyways, and it's about aliens, the universe is big, they can always bring in more bad guys. I don't think Heroes will go that route, and introduce aliens on the show.




Hmm, I like that dilemma more. I just think they should not allow power mimickers, or power thieves to take abilities like space-time manipulation/super-speed/flight. Hiro was able to take out Sylar, and Elle in a matter of seconds. Imagine if Sylar had that, everyone would request they remove it, because it would be boring. They should put the same limits on Peter. Just like Sylar's AI. he couldn't use it, because it's a very powerful, dangerous, and cool ability, and he got it taken away not long after he got it.

BTW, where did you get that spoiler? If it is a spoiler?

No, I think I just felt like putting it in spoilers for the ones who may prefer to not hear a detailed example.