I thought that the line about Danko hurting Sylar with the knife was a great one but, if Claire can't feel pain due to her regeneration, why does Sylar feel pain?

Is Claire now defective after Sylar's visit. Or did Sylar's regenerative ability not catch up to Claire's yet?

Again, I know that a knife (or a cut) would cause pain in almost everyone else; I'm just asking about Sylar and Claire's difference in the amount of pain they can now experience (or not).

Both of these reasons.

Sylar severed her nerve endings when he was looking in her brain to find the abillity which is why she stopped feeling pain, i'm just unsure how she remained that way because she should have healed that when her skull was put back on, unless it has to be foucused like when adam told peter how to regain his memory in S2.

I would say sylar has already surpassed what claire can do since he can choose to play dead like after HRG shot him a few episodes ago and we have yet to see this from claire.

I just wonder if this abillity is the key for peter as he is yet to replicate it since regaining his power but thats another topic altogether.

I'm thinking that Claire's power has evolved. Pain is a warning signal to the brain that tissue damage is being done. Since she can regenerate any damaged tissue, she no longer needs pain. Maybe Sylar's ability hasn't caught up with Claire's yet.

I was under the impression Claire was back to normal after the eclipse, that there was a scene at the end of an episode where Claire hurt herself a little and told someone (Sandra?) that it hurt with a smile. May be my memory playing a trick on me. But I'm fairly sure it was hinted on the show that she feels everything else like a normal person, it just never turns painful.

Sylar never severed her nerve endings.

When Claire asked why she couldn't feel him touching her brain his response was that there are no nerve endings in the brain, hence no ability to feel.

Nevertheless, I always thought her inability to feel pain was connected to Sylar tampering with her brain. Thus, Sylar never acquired that aspect of her power.

Plus, his powers are never shown to evolve from any level or to any level when he takes them, unlike Peter's. Peter used to absorb the latest version of whatever power he encountered (most noticeably with Matt Parkman, who had only recently discovered that he could plant ideas in other people's heads, and Peter could immediately copy that when he met Matt for the next time).

I saw the line more of a surprise to Sylar that he was not rendered incapacitated. He truly thought that the knife to the back of the head would have done that and was surprised to get back up and said the ironic line "That hurt."

It would appear that his shapeshifting and restructuring of his DNA has caused the nerve stem that once took him out to be displaced somewhere else. This is referenced in the beginning when he talks about moving around his DNA so much that it's not going back in the same place anymore. It is also shown when he grows an extra tooth.

Who knows...maybe that extra tooth was the nerve stem and is now removed so he can no longer be incapacitated. He did ask "Where did that [tooth] come from?" Not sure about this last part but everything else I'm fairly positive about.

PS - Sylar can still feel pain. His healing ability has not gotten as advanced as Claire's in that department.

I was just about to post that...

Just wanted to toss this out there, but if Sylars recovery wasn't due to his shapeshifting (still undecided), then the next option would be he has surpassed Claire (or maybe they are both even, and Claire hasnt had a knife in her head yet). After all, with Sylar going to visit Claire next ep, I have a feeling it has to do more with regeneration, and less with shapeshifting, but thats it just my humble opinion.

Regarding the pain aspect, Claire viewed being unable to feel pain as a negative, just like Dale did with her enhanced hearing flaws. Maybe Sylar overcame the flaw of not feeling pain (if it was indeed linked to her power, and not having her brain played with) in a similar fashion?

I guess the only thing I would say is- If Sylar can't feel pain why does he grimace when he shape shifts? That to me indicates he can feel pain considering he's been tasered and had less of a reaction than when he shapeshifts..

what he said. I think Sylar was surprised that the knife didn't incapacitate him - but where do we hear that Sylar never felt pain? Claire didn't feel pain because Sylar did something to her when he was digging around - I imagine she eventually healed herself of it? but it seems Sylar does feel pain, but shrugs it off. perhaps Sylar's statement to Danko was another instance of Sylar saying something to freak out his prey - in this case, rising from a supposedly fatal wound and saying "that hurt" but it didn't kill him... Danko peeing his pants all the while.

and maybe they will finally kill off Danko - what a dumb character IMO.

IMHO, Sylar was just being sarcastic, facetious and a little dry humor all at the same time and\or Sylar felt hurt (Not a literal feel) that Danko would 'stab him in the back'.

IIRC, Sylar made many references to eating when talking about removing a power, leading many to believe he was actually talking about eating the brains of his victims...shouldn't take things so literal.

Leading some to believe. I didn't realize there were enough "believers" to call it many. *shrug* Oh well.

Anyway, Sylar can definitely feel pain. What I thought he was implying was that Danko couldn't really do anything to him with that knife- not something the truly "hurt" him. (Meaning Danko couldn't actually injure Sylar in such a way to make retaliation impossible.)

The reason Claire stopped feeling pain was never actually explained. Some believe, and I'm one of them, that she was "flashburned" from the unusual and extreme violation- it wasn't just physical sensations she could no longer feel, but also emotions. She's obviously over that for the most part.
He didn't sever any nerve endings digging through her brain- that's physically impossible. (There need to be nerve endings in the brain in order for them to be severed.)

Oops. I carried my many over...

I was thinking of the great brain eating debate and the thrashings you gave the believers there when I wrote that.

Myself said "Self, Sync is gonna jump all over that..."

Ya didn't let me down.

I thought Claire can feel pain again...after the eclipse came and went ("it sucks but it's wonderful"), I thought her original ability, pain and all, was restored...am I wrong? Maybe she just stopped whining about it

'Cause on a side note, I never really got why that was a negative. That's, like, a power in itself, even w/o regeneration. It would be awesome!

Claire doubted her humanity realizing she did not feel pain, maybe because you also could not feel somebody else's pain; that's what makes the bad one so evil.

I don't know if they have shown it either way. I thought she went back to the way she was before the eclipse. Sylar wasn't restored to just AI after the eclipse, Arthur everyone else had all the same powers in their same form after the eclipse. So I'd assume she still doesn't feel pain.

IMO the eclipse just proved to her that she's still human and the inability to feel pain was just an advancement of her ability which she accepted instead of associating it with her incident with Sylar...

Not being able to feel physical pain at all could easily go both ways. You wouldn't feel actual pain, which is a bonus, but you also wouldn't feel the tired soreness of muscles after a hard day's work- and most of us kind of like that feeling. It lets us know we've done something.

Not being able to feel any emotional pain? Could there be a worse hell?

agreed, but I think she could still feel emotional pain. at least, it wasn't an issue with her ability, but maybe just emotional trauma. With regards to "fixing" their abilities, I was on Elle's side, ie I was thinking, "Shut up, Claire! Having malfunctioning lightning constantly zap you is WAY worse than not being able to feel pain! And she whines less than you do!"

^ LOL, yeah tbh I didn't quite know why Claire was so upset in volume 3. I'm not saying she wasn't justified, I just think her anger without really delving to much into the "why" was a little off..

I mean she encountered Sylar and LIVED. You would think that not feeling pain anymore would be a pretty easy consequence to deal with after encountering Sylar.

She had every right to feel violated and all that, I just think they did a bad job of articulating her true reasons for being so angry and her wanting to get "fixed" with Elle just seemed weird to me..

Have you ever had your brain open and not felt more than naked?

Like the Writers have said the people who aren't naturally healers don't share all of the things they can do. For example Sylar's blood doesn't have regenerative properties like Claire's or Adam's did. So maybe in a similar way they can feel pain. Think back to Volume 3 when Elle was electrocuting him he was screaming. I've seen nothing to indicate he can't feel pain.